Battle for Fellowship with Christ

Don't underestimate the battle we must go through on a daily basis to ensure our fellowship with Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus stated there is nothing that matters more than that, and even said to Martha when confronting Jesus about Mary not helping her, that Mary chose the one thing only matters, and He wasn't going to take that away from her.

But the battle we face every day is in not only continuing to believe what Jesus said, but to continue living it in the midst of endless pressures, interruptions and needs.

Jesus also said in Matthew 6:25: "Take no thought for your life." If we are to take no thought for our lives, how much thought for our lives does that leave us? That's right - zero.

Let's not get flaky with what Jesus said, He didn't mean we don't focus on what we need to do in the moment, he's talking, again, how people worry and so choke off the value and fruit of what fellowship with Jesus Christ brings about in us; assuming we maintain our focus on Him and not on the outward circumstances around us.

Usually distractions come from pressures from needs; things like paying bills, money, food, clothing, and a host of other things that fight to be kept in our thoughts and vision.

Deceitfulness of riches, cares of this world; Jesus says to be anxious for nothing. I believe Him, and so should all of us. The reason is there will always be some type of need or circumstance we're worried about at any one time if we allow ourselves to look at it.

That's why Jesus said "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In other words, there's enough to take care of in the day you face, don't add to it by looking ahead to the future which is in God's hands.

Think of all these things like a dessert always trying to slowly expand and claim fertile land, making land basically useless for anything.

This is what happens when we take thought of the future which isn't even here yet, and takes us away from the simplicity of devotion to Christ, which was what the original temptation was all about.

Jesus said that worry changes nothing, and so when we look toward the future in the sense of things that will, could, or might happen, there is absolutely nothing we can do to change it. And if we attempt to, usually we'll make matters worse, and still be taken off of our fellowship with Christ.

One temptation to watch in all of this, especially when we attempt to apply reasoning, common sense and logic to this, is to start to think Jesus can't relate to us in this way. The truth is we're taught that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, and yet He said He only did what He saw the Father doing or would only speak what the Father was speaking. That means He refused to allow what was unknown ahead distract Him from that which only mattered.

Even more, He knew He had come into the world to offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sins in order to bring us back into relationship with the Godhead, yet He didn't sit there dwelling on that inevitable reality until the time when He needed to, and the Father told Him to.

Don't let the desert of worries and concerns move you off of the very purpose Jesus created us: to be in constant fellowship with Him through faith in Him. Anything else truly doesn't matter.

Christ In Us | A Walk of Faith

Christ In Us

When we talk of knowing and loving the Lord in a real way, we must understand that we're talking about a walk of faith; of knowing He dwells in our spirit within us, and there we meet and fellowship with Christ.

We must learn to be comfortable with living and moving within an unseen realm within us, without getting weird about it, as some people do.

To walk in invisible realms of our spirit, it must and can only be done by faith.

Why? Because Christ hasn't granted us the ability to use our natural eyes or senses to fellowship and dwell in that realm. It's an invisible realm and invisible God, but the results definitely end up being seen, as they manifest in our outer lives.

How does one practically do this then? Again, by faith.

By faith we know Jesus Christ dwells within true children of God. So when we focus on Him within our spirit, we believe that we're there with Him.

Next, whether we feel it or not, we believe our hearts or turned toward Him and fellowshipping with Him.

There's really not much more to entering into this extraordinary walk with the Lord than this. It's all by faith, motivated by His love; for faith works by love, as the scriptures teach us.

In that believe and position, we simply wait before Him in His presence together, and in peace enjoy being with Him. Again, it doesn't matter how you feel, you're there with Him, and in peace in His presence.

There is a lot of fruit which can come forth from this practice and reality, and those that will bear that fruit can only do it by faith in what Christ has said, and that He indwells the children of God.

Christ In Us

Another Reason to Stay Focused on Christ - Not Environmental Fears and Hoaxes

We of course should need no reason other than Christ Himself to stay centered in Him, but a lot of people with a variety of agendas continue to hammer through the mainstream and online media that global warming - or as now called - climate change, is about to destroy the earth (yawn).

New evidence points to the continue absurdity and outright lie and/or incompetence of those perpetrating this fear on people in order to forward their hidden purposes.

As far as those of us who are believers, don't be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Those scriptures aren't just talking about things concerning Christ and Christianity, but all the endless nonsense being spewed forth in the world, which when we trace it back, brings us to the temptation to continue eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, rather than the tree of life which is Christ.

Here's how one person called it: "Dr Allison said there was not any evidence of significant change in the mass of ice shelves in east Antarctica nor any indication that its ice cap was melting. 'The only significant calvings in Antarctica have been in the west,' he said. And he cautioned that calvings of the magnitude seen recently in west Antarctica might not be unusual.

"Ice shelves in general have episodic carvings and there can be large icebergs breaking off - I'm talking 100km or 200km long - every 10 or 20 or 50 years."

Amazingly, this article finishes saying this, "A paper to be published soon by the British Antarctic Survey in the journal Geophysical Research Letters is expected to confirm that over the past 30 years, the area of sea ice around the continent has expanded."

Now the question must be raised on why this has happend over the last 30 years, and so-called scientists were supposedly on the completely wrong side of the reality of the situation.

Of course we never hear much that the earth has been cooling for over a decade either. That wouldn't fit in with the global warming orthodoxy that is as false and unsubstantiated as anything you could come up with.

Many Christian believers must ask themselves why they believe such things, when in fact if you do a little digging, you can easily find out these types of assertions based on fear are the norm for people declaring the castrophic accurances based on nothing but their own psychotic fears and agendas.

We must again find Christ and Christ alone as our foundation. We are to never move off of Him, and when we stay founded upon His person, most of the things attempted to be foisted upon believers in Jesus can easily be identified as hoaxes.

There is far more evidence against global warming than mentioned here. The point is to never let this type of stuff be the "exception" that causes us to have to deal with supposed crisis.

By the way, this is one way you can tell when someone's trying to fool and deceive you: are they saying it's an exception, and are they saying it has to be dealt with now?

If so, you know they're full of BS. The reason why this type of garbage is thrown on us in this way is to attempt to create an artificial crisis in order that we can suspend our beliefs in the reality that surrounds us, and take actions based upon nothing but unproven theories.

The worst thing for followers of Christ is to allow ourselves to be taken in by these contiuous lies, and so take our focus and attention off of Christ and onto something that is supposed to be more important.

If we are socialized into behaving that way, there will always be the next crisis; always the next big thing; always the world-ending situation that we must give our money, time and attention to, or mankind as we know we won't survive.

Next time you hear this snakeoil assertion, no matter where it's coming from or what it's about, run for the hills, or better yet - simply ignore it.

The only true problems we want to spend time with is with helping the poor, working on building a healthy family, and fellowshipping with Christ and His people.

I'll touch more on these distractions and the truth or error behind them in the future. I hesistate to do it too much because it can open up a whole can of worms that distracts from the purpose of Acts29Review, which is to focus on the ongoing purpose of God which was determined before time or creation came into being. Now that's something we can give ourselves to.

Knowing Christ: Individually and Corporately - Part 1

In the next several posts I want to talk about knowing Christ. What I want to do is help some of you in the area of individual versus corporately knowing Christ. There is sometimes confusion and uncertainty concerning the two dwelling together.

The reason this becomes an issue for those meeting outside institutional Christianity, is if we're following the right path, we'll in the beginning years have a focus on the corporate aspect of learning Christ (especially Westerners), as we're more of an individualist people than those from the East.

Sometimes those who understand the lack of corporateness in the Western church tend to focus so much on it that it can sometimes confuse and frustrate those who have a strong relationship with the Lord, and in some cases even make them feel guilty for doing it. This isn't done intentionally or in a evil manner, it's just that the focus on corporateness can make people feel uncomfortable pursuing the Lord in their private time individually.

What we need to do is go directly to the Godhead and see how things are done there.

One of the basic truths concerning the Godhead are that they are three but one and one but three. This is where we are to begin. In the scriptures concerning the practical outworking of the Godhead, we see that Father is called the Father of spirits, Jesus the bishop of the soul, and the Spirit the redeemer of the body. This doesn't mean there was any lack of oneness simply because they had specialties they ministered to. Rather it was from that oneness that it happened.

In the church we also see that while we are to be one, we at the same time operate in a variety of ways within that oneness. The reason we operate in a variety of ways is because we have something of the Lord to share with others. That sharing is what enlarges us corporately, and causes us to see the Lord in a much larger way. The way we get there is to know the Lord individually, share it corporately and see and grow in the Lord in a wider, fuller and deeper way than we could alone.

In the many years I've lived in the church outside the institutional churc boundaries, I've seen the ebb and flow of corporate and individual knowing of the Lord. The two work together and not alone. If you attempt to be solely corporate, an odd type of thing emerges, to the point where I've heard some even call themselves a "glob." The problem with something like this is the people can have community and hang out together, but also have a very limited experience and expression of Christ because they are fixated on the corporate part at the expense of the individual.

The point is you can hang out and do things together and still have a very limited relationship with the Lord. Again, the two must work together to have a healthy emergence of the image of God.

If brothers and sisters aren't individually pursuing and fellowshipping with the Lord, they sure aren't going to be able to come together and offer anything to one another that will have spiritual significance.

Knowing Christ: Individually and Corporately - Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4

Jesus Christ: The Tree of Life - 3

One interesting thing when reading the story about Adam and Eve and the tree of life, is God never said a thing about it. Read it and see at the beginning. It is mentioned that the tree of life was in the center of the garden, but it doesn't say God communicates anything about that to Adam - before the bringing to life of Eve, or afterwards. It only says they can eat of any tree in Eden, with the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Another interesting and enlightening part of the story, is right next to the tree of life in the center of the garden, is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both are said to be in the center of the garden, which means they were side by side.

That seems to speak to them being competitive in nature, and opposing possibilities.

I've heard some say that the reason it was sin to partake in it was because mankind prematurely reached for knowledge before partaking of life. I think that's completely wrong and false. Those who assert that are intellectuals who attempt to justify their way of thinking and interaction with the scriptures. They're wrong.

How do I know they're wrong? Look at the last part of the book of Revelation. Along with the throne being in the center of New Jerusalem, there is also the tree of life and the river. Where do you see the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It's not there. And it's not there because it doesn't belong there.

Inside this city, which is the people of God, there is only one tree, and that tree is Jesus Christ - the tree of life. To say the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a separate part of God is ridiculous to assert.

That would mean that Jesus Christ as the word of God really didn't contain the full thought of the Father. When Jesus said He and the Father were one, He was saying if you see Me you see the Father. To make it look like there was something more to the Father that was kept from Christ wouldn't make any sense, and would make Jesus a liar, or minimally confused. We know that isn't true, so these types of assertions are wrong, and the people making them confused.

When Jesus is referred to as the word of God, it means everything that God had to say in and through Him was represented; that's why Jesus is called the Word of God. He was the full representation of who the Father was. So to have a second tree being something of God but not represented by the life of the Father in Christ would be complete confusion and contrary to what the scriptures reveal throughout them of Christ.

The trees were two competing life forms, or rather, two ways of living. Life is defined by Christ as fellowship with the Godhead and man, so life in that sense can't be ascribed to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Just like Satan exists, but he's not life, but rather murder and death. Because something's alive doesn't mean it gives life. That's why Adam was commanded by God to guard the garden, which he immediately failed to do.

So here we are in the garden of Eden where God put Adam and Eve, and we have all this abundance available as expressed by God through trees to eat, with only one guideline: that they refrain from eating from one tree. That was it!

In the middle of paradise where mankind was placed, we have the history of man about to be decided, as the great enemy of manking attempts to immediately move them off of the eternal purpose of God, which as we know now, he was successful in doing.

It all centered around what man was going to internalize. God was saying we have to be careful what we eat, and He wasn't talking about natural food for the body.

Jesus Christ: The Tree of Life Series

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

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Jesus Christ: The Tree of Life - 2

Adam and Eve
One important thing to consider when looking at the beginning of things, as far as creation goes, was the pinnacle of creation: man. So when we look at Adam and Eve at the beginning, we see the representatives of all of mankind.

What's important to know about them, before sin, is while they were made in the image of God, their makeup wasn't in the proper order yet. One thing had to be done before that would be accomplished.

Before we get into that, let's look at Adam and Eve first. At this point of their existence, they're unique to human history, there never will be two human beings like them again; but neither was there ever meant to be.

Adam and Eve were sinless, but incomplete. They were innocent, but not harmless. They had a future, but that future hadn't yet been decided yet. In other words, even though they were sinless, they hadn't taken action yet that would perpetuate that sinlessness and enter into intimate fellowship with God.

They had fellowship with Him, but it wasn't anywhere near to the closeness they could have; it was only an outward fellowship, even though they saw Him with their natural eyes and talked with Him.

Another thing to consider is they not only saw God, but they saw the heavenly realms themselves, as Eden was a place where Heaven and Earth met. They saw the angelic hosts, as well as everything that heaven was.

The problem for Adam and Eve was they hadn't internalized God yet, their spirits hadn't been made alive, and so at this point their soul was predominant, even though there was no sin in the world or in them. God had meant that our spirits would be the predominant feature of our makeup, with our souls submitted and listening to Christ within, while our bodies then responded to the practical outworking of that fellowship.

At this time Adam and Eve were sinless, but the proper order within man hadn't been established. Until that happened, they wouldn't be able to successfully respond to the things God had required or expected of them.

Why did God create mankind this way? Why didn't He create them with His life in them from the beginning? The answer is that the life they were to internalize wasn't created life, so creation was separate from it, and man had to willingly partake of that life and internalize it.

That life was eternal and had existed forever; with no beginning or end. It couldn't be part of creation because it was uncreated, had always been, and was eternal. That life was God Himself.

So while man was created originally in the image of God, the order of God could only happen when man participated in the inner life of God by internalizing that life. To do that, Adam and Eve had to eat of the tree of life. They never took that step. They chose another life instead.

Next post we'll get more into what it was they chose and why.

Jesus Christ: The Tree of Life Series

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
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Jesus Christ: The Tree of Life - 1

Over the next several posts we'll take a look at Jesus Christ as the Tree of Life. Having insight into, and embracing Christ as the Tree of Life is extremely valuable; especially in this age of instant communication, where not only the volume of news and communication can overwhelm people, but the nature and content of that communication as well.

The reason the Tree of Life was in the center of the garden of Eden was because He was meant to be the center of all life. While that has been true in eternity, it is true as well in the created world we live on.

Just about everything that surrounds us can move us off the important reason and purpose for our existence: intimate fellowship with the Godhead. Christ represents that as the Tree of Life.

Only internalizing the fruit of that Tree could give us the life we were created to live. Adam and Eve failed to do it, and chose a different course, a course most continue to follow to this day, even though they take the name of Christ upon them.

I believe that there is no hope for someone refusing to internalize Christ as their life. When I say no hope, I mean by that not being able to consciously live by another life within us. We'll be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine blowing around out there. Our lives will be a continuous exercise in futility and frustration as we can't figure out why when we're believers in Christ, we seem to never have the peace, rest and satisfaction that should come with that.

We'll consume the knowledge of good and evil that will always produce death rather than life. It's an endless circle when that route is taken, and you can't get off it unless you choose the Tree of Life over that.

We're not simply talking about someone getting saved; that's simply the doorway into what we were meant to be and focus on: the eternal purpose. It gets us right with God so we can get back to what our true calling really is.

Jesus Christ is the Tree of Life, and unless we pursue internalizing Him and fellowshipping with Him inside of us, we'll be on a journey of never being fulfilled, as the purpose we were created for isn't understood or embraced.

When I mention pursuing internalizing Him above, I mean by that allowing Him to change us within, and into His image; not just positionally, but in practice. To do that we must fellowship and be with Him at all times.

So in these next several posts we'll talk about Adam and Eve at the beginning, what happened in the Garden, and what it is they saw when tempted.

Jesus Christ: The Tree of Life Series
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
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A Place Where Christians and Christianity Must Go!

When the church has seen the Lord and responded to Him outside of any system or in an organized manner, they never think of themselves as being named anything ... as far as many Christians today would think in terms of some type of denominational tie, or an independently named group.

Some may think of this as trivial, but in reality it's an extremely important part of seeing the Lord and who He is. God can't and shouldn't be separated from Himself by people creating names as their corporate identity, rather than simply bearing the name of the Lord; meaning there is no such thing as a name other than believers, Christians or brethren.

Those churches that have existed organically throughout the centuries weren't the ones who named themselves, rather their detractors have named them, and many times it was meant to be a derogatory statement about them. Even when the believers at Antioch were first called Christians, it wasn't meant to be a compliment, it was a cut against them for how committed they were to Christ; although those naming them such considered it an insult.

While this is no new call or understanding, it is something that Christianity has been challenged with before, and yet most continue to disobey and separate themselves through denominational or independent names.

What needs to happen, is that all Christians and Christian workers would abandon denominations and names, and start to fellowship in Christ alone. That by itself would revolutionize Christianity, and an extraordinary result would take place.

Of course most won't heed this ongoing call, as they want to remain in the status quo of their comfort zone. Don't let that stop you from seeing this though.

People that always say they're bible believing Christians continue to disobey Paul's admonition to the Corinthians concerning a party spirit, which dealt with dissension and denominating among themselves, or as it's known today: division.

Naming a body of believers as something is direct disobedience to what Paul had to say. As soon as you name yourselves something, you immediately attempt to draw up what makes you different from others, which ensures the divisive spirit and practices will continue on.

God's people need to have a work within them that destroys this idea of separation from other believers. Believers naming themselves something is just the inevitable outworking of that carnality that separates and divides believers.

Imagine a Christian world that take up no other name than Christ, and which people fellowship together solely based on Him and His life within one another.

It may not happen across the whole world, but it could happen with you. This is one more vital are we need to reclaim and live out in Christ.

That the Lord would bring us into this reality again, where only He and He alone is the purpose for our existence and fellowship together.

Christians are not of this World

Talking about his inner core group of disciples one time, Jesus in prayer to the Father said they weren't of this world, just like He and the Father weren't of this world.

This is an extraordinary statement talking about His people and who they were to be.

Many people professing Christ don't want to face this conclusion of Jesus about those that had surrounded Him when he was physically on the earth, because the implications are devastating to those that love this world.

We are a people called to be in this world, but not of this world. We are to live from a life totally contrary to the way this world functions and what its endless fears and concerns are.

One thing that may shock people was Jesus never moved based on need, only on the word and actions of His Father. If He heard it from the Father, or saw the Father doing it, Jesus would do it. If not, He would say or do nothing unless it was the Father saying or doing it in Him.

Jesus went so far as to say without the Father He could do nothing. Nothing means what it says. That's the life we are also called to live while on this earth.

A major problem Christianity faces today is they are intimidated by the world and its ranting against the Lord and His Christ, to the point where they are trying to please the world and prove something to them. We aren't called to that as a purpose, and we aren't called to please this world.

The only thing Jesus says is they'll know we are of Him because of the love we have for one another.

But we don't love one another to prove it or to please the world, we do it because it's what Christ and the Father are. They are love. The love we then organically express to one another is seen as being from God. We simply don't pay attention to that seeing. When the Father wants the love we have for one another to be seen by the world, He'll make sure it's seen.

For us we simply live our lives quietly and peaceably on the earth, like we're called to do. The world will take true notice of a people that live life from another world than their own. They won't notice or care about those that name the name of Christ and yet are just like them. We are called to a higher calling than that.

Only Christ can do this as we hold to Him as our head within us. It's not something we can make happen.

Don't be afraid to be different than what this world is, we don't live from the same source they do. We are not to be of this world - and we aren't. We live from another life source that doesn't originate here. We need to cooperate and allow the Lord Jesus to live his life in us.

It's all about a Tree

I want to talk about something here that I am not sure I've heard talked about among us outside the religious system. It is my intention that after you read it, you can never be the same again.

What I am talking about is those of you outside the religious system and one of the great dangers that exist which can destroy everything that God intended to do.

What is it? Let's take a look at the first couple of chapters in the book of Genesis.
Here of course you have the creation of all things. You have all of this stuff happening for a period of six days. During this time, you see the dividing of things: such as the waters. You have the emergence of land and eventually: trees and all green things that grow.

In other words there is this fantastic environment that now exists there; waiting. 
Now, you have the creation of man. After he is created God puts him in Eden. He puts Him in the eastern part where God Himself had planted a garden.

Adam names the animals and he finds that he is missing something and so God takes Eve out of his side.

So here we have Adam and Eve in the most fantastic environment that existed on the earth. Actually it was the blending of heaven and earth. A paradise.

God had revealed something fantastic in showing Adam that it wasn't good that he would be alone.

Still here we have him no longer alone; living in the most beautiful place in the universe.

Here is one of the most amazing insights you will ever receive about the simplicity of Christ.

Adam and Eve had everything at this moment of time, and yet they truly had nothing at all!

You see, there were two trees in that Garden that stood before the human race. Two trees that will continually be eaten of until a time in the future.

Now what is the point of all of this? For those of us outside the religious system, we can have all the trappings of paradise, and yet not have anything at all.

You can have all the closeness, unity, fellowship, friendship, and joy together that it may be possible to have on this earth, and still completely miss the whole thing. You can still completely miss the whole reason for your existence.

What am I saying? I am saying that it is all about a tree! Everything was ready to go in Eden. God had revealed His will to Adam and only gave him one restriction, which was of course to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Still, before they rebelled against God's command, there was the potential. 
What is the significance of this moment before their sin? They had everything. Or rather almost everything that could be possibly desired given to them by God.

So do those of us who see that God has always had something much deeper and profound than we are currently seeing in the religious system.

The problem we face is that we can enter into the fellowship of the saints outside the system, have everything that Adam and Eve had, and still never do the most important thing that must be done.

Even though Adam and Eve were temporarily sinless before God, and living in the most bountiful environment that has ever existed, they lacked the only thing that really mattered.

So can we who are outside the system be potentially completed misled about what is truly important to God. Really it is the only thing that is important.

Remember the story of Martha and Mary? Martha was complaining to Jesus about Mary not helping her serve. Jesus response was that Mary had chosen the only thing that really mattered and He wasn't going to take that away from her.

It is similar to when Paul writes to one of the churches and tells them that he is concerned that in the same way that Adam and Eve were deceived into rejecting the simplicity of being devoted to Christ, they also would be led astray from that same, pure, devotion.

In another place we are told that the disciples were called to be "with" Him.
Jesus also reveals that eternal life is the intimate union, or knowing of the Father and the Son.

Again Jesus tells us that He is the vine and we are the branches.

This issue caused almost everyone to leave Christ while He was on the earth.
When He told them that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, they would no longer walk with Him.

We can be outside the religious system, seem to be doing what the will of the Father is, and still miss the whole thing.

You can look around in your present environment and believe that this is what makes things work. This is the ultimate deception.

Just like Adam and Eve, we can be dwelling in Eden, and yet not do the most important thing, and the truly only necessary thing that is needed.

You see brothers and sisters: it's all about eating from a tree! We just need to be sure it's the right tree!

Corporate Union with Christ

This is a hard topic to talk about because the great majority of Christians aren’t aware of the depths that one can enter into in relationship to the presence of God. So if you aren’t aware of it individually, it is even harder to talk about the corporate nature of it. Yet we’ll give it a try.  

First of all, when I talk about corporate I am not referring to sitting in those buildings people go to once a week. That is about as far away from corporate as you can get.  

No, I am talking about being one together in the pursuit of the presence of God in our lives on a continual basis, while living in close proximity to one another to facilitate it.

Of course the first step is to desire and pursue a deep, intimate relationship with Christ individually, as it is impossible to enter in corporately without the hunger and desire individually first. Again, one cannot exist without the other!  

Yet the purpose of entering into the presence of God individually is never an end in and of itself; being together in it - that’s the end that God has in mind.  

This reminds me of a movie I saw one time where the main character was seeking spiritual enlightenment. He eventually goes by himself up onto a mountaintop and reads spiritual books and contemplates. One day he gets some insight and starts to laugh to himself. He then takes the book he is reading and starts tearing the pages out and putting them in a fire.

When he comes down from the mountain and talks to his mentor, the mentor asks him what he learned when he was up there. His response was that it was easy to be a holy man on a mountain.

In other words, seeking God by yourself only, is nothing in comparison to doing it individually, and than together with others. That is the part that is harder than the other and more in tune with God’s ultimate purpose.

Seeking God by yourself is not enough. We must first seek Him and then together seek and enter into His presence.

This is what truly being the church is all about. Together we pursue his awesome presence and daily dwell in Him and He in us. That’s what God’s desire was from before the foundation of the world. What we must be careful of, as I have mentioned in another article, is to not make this our great disconnect!  

God’s heart and purpose has always been to have a corporate counterpart; a many-membered body, a woman.  

In other words, this is something to be lived out in reality in our lives. It is not something that you read about and intellectually agree with and then go about doing things the same way as always. This is what it means to be a Christian. That’s why the believers at Antioch were originally mocked, because they so much pursued Him in this way that they were deridingly called “Christians,” which means that they were Christ centered.  

Like I said, this is what it really means to take the word Christian upon yourself individually and corporately. It means that our lives are lived in His presence moment by moment; continuously on. That’s the great corporate endeavor we are called to participate in. That’s the heart cry of God.  

Moravians - Centered in Christ

There was a time when the group of people history has called the “Moravians,” solely lived for Christ. Everything they did was done for the purpose that all would depend upon Christ.  

Before getting into the practicals of this, I want to say that it is what is behind the practicals that matters, much more than what is seen.

Nonetheless, from what was unseen and desired was born a response that for a season of time brought tremendous results.  

So in talking of these things, let’s remember why things were done the way they were, rather than what was done. Again the reason these things were done was for simple devotion to Christ.  

A lot of what is remembered about the Moravians was the well publicized period of 100 years that they unceasingly prayed and went in many places of the world spreading the gospel. What is less well-known is their emphasis upon spiritual growth concerning the body of believers; especially intimacy with Christ.  

One of the ways that they encouraged this to happen was to establish what they called, “choirs.”

Choirs were people of the same gender, age group, and marital status. They would live together communally. This happened as early as 18 months old, all the way to a time when people were widowed.  

All aspects of a person’s life took place within these arrangements. For example, when a child was approximately 18 months old, they were put within a choir of all the children of similar ages, until the age of 4. At that time they were separated until marriage from the opposite sex, as far as living arrangements and work was concerned.  

There was a series of these choirs throughout their lives. At around 12 they would go into another choir of older children of the same gender. Then at around 20 they would go into single brothers and single sisters’ choirs. If and when they married they would be in the choir of those who were married. When one was widowed they would be in the choir of those who were widowed. If they were remarried they would go back into the choir of those who were married.

The major reason this was done was to encourage intimate union with Christ.  
The practical reason was that those in the same age groups, gender, and life circumstances, would be in similar spiritual junctures. Thus they could support and encourage one another in their journey.  

Another very important reason for this was to deemphasize blood ties so that fellowship with Christ was first in their lives. The history of this practical outworking was that when there was counsel sought, the various brethren would direct them to Christ, not to themselves.  

The overall separation of genders was also for the sole purpose that there would be a total dependency upon Christ rather than a soulish dependency upon another human being.  

This doesn’t mean that they didn’t live close together; they did. They simply lived in different lodgings and worked separately, with differing responsibilities.  

The reason I mentioned at the beginning of the article concerning why these things were done is what’s important. Someone could easily copy these things and get terrible results. The point that was made was that they saw the most important thing in life: the simple devotion to Christ. Everything else was to pale in comparison to that. The practical steps they took were in response to that understanding.  

We need to center into the eternal aspect of these things, while looking to see if some of the practical can apply for us today.