I sometimes wonder how christianity has gotten where they are by what I read in the scriptures.
Maybe if you read it enough times you start to see things that weren’t there the first time, or second time, or third time. But it is that continuing searching that it starts to show that underlying theme or storyline that come into focus for you. You just wonder with the pharisee’s and the saduccees that were known for their reading of the scriptures over and over again, why they didn’t see things that were connected to each other that would spin itself into a deep and amazing story for mankind. Maybe their ritual, or tradition was to just ‘say’ the scriptures was just a mundane chore for the day? Maybe, this was the problem with Israelite’s in that they were to much in the tradition of reading the scriptures that their was no meaning in it.
I have come to rely on history. In history we see not only actual events of time, but of the social events before and after said big event. It is how we base our understanding of mankind in all thru time. It is in this realm of digging into history we see even more and more of people in their own stories, communities of understanding everything around them and their actions and beliefs to those events. We, right now are doing the same thing, we just might not know it, we are acting and reacting to all the events around us, and to some extent to things far away from us with advent of the internet.
I have become over the last twenty years have been that forensic detective that doesn’t just ‘see’, or ‘read’, or ‘hear’ something without digging past the obvious things. This should be the mark of Jesus follower, digging deeper every day that you are a christian. What I have learned thru the years of studying the bible is that it is a goldmine of information about God and his people and his world. I once was asked ‘How long should it take to read the bible?’, the usual ‘church’ answer would be the 1 or 2 year plan that the church gives out. But this is not the ‘idea’ for what the bible is. It is to ‘know’ the Bible! My answer to the question was “50 years”, I think my answer may have been to short in its answer,tho! We can only scratch the surface with God. But I do believe that we should ‘see’ what God is telling us and showing us on what his intentions for us.
The models of what we have perceived to be the existence of God’s people in the world and how they are to be in the world, and how they are to meet, act, or to exist has be skewed in that we have not understood the eternal purpose of God.
I want to point out that this is because of a few things. One is the misunderstanding of God’s eternal purpose in mankind. We are very,very limiting of God. We have put God into thousands of little buildings all across the U.S., when the scriptures says the opposite. God will be, and is Everywhere. This was and is His Goal. But we have failed to see this in His New Covenant. It is actually following the first covenant of the Jews with God in that we were supposed to build a temple and place God there!? What’s with that? Just maybe we have not reached the understanding of the New Covenant with Christianity yet? I don’t know either. But I do ‘see’ the dawn of the light coming into the world.
The second thing, is that the failure of christians failing to read and to study the scriptures in a way that is done in a more deep and investigative way to find the truth of God. We have realized way to much on the person in front of congregation to give them snippets from the bible, as does the media on the national news. Look how that has gotten us! Until we realize that as a God believer that we dig deeper and deeper into God’s word to know him. This is not going to be a easy fix, but it can be done with the fortitude of God’s people. Where two or three people are gathered together, there also is God. He will guide and direct us in his word. I strongly suggest in having a small group of people that are in agreement in your quest in finding the truth in the word of God.
The third thing is maybe(it is) the glue that holds this all together. Jesus died on the cross, rose again to be with the father, it is in this action that God has sent someone to follow us in our journey here on earth to unite God’s people together. It is the “Holy Spirit”, this is our “Christ is in Us, We are in Him” fact that we seem to forget or just don’t understand. I tend to think the latter. Christ living ‘in’ us, We ‘in’ Him means we are in fellowship with Him, and We are ‘WORSHIPING’ Him. This is the design of God’s ultimate purpose! Why do we not see this? The Holy Spirit is our temple,church, body,bride whatever you want to define it as. (It is not to have a fellowship with other people in a building, it is to have fellowship(worship) our God. Period. This reasoning of other people as fellowship has to go away to understand the true meaning of worshiping of God!)
Now, taking those three things as corrections in our understanding of our eternal purpose as God’s people, and He our God we should be able to ‘see’,’know’,’hear’,what God’s purpose for us in the world, it is that ‘WE’,All His People are His, unto all the nations, forever and ever! Praise His Name!
The Eternal Purpose 