Rising Tides

She the Spirit is rising and lifting us all with her. Powers and principalities are terrified, their minions' stocks are declining and with their declining influence, we are retaking stock of ourselves and each other. We go online (my blog is receiving as many hits from Russia as from the US), pick up our phones, and see each other, in real time, and see simultaneously, we are the same. We start to see that if we are the same, then perhaps we are one divided against ourselves, to someone else's profit. Eventually we say enough, we are one. We can therefore move as one. We can peacefully, as one worldwide community, communion, say to powers and principalities, with their machines of poverty and war, and say to them: Enough, we will participate in your illusion no more!

She the Spirit is moving. Can the church keep up? We must follow Spirit beyond the walls of stone and wood and beyond the walls of doctrine. If we must, we must leave preachers, priests and bishops behind. If we must, we must leave all the fearful behind with our sacrificial fears. We can simply follow God's call for loving justice. Pray and let Spirit remind you. Pray and be moved to remind me.

The Next Church

I think this is where the Spirit is leading us to ultimately.

People, from all around the world and different traditions will move past the ancient barriers of ideology, personified in brick, mortar and doctrine. Because we communicate now, literally "through the ethers" of electronic media, the barriers are dissolved. Because the barriers are dissolved we, the Church of Christ's communion of compassion, can make direct contact, right now, to accumulate help in addressing the needs of those who suffer around us. We who hear Christ's call to first value love, and loving God through loving each other, will ultimately move on beyond those who would despise, judge and ignore the pleas of the suffering.

It's only a matter of time before the regional "minorities" of disciples will look beyond their denominations, their regions to find each other and connect with each other. We will then realize, "Wow, the Church has been here the whole time, we've just been separated from each other." We, from our compassionate minorities, will join each other in a "super-majority": the loving, compassionate, justice bearing community Jesus promised us, if we but believe and do.

The Evolution

God's call, and the prophetic echo, has always been liberation. Though it takes on different voices through history, the Spirit has always moved humanity towards liberty. We continue to move forward, as more people experience liberty, more people desire it. The more people desire it, the more they move towards it. Liberty, freedom, is the natural state of the garden, therefore, in a certain sense we humans are the last to evolve to it. But we will, it is inevitable, unless we completely destroy the garden before we can get there.

So Grant Us Courage

The way of the prophets is hard to endure, yet graces the hearts of God's people with courage and love for all creation. The prophetic voice shatters hearts of glass.