Explorers' Club

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.  – Isaiah 43:18-19

There is always going to be tension between tradition and process.  Tradition is of great value.  We can live full lives in keeping with tradition.  Those who came out of Egypt kept the memory of the Passover, of the crossing of the Red Sea, and the giving of the Law.  Joshua had each of the tribes bring a stone from the bed of the Jordan to commemorate that miraculous passage.  The history of Israel told of the trials and triumphs of King David and of the wisdom of Solomon.

Religious tradition anchors us in the same way the past anchors us.  We have to be careful about the past, though, for while it provides us with a firm foundation, it can also become a trap for us.  We should not allow it to obsessively control our actions in the present or so tightly restrict and define us that we cannot adapt to new circumstances.  I see that danger in myself as I grow older.  My best days have already been, as far as this earthly life is concerned.  Yet I have no choice except to look forward. 

God did not stop working miracles when the last Apostle died.  He did not stop pouring out His Spirit after Pentecost.  He did not stop building the kingdom when the Church was born.  History rolls on.  Lives are transformed every day.  Every day, we must rise to face new challenges, and some of us feel compelled to seek out the new trail God is blazing through the wilderness, to advance the kingdom and claim new ground.  The place where you and I meet the Lord, where Christ has brought us may not be the land to which our fathers in the faith lay claim.  We are always pushing the frontier – or we are holding the fort. 

I think there are legitimate Christian settlers.  There are those who are meant to people the settled lands, to live more in the security of tradition.  I’m not criticizing them.  They are, as far as I know, doing their job.  I’ve been attending church with them the past few weeks.  I need them.  They may not need me, but that’s all right.  I’ll keep quiet about some things.  You start talking about Unknown Friends, Raccoons, and Upper Tonga, and people start looking at you funny and remembering jeeps they have to re-primer. 

I am in no way better than these brothers and sisters.  I am simply not of that kind, though I thank God for them.  They offer us stability in unstable times.  We can go out into the desert places in search of the new things God is doing because they hold the ground behind, because they offer a secure retreat when we are exhausted and weakened by our ventures.  We ought to recognize and appreciate them, and if they make us smile from time to time, that is part of their work as well.  We are all in this together.

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift (Ephesians 4:4-7).

Christian Commies

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. -- 1 Corinthians 12:4-7

We may be familiar with Paul's list of spiritual gifts here in chapter 12, as well as the more general categories he mentions in Romans 12.  It is not exhaustive.  All our talents, skills, and abilities are or may be spiritual gifts.  They can be warped -- I'm pretty sure pole-dancing for Jesus is a miss, but the underlying gift remains. 

I don't have any church-y gifts.  I write code.  I'm not particularly good at it, but I manage to get the job done.  There are a lot of people like me, the remarkably average.  We can't sing or play music very well, if at all.  We aren't preachers or prophets or workers of miracles.  We aren't artists or poets or writers.  We get up in the morning, and we go to work.  We do what needs to be done, take care of what needs to be taken care of.  Doing the job, whether it's cleaning the house, baking bread, driving a truck, growing a business, or growing corn, is to be done for the Lord. 

Living right itself is a "manifestation of the Spirit for the common good".  How we live and how we respond and react to the things that happen to us has an effect on the people around us -- family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors.  If we are able to "manifest the Spirit", we build the kingdom.  However minor and humble and insignificant what it is I do, if I do it in and by the Spirit, God is glorified.  As we learned from Brother Lawrence:

So, likewise, in his business in the kitchen (to which he had naturally a great aversion), having accustomed himself to do everything there for the love of GOD, and with prayer, upon all occasions, for His grace to do his work well, he had found everything easy, during the fifteen years that he had been employed there. 

That he was very well pleased with the post he was now in; but that he was as ready to quit that as the former, since he was always pleasing himself in every condition, by doing little things for the love of GOD.

We might even say that this is where Communism picked up just enough truth to be dangerous.  The whole "greater good" argument in the politic realm is specious.  The greater good in the sphere of the market and economics comes only by way of the cumulative effect of a lot of individual "goods".  Altruism in government is tyranny.  Overriding the individual rights of any person in the name of virtue is evil.  Government's sole righteous role is defense of the rights of the individual against those who would steal, kill, and destroy.  That's the divine mandate that God gives to those who "wield the sword". 

Meanwhile, we in the Body of Christ are real communists.  We believe in giving to and helping those in need whether or not they are always deserving.  We live to serve others in our communion — that is, family, church, and neighborhood.  We do not need a bunch of overpaid and armed bureaucrats forcing us to be kind and demanding we behave according to the standards laid down by Hollywood or Harvard.  We want only to be at liberty to act as channels for the blessings of our Lord.  We understand that not everybody is going to live in obedience to Christ.  This does not keep us from obeying.  We believe that those who live according to the flesh will be judged fairly and appropriately, and that we will give account only for ourselves and what we did with that which we were given. 

We also believe that if there is something that troubles our conscience, like abortion, drug abuse, promiscuity, etc., we ought not be forced to fund or support it.  We ask only to be able to live by our faith and beliefs, not imposing them upon others, but exposing in all things the righteousness of God's Way, the truth of His Word, and the love of His Life. 

Good Gifts

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. -- John 15:7

Often prayer can seem a hope dim,
Relegated to last resorts,
Knowing God, if He might be real,
Could never feel my human fear.

But the things I love long to seek:
Liberty, justice, joy, and truth,
Are the dreams of God manifest
Upon the sphere, in hearts broken
Open, to light a wick or two,
And laugh at the empty darkness,
And, in endless hope, ascend.

God does dream, though never asleep,
His waking dream becomes His sheep
Who hear the Shepherd calling deep,
And following, His dream they keep.


The things that we desire and hope for are from God.  Sometimes those things are distorted and perverted by minds darkened and twisted themselves.  Evil is without substance, empty and vain.  It is only when it clothes itself in an illusion of good that it has any attraction for us.  Evil offers us good but in an evil way.  Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride all purport to offer us the satisfaction, peace, contentment, joy, honor, and fulfillment that can come only from righteousness.  If the Good that God wants to pour into us then to pour out of us has to be filtered through such unholiness, it becomes defiled.  The Source, however, remains pure, always. 

The first step in prayer is pushing away the filters of diseased worldly thinking, which most of have to one degree or another, and returning to that Source.  When we seek the good in our own lives and in the lives of others, we are seeking God's pure and perfect will.  Our Father is not in the business of denying His children anything that is good for them.

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!  (Luke 11:11-13)

The Holy Spirit is that pure and undefiled Source.  Through the Spirit we are able to pray in truth and holiness, undeceived and undisturbed by "the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions".  We bypass our own muddied, muddled thinking to pray with clarity and  certainty.  By the intercession of the Holy Spirit within us, we are transmitting God's will for ourselves and for His kingdom back to Him in an endless, unbroken, fertile cycle like the rain rising from the sea to return to the sea having brought its life-giving and life-sustaining blessings. 

The Mountain I Will Show You

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he answered.

“Take your son,” He said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” -- Genesis 22:1-2

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; he who had received the promises was offering up his unique son, about whom it had been said, In Isaac you seed will be called. He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead … -- Hebrews 11:17-19

We could ignore unanswered prayer. We could assume that whatever it is we are praying for is not according to God’s will. We could move on and if not forget at least learn to live without that answer. Abraham had believed God and seen the promise fulfilled. He had obeyed the Lord in disinheriting and sending away Ishmael, the son of flesh, Adam in type, the old man. Now, here was Isaac, son of the spirit, son of obedience and faith, and God tells Abraham the only son whom he loves must be given up.

I would complain. I would say, Wait, this is not what I created out of my own power and ability. This is what You gave me, Lord. If You didn’t want me to have this, why give it in the first place? Why allow me to possess, cherish, depend upon, and love this gift then demand that I give it back? It is incomprehensible.

Though it seems reasonable to question such a demand, we have no record of any struggle Abraham had. He got up early in the morning and set out. Surely that must have been a trip that was both too long and too short. Traveling with his son by his side, Abraham would have listened to the young man’s pleasant voice talking about one thing and another, knowing there was a hill yet unseen they would have to climb, knowing the knife he carried would spill his own son’s blood, not in anger but in obedience. I can’t imagine the torment. He was a better man than I.

Abraham understood God as almighty, the One not hampered or hindered by anything. But, it is equally true, the One who cannot be helped by anything. It had finally come home to Abraham that he was not able to do anything, either good or bad apart from his God. We can cooperate with God’s will or oppose it. He will get the job done regardless. Our opposition will cause us pain, but it cannot alter His ultimate purpose. No matter how much our assistance or resistance appears to accomplish temporarily, in the end we have not moved anything.

It is easy enough for us to understand the need for purification from the lusts of the flesh, for separation from the world, the flesh, and the devil – easy to understand, not so easy to do sometimes. Sending Ishmael away makes sense at least, no matter how painful it may be for us. In place of the flesh, the Lord gives us gifts of the Spirit. He gives us peace and assurance. He brings people into our lives. We have love and joy and fellowship.

The thing is, at some point, we must choose between the gifts and the Giver. If we walk with the Lord long enough, we will endure the long, dark night of the soul. We must be willing to relinquish the gifts and blessings of the Lord, even His presence for a time. We will find ourselves in a valley facing a long, steep climb to a place we do not want to go. We believe in God the Creator, who calls things into existence that do not exist. We must learn at last to believe in Him who is the Resurrection, who gives life to the dead. Then, like Abraham, we will cling to nothing except Him, and we will face, not only our own death, but every little death, and death itself without fear.