Just a Vessel

(alternate titles considered for this blog post: Incoming!; The Sound of My Spirit Exhaling After Holding My Breath A Bit Too Long; I Don't Care, I Don't Care [inside joke]; This is Not Written to Spite Anyone, I Promise!)

My heart is so full of love for my pastors this day. Dan and Ann Stratton obeyed the call of Yahweh on their lives and started a church called Faith Exchange Fellowship 11 years ago this month. I have been a member of Faith Exchange (FEF) for 8 of those years. They've been the best 8 years of my life, by far, not because they've been easy or struggle-free but because of the continual revelation of the Truth I've experienced throughout. The Truth is not an elusive or intangible concept; it is in fact, a person, and His Name is Yahshua (Jesus).

I think it was Mahatma Gandhi who once said that everyone would be a Christian if it weren't for the Christians. I've felt the same way many times during my lifetime. I also know many people who have been attracted to the Scriptures, and some who still inherently embrace most of the truth found therein, yet ultimately reject Christianity because of the way some of its followers twist and mangle that truth. These misguided Christians defile the character of Christ and use His words to divide rather than to reconcile. (We've all been guilty of this at one time or another, whether we were aware of it or not.) We, the Body of Christ, for we are still One Body in spite of all our disjointed and diseased parts (which will soon be perfected), have shattered and scattered the truth like the potter's vessel, allowing the world over time to steal key pieces from us so that all we're left with is a useless pile of fragments that can contain no living water. Hard to swallow, yes, and no pun intended ;-). We have reduced Christianity to a mere religion and thus have made the Word of Yah of no effect. Lord have mercy!

Here's where Pastor Dan comes in...

He is one of the bold and audacious few (although certainly not the first nor the last) who are working diligently to rebuild that broken vessel. Only those who believe that the Word is absolute and perfect truth, and that Yahshua was, is, and will always be the embodiment of that truth can repair said vessel. Only those who relentlessly pursue the Truth and are willing to travel to the ends of the earth, searching high and low, leaving no stone unturned (whether it's been re-labeled Islam, Kabbalah, Buddhism, Hinduism, New Age, or what have you) to recover the stolen and hidden pieces and bring them back to the One -- not the alpha and the omega, but the Alef and the Tov, the first and the last -- only they will find it. And when they do find it, because of all they've learned in their pursuit, they will passionately and selflessly share it with all who will accept it. And if they do not find it... (perish the thought) WOE are we!

Thankfully, the vessel is quickly being reassembled in our day. It still has a few leaks, but it is steadily becoming a vessel of greater and greater honor.

We must encourage our leaders, especially those who will go where no man has gone before. We must not put them, or Yahweh, in a box. Do we REALLY think we know it all already? Could we really be so utterly blind and clueless as to think that Yahweh isn't desperately trying to do a NEW and ASTONISHINGLY LIBERATING thing among us today and every day??? Yes, Jesus, Yahshua is the same yesterday, today and forever. But let us not forget that He is also new every morning. The Word of Yahweh is the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth. He and His Word are One. He is timeless and infinite. We will never exhaust the beauty, the majesty, the perfection, the glory, the joy, the wholeness, the peace, the good, the love/ahava, the truth that He is. Selah!

Thank you Pastor Dan -- and Pastor Annie, his first mentor in the faith -- for despising the shame and choosing ahava each and every day.


Is. 30:8-26

8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet,
And note it on a scroll,
That it may be for time to come,
Forever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people,
Lying children,
Children who will not hear the law of the LORD;
10 Who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things;
Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
11 Get out of the way,
Turn aside from the path,
Cause the Holy One of Israel
To cease from before us.”

12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:

“Because you despise this word,
And trust in oppression and perversity,
And rely on them,
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you
Like a breach ready to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.
14 And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel,
Which is broken in pieces;
He shall not spare.
So there shall not be found among its fragments
A shard to take fire from the hearth,
Or to take water from the cistern.”

15 For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
But you would not,
16 And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—
Therefore you shall flee!
And, “We will ride on swift horses”—
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift!
17 One thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
At the threat of five you shall flee,
Till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain
And as a banner on a hill.

18 Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him.
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem;
You shall weep no more.
He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry;
When He hears it, He will answer you.
20 And though the Lord gives you
The bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore,
But your eyes shall see your teachers.
21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,

“ This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.
22 You will also defile the covering of your images of silver,
And the ornament of your molded images of gold.
You will throw them away as an unclean thing;
You will say to them, “Get away!”
23 Then He will give the rain for your seed
With which you sow the ground,
And bread of the increase of the earth;
It will be fat and plentiful.
In that day your cattle will feed
In large pastures.
24 Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground
Will eat cured fodder,
Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.
25 There will be on every high mountain
And on every high hill
Rivers and streams of waters,
In the day of the great slaughter,
When the towers fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be sevenfold,
As the light of seven days,
In the day that the LORD binds up the bruise of His people
And heals the stroke of their wound.