A Wild Ride & A Long Post!

The last few weeks have been quite interesting. A Facebook hack took me out of contact with so many of my friends, yet recovering the site has been near impossible. Unfortunately, my next book comes out this month.

See image.

Meanwhile in the faith arena, my thoughts seem as always new every morning. Yet, when fully processed they are becoming as perplexing as the distance as the message in the Old Testament is from the New.

The John Bost that I have known for the past 50 years seems in some transformational moment that challenges the comfortable orthodoxy of my childhood, if not that which I have taught for the last fifty years.

Something is going on in my spirit that seems of God, perhaps in response to our new and heightened knowledge base, alongside of the many conversations with next generation, "Nones."

That's no spelling error, but a descriptor of the many institutionally disaffiliated younger Christ followers, hungry for an awakening but distanced from any local church. Myself once near "Done" save for those few churches more inclusive and open to renewal.

Are we in just such a moment when Christianity as we have known it faces another earth shattering shift such as occurred with Judaism around 4 B.C. with the birth of Christ?

The prophets certainly gave plenty of notice for that one, even naming Bethlehem as the place of His birth.

In our case, our "next" seems a conjecture derived from Paul's mention of being "caught up into a Third Heaven" as well as his letter to the church in Thessalonica, with some allignment from Peter, all followed up with the apocalyptic imagery and perhaps symbolic writings of John the Revelator.

I was raised to always be alert and ready for a sudden moment of rapture, followed by a seven year tribulation then a new heaven and new earth upon which Christ reigns.

By way of satellites and such powerful telescopes such as the Hubble and Webb, we now have so much more knowledge of Creation than those certainly inspired, themselves constrained by their limited awareness of all that surrounds this "Blue Dot" upon which we live as we float within the grand galaxy known as the Milky Way!

We seem threatened with any consideration of science that would take us further than Moses' Eden story as a beginning, or even John's mysteriously apocalyptic ending.

Moses and many others were no doubt inspired given the "scarlet thread" that continues across Old & New Testament, but very limited in their knowledge of the Cosmos. With today's knowledge base, advanced technology, and access to information, much seems questionable, that is, if one dare step outside the construct of doctrinal inheritance.

So much mystery and new discoveries. Maybe that invitation for inquiry has long been the message written in and b beyond the visible heavens. Hard data supports billions of unexplored galaxies beyond the Milky Way with much of her brilliant star's even longed burned out by the time that light reaches our eyes.

As I have wrestled with questions that have arisen in my fifty some year journey with Christ, it seems insights now come to me much by means I have come to accept as the "voice of God", as similar inspiration as the prophets of old. Why not, for the Spirit of Christ now lives in me!

I have to either listen and share as always before or deny my calling and abandon the reading of text that generates this otherwise mental noise, now so loud in my heart by the Spirit.

This began some months ago, if not now several years ago. First with a feeling of some spiritual pushback at the name of Jesus when used by others, yes even among the "well-churched."

I found that quite disturbing as The Name had always brought such peace and sense of empowerment. After months of such sensitivity, as if the Spirit was allowing all this to sink in to my psyche, I heard the "Voice" say, "Now you know how I feel when they use my name but never intend to be like me!"

Later, while in the Gospels, that same voice seemed to say, "Come with me" whereupon I found myself as it seemed, in the room with the disciples on Thursday, the eve of Jesus' arrest.

There my attention was drawn to His conversation with each, attempts at creating deep and soon necessary community among his disciples. So intense and revealing the moment, that Judas knew if he were to ever able pull off his strategy to force Jesus' hand to declare his Kingship, bringing him before those able to crucify him, now was the moment. We all know that didn't work!

That night much occurred, far more than just a demonstration of foot washing or the simple though later profoundly symbolic sacrament of communion. He was laying the foundation for understanding the Body of Christ and her work in the world.

Only after all that groundwork did Jesus reach for the bread and cup, quoted as saying "as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, do this in my name"...I watched his lateral movement directed toward the disciples not the cup and bread...the "this" was "community" among those followers soon empowered by His sacrifice and the power of His Word (the bread of life).

However, only 300 years would pass until Constantine faced a dilemma in his conquest of empire, due to the passion and influence of the Body of Christ. But in all fairness, a part of the problem for Constantine was the growing diversity of thought and understanding of this new found love based movement as it moved across the empire. They were beginning to not get along! So it is with people!

Thus the Council of Nicaea was formed, and from that collaborative came the Canon, a collection of sanctioned texts, which then by way of numerous translations produced the text we know as the Holy Bible.

That set the course for doctrinal truths for centuries, despite varied challenges from saints of later years, as well as scientific discoveries.

The Institutional Church once empowered by Constantine held sway over any who might question this text, though often following much conflict and even cruel executions. Still with each would come new clarity and with that undeniable renewal within the Body of Christ.

Need I cite such "this is that" moments as with Peter at Pentecost, later Hus in Bohemia, Luther in Germany, John Wesley and the great revivals among the Methodist. Then, the early 1900's with a move that birthed the Pentecostals, still later among fervent evangelicals a widening the Charismatic movement, and even earlier a move of the Spirit in the Catholic Church as captured in Vatican II...each somewhat more progressive!

Just what if we are there again, all these movements leaving a trail of "Bread" for those who would dare venture with the Creator who became flesh and dwelt among us.

This Supreme Being that dwells among the galaxies long ago perhaps set in motion a providential story of love acted out by frail beings called Humans. Limited in their understanding, apart from some timely generational unveiling of ideation and inspiration, where 1000 years is but a day, still yet all around them the creation mirrors this Christ who is Judaism's Jehovah.

Religion, man's own attempt at explaining what each and all sense in their spirit, has attempted to restrain and limit any and all revelation beyond the Canon. Yet when that compilation of scripture is earnestly and prayerfully studied, it seems always to generate more questions than answers, and that overtime, has delivered numerous and predictable five hundred year reformations, followed by revival within the Body of Christ.

My next moment of personal clarity came as I read of moments captured from the Mount of Transfiguration.

I seemed to hear the "Voice" say,

"Why do you think I called in Moses and Elijah?" I had never thought of it. The reply, "I had no real credibility at that point."

Why the voice then asks was the light released from between the atoms that made up my garment "like the sun and his clothes becoming white as light"?

Then no answer, until I had read as far as the Ascension of Christ, then suddenly it all came back. Perhaps that was no cloud of Ascension but rather a supernatural and complete disaasemblage (full Transfiguration) of the roughly 7 * 10^27 (7 followed by 27 zeros) atoms contained in an adult human body. Here the questions!

If so, the body of Jesus disappeared as if ascending within a cloud, yet possibly the Spirit of Jesus, that same spirit that manifest at Pentecost is still among us, Himself even able to reconstruct his embodiment as needed, such was the case on the road to Emmaus, or appearing at will to Mary at grave or in the room with the disciples as the resurrected Lord.

Too hard to believe?

What if the second return is the full and universal redemption of human kind, the Body of Christ United as One.

Just say'n!