PURPOSE

Vol. 2, Issue 26

July 07, 2008

Starry, Starry Night

“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” (Psalm 147:4)

My buddy Roger called last week. He wanted to share a new software program with me; “Stellarium.” Stellarium is a star watching program. You tell it where you live and it takes you to a grassy meadow (supposedly right outside your door) and shows you the sky. If it’s daytime, you can even ‘turn off the lights’ and view the stars that daylight is hiding in the real sky. You can speed up time and watch the starry skies pass over head. You can rotate perspective to view the north, east, west or south skies. You can move to Australia and view the night sky from Adelaide or Sydney. You can even travel to the moon and watch the stars from a lunar landscape.

After dark I like to take a look at the screen, and then walk outside to see if I can find the real constellations in the real sky. It’s a pretty neat little program if you like to watch the stars and don’t know much about what you’re looking for. Best of all, it’s free. You can download Stellarium at http://www.stellarium.org/.

*****

Ever wonder why we have such a fascination with the stars? I mean, it’s not like we don’t already have our hands full with stuff here on earth. There’s survival, getting to work on time, paying the mortgage, making sure the kids do their homework. And then there’s Disneyworld, the Grand Canyon and HBO. Why bother with the stars?

Who cares if Betelgeuse (yeah, there’s really a star named “Betelgeuse” and it’s really pronounced beetle-juice) is 427 million light years away from earth or that it’s so big that if you stuck it in the middle or our solar system its surface area would take up the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and go a ways toward Jupiter.

Betelgeuse is a long ways away and big beyond our ability to comprehend; but who cares? Why should man be so hung up on the stars? Not only have we tried to count them and name them, we’ve connected the dots and turned them into constellations … and we’ve turn the constellation into picture stories - Orion, the hunter; the Pleiades, the seven sisters; Ursa, the bear. This fascination with the stars begs the question; “Is there something more to the stars than just far away pinpoints of light in the night sky?”

I started doing a little digging in my favorite book to see what He says about the stars. What I came up with surprised me. The word star (or stars) is mentioned 67 times in the English Standard Version Bible; it’s about the same in the KJV – 66, with a wildcard “stargazers” thrown in. That doesn’t count “heaven,” “heavenlies,” “celestial bodies,” or “sun.”

God created the universe and the universe has a lot of stars in it, so it’s not a shock that the Bible mentions them 67 times. Here’s the shocker: more than half of the “star” references in the Bible are directly associated with a persona. That is, more than half of the references refer to somebody, not something.

Isaiah 14:12 speaks of Satan: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!”

Job 38:7 mentions a time “when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Psalm 148:3 commands, “Praise him, sun and moon, praise him all you shining stars.”

Does scripture really relate heavenly bodies to heavenly bodies – personalities not of this world? Or is this just a poetic way of speaking that really doesn’t mean anything literally?

Let’s find out.

The book of Revelation describes a vision of the apostle John where he saw “someone, ‘like the son of man’” and “in his right hand he held seven stars ….” (Revelation 1:16) The one “like the son of man” tells John, “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches ….” (Revelation 1:20)

Revelation goes on to describe other heavenly bodies, personified stars, as it unfolds the final fate of man. “The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood.” (Revelation 8:10-11a)

“And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.” (Revelation 9:1)

Here’s my favorite: “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

Wow. Jesus refers to Himself as the “bright morning star.” Maybe there’s something more to the stars than just being faraway night-lights.

*****

God mentioned the stars when He made a promise to Abraham. “He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” (Genesis 15:5)

There are plenty of “star” mentions in the Bible referring to the Abraham’s “offspring.” God talking to Abraham: “I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven ….” (Genesis 22:17)

God talking to Isaac: “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven ….” (Genesis 26:4).

Moses talking to the tribes of Israel: “The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven.” (Deuteronomy 1:10)

The writer of Hebrews talking to early Jewish Christians: “Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven ….” (Hebrews 11:12)

There’s more, but you get the picture. The Bible makes the connection between stars and heavenly beings – angels (fallen and not fallen) and Jesus himself. And the Bible makes the connection between stars and the number of Abraham’s descendents. Any more connections we can make?

Well … there’s the connection that “… if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:29) Okay. So that means you and I, if we belong to Christ, are considered Abraham’s offspring and we share in the inheritance God promised to Abraham.

And … there’s the connection that “… in the resurrection they (we) neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (Matthew 22:30) And what kind of bodies can we expect to have then? According to Paul, “There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.” (I Corinthians 15:40-41)

Before we get any deeper into this connecting the dots business, let’s get a grip on what I’m saying. Am I saying that angels and even Jesus Christ are really stars and stars are them and someday we’ll be stars too? Nope. That’s a bit of a stretch.

What I’m saying is this: In the Bible there’s a connection between stars and heavenly beings. Whether it’s a physical or allegorical or spiritual connection, it’s definitely a connection. And if you want to accept God’s Word as true then you can’t ignore that the connection exists.

There’s also a connection between us and the promise God made to Abraham and that promise is counted in the stars.

There’s also a connection between what kind of bodies we will have in the resurrection and the kind of bodies heavenly beings have now.

So what’s my point?

You know how I keep talking about how your purpose and my purpose are woven together into a great tapestry that, as a whole, reflects God’s purpose? Well, even the stars are a part of that tapestry. How many, where they’re placed, the constellations, their relation to the angels of heaven - all of it is according to purpose. And being a part of His purpose, we share in it.

Like the story of our lives and our purpose, the stars tell a story. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4)

The story they tell? We’ll get into that next week.

Until then I’ll leave you with the story of another friend of mine. His name is John. And like the John of Revelation, he had an experience of being ‘transported’ in the Spirit beyond this grassy meadow we call earth. According to my friend John, God took him above and beyond this earth, whether in reality, in the Spirit, or in his mind’s eye, I don’t know and he can’t say; but he knows he went and he knows what he saw. God showed him the earth and the planets and the stars – the whole vastness of the universe. You know what God told my friend John? “Do you see this?” “I am not in this universe; it is in Me.”

If what John said God told him is true - that God is so vast the entire universe exists in Him, what could possibly compare with that immensity and power?

Another thing I talk a lot about is perspective. What’s big in your world? What keeps you up at night? Worried about your job? Sweating this month’s house payment? Upset over the tiff you and your spouse had this morning? Worried that your kid isn’t going to make the grade in school?

Step back and look at the stars. Remember Who has a plan for your life. Remember Whose tapestry your future is woven into. If you have a problem too big to handle, put it into His hands; it’s a lot smaller from there.

In Him,

Steve Spillman

PURPOSE

Vol. 2, Issue 25

June 29, 2008

The Great Treasure Hunt

“‘But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home. I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown, and I will multiply the number of people upon you, even the whole house of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. I will increase the number of men and animals upon you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the Lord. I will cause people, my people Israel, to walk upon you. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance; you will never again deprive them of their children.’” (Ezekiel 36:8-12)

We just returned from Israel. Zion Oil & Gas held its second shareholders meeting as a public company and celebrated the dedication of its second oil well, to be drilled in September. I’m not in the oil business and I’m not a Zion Oil shareholder. I’m just an interested party.

Twenty seven years ago my father wrote a little book titled The Great Treasure Hunt. It explained his idea that Jacob (Israel) had left an inheritance to his sons that wouldn’t be available to them for a while. Not until, as Jacob put it, “in the last days.” (Genesis 49:1)

Jacob passed on an inheritance to his sons that God had promised him – the same one God had originally granted his grandfather Abraham.

“‘…Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.’” (Genesis 13:14-15)

In Jacob’s Blessing were passages that hinted at something more than the typical inheritance of those days. Crazy as it sounds, my father believed some of those passages referred to oil … not olive oil … petroleum.

Like I said – crazy.

There wasn’t any geological or historical proof when Dad made public that the Bible promises the children of Israel a great petroleum discovery for “the last days.” Only scripture and only the faith that God’s Word is true, regardless of the evidence.

But faith and scripture seems to be enough for some folks. It was enough for Dad. And it was enough for John Brown, who had just undergone a dramatic personal experience with God; a life changing, life giving metamorphosis, we refer to as being ‘born again’, when he ran into my dad.

By 1981 Dad had known about the Bible’s promise of an oil discovery in Israel for some time. Dad too, thought the idea was a little crazy … even though he believed God showed it to him … even though scripture promised it. It took him five or six years to get his head and his heart and his research around the idea enough to share it with the rest of the world.

Dad had just begun telling people that Jacob’s Blessing included a huge last days oil discovery in Israel, when he received a call inviting him to speak at a church in Clawson, Michigan.

It was winter and it was Michigan, and he had already scheduled the time for a sunny beach in Mexico. But he felt the tug he recognized as the Voice of his Employer. When God said, “Go here, and not there,” Dad generally complied. Shorts and sunglasses went back in the drawer and Dad went to Clawson.

Dad had been speaking to audiences for years. He could speak on a thousand topics at the drop of a hat. In Clawson he spoke about the promise of oil in Israel … the Voice again.

John Brown was in the audience that day. He was a newbie when it came to things Christian. He may have not been up to speed yet on just how things were done in the religion, but he figured out one thing pretty quick … the Voice. Like my dad, when John felt like God wanted him to do something he did it.

John listened to the story of Jacob’s Blessing and the promise of oil in Israel that day and he believed it. A few years later John traveled to Israel for the first time. While he was there he came upon a passage of scripture from Solomon’s prayer of dedication over the first Temple in Jerusalem.

“‘As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name - for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm - when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.’” (I Kings 8:41-43)

John saw himself as a “foreigner … come from a distant land because of [God’s] name.” He went to the Western Wall of the Temple, the Wailing Wall, and he prayed “toward” the temple. He asked that God would allow him to discover Israel’s oil.

From that day forward John brown dedicated his life to finding the oil promised in Jacob’s Blessing. A lot of water, as they say, has gone under the bridge since then.

Knowing something is true doesn’t necessarily make it real to the rest of the world. Believing in something so much that you stake your life on it doesn’t mean anyone else will believe it. Discovering the existence of a buried treasure today doesn’t mean it will pop to the surface tomorrow.

Dad shared the story of Jacob’s Blessing with a lot of folks in a lot of places around the world. A lot of good folks put their money into finding Israel’s oil. Some good men tried and failed to find Jacob’s Blessing. Some bad men used the story, and the belief of others, to line their own pockets. But nobody found the oil.

John Brown spent a lot of years and a lot of money, most of it his, looking for Israel’s oil. Most people thought he was just another religious nut, come to the Holy Land to discover treasure promised in ancient scripture. But John persisted.

Dad and John didn’t meet until 1997; sixteen years after he had first shared this story with the world, fourteen years after John has made discovering Israel’s oil his vision quest. When they finally met they connected spiritually in the way that veterans of the same foreign war connect when they first meet. They understood each other’s scars.

Dad finished his time in this world without seeing the vision of oil in Israel become a reality. I wonder if he was disappointed. I wonder if he wondered why, after being allowed to ‘discover’ the treasure hidden inside of Jacob’s Blessing, he wasn’t allowed to see it come to pass. I wonder if he just took his role in this story by faith; not questioning why it didn’t come to fruition in his lifetime. I don’t know.

But John persisted. He asked geologists and oil professionals to take a look. They politely declined. But John persisted. They doubtfully agreed to ‘take a look’; warning him in advance that they probably wouldn’t find anything.

Their findings surprised them; there was definitely ‘something’ there. It didn’t surprise John though; he knew it was there – not because of their findings, because God’s Word said it was there.

That’s the thing about faith – you don’t need any corroborating evidence. Lack of evidence doesn’t necessarily make something untrue, any more that stacks of evidence necessarily make something true. If truth is really truth, then the evidence will eventually have to submit to it.

As of last week’s meeting in Israel the evidence is submitting nicely.

******

Twenty-five years ago I left California for South Carolina. I traded the west coast for the east and the life I had known for a new life. I never looked back. I built a life for myself and my family here.

Three thousand miles is a lot of distance. If you’re not estranged to begin with the miles will do the estranging for you. My parents and siblings became family we phoned on the holidays and visited occasionally; not family we lived with.

The Great Treasure Hunt and the story of oil in the land of Israel became family history for me. Just another one of the books Dad wrote ‘back then.’ Building a new life causes the old life to fade.

We did a pretty good job building too. Elaine and I worked hard and didn’t look up too often. I got a job in a factory … twenty years and a lot of effort passed and when we finally did look up our name was on the door of the factory.

We succeeded alright; it’s just that we thought it would feel different. It was nice, it just wasn’t enough; and we knew that even if it got bigger it wouldn’t necessarily get any better. We decided to quit, sell everything and do something else.

I had always wanted to publish books but survival pushed that dream to the back burner. Survival was no longer an issue. We didn’t know anything about publishing and had no books to publish but facts have never prevented us from launching into new adventures. That was Thursday May 13, 2004.

On Saturday of the same week Elaine came home and told me that she had heard some guy mention Dad’s name on the radio. The guy’s name was John Brown and he had an oil company in Dallas, Texas named Zion. He said that he had heard a man named Jim Spillman tell about Jacob’s Blessing and discovering oil in Israel and that he had been looking for it full time since 1983; ‘coincidently’ the same year we moved east to start our ‘new life’ in South Carolina.
‘Coincidently’ I had a business meeting in Dallas the next week and we stopped in to meet this John Brown of Zion Oil. ‘Coincidently,’ after twenty years of effort, Zion Oil was drilling its first oil well in Israel the following spring and John invited Elaine and I the opening ceremony.

‘Coincidently’, our first book, Breaking the Treasure Code: The Hunts For Israel’s Oil, came out that summer.

Funny how things work out.

*****

If you’ve read this letter for any time, you know that I believe each of us has a unique purpose that was in God’s mind long before we ever came into existence.

All those individual purposes are woven, like threads in a great tapestry, into a Single Purpose … His Purpose. We being mortal, short of vision and short of time don’t always see how our thread is woven into the tapestry. It’s a unique experience to see how other threads are woven together with yours to form a part of the picture.

I’m humbled and thankful for being allowed a glimpse of it; but there’s a purpose for that too. He may have showed me a little bit of how the threads go together in my part of the picture so I can share with you that yours aren’t woven any differently. Whether you see your piece of the picture or not, it’s there and you’re a part of it.

I don’t believe Dad wonders about it anymore. I think he sees his part of the picture pretty clearly now. One day we’ll all be allowed to step back and view the finished product. That’ll be a glorious day.

Until then, allow yourself to become a part of His tapestry. He knows exactly where to weave you in.

“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (I Corinthians 13:12)

Until then.

Steve Spillman

“Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:17-18)

Purpose Weekly

Vol. 2, Issue 23

June 8, 2008,

“Is ‘Church’ a Dirty Word?” Part IV

Well … this is week four on the “church” subject. As far as I know, it’s the last one. I’ve been telling you what “church” isn’t. This week I’ve promised to tell you what “church” is – according to the Bible.

From what we’ve been through we know that Webster’s may have been right in his definitions of “church” … as far as how we define “church.” That’s his job, right? Define the words in a way that’s meaningful to us? So, Webster’s is off the hook. Regardless of what the Bible says “church” is Webster’s wrote down what we think “church” is. He upheld his part of the bargain.

According to Webster’s (and those he serves) “church” is:
1. “a building”
2. “a clergy or officialdom”
3. “an organization of religious believers”
4. “a public divine worship”
5. “a profession”

We discussed that the word “church” wasn’t used when Jesus told Peter, “… upon this rock I will build my church.” Jesus, of course, didn’t say this to Peter in King James or any other sort of English. He said it in Aramaic, and Matthew wrote it down in Greek. And the Greek word Matthew wrote down was “ekklesia.” About the closest we can come to a literal translation of “ekklesia” is, “called out.” The term was used to denote an assembly of citizens being “called out” for a special purpose or event.

Let’s back up a day before the conversation between Jesus and Peter when the word “ekklesia” or “called out” was first used.

The day before Jesus talked to Peter about His “ekklesia” Jesus was wrapping up three days of ministry to a group of about four thousand, not including women and children. So maybe twelve thousand people? Maybe more?

At the end of the three days He knew these folks didn’t have any food with them and He knew they were hungry. So He took the food the disciples had left; seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. He gave thanks to His Father in Heaven for what He had and then He broke up the loaves and fishes and fed the crowd … all twelve thousand. Wouldn’t you know it – it was enough to go around; and with seven baskets of left-overs. How’d He do that?

The next morning, along come the Pharisees and Sadducees; the RGIC’s (religious guys in charge). By the way, the Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t like each other. But they didn’t like Jesus more, so they were allies. Kinda like the Russians and Americans in WWII.

The Pharisees and Sadducees said to Jesus, “If you’re the real deal, show us a sign from heaven.”

What? The Guy just fed twelve thousand people with seven loaves of bread and few fish! “Show us a sign from heaven.” Right.

Here’s a piece of advice. Anybody who says, “show me a sign from heaven,” wouldn’t believe if God came down and sat in his lap. It’s a front; a smoke screen. These guys’ minds were already made up. They just wanted Jesus out of the way.

Jesus saw through the hypocrisy of the RGIC’s and He needed to bring His disciples up to speed – get them ready to do what they had to do when the time came. He said to them, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” The disciples thought He was talking about bread. Knuckleheads.

Jesus brought His disciples through three days of teaching and miracles, feeding twelve thousand people with seven loaves of bread and a few fish, blowing off the RGIC’s and then warning His disciples against their hypocrisy. He had them prepped when He asked, “Who do people say I am?” They had lots of answers. Then Jesus asked the million dollar question. “Who do you think I am?”

Peter, a guy who always shot from the gut (definitely not the head) said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter was usually either a total idiot or absolutely brilliant. Today he was brilliant.

“Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:17-18)

That’s the first time “church” (“ekklesia”) is mentioned in the New Testament.

What do you think Jesus meant? He gave Simon a new name, which means ‘rock’ and said that on this “rock” He will build his “ekklesia” – those whom He has “called out.”

*****

At this point I’ve got to confess something. When I said that the “church” isn’t a building, I wasn’t being completely forthcoming. The “church,” according to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians again, that figures) is a ‘building’ … but not one made of bricks and mortar.

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Wow.

We’re the bricks and mortar. Starting with Abraham, Moses, David and the rest of the OT building materials, along with Peter (the rock), John Baptist and John Revelator, and the disciples who walked and ate with Jesus and Paul himself, and those Ephesians who believed and the Roman and Jewish and Corinthian believers, and those from every tribe and nation who heard and understood and believed the message that God had come in the flesh, down to you and me; we’re the “church.” We’re those who Jesus “called out.” We’re a building, a temple, that God lives in. All of us. Together.

*****

The word “church” has packed a lot of baggage over the last two thousand years. It’s come to mean a lot of things to those it’s touched. Say “church” today and people hear “building,” “clergy,” “organization,” “profession.” Sometimes they hear “hypocrisy,” “greed,” “prejudice.” Sometimes they hear “family,” “charity,” “safety.” “Church” has a lot of definitions.

Jesus only had one; “My called out ones.”

It’s probably a little late to think about repainting all the “church” signs in the world to say “ekklesia.” I’m sure a lot of people have already tried that in their own way. Don’t like your “church”? Call it something else: “fellowship,” “gathering,” “congregation,” “meeting place.” Don’t like how things are done? Switch it up a little. Throw out the organ and get a guitar; serve doughnuts and coffee; wear cut-offs and t-shirts – now you’re getting real.

Uh-huh.

If you don’t know who you are, what you are, all the change-ups in the world aren’t going to do you any good. Unless you change your eyes and your heart and understand that you are the “church,” the “ekklesia,” the building where God lives - along with every other person that’s ever believed in Him - then you’re just part of another man-made “church”; a little louder, with a bad wardrobe and running on a caffeine/sugar high, but really no different than the “church” you left.

How do we do “church”? I don’t think I know that one. I’m still blown away by the realization that we are “church.” If we’re all bricks in the same building, stretching back over thousands of years and covering the whole earth, then I have trouble with the idea of my “church” and your “church.” Like my buddy Roger said, there’s only His “church.” And that’s us.

Yeah, but Steve; how do we do “church”?

I don’t know.

But I do know this. Jesus promised something to His disciples, the ones He “called out”: “For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.” (Matthew 18:20)

I’ll start there.

In Him,

Steve Spillman

“You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.” (Romans 14:10-13)

PURPOSE

Vol. 2 Issue 24

June 17, 2008

Just Another Brick in the Wall

Something I said in the last letter has had me thinking. “If we’re all bricks in the same building, stretching back over thousands of years and covering the whole earth, then I have trouble with the idea of my ‘church’ and your ‘church.’”

There are a lot of fellow ‘bricks’ who kinda creep me out. If there’s no my church or your church, only His church, and if you and I are the church, I’d better get used to the idea that you and I are joined together forever, fellow bricks in the building that is God’s temple.

But what if I don’t like you? What if I think you’re way wrong about a lot of things pertaining to Him? What if I think you’ve missed the boat on some pretty important theological points?

What if you think the same thing about me?

Why can’t I just have my church and you have your church, and then we’ll let God sort things out in eternity?

See how easy it is to slip back into that “church is a building/ officialdom/ organization/ profession” thing again? Remember the church is us. You and me and all of those whom Christ has “called out.” It’s made up of all of us … even those who creep us out.

“Whoa Steve, you’re treading on thin ice here.” (What else is new?) “Surely you don’t mean just bunching us all up together!” “There are doctrinal issues at stake!” “Are you asking us to compromise the doctrines that make us different?”

No, not at all. That is, unless your doctrine is wrong. Then go ahead and change it.

“You’re not talking about Ecumenism are you?”

For those of you who don’t stake your lives on man’s theological constructs and their definitions, “ecumenism” is the idea of moving toward ‘universal Christian unity.’ A catholic church.

Don’t panic.

Not the Catholic Church. “Catholic” means “universal” and pertains to the idea of a single, undivided “church” … the way the first church was back in the first century. The way it will be when Christ returns to claim His church.

*****

Something else I said in an earlier letter is relevant to this week’s topic.

“Any time you get a bunch of humans together (Christians fall into this class too) they have a tendency to muck things up.” (Purpose Weekly Vol. 2, Issue 22)

I was talking to a friend on the phone the other day about the early church. We were pretty amazed at stories in the book of Acts about all the believers sharing meals and having everything in common and how a person who had something went out and sold and shared the proceeds with everyone so that no one had too much and no one went without.

Halfway kidding I said, “Communism isn’t a failed ideology; we’re a failed species.” Then I thought about it a little. Then I wasn’t kidding so much.

Communism doesn’t work. Not because it’s broken … because we’re broken.

For the same reason ecumenism, the practical establishment of a single universal church, doesn’t work. As fellow bricks in the wall we disagree with how the wall is built and what it should look like. Each of us is convinced that he or she is right and the brick that doesn’t see it our way is wrong. And we are right … unless we’re wrong. But we stick to our guns - I make my church and you make your church and that’s the way it is.

There will come a day, however, when He returns to receive His church. My church and your church will fade away pretty quickly. My stuff and your stuff won’t be important anymore. It won’t be because He fixed our systems or ideologies or the other guy’s screwed up beliefs; it’ll be because He fixed us.

*****

Artist’s oil paint comes in little tubes, like toothpaste. Between manufacturers there are thousands of colors and tints to choose from. Personally I can’t see the difference between “Brown Ochre” and “Burnt Sienna”; I must not have an artist’s eye for detail. Each pigment has its own unique shade and tint, no matter how subtle … or so they tell me.

But if a crazed pigment terrorist were to sneak into the factory and squeeze all the contents out of all the tubes into a giant pot and stir them all up with a giant stick he wouldn’t get a rainbow of all the world’s unique shades and tints of color. Each individual pigment would be compromised as it was stirred into the mix. They would all meld into one greenish, brownish, grayish goop. What a mess.

In order to graduate from college I ‘had’ to take an art appreciation class. The university wanted to be sure business and science majors had at least a dash of civilization so the institution wouldn’t be embarrassed by news of their alumni not knowing a Cezanne from a Chagall.

I’m fairly dull regarding the finer arts, but I did see a lot of pretty paintings and hear a lot of pretty music in that class and the professor did his best to penetrate our thick business major skulls as to why we should appreciate the ‘Masters.’

I don’t remember much about Cezanne or Chagall other than I’m pretty sure they were painters and not musicians. But one guy did stick in my mind. His name was Georges Seurat. He was a post-impressionist painter (don’t ask me the difference between that and a pre-impressionist painter). What I remember about this guy was that he used a painting technique called “pointillism.” That means his paintings, usually huge canvases, were made up of thousands of tiny uniform dots. It fascinated me that all those individual dots together on the canvas made up a single picture that I could understand and appreciate.

That’s about as close as I can come to explaining the “church”; those whom Christ has “called out.” Individually we’re unique colors of every imaginable shade and tint. Some of the colors go well with others, some clash. If we put all the colors together in a big pot and stirred them up with a big stick we’d get a greenish, brownish, grayish goopy mess. But in the hands of the Master all those individual pigments can come together in a wonderful whole.

It’s beyond me.

I’m beginning to learn my job as a brick; my responsibility as a tiny dot of color. It’s to fill my spot in the whole. That’s it.

I know that I’ll run into other bricks in the Temple, other dots of color on the canvas, whom I disagree with. If I run into a difference that’s too big to ignore I’ll try to follow Paul’s advice. “If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.” (II Thessalonians 3:14-15).

The truth is though, that we tend to focus on differences, even if they’re not so important; we’ll make them important enough so we can be at odds over them.

*****

God, knowing I’m a little dull, usually throws an object lesson my way when He wants me to learn something.

I had lunch with a guy last week who I didn’t think I really wanted to have lunch with. I had decided that I disagreed with this guy on a few things and those few things were important enough for me to decide that this guy was one of those ‘bricks’ who creeped me out.

I was wrong.

First of all, I didn’t know the guy at all. I’d seen him around; I had heard him and heard about him, I’d been in some of the same places at the same time. But I didn’t know the guy.

That didn’t stop me from judging him though. And it didn’t stop me from privileging the world with my opinion either. I was wrong. I apologize.

There are a few things that this brother of mine and me see differently; but we’re both ‘bricks’ in a same temple; both tiny dots of color on the same canvas. Our responsibility is to fill our spot. That’s it. We’ll leave the big picture to the Master.

I’ll end this week’s letter with a classic. I should have this one on a note, pinned to my shirt.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7: 3-5)

Until next week.

In Christ,
Steve Spillman