What can I say? Year 41 is here.
I don't feel different, just a long list of things that can never happen because those dreams died for various reasons, or, a long list of things I thought I would do or be by now that slip further away with each passing year.
Yet... maybe I don't want those things anymore anyway. Maybe, I just need to follow God in the desert to a land I know not of.
I was thinking about Abraham, and how he was rich with cattle, gold, silver, land, servants... And a promise of international impact in subsequent generations. Yet for all his immense wealth, he lived in glorified tents, slaughtered his own dinner, dug Wells for himself, wondered around without ever really settling anywhere. He died a stranger in the land his seed/offspring would later inherit.
Meanwhile, I typed this from my smart phone, edited it from my back-up laptop, onto a social media app, which I then copied into a Blogger platform, from the comfort of a 3 bedroom, two bath house on a half acre and my girlfriend's house for editing while I worked out of her basement.
I cooked a dinner I conveniently bought from the store (no hunting or plowing). I made a skillet cookie on my electric stove.
I sat on a comfortable couch, with a window based air conditioner unit keeping me cool.
Do I have central air? No. But I have an A/C in every room of the house now.
I have access to Netflix, Disney+, and I watched the Leverage Redemption, reboot series, for free via IMDB app on my Firestick. My iPad is charging with my Kindle and Logos libraries of hundreds of books. I drove to my girlfriend's house this morning in a car God fixed with help from family and friends who love me. That same drive by camel, I'm sure it's a lot slower.
*Google Maps says the 16 miles would be 5 hours by foot and 1.5 hours by bicycle; so I'm guessing by camel closer to the walking speed lets say 3 hours. You can imagine how long it took Abraham to get anywhere if he traveled, and why people never went long distances unless they planned to stay gone. This also paints a portrait of how much it cost Abraham to obey Yahweh and "go to a land you know not of".
The poorest people in the United States of America have access to more than Abraham ever conceived of.
Why? Really, why do we have so much today?
Jesus communities, full of Abraham's seed, spring up all over Rome and Europe and Asia and North Africa. Within 300 years of Jesus ushering in the multiplied spirit-filled Kingdom of God rule, the Roman Empire succumbed to the power of Jesus communities, and abolished idol worship.
In the *relative* peace that followed, pockets of people had time to think rather than just survive.
Yes, wars and rumors of wars continued, and still do. But thanks to the relative peace in post-Jesus era, people had time to be creative. While the codex (early bound books) existed before Jesus, it was the early Christians and their mass duplication of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Literature and Letters that led to radical innovation of the codex. Christians improved and enhanced book technologies. Printing presses. Science. And a new age for humanity was born.
Quite literally, all the nations on earth were blessed by the new world that came about with the advent of the Kingdom of God worked out through God's renewed spirit-filled humans.
The fact I can type on this phone is directly linked to one man in the desert saying yes to God, about 4,000 years ago, give or take.
Earth still sucks. Famine. Droughts. Floods. Earthquakes. Genocides. Wars. Selfishness ranging from massive dictatorships to the guy who cuts you off on the way to work permeates ever aspect of human existence. Murder. Rape. Theft. All issues. People kill their babies and call it birth control. People kill abortion doctors and think they're serving God (they're not). There is evil in the world. Hardship.
These issues, plus some bad Bible reading, led many churches in the last 200 years to say "Who cares, it's all gonna burn anyway". But, it isn't, that's not what the story of the Bible is about.
Maybe, in hindsight, Earth doesn't suck as bad with a longer view in mind.
God created a good Earth. He created mankind to be co-rulers with him on Earth, and be fruitful, and multiply, and have dominion (rule) and subdue (put things in order). Just stop for a moment to appreciate the rain on a window, breeze in summer, cool water running over your skin on a hot day, swimming, laughing at a comedy, the amazing wonder of a starry night or a ladybug. It is one amazing planet. Despite the horrors above, people overcome. They break free of dictatorships either by escape or overthrow. They find ways to pursue the freedom God birthed in their inner selves from before creation.
What was The Church known for the first three hundred years?
Selflessness.
Churches took care of the community poor, widows, orphans, and those in distress. They taught people to understand and even read Greek so they could have access to the Hebrew scriptures and Apostles' Letters. They were rejected by Jerusalem for believing in a rejected Messiah, and by Rome for calling Jesus Karios instead of Caesar.
Neverthless, by the 300s AD, Christian communities had survived ever persecution and become so vital to the needs of communities all over the empire that Rome changed its official religion to welcome them into the fold. While that actually became a bad thing for The Church, and we are still feeling its affects today, it proves the power of Jesus Communities over the long haul.
Earth is still broken, and Jesus Communities are still going be the primary agents to put it right. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and its King will only ever grow, it cannot shrink, it is the rock of Daniel 2, cut without human hands, crushing all other kingdoms, and growing without end, it will be proclaimed in every single facet of planet earth, and then Jesus will return for his people.
Right up to the last day, there will be wars and rumors of wars. There will be evil. Some of us may even die for this kingdom. Nevertheless, the kingdom will grow despite it all. Only ever grow. And we've been given a chance to be a part of it.
The Church holds the power to transform societies, when we stop trying to hold on to political power.
A great awakening has come, the sleeping giant that took over Rome is waking up to her first love. Her first century understanding of what it meant to be a Jesus Community. And the power of that kind of fellowship will be like nothing the world has seen since before 300 AD.
Can you feel the buzz...? The electricity? The Spirit whispers ...
He's coming...
He's coming...
He's coming...
Listen for it... The wind of change is blowing.
Shalom: Live Long and Prosper!
Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)
Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com
Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ
Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ
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