Quote:
Originally Posted by SteVee
We can't change anybody, but we can love them and, as parents, provide an atmosphere conducive to spiritual growth.
|
Leadership means to lead, to go before. Today, Leaders so-called sit in air-conditioned offices while the followers so-called go out and do the dirty work, and brave the danger. In the old days, the king was at the head of the army. David led Israel because he faced Goliath, not because he sat in a tent somewhere and pretended to be something.
The exemplar, of course, is Jesus Christ, who lowered Himself beneath all and thus became the Leader, Savior, and Captain of all. He wasn't a soft man who sat on soft cushions in a velvety tent, speaking smooth words.
In our journey with the Bible, the leader goes into the narrative. I argue that the apostles in the NT were leaders because they took the lead to show that Jesus was the promised Messiah, of whom all God-seekers and God-fearers had been hoping, since time immemorial. Again and again the NT record shows the apostles holding up the agreed-upon scripture (what we today call the OT) and pointing out that this prophetic utterance found its fulfillment in Jesus the Nazarene.
Over time, the NT record became recognized as authoritative in its own right, without needing the appeal to extant (OT) scriptures and thus those preceding scriptures often became in usage merely quaint historical objects, or even derided as valueless - "the law saves no one", etc.
Our job today is to restore the narrative to its original force, one which caused thousands to throng before Peter and the eleven in repentance. It is a holistic vision. Lee's "God's economy" narrative seemed an improvement over its Protestant precursors, since, for example, it included the obsessively detailed Brethren Christological types in the OT among its armamentarium. However, the survival of Lee's corpus entailed ignoring a lot of the Bible. Anything that couldn't line up with his hermeneutic was considered "low", "fallen", and "natural". Instead of the man Jesus we got a vague and amorphous "Christ", and instead of salvation, an even more generic "Process". The gospel, so-called, became whatever the Lee the Ascended Master wanted it to be, and the Bible became a mere prop, to be waved as necessary and dropped as necessary.
And that's merely the teaching! Not to mention the plain words of counsel in the NT, of rightness and decency. If we'd held the plain counsel of the NT, Lee would have been disqualified, since Daystar revealed him as a lover of money. Also, his promoting his admittedly "unspiritual" son to power and prominence showed that he wasn't qualified to be a local elder, per Titus 1:6, much less an apostle, much less "the" apostle (assuming such title exists).
No, forget behavior, let's just look at teaching. A teaching which requires a truncated scripture for its survival and prosperity isn't a teaching we want. And I argue that the provision of an environment for our progeny that's conducive to their spiritual survival is one where we plunge headlong into scripture. All of it. If we drown we drown. (Esth 4:16; Rom 14:8; Acts 21:13). We can have boldness because we trust that #1 God is good and will not lead us astray, and #2 we have the counsel of the Body of Christ. In the counsel of many voices is not confusion, as Lee's Blended Lieutenants said, but is wisdom and safety (Prov 11:4, 15:22, 20:18).
If our young companions see us being enthralled by the unfolding narrative - "the unfolding of Your word brings life" - they'll see the open door: "Behold I've placed before you an open door, which no one can shut." Lee tried to shut the door on Philadelphia, saying that all was recovered and only reviewing the "high peak truths" was left. His Minions repeated this: just implement the Plan of the Wise Master Builder and the Lord will return. We heard that for 30 years, and the Bible sat waiting. Waiting for those whose hearts were not shut. Fo those who'd question, challenge, and learn.
God-fearing and God-seeking ones through the ages were a shadow and reflection of the seeking God. (See e.g. John 4:23) And this mutual seeking found fulfillment in Jesus the Nazarene, God's delight and man's hope. May this revealed vision draw us deeper into the word, and may our own seeking of unfound depths and heights and breadths become a pattern and pathway for others.