Moving the Contents of an Old Blog (posts will be added as I get time)

This is an old blog that started in 2005. It ran its course. In the aftermath,  I would address some things differently now and, then again, I understand some things better as well.   As I read back on some of these things, my urgent sense that something was needed to pull the “real church” together comes through.

I no longer believe this need exists quite in the same way as my original thinking. Instead, I have come to believe that there are two major streams of the church–one is earthly-minded and one is spiritual-minded. Both have a purpose and a calling. Both have been infested with things not of Christ. Personally, I have chosen the latter calling as the one I believe is closer to the heart of God’s purpose.

Having said that, I must also say that my great search took me to and through many, many cultural forms of Christian service and function. I found most of them to be of some efficacy and all of them to miss the mark at the same time. I learned to appreciate and value many believers within various religious systems, and I found in all cases that the best fellowship is to be found wherever there is faith and wherever the Cross has come to bear in lives. Rarely did I ever find this in the great movements, the  institutions, or even among those who are looking for the “true Church.”

When all is said and done, I found that the “true Church” is Christ’s eternal Life  in His people. That which does not proceed from Him  is not Christ and is therefore not the Church.   This is the important distinction.  The Cross divides what is eternal from what is not eternal. Everything that believers do does not proceed from Life, but as they die daily, God will resurrect what is dead.

ABOUT “SALTSISTER”

SaltSister began during the throes of a real life question: “What if God can best be known outside the margins of all that is called ‘church’?”  I probed everything in Christian thinking, to the delight of some and to the offense of others. Along the way, I touched some “edgy” things that I wouldn’t handle again. Occasionally, I was even hoodwinked by fellow ”seekers” outside-the-camp. It was probably part of the price for seeking the way that the Church had lost long ago.

SaltSister ran for four years before I understood its ultimate purpose myself. I knew that part of it was for me, but part of it was always for others.  Although SaltSister originally questioned whether God was best known outside the margins, the real question was probably more like, “How can I trust the reality of God’s speaking when I feel compelled to remain ‘under authority’ like a forgotten and miserable orphan in this thing called ‘the Church’?”

In hindsight, SaltSister never said anything completely original. Everything that can be said has been said somewhere on earth. SaltSister merely dusted off things long forgotten and misplaced by the Church–not so unlike the day when Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the Law in the days of Josiah. (“My, did we misplace that somewhere?”) The Church had clouded or even denied the authority of some of the Lord’s most important assurance on matters of guidance:

But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.  (1 John 2:27)

The organized Church (we won’t rehash the temporal history here) maintained conformity to group-think by proliferating fears of “getting off” when it should have been teaching how to seek the Lord and how to be sure of His leading. Jesus taught, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:18) For too long, we have been without that comfort.

This brings me to SaltSister’s real purpose. Its main beneficiaries are those who are beginning to move under the direction of their Lord and need confidence in the fact. SaltSister is an echo of what they have been sensing and a  second witness that what they are hearing in spirit is real.