If
you want an alternative to fancy chandeliers and new organs, we
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It
will change you. Tell them we sent you. AMAZING stories!
If
not here, where? If not now, when? If not us, who?
These are the last
days. We are very near the end. There is much work to be
done. The harvest is white and getting whiter every day.
We need to go do the work together.
The problem is,
we're seeking Unity. It's just not going to happen. We've
been trying that for 2,000 years, insisting on it more strongly all
the time. When we don't get it - on the slightest little issue,
we subdivide up and make another denomination. It's a giant lie
and it's responsible for having created this mess. We're not a
body made up of one organ. There are chemicals in some parts of
the body that, if they got into other parts of the body, would kill
you instantly! We are many, each with different styles and
purposes and ways to get our jobs done. Unity is all singing
the melody line. Unison is lazy and it's not very pretty.
What we need is
Harmony. That's our only hope. What's the
difference? Would you go to hear a concert where a 500 voice
choir all sang the melody? Would you buy a CD of an orchestra
if they all played the same line? Unison is easy, but mostly
it's just lazy. Harmony is massively harder. If one of
the violins is out of tune or an oboe honks or the cymbals play at
the wrong moment, it sticks out. It puts so much more pressure
on each person to know their part and listen to the whole and keep an
eye on their own line. Nobody can just fake it and pretend
they're playing, because they might have a french horn solo coming up.
Harmony is
massively harder. Any group of first graders can sing a song in
unison. But eventually they learn that Harmony is pretty.
Harmony is fun. But it's harder. You have to pay more
attention. You have to let someone else sing their part in your
ear that might be dissonant with yours. You can't try to drag
them onto your line and you can't give up and start singing
theirs. You can't sing over them and try to drown them out so
you don't have to hear it. You have to think about the audience
and the Director and pleasing them with a beautiful, complex sound.
But you have to
all be on the same piece of music, on the same page, on the same bar,
in the same measure, at the same tempo, at the same volume and ALL
watching the Director - or you might as well be an
overly-excited flock of geese for the nasty sound you'll
make. Who's going to buy that CD?
We're going to
have to stop seeking people that are willing to sing our melody line
and instead find people that are absolutely 100% committed to
following the Director. Only He gets to tell us what to play
and when and where and how fast and how loud. We've never
really done this before, so for awhile we're going to sound like an
orchestra full of 6th graders just learning to read music for the
first time. Some of us are going to drift, some of us are out
of tune, some are learning a new instrument. God willing, we'll
have lots of opportunities to practice and we'll get better.
But if we take our eyes off of the Director, even for a second, we're
in big trouble. Anybody that's not watching the Director will
stick out like a sore thumb. We need to lovingly correct them
or we need to replace them.
Those of us who
have any discernment left have fine-tuned our ears so highly that we
listen for the slightest little differences and then try to beat them
down. Anybody that leaves our melody line can't sing with us
anymore. There has been so much confusion and so many people
singing their own songs on their own power at their own speed - some
seeking to drown out everyone else - that it's the only way we could
make sense of anything. But it's clearly not working.
Nobody likes the sound we're making. The world just laughs at
us, the enemy cackles in glee and God is furious. And we are
paralyzed. We sit here singing the same bar over and over
trying to get each other to sing with us. It's just nutty.
I'm not talking
about embracing all religions or being unequally yoked with
unbelievers. I'm talking about the Body of Christ.
Everybody needs to take one step forward that is willing to stop what
they are doing, look to the Director, beg Him to teach us our
instrument and our part, and start singing the beautiful six billion
part harmony He wrote for us. Right now we're missing LOTS of
people. We may never fill in all the parts. But the parts
are written and waiting for them. If we never get to hear what
their part would have added to the whole, we will all be made less.
Everybody that
isn't looking to the Director for instruction and guidance needs to
consider whether they really want to be a part of the Body or
not. Because if they think they themselves can do better or
their leader is just as good as God or they can't be bothered to sing
along with THOSE people, then it looks like they probably aren't a
part of the Body.
Now, I know this
is completely alien to most of us. We haven't really ever been
in Harmony and everything we've been trained in our denominations
says this is unacceptable. But whose idea was that? Did
Jesus want 33,000 denominations? Did Jesus want four churches
on each corner of one intersection duplicating each other parts, but
never playing together? My God is about variety and efficiency
at the same time, not about duplication and wasted resources.
What's your God about?
So, we've made a
mess here and it's going to take a little while to get
retrained. You're going to have to put up with a little
discomfort - like listening to a 6th grade orchestra. You're
going to have to be double checking all the time that your own eyes
are on the Director and that you're playing well with others.
Sometimes we're going to have to urge someone to pay more attention
and get on the same page (sometimes it could be you!). As long
as they're willing to watch the Director you can't just kick them
out, we need their part. But the coolest thing is that, as long
as we ALL have our eyes on the Director, He'll enable and strengthen
and give us the training and experience we need on our own instrument
so that we can make a beautiful sound together if we set everything
else aside. That's what He wants more than anything. Just
focus on your own line and watch the Director.
Hey, but don't
think anyone from outside the Body should be playing along with us -
they aren't equipped, they don't want to watch the Director and
they'll just mess things up for everybody. First, introduce
them to the Director and see if they want to submit to His
direction. No matter how important they seem to be or how many
initials behind their name, they're not part of the Body if they
won't watch Him for every cue and show evidence of a willingness and
hunger to do so. If they won't submit, then they can't play
along. I'm sorry, I don't make the rules, that's just the way
the Director wants it.
Romans 12:16 "Live
in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to
associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited."
2 Corinthians
13:11 "Finally, brothers, goodby. Aim for perfection,
listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of
love and peace will be with you."
I Peter 3:8 "Finally,
all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love
as brothers, be compassionate and humble."
Philipians
2:2 "then make my joy complete by being likeminded,
having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose."
2 Corinthians
6:15 "What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?
What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?"
This
site is meant to be just
a plain, direct reporting of how miserably, horribly, devastatingly
badly we
- the
Christians in
the West - have
mismanaged the massive gifts which God has entrusted to
us. Maybe we can change
directions if we try something different. Maybe if we started
listening to God really well and obeying radically, no matter what
the cost. Yeah, that might work.
Although
we're perfectly capable of it - we're
not trying to impress you with our fancy web design, marketing savvy
and slick Madison Avenue ad techniques. Truth is Truth.
Your heart knows the difference.
