Sermon on the Mount 10

Posted on December 9, 2017 by ehurst

Ritual Prayers 6:5-8

This continues thoughts from the previous lesson. Worship is not for putting on a show. If making an offering to garner public approval was wrong, so was extravagant ritual prayer.

According to Edersheim (a converted Jewish rabbi) there is nothing in the Law of Moses that requires public prayer. Aside from certain highly unique situations in the Old Testament, we have no precedent for regular public prayer rituals. Yet, by this time the Talmudic traditions had prescribed public prayer at the morning and afternoon offerings, and again around sunset. In Jesus’ day, this had become an elaborate and scripted undertaking. Outside of Jerusalem where the Temple stood, ambitious Jewish men would arrange to be caught out in public during those three ritual moments of the day and engage in their pious display.

In essence, prayer fulfills the ancient courtly protocol of declaring dependence on one’s lord. In an Eastern feudal society, vassals and subjects were required on a regular basis to seek their master’s face and request things that only he had the authority to grant. The burden was on the lesser to appear before the greater. It wasn’t a bother; it was a public demonstration of his greatness. It enhanced his glory. It was typically a part of the daily reports that many vassals made to their lord.

It’s not that Jesus forbids leading a group in shared petition and praise, but that the original intent had been completely lost. If public prayer was always associated in the minds of His audience with what they had been taught by rabbis, then it’s time to wipe all that away and start from scratch. This silly nonsense of memorizing an officially approved checklist of things to cover with flowery language was hardly reporting to God as feudal Lord.

Such an ostentatious display was little more than reputation building. Public approval is not the God of Israel, but hypocrites treated it so. If there is to be any reward in public, let it come from the hand of God. Let Him decide when, how and why you might be presented with an award that marks you as favored by God. Even if we pretend that the rabbis were seeking the glory of Israel, it still misses the point. It’s a matter of His glory, not ours individually or together. All greatness is found only as a reflection of His glory.

So lets get this right: When you pray, seek a private place so you aren’t tempted to play head games with God. In the inner room where you can privately disrobe, so expose your true self to God’s searching gaze as you call on His name. If you then find His favor, people are going to know sooner or later.

Furthermore, remind yourself that God is a real Person, not some mere idea conjured in your head by reason and rabbinical teaching. Don’t insult Him by chanting like the heathen who have no personal communion with their deities. They can never be sure they are heard, so they have to engage in repetition and extravagant rituals to make sure they get the attention of someone or something that may be reluctant to respond. No one can compel Jehovah; He doesn’t respond to annoying pressure. Either you are already serving His interests or you need to find repentance.

Our Creator made us and needs no helpful clues as to what we need. He is fully aware of our predicament after the Fall. Return to Him often so you don’t lose track of who He is and what He is like. Prayer is for your own benefit; it’s a chance for you to renew the Covenant and seek His redemptive glory in this world.

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Laptop Is Funded

Posted on December 9, 2017 by ehurst

Thank you for praying with me on the laptop. I now have enough to cover it. Any further donations will go for accessories, upgrades and to pay for the blog and other accounts. God is good.

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Ecumenism

Posted on December 9, 2017 by ehurst

FYI: The laptop fund stands at $231. The odd figure is because PayPal sometimes takes a bite out of donations. Still, that’s the easiest way to handle money changing hands.

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ecumenism: a belief and practice of unity with other religions

For us, it hardly matters whether the discussion refers to formal union; by common definition there is nothing formal about our religion. We have to get past that part first.

Radix Fidem as a covenant presumes a family structure. As with any other kind of extended family household, there are no membership lists. There is no formal in-or-out boundary line. If you associate and invest time and energy in fellowship, you will be loved and remembered. If you have other things to do, you’ll be a stranger. If you never get involved in the first place, no one will know your name. Your “membership” is a living thing and it requires nurture to stay alive.

So while your name may show up in a list of contacts somewhere in someone’s computerized records, there is no census or membership roll.

I do claim to be the current figurehead of Radix Fidem as a religion distinct from others; I am the elder, the head of household. But you have to subscribe to the covenant and get my attention in some fashion or I won’t know you are there. Simply subscribing to the blog doesn’t really get my attention. Among those who are on my list of contacts are lots of folks who have never said they accept the covenant, so they aren’t considered family. Only folks who want to embrace the blessings and burdens of membership are included. It’s not like you have to qualify for it, passing through milestones and a ritual of entrance.

In that sense, I suppose ecumenism is built into Radix Fidem. Nobody says you have to belong to us exclusively; you can belong to anything else that brings you peace. You can attend a regular organized church somewhere. I don’t attend one because, so far, nobody wants me around without demanding unacceptable changes. That doesn’t prevent some group somewhere adopting me someday. Meanwhile, you don’t have to discuss with me your connections to other religions. All I need to see is your loyalty to the family.

The issue is more like an alliance with folks who are no threat to us. They aren’t family, but there’s no reason to be hostile. Obviously we aren’t going to change our teachings or activities to suit them, but I can’t imagine being hostile since I teach that there is no objective truth in the first place. In other words, the issue is functional cooperation, not shared belief. Theirs is valid for them, as far as we are concerned. We aren’t promoting ideas in that sense.

That doesn’t prevent us from seeing problems with their ideas and beliefs, but that’s the reason we don’t join their religions in the first place. If Radix Fidem doesn’t reflect your own sense of what’s right in God’s eyes, you shouldn’t be involved with us. We agree to this covenant because we can’t find a better way to commune with the God who calls us.

But we leave room in our thinking for God calling other folks in other ways to other beliefs. In that sense, there’s no reason to balk at ecumenical cooperation for what it’s worth. But we aren’t signing onto anyone’s political agenda, either, so ecumenism as a disguise for a politics is a dead end. But simple friendship and peaceful cooperation in other ways are just dandy with me.

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Dreams, Visions and Plans

Posted on December 8, 2017 by ehurst

Yes, I honestly believe in private revelations, dreams and visions. I reject the notion that we can know only what we perceive with our senses and reason. I can know things that come down into my head from my spirit; such things always register in the heart. I cannot count how often I’ve proceeded on the grounds of faith alone when it made no sense otherwise, and it worked out as God promised. Our Lord has been extravagant in His provision.

I also believe that God changes His mind on things. He holds the ultimate prerogatives.

It’s not that God can’t keep His promises, but He often gives His own people choices. I have to respect that when it’s someone else making a choice I may not like. Two previous mission adventures fell through before I even knew what they were. I had been praying and felt they had come close, but then something changed. I still have no idea about any of the details or people involved, but I know it in my heart. I’m utterly certain of it.

So I’ve given the whole thing back to God. All the visions and dreams and expectant faith-filled prayers about such things are back in His hands. He was the source; He gives and takes and His decisions are always in our best interest. I’m not going to let disappointment and frustration capture me. I was hoping and praying for one last mission adventure, but twice something didn’t connect. While some of those visions could be restored later, I’m not going to cling and whine.

For now, the only thing I’m focused on is watching our faith and our family grow. My ultimate dream, and the ultimate adventure, will be seeing people discover the heart-led way of faith. Each of us who belong to this virtual parish are in a position to see a divine harvest. For me, the final ultimate adventure will be watching heart-led congregations form all over the place. Granted, I’m called as a prophet to America, but there’s nothing stopping anyone outside the US being seized by a similar call from God.

So I’m expecting to hear about other congregations, not because it’s my dream, but it’s a dream that was dropped in my lap. It’s all part of the same faith and calling that has driven me through this life since my earliest memories. I’m not that special, just available and chosen. Where I stand now is itself the answer to a thousand prayers leading up to this. Now I cling to the promise that He will finish what He started. I have the privilege of being chosen to watch something I previously never dreamed I could see, and I get to be involved.

I’m still raising funds for the laptop; that isn’t gone. Pray with me about this. And pray also that somewhere ahead of us the Lord will grant one or more financial sponsors to help see this through. Right now we don’t need that much, but once the Lord begins drawing souls, we must find a way to see each other in person. Don’t take that lightly, folks. Nothing can replace heart-to-heart physical contact. I long to see some of you right now, but it will have to wait.

But the reason we will need sponsorship is something fuzzy out there in the future. Somewhere in how this thing will operate, we are going to need a stronger network connection between us. Right now, this and other blogs seem to be enough, along with email and phones. But it should be obvious that this won’t be enough once this thing takes off. This is not a one-man show; if it were, it’s already dead. I will continue to work, and God alone knows how much longer that will be, but if this thing is real, someone else will have to take up the mantle some day. It’s already time to decentralize operations so that we don’t have a single point of failure.

So pray with me that, when the time comes, other shepherds will sense the call and step forward. Pray that what holds us together becomes the means to a closer and stronger fellowship in the flesh. Pray that we have the means, the resources to keep this going in the flesh, as well as online. So I’m not praying merely for a money in my pocked, but for this whole virtual parish thing to crystallize into reality. I have no idea what kind of infrastructure that requires, but I know that someone else has been called to make all that happen. There has to be a way to get more publicity, a way to let people know we are here and what we are doing, without compromising what we are doing.

You’ll have to decide for yourself whether this means more involvement from you, but I’m determined to see it through in prayer that it will be somebody besides me. I might be some kind of trailblazer, but I am not the foundation for this thing. All that stuff I’ve been writing and sharing is just scratching the surface of something I found. If it doesn’t live for you like it does for me, then maybe we are waiting for some other folks to share in the discovery.

But I’m totally serious about this, and I have no other agenda, no other plans than those that support my efforts toward this shining light of the Father’s glory.

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A Different World

Posted on December 7, 2017 by ehurst

Imagine it: A community of folks living on some rural land. Nothing kinky, just sharing some space and working the land in harmony with nature, and maybe some folks working in other places. They educate their own children, worship together and share like family. Their kids grow up in the heart-led way and develop a wholly different consciousness from the rest of humanity.

I have no idea if this is even feasible, but I wonder what kind of world it would be for children who grow up that way. It’s not the idea of withdrawing completely from the world, but of warding off the secular world’s demand we sacrifice ourselves and our children to Molech. It’s pulling away far enough for shalom to grow and bear moral fruit. In other words, it’s not so much we have a command from God to hide away, but the sheer scale and depth of perversion in the world that demands it. And we would surely recognize that and prepare ourselves to face it with divine strength, not simply hiding away from it.

The original image of having a witness to the fallen world was not what most modern evangelical Christians imagine it. The Bible does not envision a bunch of individuals, but a community of faith as a whole that lives the mission. The original mission of revelation was delivered to a nation. The wording itself in the Hebrew language focuses on Abraham not as a single man, but as the head of a large household living in shalom. As the succeeding generations were born, it became a whole covenant nation. It was never exclusive in the sense of clannish rejection of outsiders; the Covenant always held the door open to people being adopted into the family.

We have to surrender that “rugged individual” imagery, the foundation of Western society. God didn’t design us like that; it’s a pagan myth. We were designed for communal living and interdependence. All the rest of Creation lives linked together like that. It requires a fallen nature to imagine wanting isolation. And in case you hadn’t noticed, the image of a powerful hero leading a group of adoring fans is just another form of isolation, but with slaves. The biblical shepherd never sees himself separate from the flock. Their welfare is his welfare.

But think about it a moment: What would it have been like to grow up heart-led and fully communing with the natural world? What would it be like to grow up the instinctive trust in the Creator? It might not look all that different in one sense, given that so much of what humans do isn’t inherently sinful. What destroys is false motivation disconnected from the heart. What does it look like; what would be the differences between someone walking in the ways of this world as it is now, and the same person growing up as a living agent of shalom? Now picture a whole community like that.

I’m not much enthused by most of the dreams for a better future that you can find today. I doubt it would make much difference for our human existence if people were stronger or smarter or even wiser, so long as the reference point excludes the reckoning of the heart. But I find it very compelling to imagine a world where everything is just the same as it is now, but where some portion of the people grew up never knowing what it’s like to be without the leading of the conscious heart of faith.

Let’s pray that the Lord add to our number.

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A Law of Love and Fellowship

Posted on December 6, 2017 by ehurst

On an academic basis, I consider this study of American cultural boundaries useful. Part of my approval rests on establishing the clear difference between the Puritan Pilgrims (Puritan WASPs) and other Northern Europeans (non-Puritan WASPs). The author helpfully goes on to explain how the Constitution reflects a mostly Puritan ideal of civil law that is revered as sacred, and not simply a matter of sensible compromise between disparate cultures. Thus, the Bill of Rights was little more than a token recognition of the non-Puritan culture that wasn’t obsessed with using law to create a Utopia.

Yes, Puritans are responsible for what we now regard as Social Justice or Political Correctness. Puritanism, in essence, fully accepted the elitism of the English nobility, but not the pagan background for it. The Puritans insisted that their purified “Christian” outlook justified taking over the reigns of the British Empire. Since they couldn’t dislodge the existing “pagan” nobility from the UK, they needed an untamed land to colonize with their better brand of elitism. “We’ll show them!” When the Articles of Confederation were drawn up, the Puritans were not yet a dominant political force. They first provoked a wave of disorder and chaos, then used it as an excuse to assert their more elitist approach. Does anyone remember that the Constitutional Convention overstepped their mandate completely? It was a coup.

The result was a very strong central government that the states actually didn’t want, but the Puritans managed to seized the reins of power just long enough to ram this thing through. Yes, the US Constitution is the result of a conspiracy. The Bill of Rights was a way to keep the non-Puritans from coming back and wiping the whole thing away. You see, the non-Puritans didn’t want to seize control; they wanted a system that prevented it. They wrongly believed the Bill of Rights was enough to preserve their functional freedoms. It was pure propaganda, and the non-Puritans bought it.

Since those days, the thread of Puritan theology has stained the very soul of US government. Meanwhile, the language of liberty with all the various non-Puritan quotations has been used as a false front in a fundamentally oppressive elitist intent.

It’s useful to be aware of this. It helps to understand just what has given life to this awful situation in which we live, and why it simply cannot be amended and made better. The whole point of history as an academic discipline is to track the influences that brought us where we are today. This is wholly consistent with what we teach as a prophetic view of what God is doing in our world today. Allow me to point out how other threads of human history provide a blueprint for driving forward into America’s future as heart-led people of faith.

One of the few things the Roman Empire got right was taking a cue from previous empires: Subject nations retained some legal authority over their own people regardless of where they were within the wider empire. While it was argued and debated in the Roman Senate just how much of Roman Law trumped these other subject kingdom laws, the fact remained that an officer of the Assyrian court could legally track down and arrest any Assyrian subject as far away as Baetica (southern Spain today) for violating Assyrian law. This was the principle under which Saul of Tarsus could arrest Christian Jews in Damascus. It’s also why Jews could observe their cultural uniqueness wherever they went, within some limits.

Rome was the last imperial government to maintain this tradition. Since then, no empire has extended that privilege to conquered kingdoms and states. The US in particular is pernicious and hateful about forcing the Puritan WASP mythology down everyone’s throat, even where she lacks so much as the pretense of legal authority. But the fundamental Biblical Law does recognize the right of kingdoms to maintain their own national culture and law.

We who walk in the heart-led way and share in the Radix Fidem Covenant are free in Christ to maintain our identity wherever we go in this world. We will never see official recognition anywhere on a human level, but Creation (reality) itself will support our efforts to assert our unique way of life. That’s because our way is so much closer to God’s own ways than all of the rest of humanity put together. While one could argue how well we succeed, our entire aim is to walk in His revelation from the start, the same revelation by which our Creation judges all things. We can afford to be gentle and wholly voluntary in our “enforcement” of our covenant, because Creation itself is the enforcement mechanism. There’s no elitism here.

God says He judges us on the desires of our hearts, our commitment and faith, not our ability to succeed. Biblical Law is not legislation and regulation, but love and fellowship. Are you a citizen of such a kingdom?

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Kiln of the Soul Boundaries

Posted on December 5, 2017 by ehurst

Kiln of the Soul is the oddball name I came up with some two decades ago as a name for my ministry. It’s never been incorporated under any laws, and that’s intentional; it’s part of our identity.

Any physical congregation that grows up around my work will be called “Kiln of the Soul.” Because this blog and this virtual parish is an extension of that ministry, it bears the same name. The title of the blog –“Do What’s Right” — simply reflects my feeble attempt at marketing, because the bottom line is helping people understand what is morally right, and how to find the power to live by it. If you develop your own ministry, nothing keeps you from using the same name I do, but you would have to realize it might be confusing. To make it easier, I chose another name for our particular kind of religion: “Radix Fidem.” I wrote up a Radix Fidem pamphlet (PDF) to introduce it, and a longer booklet (PDF) explaining it in more detail.

It’s not a matter of orthodoxy. A critical element in our teaching here is that you are responsible for coming up with your own beliefs. Nobody has to declare this as their own personal creed. I wrote the material; it is my creed. But just like any Ancient Near Eastern feudal family household, in order to be a part of the household where I am the elder, you have to be able to say, “I can live with that.” This is a written record of our covenant; we all agree to proceed on the basis of what that says. It’s no different from saying you can live with me as head of household.

It so happens my personal style is very libertarian, in the sense that I operate with very lax controls. I make room for a lot of dissent. I’ll tell you that I do have two doctrinal points I consider utterly essential for keeping peace with me and everyone else in our household of faith. One: We are accountable to the Bible (using the Protestant canon). That means you take seriously your obligation to what it says and you won’t attempt to pass judgment on the message. We still have a lot of room to debate what it demands of us, and that’s the whole point in my whole approach to seeking a Hebraic mind for understanding the Scripture. We can debate how it applies, but if you suggest you are exempt from obeying the Bible, you are not family. Two: It is utterly essential that you operate on the basis of sacrificial love and compassion with the other members of the family.

The reason for that should be obvious in one sense, but it rests on yet one other issue which cannot be made doctrinal: the heart-led way. I’ve published a whole book on what that phrase means. I realize just how hard it is to disentangle ourselves from the Western assumption that the heart is a metaphor of sentiment, however strongly held. The Bible says the heart is the seat of conviction, faith, an acute moral awareness that is superior to the intellect. The brain wants to establish what something is and what we should do with it, but the heart knows instinctively what really matters in the first place. And because we have a whole lifetime of social conditioning to ignore the heart and place the intellect on the throne of decision, it takes some time and effort to subject your mind to the heart.

You see, we humans are fallen, but the rest of Creation is not. We were designed by God to manage Creation on His behalf, but we lost that authority when we chose to place the intellect on the throne. We can access that authority only when the heart rules and we are driven by a personal commitment to God as Lord of all things. We have to overcome a whole world of people who ignore the heart, and make a conscious effort to restore things to what God intended.

I cannot imagine how you can restore the heart to the throne without awakening an awareness that Creation is alive, sentient and willful. Creation is a person, altogether at once, and each element, all the way down do the subatomic particles. Each is a unique individual, with an awareness and will, and all of it remains unfallen. However, it also is now unmanaged because we allowed the Devil to fool us and accepted his story about how things should go. When you restore the heart, you become aware of Creation as your friend and ally, and you can begin working on restoring how Adam and Eve managed the Garden of Eden without the “sweat of the brow” physical labor. We are supposed to reunite with the natural world around us as long lost family. Creation is eager to cooperate, and if you can’t sense that, then you can’t sense properly how to deal with your fellow humans, who are also part of Creation. I teach that, but it’s not doctrine, per se; it’s an orientation of soul. That’s what we mean by “heart-led.”

So I can’t make heart-led a requirement, but if you don’t have it, you can only hope to fake your way through things. You won’t be able to keep up, and I really cannot imagine how you would swallow half of what your elder says we need to do as a household together. On the other hand, it’s not magic. I am utterly convinced anyone living, and capable of understanding what I write, can recover the heart-led power within their own soul. A surprising number of people are just a step away from it already, and need only hear or read the teaching to realize it was there all the time. Membership in our household of faith presumes you are heart-led.

You can still work with us without all of that. It makes you more like a volunteer supporter (“servant”). And if all you can do is just admire our work from a safe distance, you are an ally. Everyone else in the world is neutral (don’t know/care) or an enemy. It’s not for me to brand people; it’s more a matter of recognizing roles. You’ll notice there is almost nothing similar to most membership procedures you’ll encounter with other religious groups. Your role is a matter of how you engage or don’t. You decide your level of involvement, when and for how long. If I don’t know you’re there, it’s hard to love you and care for you.

That’s Kiln of the Soul.

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Photography: Draper East Again

Posted on December 5, 2017 by ehurst

Yesterday was unusually warm for this time of year; above 60°F (16C) all day. Since I knew a cold front was coming today, I decided to shift my workout schedule around and make one last exploration bike ride ride to the east shore of Draper Lake. This exploration took me to the very southeastern corner, and included Points 22 and 23. The southern shore will require a day when I can drive the car because it is not bike accessible. As usual, the lavender numbers indicate the approximate location of the following images.

Who would have expected to find a park grill out in the woods? This was on the trail around the shoreline right near where I started in the upper right hand corner of the satellite image. I recollect that this part was closed to motor vehicles just a few years ago, so this still looks usable. I was able to ride a good bit more on this exploration because the sand was less soft. In some places there were stretches of bedrock, but in others it was damp and hard-packed from wave spray where it was exposed to the stiff southerly winds.

The bronze plaque reads, “Scott Wheeler, 1970-1997.” It’s a common name and my search was swamped with meaningless data. There’s nothing in the local obits from 1997, so he may have been from another state. It’s just one of those mysteries. The monument was braced by large black sandstone boulders, which was a good move, given the sandy shore moves from time to time.

This was just an eye-catching arrangement of natural elements. Because the water level is controlled, there are long stretches of decades with no new erosion until the lake is flooded with excessive rain with no place to go. This lake is a water reservoir and is frequently refilled from the Atoka Reservoir, so it’s pretty rare to get more water than OKC can use. Only the wind and rain is likely to wear away enough soil to make those cedars fall over.

Farther around the shore, this tableau presented itself. There were several extensions of this bedrock standing far out into the water, but the pictures didn’t turn out well. The day’s wave action followed a few weeks of dry light winds from the opposite direction carrying sand. Thus, these rocky outcroppings were coated in wet sand and pretty slippery.

This one showed up farther around on the next point. Not visible from this angle was a channel of moderate depth separating it from the place I stood. A boat could pass through there, so it constitutes a tiny island just offshore. The whitecaps in the image show how stiff the wind was.

Out on the point itself were more of the same kind of outcroppings. This was where I had to go up and over the dunes because it was too rough to push my bike around the end. There was a lovely spot near those scrub oak trees where the water had hollowed out of the rock and people had used it for a large campfire site. The image I took was marred by glint off their litter; it has seen a good bit of recent use.

The end of my shore chasing was the large covered dock. With the somewhat low water levels, the dock itself was resting on the lake bed, but the walkway was just floating enough to rock heavily from the swells. The sections are held together by huge 2-inch bolts through heavy plating ears with bolt holes. These bolts are loose and the whole thing made quite a racket. It also made quite an entertaining walk out to the dock, heaving under my feet. The water is just deep enough to sustain the full 2-foot waves that occasionally blew in. The place was still a lovely chapel for worship, but I was quite alone with God the whole time. It makes me long for fellowship.

The weather forecasters call this a “moderate chop” for boating, but by the time it hits the shore rocks, the waves are dampened by the rising bottom. As I stood watching this spot, a few waves stood as much as 6 inches. What it represents is a stiff southerly wind that made it a lot easier to pedal my way home for 15 miles, since it was a tailwind.

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The Vast Reaches of Eden

Posted on December 4, 2017 by ehurst

The Kingdom of Heaven bears fruit; that is its nature.

We are fallen creatures, expelled from Eden and the Tree of Life. Our existence is not what God intended, and He has taken the initiative to restore us. God has provided the Flaming Sword of revelation to slice off from our existence everything that He cannot allow into His divine Presence, so we can regain access to the Tree of Life. We have the opportunity of this life to embrace His revelation and restore our lost heritage as family members of God.

A critical element of that divine heritage is redeeming our lives here in a fallen world by living like people who belong in Eden. God’s first step along that path was calling out the Nation of Israel. When things worked as intended, Israel lived according to their Covenant as a demonstration of what Eden might be like in a certain context. They were a beacon to other nations. But Israel strayed from that path again and again, shredding the Covenant and their mission to the point that no one was conforming to the divine moral character of God so as to return to Eden.

God came Himself once again in the Person of His Son to reestablish the meaning of the Flaming Sword and the call to return to Eden. It meant a new covenant, but the essential mission was unchanged. God still calls to a fallen world to join His new nation under a New Covenant.

It started something big that changed the world. For reasons we will never understand in this life, just as He allowed Israel to depart from their covenant, He allowed His new nation to depart from the New Covenant. We have reached another breaking point, as in the days of Christ. There are a lot of parallels, though He’s not going to send His Son back again in physical form. The original New Covenant still stands, but the called out church seems to have lost track of fundamental nature of that Covenant. In a sense, they have surrendered to the same slippage and shredding that characterized the failure of Israel.

We are no better than those who have lost their way. For reasons we’ll never understand on this side of Eternity, God has chosen to reveal His New Covenant afresh to us. Some of us have rediscovered the Flaming Sword, allowed it to carve up our lives, and had gained a fresh taste of Eden. We can talk to Creation and hear its voice calling us back to Christ. He is the Flaming Sword, the Living Law of God, the paramount expression of God’s divine moral character in human form. It’s all about Him, not us.

As God’s children, we cannot get enough of His attention and favor. It’s the ultimate privilege of life itself that He allows us to tag along as He works in this world, restoring Eden. It’s as if we are skipping along, giggling and singing and celebrating His warm attention on us, allowing us to participate in His mighty work. We get to put our hands on some of this work as He directs, but it’s really all His hands doing things. The lost souls around us see this; God uses this blazing light show of love to draw them into His family. He uses our giddy delight in the privilege of His doting favor to draw attention to His glory and His open offer. The Flaming Sword is not all pain; it’s healing and restoration as part of divine privilege. The Sword becomes a part of us, and we of it.

“Religion” is the word we use to describe our individual manifestation of that Flaming Sword. Religion is the thing we can show other people to give shape to the invisible faith that burns with the flame of that sword. It’s obvious that no two of us will have the exact same religion. Conforming to someone else’s religion is not faith. But by the same token, there must be enough held in common to allow us to live together as a divine family of faith. What we share here at Kiln of the Soul is just one small household of that vast nation God intends to grow on this earth. It’s just one franchise in a vast empire.

If this franchise looks like home to you, don’t just sit out in the courtyard. Come on in the door and take part in the life of his household. Make yourself known; get to know those already here.

A part of our story here is a powerful conviction that God is about to shake our world. Sometime in the very near future, America will enter a crisis. Not an apocalypse, but it will be a severe crisis nonetheless. God’s patience with America has run out. The people aren’t going anywhere, but the way of life and system of government will be shattered. It’ll be the American people, but it won’t be the US any more. This is far more than just Creation snapping back into place, but God’s personal attention and wrath is falling on the US (and other places, too, but I’m called to prophesy to America). It’s going be crazy and chaotic, and the sense of order will be shredded. People are going to question what they thought they knew about life, their world, and reality itself.

In my own personal experience, people shoved out of their comfort zone are folks who are best able to hear the gospel, to consider facing the Flaming Sword. There are some folks you and I could never reach from where we stand, but there will always be some who gravitate to our message, to our sense of shalom in the midst of the storm. God is going to herd them into our household. Build up the structure and make way for more souls.

Indeed, pray for souls. Ask God to add to our number. Such a request demonstrates that we understand the gospel. Pray that we are made able to welcome them, that we have stocked up enough provisions to share. We’ll have our hands full. And don’t get lost in the idea that this is a virtual parish; where you are geographically is where most of this activity will happen. I’m sure the virtual parish will grow, and we surely do need a network of other blogs as a faith community online, just as a real household has many different people in it. But bloggers are people in real places and some of you will never be bloggers. That’s just the way it is. If you aren’t here in Central Oklahoma with me, then in geographical terms you will be an anchorage for souls where you are.

This is the vision I share. I’m not God and I’m not the head of a religion. I’m just the elder, the head of household. We still need a pastoral priesthood. If you are part of this household, it’s because you are comfortable with my religion; it bears some resemblance to your own. You feel like family. Let me provide some divine moral covering while you do your part to build the Father’s empire. Eden is huge, with room for a whole lot more people.

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Clarifying “I Need More”

Posted on December 3, 2017 by ehurst

Ref: I Need More — I suppose sleeping on it gives me more time to process and reduce the initial excitement.

This is another one of those points when some of you are likely to have had enough and move on. That leaves a bunch of folks who are simply observing, and just a few who actually find themselves called into this madness. Honestly, I’m not trying to wear you out. If you can’t keep up, I don’t blame you. I’m driven and all I intend here is giving you an honest account of where I’m headed, so you have a fair chance to bail out if it’s not for you.

For those who are still with me, I sense we need more organization. On the one hand, the underlying theory calls for maximum individuality. On the other hand, most of us are simply not quite ready for everything that comes with that. It requires a powerful internal drive and is quite burdensome. So between the unchanging truth and our current context must be a way point where we can rest temporarily until we can shake off the oppressive weight of our Western culture.

So I’m asking for two things here. First, I want to paint in brighter colors our respective roles as a virtual parish. The I-need-more part is that I’m not satisfied with the lack of interaction between us as people of faith. Some of you probably aren’t too sure you want to embrace a more defined role as member of the parish family, but when you believe you are ready, I think it’s important that we model as much as possible a literal community of faith. Just as a reminder, a biblical household of faith includes allied neighbors, servants and employees who benefit, and family who actually belong and have a vested interest. You are the one who decides which you are. It’s not a question of me applying a label, but describing the boundaries as best I can so you’ll know for yourself and your prayers about your involvement here will become more sharply focused.

Second, I desperately need to exercise the heritage of heart-led faith in the flesh. That heritage includes face-to-face communion. I need a heart-led buddy — at least one — someone who consciously acknowledges what we all believe and can truly say, “I’m your brother/sister.” I have the invaluable advantage of a wife who is on board, but this thing is awfully hard to explore in reality without another male figure who takes it seriously. All of that is just the core of what a genuine faith fellowship is about. It’s supposed to grow into a family, and the family becomes a tribe, and eventually a “secret kingdom” as one writer called it, an invisible feudal domain discernible only to a heart of faith.

As you can see, a critical element is that this is all tentative in the first place. We are doing eternal faith in a fallen world that is frankly ephemeral in nature. On top of that, as a particular manifestation of that faith, our parish is still trying to figure out how all of this is supposed to work for us. If what I’m teaching reflects the genuine gospel of Jesus Christ, then it’s worth an investment of life itself.

But the last thing I want to do is lock people into some collection of rituals and formal doctrine that leaves the door open too wide for dead religion. Somehow we have to make sure this thing is nearly impossible to do without a valid heart-led conviction driving you through it.

So here’s where we are: My current role is necessarily apostolic. I can’t find anyone else doing what we are doing, so I’m forced to take the lead. But my fundamental calling is pastor-elder, not pastor-priest. I still long for someone to take that latter office for us. Meanwhile, I’m still doing as much as I know how in seeking to establish a house church here. It’s not working too well; the setting itself is highly resistant. As previously noted in several posts here, we are up against a big mountain of crap that is blocking the light of truth and keeping them in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Something has to shake them loose from all their assumptions. That day is coming, but it’s not here yet. It’s coming for all of America, and I sense that when it does, we will suddenly have our hands full. I believe it would serve best if we could lay the foundation first so it’s more obvious how to build with the living stones God adds to our number.

We have a junior elder, Jay DiNitto. By the way, he’s in Pennsylvania, a long way from Oklahoma. The other links on the right side of the blog interface here (Blogroll) represent people who have long followed this blog and have contributed usefully. If you would like to have your blog linked there, let’s talk about your role and how you’ll be listed. And could I persuade you to comment now and then, or maybe email me once in a while? Don’t worry about what to say; just tell me what’s going on in your life. That’s how I know what to pray for you. Make yourself as real to me as a virtual connection allows. Make me long to come see you in person.

Because that’s what I hope to do sometime in the near future. This is the faith part, standing firmly in my soul without a hint of concrete evidence. I have no idea how it could happen, but my convictions tell me God has plans to make it so. Join me in believing and praying to that end.

But I can’t make any of this happen. It’s on you; it’s between you and God. I’m going to run off in this direction, fully confident that God will supply all I need to make it happen. You can participate or not according to your own sense of calling. You aren’t imposing on me; I’m retired, so I have all day to answer emails, text messages and phone calls (405-503-1692). I’m not as chatty over the phone as I am in person, but that’s just a human factor we’ll have to deal with. It’s not a question of whether you need something; it’s a question of needing each other on a fundamental level. I surely need at least a few of you.

The mission is inherent in the heart-led life. We cannot be silent and keep this to ourselves; we see His glory so that it can shine through us. Our strongest witness is in our fellowship, even when we are forced to do it online. People need to see that the power of the heart-led way overcomes all obstacles. Are you in?

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