Dnepropretskov, Ukraine: wonderful community of cell groups!
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Sunday, November 20, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Paradigms: Our Prison Cells
Imagine you are born in a huge room. There are lots of other people in the room. You grow up thinking that room is all the reality there is. All the other people feel the same way and teach you how to act in the room. As long as you "act right" you are accepted as "normal."
But you are curious. There is a skylight that sometimes lets a lot of light in and sometimes it does not. You are aware there is a light source "out there" that gets turned off in some magic way on a regular basis. You wonder about it but you are told, "That is just the way it works. Don't ask questions!"
Strangely, the people in the room seem afraid of the two windows and the door leading out of the room. No one ventures near the door: who knows what danger lurks outside? It's safer to stay in the middle area of the room.
But you have a deep curiosity and so you drift over to the windows. They are too high to look out of but occasionally you notice there are blue or white or gray colors on the other side and you wonder why? You ask about it but you are told, "That is just the way it is. Don't ask questions!"
You try to climb up on a table to look out the window, but several people rush over and quickly pull you down, saying, "You must not do that. In this room, we have agreed no one should try to look out the windows!
You saunter over to the door, thinking you might look out. A big heavy woman who looks like she could be a wrestler is standing there. "What do you think you are doing? Don't you know it is forbidden to look out of the door? Get back in the middle where you belong!"
You begin to question why everyone is so fearful of "what's outside" when no one has been there. You begin to think about "what's inside the room" and you get disillusioned with the system that seems to make the room a kind of prison cell. You decide you will take the risk and sneak out of the room when the light from above has gone dark and everyone is sleeping. You carefully make your plan. Finally the moment comes.
Your heart is beating big time! What if there are steep cliffs all around the room and going out the door would cause you to fall and fall and die? What if there are the dragons you have seen in your nightmares that have never existed in the room but might really exist "out there?"
Finally, with great courage you tiptoe to the door when the room is black. You gingerly step through the door and find there is a solid mass under your feet. In the dark it seems a bit spongy as you walk on it. You feel it and it seems to be about 4 inches deep and made of small, soft blades. It's nothing like the carpet in the room!
Then you look up and you see thousands of little lights glowing all over, but very far away. As you circle around looking at them, you see a very large dim light that seems closer than the rest! You are amazed. You think, "Wow! Why don't the people in the room want to see this?"
You are getting sleepy, so you lay down on these soft blades that have an interesting smell and soon you are fast asleep. When you awake, you see the blades are green and there are beautiful red and blue plants sticking up between them. Your eyes look to the horizon and you see many beautiful tall objects that stick way up and have green ovals hanging all over them. Amazed, you watch a little object with multicolored wings flitting by, going from plant to plant.
This is all too much! It is so beautiful! You must tell the people in the room what's "outside," that it is not only perfectly safe but amazingly beautiful here. Surely they will want to know what you have discovered . . .
You run back to the door. As you enter, the Lady Wrestler grabs you by the collar and throws you down on the floor: "You cannot enter here! You may have a disease that will kill us all!"
"No, no!" you cry; "I am perfectly healthy." To the watching crowd, he shouts, "There is a beautiful world out there. You are trapped in a dull room. Please come and see what I have seen!"
Sadly, the people shake their head in dismay. As they walk away they are saying, "He is no longer one of us. He does not belong here. We must ostracize him."
++++++++++++
Two years after I left the "room" of the Southern Baptist Convention to "see" the Kingdom of God in all its beauty as I discovered the Basic Christian Communities, I spoke to a very high official in a denominational meeting. I told him I had been "outside" and had seen the precious Body of Christ living in true community instead of meeting in packaged denominational "programs," that there was a prototype that could bring new life to the deadness of the room he/we were living in. His terse comment:
"Ralph, we didn't ask you to do that and we don't want what you offer!"
++++++++++++
If you are a "traditional" Christian, and if you have the courage to step out the door, please read the most important book I have ever written. It is called Christ's Basic Bodies (Available on Amazon). If you do read it, you may decide you do not ever again want to live in the room . . . be careful!
But you are curious. There is a skylight that sometimes lets a lot of light in and sometimes it does not. You are aware there is a light source "out there" that gets turned off in some magic way on a regular basis. You wonder about it but you are told, "That is just the way it works. Don't ask questions!"
Strangely, the people in the room seem afraid of the two windows and the door leading out of the room. No one ventures near the door: who knows what danger lurks outside? It's safer to stay in the middle area of the room.
But you have a deep curiosity and so you drift over to the windows. They are too high to look out of but occasionally you notice there are blue or white or gray colors on the other side and you wonder why? You ask about it but you are told, "That is just the way it is. Don't ask questions!"
You try to climb up on a table to look out the window, but several people rush over and quickly pull you down, saying, "You must not do that. In this room, we have agreed no one should try to look out the windows!
You saunter over to the door, thinking you might look out. A big heavy woman who looks like she could be a wrestler is standing there. "What do you think you are doing? Don't you know it is forbidden to look out of the door? Get back in the middle where you belong!"
You begin to question why everyone is so fearful of "what's outside" when no one has been there. You begin to think about "what's inside the room" and you get disillusioned with the system that seems to make the room a kind of prison cell. You decide you will take the risk and sneak out of the room when the light from above has gone dark and everyone is sleeping. You carefully make your plan. Finally the moment comes.
Your heart is beating big time! What if there are steep cliffs all around the room and going out the door would cause you to fall and fall and die? What if there are the dragons you have seen in your nightmares that have never existed in the room but might really exist "out there?"
Finally, with great courage you tiptoe to the door when the room is black. You gingerly step through the door and find there is a solid mass under your feet. In the dark it seems a bit spongy as you walk on it. You feel it and it seems to be about 4 inches deep and made of small, soft blades. It's nothing like the carpet in the room!
Then you look up and you see thousands of little lights glowing all over, but very far away. As you circle around looking at them, you see a very large dim light that seems closer than the rest! You are amazed. You think, "Wow! Why don't the people in the room want to see this?"
You are getting sleepy, so you lay down on these soft blades that have an interesting smell and soon you are fast asleep. When you awake, you see the blades are green and there are beautiful red and blue plants sticking up between them. Your eyes look to the horizon and you see many beautiful tall objects that stick way up and have green ovals hanging all over them. Amazed, you watch a little object with multicolored wings flitting by, going from plant to plant.
This is all too much! It is so beautiful! You must tell the people in the room what's "outside," that it is not only perfectly safe but amazingly beautiful here. Surely they will want to know what you have discovered . . .
You run back to the door. As you enter, the Lady Wrestler grabs you by the collar and throws you down on the floor: "You cannot enter here! You may have a disease that will kill us all!"
"No, no!" you cry; "I am perfectly healthy." To the watching crowd, he shouts, "There is a beautiful world out there. You are trapped in a dull room. Please come and see what I have seen!"
Sadly, the people shake their head in dismay. As they walk away they are saying, "He is no longer one of us. He does not belong here. We must ostracize him."
++++++++++++
Two years after I left the "room" of the Southern Baptist Convention to "see" the Kingdom of God in all its beauty as I discovered the Basic Christian Communities, I spoke to a very high official in a denominational meeting. I told him I had been "outside" and had seen the precious Body of Christ living in true community instead of meeting in packaged denominational "programs," that there was a prototype that could bring new life to the deadness of the room he/we were living in. His terse comment:
"Ralph, we didn't ask you to do that and we don't want what you offer!"
++++++++++++
If you are a "traditional" Christian, and if you have the courage to step out the door, please read the most important book I have ever written. It is called Christ's Basic Bodies (Available on Amazon). If you do read it, you may decide you do not ever again want to live in the room . . . be careful!
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