ImmUNITY
I've tried to write this blog 3 times now. Let's see if I can manage….
Inappropriate Statements/Questions that have been asked of "someone" attempting to facilitate a community that is based on New Testament Teaching:
"Let me see a floor plan and I'll think about it."
"You need to do this someplace warm. I don't like the cold."
"Who's funding this?"
"Will there be internet?"
"Hasn't this already been done?"
"Bad people will ruin it all."
"We're going to worship A LOT?? Won't that get boring??"
"I hope we sing the good songs."
"Can I leave if I want to?"
FIRST OF ALL:
NO ONE is doing me a favor by signing up for the community that is STILL in my head. Furthermore, I never asked anyone to sign up but I am allowed to think out loud. I'm not requesting your participation or your funding…I'm simply describing what I believe to be a better way. If you don't like it? If you don't get it? That's just fine with me…but I bet you find me interesting ;) Finally, I'm not in charge and I won't be…I'm just a dreamer, a forerunner…maybe even a prophet of sorts? If the leader is Jesus? Think of me as sort of a "John the Baptist"….or maybe "Rich Mullins" or perhaps "Keith Green." WHY are these people all men anyways?? Alright, I'm more like a "Rahab" (I think she was a hooker) or maybe a "Dancing Debrah" (people leave, when I dance) or maybe a "Janis Joplin." Never mind. Whatever I am….He said I am worthy of being a "conduit for His glory" and so I shall be and so I am…on ever increasing levels….like ripples in a pond. You don't have to be "with me"….you have to be "with Him"…if I digress? I urge you to confront me or walk away. I want to be like HIM.
If there's anything I've learned in the past year it's that my life is a heck of a lot easier when people stay OUT of it. Every human who has had the chance has noticed that. Life is only complicated when other people show up. If I have to live in a community all by myself I will be happy but I will not be pleasing the Lord. He wants my life difficult and I love Him for that. He wants me to learn how to love. Why? To bring His glory on this earth. I have to learn, because I adore Him. I WANT to learn because I adore Him. I'll do anything, everything to fulfill the purpose He's given me because it's the ONLY purpose I've found worth living for. I just wish I didn't screw up so much. I'm learning that I have A LOT to learn about loving…more than most people. If there was ever a reason for marriage THAT is the reason…to learn how to love. I did not learn that in my marriage. I thought It did, but I realize now I did not. If that is its purpose then the time will come when I must learn. I am anxious these days.
If you have asked or even thought any of the above questions regarding this blog you've been reading for 3 years now? You don't understand me and this community is likely NOT for you, unless you wish you understood and then, maybe it still is.
WHO is this community for? The worst of the worst. The least of the least, the brokenest of the broken (I KNOW it's not a word). It'll be the hardest, poorest, most sacrificial time of my life and I cannot wait. People will bring out the worst in me..the deepest darkest and ugliest and I anticipate it with joy because I KNOW that sin only lives in the dark. It DIES in the light. I want it out of me…all of it. I want to be better and I know where Jesus lived when He was here. It's where I want to live too…that's what this commune is all about and if I die doing what He did? There is NO greater love….no greater honor. He said so Himself.
When I began this blog we didn't know much about terror in this world. We didn't hear, like we do now, about what our children suffer in the school system, the mass suffering and hardship in the rest of the world, and the terror that flares up all over our own country these days. Any of us could lose our lives…many of us will. We could watch our children suffer. Many of us will. Time has sped up not slowed down and things are changing. I am not washing my mind with news and media coverage. I am not feeding my eyes on violence and horror via the movie and television industry. I am awake alert and sober and I SEE. It does not make me arrogant. It humbles me. I make a small difference. Here in my corner. SOON I will make a big one….a huge one. I was made for His glory. I realize that. Too many people don't.
If you are hurting? If you Are lost? If you are broken? If you have nothing left and you're loneliest of the lonely? If you're willing to admit to any of that? Well, then "soon" (in a place where time moves too quickly and means nothing in the scope of eternity) there will be a place for you. Perhaps there's been a place like this before. Perhaps there is a place like this now. I question though if there has EVER been a place (since Biblical times) that existed solely for the purpose of relationship. I question how long it's been since there's been a society openly available (not hidden, not cultish, not vindictive and dark) to those that admit to being the weakest, desperate to be healed. A society that funnels healing and wholeness through the love of God put into action up to the most sacrificial point of laying down one's life. There's a place where we learn to love at all costs…there should be a place to protect that too…in this day and age…
I can't show you a blueprint. I don't have all the logistics worked out yet but I don't owe you any of that. Community is Immunity to the brainwashing of the world…what they want us to think, to believe, to saturate our lives with things that do NOT matter….things that fade away and leave us empty. We need a place to focus on the things that are ETERNAL…away from the pull of this dark and dying world. Will I succeed? Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll die trying but there's no better way to die. I was made for His glory. Take it or leave it? So were you!
JM 2015
Inappropriate Statements/Questions that have been asked of "someone" attempting to facilitate a community that is based on New Testament Teaching:
"Let me see a floor plan and I'll think about it."
"You need to do this someplace warm. I don't like the cold."
"Who's funding this?"
"Will there be internet?"
"Hasn't this already been done?"
"Bad people will ruin it all."
"We're going to worship A LOT?? Won't that get boring??"
"I hope we sing the good songs."
"Can I leave if I want to?"
FIRST OF ALL:
NO ONE is doing me a favor by signing up for the community that is STILL in my head. Furthermore, I never asked anyone to sign up but I am allowed to think out loud. I'm not requesting your participation or your funding…I'm simply describing what I believe to be a better way. If you don't like it? If you don't get it? That's just fine with me…but I bet you find me interesting ;) Finally, I'm not in charge and I won't be…I'm just a dreamer, a forerunner…maybe even a prophet of sorts? If the leader is Jesus? Think of me as sort of a "John the Baptist"….or maybe "Rich Mullins" or perhaps "Keith Green." WHY are these people all men anyways?? Alright, I'm more like a "Rahab" (I think she was a hooker) or maybe a "Dancing Debrah" (people leave, when I dance) or maybe a "Janis Joplin." Never mind. Whatever I am….He said I am worthy of being a "conduit for His glory" and so I shall be and so I am…on ever increasing levels….like ripples in a pond. You don't have to be "with me"….you have to be "with Him"…if I digress? I urge you to confront me or walk away. I want to be like HIM.
If there's anything I've learned in the past year it's that my life is a heck of a lot easier when people stay OUT of it. Every human who has had the chance has noticed that. Life is only complicated when other people show up. If I have to live in a community all by myself I will be happy but I will not be pleasing the Lord. He wants my life difficult and I love Him for that. He wants me to learn how to love. Why? To bring His glory on this earth. I have to learn, because I adore Him. I WANT to learn because I adore Him. I'll do anything, everything to fulfill the purpose He's given me because it's the ONLY purpose I've found worth living for. I just wish I didn't screw up so much. I'm learning that I have A LOT to learn about loving…more than most people. If there was ever a reason for marriage THAT is the reason…to learn how to love. I did not learn that in my marriage. I thought It did, but I realize now I did not. If that is its purpose then the time will come when I must learn. I am anxious these days.
If you have asked or even thought any of the above questions regarding this blog you've been reading for 3 years now? You don't understand me and this community is likely NOT for you, unless you wish you understood and then, maybe it still is.
WHO is this community for? The worst of the worst. The least of the least, the brokenest of the broken (I KNOW it's not a word). It'll be the hardest, poorest, most sacrificial time of my life and I cannot wait. People will bring out the worst in me..the deepest darkest and ugliest and I anticipate it with joy because I KNOW that sin only lives in the dark. It DIES in the light. I want it out of me…all of it. I want to be better and I know where Jesus lived when He was here. It's where I want to live too…that's what this commune is all about and if I die doing what He did? There is NO greater love….no greater honor. He said so Himself.
When I began this blog we didn't know much about terror in this world. We didn't hear, like we do now, about what our children suffer in the school system, the mass suffering and hardship in the rest of the world, and the terror that flares up all over our own country these days. Any of us could lose our lives…many of us will. We could watch our children suffer. Many of us will. Time has sped up not slowed down and things are changing. I am not washing my mind with news and media coverage. I am not feeding my eyes on violence and horror via the movie and television industry. I am awake alert and sober and I SEE. It does not make me arrogant. It humbles me. I make a small difference. Here in my corner. SOON I will make a big one….a huge one. I was made for His glory. I realize that. Too many people don't.
If you are hurting? If you Are lost? If you are broken? If you have nothing left and you're loneliest of the lonely? If you're willing to admit to any of that? Well, then "soon" (in a place where time moves too quickly and means nothing in the scope of eternity) there will be a place for you. Perhaps there's been a place like this before. Perhaps there is a place like this now. I question though if there has EVER been a place (since Biblical times) that existed solely for the purpose of relationship. I question how long it's been since there's been a society openly available (not hidden, not cultish, not vindictive and dark) to those that admit to being the weakest, desperate to be healed. A society that funnels healing and wholeness through the love of God put into action up to the most sacrificial point of laying down one's life. There's a place where we learn to love at all costs…there should be a place to protect that too…in this day and age…
I can't show you a blueprint. I don't have all the logistics worked out yet but I don't owe you any of that. Community is Immunity to the brainwashing of the world…what they want us to think, to believe, to saturate our lives with things that do NOT matter….things that fade away and leave us empty. We need a place to focus on the things that are ETERNAL…away from the pull of this dark and dying world. Will I succeed? Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll die trying but there's no better way to die. I was made for His glory. Take it or leave it? So were you!
JM 2015
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Cor. 13
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