CHANGES

There is nothing more amusing to parents than to hear their children announce how they will change things with their children when they grow up. I know that I have been on both sides of that particular issue. It's just that everything seems so simple when we are young and protected. One of my past friends talked about how his formerly smug son came to him a year into his marriage. "How do you do it?" Was his plea regarding bills and the demands of managing a family? How indeed?

Our relationship with god is much the same. When our eyes are first opened to Him, we tend to think we have a complete picture of what Christianity entails. The fact that anyone anointed to responsibility within God's family is not to be new to the faith should give us a bit of a clue; but it really doesn't. Wherever we find ourselves along the road to enlightenment, we tend to think we have a clear view of what lies ahead. Then, when the unexpected fork appears in the road, the tenderfoot traveler is taken off guard.

This very thing happened to me right when I was absolutely certain of my heading. As a member of an Evangelical Free Church, I still lacked what my intellect required. I had been challenged to show I was not just a dupe of blind faith. I felt God must have a way of reaching such as sought more in depth knowledge of Him. I prayed for an answer and he gave it to me in answers unavailable within my cliquish little congregation. One night, while at my school year job of delivering pizzas, I hit the [preset on my radio, but the wrong station stepped into my life. All I heard were the words of Garner Ted Armstrong proclaiming, "be sure to send in for your free copy of The Proof of the Bible and Ten Proofs God Exists." I reset the station and tuned in the next night; I was hooked. After a year of unsuccessfully trying to balance this new input with my present fellowship, I switched to the World Wide Church of God.

This of itself was a tremendous change for me. I drove my friends and family nuts preaching to them The Plain Truth of "The World Tomorrow" and the evil of false Christian teachings. It didn't matter that I became a pariah to them and destroyed my marriage in the process. What mattered was that I accurately get down all the details of Faith. Grace was a free gift of God, to be sure, but if you weren't properly "in the Lord," how could you be sure of that election to Grace. Any who accused me of covering Grace with a cloak of fear, were, in turn, accused of watering down the Law of Yahweh. The Commandments, with that Seventh Day Sabbath, were the only substance upon which to hang ones cloak.

For the next 25 years I let others do my thinking as I "proved" each doctrine along the path. Those issues that didn't compute, I put in little boxes up in my mental closet. Someday, I would be able to find those answers, but for the moment I was content to pay and pray. Then, one day, our church leadership announced they had been teaching error. The most basic doctrines were being challenged. The Saturday Sabbath, a keystone of our fellowship, was changed to the person of Jesus Himself. The church split, then split again. I held on tight. I had proved so much; was so confident of all I had learned. How could what I had come to be so sure of turnout to be error? But, eventually the cold splash of reality dumped me from my cloistered nest. Down I tumbled. It was learn to fly or perish.

As I spread my wings, substance filled them, halting my tumble and lifting me to new heights. What was this substance? It was that which had carried me all along: The unfaltering love of Jesus. I had spent my entire life proving Him to myself. Whether I was seated in the midst of congregation or at the highest branches of a tree, studying scripture or the design of a feather, staring into the heavens or the eyes of a newborn. No matter what fellowship I had found myself, it had always been to Jesus that I had set my focus. Like Peter, when he began to sink into the Sea of Galilee, I turned my eyes from the confusion surrounding me to focus on my Savior.

My old fellowship split into four distinct groups each sticking a metaphorical tongue out at each other. One lifting hands in songs of praise to God, one wrapping its whole being around the Ten Commandments, another seeking middle ground, as a forth shouted out prophecies. But, I was like the heir mentioned in Galatians 3:24. The Law had been my Pedagagos protecting me, as I was lead to a deeper understanding of what Jesus meant for me. Now, I was no longer just a child in Christ. The time had come for me to shed the Pedagagos and walk with the Lord into a New World of possibilities. The world of cyber space where hands reach out across continents, nations, races, and creeds.

So, here I am. You are all my fellowship. My body sits at a desk as my spirit soars amongst you all sharing, as I never was free to share necktied in a pew. It was tough letting go of that which I had been certain of. But, the change in my life has taught me a valuable lesson. If I could have been so wrong about something of which I had been so certain, then how could I judge anything anyone else is certain of. But, I don't limit myself to the keyboard. Where I used to shun those of varied substance, now I openly exchange views giving value to what others contribute as I attempt to pass forward what I have received. For me, I live with the words of Paul, "determined to know nothing amongst you saving Jesus and Him crucified." All the rest is details

REDISCOVERING OUR IDENTITY 2

What we know as "Church" today is not what the early Christian Fellowship experienced. When Paul spoke of "Not avoiding the gathering together of ourselves as is the habit of some." he was not referring to a quiet attendance in a Cathedral or Lecture Hall while someone else led the "thinking." These were small groups gathering to lend mutual support, seek guidance, and honor their Lord and Savior. The question is, "How have we come from that model to the present one, and what should we do about the present state of affairs?"

Consider, in Israel, worship had to be done in a specific place by a chosen individual, and in a prescribed manner. The common person had a curtain drawn between him (women were not even at that level) and God. He had no personal involvement with God other than in prayer, and you can well imagine the style of prayer. There was no true personal interface!

Then Jesus came along and did away with the old way. Jesus spoke of vain and repetitious prayer, hollow ceremony, and of priests who prevented the people from coming to Him. When He was crucified, the curtain of separation was torn. Eventually the temple was destroyed and with it the formal Priesthood. Man and woman could now come directly to God through the interface of Jesus.

Indeed, in the early Christian Church, it was risky to meet in any formal setting. Both during the time of Saul the Destroyer ( when it was dangerous to deviate from the old prescribed norm) and after the advent of the formal Universal (Catholic) movement when it became fatal to deviate from the newly prescribed norm; The history of the Church is an example of how a system of religious bondage was reinstated on the people Christ freed. Those who crave Power have regained it.

Today, services consist, at best, of sitting in an informal hall or chapel, listening to a lecture, singing congregational hymns, and fellowshipping before or after; to sitting in an overly splendified attempt at recreating the old temple service complete with its ritual trappings. Neither of these is a picture of what the first Christians shared as they sought to support each other in the endeavor of projecting Christ into their lives.

Today, we of the World Wide Church of God (a presumptuous title it now seems) are experiencing what many other denominations have suffered; declining enrollment and uninvolved attendance. Prior to the present, people followed only because they were threatened with Godly indignation if they didn’t. When told they didn’t HAVE to obey all that Stuff, they either ran off and formed other groups because they NEED that Stuff, or they stopped doing ANY of that Stuff because they never wanted to in the first place. Dubious conversions? Well, the present leadership of the church has done nothing to develop confidence in those left and willing to sacrifice for their Savior.

So, then, THINK! Think of how to restore vitality and purpose to "Going to Church." Some have mistakenly thought to emulate others around us - such as the Mega-Churches. Even if it were possible to play on the same court with these giants (IT’S NOT) why would we want to. These Megas came to be as a result of marketing study decisions of what people WANT to hear. THEY ARE A CORPORATE PRODUCT!

Instead, why don’t we figure out what it is that everyone NEEDS to know about God; rather than what does everyone WANT to hear to get them, and their cash, into a pew. Sort of like heaping up teachers to your itching ears? Sure sounds like it. They are about the furthest from the ideal of pure Christianity as I can imagine.

Remember, Jesus did away with the Temple and its organization. Besides, if that is what God wants of us, or if it truly makes no difference; we should just fold up our tents and become assimilated into the Church of the Brave New World - any of you ever read Robert Heinlein?

So, again I ask, what is it God expects us to do? Is this is a test or something of that order? Should we run off like the other cowards, removing our influence from the congregation, and forming our own little ineffectual group in a corner? NO~! Should we give up and join another oatmeal church? NO~! Should we throw out the baby with the bath water and give up our God given identity and voice? OF COURSE NOT !

What we should do, is determine what it is that is lacking in the world and in religion today and provide it. Teach "The Missing Dimension;" what attracted all of us in the first place. Like meaning in the midst of confusion. Like forgiveness and acceptance for all mankind by their loving Creator. That God loves all: Black and White, Hindu and Muslim, Heterosexual and Homosexual - that we are all imperfect and needing of His forgiveness which has already been demonstrated. Like equality of, not only the races, but of the sexes. That God made us all equally free and gave us a forum in which to celebrate and express that freedom - THE CHURCH !

I passed through fundamentalism as one passes through elementary school, level by level and teacher replacing teacher until arriving at a sect known as the World Wide Church of God. There I finally felt I had found a home. But, the very message which once attracted me into the confines of exclusive righteous observance ended up propelling me forever away from "pay and pray" mentality like the thundering boosters of the Space Shuttle; but, not really. No, the little flock of God’s chosen was more like the launch pad where the mammoth boosters are prepared for their journey. The irresistible thrust of the rockets propelling me up and away from my home pad was the calculated admission of our divinely guided leadership that all "those things" we had been warned against questioning (the very doctrines which separated us from mainstream Christianity) were, in fact, incorrect - in error - false teachings - heresies.

Then came the predictable follow-up: "But, this time we’ve gotten it correct!"

"Oh, how can you be sure? You were wrong once. What’s to prevent this from becoming another tragic misinterpretation which could, once again, result in the break up of families, loss of employment and disenfranchisement of children?"

"Don’t worry about it. We did our research." ...as if to infer that no research was provided over previous doctrinal decisions. Well, that reminds me rather much of a moose named Bulwinkle attempting to pull a rabbit out of a hat to the skeptical gaze of a flying squirrel. But, for me it was more like a trusting dog attacked by its master: I could never again be really sure of anything -- anything.

After all, I had been totally convinced we were in possession of The Truth. Ab-so-lutely convinced. If I could be so wrong about something of which I was so sure, how could I ever point the finger at anything anyone else believed? I was launched. - talk about being lost in space. Where do you travel when you no longer even trust yourself as the pilot? All I could think of was to simplify to the basics.

I had belonged to an independent Bible Church prior to being drawn to the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong. What was it about this church that had now caught my attention? It wasn’t the strict conditions of membership in the little church publishing The Plain Truth Magazine, and it sure wasn’t the feeling of ostracism I felt at being a member of a "sect." It was the "proof of God" which had been relegated to blind faith issues in my previous affiliation. AND, most of all, it was the basis for life which I found preached, if not practiced, therein. The two ways of life: Give vs. Get. Mr. Armstrong continually hammered away at this issue while the church tended to concern itself more with make-up: facial and spiritual.

Even after leaving the fellowship Armstrong founded, I remain filled with that message: yielding to others one’s seat, place in line, last morsel of food, our very lives on a metaphorical or actual cross to illustrate the point of giving. THAT was the course correction I decided to compute into my default settings. ANY doctrine deviant from that heading, I would determine as being anti-Christ. I was, of course, immediately savaged by all around me. My secular friends applauded the exodus from religious nuttiness, but lamented my refusal to turn from the Jesus I thought distorted by Christianity. God, whatever that meant, had proven (no available word) to be (again, no available word) to me, so it was only substance I thought to discover. Jesus seemed to be the "godly man" the Chinese philosopher, Confucius had searched for. It was in the hidden Christ I hoped to find the savior of meaning.

THAT search caused me to be shunned by my "brothers in Christ" who preached how we had killed Jesus rather than how He could teach us to live. I found there is no room for discussion within the confines of Religion, hence I continued my trajectory out and away from my initial launch pad -- how small that site now appeared when viewed from a cosmic perspective. How great was my surprise to look about and notice all the other "travelers" disconnecting from their boosters. It was now time for me to disconnect from mine. I now reach out in an attempt to make connection.

Hello....Wil calling. Hello....