I will stay

Where I have been placed is where I am wanted by God. I do not understand His will, and at times I break down in prayer and beg Him to grant me understanding. The answers are slow in coming, but the persistent response is only that I am to be. Perhaps there are persistent questions in each persons life in which the answer is that we are in the situation to simply be there; no grand lesson to be learned other than the greatest lesson of all, how to be. These problems will pass if we run from them more will be found, if we pursue something greater more will be found, but if we stand our ground, if we learn how to be, the problems will pass. The phrase that reassures is simple to learn, "be still and know that I am God"; have you learned how to be still, like a tree rooted in the ground? Let your roots grow deep and your branches high, swaying in the breeze, always growing and giving signs to each season. The tree is still yet always abounding in life and never unoccupied by life. Be still and vital, be aware and active in knowing that God is God.

Lies behind the truth, or is it the truth behind the lies

To confess to the lies that were spurned in order to convince people to believe is to admit that our beliefs need not proven, they are beliefs of faith. When one evaluates beliefs, one might realize the outside view that choosing one side of the debate and substantiating that side is viewed as lying by the supporters of the opposing side of the argument. To believe beyond the contradiction with the study and admittance of the validity of the opposing viewpoints is to gain true peace with faith and to submit completely to the knowledge of not knowing all the truth. It is in the state of admitted ignorance to the truth that one can truly believe, truly exercise faith and truly exist in cohabitation of this place; in this world of war and argument without being of this world. Are you ready to be trained in accordance with one who stands in the assembly of all accepted beliefs, speaking to the multitude of viewpoints, and caring for each misrepresentation of the hearts desire to know God, truth, love and understanding. When I was a child there was one way, it was the way I was taught, the way I believed, the way I was instructed all others were wrong, but now as I have grown to be a man I see God's work in all ways, in all beliefs, in all things that through love bring mankind to a more fulfilling knowledge of Him.

Longing

What is it in the local assembly houses called blindly "churches" toward which so many are drawn? What is in that assembly that stirs the soul and causes interest and intrigue? Certainly the concept of modern worship is skewed from the foundational concept of "church" no matter what the religion is, the wearies of time have persuaded the definitions of the foundational concepts of the sect of whatever greater religious construct people gather to celebrate in the assembly. Herein lies the conflict, like a family who suddenly realizes the children are now the adults and the parents not the parents, not needed in the same way, at times not agreed with, the church, it's followers have matured even in their naivety, they have reached beyond the constitutional, doctrinal concepts that once governed their beliefs and have journeyed into an anarchy of "new thought" much as their founder did from whatever religious views or societal norms the founder once held. We are the people, naive, immature, playing grown up and so messed up in our conflicting views of what and where reality exists. Looking for, longing for the true church where the elder is the one, where the pastor is the one, where the gathering is the one, where O children is one which is heard. Longing for the one one for the truth, knowing a remnant of that truth is there, like the archeologist at an empty tomb...something was here, may still be if examined. Longing to uncover the secret passage, to find a purpose for this quest, returning beyond the disappointment to search till fulfillment is reached...longing.