Quote from Forum Archives on July 11, 1999, 6:16 pm

Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>

Standing Shoulder To Shoulder With You In The Trenches
As We fight The Good Fight

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #78 ---- 9/12/99

TITLE: "Two Trees"

My Dear Fellow Soldier:

BEFORE I GET STARTED:

In spite of the fact that I've owned and used one since 1985, I'm an
extreme novice when it comes to computers. I really need all the help I
can get. It isn't that I'm stupid, it's just that I can't (or won't)
take the time to really learn how those things work. I just enjoy using
them.

So ---- in case you haven't run across it yet, let me recommend one of
the finest tools out ---- Christian Computing Magazine, a
ten-times-a-year (I think) 30 or so pages of top quality help on
everything from new software, to "tweaking tips" to help you work faster
and better, to MIDI tips, to how to handle the Y2K mania. It is the
best $15.00 per year I ever spent.

Editor-in-chief Steve Hewett has probably done more to bring real balance
to the Y2K scare of anyone I know.

There's also an excellent article by William O'Flaherty in the
July/August issue on "netlore" where he gives some great tips on
detecting hoaxes ---- such as the Bill Gates "freeby", or the FCC ban on
religious broadcasting, or the "It Takes Guts To Say Jesus" e-mail. That
article alone is worth a year's subscription.

If you're interested, call them at 800-456-1868, e-mail them at
<[email protected]>, fax them at 816-331-5510, or visit their website at
<www.ccmag.com>. You can see the articles I mentioned and much more in
their website.

Just wanted to pass that info along. It's a good investment.

EMPTY STUDIES ---- EMPTY HEARTS:

I am presently sitting in the pastor's study of the church were I
currently serve as interim pastor. It is Sunday afternoon and just
about time for the Church Council meeting to begin where again we will
continue working through my "Interim With A Purpose" process I have
developed for churches transitioning between pastors.

There are many thoughts running through my mind. It is a comfortable
office, beautifully decorated, lovely bookshelves, and more than
adequately equipped with desk, table, computer, comfortable couch and
easy chair.

But ---- it is empty. Empty though well furnished.

Empty of life.

There is absolutely no evidence of any kind that a pastor once occupied
this room ---- not a trace. And yet the last two pastors used this
particular room, and eight others sat in other studies and served these
people during the past 47 years.

There are no pictures on the walls, no books on the shelves, no personal
touches that reveal that a shepherd, a real human being with a wife and
children ever walked through the door into this room. There is not even
the slightest sign of the dreams and vision these pastors had.

It's just a room.

I wonder ----

How many souls came to Christ in this room? How many marriages were
saved here? How many troubled hearts were encouraged? How many dreams
were born here?

i also wonder ---- How many heart breaks took place here? How many hopes
were dashed? How many unfulfilled expectations died here? How many
disagreements and arguments filled the air space here?

Interestingly, I knew the last four pastors of this church. It wasn't
intentional ---- it just happened that I did. In fact, I held a revival
while the third from last pastor was here and my daughter was a member of
this same church. The most recent pastor was a student with three of my
children at the same Christian university.

How I ended up here is interesting ---- and undoubtedly God-ordained.
---- and too detailed to write about.

But I keep coming back to the empty study.

The thought hits me ---- I wonder how many other empty studies there are
today?

Then another one shocks my mind ---- there are many empty studies that
are still occupied by men who are still pastoring those churches.

The studies are often empty because the pastors are empty.

They weren't always empty. Nobody in his right mind would ever believe
someone could be genuinely called to ministry without the Spirit of God
overwhelming and filling his life beyond its capacity to contain. You
just don't answer the call to vocational ministry without God doing
something inside you.

What kind of people answer God's call to the most difficult job, bar
none, in the world?

People of Prayer ---- who know how to get in touch, and stay in touch
with God until they have a Word from God. They receive it in prayer,
bathe it in prayer, and preach it in prayer.

People of Purity ---- who are so devoted to God that the very thought of
any sin, much less willful sin, in their lives is abhorrent to them.
They'd rather die than live an impure life.

People of Purpose ---- who know who they are, where they're going, how to
get there, and how to get other people to go along with them. That's
called a leader.

People of Passion ---- who are absorbed in and absorbed by a vision that
motivates them in such a way that they cannot imagine doing anything
else, and cannot even remotely entertain the idea of failure or of
quitting.

People of Perseverance ---- who would rather wear out than rust out, give
out than give up, give forth than give in, and die than quit. The word
"quit" doesn't exist in the language they speak.

So, then, why are there so many empty pulpits and empty studies?

I believe it's because many have failed to recognize the continued
existence of the trees ---- you know, the two trees ---- in the Garden?
Remember?

TWO TREES:

This past week I received an e-mail response to last week's letter from
some friends. They shared their deep burden over the direction they felt
their church was going ---- apparently far different from that about
which I wrote. They talked about how their church was being run more
like a corporation or a business rather than like the Body of Christ, a
living organism with a higher calling than just organizational structure,
detailed by-laws, or restrictive and highly-regulative fiscal policies.

Their hearts are extremely heavy ---- because something from deep within
cries out for life ---- vitality ---- activity with meaning ---- ministry
with anticipated results.

I also know of a group of people in a neighboring town who are so
frustrated with the lethargic ineptness of the traditional church form
that they want to start a "house church" concept of church life. They
aren't the first to try such a venture, and they certainly won't be the
last.

Such knowledge causes me to cringe over the condition that exists in some
forms of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is so different from
---- so foreign to ---- what Jesus had in mind.

There is a great difference between the ministries of those who feast
from the Tree of Life and those that devour the fruit of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil. The fruit of the second tree is tasty; it is
unbelievably appealing ---- just ask Eve.

God told Adam and Eve that they could eat from every tree in the Garden
but one ---- the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Everything they
needed was in that garden. Just stay away from that one tree.

But, no matter the appeal of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,
the Tree of Life was their only source for true spiritual life and
vitality. It was the focal point of their entire existence. As long as
man feasted there, he would lack in no good thing.

But when man chose to banquet at the other tree, sin entered man ---- and
then the human race ---- and then the world ---- and then human systems.

Jesus, the divine and human personification of the Tree of Life made the
fruit available again, and thereby, Life again. He birthed a new species
of man ---- reborn ---- New Creations ---- and told them the same thing.
"Everything in the garden is yours ---- except the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil. However, your true life source is the same ---- the
Tree of Life ---- Me!"

Tragically, the New Creation made the same mistake the original ones did
---- and the same thing happened. When the reborn began to feast at the
second tree, they found worms in every tasty and enticing bite ----
snakes ---- rot ---- death.

Still even today, they find it virtually impossible to resist the
temptation of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Every day some
group of believers is trying to generate life and purpose from the wrong
tree ---- often doing the right thing to be sure, but doing it from the
wrong source and in the wrong way.

That, my friend, is why some churches are alive and some are dead. That
is why some are Being the church and others are Having church. That is
why some are living organisms while others are lethargic organizational
sepulchers. That is why some are empassioned for the world while others
are content with survival.

You see, both trees still exist today. After the garden, they showed up
in Babel. Somehow, both species made it on the ark with Noah and they
were re-seeded again on terra firma.

Some unthinking soul didn't notice the difference, and both systems took
root and began to flourish. And they will continue to flourish until
Jesus shouts, "Harvest time!" and the gathering scythes begin to swing,
the winnowing forks begin to toss the crops, and our Savior decides it's
time to divide the wheat from the tares.

Then comes the fire when the wood, hay, and stubble of the tares are
consumed ---- and then we'll know just how much really survived because
it was Life, and not just knowledge and form and activity and religious
busy-ness.

Which leads me back to that empty study. Not so I can evaluate or
speculate over the pastors who at one time dwelt there, but, rather, to
wonder from which tree will the next pastor eat?

I'm trying to feed the people currently under my care from the Tree of
Life. I've tried both trees. I've served up both trees. I know the
evidences and fruit of both trees. And, believe me, there's no contest
---- the Tree of Life is the better of the choices.

And, dear friend . . . . .

If you offer up life instead of a cloning system, if you offer
relationship rather than ritual, if you offer peace instead of
performance, you'll never have to worry about whether or not your
ministry will be effective or will grow. You'll probably have to get out
of the way in order to keep from getting run over by your people. Some
guy will come running up behind you shouting, "Pastor! Either lead,
follow, or get out of the way!"

WHICH TREE DO YOU LIVE UNDER:

What will it take for your church to be one living at the foot of the
Tree of Life? What will it take for people to find twelve kinds of
spiritual fruit every single month? What will it take for people to find
"healing for the nations" in its leaves? (See Rev 22:2-3)

It will take, among other things, a shepherd that is not empty like this
study. It will take a man . . . .

. . . . . of Prayer.

. . . . . of Purity.

. . . . . of Purpose.

. . . . . of Passion.

. . . . . of Perseverance.

Such a pastor won't get any of those things from the Tree of Knowledge of
Good and Evil. All he'll get there will be performance and legalism, a
sectarian spirit, a judgementalism toward others of varying
denominational persuasions, a numbers oriented motivational system. Like
the church my friends are in, he'll end up pastoring a church that is
being run like a J.C. Penney's store in competition with WalMart.

My dear, dear friend ---- the Tree of Life is no longer planted in Eden.
It was driven into the desert sand of the Sinai Peninsula. It was
proclaimed as the Rod of Jesse and the new shoot of Israel. It was
transplanted on a mountain top outside the walls of Jerusalem where a
Savior died that we might have life.

It will one day be found firmly planted by the river of life flowing
clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The
nations of the world will feast on its bounty. The Lamb of God shall
again be in it. The curse will have been finally broken, and the voices
of millions will be raised in praise to the One who sits on the throne.
The night will be gone, and eternal day will prevail.

But ---- where is the Tree of Life now?

Is it in your church?

Is it in your heart?

Please ---- I implore you, please ---- cease eating from the wrong tree!
It produces only lies, deception, and death. Return to the Tree of Life,
and bring your people with you. That's what the pastor in Colorado about
whom I wrote last week has done.

And the evidence is clear.

Dear friend, there are still two trees in the garden. Make sure you're
totally and thoroughly eating from only the Tree of Life.

In Christ's Bond of Grace and Mercy,

Bob Tolliver ---- (Rom 1:11-12)
Copyright July, 1999. All rights reserved.

If this letter has blessed you and you know of someone else who needs to
be encouraged, feel free to forward it in its entirety to all such people
you know.

If you would like a list of past issues which you could receive upon
request, just let us know.

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{ (O) (O) }
------oOOOo--------U-------oOOOo------

Hang in there! I'm with you!

-------.ooooO--------------- Ooooo--------
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Bob Tolliver ---- Rom 1:11-12
Life Unlimited Ministries
E-mail: [email protected]
Do You Receive "Shoulder To Shoulder"?

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