Everyone Has A Story… By Thomas J. Koester

This can be your liberation day — This could be the day that your war ends.

There is a great Shakespearean quote from one of my favorite war flicks, “To End All Wars.” Released 2001, starting Robert Carlyle and Kiefer Sutherland. Based on a real-life story of Allied soldiers in Burma who were held captive by the Japanese several years before the ending of World War II.

During a touching and dramatic scene prior to their rescue, when all hope had been beaten out of the POWs, American B-24 bombers flew over the prison camp. Suddenly, like large fluttering snowflakes, hundreds of leaflets from the Allied forces decended down onto the camp.

On each of the leaflets held a message of hope and liberation, announcing the end of the war and the impending arrival of Allied forces. The reaction of the Japanese soldiers was to immediately abandon the camp and retreat into the jungle.

The POWs bewildered, as their captors fled, being severely weakened from malnutrition and abuse, couldn’t believe what was happening. As the significance of the moment dawned on the terribly broken men, a fellow POW began quoting the following:

“For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition from this day to the ending of the world. But we in it shall be remembered; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” –Henry V Act 4, Scene 3, St. Crispin’s Day

I want you to know that while you may be suffering alone; confused, bewildered, dried up on the inside, and losing hope, your rescue is coming. You are not alone! While we’re not all held captive together in a prison camp, we are all together in spirit. Each tear we silently shed is our “bleeding.” It is what binds us together beyond space and time. It’s what makes us brothers and sisters. We all have our own stories as to how we’ve become broken, abused, and imprisoned. Your story does matter and is critically important!

It’s in the remembering and the telling of your story that could change everything — It did for me.

In the 2007 movie: “Reign Over Me,” starring, Adam Sandler as Charlie Finemen, a man who was completely lost because of the horrific and sudden death of his beloved wife, Doreen, and his three little daughters, Geena, Jenny, and Julie, in one of the doomed hijacked planes of 911.

Charlie runs into his old friend, Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle). The two had shared a dorm room while at a dental school, for two years, and now, nearly five years later, and having lost touch with one another, they bumped into each other by chance, on a street corner in New York.

Alan Johnson, surprised at Charlie’s state of grief and lost-ness, tries to help his old friend recover. He ends up getting Charlie to see his therapist friend, Angela Oakhurst (Liv Tyler).

Charlie finally consents to see the therapist. Charlie seems not to be listening to Angela’s recommendations and asks if his counseling secession could be over. Angela consents and says:

“If you want it to be, Charlie.”

So, Charlie gets up from the sofa and is nearly out of Angela’s office when he is stopped by her. She gives him one last piece of advice:

“Charlie, before you go, I’d like to say something. Look, the fact is you had a family and you suffered a great loss, and until you discuss that and we can really talk about that, this is all just an exercise. I can be patient, Charlie, but you need to tell someone your story. It doesn’t have to be me, but someone.”

Charlie did begin to tell his story to his friend, Alan Johnson. Although painful, it began the recovery of a long battle with grief and loss, whereby through this tragedy, he had developed PTSD.

I strongly encourage you to find someone to tell your story to a therapist, friend, pastor, priest, or rabbi. If not, reach for pen and paper and begin your own memoir. As you may eventually discover, your own story is worth telling, and suddenly, your desert may turn into an oasis.

It’s never too late to start. I started writing my story at age fifty-four. The writing and telling of my story have given me a greater understanding and clarity that I did not have before I began to write.

Author and speaker John Eldredge responded in an interviewer when asked the following question:

Interviewer:

“Why is it so important for us to view our lives as a story?”

John Eldredge:

“We’ve tried to sort and solve our confusion with tips and techniques, principles — a truth here — a proposition there, but it doesn’t really work. I’m suggesting that we’ll get a whole lot farther down the road to clarity and understanding if we look at things through the lens of story.”

I had, tried all the empty “tips and techniques, principles; a truth here or a proposition there,” and have found that these things may offer some relief, but do not take us as far as we need to go in our journey. It is the telling or writing of your story and, as Mr. Eldredge has suggested, looking at your life and, “all things through the lens of a story.”

I have written my story in many articles that I have posted and published. They are all my jewels and pearls of life. It is my sincere hope that I’ve spread them before the needy, the brokenhearted; those in dungeons of despair and those imprisoned with guilt, and not to those who would cheapen them — who would embellish themselves upon my misery and that of others. But even so, to such people, I bid you come, and take what you want, for the greatest of my treasures lay not in Wall Street, or on Main Street, but in heaven.

I encourage you to consider your life as a “story”. It contains all the chapters of your life, with good days and bad days. With chapters of pain and agony and pages of suffering, chapters of recovery and joy and pages of contentment. Your story is made up of all your events of life and when you are brave enough to take a peek, you may begin to see there has been an Author all along, doing something in you through each and every chapter of your life.

And even though, at least so far, this has been a short version of my story and journey from severe child abuse and the development of PTSD early in my life, there has been and remains an Author and Artist throughout all the years of my life.

God has intricately woven and written my story, using all the chaos and heartache, loss and pain, seasons of happiness and great joy, months of loneliness and despair, years of poverty and wealth — the list goes on and on.

For nearly sixty-six years now, nothing in life or in the dying has changed this one important truth:

Christ is our only answer and our only hope!

Turn to Him, who is well acquainted with grief and sorrow. He bore it all, not for title or position, but that He may become a Savior worth trusting and a Lamb to gentle your condition.

Begin your journey of hope and healing and call out to the Abba of Jesus. He is the end of your search for hope and healing and the cure for your hurting heart and soul.

Trusting Him may just begin a new and beautiful story.

This can be your liberation day — This could be the day that your war ends.

Go and write your story!

Healing of A Woman’s Heart – To Be Seen or Not To Be Seen – by Thomas J Koester

A little girl understands the significance of inner beauty from her daddy. Her mother may teach her the practicality and meaning of femininity, but her daddy will teach her the importance of feminine beauty and being captivating in heart and soul.

To ignore this writes John Eldredge:

“… to dismiss her little twirls, bashful smiles, and cries, of: “Daddy, do you see me? Daddy, do you delight in me? Daddy, do you have time for me?”

To ignore these important things, can create ugliness on the inside and an overemphasis on external beauty.

So many little girls are wounded in heart and soul by a brute father, cruelty, or physical violence. This is not to marginalize or diminish the pain of abuse, which so many little girls and women have suffered. However, a father’s absence, busyness, or silence can damage her inner beauty and feminine heart too.

I know this because I have a fantastic, graceful, brilliant, and gentle daughter named Tessa. She is blessed with a natural outer beauty, and, despite my long periods of absence in her younger years, she radiates inner beauty and a love for life. She is also very creative and has become a very bright and savvy businesswoman.

Yes, I know about wounded little girls and wounded wives. I wish I could undo the absent and silent years while I was too busy with career and acclimation, fame, and fortune. I hate that not only did I validate much of my wife’s wounding, but I created wounding within the heart and soul of my precious daughter.

But, as fathers and daddies, if we turn our hearts back towards our daughters, they can be set free to twirl, smile, and light up with inner beauty, no matter how young or old. It is never, absolutely never too late to heal the damage we men, young and old, have inflicted on the most precious gift as a little girl.

If we don’t, she’ll go on, accentuating her outer beauty and cultivating and shaping her femininity as a weapon against other women and allurement to capture men’s primal instinct and attention, whereby she’ll ruin herself repeatedly.

The hole in her heart is caused not by strangers, boyfriends, or lovers but by a father, and no other man on earth can make her whole again except the man called, daddy.

A wound where there are no tears, but only a hardened heart and dry soul, is a heart and soul that a miracle can only heal. Fathers, you are that miracle!

My daughter has told me many times, while we’re in public, “did you see the way that girl looked at me?” It took me a while to understand and catch what she had experienced, but one day, I saw the snarling look girls give to pretty girls. The irony is that the angry or jealous girl may be blessed with outer beauty.

But doesn’t this speak to the real issue—the real battle within the wounded feminine heart and soul?

She feels threatened and at war with outer beauty, no matter how unattractive or beautiful an opponent may be—she can’t help but constantly compare herself to them. Her extreme focus blinds her to the inner emptiness of others. This is because she has long forgotten or is unaware of her inner beauty. So all that is left is the shell and not the substance of who she truly is—she is lost.

A wise and good father will point his daughter to a greater Father by loving her from the inside out. By loving her from his heart to hers, he grants her the belief and faith in a Loving and Father-Hearted God.

“No one can come to the Father, Jesus has said, except through me.” John 14: 6. And, with the passageway and destination to God being both males, a father-wounded girl may have difficulty trusting these words of Jesus, or the goodness of the heart of a Father-God.

The Evil One uses a father’s inexperience and his childhood wounding from his own father to harm the daughters and sons that he’s begotten. This is called a schism, a well-planted wedge of hurt and pain from one victim to the next, from one father to daughters and sons, until generations are inflicted with heartlessness, self-loathing, and with an over-emphasis on the flesh.

If we fail to turn to our daughters, a wounded girl will compete aggressively among other sufferers, among other wounded girls. The only difference between a wounded little girl and a wounded and grown woman is the cost of their hair, makeup, clothing, and accessories.

I have nothing against makeup, clothing, or a little bling. But, if you want the right kind of man, wouldn’t you instead captivate him with your heart and soul? If not, you may fall for a guy who’ll not see you, not delight in you, and not spends time with you. You’ll settle for the abuse of silence and busyness, a hollow man only satisfied with your competitive and external beauty, which you must constantly fight against, foods, fads, and aging.

Wouldn’t you want a man who values and is captivated by your heart and soul? After all, your heart and soul are eternal and not external.

Healing is possible. Life is possible. And Love is worth fighting for, and a daddy’s love is worth risking the hurt of possible rejection. But, “faith, hope, and love are eternal,” and, as it further says in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13, the Love Chapter, “Love keeps no record of wrongs.”

… Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy; it does not boast; it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hope, and always perseveres. Love never fails.

…And now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. –I Corinthians 13: 4-8,13.

If you want “Happily-Ever-After,” you must find the guy who’s after your heart, not your body or made-up face. When you do, you’ll be happy and free to live and be truly loved.

It is the heart—it’s always been the heart. And not only is this the part of you which Christ came to heal, but also to make his home with you— inside your heart.

“The Spirit of the Lord, the Eternal, is on me. The Lord has appointed me for a special purpose. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to repair broken hearts, And to declare to those who are held captive and bound in prison, “Be free from your imprisonment!” He has sent me to announce the year of jubilee, the season of the Eternal One’s favor:

For our enemies, it will be a day of God’s wrath; For those who mourn, it will be a time of comfort. As for those who grieve over Zion, God has sent me to give them a beautiful crown in exchange for ashes, To anoint them with gladness instead of sorrow, to wrap them in victory, joy, and praise instead of depression and sadness.” –Isaiah 61: 1-3 (VOICE)

To be seen or not to be seen? That is a great question. Start with the healing of your heart, so all will go well with you.

Be seen as radiant and beautiful of heart, and let all other fads, fashions, and accessories go. Nothing is more important than you and the little girl who was once lost and is now found, loved, and celebrated of heart and soul.

I see you!

I love the scene from the movie, “The Last of the Mohicans,” when Cora Munro, played by Madeleine Stowe, is seen by Hawkeye, played by Daniel Day-Lewis.

Cora: “What are you looking at, Sir?”

—She neither expected nor anticipated the answer she received and appeared awkward and bashful, but she is captivated by his seeing her.-

“I’m looking at you, Miss,” Hawkeye said steadily.

I’m looking at you, Toni Koester. You are a captivating and radiant woman of heart and soul — I see you!

The Power of The Father Connection – By Thomas J. Koester

Never underestimate the power, authority, and security of a father’s connection. There is nothing on earth that can take its place.

Since time began, power was, and is, the principal motivator of life. Whoever wields power has control, authority, and security. If you think about it, these three things are essential for just about any group of people. In fact, they are essential for a healthy family.

This is why family is so important. It is the very fabric that holds society together.

Whether you agree or not, God instituted family. He derived the construct from his trinitary-self of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Father, wife, and child are by design, God’s reflective image of himself into creation.

God first creates man, then woman, then from their union, offspring. God shares with man his power, giving him control, authority, and security. He places man in the center of paradise and says you tend it, cultivate it, rule over it, and honor its boundaries (security).

Fundamentally, our identity, personhood, and security come from our families and principally from our fathers. The most primal and significant connection we can have on earth begins with our fathers. It’s not an option—it’s foundational!

This is why fatherhood is under such terrible assault. It is the most strategic and essential part of God’s design and image. Destroy the image of fathers, and you destroy the image of Father-God. Turn the children from their fathers, and you’ll frustrate and hinder children from finding their Heavenly Father.

When fathers and children turn away from each other, the family crumbles. When this becomes the norm, marriages crumble, and children become aimless and disenfranchised from the safety of paternal authority, control, and security. They become targets of destructive philosophies, ideologies, and influences.

The following is an excellent portrayal of the destructive force against fathers and family:

In the 1991 Movie “Hook,” starring Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, Robbin Williams as Peter Banning (Peter Pan), and Charlie Korsmo as Jack Banning, Peter’s son; an interesting scene takes place between Captain Hook and little Jack Banning:

Hook: Such a pretty, pretty…. … What is that I hear? A ticking. Smee, stop the ticking! Stop that! Stop that “tick-tick”!

Smee: There’s no ticking here. There’s nothing left to tick.

Hook: This is for the ticking that might have been. Get his father’s watch!

Smee: Right.

Hook: Go on. You know you want to. Give it a try. Go on.

Jack: This is for..never letting me blow bubbles in my chocolate milk!

[he smashes his dad’s watch]

Smee: Yes!

Hook: Ha ha! Good form! Bravo!

Smee: There you go! Isn’t that wonderful?

Jack: This is for never letting me jump on my own bed.

[Jack smashes the watch again]

Hook: Make time stand still, laddie.

Jack: For always making promises and breaking them! For never doing anything with me.

[ Once again, Jack smashes the watch]

Hook: For a father who’s never there, Jack. Jack, for a father who didn’t save you on the ship.

Jack: [Sadly] Who wouldn’t save us….

Hook: Who couldn’t save you, Jack.

Jack: He wouldn’t. He didn’t even try. He was there, we were there, and he wouldn’t try.

Hook: Jack, he will try. And the question will be: When the time comes, do you want to be saved? Now, don’t you answer now. No, no, no, no. Now it’s time to be whatever you want to be. Put behind you any thoughts of home…that place of broken promises.

Jack: That what?

Hook: Have I ever made a promise, Jack… … I have not kept? Have I, son?

Did you read how the evil Hook exploits Jack’s wounds? Then Hook belittles his father, even to the point of “when the time comes, Jack, do you want to be saved?”

Hook continues, stealing the boy’s identity:

“…Now it’s time to be whatever you want to be. Put behind you any thoughts of home… … that place of broken promises.”

Not only does Hook steal the boy’s identity, he sinisterly robs him of his sense of belonging and then mischaracterizes Jack’s home “as a place of broken promises.”

Hook tops it off by reidentifying Jack as “his son.” He strikes Jack’s wound at the center of his heart, reminding Jack that his dad is weak, a liar, and a man of broken promises.

“Hook: Have I ever made a promise, Jack… … I have not kept? – Have I, son?”

I truly believe that this clever and well-written movie accurately illustrates how evil destroys fathers, families, children, and homes.

In the last book of the Old Testament, the last chapter and the last two verses read:

“Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.” Malachi 4:5-6

The fulfillment of this Malachi prophecy occurs in the First Chapter of Luke 1:17. John The Baptist prepared the way for Jesus Christ, whose mission was to redeem the lost sons of Adam.

When fathers and children remain estranged and God’s salvation is averted, the land, culture, and society become cursed. It is undeniable that our land, America, has been cursed.

Fathers, do whatever it takes to connect with your kids. Kids, do whatever it takes to connect with your fathers.

Sometimes, taking up our father’s interest in sports, hobbies, etc., is the only way we can connect with our fathers. His pastime becomes ours, and maybe the only bridge on earth to reach him and spend time with him.

However, I’d rather see fathers turn their hearts towards their children, enter their world, and connect with their likes.

The hearts of the fathers must initiate a turning back to their children, or there’s little hope for society, and maybe your family, too. Their best hope of connecting to God is their connecting with dad!

Fathers, your legacy is at risk – worse, your children’s future and eternity are at stake.

Never underestimate the power, authority, and security of a father’s role and his connection. There is nothing on earth that can take its place!

A Few Good Men – By Thomas J. Koester

History shouts, “It only takes a few good men!”

I Dare You To Become Greater Than Your Fathers. I dare you to become a real man!

A Few Good Men is an intergenerational and interdenominational movement of men for all ages. We believe that segregating our youth from the men in our churches, ministries, and communities is counter-productive to the process of raising our boys into strong men and leaders of tomorrow. We believe men, without the opportunity and access of our youth, are a terrible loss of potential and vice-versa.

Becoming a man is not a chronological process. You simply do not grow into manhood or masculinity. John Eldredge describes masculinity as “that quality or characteristic of manhood being passed through close proximity to boys.” You can not take a class or read a book on becoming a man. It is mystically and methodically passed through the process of mutual struggle and the sharing of life’s experience.

Many times, when older men share their struggles, losses, and defeats in a room full of young men, you’d think they’d be bored to tears. They’re not. They are inspired to open and share their own struggles, losses, and defeats. And when we have this kind of “open vulnerability,” change is possible. Community develops, and a band of brothers is formed.

“This story shall the good man teach his son; … From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered-We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition, from this day, till the end of the world” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V, Act IV, Scene III.

We need each other. A father needs a son, and a son needs a father. In a perfect world, each of us would have a present, communicative, warm, and loving father. He would be their to father us through each of life’s challenges, showing us the ropes, teaching us, and modeling how life is to be lived, fought for, and how to love and sacrifice.

It is the purging of our hurts, losses, and pains, which eases the suffering of becoming a man. It helps young men and boys to see the scars and wounds older men have amassed over the years. It helps because they learn they’re not alone, not misfits nor Martians. Life is hard. I said earlier, “In a perfect world, each of us would have a present, communicative, warm, and loving father;” this, however, isn’t reality.

Some of our deepest wounds were delivered by our dads. And, because it was our dads, the wound is life altering and disruptive; it takes many of us “off course” from the path of our intended journey.

Most of us have not been invited into manhood but have entered in, without guidance and the advantage of a present and available father. We are lost. Lost sons and then lost men. Most of us men are simply aged boys. We’re stuck and trapped, and inside is a small and frightened boy. On the outside is the body of a man, pretending to be a man on the inside. His life is carefully lived, concealing this truth.

If boys are to become men; or, if lost adult males are to become men; we must open up in a sanctuary (safe place) for us to share our stories. The telling of your story is the first step to being found.

One of my favorite movies is “Hook,”with Robin Williams as “Peter Panning” and Dustin Hoffman as “Captain Hook.” The scene where the Lost Boys have their early encounter with “Peter Panning, the Lawyer” was one of rejection and disbelief. “‘He’s not ‘The Pan,’ he’s fat and old!'”

The Lost Boys become divided; some believe he is “The Pan,”and others do not. Even Peter Panning thinks they’re all nuts. However, a little boy approaches Peter Panning. The little boy takes the face of Peter Panning into his hands and begins to shape it, looking for something lost, peering into his eyes. Suddenly, the boy lifts Peter’s sagging face into a smile, and the little boy exclaims; “Oh, there you are, Peter!”

You see, deep within you is that lost boy. You were knocked off your intended journey into manhood and masculinity. Somewhere, you became lost. It sometimes takes the brave young boy to look you deep into your soul and say, “There you are, Jeff! There you are, Bob! There you are, Mike, or John or Steve!” We need the youth, and the youth need us. Together, we find each other. Together, we become men.

We invite you; no, rather we call you to join A Few Good Men. I dare you to be greater than your fathers. You do indeed have what it takes. You are no longer a lost boy but found, wanted, and needed.

Join us in becoming men. Men of honor. Men of God. A Few Good Men!

Fly In The Formation Of Love – By Thomas J. Koester

When you want to go far, you travel together.

The meaning of true fellowship is bearing the burdens of others so that together we may go the distance; when one is weak, the other is strong. Even Nature teaches us this.

Consider the geese…

They fly in a “V” formation to give rest for each goose flying behind them. The “V” formation is also so they can see each other. When the leader tires, another humbly moves into place, allowing the leader to rest behind the strength and flight of others. As the geese remain in tight formation, they create uplift for each other with every downward flapping of their wings.

Geese are monogamous and mate for life. Their honking sound is not about complaining or arguing but confirming and comforting the flock. When it is time for the flock to rest, the leader finds safe ground, and they rest together. Geese can only travel the distance because they fly together, each one taking their place. They watch for the right season and begin their journey as one. Sounds like an excellent model for the church, doesn’t it?

Be patient and kind towards one another, prefer one another, and daily forgive each other’s offenses. The offense is the devil’s trap. It’s your choice to become trapped. Jesus has said:

“Offenses will certainly come, but woe to the one they come through!” – Luke 17:1.

Don’t bring offense, rather be the one who extinguishes it!

The enemy is not each other. it’s not your brother or sister; it’s not your pastor or teacher, and the enemy is certainly not your wife, or husband, sons, or daughters. The enemy is not what others do. Rather, it is the voice you allow to speak into your mind, tempting you to condemn them. It is the voice that whispers inside of our heads, seducing and taking over our thoughts to kill ourselves with self-condemnation, and so we condemn others.

The voice of God, through the Holy Spirit, never condemns. He will not, and cannot, because of Christ. The Apostle Paul said it best…

“Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. – Romans 8:1-2

If our hearts or their hearts condemn us, God’s love for us and, for them, is infinitely far greater than our hearts and far higher than our thoughts. And, remember, God knows all things from the beginning and all the way to the end. – 1 John 3:20.

If our destination is the same, should we not all get along here, and now?

Will segregation, denominations, and prejudice exist in heaven? If our journey is towards heaven, then let us act like heaven. If we do not, heaven will not recognize us. Travel slowly and together, and become heavenly minded so that we may together do earthly good.

Fly in the formation of love.

The true bond of fellowship is unconditional love, and it requires sacrifice, just as God’s love for us is bonded through the sacrifice of Christ.

“… When you want to go far, you travel together. Just fly in the formation of love!

Here’s the Church, And Here’s The Steeple, Open The Doors And Where’s All the People? – By Thomas J. Koester

The COVID-19 virus caused the emptying of 21st-century Christianity’s churches and cathedrals.

While the empty tomb of our Lord and Savior is, and forever, will be the main power source of Christianity, the Social Distancing edict might have inadvertently caused a miracle. Due to COVID-19, maybe empty church buildings will also become, in a small way, (a) power source for modern-day Christianity. Maybe our closed buildings will mean an opening to global evangelism.

The empty tomb meant that the old religious order of continual animal sacrifices was over. It means that the old order of the priesthood was over. It meant that the veil, which separated you and me from direct access to God, was torn down. And very importantly, it meant that where two or more are gathered, there in their midst is the very presences of God, and no longer confined to the temple made by man. It means that even when we are alone, and without each other, that God is with us and in our very own hearts.

God’s people no longer needed priests. God’s people no longer needed animal sacrifices to make atonement. God’s people no longer had to experience His favor and presence by proxy. And, God’s people no longer were confined to a temple made of bricks and mortar.

Because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are free of all the religious trappings and traditions of men and of the consequences of the law. We are free to be the Church wherever we gather, even as few as two people!

Let us capitalize on our present situation and be convinced, once and for all, that we, as God’s people, are the Church. We are the living church. We, you and I, are the bride of Christ. Our church buildings, plain or palatial, were never meant to be the representation of the world.

Although, sadly, Church buildings had become the identity of Christianity. It is my hope that God’s people will be recognized as the Church and regain her position as the living bride of Christ and the center of Christianity.

One Sunday, Toni and I visited a church in Oakdale, California. When we arrived, we walked in and learned that the Church was emptied except for a few people who were preparing a luncheon, later to be enjoyed by the returning congregation. Rather than their typical service, the Church was in the downtown square, assisting their local community. We were actually pleasantly surprised and not at all offended by the empty sanctuary.

Do not be overcome because we cannot presently occupy a building, but celebrate that with or without buildings that we are the Bride of Christ, and that we’re meant to deliver the Gospel of the Kingdom to every nation and to every people. In doing so, our proclamation will hasten the ending and will launch the new beginning that we’ve all been longing for.

For the past 1700 years, Christianity created and built ornate cathedrals with spires and steeples pointing to the heavens.

Let the truth be known:

“Church steeples can be traced back thousands of years to Egypt and pagan worship. Roman Emperor Constantine and his “Edict of Milan” in 313CE made the Empire officially neutral with regard to religion. Eventually, Pagan and Christian symbols were eventually merged at the Council of Nicea in 325CE, and new doctrines and dogmas were set up by the Holy Roman Catholic (meaning universal) Church, and strictly enforced, under penalty of death.”

Since then, this building emphasizes that along with Christianity, continually orbiting ornate and palatial constructs, we’ve ceased going into all the world with the Gospel and instead invited all the world into our buildings. Over time, the contrast between Christianity and “worldlism” diminished. Rather than the world becoming more influenced by Christianity, the world’s influence had crept into our churches and has negated our need for faith and the Great Commission.

Let’s pray that this COVID-19 virus heals Christianity from its obsession with buildings and steeples and instead goes out, even as few as two-by-two, to all the peoples.

God’s blessings and power to the true Living Church and Bride of Christ – Amen