{"id":8,"date":"2008-07-14T08:25:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-14T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25551729.post-3680333120941561023"},"modified":"2009-07-07T08:59:46","modified_gmt":"2009-07-07T15:59:46","slug":"got-potential-2008-07-14-152500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/gods-purpose\/got-potential-2008-07-14-152500","title":{"rendered":"Just Another Brick in the Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s judgment seat. It is written: \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAs surely as I live,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 says the Lord, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcevery knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Romans 14:10-13)<\/div>\n
PURPOSE<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
Vol. 2 Issue 24<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
June 17, 2008<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
Just Another Brick in the Wall<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
Something I said in the last letter has had me thinking. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all bricks in the same building, stretching back over thousands of years and covering the whole earth, then I have trouble with the idea of my \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcchurch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and your \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcchurch.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/div>\n
There are a lot of fellow \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbricks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 who kinda creep me out. If there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no my church or your church, only His church, and if you and I are the church, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d better get used to the idea that you and I are joined together forever, fellow bricks in the building that is God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s temple.<\/div>\n
But what if I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like you? What if I think you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re way wrong about a lot of things pertaining to Him? What if I think you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve missed the boat on some pretty important theological points?<\/div>\n
What if you think the same thing about me?<\/div>\n
Why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t I just have my church and you have your church, and then we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll let God sort things out in eternity?<\/div>\n
See how easy it is to slip back into that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church is a building\/ officialdom\/ organization\/ profession\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thing again? Remember the church is us. You and me and all of those whom Christ has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153called out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made up of all of us \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 even those who creep us out.<\/div>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whoa Steve, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re treading on thin ice here.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (What else is new?) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Surely you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean just bunching us all up together!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are doctrinal issues at stake!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Are you asking us to compromise the doctrines that make us different?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/div>\n
No, not at all. That is, unless your doctrine is wrong. Then go ahead and change it.<\/div>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not talking about Ecumenism are you?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/div>\n
For those of you who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stake your lives on man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theological constructs and their definitions, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ecumenism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the idea of moving toward \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcuniversal Christian unity.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 A catholic church.<\/div>\n
Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t panic.<\/div>\n
Not the Catholic Church. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Catholic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153universal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and pertains to the idea of a single, undivided \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the way the first church was back in the first century. The way it will be when Christ returns to claim His church.<\/div>\n
*****<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Something else I said in an earlier letter is relevant to this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s topic.<\/div>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Any time you get a bunch of humans together (Christians fall into this class too) they have a tendency to muck things up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Purpose Weekly Vol. 2, Issue 22)<\/div>\n
I was talking to a friend on the phone the other day about the early church. We were pretty amazed at stories in the book of Acts about all the believers sharing meals and having everything in common and how a person who had something went out and sold and shared the proceeds with everyone so that no one had too much and no one went without.<\/div>\n
Halfway kidding I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Communism isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a failed ideology; we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a failed species.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Then I thought about it a little. Then I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t kidding so much.<\/div>\n
Communism doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work. Not because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s broken \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re broken.<\/div>\n
For the same reason ecumenism, the practical establishment of a single universal church, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work. As fellow bricks in the wall we disagree with how the wall is built and what it should look like. Each of us is convinced that he or she is right and the brick that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see it our way is wrong. And we are right \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 unless we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re wrong. But we stick to our guns – I make my church and you make your church and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the way it is.<\/div>\n
There will come a day, however, when He returns to receive His church. My church and your church will fade away pretty quickly. My stuff and your stuff won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be important anymore. It won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be because He fixed our systems or ideologies or the other guy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s screwed up beliefs; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be because He fixed us.<\/div>\n
*****<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Artist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s oil paint comes in little tubes, like toothpaste. Between manufacturers there are thousands of colors and tints to choose from. Personally I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see the difference between \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Brown Ochre\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Burnt Sienna\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; I must not have an artist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eye for detail. Each pigment has its own unique shade and tint, no matter how subtle \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 or so they tell me.<\/div>\n
But if a crazed pigment terrorist were to sneak into the factory and squeeze all the contents out of all the tubes into a giant pot and stir them all up with a giant stick he wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a rainbow of all the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unique shades and tints of color. Each individual pigment would be compromised as it was stirred into the mix. They would all meld into one greenish, brownish, grayish goop. What a mess.<\/div>\n
In order to graduate from college I \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to take an art appreciation class. The university wanted to be sure business and science majors had at least a dash of civilization so the institution wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be embarrassed by news of their alumni not knowing a Cezanne from a Chagall.<\/div>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fairly dull regarding the finer arts, but I did see a lot of pretty paintings and hear a lot of pretty music in that class and the professor did his best to penetrate our thick business major skulls as to why we should appreciate the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMasters.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/div>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember much about Cezanne or Chagall other than I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty sure they were painters and not musicians. But one guy did stick in my mind. His name was Georges Seurat. He was a post-impressionist painter (don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask me the difference between that and a pre-impressionist painter). What I remember about this guy was that he used a painting technique called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pointillism.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That means his paintings, usually huge canvases, were made up of thousands of tiny uniform dots. It fascinated me that all those individual dots together on the canvas made up a single picture that I could understand and appreciate.<\/div>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about as close as I can come to explaining the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; those whom Christ has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153called out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Individually we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re unique colors of every imaginable shade and tint. Some of the colors go well with others, some clash. If we put all the colors together in a big pot and stirred them up with a big stick we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get a greenish, brownish, grayish goopy mess. But in the hands of the Master all those individual pigments can come together in a wonderful whole.<\/div>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beyond me.<\/div>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m beginning to learn my job as a brick; my responsibility as a tiny dot of color. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to fill my spot in the whole. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it.<\/div>\n
I know that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll run into other bricks in the Temple, other dots of color on the canvas, whom I disagree with. If I run into a difference that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too big to ignore I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll try to follow Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advice. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (II Thessalonians 3:14-15).<\/div>\n
The truth is though, that we tend to focus on differences, even if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not so important; we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll make them important enough so we can be at odds over them.<\/div>\n
*****<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
God, knowing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a little dull, usually throws an object lesson my way when He wants me to learn something.<\/div>\n
I had lunch with a guy last week who I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I really wanted to have lunch with. I had decided that I disagreed with this guy on a few things and those few things were important enough for me to decide that this guy was one of those \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbricks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 who creeped me out.<\/div>\n
I was wrong.<\/div>\n
First of all, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the guy at all. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen him around; I had heard him and heard about him, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been in some of the same places at the same time. But I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the guy.<\/div>\n
That didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop me from judging him though. And it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop me from privileging the world with my opinion either. I was wrong. I apologize.<\/div>\n
There are a few things that this brother of mine and me see differently; but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbricks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in a same temple; both tiny dots of color on the same canvas. Our responsibility is to fill our spot. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll leave the big picture to the Master.<\/div>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll end this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s letter with a classic. I should have this one on a note, pinned to my shirt.<\/div>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLet me take the speck out of your eye,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eye.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Matthew 7: 3-5)<\/div>\n
Until next week.<\/div>\n
In Christ,
\nSteve Spillman<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s judgment seat. It is written: \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAs surely as I live,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 says the Lord, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcevery knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 So then, each of us will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[634,438,585,134,586,6,43,82,131,334,7,540],"tags":[679,674,681,882,682,680,130,686,684,685,660,683],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-community","category-courage","category-faith","category-fear","category-gods-purpose","category-heaven","category-hell","category-justice","category-obedience","category-purpose","category-trust","tag-bricks","tag-building","tag-catholic","tag-church","tag-communism","tag-ecumenism","tag-god","tag-hypocrite","tag-ideologies","tag-master","tag-officialdom","tag-universal-church"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}