SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #131 ---- 7/17/00
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
As We fight The Good Fight
(A letter of Encouragement to People in
Vocational and Lay Ministry)
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #131 ---- 7/17/00
TITLE: "Two Trees In The Garden" (part two) ---- "Scattering the Seeds"
Dear Fellow Kingdom Soldier:
Greetings, fellow servant. It's my hope that you are rejoicing in the
presence and faithful provision of our King and Captain, the Lord Jesus
Christ.
PERSONAL PRAYER REQUEST:
As God prompts you, please lift my parents to the Lord in prayer. My
mother is in the hospital again, with a very low hemoglobin count ----
probably the side effect of some medication she takes for her
deteriorating cerebellum function. She is 85, 80% blind, diabetic, and
suffering from congestive heart failure ---- but perky and outgoing as
ever. Last night I also learned she has some type of unidentified
infection they must locate. There is even a remote possibility of
leukemia, so they do a bone marrow check today.
She and Dad both need special prayer as they prepare to make a transition
from their own home of 18 years to an "independent living" facility in a
town much nearer us. They just put a deposit down last week on the next
unit to be built. It will be several months before they actually move,
but they face the disposition of 64 years worth of "stuff", the
improvement and sale of their house, and the move itself. It will be a
process of several months.
THE BATTLE OVER THE TREES:
Last Friday I had a conversation with a layman who is a leader in his
church. We were discussing the commitment level of the people in his
church who hold positions of leadership or responsibility. Knowing
something of the church he attends, I commented that I wondered just what
percentage of those leaders really had any serious and deep level of
genuine commitment to the life and ministry of his church. We concluded
that probably as much as 98% had no real commitment.
I thought of the two trees in the garden.
Then Saturday I met with a man who is the national missionary to
bivocational ministers for one of America's largest denominations. He
shared with me a major difference of opinion between the leaders of his
former church and that of the man currently serving as their interim
pastor. The interim clearly is trying to lead them back to the Tree of
The Knowledge of Good and Evil from which this brother had weaned them
over his 20 years as their pastor.
I thought of the two trees in the garden.
Our discussion led us further into contrasting what is going on in so
many churches today who do nothing but oil machinery, keep statistics,
and play church. We discussed the "shaking" described in Hebrews 12. He
stated that any church that really wants to be involved in what God is
doing will have to adopt a radically different approach to church life
than that which is the norm today. Today's ways won't do it.
I thought of the two trees in the garden.
Yesterday was another very interesting day where I serve as interim
pastor. If you recall, two Sundays ago I began a miniseries on the "Two
Trees In The Garden" about which I am writing now to you. That first
Sunday was a real bear ---- lots of resistance from the spiritual realm,
and skeptical curiosity from many of the congregation. It was, to most,
an apparently totally new concept.
Last Sunday there was great freedom and understanding.
Yesterday, though, made the first Sunday seem like a mild case of
dulness. It was a major battle. Not with the people, mind you, but with
the powers of darkness committed to not allowing this truth to be
revealed and comprehended by God's people.
Whereas the first Sunday I sensed confusion and distraction, yesterday
seemed to be a frontal attack where it seemed Satan's minions were
declaring, "We will not allow this truth to be released and understood
without a fight to the death."
It was one of the greatest battles I have faced from the pulpit ---- and
few in the services seemed aware of what was really happening, and still
fewer came to my aid in prayer.
In the past I would have walked away from the service feeling greatly
discouraged, humiliated, and beaten. However, years have matured me and
have given me an increased sensitivity to the real issues at hand when
things "go bad" behind the pulpit.
It is obvious that the truths surrounding the idea of the "Two Trees"
pose a major threat to the kingdom of darkness ---- if a believer, a
pastor, or even a church ever discovers, on a spiritual level rather than
just intellectual or historical, the realities of that dual existence,
the true Church will never be the same.
Because God's word is forever true, and good seed always bears good
fruit, though proportionate to the condition of the soil, I am not
greatly affected by such events, other than to feel disappointment over
those who don't get it.
REVIEWING ---- Character, Content, and Contrast:
Last week I shared my thoughts on the Character of the two trees ---- the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is fundamentally man centered,
with everything originating from being done by and giving credit to man.
The Tree of Life is God centered, with everything being about Him and Him
alone. When man chose to be independent from God by eating from the
first tree, the consequences were eternally catastrophic, and we suffer
the penalties still today, and will continue to do so to the very end.
Then I also discussed the Content of the two trees, each tree having
fruit, substance, and root. In that like begets like, the fruit of each
tree is characteristic of its nature.
The Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil will be that of
rationalization, analysis, logic, standards, rules, and regulations, the
consequences of which will be strife, disagreements, and divisions over
attempted interpretations and understandings of those things.
The Fruit of the Tree of Life, however, is obviously the fruit of the
Spirit, and where those abound, there will be unity of purpose, accepting
fellowship and kinship, and a focused vision that drives the church ever
closer to the Lord and ever outward to hurting humanity.
The Substance of the two trees may appear to be similar ---- structure,
health, diversity, etc ---- but with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil it will all be temporal and good for nothing but tinder for the
fire, whereas the Tree of Life's substance will be revealed as gold,
silver, and precious stones to be used in eternal praise and worship of
our King.
The Root of the two trees, which are the source of the character and
fruit of each respectively, are that of either God Himself or of the
world. By virtue of what is in the root, and of what the root is in, you
will either get Divine life, or earthy death.
Finally, I discussed the Contrast of the two trees, namely Intimacy in
Fellowship as to the Tree of Life, and Independence and Rebellion as to
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Because man chose
independence from God, he now lives in ongoing rebellion, and void of any
intimate relationship and fellowship with God.
As tragic as that may be, I believe the greater tragedy is that millions
of God's people, though born anew by the Spirit of God, still either
ignorantly or willfully continue feeding from the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil.
So ---- What affect is there today on what took place so long ago?
The answer is clear ---- not only is the world in a mess, but the one
entity that has the truth is so suffering from the consequences of the
wrong tree that the message of life and liberation is difficult and
almost impossible for the Church to communicate and for the world to hear
and understand.
Therefore, today I want to build on that by looking at a couple other
points regarding the Two Trees in the Garden.
THE CONTINUUM OF THE TWO TREES:
Frankly, this is what "scares me" ---- the two trees have both
germinated, reproduced, and have been transplanted into all of human
life, including the very heart of the Church itself. What a catastrophe
took place in the Garden that day! All man had to do was live in
intimate fellowship with God, and everything would have been perfect.
But, he didn't.
I realize many people perceive me to always be eating "sour grapes"
because I often write about the poor state of the Church rather than its
good points. I don't mean to minimize the great things God has done,
but, friend, as we approach the finish line of the race, the Church had
better throw off the weights and get its second wind, because the sprint
is going to take all it's got. If you're not ready, you'll be left
behind in the dust. And, frankly, the Church for the most part is not
only weighted down and out of shape, but it's also running a non-race
that is getting it nowhere because there is no goal ---- you just have to
keep running.
It will be helpful to understand how we got where we are, and what to do
about it, as we head toward the stretch.
1. The Source of the Situation:
To hammer again on the same old nail, man was created with three basic
needs ---- to feel worth while, to belong, and to feel competent. In
other words, he need to know the answer to three questions ---- "who am
I?", "why am I here?", and "what am I to do with my life?".
Genesis 1:26 reveals the answer, even before man was created. Man,
created "In Our Image" was to Express God's Presence, identifying who he
was. "Made In our Likeness", man was to Extend God's Purpose, indicating
why he was here. Having "dominion" as an Exhibition of God's Power, man
would know what he was to do with his life.
When Adam and Eve were tempted in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 3:6),
Satan attacked at those very three points. Following a session of
question, casting doubt, and creating confusion over the issue of God's
instruction, they fell prey to a worm-ridden substitute.
"When [they] saw that the tree was good for food to eat [to Do
something], and that it was a delight to the eyes [to Have], and that it
was desirable to make one wise [to Be somebody], . . ."
At that moment in human history, a concept was impregnated into the very
nature of man ---- a concept totally incompatible with God. Therefore,
when God withdrew His Spirit from man's spirit, man became dead to God
(dead in trespasses and in sin). The only alternative now was for man to
depend upon his own intellect, his own emotions and feelings, and
depending on what he knew and didn't know, and how he felt about that, he
would make choices.
Since his spirit was as dead as a shorted-out battery, he had no choice
but to return continually to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
In so doing, he solidified his independence from God and his dependence
on worldly thinking. God, being merciful, was compelled to banish man
from the Garden lest he come back in contact with the Tree of Life and
live on eternally in his sin ---- with no hope whatsoever of redemption
or a future.
Genesis 6 mirrors the spiraling effect on mankind as generation after
generation is caught up in the hopeless web of captivity to his own base
nature and Satan's continued intent to destroy God's most prized
creation.
Unexplainably, God remains strangely silent, other than to chronicle the
degenerate descendants of both Cain, and Abel's "substitute", Seth, save
a few brief remarks about some God seeking individuals such as Seth,
Enoch ---- and Noah.
Following the initial act of redemption in the Garden by His providing
the covering of skins from sacrificed animals (very symbolic, by the
way), God expresses His continued love and provision for man through the
Ark, used to keep alive a remnant of His most prized and loved creation
---- man.
Even in those days, Grace appears ---- something, incidentally, seldom
seen in churches today.
2. The Seriousness of the Situation:
Following the Flood, and God's provision of Life aboard the Ark, and even
though there was a new opportunity to start over, man quickly turned
downward again in a matter of just a few short generations. God's
promise to never destroy the world again through the flood
notwithstanding, man continued on his driven pathway to destroy himself
through rebellious independence.
Shem and his descendants settled in areas known then as Lydia, Syria, and
Assyria, and were known as the semitic (Shem-itic) nations. This would
be areas currently known as the regions of Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and
other countries.
Japeth's descendants spread across the coastal regions of Europe around
the Mediterranean and the coasts around the Caspian and Black Seas of
Asia Minor. That would be areas such as Italy, Greece, the Balkans,
Israel, and portions of Russia.
Ham and his generations to follow settled in the region now made up of
the Babylonish nations. His wife gave birth to Cush, the founder of
Ethiopian nations. Cush had a son named Nimrod. So, just three
generations after the flood, probably less than 100 years, we have the
surfacing again of another rebellious attempt on man's part to be what
only God can make of him.
As Ham's descendants slowly migrated eastward, Nimrod, whose name means
"rebel" or "swarthy" (depending on who you read) brought his people
together in Shinar, which is interestingly situated in the region of
Shinar along the Euphrates River.
It was there he and his people made the proposal: "Come, let us make
bricks and burn them thoroughly [Do something] . . . [and] let us build
for ourselves [Have something] a city and a tower whose top will reach
into heaven, and let us make for ourselves [Be somebody] a name,
otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth"
(Genesis 11:3-4).
This is the self same root of the temptation in the Garden at the base of
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And, it is particularly
significant that the same temptation took place within miles of where
most people believe the original Garden of Eden was located prior to the
Flood, and where man first yielded to the temptation.
It is certainly true ---- "a dog returns to his own vomit."
Nimrod, the great grandson to Noah, became the arch-apostate of the era
of the patriarchal days. He called his precious little city "The Gate of
God" ---- Bab-el. An imitation of the real thing, they used manmade
bricks for stone and tar [or oil] for mortar.
3. The Significance of the Situation:
Now what is so significant about this event?
Well ---- as you probably remember your ancient history, Nimrod had a
wife named Semiramis I. She was soon to be known as the foundress of the
Babylonian mysteries, and the first high priestess of idolatry. Thus,
Babylon became the fountain head of idolatry and the "mother" of every
heathen and pagan system in the world.
Taking God's promise of a redeemer to come from woman's seed (Gen 3:15),
Semiramis gave birth to a son, Tammuz, whom she declared to be
"miraculously conceived", and presented him to her people as the promised
redeemer. At this point the "mother-child" worship in religion was
introduced, subsequently to be carried out in Phoenicia with Astoreth and
Tammuz, in Egypt with Isis and Hours, in Greece with Aphrodite and Eros,
in Italy with Venus and Cupid, and so forth.
Within 1,000 years, Babylonianism was the religion of the world. As we
will see, its effect carried around the world, and is still felt even
today.
Rick Joyner, in his book, "Two Trees In The Garden" made the following
statement:
"As ludicrous as the attempt to build a tower to heaven may seem, men
have never stopped trying to complete it. History is a long train of
unfinished towers ---- the ruins of man's attempt to make a name for
himself and unite around the various towers.
"Grievously, Christians have seemed just as determined to build these
towers to heaven. Regardless of how piously we attach the Lord's name to
our works, everything motivated by selfish ambition will come to the same
end as the original tower ---- confusion and scatterning."
4. The Scope of the Situation:
It was out of this unbelievably demonic pagan situation that God reached
down and touched a man named Abram, made him some unbelievable promises,
and sent him on his way. And that from whence he was going was of equal
significance to where he was headed.
He was heading for a land of promise, ---- but he was also leaving a
pagan system, and as an unsuspecting instrument in God's hand by whom
eventually the entire world would be blessed and could be delivered ----
if it would.
However, even the land to which Abram went and eventually settled,
remained a hotbed of pagan worship in the order of the Babylonian mystery
religions. After centuries of populating the region, his descendants
landed in Egypt, again exposed to the same self centered demonically
controlled system that came from the seed of the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil.
Even after Israel's descendants returned to the land of Promise, people
like Elijah fought against it, a religious system revived and introduced
back into the culture through Jezebel. Baal is the selfsame god as
Tammuz.
But, the story doesn't stop there.
Sometime between around 500 B.C. and 312 B.C. when Babylon and its
temples were finally destroyed, the high priest and followers of the
Babylonish religions took the vessels and images of worship to Pergamos
in what is now extreme western Turkey, known then as Lydia This city had
a library of over 200,000 volumes, which, incidentally Mark Antony
promised and delivered to Cleopatra in Egypt centuries later.
Pergamos became a city of major pagan religious activity, and, in
Revelation 2:12-13 is identified as the place where "the throne of Satan"
was. I wonder why they would call it that?
When the Etruscans came to Italy from Pergamus, they brought those same
religious practices, vessels, and idols with them. When Attilus, the
Pontif and King of Pergamos died in 133 B.C., he bequeathed the headship
of the Babylonian priesthood to Rome, and set up a Pontiff to be head
over all other priests. Thousands of Roman citizens became adherents to
those religions and were inducted into the Pergamic cult.
5. The Showdown That Would Come:
While all this was going on, as I noted earlier, God had given Adam
another son, Seth. And in each subsequent generation there remained a
remnant of people whose hearts followed after God.
Ultimately that genealogical thread wound its way to a young woman named
Mary, who gave birth to the Promise of Abram millennia earlier ---- our
Lord Jesus Christ. Following His death, Resurrection, and Ascension, and
following the birth of the Church in Jerusalem somewhere around 28 A.D.,
God's plan to draw man back to the Tree of Life began to be seen more
clearly.
On the Day of Pentecost, thousands were brought into the Kingdom,
including many from both Italy and Babylon (See Acts 2). Sometime later,
God called out a man named Saul to become Paul the first missionary of
the Church, and then Peter, to blaze the trail into the very heart of the
Pagan world.
Under great persecution the Church flourished in Rome. Paul wrote the
book of Romans to the believers in Rome and his life ended there under
house arrest by Caesar. Peter wrote to the Christians in Babylon, and
went to Rome later in his ministry.
I have a particular interest in Paul and others, because the lands of my
love, the Balkans, heard the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ nearly 2,000
years before I ever did. He and Peter had a great impact on people
around the world, including Babylon and Rome.
The showdown had begun.
Following the death of Caesar Augustus, Julius Caesar, as an adhered
follower of this same Babylonian cult, named himself Pontifex Maximum,
the title of its most high priest, in 63 A.D. Thus, for the first time,
the Emperor of Rome also became the head of the priesthood of the
Babylonian mystery religions.
Every emperor after him was a successor to that pagan position for
generations to come.
Up to this time there was a clear distinction between the Church and the
Babylonian Mystery religions. But things would change in the next few
centuries.
During Constantine's reign as Emperor, apparently as a result of an
experience his mother had while on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem to search
out the birthplace of Jesus, he designated Christianity as a legitimate
accepted religion, approved by the state.
While there is debate as to the level of Constantine's personal spiritual
experience with Christianity, and even some lack of clarity as to whether
Christianity was just tolerated or legalized as Rome's official religion,
one thing is certain. During Constantine's reign, the Church had great
opportunity to evangelize the Roman Empire.
The growth was phenomenal ---- and the Church began to make some major
mistakes. They began accommodating some of the practices and patterns of
pagan worship and civil policies as a means of reaching more and more
people with the Gospel. One thing was clear ---- while the Church was
penetrating into the Pagan culture of Rome's kingdom, the Babylonian
mystery religions were also quietly infiltrating into the Church.
And few seemed to notice ---- until the Church had evolved into two
differing models, both claiming to teach and preach the message of
salvation through Jesus Christ. Depending on who you were and with whom
you associated, the Church had two totally different looks.
One looked like what Jesus began in Jerusalem ---- believers loving and
caring for one another, openly sharing all they had to minister to the
needs of others, a spontaneous approach to free and open worship,
ministry, and service, a minimal amount of possessions to be protected,
equipment to be maintained, and programs to be financed and supported.
They were focused on people and not projects. They followed the
promptings of the Holy Spirit rather than having discussions by a
committee. They were motivated by love and not by status or reward.
The other looked like what Nimrod built in Babylon ---- highly
institutionalized with many pagan practices and rituals, none of which
can be Biblically supported. Things such as large public meeting halls
patterned after Roman temples and public buildings, the selection of the
"best speakers" to address the ever growing crowds, the erection of
platforms and podiums so those speakers could be easily seen by everyone,
salvation and purification after death, confession of sins to a human
with the power to forgive, forty days of mourning for Tammuz prior to the
festival of Istar (Easter), salvation through sacraments, and hundreds of
other things I choose not to list.
As things progressed into the latter part of the Fourth Century, the
Roman emperor still retained the office of "Supreme Pontiff" up to and
including Constantine. Then in 376 A.D. Emperor Gratian refused it for
personal Christian convictions, and at that time it was transferred to
Bishop Damascus, the head of a segment of the Church which had earlier
become so institutionalized.
This was an interesting development because he was recommended to that
high position from some Monks of Mount Carmel, which was a colony of
priests for the Babylonian mystery religions originally founded by the
priest to Jezebel, who had introduced this pagan religion back into
Palestine centuries earlier.
This led to a further differentiation between the two models of the
Church ---- the one living from the principles of the Tree of Life (i.e.
intimate fellowship with God, living by revelation rather than reason,
serving by the power of the Holy Spirit, etc.), and the other living from
the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (ie. where
everything is based on performance, score keeping, and external
trappings.
The larger element of the Church continued its degenerative slide into
worldly self centered practices, filling its own coffers, and, as in the
days of Bab-el, building a name for itself. It kept "going" to church
and "having" church instead of "being" the Church.
As these things further developed, the fresh spiritual dynamic of "life"
was replaced by the liturgical and mechanical bondage of "performance"
religion ---- exactly like the Babylonian mystery religions, only with
the name "Christian" on it.
This ultimately led to the Dark Ages when the light of the Gospel was
nearly extinguished except for various remnant groups who held
tenaciously to the fact that Jesus Christ was the Life, and He alone
provided for man's need. Can you imagine what it might have been like to
live during those dark midnight hours? Only a few of the tens of
thousands really knew what it meant to derive their sense of identity,
purpose, and power from the Tree of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then, in the 14th Century, the wind of the Spirit began softly breathe
and then blow across the lifeless dry bones of a religious institution
more Babylonian than Christian in its practice. Little men,
inconspicuous within their respective circles, and totally unknown
outside of them, began to discover truths from God's Word ---- and began
to declare them.
Spanning several generations men like Zwingli, Calvin, Zinzendorff, and
others began to punch through the shroud of darkness covering the Church.
A relative unknown Catholic priest began reading through the book of
Romans, and got stopped at "The Just shall live by Faith".
Compelled by that truth, Martin Luther wrote out his convictions and then
nailed his "Ninety Five Theses" to the Wittenburg door, and the
Protestant Reformation was launched, and undergirded by a German printer
who decided the Bible needed to be available to the common man. On his
newly invented printing press, he began to produce copies of the Bible so
the laity could read for themselves what God had to say.
For the first time in nearly 1000 years, the Church of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil was being challenged with the truth of Life.
And the battle was on. It became bloody at times, and men and women died
for the sake of the Gospel, as they had in the great sports arenas of
Rome centuries earlier.
But the confrontation could not be stopped. The light had been loosed
from the dungeons of religious darkness, and a new day had dawned on the
world. Some would not do so, but I would call the Protestant
Reformation, even with all its failures and flaws, the first Great
Awakening in Europe.
It was followed by more. The move of God crossed the seas and came to
the Americas and other places. God continued raising up new voices ----
Jonathan Edwards, Newton, the Wesley brothers, Finney, Spurgeon, and
scores of others were raised up to herald the message of truth which the
Babylonish Church had banished in its quest for acceptance, fame, and
self gratification.
Unfortunately, the Protestant Reformation failed to break through much of
the Babylonish practices of ritual and doctrinal error, thus it did not
lead to a complete return to the Tree of Life. Trappings continued to
cling to the Church, and compromise often became the order of the day.
As a result, you and I live today in a world yet perverted by compromise
in the Church. Those of us in the Twentieth Century Church now find
ourselves still fighting a battle begun thousands of years ago in a
beautiful garden northwest of the Persian Gulf and encompassed by
beautiful rivers.
The temptation to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,
living like Babylon, continues today.
The cancerous invasion has been so complete and the methods of doing so
have been so subtle that we have not noticed most of what has happened.
We were not there to see the initial attack and have not been around long
enough to see the internal decay that continues to undermine the Living
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But, it is there, nonetheless. We have inherited a perverted form of the
Church that, as in the days of Bab-el, is often set on artificially
building a city and a tower to God out of that which will not last. That
is the reason for the "shaking" described in Hebrews 12, where God
continues to shake 1) Everything built on principles apart from God,
2) Everything set against the purposes of God, and 3) Everything
depending on Resources other than God.
Joyner continued in his book "Two Trees In The Garden" by saying, "Much
of the visible church is another form of the original tower ---- an
attempt by men to reach heaven by their own works.
"So the Lord scattered its languages too; now there are over 1,800
different languages or denominations. Regardless of how good their works
may seem, every work that is an attempt to gather men around anything but
the Lord Jesus Himself has its origin in the carnal nature of man.
"It doesn't matter if it's a building, project, evangelical outreach, ro
a great spiritual truth ---- if it is an attempt to gather men, confusion
will result.
"Jesus alone can gather men together. Certainly there is nothing wrong
with projects, outreaches, or true spiritual doctrine; but if these
become our focal point, the Lord will ultimately have to separate us from
them for our own good."
So, friend ---- we're right in the middle of it, whether we like it or
not. Frankly, though the battle is hard and sometimes bloody, it's a
great day in which to live. Just imagine ---- we are getting to watch
Jesus prepare His Bride for presentation to the Father so the wedding can
begin!
IN CONCLUSION:
Again I must close, to conclude next week. In doing so, I sense someone
may be wondering just what all this has to do with our situation today.
I have always been one who felt that in order to see things in
perspective as they really are today, we must see them against the
panoramic sweep of the past. Too many people miss what God is doing
because they have a far too narrow view. All they see is here, now, and
"me".
You cannot see the world, my friend, through a keyhole. So, get outside
your little cubicle and take a good hard look at what is going on around
you, for it is the summation of all that has gone on before.
And, what happened in the Garden is of utmost importance to you, your
life, and your ministry. What happened at Bab-el and then at Pergamos
affects you and yours today. What happened in Rome is significant to you
and your church today.
More importantly, though, is that what happened in Bethlehem and
Jerusalem makes you and your "today" of utmost significance as we head
toward the final hours.
Praise God!
So, friend, ---- Redeem the Time and Proclaim the Gospel.
Endure the struggles and anticipate the reward "that [Christ] might
sanctify [the Church], having cleansed her by the washing of water with
the word."
Embrace the Shaking and anticipate the finished product ---- a "glorious
Church, holy and blameless, without spot or wrinkle."
Next letter I'll try to share my heart regarding Characteristics that
differentiate the two trees, and perhaps the Consequences of the Two
Trees, and the ultimate Conclusion for the Two Trees, if there is space.
In His Bond of Mercy and Grace,
Bob Tolliver ---- (Rom 1:11-12)
Copyright July, 2000. All rights reserved.
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