A Series on Answering

Posted on April 4, 2016 by ehurst

I think I’m through with writing books for awhile.

I’m not through with writing and teaching, and I’m not through with publishing Bible studies as books, but I can’t find any drive to pull together any more big studies on religion and faith right now. Instead, I’m going to invest more energy in active leadership, guiding this religion/faith into a wider human awareness. Meanwhile, I’d love it if someone else decided it was time to write some books. We really do need others involved in this; that’s the whole point of sharing your religion. If it’s good enough to catch the interest of others and help them find their own sense of peace with God, then at least some of them should contribute to the body of expression in writing. I’m not picking anyone for that task; I’m letting you know that God is already working on somebody somewhere in our parish and you should be ready to see some output with a different name on the cover.

So in the business of leadership, I need to help you all come up with ways to help folks on the outside find a doorway they would recognize as an entrance into this rich faith. We have no intention of trapping anyone, so leaving them to find their own door means they can just as easily take their toys and depart when it’s time for them to move on. We share what we have; we can’t share what we don’t have. Somehow it seems my blather to myself has helped others and a number of you hang around for a long time, so it seemed natural to give structure and call it a virtual parish.

The first order of business is reminding everyone that we don’t match the common definition of a “cult.” You can run a search and get a lot of different answers on how that word is defined. On the one hand, we are very different from the mainstream; we are quite unorthodox in many ways. Whether or not it’s a distortion of the original teachings of Christ will always be subject to debate. On the other hand, we deny being any kind of threat. At least in sociological terms, we don’t qualify as a cult. We don’t have any defined rituals; we don’t withdraw from society and build our own little world with secret symbolism. And I deny being the center of things; I openly invite folks to do their own thing and associate on very broad and open terms.

Indeed, my vision does not depend on others being involved, but it surely welcomes them. It’s what I consider the fundamental nature of moral shepherd-craft. To be honest, I’m lazy and would rather just keep to myself and do what I like to do. But I have to make noise or I’m not doing what I like to do. If my noise answers your need, you are welcome to hang around and absorb all you like. I’m lazy but I’m not a grouch, so if you hang around and bug me with your questions, I’m willing to try answering. The door is open and you can move both ways at your whim. That makes extra work for me, but that’s where the Father kicks in and makes me willing to do it that way. Nobody is trapped and I consciously avoid any of the manipulative strategies to keep people involved.

And God forbid I should ever sound like I’m leeching off your resources to support my lifestyle, particularly a lavish one. I consciously avoid anything that resembles panhandling and begging. If you donate anything, it’s because you have arrived at that sense of obligation on your own. And I’m quick to pass stuff on to others to avoid any entrapping accumulations of material property.

(Quick side-note: It’s a lot safer for me if you donate in kind, because the more money that passes through my PayPal account, the more risk there is I’ll have to file it as income on my taxes. The rules keep changing, and for the worse. I’m currently accumulating the PayPal balance for a good business grade laptop, so if you wish to contribute to some other project — like the mountain bike — make sure you let me know. If you have a laptop or bike that seems to fit my request, just let me know and we can arrange shipping. If you want my current bike once I have a mountain bike, again, let me know. And maybe some day we can talk about a better camera, but I’ve already said enough about mere material stuff. Stuff is just tools for serving and we need to keep the focus on serving.)

But if we have to take a label, “Christian Mysticism” isn’t just a mere label. It implies a lack of strong interest in materialism, among other things. It also should imply a lack of deep concern over a defining theology and structure. That sounds cultic to the mainstream, but I don’t want to waste too much time trying to defend against attacks. I’d rather portray a genuine mystical approach of not worrying too much about anything. But the label “Christian Mystic” is intentionally fuzzy and forces people to think and ask questions.

At that moment when someone asks, I have to gauge how to answer for the context. That means putting a little energy into the awareness of context. I have a small advantage in having been obliged to do public relations in the past, not to mention actually preaching to a diverse and cosmopolitan crowd of folks. I’ve taught in schools where the kids were not just Americans, but Canadians, UK, Israeli, Arab, Dutch and even a smattering of other European backgrounds. Their reactions and questions were very instructive in learning to widen my frame of reference. Still, I suppose I have to admit I don’t feel called to work outside the English language, so that carries some limitations of its own. (If you translate anything I write, you’ll take upon yourself the responsibility for reshaping the words to fit the different context.) The net result is that I strive to widen the context as much as possible within the linguistic and cultural expression that comes with the English language now. Frankly, the Internet itself has made that much easier, because it tends to commoditize cultural expression.

In the next few days I’m going to start posting with more focus on how we should attempt to explain what holds us together as a virtual parish, and what makes this religion different. What do we offer? Why does the world need another religion? That’s what we hope to answer. Please, as always, you have as much part as you want in this. I can’t answer the questions you don’t ask.

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Easter versus Resurrection Sunday

Posted on April 3, 2016 by ehurst

This is a rant.

This is a personal reaction that need not apply to you. The mainstream Western Christian celebration of Resurrection Sunday has worn thin on me, and even the corrective blog posts and articles have gotten trite. Over the years it has gotten so annoying that I took a New Testament option of not celebrating the holiday at all, but celebrating His Resurrection every day (Romans 14:5). But I wanted to wait until it was all past to write about it.

When I was a kid, I knew it was Easter because it was after Christmas and we would all go and buy new dress clothes. Mom and my aunts would buy extra eggs and talk about dying them. Parents would sneak around getting cheap baskets, fake grass and chocolate bunnies.

Do me a favor, would you? If you want to celebrate Easter (the holy day of Oester), go ahead. But don’t squish into it some passing ritual mention of Christ’s Resurrection, okay? Don’t do Easter stuff at church unless you plan to hold a separate ritual event for the Resurrection. That’s pretty much the minimum if you want me involved.

Sometimes Scripture discusses things directly, usually in its own historical context. Sometimes we have to search for clues with fear and trembling that we don’t blaspheme in the process. The Apostles saw nothing wrong with scholarship and expertise in pagan mythology. The knowledge was not a threat; it was a necessity for dealing with the pagans. Not all pagan religion is a threat to faith. Sometimes there are parallels and insights that actually accord with the Bible. A solid majority of the Covenant of Moses reflects common custom and belief among pagans in that part of the world. God chose to use such things where they were consistent with His revelation. If you don’t know that, then be very careful what you advocate as a believer, because you’ll likely come up wrong on a lot of things.

On the other hand, the Apostles flatly warn us against idolatry. They didn’t word it with quite the severity of Moses because Moses is more about symbolism and national identity, while the New Testament presumes no national identity on the same level. It’s more cosmopolitan about things because our identity is rooted consciously above this realm of existence. We understand the symbolism but we strive to see through it to something difficult to put into words. So Paul lays out a basic guideline that you avoid celebrating a pagan deity. Don’t let your pagan friends think you are worshiping their deities. Find some place in your behavior where you draw a line that they will see and recognize. Don’t be a grouch, but don’t be herded into a festival that is blatantly idolatrous. The whole point is distinguish Christ from the rest.

Obviously I reject the legalism you can find on any number of websites about how “evil” it is to celebrate common cultural holidays in any way. Culture is culture and a lot of our pagan Anglo-Saxon legacy is buried under secularism. You can decide for yourself where to draw the line, but in the back of my mind I never forget that decorating Christmas trees is a pagan religious ritual, as is dying eggs and making chocolate hearts. We aren’t the First Century church, but we do well to realize they celebrated Christ’s Resurrection as a fulfillment of Old Testament celebrations, Passover in particular. That Old Testament stuff is not our heritage of culture, but it is our heritage of faith and revelation. It would be far better to create entirely new rituals for our own context.

Take a moment to consider what an awful thing it was that Constantine managed to seduce the Christian leaders of his day. He offered protection from persecution and favorable imperial policy, and even money, to capture them in his very intelligent scheme of making Christianity more like his favored religion of sun worship. He was a Solarian and he paganized the church to some degree. A great deal of Roman Catholic ritual descends from his influence. We struggle today to unravel the garbage he inserted into the Christian religion of his day, and there is room for debate on a lot of specifics.

On the one hand, I am very conscious of the rhythm of life on this planet. We are obliged as humans to recognize the hand of God in that continuing cycle and celebrate the rich provision for life. On the other hand, I tend to flatline the highs and lows of sentiment that other people seem to want for themselves. In my soul, that roller-coaster stuff is a serious problem, so I try to avoid it. That means I am pretty giddy and nutty every day, but I downplay the holiday celebrations. I might use any contextual factor as leverage to prod people into a stronger awareness of God, but I don’t care for Christmas trees, colored eggs and chocolate hearts. Meanwhile, I love coniferous trees in nature, I eat eggs every day, and I love dark chocolate. I am deeply cynical about flag-waving and other kinds of herding activities, but I am a disabled veteran. I am fiercely nonconformist under whatever you see on my exterior. I won’t piss on your parade without very good reason, but if you begin to sound idolatrous, that might provoke me — especially if you try to rope me into your celebration as if it were a moral obligation.

This is why I didn’t post anything specific about Resurrection Sunday.

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For Mankind, Not By Men

Posted on April 3, 2016 by ehurst

On a human level, it has been overwhelming.

Nothing hinders God from redeeming souls; that whole issue is firmly under His control. The context of this discussion never included a worry that folks would end up in Hell because of the problems we face. Further, we have been warned repeatedly in the Bible that we should expect things to get worse as time drags painfully to the final conclusion, an end for which no living human can predict the timing. Religion isn’t about saving souls but laying claim to what comes with salvation. Religion is a human response to a move of His Spirit resurrecting our dead spirits. God’s finger has written into our convictions this one urge: We seek His glory.

The means to that glory is a broad series of tactical questions. The ultimate nature of our warfare is internal. The awareness alone is the flag of victory, so it’s not a question of whether we will win. Once our awareness is awakened; that battle is over. What lies in front of us is the urge to occupy the territory already won. Our problem is not with Creation or the natural world around us, but our fallen nature internally. Nature is just fine; we have to drag our accursed flesh into its place in nature. We have to merge ourselves into the created order, conform to the moral character of God woven into reality.

This is the shape of that nameless and restless urge that drives us until we die. We are bringing to life the Master’s Law in a land that was separated from Him; our souls are that land.

But the undeniable fact of reality is that, as we progress in that mission, God’s glory breaks down resistance in the world around us. If I stand for His divine justice in my soul, the very fabric of reality in my physical home changes. It won’t change the polarity of the electrons in my physical environment, but it adds a presence that was missing and sorely needed. The results would never be so absolute as meets human tests of reason, but very real nonetheless. Satan’s lies begin to lose their grip in the physical vicinity of my residence. Most of the time, that means I’ll be the only one to perceive the change, but often enough it will bring a change others can detect.

The grass outside my window will be greener as an objective fact because I commune with that grass more consistently on the terms my Creator intended. Natural disasters are more likely to pass over us without striking. People who are serious threats to social stability will be more likely to change or be unable to stay. The charged atmosphere of divine justice will change the resonance of the very atmosphere itself. People who reach out to embrace me as kindred souls will receive a share of those things God pours into my life.

If I entangle myself in all those trappings, it will die. If I can keep my eye on the goal of steadily growing in grace, those things will take root and live. Don’t get lost in the context. It is fungible and God can rewrite reality itself on-the-fly. There’s no doubt some of His blessings will be unexpected. My flesh will still tend to register surprises as a bad thing, but my heart knows that the real problem is my expectations, not what God does in comparison to them. I’m training my brain to follow my heart.

I hope you don’t get tired of hearing about how Western Civilization has become the epitome of all that Satan desires to keep us enslaved to his lies. Look around you. This shit is pervasive, a poison that has seeped into everything. How do you oppose a lie that everyone else believes without even being aware that they believe it? A lie so powerful that our natural allies — other Christians — reject us as a threat to their faith? The vast layer of our world’s unconscious assumptions about life itself has turned them against us.

You can use whatever labels you like: neo-cons, bureaucracy, middle-class, materialistic, dehumanized, etc. They are all just single facets on a huge stone of offense. It’s all aimed at killing the connection between the mind and the heart. It’s an attempt to make it impossible to restore that link. Nothing Satan can do is allowed to prevent the heart from awakening; his job is to keep us from connecting to its power. Western Civilization is his greatest achievement in making sure there is no room for such things in human awareness.

But our greatest weapon against that is simply our endeavor to restore it. The mere act of living by the heart softens that massive stone and chips away at its face. So when they try to crush us under the stone, the stone itself is threatened.

Imagine this scene: You are brought before a tribunal of justice for some reason. It is not the justice of God by any means, but some vengeance for offending a very perverted system. Don’t expect any sympathy from the judge. Judges do not get to their position by bucking the system. If the bureaucracy cannot trust this person to represent the perverted values of the soulless system, that person will never be allowed to wear those black robes. The lawyers, guards — everyone in that system has already proven their loyalty to the bureaucracy. Failure to cower will be taken officially as an insult to the system should it turn against you. Never mind whether your mind is pleased with the results of some particular case, the system itself is a lie. God can steer human activities on His own whim, but your escape will be His blessing, not some imaginary justice from the courts. Be gracious and at peace because that’s your only real defense.

And any vestige of belief that the courts are somehow good as protection against evil chaos just shows how far you have to go. The courts are a form of moral chaos in themselves. God’s divine character is excluded by virtue of having been redefined in defiance of His revelation. They imagine they do God’s work but they don’t know Him and would recoil in horror if He ever showed Himself. Theirs is a fig leaf covering from His wrath. Oddly, our heart-led existence in prison would easily find a far more open mission field than in many parts of the world outside such places. Our truth is the answer everyone else is seeking, and the sort of conflict with society that puts people in prison often arises from a sense that things simply are not right, but with no idea how to fix it.

The miracle is that we ourselves have found the path to sanity and peace.

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Psalm 95

Posted on April 2, 2016 by ehurst

This is another very popular psalm, the basis for several contemporary songs and quotations in the New Testament. It’s also the first of a half-dozen poems celebrating divine sovereignty. They fit into the general type of processional hymns.

We can almost picture a ranking member of some household calling his family and guests to join him in celebration. How can we remain silent when such a noteworthy Sheikh rules over us? He’s so powerful no one can threaten His domain. It won’t matter what you have to bring in your hands, because the most appropriate tribute to bring into His courts is your grateful praise and singing. No king or deity is in His class.

Consider: He made the hidden corners of the earth with His hands. The hills and mountains are described using the word for a wealth gained from toil, and as a standing monument to accomplishment. He owns the seas by right of having made them, too. He formed the dry land like a sculptor. The full impact of just Who this is will drive you to your knees.

We have no other God; this is the One who owns us. But He is tender toward us like a shepherd to His sheep. His compassion knows no bounds. How could anyone resist His sweet care? What kind of total fool does it take to quarrel with Him?

The voice changes to that of God. Yet this very same folly is in your blood, God warns Israel. Don’t forget that your own ancestors provoked Me endlessly. With such mighty miracles they had the gall to demand petty comforts and refused to walk in faith. If their every wish wasn’t waiting for them in plain sight well before they arrived, every stop in the Wilderness was another excuse for carping. Forty long years God endured this constant insult in His face.

Finally He could take no more. He judged them as terminally unfit to receive His promised blessings. It’s not that they failed to understand what God required, but refused to consider Him as worthy of their devotion. So He promised them they would never see the full measure of His wrath on the sins of others because they kept provoking it on themselves. He let them die in his wrath.

We are left hanging with the implied warning that there is a limit and you should be fearful of testing the boundaries, lest you lose all that God has granted by His mighty power.

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Cycling: Even Farther North

Posted on April 2, 2016 by ehurst

(As always, click any image to see at a larger size.)

HillsNE164thWTechnically I was in Edmond today, but in Greater OKC it maps as NE 164th. This is very much into the Deep Fork watershed because I spent an awful lot of time on my small chain ring.

8619NE53rdSpencerThe route was fairly simple, just reversing my previous visit to this area: north through Spencer, up Spencer-Jones Road and north on Hiwasee. On the way, I spotted this abandoned house (right) in Spencer. I suppose it hasn’t been that long, because there’s no sign of vagrant camping. However, it hasn’t been mowed since some time last summer.

NCanatHiwaseeRdJonesAs I crossed the bridge on northernmost bend of the North Canadian River at Hiwasee Road, I saw that there had been a bit of rockslide on the bluff across from the beach.14520NHiwaseeRd A few miles farther along I couldn’t resist taking this shot of the private pond where NE 150th runs into Hiwasee on the east side. I rode on over the turnpike and kept going north.

HiwaseeRdnrNE164thThe section (mile-square area of land between “section lines”) to my west is almost entirely undeveloped. If you take a look at this area bounded by Hiwasee, NE 150th, Anderson and NE 164th, you’ll see from any satellite view that it’s just one huge portion of the Central Oklahoma Cross Timbers. In its natural state it would be scrub forest dotted with meadows, but in the last century the proliferation of ponds and lakes has raised the ambient moisture of both soil and air so that the trees grow thicker and taller.UpperHiwaseeLakeNE164th

I can’t tell you which came first, either the road or the lake, but alongside this far northern end of Hiwasee Road on the north side of NE 164th is Hiwasee Lake. The lake is quite old and the whole bowl is surrounded in serious security fencing. You can catch glimpses of some older obscenely expensive mansions clustered along the shores. This image on the right shows an old bridge on the upper end of the lake.

13500NE164thUp on the next ridge I spotted this abandoned palatial home with lots of glass still in the frames. It makes you wonder what kind of legal hassles would prevent someone from keeping that house in shape because it’s value out here is pretty high.11500blkNE164th There were plenty of other, older mansions all up and down these hills. The valleys are mostly high-priced horse range and private ponds or lakes.12500blkNE16th The pond in the image on the left was simply the result of the road passing through on a fill, and someone decided to adjust the flow through the culvert under the pavement. Nicely framed in redbuds just starting to leaf out.

The hills didn’t run out just because Lake Arcadia ended this stretch of road. Just zig-zagging around the south end of the lake was still just as hilly as I knew from previous rides in this area.TinkerCrkarmArcadiaLk One of the few free access spots on the lake falls inside the educational nature preserve. This is the Tinker Creek arm of the lake where you can fish and hike for free year-round.

NewPicnicSpotI found a new picnic spot. Whatever had once stood up on the hill behind that gate had burned down to the ground back a few years ago when a wildfire swept through here.FarmMWBlvdnrHefnerRd The surviving trees on either side called out to me with an invitation to stop for lunch. So I ate my sandwich and chatted with the trees, but I didn’t hear any birds. On the other hand, I was thrilled with the scent of blooming wisteria carried on the breeze. Of course, the view across the road sloping down into the North Canadian River isn’t bad, either.

Lots of brutal hills and about 35 miles today with no stiff winds, temps around 65°F (18C). I stopped off at the Aubrie McClendon memorial and spoke to the redbud, tidied up a few items knocked out of place by winds and whatever. It’s a clergyman’s instinct to take grave sites and memorials seriously, even if I have no clue about the person.

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Growth Considerations

Posted on April 2, 2016 by ehurst

The driving force is our commitment to God’s glory.

As I moved from traditional organized Christian religion to a more ancient approach to faith, I found it increasingly difficult to share what I was doing. At first I thought my communications skills were lacking and I worked hard on that, but discovered that it made no difference. Eventually all the churches I tried ran me off, largely because I was challenging the system itself, not because of the actual content of my religion. However, those same churches have utterly spoiled any kind of evangelical outreach in our social setting, so I ended up pretty isolated for a very long time.

But silence is not an option, so I explored various ways I could satisfy the urge to share without getting into serious trouble. Even online there are ways you can come under attack from people who find the differences threatening. And sometimes it’s just a simple matter of getting bogged down in pointless chatter, in the sense that people wanted to entrap me in their little social media kingdom only because they had some affinity with superficial elements of my religion. It served only to disembowel the sharing of my faith.

So I decided to simply keep exploring the territory for myself. Eventually I decided to write a book or two and that’s when the influence of my beliefs became more obvious. A part of that was realizing something about the proper target audience and the proper approach for sharing with them. It required ditching a lot of things I thought important, a lot of frame-of-reference issues that required dismantling, and some serious pain in my soul. To be honest, I’m not sure I can characterize the audience or the approach, but I can tell you that it’s working. That is, I can point to a substantial number of lives, people who were blessed by this religion. Some have moved on, but more have joined in and are staying in touch.

Essential to this religion is that I’m still shedding stuff because it’s alive. I admit that I’m a little slow to catch on at times, but it seems you are patient with me, which means this thing is working just fine. I’m a participant, not the thing itself. If I’m more than a fungible part of this, then it’s not real. But I sense this thing is now up and growing on its own, and that’s a source of hope and joy I cannot describe. And even better is the hope that sometime in the near future there will be other voices that can carry this thing beyond the days of my life.

As you know, our shared faith is its own reward. We can talk all day about the wonderful blessings, but those things cannot provide the motivation for very long. If the power of living God’s divine justice is not enough to keep you on the path, then you don’t have it and it doesn’t have you. Jesus is His living embodiment of divine justice — His Law — and I’m joining you to Him, not to me. If His Person cannot absorb you wholly, I’m surely not big enough to do any better.

But as we consider how this faith now seems to be spreading as more people join us, we will surely encounter a lot of folks who are all excited and seriously interested, but for a time at least, they don’t really get it. We must make room for them. This is a critical element of this religion: that we do all we can to bring justice to everyone who will accept it, in whatever measure they can accept it. Along with them will be a bunch of folks who are nothing more than “me-too” types. We make room for them, as well. And most certainly there will be hostile infiltrators; they must also be welcome. They can’t really harm us, so the only time we exclude them is when we sense they are hindering our work and God has better things for us to do.

If our teaching draws us into more thoroughly merging with His divine moral character, that means we are closer to Creation itself. Creation becomes a part of our family and friends, a vast wealth of loving support, but without the problem of being fallen itself. So if Creation tolerates fallen humanity, so should we, but on the same grounds. We keep offering what God has given us and who can say when something inside them will “click” and seize the full gift? We have received a domain as feudal dependents of Heaven. We hold that domain in trust for Him, and a significant point of it all is that we use that domain to heal the moral sickness and injuries for which we are equipped. Each of us is a refuge for some slice of humanity needing to escape the slavery of serving Satan. It’s not up to us to make them actually receive it, only to offer it.

I’m still predicting this teaching will assume a higher public profile, and likely soon. My sense is that this calendar year won’t pass before we come under some wider public notice. If for no other reason, we are in for some social upheaval we’ve never seen before, and that makes people search for an anchor. We have to keep in mind that what we do simply isn’t going to work for everyone, but they may not be able to decide that right away. I’m preparing myself to find ways to simplify how I would introduce my faith to a wider public, but without hiding what really matters. You should be doing the same thing. In whatever way you can, be ready to tell other folks what this is all about. We are the living bridges across a very wide chasm of perception.

The Radix Fidem pamphlet is just about as short as I can make it. Feel free to use it or even rewrite it. I have at least one longer explanation coalescing in my thoughts and I’ll share that in the next few days, an outline of something I might say in an interview, for example.

Pray that God will allow you to see ways you can improve your own readiness. You should share your own faith, not simply parrot what I say about mine. Otherwise, when things change suddenly, you may find yourself searching for an anchor and unable to help anyone else.

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Sticker Shock

Posted on April 1, 2016 by ehurst

Maybe you recognize the title as an American expression for being surprised at how expensive something can be. Let me try to offer a better context for folks who don’t engage in my sort of fitness activities.

A couple of you have discussed with me what it costs to get a mountain bike that answers my prayer request. Then problem is that it costs a lot more than I like; I’m not cavalier about this. Go to Walmart or Target and you get a toy. The frame is probably the only part that’s durable. The rest is the cheapest trash available. God made me a large fellow (225#), so when I ride, it puts high stress on those parts, especially if I ride off the roads. The rims will bend easily, and I’ve had tires slip off the bead and blow out the tubes on the Walmart toys. The gears are cheap and sloppy and I can’t shift them with any kind of reliable expectation when I’m bouncing along a trail. The brakes don’t grab very well and I risk crashing. Chains snap as I climb a steep hill. And economic inflation hits bikes like everything else.

So I’ll tell you that my hybrid bicycle retails around $300, but that’s “naked.” For long distance riding on roads I add a rear rack, a bottle cage, a front bag for tools (never mind what bike tools cost), and I added quick-release fenders (the least expensive kind). I also fortify the tubes and tires up from the standard junk to avoid frequent flats. So the retail price now is more like $400. But this is still a rather low-end bike, just one step above a toy, and it’s not hardened against the rough riding on the trails.

This is why it’s a prayer request. I can’t afford to walk out and buy one that will serve my purposes; I got the hybrid with a donation. I checked on Craigslist for used bikes in my area that are roughly the same quality as my current bike and for mountain bikes the typical price is $500+ — that’s for used bikes that retail over $800. The only easy part about this is that you don’t add a bunch of accessories to a mountain bike because they take too many jolts. You hang stuff on your body when you ride the trails, not on the bike.

Again, I’m not begging for money here. You can pitch in if you feel moved, but God forbid that you should feel pressured or guilty. That’s the part of my ministerial experience I hated most: the high-pressure fund raising preachers do. I’m not feeling deprived, but my faith says I should ask because God will use it for His glory. And how can I predict what use it will have as our world changes? God knows. He moves us to ask in faith for things that speak to His glory. I don’t need another car and I’m not into even more expensive hobbies like motorbikes. But I do get cabin fever real easily; it’s the way I’m wired. I need time outside so I can get away from computers and other people and get back into touch with Creation while doing something that makes it easier to put less attention on myself. I can’t hike or jog any more, so biking is a compromise that works well enough.

So if somebody has a used bike to donate, that would be the best answer, provided it’s not a Walmart toy. As previously noted, I’m not collecting man-toys — I’ll give my hybrid to someone else because I need only one bike. I’ll keep using the one I have until God works His miracles in this world and provides something more suitable to changing needs.

Let’s build a communion on common faith and personal involvement with each other. This prophet isn’t trying to profit in material terms. I’m letting you know what my faith calls for and I hope you’ll be around to see it answered. I’d rather have your heart than anything you might own.

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Cycling: Short Loop

Posted on March 31, 2016 by ehurst

2400blkNE63rdToday the ride wasn’t remarkable, just up the Katy Trail to NE 63rd, over to Midwest Boulevard and back home. It was more about taking pictures, but I was rather disappointed as about half my shots were just not worth showing you. On the left is a shot of some abandoned stone gateway up on NE 63rd near Remington Park. Grandeur forgotten.

InsideRoganCemeteryI was hoping for at least one good shot of a steep valley, either Deep Fork itself or a tributary, but all the accessible areas were obscured by heavy tree foliage. We are in full green-up mode starting this week and I’ll have to wait for some off-road riding to get that kind of shot. Meanwhile, I decided to take a look at the old Rogan Cemetery. As you can see, some of parts of it are neglected. Most of these headstones belong to WW1 veterans.RoganCemetery The front gate is half-way interesting, but I decided it was even more interesting from the backside (image left).

About the only other items of interest that I haven’t presented on this blog was at the corner of NE 63rd and Sooner Road.NWcornerNE63rdSooner There is this old gas station on the northwest corner. From time to time over the past few decades, someone will open up some kind of business there, but it never seems to last very long.5601NE63rd Just a few hundred yards east, the first house on the north side appears still occupied, but I never see any vehicles parked out front any more. I couldn’t read the paper on the front door but I’m guessing there’s no one actually living there much, just taking care of the property.

A bit cooler today with moderate winds from the NW. Still warm enough for shorts and just a t-shirt, but it qualifies as a cool front.

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Faith of Abraham

Posted on March 31, 2016 by ehurst

The work on revising and updating my Ancient Truth Bible studies continues. Right now I’m revisiting Hebrews from the General Letters. In chapter 11 the writer mentions how Abraham was way past his prime and still had a son. God didn’t choose the most vigorous young man to father the nation to inherit the land. Instead, he chose someone whose heart was ready and used what was wrapped around that heart. Abraham walked a land he did not own as a promise that God would give it to them. Their inheritance was this vast unexplored territory of faith, and the land was just a visual symbol.

I’m seeing a tiny handful of people interact here in that same faith. A few of you communicate with me behind the scenes of the powerful changes God brings because of our shared message of faith. We have all been changed — are still being changed — and this is not the same world where we started. We are still exploring this territory of faith.

Do you suppose it’s possible that in the future some of us will be connected with meat-space manifestations of this virtual parish? Honestly, we should be surprised if various congregations are not started that way. For all my blather about what a fine thing it is God chose us to begin this work in virtual space, we could hardly expect it to stay that way. Don’t wait for me to tell you how it works; we are forging into territory new to all of us. Just start with those whose hearts call them to your side and make it happen. Whatever arises from the fellowship has to be good and right, at least in terms of procedures and such. All I ask is that you try to make it as much as possible like a family household from the Ancient Near East.

Right now, a visitor to our virtual parish might not see much happening. I consider this the calm before the storm. This is the time to survey the lay of the land from the heights of faith. Focus on preparing the moral space in your hearts. I, for one, will move forward as if all my wacko predictions are coming true.

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Prayer Request: Mountain Bike

Posted on March 30, 2016 by ehurst

In case you need a human justification: I can’t run and walking is highly limited. My knees and hips just cannot take much of that any more. But I want to stay fit and alive long to finish the mission with vigor. Riding actually makes my joints feel better because I can down-shift to keep the pedal pressure below the threshold of aggravation. I’ve owned road bikes and this is not my first hybrid, but I really miss the mountain biking. My last one finally died last year. My current hybrid is wholly unsuitable for off-ride riding. I’d like to explore some back country, please; we have lots of that around here.

Preferences: I’m praying I can get something a little better than the Walmart grade of stuff. With my substantial weight, those things tend to break quickly. It would be really nice if I could get one for my body size (generally, a frame size around 18 inches). I would prefer the 27.5″ or 29″ wheels. I don’t care what color it is or how ugly it might be. I would be glad to take a used one, something that needs labor to fix it up. If it needs too many parts, it will be awhile before I can ride it. If it’s set up for head-down riding I’ll have to replace stuff anyway, because I can’t ride like that any more (arthritis in the shoulders and elbows).

No, this is not a fund-raising appeal. Pray with me that the Lord will provide in His own good time and that I am paying attention when the right deal comes along. I figure He’ll take care of the funding as He always has in the past.

By the way, I don’t need multiple bikes. Once I have a decent working mountain bike, I’ll give the other one away to someone who can use it. The economy of Heaven is a gift economy.

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