Last night in conversation with friends I was reminded of this blog so I encouraged them to come here and check it out.

So... this morning I checked it out myself, just to confirm my memory of the place, ya know?

And what do I find?

My last post here was ten months ago, and it concluded with a teaser implying I'd BE RIGHT BACK to share more of my ruminations on unity in the Body of Yahshua.

In anyone's book, ten months is a long time to be left dangling from a cliff.

Nevertheless, here I am at long last.

I confess that although I have not ceased to ponder the mysteries of "Christian Unity," lately my thoughts on the subject have been persistently coalescing around the biblical theme of ECHAD.

ECHAD is Hebrew for ONE. 

So far, every reference to unity I have found in scripture is either explicitly or implicitly declaring that ECHAD is the condition desired by, mandated by, prayed for by, envisioned by Yahveh.  This means true eternal ONENESS, not superficial, temporary, let's-join-hands-singing-kumbayah "unity."

Psalm 33:1 "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in UNITY" - the word is ECHAD.  So, "...when brothers exist AS ONE."  Deeper, more intimate than our contemporary concept of unity.

John 17: Yahshua prayed that his talmidim (disciples) would BE ONE as he and Father are ONE.  That's some no-kidding oneness.

Unity?  Probably never gonna happen the way our worldly vision conceives of it.

ECHAD? Seek his face. Fix your eyes on Yahshua.  Oneness happens when we worship only Yahveh by the power of the indwelling Ruach ha'Kodesh (Holy Breath/Spirit).

Thanks to 'todrawneargod' for commenting on a previous post - "Church Visit #12"

I think the link will also show my response to her comments.  She asks the questions: Why the church visits?  What have you learned?  - Great questions!!

The church visits themselves took place over a period of about seven-eight months from July 2006 - March 2007.  In total, there were about thirty or so; i.e., separate visits to about thirty (30) different local churches (local to the Monterey Peninsula California area).

'todrawneargod''s questions have got me thinking about what I learned - or didn't learn - from those 'long since' visits.

So... this post is a bit of a teaser.  I'll be back with some ruminations about Lessons Learned.

I've been thinking about the antithesis of unity, which is of course division.  There is no debating the tragically divided condition of "The Church."  This is not a newly manifested thing.  The church began suffering division even in its earliest days, as demonstrated by many passages in Acts and the Epistles, and even the Gospel writers tell us of dissension among the Twelve while Yeshua was still physically with them, for that matter.

So, I'm certainly not going to try to argue that division amongst professing christians is new.  History abundantly and stubbornly belies that assertion.  Our human nature seems to compel us toward categorization and labelling.

However, in meditating on division and considering what the causes are and could be, I came to a very clear realization.  Not really startling or surprising in itself, but I was a bit surprised at myself for having overlooked it for so long.  Like many such realizations, it is something that is actually fairly obvious, but do we not often tend to look right past the obvious in favor of a less threatening alternative?

The realization is this: division is demonic.

Well, of course!  Who else has a vested interest in the debilitation, neutralization, indeed the complete annihilation, of the Body of Yeshua?

The more important realization is the corollary: If division is demonic, why are we not fighting it for all we are worth?  Why do we tolerate division?  Why do we, in fact, seem to CELEBRATE division?

For here is another related realization: "denomination" MEANS "division."  Well, it literally means "to be given a name," but the idea is to apply a unique NAME that will separate us from those with whom we disagree on even the smallest point of doctrinal interpretation and behavior.  When we "denominate" ourselves, we choose division over unity.

See, our determined construction of denominational walls is based on this: imposition of legalistic, narrow-minded codes of conduct structured around our stubborn adherence to worldly standards of interpretation of Yhvh's mitzvot.

I say "worldly standards of interpretation" because we are drawn to measurement and quantification and externally demonstrable evidences of our "holiness."  We want others to see us as pure, so we try to adopt behaviors that can be perceived as "godly"; and we impose our behavioral constructs on others - essentially to feed our own ego.  If they do not behave the way we expect them to behave, we deem them impure and unfit for inclusion in our version of righteousness.

Yhvh gave us one NAME to be called by.  His own.  I'm not advocating creation of yet another denomination that conjures up a moniker based on any particular version of "the name of God."  Plenty of those already around in any case.

I'm advocating brutal eschewance of any man-made NAMING convention.

I'm advocating repentance from our complacent, contented, delirious acceptance of our denominational status.

I'm advocating conscious removal and destruction of our denominational and other traditional baggage because it hinders us from pursuing an intimate relationship with Yhvh, which should be our chief desire.

Joel 2:25

Yhvh promises to "restore the years the locusts have destroyed."

Considering the many ways that various types of "locusts" can steal years of LIFE from us, this is a great and precious promise.

I just read a sermon from pastor Mark Ridley (Christ the King Lutheran Church, Vestal, NY) from a few years ago. I found it as a result of a Google search to find the scripture above. (I'm on the road and do not have an "old-fashioned" concordance with me, and couldn't recall for sure where that scripture is found.) Pastor Ridley's sermon was a good read all the way through, but one line particularly stuck out for me:

"...there is nothing you can lose in this world that (Yhvh) cannot restore..."

HalleluYAH!

and Amen.

I have not given up on the notion - or the apparent biblical imperative - for UNITY among the Body of true believers. But I am increasingly unconvinced that anything much more than occasional, superficial, temporary, localized unity can ever happen in greater "Christendom."

The more I meditate on it, and the more I observe the outward, visible manifestations of what the world knows to be The Church, the more I accept the probability that Ephesians 4:13 is not directed at any hope other than the inescapable spiritual UNITY of all those who have given themselves over completely to unabashed joy in celebrating the sovereignty and the mitzvot of Yhvh.

Portions of The Church have tried in vain to capture and sustain unity based on "central truths" while being tolerant of each others' divergent interpretations of Torah. Focusing on common denominators (what an appropriate term!) will never give rise to the spiritual convergence of Yhvh's people. Only when His people seek Him and yearn for an intimate personal relationship with Him that will motivate them to worship Him in spirit and in truth will we begin to approach UNITY; because when we are all focused on HIM ALONE, we will BE ONE.

MARTY GOETZ

We will be leaving shortly to go see our friend Marty Goetz at the Sar Shalom fellowship. We consider Marty and his wife Jennifer to be our friends, but they live in Tennessee and they are all over the globe ministering regularly.

When Marty sits at the piano and sings, it opens the windows of Heaven! It is one man and one piano, but it may as well be a symphony orchestra and an angel choir. His ministry invariably blesses our socks off, so we always take an extra pair of socks :)

No time to wax eloquent about how much we appreciate him at the moment.

Go here: http://www.martygoetz.com/ to see and hear more.

RESURRECTION DAY!!!

Let's see. Last post published on 23 October 2006. That means nearly twenty (20) months have come and gone since that last post. Hmmm.

So, this is Resurrection Post #1.

Much has happened in those intervening 20 months. More "church visits" happened. But also we settled into a community of worship called "Har Adonai" (Mountain of the Lord), which meets on Saturday evenings, worships and celebrates "havdalah" (the end of Shabbat). A key feature of this gathering is an intentional focus on studying, practicing, sharing, embracing and rejoicing in the hebraic roots of our christian faith.

I cannot overstate the profound impacts this endeavour has had on my perspective, my worship, my faith, my prayer-life, my relationships, my interpretation and understanding of scripture, my worldview, application of scriptural truth to the daily activities of my life, fellowship with the "mishpochah" (family of faith).... It is amazing.

We have not lost or forsaken our passion for UNITY. I still believe this to be a fundamental value for the Body. At this point, I am convinced that true unity is most likely to arise from a simple, humble, unabashed acceptance of the origins of our faith.

Among other things, Jesus (Yeshua) himself was a practicing Jew; and he stated emphatically that he did not come to abolish the Law (mitzvot), but to fulfill it. Also, for example, the Feasts are stated in scripture to be YHWH's feasts, established and commanded to be observed FOREVER (Lev. 23:2). What Yeshua came to establish, and what has been called "Church" and "Christianity," increasingly look like two different things to me. He did not establish "the church" to replace Israel.

Paul teaches us in Romans 11 that we are "grafted in" to the original tree. The original tree was not dug up and discarded, and replaced by us. The original tree still stands and we are a new branch - i.e., a smaller, dependent part of the whole, still drawing LIFE (zoe) from the original tree.

SO MANY statements in the New Testament take on untold light and power when understood in accordance with Old Testament truth and testimony.

For example, the woman with the issue of blood, when she reached out and touched the "hem of his garment" was actually touching the "tzit-tzit" - i.e., the fringe dangling from Yeshua's prayer shawl. These are "the wings" envisioned in the Psalms when they mention being gathered "under his wings" and that he will arise "with healing in his wings." How much more powerful is that simple understanding?

And when the woman was caught in adultery and Yeshua wrote in the dust, it brought to mind a command regarding bringing an accused woman before the cohen to be tested (Numbers 5). Without saying a word, Yeshua was able to remind her accusers that they were operating in a spirit of jealousy.

Such revelations are too numerous to mention. They are practically in every line of scripture.

This is the ancient way, but it is a blessed new path for us.