Month: March 2018

A friend of mine, Archbishop Daniel Williams, recently posted the following to his blog, Coffee On the Dock. I cannot recommend his work highly enough.

OTHERS MAY, I MAY NOT
Learning to turn away from appealing but short-lived gratification is a process. We tend to think of holiness as a rules-based form of life, but it it so much deeper and richer than that; it is not so much what we do or not do as much as it is sensitivity and obedience to God’s voice. It is primarily inward, not outward. Once I complained how unfair it seemed that many others appeared to be less restricted than I. As I questioned the Lord on this I heard Him speak as loudly in my heart as I ever have in my life: “Others may, you may not.” I said out loud with sarcastic indignation: “That’s it? Others may, I may not?!!” Silence. His answer required no further explanation. Father, you discipline the ones You love. Forgive my contemptuous hubris; Your high call requires my very best. Period.

“If anyone says he has read all of Augustine’s writings, he is a liar.”

DISCLAIMER:

For the record, these are my own nuanced thoughts on the topic.

With many thanks to Sandy Landry, who had the patience as a mother in Israel, to work through the Gifts with me, for working with me through towards my Redemptive Gift, and Anna Zimmerman, who was the first to challenge the idea that I was a Teacher.

As I had said before, I first encountered Arthur Burk’s material 18 years ago. Specifically with respect to the Redemptive Gifts of Cities. I was going to college at the time, in a Teacher City, and belonged to a Teacher Church.

So, my very first shoulder rub with the Redemptive Gift’s (RG’s) was with the gift of Teacher.

My best friend, for the longest time after he had first pegged me as an Exhorter, became convinced after some discussion that I was in fact a Teacher.  Some other friends also had that thought, and even some mentors and pastors.

That was until I had a conversation with Anna, in which she ranted about the various gifts in relation to me. I had earlier been in the process of thinking that I was a Teacher, a Prophet, or a Mercy (go ahead and laugh at that one, after all that is why you read my writings: to laugh and to receive the medicine that you need for your liver complaint.

I had recently taken Mercy off of the Table, and was thinking that maybe I was a Prophet.

I was in the process of telling Anna that I was wavering between Prophet and Teacher, and despite my vast library, I made an observation that in my spirit that I was Prophet despite that. It was something I felt.

So, I told Anna that I thought I was a Prophet, and she replied affirmitavely that I was.

So, I asked her to expand on her reasoning for that, and the following piece gives some wonderful nuggets as to how some of the gifts flow.

Okay, Father, you are the G-d of Community, and so, Father, I step into Your presence in accordance with John 14:6.
Your WORD DOES NOT SAY THAT WE LIVE IN MANSIONS DOWN THE STREET FROM YOUR HOUSE!  YOUR WORD SAYS SPECIFICALLY THAT YOUR HOME CONTAINS ROOMS FOR EACH OF US.
I RENOUNCE THE IDEA THAT WE HAVE TO BE A DISJOINTED, FACTIOUS MESS!
Your Word says that “in my Father’s House are many ROOMS, not MANSIONS!  Besides, Even in the KJV, “Mansion” is from the Latin word manere meaning “dwelling place” and the Greek there is μοναὶ meaning “a place to remain” or “a room”.
It doesn’t say we have a house disjointed down the road from Father’s house. It says explictly that we have a place IN Father’s home.  I don’t live down the road from Daddy’s house where He gets tired of seeing me, and then I have to go home for a few days before I can see Him again.  I live with my Father.
I step into Your Presence with my Tribe. Every.  Single.  One.  Of.  Them.  And I ask You, the Father of Community, to align each us with whatever expressions of community You want for each of us, both individually and in the various groupings in which You intend for us to dwell.  Would You do what You do best, and bring us into the various places of community You have designed for each of us, even if those expressions are not legitimized by the institutional churches as we have experienced them?
We want Your community, whatever that looks like.  No limitations on that, and no religious perversions of that.  Your kingdom come, and Your will be done, Precious, Affectionate, Righteous, and Liberating Father..
Further, I come against and nullify every poison pin that other believers have sentenced each of us to out of the Spirit of Jealousy.  I ask, Father, for you to remove both the substance and effects of the poison and bitter gall from us.
Community. Not forced. Not coerced. Not manipulated. Just the way You want it.
We hunger for a life-giving community in Your hands and in Your affections.  Thank you L-rd.
So, Father, would You begin the process that leads to reconciliation with Your ordained communities, in whatever fashion You desire such reconciliation should happen.
In the name of Yeshua ha-Mashiach.

A few days ago, I pondered the following sequence of Christology.
Life of Christ = Time
Death of Christ = Land
Burial of Christ = Community
Resurrection of Christ = Birthright
Ascension of Christ = Office
And I want to focus on the middle one because of some implications for the season we are approaching soon in terms of reconciliation.
Christ’s burial happened in the context of community.
Granted, it was not the kind of thing one traditionally thinks of when one imagines the word “community” but community it was nonetheless. Nicodemus and Jospeh of Arimathea, two little-known characters, one who came to the L-rd in the middle of the night and provided us with the first half of John 3 in that famous exchange that led to John’s exposition starting in verse 16, and the other unknown until this point, took Jesus’ body and paid him honor.
Let’s consider for a moment the verse that deals explicitly with more of Joseph’s motives.
The text in Mark 15:43 says that he was “a respected member of the council (possibly the Sanhedrin) who was also himself looking for the kingdom of G-d…”.
It is possible that, as a disciple of Jesus, he knew about Jesus’ promise of being resurrected, something about which Jesus himself spoke.  And thus, knowing this, he asked for the body of Jesus.
The kingdom happens in community, not in solitude.  It happens with others.  Joys are experienced, lives are changed and made whole, and it takes the grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying for people to be brought together.
Consider the community of two on the way to Emmaus.
The community of Eleven just before Jesus appeared.
The community of Peter and John running to the tomb.
The community of John and Mary brought together in Jesus’ death.
The community of Joseph and Nicodemus, who were hunting for the kingdom, brought together in order to bury the body of Jesus.
And reconciliation often happens at funerals, and only happens in the context of community.
When others are reconciled to G-d, they are reconciled to a community of Three.  The Trinity is a community.
And salvation often happens when we are faced with mortality, often in light of someone we deeply love being buried.
It’s our job to be reconciled, lest we die alone and in bitterness.
So, I bless you in this season of being reconciled, as you seek to know Him, that you would be reconciled to G-d and to those from whom you have been deeply estranged.  I bless you with a right sense of where your place is.  I bless you with a right sense of who your tribe is.  I bless you with a revelation of where G-d wants you.  And I bless you with an understanding of the depth of His love.
I bless you with the pigheaded stubbornness that comes with recognizing your place and a refusal to bow to the pressures of others who tell you that you have no place.  I bless you with the fierce intentionality that you will not rest (except when He calls you to rest) until you are squarely placed within the communities for which He has designed you.  Whether that is a mission field, or a church, or a family, or the Trinity, or a marriage, or a workplace, or another life-giving context of friendships.
I bless you with the sobering revelation that the Son was buried so that you could be knit and vulnerable with the right people yet again, whatever that looks like for your unique context.
As you struggle to be part of a community, may you find the right one that is life-giving.  I bless you  with this revelation as we enter this season of reconciliation of community.
And I bless you to consider the communities that were formed in the context of Christ’s burial.
No burial. No resurrection.
No burial. No communities of intimacy.
No risk or skin in the game. No thrill of exhilaration as you find your place in community.
 

The text is made up of two phrases, set parallel in comparison to one another.

Now, I think Solomon’s theology was off.

It was off because as an Exhorter, he was designed to know G-d and just chose to not do so. He maxed out everything but that one bit: knowing G-d and making Him known.

It is the glory of G-d to conceal a matter and the glory/honor of a king to search the matter out (Proverbs 25:2, Revelation 1:6).

In Hebrew, we call this a Particle of Comparison, Proportion, or Similarity. It compares, relates, or sets in proportion two different objects: in this case, the spirit and the bones.

2) Therefore it was important that that system remain undefiled in Christ.

3) Likewise, the spirit is critical to life.

4) Therefore, perhaps we can say there is a life-giving tandem that is designed to occur between bones and spirit.

5) Perhaps the spirit is what clothes and vivifies the bones, as reflected in Ezekiel 37:3, and Proverbs 17:22 (extend the principle),

A half-baked potato, perhaps. And a theory I will hold onto loosely.

But, there you go.

My take on Ecclesiastes 11:5

This is a very practical and well-organized grab-bag of tools for those working through answering the question of whether or not an AHS is present with them.  Beyond the value toward working with AHS’s, there are sundry other topics that can really be fleshed out
 
Arthur here talks about some more of the practical aspects, having covered the theology and the theory of AHS in the first series.
 
He covers the fact that there are a number of usual ways that AHS’s gain entry, and most of those revolve around some means by which we are either empathetic toward the dead and dying, or have some vested interest in or affection towards the dead. Think Navy SEALS, Paramedics, those involved with the Pro-Life Movement, and those who are just nice and sociable with very few social guards, in addition to those who have vows of connectivity and social contracts.
 
There were a couple of aspects that sparkled deeply for me and those parts have broader application for beyond AHS.  For example, the segment on Bones sparkled for me. There is a depth of exposition that Arthur brings out of the collective text of Scripture that the church has done a shamefully anemic job of expounding when it comes to the skeletal system.  The Psalms and the Proverbs talk about those things that bring greater life to our bones, and it is left to some soul or group of souls to unpack a good theology of bones.
 
Also, concerning the Parietal lobe and spatial relationships, I was completely floored.  The building of parietal lobe that happens when we are out of proper parietal functions.  I struggle with some clumsiness issues, and the idea that an AHS might be the responsible is astounding.
Arthur mentions the Hip, the Adrenal Gland, the Prostate, the Legs, and other places in the body. He then moves into a discussion of authority and then finalizes with a discussion on land.
The level of variety in this teaching set is just flat-out beefy.  It is not just one genre of teaching alone, though it revolves around the topic of AHS’s.
It is a veritable Potpourri of vintage Sapphire Wine, and I cannot recommend it enough.
May you be blessed.

Arthur Burk, a friend from California, is in the thick of a trip to Europe.
Recently he completed a leg of his trip that took him through Romania, one of the few places in Eastern Europe that is extremely precious to me.
Another friend of mine visited there 19 years ago on a missions excursion out of YWAM Tyler. We were Freshmen in college, and both Arthur’s trip and my other friend’s trip affected both men deeply.
What resulted is the following post on the Sapphire Leadership Group’s Facebook Page. These words sparkle and shimmer deeply, especially for those of you that are Redemptive Gift Exhorters. Read on for some strong truth, Sun, Moon, and Stars:

ROMANIA
Serina and I went to Romania after the Vienna event, to connect with some Noble Subjects there.  It was our first venture.
We went with some fairly high expectations but the trip exceeded anything we had asked or imagined.
The congregation that hosted us is an Exhorter church with some decades of history behind it.  In the history of the various leaders, then have made most of the mistakes common to Exhorters, and have suffered exquisite pain and large loss as a result of those violations of principles — both known and unknown.
To their credit, they have face every skeleton in their closet, made the hard choices, suffered some remarkable productive pain through the course corrections they made, and today they stand in an enviable position.  there is a remarkably knit-together, wise core, and significant spiritual authority.
As you all know, my history with the Exhorter tribe has been challenging at best, because of the commitment to wallpaper over sin in the camp, in the name of love.
I have never before walked with an Exhorter congregation that has as thoughtfully and deliberately and carefully dealt with the issues that needed to be dealt with.
As Serina and I came into the circle of their love, it was an extraordinary experience of transparency and authority.
I taught on sundry topics during the short time we were there, and again and again, they have already dealt with the key issues, often not knowing why, but having their ears on.
We are so impressed with the fragrance of Christ that is around this group, and the pile of “dry firewood” waiting for a match.  They have earned the right to speak into some issues in their community and we are on tiptoe with expectation to see where they go in the next chapter of their journey.
While my admiration from a Kingdom point of view is immense, in recognition of how they have positoned themselves  for the work God for them, there was another story that played out in the background.
That was a measure of healing for me as I walked in safety in their midst.  The non-reality of Exhorters in general has let them to be labeled in my mind as one of the least safe tribes to walk with.
Here, we laughed and cried and risked and battled and celebrated and worshipped.  Through it all, there was never a bruise from any one of them, on any issue at all.  And with my history, that is astounding.
So I am grateful for the long arm of G-d and His ability to multitask, as He advanced the Kingdom through our visit to them, and brought some long overdue healing to me, on the side.
One does have to ponder His reaching all the way to Romania, and choosing THIS congregation to pour the oil and wine on those wounds of mine.
I am grateful and looking forward to walking further with them.  They definitely grace the term “Noble Subjects of the Great King” and we are honored to have them as part of our global tribe.