Jesus' apostles did not ask him where else they could possibly go to, but rather they asked him "Lord, WHOM shall we go away to ? YOU have sayings of everlasting life," (John 6:68) as this applies solely to the person, Jesus Christ, as he stated "No one comes to the father, except through me." Not a "slave class" or any religious organization, but Jesus Christ is our only focus. He is the "way, the life and the truth." (John 14:6) "Where two or three are gathered in his name, He is there" (Matthew 18:20)

"Let us, then, go forth to him outside the camp"
Heb 13:13,14

In bible times, living inside a camp or a city meant having the comforts of a cultural center, a much more permanent home, material conveniences, food markets and large degree of security. The only alternative choice would mean living outside the camp or city in the harsh desert in tents, a vulnerable position, without the material conveniences, comfort, protection and security. Here in the desert, all the responsibility and living decisions would rest on the person, as well protecting oneself and survival. Lot's wife did not want to leave that security and comfort. As punishment from God, Cain was banished outside the camp as well.

The "Camp," City and Security Zone		The "Tent," Alone Out In The Desert
"Let us, then, go forth to him outside the camp." Hebrews 13:13-14 PURE INTERIOR SOLITUDE: "The soul that has thus found itself gravitates toward the desert but does not object to remaining in the city (this physical world), because it is everywhere alone. THOMAS MERTON		"We seek the city that has real foundations, "Heavenly Jerusalem." Hebrews 11:10; 12:22 "For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7 Prayer and Silence Religious Organizations - Corporate Worship

Yet "the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who did not seek the protection and comfort of cities but lived in tents because of looking forward to the city that has real foundations, whose architect and builder is God." Heb 11:9-10

This gives more meaning to the writer of Hebrews, that "we have no lasting city but we are looking for the city that is to come "Heavenly Jerusalem." Christ was taken outside the camp to suffer that he might sanctify the people with his own blood." Since we do not go outside a literal camp or city, our parallel is that of finding God within our interior silence apart from the camp of men, religious activity and the literalization of men's words, as anything less that God, less than the unseen divine intelligence that resides in our humble nothingness, our willingness to empty ourselves out in shear retreat, anything less can only be idolatry. Our reliance on religious organizations "the camp," with protection and comfort provided of family, friends and the power of a large organization is that of seeking the security and certainty of the known, the mapped out systematic and theorized mechanics, all void of the inner void, filling in silence with noise, bringing sight for the unseen, supplying men's light for the darkness inside that is only to be embraced with the uncertain and ambiguous darkness of faith. In turn our results to see God, to listen for him in our silence, not some miraculous voice, but the emptiness of silence itself, then becomes the reason to willingly allow ourselves to be labeled as outcasts, as "heretics," to be disfellowshipped" as "evil slaves" and "apostates" as Jesus was by the religious system of his day. Our imitation of him is that of leaving the camp and living in the tent of insecurity, "relying on our own perceptive powers to distinguish right and wrong," that is, removing ourselves from the certainty of how and why to the unknown, to the unchartered waters of openness, emptiness and vast horizons, walking without a map, yet paradoxically knowing, that is, simply knowing and having certainty in the outcome, following not our intellect, nor our logic, but our intuitive hearts of inter connection to God and each other, no longer allowing our egos to convince us that we are separate from him, lacking trust in need of human organizations. This is the only way we can become "full grown in Christ" and no longer as "babes" relying on the "milk" that slave classes and religious leaders feed to us. We cannot know God any other way, as we do not find him in men, but rather, discover him within ourselves, perceiving him in all others, inclusively. (Matt 8:11, Luke 13:28)

The writer of Hebrews states:

"Let us, then, go forth to him outside the camp, bearing the reproach he bore, for we do not have a city that continues, but we are earnestly seeking the one to come." Heb 13:13,14

Abraham, God's friend, was willing to leave his family, security and comfort zone to follow God's direction.

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Hebrews 11:8-10

Abraham went out in the desert, "not knowing where he was going." He had no religious organization, no "slave class," no "governing body" or any centralized authority structure to guide him. He only had faith in God, with the promise of nations to blessed from his descendants with the promise of a future city, a city built by God. It was here that Abraham learned to know God, to build his relationship of faith and to receive the promise of his heirs as the line of descendants for the promised savior. Our walk, of Abraham, to the desert, is that of entering into the unknown areas, apart from men, untainted from the noise and chatter of those who wish to bring us their teachings and revelations, but rather, we enter into the quiet and empty desert in the unseen road of faith, knowing our journey will lead us to, align us, to our inner awareness of God, that is, of ourselves.

 

"A questioner asked the Buddha: "I would like to know about the state of peace, the state of solitude and of quiet detachment. How does a person become calm, independent, and not wanting to grasp at anything?" "A person does this," replied the Buddha, "by eradicating the delusion of 'I am.' By being alert and attentive, he begins to let go of cravings as they arise. But whatever he begins to accomplish, he should beware of inner pride. He must avoid thinking of himself as better than another, or worse or equal, for that is all comparison and emphasizes the self. "The person should look for peace within and not depend on it in any other place. For when a person is quiet within, the self cannot be found. There are no waves in the depths of the ocean, it is still and unbroken. It is the same with the peaceful person. He is still, without any longing to grasp. He has let go the foundations of self and no longer builds up pride and desire." -Sutta Nipata

Suffering Reproach

People who truly have God, have peace, and therefore have no need for organized religion. Church and religion are for those who have a void. This is the void that leaves one discontent and searching.  Finding the self or that is, losing oneself to the center of being, there one finds God, or what the Buddhist sees as the "Void." This is the void of emptiness where one finds fullness and contentment.

Outside the Watchtower and visible Church organizations: Exists The Desert of Life. This is the place we find God, where meditation is vital, prayer and conversation with God, the helping of others on an individual basis and the sharing with each other the faith in Christ and love of our fellow man exists, where the internalizing of the true spiritual nature of Christ resides. This is where the truth really is. In the churches and human organizations come human external achievements, missionary work, organizational arrangements, counsels, conventions, pastoral directives with theological guidelines. As advantageous as any or all of this may be, it all consists of external works that can be either beneficial or detrimental to the true spiritual nature of God and Christ; the internalizing, daily reliance, dependence and transformation of the heart with faith in Christ and love of man. The place to have an encounter with God. The safer place being "outside the camp" of ALL religious organizations OR limiting the association to a spiritual one only. For the reaching out of social association is to find the members having a serious lack of internal faith and dependence of Christ, the lack of real love of their fellow man, an immature zeal, and the religious subculture and organizational achievement put far ahead of individual mercy to others on a large scale basis.

Look around and you will see that many who are visibly seen as zealots, missionaries, preachers and teachers, are in many cases, but certainly not all, caught up in personal achievement, being the blatantly obvious ones who lack love, mercy and kindness to the unimportant, unknown and socially "incompetent," who fail to live up to their unique world of Christian subculture. While the older, slower and wiser ones, the nobodies in the background, have the compassion of Christ.

It should be of much higher importance to God for us to live a life of mercy and loving kindness to our fellow man regardless of our family and friend's opposition to do so. Jesus said that he "did not come to bring peace, but as a sword, mother against son, father against daughter .... a man's enemies will be persons of his own household." Despite the hardship this can cause, "love throws fear outside." If we truly are loving to others, our fears will diminish. (Math 10:34; 1 John 4:18)

In short, as Christians, we are to live "outside the camp" and " suffer the reproach" that Christ was willing to suffer. At the same time we would want to share thoughts and encouragement with others "not forsaking the gathering as some do." This gathering can consist of only a few persons for as Jesus stated, "where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there." And there is no set time or schedule that must be strictly followed. (Hebrews 10:24,25, Matthew 18:20)

Outside the Watchtower, outside the churches of so called Christian denominations, is the desert of life, where meditation is vital, prayer and conversation with God, the helping of others on an individual basis and the sharing with each other faith in Christ and love of our fellow man exists, where the internalizing of the true spiritual nature of Christ resides. This is where the truth really is. In the churches and human organizations come human external achievements, missionary work, organizational arrangements, counsels, conventions, pastoral directives with theological guidelines. As advantageous as any or all of this may be, it all consists of external works that can be either beneficial or detrimental to the true spiritual nature of God and Christ; the internalizing, daily reliance, dependence and transformation of the heart with faith in Christ and love of man. The safer place being "outside the camp" of ALL religious organizations or limiting the association to a spiritual one only. For the reaching out of social association is to find the members having a serious lack of internal faith and dependence of Christ, the lack of real love of their fellow man, an immature zeal, and the religious subculture and organizational achievement put far ahead of individual mercy to others on a large scale basis. Look around and you will see that those who are visibly seen as zealots, missionaries, preachers and teachers, are the blatantly obvious ones who have lack love, mercy and kindness to the unimportant, unknown and socially "incompetent," who fail to live up to their unique world of Christian subculture.

Here in the wilderness, outside the camp, there is suffering, confusion and pain. But along with this pain a person grows. Have you ever known a person that has never suffered, that is empathetic and truly understanding of less fortunate persons? Have you met many people who know how to forgive people, who have never had the pain of others hurting them? Suffering is a test, a test that is very unpleasant to go through, but as bad as it gets, it produces growth, endurance, patience, compassion, empathy, and more than just tolerance, understanding.

David Roper, author of "Elijah, a man like us," speaks of the time Elijah, one of the greatest prophets ever of the nation of Israel, who suffered out in the wilderness in a place called Kerith. It was here that Elijah was all alone, fed by God, who used a brook for water and ravens to bring him food. It was also here that the "brook ran dry" and Elijah had to totally rely on God,

Suffering is preparation. It is an indispensable part of the process of growth and spiritual maturity. Out in the wilderness, outside the camp, alone in our vulnerable tent, relying on God, we face many trials.

Describing the desert of Kerith, where we suffer, author of Elijah, a man like us, David Roper states:

"Kerith is the day of weakness and shame. It is being disregarded, misunderstood, criticized and accused. It is living with hurtful gestures and critical words. It is losing our as others take our places. Kerith (Out in the wilderness, the desert) is obscurity. it is dreary duty that no one sees or applauds. It is humdrum, tedious tasks, some boring, some distasteful, some downright disgusting, It's being unknown, uncelebrated, unnoticed, and unimportant. Kerith. delivers us from the need for "men's empty praise"; it makes us satisfied with God's "well done" alone. Kerith is discovering to our shame, how little we understand, how much we do not know. It is the sure cure for unholy certainty and wooden headed dogmatism. It teaches us to be "agnostic," in the sense that we come to the end of ourselves at the end of the day and say, I'll be honest with you, friend, I just don't know." We learn that we cannot explain everything that comes our way. It teaches us that sometimes-the only answer is God himself. Kerith is temptation. "The word in the desert is most attacked by the voices of temptation,: T.S. Eliot said. Temptations are sure to come; God permits Satan to sift us like wheat. Temptations humble us, purify us, and teach us to pray. Kerith is disappointment and debilitating discouragement. It is regret and struggle The Desert - A Paradox A place of disappointment and debilitating discouragement. It is regret, struggle and failing. It is useless years. A place of growth, insight and humility. A place to find God. It is valuable years. and failing. It is useless years. It is the agony of spent vice and self-indulgence. It is abject of failure through which we learn that our wills are incapable of keeping us from sin. Kerith is humiliation-where we put our worst foot forward and fall flat on our faces. It is how God deals with our presumption and pride. Pride is a vexation to others, but mostly it vexes us. Nothing pleases us if the whole world exists to meet our needs; no one will ever come through. We're always exasperated, offended, disquieted and tormented. "The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility." Eliot said "Humility is endless." Kerith is learning to do without-without love, beauty, money, marriage, or health, It is being stripped of friends, father, mother, brother, money, reputation, and even our earnestness of God. It makes us content with God and what he gives-to want but little. It is being weaned away from all other passions but a passion for God. Kerith is going without feelings even having no interest in God. It is deliverance from sensuality-our tendency to make feelings the ultimate test of reality. It is growing beyond chance and circumstance. It is learning persistence-not mere resignation, but a hardy obedience to a course we know to be right regardless of how we feel. Kerith. makes us thirsty for God. Slowly, steadily, God strips us of all our longings, leaving us with nothing but desire for him alone. We say with Israel's poet:   Whom have I in Heaven but you? And earth has nothing that I desire but you.-Psalm 73:25 Suffering can push us away from God or it can draw us close to his heart. It all depends on perspective. If we understand that every event is screened through God's love and chosen for our good, we can accept it with patience, draw near to him, and wait for its outcome. "He who has the why to living can bear with almost any how," Victor Frankl said. When we know why-when we see what God is doing with us-and draw near to him, his "We must reemphasize, the "desert" or "closet" is the primary place of strength for the beginner, as it was for Christ and for Paul. They show us by their example what we must do. In stark aloneness it is possible to have silence, to be still, and to know that Jehovah indeed is God (Ps. 46:10), to see the Lord before our minds with sufficient intensity and duration that we stay centered upon him - our hearts fixed, established in trust (Ps. 112:7-8)-even when back in the office, shop, or home." - Dallas Willard (6a) presence begins to rub off on us; We become more loving, tolerant, joyful, dependable, more stable and strong. We're less likely to waver in the face of opposition or falter because of blame. We're rendered more independent of places or moods; we carry about us a subtle ambiance-a dignity, unruffled by insult, untouched by shame. We begin to let go of what we want. We become more mellow, easier to live with, easier to work with, easier to be around. Adversity enables us to know the human heart. We understand. "We can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." (2 Corinthians 1:4) Suffering shapes us and makes us into instruments that God can use. The world obviously, sees no value in suffering. It will always take the easiest and less costly route. But we must see it otherwise. Suffering is God's gift to us, making us more like him than we ever thought possible. He is the LORD, we say, "Let him do what is good in his eyes." (1 Samuel 3:18) Our best choice is to be still and submit to God's discipline. We are never so safe as when we yield our wills. In his love, God tempers each trouble with his gentle mercy. He will not permit us to be stressed beyond endurance: "God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear" (1 Corinthians 10:13) That's not to say we will never be stretched beyond what we think we can bear! Our father knows precisely what we can tolerate and selects each diversity with careful scrutiny. He limits its intensity and duration to that which we can endure. He loves us too much to ruin us. In the meantime, our most difficult days can be full of sweet fellowship and communion with him. In tumults, troubles and disasters we abide under the shadow of Almighty God. He is with us; he will keep us in perfect peace."(3) Were under construction. God isn't finished with us yet. This life is not godliness," Luther said, "but the process of becoming godly, not health but the process of becoming healthy, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. The process is not yet finished, but it is actually going on. This is not the goal, but it is the right road. At present everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed."(4)

"Even from our sin," Saint Augustine said, "God can draw good." Our hardships, pain, mistakes and bad decisions are all ways we learn and grow. If we never made them, how would we grow? Do you know of any people that have had almost everything handed to them in life? A moderately wealthy family? Paid schooling? Out from the security of a financially stable family to a job that pays handsomely? They then gain a position of authority, either in business, government, or even in a religious organization. They are considered successful, knowledgeable and wise. And when it comes to business or things with money, their status, power and reputation do them well. Yet they lack a true intimate, meditative and personal relationship with God, having no real understanding, empathy of their fellow man and lack insight to the real life. Only living out in the figurative wilderness, with pain, suffering and hard hitting decision making apart from the security of a family, friendship circle and bank account, can a person really grow and gain both insight, empathy and compassion of man and a uniquely, intimate, personal and meditative relationship with God. In most cases, only out in the figurative desert can a person gain real growth, finding the way to God, learning what true faith. dependence and reliance really is. How far and how long does this have to go, depends on the person and how much they need to grow. It depends on how much it takes to get them to grow, how much it takes to learn true humility.

God gives us over to false accusations, malice and contention of other people, with the suffering of loosing family, friends and money, because they are part of the process that make us what he intends us to be. The hurting makes us sweeter, more mellow. We lose the fear of losing out, we learn to let go of what we want.

God's seminary was to the solitude of the desert

We're not so easily provoked to wrath by harm or reproof. We learn to absorb abuse without retaliation, to accept reproof without defensiveness, to return a soft answer to wrath. We learn to be less judgmental of other people and more understanding of their ways in life. It makes us calm and strong.

God's way of correcting Elijah's perspective was to bring him to the place of revelation, which is what he must do with us again and again. It's in that quiet place that we hear God's voice. That's where we hear the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That's where we get our erroneous zones corrected,; that's where we get real. (3B)

Noted Bible historian, J. Vernon McGee, in his book, More Real Characters describes God's training for us in this way:

"God's seminary was to the solitude of the desert. That is where God, from the beginning, has trained His men. Remember that when God called Abraham, who was a city slicker from Ur of the Chaldees, God brought him to a wilderness near Hebron. That was a place where a man could be alone with God. It was there that Abraham raised his altar to God. The desert seems to be God's training ground. Also, Moses was reared in a palace-educated in the greatest university of his day, the University of the Sun, which would compare favorably with our modern universities. But with all of this education and accomplishments God couldn't use him. So He sent him out to the backside of the desert of Midian and gave him a forty-year course. That is where God trained him. David, a shepherd boy, was brought as a musician into the palace of King Saul. But God could not let him be educated there. He could not use David, who had grown soft from court life. God used the jealousy of the king to force him into the wild mountains and lonely caves of a wilderness existence. In such a setting God trusted His king. John the Baptist was out in the desert until his appearing to the nation. The apostle Paul, after his conversion, went into the desert of Arabia where God trained him. The apostle John was put on the Isle of Patmos so God could give him the Book of the Revelation. Such is God's method with His men.Out in the desert God called Amos to preach. He gave him a message, then He sent him to Bethel to give His Word to Israel." (5)

John W. Frye, pastor of the Bella Vista Church in Rockford Michigan, in his pastoral guidance to fellow pastors, describes the value of solitude this way:

"We must quiet ourselves regularly in solitude and allow the bonding we have with God to embrace us and the Spirit to cry out in us, "Abba, Father!" People may seduce us into being with them too much to our detriment and theirs. We must pull away in solitude and silence so that we can contemplate Christ, who is the ultimate promise of God. In this intimacy we revel in that we are in him and he is in us. One of the reasons Jesus practiced solitude was so that his identity as the Promised One could be called out by the Father. It can be no less for us. If our Chief Shepherd grounded his identity in the revelation promise and real presence of the Father, we under shepherds must ground our identities there as well. A pastor must substitute nothing or no one for the Father's voice of affirmation and commission. His voice is brought to us on the wavelength of biblical promise empowered by the Spirit as we daily depend on God. "Jesus shows us how God intended human life to be lived. Through his capacity to love, communicate, think, and worship, he demonstrated not only what it means to be spiritual, but what it means to be human."(8)

Solitude is also one of the Spiritual disciplines that can bring a person closer to God. Not a work used towards earning salvation but a discipline of living that imitates Jesus Christ's life, as well as the very way of life of the Apostles, early Christian congregation and even the Jewish servants of God before Christ as found in the scriptures. Dallas Willard in his book "Spirit of Disciplines" comments on solitude this way:

"To illustrate how disciplinary practices were constantly before the early Christians, consider how Jesus and his initial followers made extensive use of solitude. Solitary confinement is used to break the strongest of wills. It is capable of the because it excludes interaction with others upon which fallen human personality completely depends. The life alienated from God collapses when deprived of its support from the sin of this laden world. But the life in tune with God is actually nurtured by time spent alone. John the Baptist, like many of this forerunners in the prophetic line, was much alone in the deserted places of his land. Jesus constantly sought solitude from the time of his baptism up to the Garden of Gethsemane, when he eve went apart from those he took there to watch with him (Matthew 26:38-42). It is solitude and solitude alone that opens the possibility of radical relationship to God that can withstand all external events up to and beyond death. Retirement is the laboratory of the spirit: interior solitude and silence are its two wings. All great works are prepared in the desert, including the redemption of the world. The precursors, the followers, the Master Himself, all obeyed or have to obey one and the same law. Prophets, apostles, preachers, martyrs, pioneers of knowledge, inspired artistes in every art, ordinary men and the Man-God, all pay tribute to loneliness, to the life of silence to the night." (6)

Most of us, including myself, have in the past, regarded Jesus, who after 40 days of being out in the wilderness, the desert, practicing the Spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditation, solitude and fasting, was at his weakest moment when Satan finally approached him to tempt him. On the contrary, Jesus was at his strongest moment. His prayers, meditative solitude and fasting made him stronger with God. The place of solitude and deprivation, was actually the place of strength and strengthening for our Lord and that the Spirit led him there-as he would lead us there-to ensure that Christ was in the best possible condition for the trial. (7)

In solitude, prayer, silence and meditation we can find God, we can connect with him. We can strengthen our faith and obtain God's Spirit and enter the Spiritual realm of God. It is here, alone in the woods, in the

"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." John 6:63

desert, in the privacy of our quiet bedroom that we secretly talk to God. This is where we go to find Him. This is also the place where we find humility, the necessary ingredient in serving God. We must be humble for God to use us. We must come to the realization that our abilities are useless to God. Its not that we should have low self confidence in ourselves as people deserving of God's love, rather its knowing that ALL of our abilities, ALL of our strengths are of no value to God. This is the reality. How can we learn this? How can we learn that we need to take our hands off; from now on to trust solely in God to know more and live more in Christ? We must refuse to act and that's hard for most of us to do. We must depend fully on him to do so, and then we enter fully and joyfully into the action he initiates. It is not passivity; it is a most active life, trusting the Lord like that; drawing life from him, taking him to be our very life, letting him live his life in us as we go forth in his Name. (12)

Here is where divine revelation is needed, the Spiritual revelation of God, revealing our inability to the flesh and our total reliance on the Spirit. This of course requires humility. Where do we find humility? The figurative desert. Jack Deere brings out the relation to humility and the desert and the gift of prophecy God freely gives to those who ask,

"Humility is almost always acquired in the desert. Moses, David, John the Baptist, and Jesus all had significant training time in the desert. Everyone who is greatly used by the Lord is led into the "desert" to get humility. God even sent a whole nation to the desert for forty years to humble them, to bring them to a place of childlike dependence and gratitude. (Deut. 8:1) Prophetic ministry is often spectacular. Prophets can dazzle an audience, even an entire nation. Because of that, it is easy for prophets to become puffed up. The desert is the cure for both personal and prophetic pride. The greater the prophetic gifting the greater and more severe the time in the desert will be. Welcome the desert. It means the gift of humility is being imparted and that promotion or restoration is on its way. Jesus said that no one on earth was greater than John the Baptist. (Matt 11:11) Why? Because no one embraced humility like John. It was not just that John began in humility, small in his own eyes when he looked up to Jesus. He embraced humility even when it meant his ministry would diminish in the presence of Jesus. He said of Jesus, "He knew, at the height of his popularity, that the coming of Jesus meant the end of the forerunner's ministry. Others would have been offended at the loss of their ministry. To John it seemed right. Where did he learn to respond so humbly? In the desert." (13)

However humility out in the desert is not any easy fare to contend with, It is always difficult, and even more so without other human resources to help us, but in the end yields peaceful fruit, that is humility. Thomas Merton relates,

"We must fact the fact that is is much harder to stand the long monotony of slight suffering than a passing onslaught of intense pain. In either case what is hard is our own poverty, and the spectacle of our own selves reduced more and more to nothing, wasting away in our own estimation and in that of our friends. We must be willing to accept also the bitter truth that, in the end, we may have to become a burden to those who love us. But it is necessary that we face this also. The full acceptance of our abjection and uselessness is the virtue that can make us and others rich in the grace of God. It takes heroic charity and humility to let others sustain us when we are absolutely incapable of sustaining ourselves. We cannot suffer well unless we see Christ everywhere-both in suffering and in the charity of those who come to the aid of our affliction.(13a) Solitude does not have to be lonely "The higher a man ascends in the scale of vocations the more he must be able to spiritualize and extend his affections. To live alone with God, he must really be able to live alone. You cannot live alone if you cannot stand loneliness. And you cannot stand loneliness if your desire for "solitude" is built on frustrated need for human affection. To put it in plain language, it is hopeless to try to live your live in a cloister if you are going to eat your heart out thinking that nobody loves you. You have to be able to disregard that whole issue, and simply love the whole world in God, embracing all your brethren in that same pure love, without seeking signs of affection from them and without caring whether or not you ever get any. If you think this is very easy, I assure you that you are mistaken."(13b) In Solitude, we become detached and isolated from the World. In Solitude we truly find God and our brothers. Recollection is almost the same thing as interior solitude. It is in recollection that We become solitaries not when we realize how alone we are, but when we sense something of the solitude of God. His solitude isolates us from everything around us, and yet makes us all the more truly the brothers of all things. we discover the finite solitude of our won heart, and the infinite solitude of God dwelling within us. Unless these vast horizons have opened out in the center of our lives, we can hardly see things in perspective. Our judgments are not in proportion with things as they are. But the spiritual man, says St. Paul, judges all things. He does so because he is isolated from them by his detachment, by his poverty, by his humility, by his nothingness. Therefore, he sees them only in God. To see them thus is to judge them as God Himself judges them. Recollection brings us, then, to an interior solitude which is something more than either the desire or the fact of being alone. We become solitaries not when we realize how alone we are, but when we sense something of the solitude of God. His solitude isolates us from everything around us, and yet makes us all the more truly the brothers of all things. We cannot live for others until we have entered this solitude. If we try to live for them without first living entirely for God, we risk plunging with them all into the abyss.(13c)

We are lonely in solitude when we are separated from God. Unless we learn to know the invisible companionship of God, we will be lonely in solitude and prefer the illusion of companionship, Even then, we remain lonely because we do not have the inner peace that comes from the inner solitude and recollection of God and his presence.

"The Desert Fathers believed that the wilderness had been created as supremely valuable in the eyes of God precisely because it had no value to men. The wasteland was the land that could never be wasted by men because if offered them nothing. There was nothing to attract them. There was nothing to exploit.The desert was the region in which the Chosen People had wandered for forty years, cared for by God alone. They could have reached the Promised Land in a few months if they had traveled directly to it. God's plan was that they should learn to love Him in the wilderness and that they should always look back upon the time in the desert as the idyllic time of their life with Him alone. The desert was created simply to be itself, not to be transformed by men into something else. The desert is therefore the logical dwelling place for the man who seeks to be nothing but himself - that is to say, a creature solitary and poor and dependent upon no one but God, with no great project standing between himself and his Creator." (13d)

As Christ, We Die For A While Before God Resurrects Us. We Put Our Soul (Ego) Life To Death And Become Resurrected To The Spirit Life

Paradox of Trust Ceasing to trust ourselves puts us separate from God, apart from our indwelling divinity, yet trusting our self egos tell us we are separate, pulling us apart to the same mental disposition. It is our intuitive knowing, where the presence of God exists, that enables us trust in our selves, knowing we are one with God and each other, interdependent and connected to the whole. How can one worship the source of being, the great "I Am," except by having the courage to be the self God created each of us to be? The Christian is the one called so deeply into life, into love, and into being that he or she can say with a Christlike integrity of trust within oneself, I AM!

One Day It Happens: We Shift From Trusting Our Egos To Trusting In The Power Of God's Spirit Living Inside Us. In both cases, we trust a part of ourselves, as God is a Spirit, the life force that exists in all, bringing forth a knowing in presence that lives our meditative silence, apart from the noise of our interior activity.

God must bring us to a point-I cannot tell you how it will be, but he will do it-where, through a deep and dark experience, our natural power is touched and fundamentally weakened, so that we not longer dare trust ourselves. He has had to deal with some of us very strangely and take us through difficult and painful ways in order to get us there. At length there comes a time when we no longer "like" to do Christian work-indeed we almost dread to do things in the Lord's Name. But then at last it is now that he can begin to use us. - Watchman Nee (12a)

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his (soul) life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. " John 12:24-26 "Whoever finds his (soul) life will lose it, and whoever loses his (soul) life for my sake will find it. " Matthew 10:39

Jesus instructs us in four passages that we are to loose our souls for Him in Matthew 10:34-39; Mark 8:32-35; Luke 17:32-34 and John 12:24-26, all concerning the soul-activity of man. We don't crucify our souls themselves in the sense of having our natural gifts and faculties, personalities and individualities or we would loose our individual existence completely. We still have our souls with our natural endowments until the day we die

"We are not of those drawing back to destruction, but of those believing to a preserving of soul." Hebrews 10:39

But we do loose our soul and it's power, in the sense that we learn to distrust it and always subordinate it to the Spirit. We never independently assert our soul apart from the Spirit. Our soul becomes a servant to the Spirit. We learn the power of the Spirit, the power of Christ's resurrection, his sufferings and the putting the death of our soul power. As Apostle Paul stated:

"That I may know him, and the power of this resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death." Phillipians 3:10

Watchman Nee states:

"Let me make this quite clear again. If we want to be spiritual people, there is no need for us to amputate our hands or feet; we can still have our body. In the same way we can have our soul, with the full use of its faculties; and yet the soul is not now our life-spring. We are no longer living in it, we are no longer drawing from it and living by it; we use it. When the body becomes our life we live like beasts. When the soul becomes our life we live as rebels and fugitives from God -- gifted, cultured, educated, no doubt, but alienated from the life of God. But when we come to live our life in the Spirit and by the Spirit, though we still use our soul faculties just as we do our physical faculties, they are now the servants of the Spirit; and when we have reached that point God can really use us. But the difficulty with many of us is that dark night. The Lord graciously laid me aside once in my life for a number of months and put me, spiritually, into utter darkness. It was almost as though He had forsaken me -- almost as though nothing was going on and I had really come to the end of everything. And then by degrees He brought things back again. The temptation is always to try to help God by taking things back ourselves; but remember, there must be a full night in the sanctuary -- a full night in darkness. It cannot be hurried; He knows what He is doing. We would like to have death and resurrection put together within one hour of each other. We cannot face the thought that God will keep us aside for so long a time; we cannot bear to wait. And I cannot tell you how long He will take, but in principle I think it is quite safe to say this, that there will be a definite period when He will keep you there. It will seem as though nothing is happening; everything you valued is slipping from your grasp. There confronts you a blank wall with no door in it. Seemingly everyone else is being blessed and used, while you yourself have been passed by and are losing out. Lie quiet. All is in darkness, but it is only for a night. It must indeed be a full night, but that is all. Afterwards you will find that everything is given back to you in glorious resurrection; and nothing can measure the difference between what was before and what now is!" (12b)

Churches and Organizations Are For Teaching, Worship, Celebration, Encouragement & Mutual Submission To One Another

In churches, small groups, and fellowship with other believers, we go to build up each other, the body of Christ, to encourage one another, in mutual submission to one another, slaves to each other, sharing each other's gifts of the Spirit and comfort of agape love. It is here where we obtain additional teaching, worship, celebration and build each other up, strengthening our faith. Yet churches, fellowship and religious activities should not out weigh, nor take the forefront and never replace our private, intimate, meditative and conversational life with God, that only takes place in the inner chambers of quiet places.

We find God Spirit within ourselves. We put faith in Him and He imparts His Spirit inside of us. As we come to the divine revelation of the forgiveness of our past, present and future sins, forgiveness our ourselves as sinners, the death of our old selves and the birth of ourselves as new creatures in Christ, being forgiven of sins, released from the law, we rely on Christ alone to do for us what is required of us and not our own abilities. We develop an invisible, conversational relationship with God and present our bodies as His, He being our master, we as His slaves. We put of faith in Him alone and His power of resurrection in us.

Churches and religious organizations can be both encouraging, upbuilding places of growth, where the gifts of the Spirit are exhibited, the fruits of the Spirit are extended towards one another. The can be places of great teaching, places of love and brotherhood. They can also be places of hurt, pain and cruelty. I would venture to say that some of the cruelest of people you will find are at a church, the very place that is supposed to be God's house. It is here you will regularly find, legalism, fundamentalism, judgementalism, self-righteousness, intellectual superiority, human organizational requirements used as measuring rods of other's spirituality. You will also find cliques and circles of friends that exclude others. You will find conservatism that looks down on liberals, liberalism that looks down on conservatism and so forth. This is not to rule out churches, because perfection is non existent. Churches can be likened to spiritual hospitals where the people are spiritually sick patients who need to be healed. They are healing centers. It of course depends on when the leadership itself has a terminal case of Cancer that spreads to the rest of the body, it is probably the best course of action to find a different place to go.

Finding the style of ministry and the right degree of open interpretation. A place where agape love permeates over theology and intellectualism. Where the fruitage of a family and a brotherhood exists is a individual search and always comes secondary to the invisible walk with God's Spirit.

The Prodigal Son
The Son Leaves

"There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, `Father, give Unlike Men and Religious Organizations, Jesus Is There With Us, Out In No Man's Land. me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. "When he came to his senses, he said, `How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men." Luke 15:11-19 The Son Returns So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. "The son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son." Luke 15:20-21 The Father Forgives "But the father said to his servants, Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound." Luke 15:22-27 The Older Brother Gets Jealous "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, `Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!" Luke 15:28-30 The Way of God "My son, the father said, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." Luke 15:31-32

Out in the wilderness, family and so called friends may never take us in. We may never have a "father," brother, sister or mother who will take us in, help us in our hour of darkness, aid us with comfort, food, shelter, emotional and physical support and covering. We learn to rely on God, he is the ONLY one who truly cares for us in a complete forgiving way. With his Spirit, he gives us strength, peace and power. He forgives us regardless of our past mistakes, whether intentional or not, whether evil or not, whether foolish or not. Though we may or may not have acted foolishly as the prodigal son did, we may find mercy from a human "father," with or without strings attached, wrong motives implied and true forgiveness and love. And when we do find mercy by this one, we may be greeted by our "brothers" with jealousy, accused of taking advantage of the love shown to us persuading and convincing our human father to cease their mercy towards us.

However, no one can accuse us of taking advantage of God and his son, Jesus, nor can they convince them to give up their love and mercy for us. "for nothing, neither height nor width, nor any creation, can separate us from God's love." We can be confident that our sins are completely forgiven by Christ as we put faith in him and give him our burdens. We can "throw our burdens on him" and know "he genuinely cares for us," because he has the compassion, empathy, understanding and truly loves us. He personally feels for us as to "the extent of what happens to us, one of his brothers, is the same as happening to him." The Father has given us his Son, Jesus, who had carried our iniquities, "dying for us while we are yet sinners," carrying our burdens, forgiving us of our sins. And it is only Jesus Christ who is willing to truly do this for us with no strings attached and no wrong motives imputed on our part. No slave class, no jealous brother can convince or persuade Jesus that we are doing wrong for throwing our burdens on him. Out in the wilderness with the cold emptiness, the harsh desert and hot dry brutal climate, this can bring us to the realization that it is only Jesus who carries our burdens, who is there for us, hears our prayers and knows our hearts. While man fails to forgive us, imputes wrong motives of us, blind to our reality, unable to see, feel, taste and touch the very place that we are, we know Jesus does and he's there for us, waiting for our faith. (Psalms 55:22; Romans 5:8; 1 Peter 5:7; Isaiah 53:4-5; Hebrews 4:14-16; Matthew 25:40; 1 John 5:14)

The older jealous brother needs a note of mention here. Many are quick to see the outright rebellion of the younger brother who squandered all his money with women, food and liquor, but fail to examine the older brother who remained at this Father's side, faithful to his duties, loyal to his family, what about him? He resembles the person who sticks to his family, his church, his organization and externally he is righteous. However internally he fails to be intimate with his Father, intimate enough to really know how his Father thinks, feels and shows his love. He fails to exhibit the traits of his Father, and due to his lack of internalization of an intimate relationship, he develops legalism, self righteousness and judgementalism, he is harsh.

In response to churches that exhibit legalism, Tom Hovestol remarks:

"One of the large and growing segments of the American religious landscape is the "de-church ed." These people were once active church members, some of them were highly involved church leaders. They have now however, become burned out, bummed out, and, in some cases, missing from the church. There are a lot of wounded ex-churchgoers playing golf, fishing, and sleeping in on Sunday mornings. Some of them have chosen a lifestyle that is hostile to Christianity and have thus abandoned the church. Others are disgusted with religion. Some still long for a more meaningful religious experience; others simply do not care anymore. You and I probably also have encountered things in the church that are wrong; Mistreatment, cruelty, and hypocrisy abound inside church. When one sees wrongdoing and has to face its destructive power, it is easy to give up on the institution. but two things can help us stay the course. First realize that most of us are as the Pharisees. It is the height of self-righteousness for me to condemn others for the sins of my very own soul. Second, recognize that throughout the bible God has pointedly exposed religion as endemic; False religion and Pharisaism will always be among us. We must deal with them, without dropping out, for the sake of our own souls. My heart goes out to the cynical and the disillusioned because I could so easily join their ranks. I could distance myself from Christ due to my frustration with the church. But I believe that a good understanding of the biblical Pharisees helps to put some of the disillusionment in better focus. It will let us love the church and even its Pharisees, flaws and all." (10)

It Is Us God Wants, Not Our Religious Organizational Obedience

When the Galilean boy brought his bread to the Lord, what did the Lord do with it? He broke it.God will always break what is offered to him. He breaks what he takes, but after breaking it he blesses and uses it to meet the needs of others.

God wishes us to know him, to know from him, to reveal to us his Son, Jesus, to reveal His death, His resurrection, our forgiveness, our death and our resurrection as new creations. We become His sons and present ourselves as living sacrifices to God. It is us he wants, not our religious affiliation, our organizational obedience. It is our obedience to Him alone, our very lives given over to him, as his slaves. He is our owner and possesses us. His Spirit lives inside and dwells in us.

As we submit to God, he breaks us and molds us to become more like Him, as one of His sons. We become transformed as we are new creatures in Christ and walk with His Spirit. Watchman Nee relates:

"Do you know that God is asking of you your very life? There are cherished ideals, strong wills, precious relationships, much loved work, that will have to go, so do not give yourself to God unless you mean it. God will take you seriously, even if you did not mean it seriously. When the Galilean boy brought his bread to the Lord, what did the Lord do with it? He broke it. God will always break what is offered to him. He breaks what he takes, but after breaking it he blesses and uses it to meet the needs of others. After you give yourself to the Lord, he begins to break what was offered to him. Everything seems to go wrong, and you protest and find fault with the ways of God. But to stay there is to be no more than just a broken vessel-no good for the world because you have gone to far fro the world to use you, and no good for God either because you have not gone far enough for him to use you. Your are out of gear with the world, and you have a controversy with God. This is the tragedy of many a Christian. My giving of myself to the Lord must be an initial fundamental act. Then day by day, I must go on giving to him, not finding fault with his use of me, but accepting with praise even what the flesh finds hard. That way lies true enrichment." (11)

Not What A Organization Has To Offer, But What Christ has To Offer.

Some persons will say, "But what do you or anyone else have to offer?" It's not what I or any religious

Where Do We Look?   Invisible   Visible   The Invisible God Images "We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Cor 4:18 Visible Organizations Jesus Christ, "who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see." 1 Tim 6:16  We Look Not To The Visible & Literal Words of Men, But To The Glimpses of Invisible Spirit Behind Them Men Invisible  The Spirit Behind Letter Visible

organization has to offer, but what Christ has to offer us. This is not the comfort of a large social strong powerful religious organization, but a personal, intimate relationship with him, which reaches the heart with "truth" (love and mercy) and "sets one free" from manmade sacrifices, interpretations and rulings, allowing each individual to train his or her own "perceptive powers" and truly grow in Christ.  For the" minding of the flesh" is seeking out the external protection of man made religious organizations with various legal requirements, where as the "minding of the spirit" is seeking out an internal intimacy with the Christ alone, an intimacy of faith and love. For organizational rejection can in no way "separate us from the love of Christ" just as "neither height nor depth nor any other creation" cannot separate us. "For the love of Christ surpasses knowledge," as faith in Christ with love and "mercy" towards our fellow man, overrides the "sacrifices," rules and theological interpretations of all religious organizations and moves persons to grow in faith and exhibit a live of agape love to all of humanity, the life of a true Christian. (Matthew 9:13 Romans 8:35-39 Eph 3:19 John 8:32,33)

Where do we go? We go directly to our ONLY mediator, Jesus Christ, and to him only. "For there is only one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus." He is the only way to get to the father, for he stated, "no one comes to the father except through me," not though some "slave class" or religious organization. He is also our only "head," for "the head of EVERY man is the Christ." (1 Tim 2:5 John 14:6 1 Cor 11:3)

Unlike the modern day Watchtower Bible and Tract Society with the requirement of obeying a human, institutionalized authority structure and the membership of an earthly "visible organization," the original view was 180 degrees different, being in line with the early Christian congregations, who were joined together by an invisible brotherhood, unified only by "love, the perfect bond of union." As noted in the Watch Tower in 1881:

"Must I not join some organization on earth, assent to some creed and have my name written on earth? No, remember that Jesus is your pattern and teacher, and neither in his words nor acts will you find any authority for binding yourselves with creeds and traditions of the elders, which all tend to make the word of God of none effect. (Mark 7:13) and bring you under a bondage which will hinder your growth in grace and knowledge, and against which Paul warned us to "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled with the yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1) But say some: If it is not proper to unite with any of the present nominal churches, would it not be well to form a visible organization of our own? This is what we have an organization modeled after that of the early church. We think we have come back to primitive simplicity. The Lord Jesus alone is our head our lawgiver, the Holy Spirit is our interpreter and guide into truth; our names are all written in heaven; we are bound together by love and common interest . . . . we need no earthly record, for the names of all such are written in the Lamb's book of life."

In the accounts of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, Jesus and many other people used by God, it was out in the wilderness, the desert, apart from a visible organization and camp of religious security, where these men came close to God. It was here, in a remote place that they were able to internalize their thoughts, worship and relationship with God.

In story of Moses, the writer of the book of Hebrews describes it this way:

"By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of the Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.... (Hebrews 11:24-26)

Moses spend the first 40 years of his life in the land of Egypt as the son of Pharaoh's daughter with the treasures of Egypt at his disposal. But Moses recognized the pleasures of Egypt to be sin and temporary. But why was Moses willing to go out into the harsh desert, and loose all of his comforts and security? For doing this, he would suffer reproach. Why would he be willing to do this? This is because Moses "esteemed the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." Moses put his faith in God, the God of the Hebrews who promised Abraham:

"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. Genesis 12:2

And later said of him:

"Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him." Genesis 18:18

Later God told Abraham the savior would be out of the line of Judah. (Genesis 49:10) Moses himself repeated this promise of a great Prophet, in Deuteronomy;

"YHWH your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brothers. Him you shall hear." Deuteronomy 18:15

Moses was willing to put faith in God's words and leave the temporary pleasures, security, and comfort zone and go out into the wilderness. He put his faith in an invisible promise. He did not look for a visible organization, nor did he seek the comfort and protection of a large human organization. Nor did Moses fear the reproach he would receive for doing this. He was willing to give up the temporary enjoyment of sin, to be alone in the desert to serve the true God of the Hebrews.

When we imitate the faith of Abraham, Moses, Elijah and Jesus, we are willing to leave the comfort of visible organizations and put our faith in an invisible brotherhood and an internal faith in God and his promises of a future

od surrounds himself with incompetents. The people God uses have rarely been great people, nor have great people been the people God uses. God looks for misfits and wimps, shmucks and schlemiels. It's not that he has to make do with a bunch of fools. He chooses them. He chooses us. David Roper, from Elijah, a man like us.

city, an invisible one to our eyes. We are willing to be accused of leaving God and be attacked with negative name calling labels, such as "apostate." Apostle Paul says on this;

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." Corinthians 1:26-28

As we are out in the figurative wilderness, leaving the Watchtower Society or any other large powerful religious visible organization, we have to realize the God chooses us, the weak things out of the world, and that our faith is what will enable us to receive his spirit, maintain strength and increase in wisdom, internalizing our relationship with him. For God accomplishes his purpose;

"Not by a military force nor by power, but by his Spirit,' says the YHWH Almighty." Zechariah 4:6

And with his spirit, he can use us, the "weak," to grow in wisdom and discernment, maturing and "becoming full grown in our powers of understanding."

Outside of the camp of religious security, out in the wilderness, is the place of soul-making. We do not make our mark on the world by instinct, intellect, education, personality, humor, appearance, or charm. Influence comes from within. It is a matter of the heart. It cannot be quantified or codified (put into a two-step, ten-step, or weekly bible study process). It can't be gained at a weekend seminar, assembly or obtained from a correspondence course or weekly ministry school. It is the result of the work God is doing in our souls. (2)

And this work is always done in secret. As Elijah was instructed to go alone to a remote place out in the wilderness called Kerith, it was here that God had the ravens feed him and sustain his life and have him find God. We have our own personal Kerith. Hide yourself, God said to Elijah. Kerith represents the hidden life no one sees but God. (1 Kings 17:2-5)

In line with our hidden life, Jesus said,

"Go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Matthew 6:6

Quite time, solitude, retreat, it is a time and place in which we meet God and internalize our relationship with him and reflect on how we treat our fellow man. It is only here that we truly worship, meditate and find inner peace with both God and ourselves. Only in this place, not in the camp of religious security, can we find both God and our inner selves.

- First Century Christians -
Informal Family House Churches

The Minding of The Flesh Unlike the early Christian gatherings who relied on the spirit, the Watchtower Society relies on being a large religious organization with much money, real estate holdings and printing facilities

God, who does "not despise small beginnings," does not need a large religious "visible organization" to do his work. For it is "not by a military force, nor by men, but by God's spirit" that will accomplish his purpose.

To point to Jesus Christ as our only "head" and "leader" may sound disappointing to many who need to lean on other people to know God. But this is not "forsaking the gathering as some do," sharing thoughts and encouraging each other spiritually as the first century Christians as described in the New Testament. Meeting together in small groups, with a family atmosphere, was an integral part of early Christianity.  These gatherings were not part of a large religious organization with much money, real estate holdings and printing facilities, but were small groups who simply discussed the Christ experience and fed each other with an "interchange of encouragement," in what were called by many as "love feasts." (Romans 1:11-12)

The Gospel writers claim Jesus stated "Where two or three are gathered in my name I am there," As did the writer of Hebrews in 10:24-25 to "not be forsaking the gathering as some do." In Luke's account in the book of Acts, he tells 120 persons in an upper room who congregated together. St. Paul's speaks in his letters, Christians met in small groups in private homes and are showing the early follower of "the way" to consist as members of a common family, with small communities, describing all as "receiving adoption as sons, "part of "the household of God," addressing each other as "brethren," "brother," "sister," "children" and other intimate names. As family members they were to "be kind to one another, tenderly hearted, forgiving one another; thus walking in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us and being imitators of God as beloved children."

Elders Take The Lead, Yet The Holy Spirit
Acted On All Others, Each One Individually

In these small Christian groups or congregations, instructions are giving in Hebrews 13:17 to "be obedient to those who are taking the lead among you and be submissive, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will render an account...." True, there is no real "leader" except the Christ, yet "older men" or spiritually mature men were chosen to "take the lead" among groups or congregations of persons and they were to be given a "double honor" for their love and hard work, however they would "not be masters of one's faith," nor would persons simply repeat and follow what they taught outside of the "truth" of "considering others superior" and performing works of mercy and loving kindness.  Their work would be that of fellow slaves, performing a service, and not as figures of authority. Their leadership would only consist of showing true "love of neighbor" with works of mercy, and service to all, not sacrifice,  for all other leading that included theological doctrinal teachings that were outside having faith in Christ with love of our fellow man, would only be opinions and traditions, not always requirements to follow. (Matthew 23:6-11; Heb 13:7,17; 1 Tim 5:17)

As Christ stated, no persons should be addressed as "Rabbi," or teacher, "for all are to be brothers." It would make sense that those who were called apostles, prophets, elders and servants did not pertain to an office or higher level of spirituality that contained a degree of authority. Rather these terms would be directed to the service of leadership that each one performed for the brotherhood of man, providing a service as a slave or servant. These fellow "slaves" would take on a leadership role with those in the congregation being "obedient to those taking the lead," however their obedience would never infringe on both their personal freedom and moral integrity. Those who forfeited their freedom were subsequently reprimanded by Apostle Paul, to "stop becoming slaves of men for it is for freedom that Christ has set us free." Jesus also stated that "those with authority of the world and nations lord over their authority over others, this is not the way among you, but whoever wants to become great among you must be your slave, just as the son of man came not to wield authority but to be a slave to all and give his soul as a ransom in exchange for many." Those "who were to take the lead" were to do so as guides, not as authoritative positions and "masters over others faith" as the former Jewish system had. With this in mind it comes to show that anyone or any group that deviates from this teaching by infringing on the equal brotherhood is not in line with the spirit of true Christianity, falling under the term of "lawlessness." (Matt 23:7-10; 20:25-28; Galatians 5)

Those "who were to take the lead" were to do so as guides and fellow slaves, not as authoritative positions as "masters over others faith" as the former Jewish system had. With this in mind it comes to show that anyone or any group that deviates from this teaching by infringing on the equal brotherhood is not in line with the spirit of true Christianity, falling under the term of "lawlessness." (Matt 23:7-10; 20:25-28; Galatians 5)

In the letter to the Hebrews we read:

"Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you." Hebrews 13:17

In 1 Peter those older ones in The Way are told to take the oversight of the flock of God, not by being forced to do so and "not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." They younger are then told to submit themselves to this gentle oversight by the elders, and all are caught up together as a community of mutual servants in mutual submission.

"All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."1 Peter 5:5

Paul also states:

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." Ephesians 5:2

Dallard Willard comments:

"The order in the redemptive community here implied obviously not a matter of an iron hierarchy in which unwilling souls are crushed and driven. Instead, it functions in the power of truth and mercy inhabiting mature personalities, begin the expression of a kingdom not of this world (John 18:36)-truly a kingdom nonetheless. Otherwise the church would revert to the model of purely human government. Unfortunately, we see this actually happening in certain misguided attempts at Christian community. The Way of Jesus knows no submission outside the context of mutual submission of all to all."(9)

In this sense of all being slaves of one another, serving one another, having a mutual submission of all to all, those taking the lead would do so as the Apostle Paul called himself a "father" in 1 Cor 4:15-16,

"For though you may have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you certainly do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have become your father through the good news. I entreat you therefore, become imitators of me." 1 Corinthians 4:15-16

As Jesus stated:

"The hired man, who is no shepherd ... beholds the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees. because he does not care for the sheep," but the fine shepherd, Jesus, surrenders his soul for in behalf of the sheep. That is why the Father loves me, because I surrender my soul, in order that I may receive it again." John 10: 7-15

Apostle Paul, was chosen directly by Jesus to "shepherd the flock." As a shepherd he would have the responsibility to be as a father for them, caring for them, serving them as a fellow slave and even surrendering his soul for them. Caring for them, did not mean being a father to render theological interpretations outside faith in Christ and love of our fellow man, but rather it would be the love and mercy a true father performs for his children, as he gently shepherds them to trust in Christ and live a life that focuses on the internal Spiritual realm of incorruptible, not external realm of the corruptible flesh. Here he would be shown a "double honor" for his service to all by "taking the lead" and caring for the flock with an agape love.   (John 10: 7-15; 1 Tim 5:17; 1 Pet 5:1-2) *

* This expression of "father" does not conflict with Jesus statement at Matthew 23:8, for in that instance, Jesus was speaking about giving worship to men instead of God and acting as "babes," "drinking milk" by following men as their leaders in areas where Christians are supposed to be "digesting the solid food" being "free," by using their own "perceptive powers to distinguish right and wrong," "becoming full grown in their powers of understanding.' (Matthew 23:8-12; Hebrews 5:12-14; 1 Corinthians 14:20)

The men who were to "take the lead," were to set an example in showing mercy and love to others, solely representing Christ as our only head and mediator, never representing an external human hierarchical organization with a governing body and central spokesman having various rules, regulations, policies and procedures, but rather, small family like communities of fellow believers performing works of mercy and love to one another.

Holy Spirit The Teacher

Empowered "All"

God taught all, both those taking the lead and those submitting to their service with his Holy Spirit, supplying different "gifts in men."

As Jesus stated:

"I will request the Father and he will give you a helper to be with you forever....the holy spirit, which the Father will send in my name, that one will teach you all things and bring back to your minds all the things I told you." John 14:16, 26

This Holy Spirit would be there forever to teach Christians. God did not limit His Spirit to those taking the lead, but poured Him out to everyone, transforming each individual into becoming a new creation in Christ, as kinder, more considerate and compassionate people who freely forgive one another.

Each individual obtained different "gifts in men."

"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach, if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." Romans 12:4-8 "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines." 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church." 1 Corinthians 14:1, 12 "God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will." Hebrews 2:4 "For each individual has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that way."1 Cor 7:7

The Holy Spirit would supply teaching for each individual. As each individual obtains his or her own internal connection with God, the Spirit teaches and reveals information, as well as supplies different gifts to different individuals. The Spirit does not operate organizationally, limiting each individual to drinking milk as babes by a dependence of mimicking, repeating and following whatever "those taking the lead" in the congregation interpret. "For such freedom Christ set us free," therefore stand fast, and do not let yourselves be confined again in a yoke of slavery," "for where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (Gal 5:1). As the Holy Spirit operates individually, the congregation would not be divided but be "harmoniously joined together. into a place for God to inhabit by spirit" as the "body of Christ," joined together by "love, the perfect bond of union."  (Eph 2:21; 4:12)

Christians today fellowship with other local Christians, meeting together in private homes in small knit, family type, groups, churches and communities discussing scriptures, celebrating, worshiping and using their gifts under the direction of God's Spirit and of those taking the lead. (Matt 18:20; 1 The 1:10; Gal 4:4-5; Eph 2:19; Philemon 10; Col 4:9; Eph 4:32-5:2)

Joining a Religious Organization Bring Compromise And Conformance To A Group Interpretation

The problem today, with joining large churches, who are part of a national or international organization, is that they have their agreed upon doctrines, teachings and interpretations, forcing each individual to conform to the group or church dogmas and teachings to become and remain a member. Instead, the bible tells us that "Christ has set us free" from man's yoke, allowing each Christian is to "keep his senses" and be on guard of his individual Christian "freedom" to interpret the many scriptures that have no clear explanation in the bible. Many prefer to be part of a large organization, compromising and conforming to the group interpretation, rather then as an individual, thus removing a certain degree of the individual's "perceptive powers," preventing him or her to "press on to maturity" and becoming a "full grown man in your powers of understanding." Also many are persuaded to put an "organization" ahead of God's word. Yet it is not an organization that God speaks to us by, For "God who long ago spoke on many occasions and in many ways to our forefathers by means of the prophets, has at the end of these days spoken to us by means of a Son..." (Heb 1:2)  His son, Jesus, has provided God's holy spirit to guide and direct his people.  It would be this spirit only that would guide and direct God's servants, not a religious organization of men or a "slave class." On the contrary, to put oneself under the subjection of a "slave class" is to forfeit the freedom and put ourselves in a yoke of slavery that Christ died for to set us free from. It would be as though his sacrifice was of no value.

Following religious organizations with their organizational interpretations also contribute to the loss of intimacy with God and Christ. For instead of having complete dependence on them, persons belonging to a particular denomination tend to rely on a religious group or counsel, with their group interpretations, with the result being, the "Christ exists divided." Here we would give up our freedom and be "minding of the flesh," relying on man made organizations. For the first century Christians met in small groups or congregations, having a family type atmosphere, meeting at different homes and encouraging one another with a love based on the principle of putting others first, a love that concentrated on forgiveness and kindness to others, putting the emphasis on building and maintaining an internal relationship solely with the Christ and not an external relationship with man made religious organizations. (Eph 4:13; John 8:32,33; 1 Cor 3:17; Hebrews 5:14; Hebrews 6:1; 1 Corinthians 14:20; Hebrews 10:24,25; 1 Cor 1:13 ; 1 Peter 5:8;)

Thomas Merton states:

"Fear is perhaps the greatest enemy of candor. How many men fear to follow their conscience because they would rather conform to the opinion of other men than to the truth they know in their hearts! How can I be sincere if I am constantly changing my mind to conform with the shadow of what I think others expect of me? Others have no right to demand that I be anything else than what I ought to be in the sight of God. No greater thing could possibly be asked of a man than this! This one just expectation, which I am bound to fulfill, is precisely the one they usually do not expect me to fulfill. They want me to be what I am in their sight: that is, an extension of themselves. They do not realize that if I am fully myself, my life will become the completion and the fulfillment of their own, but that if I merely live as their shadow, I will serve only to remind them of their own unfulfillment. If I allow myself to degenerate into the being I am imagined to be by other men, God will have to say to me, 'I know you not!.'" (Matthew 7:23)  (14)

Each congregation of Christians should be balanced, allowing a large degree of individual "freedom" to interpret scripture and theological opinion and at the same time not tolerating those who are "causing divisions" by putting theology and doctrines above the showing of mercy and love to others. If having doctrinal and theological "freedom" is considered to be "causing divisions," then there is no freedom and no allowance being made for the holy spirit to truly operate on individuals, putting people in bondage, religious slavery. When this happens, and it does in almost every religious organization, it is time to leave and live "outside the camp" of religious bondage and enter the desert of freedom and responsibility, solely building an internal relationship with the Christ, imitating him by continually making adjustments in life to put mercy above sacrifice, to stop hurting others and showing love. (Gal 5:1; Romans 16:17)

Problems When Leaving

When a person decides to "train his own perceptive powers to distinguish right from wrong" apart from a mother organization, he is attempting to "become full grown in his powers of understanding to the fullness of Christ." He is "pressing on to maturity." This of course breaks the security of the "camp" or large comfortable organization of family of friends. This can be quite emotionally devastating and draining, especially when the person is shunned for

With Freedom Comes Responsibility

No Longer Can We Rely On A Slave Class or Religious Organization

these actions.

Now this person must use his bible trained conscience and let the "helper," the Holy Spirit, "teach him" and "ask for this, so he will receive" and knock so God's door will be opened. This requires effort. No longer can this person simply rely on the "slave class" or "governing body" of men to make their decisions for him. He must solely rely on God, Jesus Christ and the Holy spirit for help and guidance.

This withdrawal of effortlessness can be a period of great confusion to the person whose reliance on men to make decisions for him ends. He may doubt that his conversion to Christ ever really occurred. He may come under condemnation, either from himself or from well meaning but misinformed Christians. He may even find confusion or condemnation in the Bible itself: "You have forsaken you first love" (Rev 2:4). And he will probably grieve the loss of the security and community he once had that came so easily.

Many persons will deeply feel the following emotional thoughts:

1. Betrayal of Their Friends And Family
2. Destroying Their Reputation
3. Being A Loud Mouth, Agitator
4. Being Mean Spirited, Causing Trouble
5.,Despite It All, Displeasing God

These feelings, along with guilt, will be or can be