To Be Or Not to Be - the Real Thing

I once got a song called "The Real Thing." Actually, I got it in a dream. It's one of 4 songs I received in dreams so far, and it was pretty vivid, resembling something close to what is depicted in the old 70s Letter "The Drugstore," Dad's dream about a stark naked underground church...

Well, the times have a-changed, and so has the Family, and even my personal interpretation of the meaning of that song, or who and what can be referred to as "the Real Thing" has changed.

It's clear that Jesus is and was and always will remain the Real Thing, as far as the way, the truth and the life in God are concerned.

But as far as there being one group capable of claiming exclusive rights to being "It," and, as I believed for a long time, the only true alternative to the System,(and I may have even defended that viewpoint to an extent where it became embarrassing to those who happened to know better), I've had to back off from that stance and conclude that it depends on each of us individually, to what extent we're going to be the real deal or not.

I'm afraid we all know folks from among our ranks who wouldn't fall into that category. And if at present I would even know one single person who would fulfill the criteria of a living disciple of Christ about whom I could say, "Yep, he (or she)'s doin' it," I wouldn't be writing this. I've heard some folks write about folks who are supposed to be the real deal, but I haven't met any. Not in the last 15 years or more.
I do have friends in the Family, and as far as I'm concerned, in many aspects the Family was probably the coolest outfit to be serving the Lord in during the 70s and early 80s.

One thing I got from the Lord recently about the Family and why He likes it so much is that it's a place full of mistakes. While He doesn't make mistakes Himself, when it comes to His representatives, the only ones who ever got anywhere were the kind of folks who made mistakes aplenty, because they're the best learning ground, the safest and most solid humility factor and the only thing that's going to keep us from becoming the worst kind of people in the world: the kind who think they never make any mistakes, like the Pharisees (who evidently have their modern day counterparts, and perhaps we've all had our Pharisaical periods).

Maybe the Family is the one outfit that came closest to a revival of the Early Church in the 20th century, and I certainly feel privileged to have been part of it for 3 decades, and the fact that we might not necessary be the "cream of the crop" or "Endtime Elite" we may have thought we were does not change anything about my desire to want to remain part of it. I still doubt that the chances are really substantial that I might find anything essentially better, since I've never been the churchy type.
I've visited a group of alternative Christians in our area who call themselves "Jesus Freaks" and enjoyed their informal type of "service," but it's not as if those guys wouldn't have their own problems.

I personally really appreciate the latest moves the Lord brought about in the Family and will give credit to Maria and Peter for granting us the liberty to mature into complete responsibility for our own actions and choices. To me that was the final proof that I did the right thing when I joined 30 years ago, although I seem to be a rather solitary figure in my area of the world with my appreciation of those changes, with some finding it hard to let go of the "elitist" think that seems to have replaced the humbler "Diamonds of Dust" approach from our early days somewhere along the line.

The thing is that I've met other folks - "other sheep" (?) - from other folds who also fall into the category of "the Real Thing," perhaps in some aspects even more so than the majority of my acquaintances from my own outfit, and I've found out that God goes a lot more by hearts than by outfit.

As far as the future of the Family is concerned, with no more expectations from my side for the group that refers to itself as TFI to be the sole fulfillment of criteria that would qualify any group as "the Real Thing," I simply hope that as many folks as possible might wind up fulfilling those criteria further down the road on individual levels.
I especially hope that I will be able to fulfill them myself, since that is the major of concerns I'm presently dealing with.
I'll let you know in another decade - Lord willing - how it went, & hope I'll see you there...

Perhaps...

Why would God use the word "perhaps," if He's all-knowing?
Perhaps because He like our "perhaps world" and wants to show that He sympathizes with us, and wants to be level with us.
God is cool. He doesn't want to come across like some big smart Alec or Mr. Know-It-All, even if He does.
If you were all-knowing, would you constantly rub that fact under the nose of the ones you love, or would you rather try to make them feel more at ease about that quality of yours by coming down to their level by using words that make sense to them, even if - from a factual point of you - they don't make any to you?

Perhaps God uses the word "perhaps" in some of His conversations with us the same way we sometimes adopt our own children's lingo:

"Awesome!" --- "Coool." ... Well, or whatever terms they use these days.

Or the way you sometimes let your child win when you play a game with them, even though you could beat them every time...

Why does God use the word "perhaps?" Perhaps because - as different as He is from us in that He's perfect and we're not - He likes to show us that He likes and loves us the way we are, as imperfect as we may be, and He shows us by becoming like one of us?

Perhaps God is not exactly "one of us," as some song in the 90s indicated, but - after all, He was, and perhaps He still likes to at least act like one of us every now and then, and assure us that, as far as He's concerned, He is one of us. He's with us, on our side, and nothing can separate us from Him or change anything about that fact.

Perhaps God does some things to show us how we ought to love each other: not expect others to be perfect or live up to our high standards, but stoop down to their level and pull'em up to ours whenever they're ready, or just help them gradually get there, and show them how to by accompanying them every step of the way.

Perhaps, if God is really like that, it's going to be a lot easier for a lot of people to love Him back, which is exactly what He wants.


Perhaps God isn't so dumb at all to be using the word "perhaps."

A Lesson from "The Shack"

There's a beautiful spiritual lesson in the book "The Shack" that has been a recurring source of spiritual strength and comfort for me. When Jesus was on the cross, in the very darkest hour of not only His life, but probably also that of all of human history (and yet paradoxically the focal point of all human hope at the same time), He uttered those words: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

Some people have interpreted that to show that He lost the battle, He quit; He doubted, so He was just a loser, like all of us. Some have said that it was necessary for Jesus to go through this experience alone, even without the Father.

In "The Shack" it says that although Jesus felt forsaken on the cross, He really wasn't, since the Father was there with Him all the time.

But the really comforting thing about it all is that this wasn't the end of the story, but that Jesus finally said, "Father, into Your hands do I commend My Spirit!"

Since having read this, I've been - not as faithfully as I should - trying to apply this tactic of our Savior to overcome times of greatest darkness, and have been trying to make it a habit to commend my spirit into the Lord's hands.

No matter how weak you feel, how dark the circumstances or the outlook, how great the temptation to give in, or the feeling of being forsaken by God and men, you can always do this one thing that Jesus did in the hour of His death: you can commend your spirit into His hands.

He's going to know what to do with it! You may not have any strength left, no clue what to do, but if with your last, final breath you simply commend whatever is left of you into His hands, you can do no wrong.

You might have to go through hell for another short period, but even there you won't be alone, as even the Psalmist tells us, and eventually, you'll experience that glorious resurrection that will have made it worth all the pain, the suffering and the seeming hopelessness.

30 Years in the Family

This year marks my 30th anniversary in the Family, and I feel that this might be a good opportunity to reminisce a little on those 3 decades and wrap up some sort of conclusion of what I have learned on this journey.
I specially would like to thank the Family for 3 things:

1. For giving me Jesus

Although the Family I got to know as a 13 year old in 1976 was a very different place than it has become since, and if I would have had the choice I might have preferred to wind up in some "hipper" movement, led by some perhaps a little less controversial spiritual thinker, writer or leader, I would have had to wait a long time for any of them to bring me Jesus.
I'm very thankful for that golden moment in time when the Family was active enough in my country, a field that has largely not been considered a "field" for the past 3 decades and shunned by most men and women of God, to find me in my dark little corner of the world and bring to me the Light of the World.


2. For teaching me to establish a personal relationship with Him

Since the Family's beginnings, Dad emphasized the importance of hearing from God, through Letters like "Faith," "Stop, Look & Listen" and others, and that this was the most important thing each new generation of God's children had to learn was to hear personally from Him, even if it took me quite a while until I finally got that point.
Certainly the Family is unique in teaching its members that anybody can hear from Him at basically any time, and for this gift I am very thankful.


3. For the lesson of looking unto Jesus vs. any personality cult

Relationship with Jesus has the quality that it only really works if we keep Him in the first place in our lives. Humans however have a strong tendency toward making their peers the primary point of their focus, and thus I am very thankful for the basic lesson Dad has taught from the very beginning through such classics as "For God's Sake Follow God" to keep our eyes on Jesus.


There would be more points I could point out and for which to express my gratitude, but these 3 are the main ones.
I pray that God would give me the grace and strength for another decade in His service, although I feel very much like "Now it's your turn," as far as the 2nd generation is concerned, and as John the Baptist said in relation to Jesus, they "must increase," and take the floor.

May they carry the torch and continue doing for others what their parents have done for me: Give folks Jesus, a living relationship with Him, and teach them to keep looking unto Him.

My Verse for 2010

Do you sometimes get a little frustrated because you can't figure out what the momentary mess that constitutes your life could possibly be all about? Well, maybe you don't, because your life is wonderfully organized and everything is perfectly under control, in which case I congratulate you.
I must warn you, though, that things can unravel even in the most perfectly organized lives sometimes, and you might find yourself in a similar situation where you wonder why on earth the Lord allowed a certain thing to happen in your life, like for example, "Why on earth did my wife have to get a dog (on top of the cat, the rabbit, the guinea pig and the four rats), when having pets is so time consuming, not to mention the resources?"

Or, "Why is my life not as simple and neat and organized and flawless as brother so-and-so's?"

Well, the Lord gave me an encouraging little message the other day, reminding me of the promise that there is nothing hid that shall not be revealed.
Meaning, no matter how chaotic and confusing your life may be, no matter how many lies and deceptions the Devil is telling the world, and no matter what a hopeless mess everything may seem to be, there will come a point in time (although it may well be time in a different way than we presently know it), when all things will be revealed, all questions answered, all doubts and unclarities removed.

"So what?" you might say, because none of these things ever fazed your mind, but for me that's something to look forward to.
Sort of like that older song of mine, "Today It All Makes Sense" or Jeremy's song "Bend In the Road"...


Anyway, that's the verse I chose for the new year: "“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known” Luke 12:2.

It's not that I expect that verse to be fulfilled in the new year (unless the Lord should decide to take me Home for some reason...), but it's something that gives me an incentive to keep ploughing away through the occasional lack of clarity and obvious reason behind my momentary situations: Someday it'll all make sense and all things shall be revealed.

So, any question you might have about life or the universe that may be plaguing you, and unsolved mysteries giving you sleepless nights, cheer up, some day they're all going to be resolved, and as far as I'm concerned, that's something to look forward to.

May the Lord bless you with a clear vision for the coming year, and the initiative to make it happen, the faith to pursue it and the guts to see it through.

Happy New Year!

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