An Epistle for Our Times

Posted on January 31, 2017 by ehurst

In terms of missions — addressing the world around us — we stand in the gateway of Noah. That is, we use the framework of Noah’s Covenant to address the broader needs of humanity. Sure, it complicates things when we are talking to Christian believers, but our general approach remains the same. To the world at large, our religion is more or less the Law of Noah.

On the one hand, the Law of Noah lays out all the basic provisions for living in our world. We’ve discussed the discrete provisions plenty of times under the heading of a call to repent. It includes the traditional Seven Noachide Laws as found in the Talmud. We take that listing with a grain of salt simply because the Talmud is a mixture of corrupt Jewish traditions and just a little bit of ancient lore that didn’t make it into Scripture. However, the more important elements of this does show up in Acts 15. In my study of Acts I describe how some of the seven laws aren’t mentioned specifically because they were already covered under what was then the current legal framework of Roman Law. What’s left is this word from James:

“Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.” (Acts 15:19-20 NKJV)

This leaves us explaining just what it means for something to be polluted with idols, or what constitutes sexual immorality, but we probably won’t have much trouble with folks wanting to eat meat that was strangled or hasn’t been properly bled. Instead, we have a substantial job explaining why these things matter.

Thus, we come to the monumental prerequisites for actually observing the Law of Noah. This is where we mention the Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) feudal government, for that is precisely what was required in Genesis 9 where the Covenant is announced. Further, the context of that covenant assumes a heart-led culture and way of life (AKA, ANE Mysticism). This is where we spend so very much time explaining what that business in Acts 15 summarizes, because Gentiles in that time and place were usually familiar with all of the ANE heritage as a part of their cultural background. Quite significant was that those Gentiles had already sampled a wide array of varying civilizations and had an instinctive awareness that their own culture was not the default way of looking at things.

The Western lack of such awareness is our primary burden. This peculiar blindness is the mountain we must move by faith. It’s not as if we can’t package the external requirements for ready consumption, but the last thing we need is a bunch of folks hardened in their misunderstanding of everything behind those requirements. The Apostles didn’t have to wade through that, so going out and preaching in the town square was the simplest way to get the message out. For us, it’s more like shouting across a thousand miles of distance, even as we stand among the people who need to hear. We have to invest the effort to establish our weirdness visually and with power before speaking does much good.

All the more so is the burden upon us as we have already crossed the threshold into a new world, a changed reality. This is the time to invest the effort to see what our faith demands of us simply living a heart-led existence. I have this burning zeal to help you discover the fullness of shalom, the calm assurance that things will work out if we simply seize upon the heart-led necessities. When your convictions speak, that is your Voice of God for the current context, so learn to listen. And then learn to see with moral eyes what may never be apparent to mere mechanical vision. Learn to hear the song of Creation praising the Lord, the bubbly celebration of Life in the natural world around you. Let it feed your soul and keep that vivid existence burning brightly in the world around you.

This is not a time to affix labels in the way Western minds do, where the label is the identity of a thing. If it seems our function is apostolic, it would still be misleading to label ourselves “Apostle So-n-so.” Let’s be happy with Brother and Sister, and then later we can talk about vested roles. I’m on the verge of introducing a new and younger male elder to the virtual staff here in our online parish. All it means is that I trust his ability to lead the way we lead, which is rather like a shepherd calling out to the sheep who might hear, but otherwise letting them follow as they will. If the sheep are not bound by trust, there is no leadership.

So we progress as a virtual parish. We are building a network of voices who share a common vision for how to handle a world about to be shaken to the very foundations. Tribulation has come; we are a tribulation church. God has come on an inspection tour, and He is worthy of our best. We are His living epistles.

Posted in teaching | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on An Epistle for Our Times

Photography: Urban Landscape

Posted on January 30, 2017 by ehurst

01rrducksToday’s ride was more about the pictures and just poking around a few areas I’ve not seen in years. I headed out through Del City to Eagle Lake and stopped for a while on the bridge over Crooked Oak Creek. It remains one of the best places for prayer and meditation. Once I got down onto the River Trails, I caught this image where the Watco engines were idling on the bridge above some waterfowl. I’m just around the bend above the rowing area, looking back NNW toward downtown.

02panoramaAfter stopping again at the chapel under the pines on the north bank of the River Trail, I decided today would be a good time to catch some urban terrain I don’t often see.03littleflowerschool This is a panorama standing on the south side of the Little Flower Church, one of the few growing Catholic churches in the Metro. Their new facility is on the left, just a few years old. This thing is ancient in Okie terms.04littleflowerchurch Their school over on the north side of the campus was built ages ago when this was a thriving neighborhood in the shadow of Downtown OKC. Finally, I went around the front side and across Walker Avenue to capture the old front of the church house.

05skydancerBack when they decided to move I-40 off the crumbling elevated structure and plant it on/in the ground, it meant changing the route into this area just south of downtown. Part of this big project was a massive sculpture standing on a foot/bike bridge over the interstate. It’s supposed to represent our state bird, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.06oldrailstation At night it’s lit up varying colors, and I seem to recall they change slowly, shifting different hues on each arm. On the other side is a huge open space, mud and gravel left after plowing down numerous historic buildings and removing the concrete slabs. It’s ugly, but they did save the old Union Rail Station, because it’s now the HQ for our local transit authority (think buses and paid parking).07chesapeakecenter The only passenger rail line runs from here to Ft. Worth and the station is almost impossible to access because there is no free parking; you enter through a paid parking lot operated by some other outfit. It sits astride the western boundary of Bricktown and it’s ugly. Instead I shot this picture of the much nicer Chesapeake Arena (above left), home court of the OKC Thunder basketball team. I cleverly captured some weeds in the edge of the picture, because that’s what you’d see from the bare earth section on the south side.

08bricktowncanalMy last shot was the Bricktown Canal. This is the far western edge with my back to the elevated railway, a concrete monstrosity with holes punched through for cross streets. As you can see, the canal is empty for cleaning and maintenance. Where I’m standing is a confluence between two long feeder troughs, all concrete and somewhat ornamented. This was about the only shot that turned out. As I rode eastward through Bricktown, I rolled through a long alley several blocks. I had to oddest sense that this was a comfortable place to be. I can’t even afford to buy a glass of water in these places, but it felt okay just rolling through the backsides of those high priced restaurants and clubs. Oh, and I passed the back fence of the baseball diamond, but there’s really nothing to see. It was a quiet and peaceful ride back east on NE 4th Street.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on Photography: Urban Landscape

Of Cattle and Sheep

Posted on January 29, 2017 by ehurst

Does it require an explanation so long and detailed that nobody will read it?

The US health care system is a time bomb in the first place. It is broken and the fix is not what everyone imagines. If you put it all under charity, it won’t be big enough to do the specialized research to advance medical treatment. If you make the government pay for everything, the government must then set all the prices that they will pay, and folks who don’t like the price won’t cooperate with the government. It would then be like the worst of the old Soviet brand of medical care. On top of that, you will still have crony corruption. If you make medical care profit-based (as we have), you are equally guaranteed corruption because of simple human greed. Running the financing through insurance plans only adds a higher price to the corruption.

That’s because a root error is the American culture, on top of basic fallen human nature. It’s not like this in the rest of the world. That is, the corruption is not at all the same. Part of the problem is our prissy Victorian attitude that says it shouldn’t exist, so we don’t normalize it. We try to pretend it’s not human nature, that there are things we can do to make it go away, that we can write rules to make it impossible. But the rules always fail, either directly or by creating a newer and worse problem. That’s American culture, denying that man is fallen while wallowing in sin. So this thing will eventually blow up and any efforts to clean up the mess of Obamacare may succeed only in kicking the can down the road a while.

This is how our economy will grind down, though it will never completely halt. We still won’t have an apocalypse, but it will be rough. On top of that, we still have the Federal Reserve, a central bank that can and likely will fight Trump for purely partisan reasons. The Federal Reserve is a globalist political agency; everyone knows that. The only way to beat some of the problem is dissolve it altogether. That leaves us with other issues, but we still have this damned awful American political culture to deal with.

It’s this damned pretense; we have a powerful centralizing elite force that publicly denies its own agenda. It denies its elite position. An honest elite would be far more bearable, but this fakery is what kills everything. We have to keep that damned lie — “of the people, by the people, for the people” — going, when it was a dastardly lie the day Lincoln wrote that speech. This is the nature of centralizing oppression.

And it’s present in all kinds of other problems. For example, Microsoft has created a new class of trouble for Windows 10 users. For those who use the Home version (the vast majority of Windows 10 machines) there is the new forced update. That is, no matter what settings you have, when the machine decides to update, you cannot say “wait.” It will spontaneously reboot right in the big middle of whatever you are doing. It won’t matter if you are using your computer for a life-saving medical procedure, either.

I’m waiting to see if they introduce that policy to Win7 and Win8 systems, as they have back-ported other changes that way. There is only the most cynical pretense of caring about the end-users. It’s the forced dependency required by the globalist elite.

This is what has shaped the American culture. Unless and until we make some changes, this will only get worse. And the only way we can begin to back out of this crap is for a lot of people to face untimely deaths. It has gone that far, folks. You cannot clean up the mess without making a bigger one first, because the change will not be voluntary.

America is in a civil war. We are experiencing serious winds of change right now, and it will result in bloodshed. But instead of military formations marching against each other, it’s almost entirely done through political maneuvering and propaganda, with changes in the flow of money in the background. But those things will mean violence when they play out fully. Please get used to this idea, because even under ideal conditions, it would still be like this to some degree.

Your best answer is to become as self-reliant as possible. You’ll still see a lot trouble; we shall tribulate. But it won’t be apocalyptic in degree. Do you understand that the corporate media is your enemy? Not just unreliable, but it is dangerous and willfully intending to destroy your life. They are entrenched and fighting a defensive war, but if we do not destroy them, it most certainly will become an apocalypse. The MSM is globalist. This is not merely a political and cultural problem. Globalists are also the single biggest Antichrist we face right now; this is the face of Satan opposing the gospel. On the one hand, we should expect that human political activity will fight them, but we must fight globalism, too.

However, we do not war against flesh and blood, but against forces of Darkness (Hebrews 6:10-20) and we do not use weapons of the flesh (2 Corinthians 10:3-6). We find the nationalist political movement beneficial, but we are not in alliance with it. Our chief aim is to live the heart-led truth and speak about it as we progress in divine moral power. What men see in political terms is a manifestation of major moves by God to shape things by His wisdom, according to His divine moral character. We must see beyond the immediate manifestations and follow His hands on the moral plane. We are not the cattle God is herding, but the sheep of His pasture. We see this thing on both levels.

Addenda: Just a reminder that I am called to prophesy to the US. You’ll have to decide whether any of it is applicable to other countries. As noted in the comments, I promote decentralization as the first step toward obeying the Covenant of Noah. That applies across the board; almost nothing requires huge conglomerates to work properly. And I would hope it becomes clear that my spite for the corporate media is largely because it is so monolithic and centrally controlled. There are lots of decent journalists, editors and local news outlets. Let them do their job without having to march to the globalist agenda. Finally, American globalists are my target here, as I consider them by far one of the greatest threats to humanity as a whole.

Posted in eldercraft | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Of Cattle and Sheep

Psalm 119: Qoph 145-152

Posted on January 28, 2017 by ehurst

Here we have the Song of Assurance. Prayer works.

As the psalmist notes, genuine effective prayer requires a fully committed heart first, but the heart knows what to ask because the heart knows what God wants to do. And it is from the heart that we are loyal to the revelation of what God has appointed in Creation. So he cries out, ever renewing his personal covenant of loyalty, not calling on any other power. He knows that Jehovah is his salvation and the power to obey.

Even before dawn, his heart awakens him to spend time in the divine Presence. He cries out for the freedom that comes only from enslavement to God. He knows the precious promises of God’s Word. When something keeps him awake at night, when his soul is churning without sleep, he knows this is the call to ponder the revelation of Jehovah.

His experience thus far trusting in God has taught him that God is merciful when we call on Him, and that it is the nature of His justice to restore a vivid life. Such is the moral character of Jehovah. He makes a play on words: The wicked are too close to him and too far from God’s truth at the same time.

Yet God is also near at hand, in his own soul. With His divine Presence comes all of His truth burned into our souls. As he takes a fresh look at the record of God’s revelation, he recognizes that same ancient power that spoke to his heart long ago. So ancient and yet forever fresh is the Word of God.

Posted in bible | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Psalm 119: Qoph 145-152

Cycling: Another Draper Adventure

Posted on January 28, 2017 by ehurst

mapThe other day, when I was revisiting the canyon (near “A” on the map), the trail leading farther called my name. After a few cold days, I knew where I wanted to go today. It still required sweat pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt on top, but it was plenty comfortable for exploring something I hadn’t already seen. The lavender numbers should serve well to mark the path I took. Just click any image to get a closer view.

01washoutJust beyond the canyon was another, less dramatic washout. However, the water course that cuts such a very deep trough through this area invites this kind of washout. Just beyond this point the trail crested the rise and descended slowly into the woods. As noted previous, this area has seen some equestrian traffic, so it was passable at this point, hugging the shore around the western side of the point.02shoreline This is the arm of the lake where that deep trough runs out. The shore remains pretty high all the way around to the point. There was no soft sandy patches, so the trail through the woods was pretty fast.03woodlandtrail Once or twice I had to dismount and jump over a log or two, but I felt like the gravel was the roughest part. You see, this was once long ago a road out to the point and lots of heavy crushed granite was dumped on the road bed, along with whole clay bricks and chunks of rubble. In some places these fist-sized obstacles were hidden in the grass, so it was pretty rough.04outonpoint The image above right is looking back up the trail behind me; you may have trouble seeing it, but there is a slender track there.

So it was otherwise fast rolling and took rather little time to get out onto the point. There were quite a few “decorative” slabs of broken red sandstone around the place, and quite a few abandoned tires. 05otherpointsThe point wasn’t all that beautiful down on the shore, but I was amused at how close I was to the main park facilities on one point east of me, and just south was a covered boat dock on another point. This one was numbered 7, as I discovered when I got there.

06abovepointBut back up the slope was a lovely high stone tableland with a grand view and this turned out to be the chapel for today. It was also the point where I began feeling the wind fully. On the way out, the NW wind was behind me all the way down the Sooner Road corridor and along the bike trail. Once I dropped off down into the woods, I had to remove the long-sleeved over shirt, leaving my short-sleeved undershirt. Now I was just starting to lose all that heat.

07cascadingbluffI strove mightily to take the middle trail instead of continuing around the shore trail, but there were too many places where it was blocked by regrowth. Eventually I came across a sort of cascading bluff that was just about passable carrying the bike. This image doesn’t do it justice, but there were about eight or ten terraces, each at least half my height. Along the edges I found places I could step up with the load. From up on top, it was a lovely view. 08highspotFarther upland was yet another large flat tableland and I could have stayed there all day. It was just a place of beauty, the wind smelling clean and it spoke my name. This was the eventual goal of the ride today. It would be a great place for cool weather camping.

09exittrailGetting out of there was pretty tough. Heading back down in the general direction of the canyon, I ran into a place where the trail was blocked by deadfall and I had to spend some time breaking old dead limbs and pushing stuff out of the way. Down a bit into some woods and then up another rise, I ran into a place where the trail was totally overgrown with saplings sprouting thickly, thorns all around their roots and lots of little thorny plum bushes. I prayed, then asked the plants to show me the path I knew they had to offer. It was twisting and winding, but it was there and nothing shredded my clothes. Eventually I got back out into the open grass. This last image shows what the final exit trail looked like. I had been part way out in that area long ago and knew what to expect. It brought me out onto the northern section of Draper Lake Drive. I put my long-sleeved shirt back on and rode home against the wind, which was even stiffer now than when I came out.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Cycling: Another Draper Adventure

Trump Will (Accidentally) Destroy Israel

Posted on January 28, 2017 by ehurst

I’ve said that The Cult thrives on tension. You might imagine that some day it would hope to actually take over the world, but that’s not how it works. Since The Cult is a demonic presence so the whole purpose is torment. It suffers no human ambition. While a single global tyranny could do torment as policy, it’s too much work and not necessary. Rather, that one-world government goal is dangled as a carrot to get foolish humans to serve the demonic agenda. The whole point is terror for its own sake, and precious few human agents grasp that.

Thus, it’s the ultimate perversion of God’s Law, which Law is living justly for its own sake. For you and I, divine justice is its own reward. Terror is the satanic perversion of that. Humans are deceived into chasing some imaginary result instead of simply living as the passage to something far beyond. God’s Word says that there is no final reward in this world; we are taught to perceive it as a taste of what’s to come. True heart-led communion is not the end, but a sample of Eternity. The heart-led life is where we belong until His glory is finished with us here. It is this emphasis on the otherworldly end that keeps us from the clutches of the Devil. Satan’s whole gambit rests on convincing us that this world is all there is, in effect if not in doctrine. Holiness means not getting entangled in worldly results.

If you imagine that peace in Palestine/Israel is the goal, you really do not understand Zionism. The day that the Zionists actually push out the Palestinians, and grab chunks of land from their neighbors to establish their Greater Israel, that is the day Zionism dies. And without Zionism, there is simply no point in having a State of Israel. Even if all the various governments and entities of the world buy into this grand state of Greater Israel and make it happen, at that moment Israel will be dead. The nature of its very existence is creating everlasting tension; the Jewish State has no identity without that essential element of persecution.

Israel needs the Palestinian as a whipping boy. But the real Palestinians aren’t playing by the rules, so Mossad and friends have to keep creating fake terrorists to launch harmless missiles from Palestinian territory to explode in the desert. Tormenting the Arabs is essential. She has to provoke Islamic extremism to ensure a steady supply of enemies. She has to maintain a constant threat for things that she could never actually do, because winning is not the point.

If you have time to read a long article explaining that, I recommend this piece filled with lesser known historical data backed up by original sources.

There is one major problem to this permanent terror agenda: God has other plans. I am convinced that God has placed in power certain figures who will bring all of this to a head. Trump, as the biggest friend of Israel/Zionism, will in all likelihood destroy it. I am utterly certain he is not on board with the permanent torment agenda, but has plans to push the apparent agenda to its final conclusion. He intends to get things done, and he won’t tolerate Zionists who refuse his offer of help to make this tension end.

CUFI is in on this, too, in the same way. While it’s quite possible some of the less well-known leaders of Christian Zionism are consciously aware of the real agenda, they can’t transmit that agenda to the foot soldiers. If they told the truth, there would be no foot soldiers. In the end, we can discount the possibility of full awareness on the grounds that there’s no way to make it work. If the lords of Zionism ever admit to their true aim, the whole show comes apart. The whole thing stands four-square on the big lie.

This is in part why I remain convinced that, at some point in the near future, the Zionists will be forced to alienate a major portion of their Christian supporters. God is going to cleanse His true followers from this idolatry. The problem is that way too many current Christian organizations, the leaders in particular, will not be able to abandon Zionism even when it becomes clear just how evil this whole thing is. So there will be an exodus from these organizations when believers in the pews seeking a good conscience realize they can’t stay.

As always, I have no time table. If not Trump this time around, it will be someone else who walks the same path with the same brand of vigor; their time has come. And I could be totally wrong, so feel free to discount my message here. But if this pulls at your heart, watch and be ready to take redemptive action when the time comes.

Posted in sanity | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Trump Will (Accidentally) Destroy Israel

Just a Short Ride

Posted on January 27, 2017 by ehurst

01clearwaterAfter two days too frosty and windy to ride, today was no less windy, but warm enough to handle it. It was about 45°F (7C) with stiff breezes from the northwest, carrying air that was cooler than the ambient temperatures indicated.

02stoneflowI went only as far as Barnes Park to look at Soldier Creek. It was pretty clear today, as visible in the first shot. For the second shot I clambered down the steep bank to that big flat stone formation that creates a small fall in the creek.

03prayerchapelAs previously noted, most of the time I ride now I’m just looking for a suitable prayer chapel for the day. This spot in Pecan Park called to me. I’m working over a couple of prayer requests from our online parish. At least my head is no longer exploding with stuff. But I still have no great interest in long challenging rides. I’m much more interested in quiet places and a little exercise.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Just a Short Ride

Some Current Tech Talk Trends

Posted on January 27, 2017 by ehurst

In my computer tech support ministry, I still run into people with notions carved in stone from before the introduction of Windows. It arises from the bureaucratic mindset seeping into the wider society: Invent once; never progress. Do you know that the number one reason for running some major brand of anti-virus on computers is to avoid being fired? “If something goes wrong, make sure your ass is covered.” We call that “CYA.” It doesn’t matter that your corporate choice of AV is utterly, truculently stupid, and the computers consistently get hijacked and leak all your corporate data, as long as you follow the rules they can’t easily fire you.

For one thing, the MacAfee/Norton duality should have died long ago. Back when Mr. MacAfee and Mr. Norton still ran their namesake companies, they had good software. When those two men sold their companies, it all went downhill. These two are now the worst AV products available, worse than having nothing at all. They both create problems you didn’t already have, and solve precious little new trouble. And they will nag you to death about things that don’t matter except to their bottom line.

But in recent months, it seems all the other AV vendors are struggling. Right now, it’s Catch-22, because installing AV means increasing the number of ways you can be attacked. A good AV worms it’s way into your system like a virus in the first place, but tries to keep other malware out. And with Microsoft becoming increasing our-way-or-no-way, I’ve lately begun recommending folks just stick with Microsoft Security Essentials. That is, it stays out of your way and it does not increase the paths by which your system can be attacked, because it’s just another part of the Operating System, not an add-on. It drops into place without opening new holes.

I am surprised by the number of people who, fighting to keep Win7, have simply turned off system updates altogether since that big mess to keep Win10 from hijacking their system. While I can’t blame them, it’s hard to know where you can and should draw the line. I’m not giving advice on this, but I can observe dispassionately that MS is struggling to take over computer use itself. I’m convinced they will someday introduce forced subscriptions. Meanwhile, it seems their current plan is to make Windows 10 the last upgrade. From now on, it’s a rolling update/upgrade in place, and it’s already all-or-nothing for system updates. It will be like your smartphone from the cell provider: You take what they offer or pay a huge price to escape their plans.

Sure, buy a Chromebook. It’s just like the majority of smartphones. It runs an OS indistinguishable from Android and you can’t keep hardly any files on your system; it’s all in the cloud. You do everything through the browser. The only difference is that Chromebooks don’t make cell calls… for now. You have precious little choice what kind of additional software you can install, and the stuff you are most likely to need costs extra. Not bad for an alleged derivative of Open Source Linux, eh? All supported by advertising and user tracking. Oh, wait; MS has forced advertising into the mix on Win10. Maybe that’s how MS will do their subscription thing — you will use Windows and you will endure the advertising. The newest Win10 devices are increasingly like Chromebooks, especially the ones MS sells directly.

A lot of Linux users have begun investing in high-grade used hardware. It’s still powerful enough to run the latest versions of Linux, plus there’s no OS lock-in crap. Meanwhile, it’s cheap because the machines simply won’t run Windows 10; some won’t even run Win7. Commercial grade Vista era machines are a really good deal right now on eBay. You’d be amazed at the vast array of hardware, both inside the box and peripherals, for which Win7 has no drivers and MS refuses to provide them. For example, on a wide array of very good graphics chipsets, you only get a minimal display resolution, but Linux supports them at full resolution.

If you still need Windows 7 and run into something that requires a reinstall, I recommend WSUS Offline Update. It’s officially approved by the MS techies and it bypasses the issue that typically requires days to catch up on the updates after a fresh reinstall. It does this by incrementally pulling in certain required updates first. It still takes long enough, but it’s more like a few hours versus two or three days. I’ve used this myself and it’s about the only way to get it done and keep your sanity. Oh, and you’ll still have more updates when it’s finished, but they’ll install at the normal speed of things.

Posted in computers | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Some Current Tech Talk Trends

Let Me Know

Posted on January 26, 2017 by ehurst

I was born heart-led. As you might imagine, growing up in a world that denies such a thing, I lived a very tormented childhood. It was a wildly strange and twisted existence, where everyone kept telling me to live my conscience, but when I did, they turned on me. What they meant was that I supposed to live their conscience. That is frankly sinful — sinful for them to expect it, and sinful for me to do it.

Even late in my military career, when I felt compelled to walk someone else’s path, it felt dirty and sickening. It’s the one thing about the uniformed service I don’t miss. The arrogance is built into the system.

When you turn to consciously walk the heart-led life, you are suddenly transported to an entirely different realm of existence. Everything starts to make sense. I look back over my years of tortured consciousness and I have forgiven the whole world. No one owes me anything. Now I understand how there is nothing — nothing — I can do to change the situation. Merely wanting to change it is morally wrong. I can’t even change me, but at least I can be granted the power to work on that, and it’s all I can do. By the same token, I can’t avoid seeing how people are destroying their lives, and I have to speak sometimes, in some ways.

Do you see that I’m not really leading you folks at all? The best I can do is explain my sense of calling. As far as possible, I summon my brain to make some sense of what God has planted in my heart, knowing that my pitiful efforts to relate that in words can be used to awaken something in you. And it applies across the board, from my spouse to the outer rings of my limited dominion. Everything is voluntary. People who love me and fellowship with me do so to answer their own sense of need and calling. Do you know what it’s like when the little girls across the breezeway see me and run to hug my leg? Do you know what it says that they feel comfortable asking to borrow a stick of butter?

I really do love the fellowship; I love it when you take the time to post comments or send email. Some of you have sent donations from time to time and that’s also just dandy, but it’s more important to hear from you how God is using me to bless your life. I want to know how you find your own victory, your own calling, your own moral dominion. Tell me how I can pray for you.

Posted in personal | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Let Me Know

Our Parish Teaching on Politics

Posted on January 25, 2017 by ehurst

To the degree that we could change anything in this world, it has to come as a secondary result of our normal mission activity. This is particularly true with politics and government policy.

Let’s review the background for this. The Covenant of Noah is binding on all human governments in the world today. Inherent in that covenant is the assumption of Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) feudalism — a tribal social structure and government. If for some reason you cannot build on blood kinship, a covenant family is proper. The summarizing statement is: No one has any business poking around in your daily life unless they are related by blood of covenant.

There is a protocol for an external conquering “imperial” government, but that government must work through tribal chiefs. The emperor has no business changing customs, folkways and religion, but can demand tribute, including money, goods and services. Military conscription must be negotiated. Whatever the end result, humans are hard-wired by God to live in a tribal social structure under ANE feudalism. That’s the Law of God; that’s how you reap the blessings, the optimal human existence on this earth.

Failing that, we who embrace that Law of God are to recognize that God still steers human affairs rather like herding cattle. Human government outside of Noah cannot pretend in any way to claim God’s blessings. Whatever good things God does through such governments will ever appear random, as it rests entirely upon His whims and plans. Those plans are seldom revealed except in terms of prophetic warnings to repent.

You and I are not divine cowboys; we don’t participate in herding the cattle of God. We most certainly should offer prophetic warnings, but we are not to engage government affairs outside the Covenant. We can influence individuals within appropriate limits, but we do not agitate for change as if we actively participate in human government. We can even serve in such governments, but there are no hard and fast rules. It’s a matter of calling, but in broad general terms, we should avoid leadership roles that amount to governing, per se. This has to do with the very serious danger of moral compromise, beholden to a heathen system.

The risk is that it amounts to idolatry. In biblical examples, we see men and women of God refusing to submit to a ruler who demanded his servants worship his deities. At the cost of death or other, lesser punishments, we do not bind ourselves to idolatrous moral requirements. You can petition for relief of grievances both as individuals and as covenant entities, but you dare not join yourself to “political allies” with significantly different moral values. You have to stick to what’s in the Law of Noah. So, for example, I can’t align with any mainstream Christian organization because their agenda includes too much that I find contrary to Noah. Vague notions of democracy, representative or otherwise, violate Noah.

But we don’t simply remove ourselves from the world, lest we lose any hope of participating in revelation. That’s another form of idolatry. We do engage our world in truth. You need to discern what’s appropriate for you in your social context. In broad general terms, we would naturally seek to reduce tyranny and oppression. We naturally prefer decentralized control; that’s the lesson of the Tower of Babel. Those things are obvious but we always do so in the power of the Spirit, not through mere human means.

If you break cattle out of the feedlot or slaughterhouse, they are still cattle. If you break them out of slavery to this world and into a heart-led life, they aren’t cattle any more. Changing human governmental systems will not raise them from their low estate. To bring them under Noah requires a radical shift in culture across the whole population. Doing that requires a level of force no less tyrannical than any current government. If they are conscious enough to recognize they suffer under tyranny, about the most we can do for them is help them find their own way out. What happens once they are out on the range again is up to them and what God chooses for them.

Thus, we are politically neutral in our compassion to all. If they have a drive to act on something, we must discern whether our conscience is clear in helping them, but we dare not get directly involved in most of their concerns. We don’t seek to change the world, only a few individuals whom God places in our lives.

Posted in eldercraft | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Our Parish Teaching on Politics