The Filth of the World by T. Justin Comer - HTML preview

Chapter 13

Living Stones

“And when your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your loins, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever,” 2 Samuel 7:12-13

*The House of the Lord is something symbolic, more than literal. Even in the time that this promise was given, the House of the Lord wasn’t something that was supposed to be a monument, but a hope. God’s House was built by Solomon, and while the Jew’s still went there on the days of certain feasts, the House itself was only a building. There was something much greater that was being displayed: God with us.

*This promise given to King David was for his son, but it was for something bigger than his son. The one-greater-than-Solomon was going to build a spiritual house for God. This is the Body of Christ. It is composed of much more than dogma and rhetoric. It is more than flesh and blood people. It is more than congregations and “bodies.”

*The band Listener has a song that speaks heavenly things about this Body. “I know that we are all made out of shipwrecks, every single board washed and bound like crooked teeth on these rocky shores so come on and let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach come on and sew us together, tattered rags stained forever.” Add that to this song lyrics: “All these machines will rust I promise, but we'll still be electric shocking each other back to life Your hand in mine, my fingers in your veins connected our bones grown together inside our hands entwined, your fingers in my veins braided our spines grown stronger in time because are church is made out of shipwrecks from every hull these rocks have claimed but we pick ourselves up, and try and grow better through the change.” (Go and listen to their entire album Wooden Heart, but first listen to the song referenced: Wooden Heart.)

*The Body of Christ is the very spiritual House of God in the earth here and now. We are the place of sacrifices and of salvation. We are the place of thunder. We are the place where God speaks. It is here, in the midst of the congregation, where God “will meet with and give the commandment unto the children of God.” Read 1 Peter. It is a fascinating book where this man brings some of these ancient understandings into modern times and present realities. “You also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (Chapter 2, verse 5.)

*What has been made by God is of God. The Body of Christ is something that is uncategorizable. It is something that is beyond our cosmos. It is over and above what we can conceive or achieve in ourselves. Our own plans and organizing cannot make what God has been speaking through all of the Scriptures.

*The Jews would have known full well that God has been preparing a people to be His, and for Him to be theirs. God has ever and always spoken in this wedding type language. Even the Ten Commandments are a wedding language of a bridegroom giving that which He expects of the relationship with his soon-to-be bride. The prophets speak of Isreal’s relationship to God as a marriage. Everything is bent on this idea that the Bride of God is what God has intended from the very beginning.

*For some more thoughts, start in Genesis chapter 2 where it says, “It is not good for man to be alone,” and go all the way through to Revelation 22:17, “The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come.’” You will find passages in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy about accepting the widows and orphans and foreigners. You will find time after time where God says that it is His will that we do not reject people, but have open door policy with all. When a traveler comes through Israel, the Jewish people were to give them a place to rest. They weren’t allowed to simply toss the stranger out without hope. The New Testament seems to speak of more than open door policy. It speaks of “open fridge” policy. Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine. We are all one in such a deep and intimate way that we don’t even consider our things as ours anymore. It isn’t my car; it’s our car. It isn’t my house; it’s our house. The same thing that happens when two people get married and have to start living together is the same idea that comes into light with the Body of Christ, when they are truly living out the way that the Scripture seems to teach.

Lifestyle and Character of the Body

*There is a House in whom God dwells. There is a spiritual sanctuary in whom God speaks and lives and moves and has His Being. This Church, this Body, this Brotherhood, this Community, this Unit, this Phenomenon is a full representation of Christ and His Life. We turn no man away, but embrace all who come. We don’t waver between two opinions, nor do we water down the message, but stand firm even when all men and women are screaming and gnashing their teeth at us. We are fearless to declare the sins of our nation. We respect when someone decides that they would rather live for themselves. We are unaffected by “the way things are,” and constantly push and display the way things should be. We are Christ. We are God the Father. We are the Spirit. Because We are One with Him, and He is One with Us. We are God incarnate.

*We display to the world a new life. We display freedom. We display love at its purest form. We display holiness. When the world has it’s own definition for these things, we are the definition to live by. This is why Paul was able to say, “Be impersonators of me.” It wasn’t that he was perfect. It wasn’t that he had “arrived.” Paul had achieved something in Christ, through community, that would cause for him to reflect the glory and image of God.

*What does that mean? Paul was a full representation of the community he was sent from (the Antioch Church). Since he was one with them, and they were one with God, Paul then was a representation of God. This is how much faith God has in us. Even when there is only one man in Athens, Greece, that one man is a full representation of God. His community had achieved a place and stature in God and in their character that revealed the very glory of God. They were one with each other.

*They were one. Therefore, they were a full display of God. In being one, there is something that is intrinsic to the nature of God. God is One, though He is three. It is in His “One-ness” that we see holiness, righteousness, love, humility, patience, and all of His other characteristics and attributes. It all comes from community.

*It is in community, which is more than mere gathering together, that the character and attributes are developed and maintained. If there is community, then there is an intensity of life together. We are going to rub each other the wrong way. We are going to need to speak the truth in love. We are going to need to confess. We are going to need to burden one another. We are going to invade one another’s privacy. It is how the Body works. It is how community works.

*It is in this kind of community that we find walking by the Spirit is not an option. Our flesh permeates through us too much. It is too alive. When we are wronged, or we can’t find alone time, or everyone keeps bothering me, or why can’t I just have some peace and quiet for once, there is something that rises up within us to retaliate in some form. This is flesh. It is in the death and suffering of life together that will root this out, and there is no other way. This is the nit and grit of faith itself. We can’t even be to one another what we ought to be.

*And this is the mystery. Without true fellowship, there cannot be character. We might be able to forge godly character to some extent, but we can never be refined to the point of complete obedience unto God. God has given us community as a tool to help us develop authenticity. Just as confession is a tool rarely used, so it can be said of community. We have our friends from church, and there are those who we see frequently, but by and large we aren’t truly one with each other. We aren’t transparent before all the saints. We aren’t humble enough to speak the truth in love. We aren’t embracing of our brothers and sisters. We aren’t one. Part of the reason is because we don’t pop open the wine bottles and break open the break loaves. We aren’t willing to offer our own bodies to one another and be real and honest and in humility and honesty tell people how we really feel about one another and situations regarding the community. Where there is no dealings, there are no solutions.

*Rob Bell had said once, “Our eschatology will shape who we are.” I wish this were true. It seems like it should, but so many times it doesn’t. If we believe that God will redeem all things, then shouldn’t we have some sort of character and actions that reflect that? If we believe that God will send those who have denied Him to Hell, and those who have accepted Him to Heaven, then shouldn’t there be some sort of character to us that resembles Heaven, and compassion that resembles the brokenness of God for those destined to Hell?

*If we really truly believe that we will experience all of eternity with God, then shouldn’t we get used to living with Him here and now? Shouldn’t we search out what that means? Shouldn’t we search out how we are to live? Shouldn’t we work on being spiritual instead of carnal? Why is it that so many times we get to a certain point, and then we say that is good enough?  We surrender so far, and then after that point, we don’t really talk about it.

*This can be anything from we surrender our lives, but we want to have our entertainment. We surrender our lives and go into ministry, but we want to be pastors. We surrender our lives, but we don’t want to be tortured. We surrender our lives, but we still enjoy luxuries to some extent. Should not we surrender our lives and have no hesitations or buts?

*As Moses said, “Here am I.” This ought to be our mentality toward God. Our mentality toward each other is a direct reflection of our mentality toward God. When we are not willing to go all the way with one another, but hesitate or withhold at a certain point, we show our secret hearts. Why do we care about our television? Why do we care about having our own computer? Why do we care about each member of the family having their own vehicle? Why can’t we give away our things? Why can’t we give away our time? Why can’t we give away our lives? What is it that hinders us from being open and bare before the brothers and sisters in Christ? What hinders us from being transparent before God?

*I recently heard a discussion on clothing. Our clothing is something that goes deeper than we know. I don’t mean our outward physical clothing as what we wear, but even more of everything that we have in our lives that display our “image.” It is everything from our jobs, responsibilities, homes, all that we own, who people see us as, our “goodness,” our opinions, our relationships, our friends, our families, and anything else that we put to the front so that people will know this about us, but they won’t know that. The clothing we choose to wear (even if it is mere camel’s hair) is a spiritual thing.

*We are clothed with many things. This is why Jesus tells the Church in Laocedia, “Buy of me… white raiment, that you may be clothed, and the shame of your nakedness will be taken away.” We see in Revelation 16:15 that God says to the world, “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, or else he will walk naked, and they will see his shame.”

*There is a parallel between nakedness and shame, and clothing and glory. The world excesses their clothing as their glory, and everyone is in uniform. The way that we dress is only an exterior. All the African American boys in Harlem seem to have the same wardrobe. The white upper-middle class Americans living in suburbia seem to have their own wardrobes too. Everyone is clothed by the image that is perceived to be glorious. If you look like this, then you’re in.

*We display our appearance, and we try to display our lives in a like manner. We might not be able to afford the biggest and latest, but we’ll certainly have the luxuries of cable, internet, and data plans on our cell phones. We’ll make sure that when so and so come over to visit, we can show them all of our matching furniture, or our nice décor, or look at how we painted our walls, or doesn’t this kitchen just look lovely, or take a look at my study. All these things play into the mentality of this world and this life being of more importance than God.

*As His Body, we are to be completely other than that. Our garments are supposed to be white, so that while the world has their “clothing,” they know not of their own nakedness. Though they have piercings and tattoos and clothing and all of the accessories, they are naked and their shame is exposed. We are to have pure white raiment, which is given by God alone. Our raiment isn’t of clothing or appearance; it is the resurrection. It is a life hid with Christ in God. It is a life that is transparent. Though all things are exposed, we are not naked. Though all shame is before all men, we have not any shame. It is easy for them to say, “Hypocrite, look at the way that you live.” Yet, our sins have been blotted out. However much we might live in the old way, we are raised. That is the old way. We are now to live out the new life. We are now to live out of the resurrection. We now have the new man, and all things have passed away (no matter how haunting they might sometimes be).

*This is our garment, and it is to be shared with the naked and shame-filled world. We are to give them our own garments. It is this act of humility and recognition with them that displays the God that is within us. This is what it means to be His Body. We are to be sacrificial, as He is sacrificial. We are to be humble, as He is humble. We are to be love, as He is love. All things are to reflect the image and glory of God, and all things are to be done corporately. In unity, we give ourselves for others. Even when it exposes our failings, or it causes us to look bad, or this might be misunderstood, we give ourselves to people. We continually neglect any self-preservation or reputation and give our garments to the world.

*I don’t know how this looks in everyday life. I don’t have a formula. This is something that the Spirit must reveal, because as soon as it is a formula, it is a sham. I’m not even sure if I fully understand what it means to give my clothing to those who are naked. All I can understand is that nakedness is paraded and there is no shame, yet in the moments of truth, those who are naked want nothing more than to be clothed. When the road ends, and the party is over, only shame and self-hatred remain. Can we bear the responsibility to give our own garment to them, and possibly find ourselves being hung naked on a cross before all men?

*Our garments are Christ. I say it again, our garments are Christ. Our garments are not of this world. Whether we wear something fashionable or we wear rags, it is not in these things that we have our image. Whether we have a mansion or are homeless, it is not in these things that we have our image. We surrender these things, from the clothes on our backs and the shoes on our feet, to the cars we drive and the homes we live in. We give it away. All things are not ours. We own nothing but Christ, and Christ owns us. Therefore we give freely to anyone who asks, whether friend or foe, brother or enemy. It is the lack of that kind of witness that taints our evangelism. We don’t represent Christ because we don’t give of ourselves. If material things were where it ended, that would be easy. Would you be willing to give your reputation, or job, or life, or family? We are united together with our brethren in China, or Peru, or Africa, or Australia, or Europe. No matter where they live, they are our brethren, and especially to them do we show forth our love.

One Spirit, One Body

*Many people presume that God has made a split in the Church by having a big C and little c. There is the global Church, and then there is the local church. The main defense for this is that Paul writes to the Church in Ephesus or Galatia or Rome. He writes to those in Corinth or Thesselonica. Yet, there is a problem with this argument: these are cities, not buildings.

*One of the main problems I have with the idea of the “Big C and little c” mentality is that it stresses and pushes for division. It pushes for going to your local church, but then we ignore everyone else that is not in our congregations with us. It pushes for the local church and going to it, but it doesn’t stress being the Church. It stresses going to a congregation, but ignores the other congregations down the street.

*There is a huge problem in our concept of the Church. First off, if we can’t even understand and truly believe that it is One Church, One Spirit, and One Head, then how do we expect to go any deeper in our Christian walks? How do we expect anything organic or authentic? It promotes individuality and isolation.

*Within the walls of the buildings, we get to pick and choose who we want to spend our time with, and whom we don’t. We get to decide whether or not we want to spend time with the people who go to our church. We get to then also talk about our church, our programs, what events are going on, how great things are in our building, and yet still miss the point that the Church is the people. It takes the attention off of the people, and puts it right on a building. Ironically, it seems to put even more emphasis on the person who is talking about this building and how great it is. It is an ego trip.

*I don’t teach that we need to know every single person in the world who is a Christian. Yet, shouldn’t there at least be some sort of brotherhood between the Believers in Dayton, Ohio and Tallahasee, Florida? Even if they don’t know one another, shouldn’t there be some sort of understanding that where the Church is, God is? Shouldn’t that be enough to encourage us to pray for our brothers and sisters? Shouldn’t that be enough to encourage us at all?

*The main argument against me is that we are only people. If we spend all our time trying to get to know everyone in our church, or in our area, then we have no time for ourselves, or for our families. Is that really the argument? It misses the whole point. The point isn’t to know everyone and spend time with everyone. The point is unity and one-ness with all the other believers. The point is that you are gloriously ecstatic when you hear of a brother or sister (whom you might have never known before) who has overcome some stronghold in their lives. The point is that when you find out your coworker is a Christian that it only brings you closer. The point is that when you hear of the mission that such and such community is doing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, your heart rejoices. You are one with the Body, because you are one with the Head. As long as that Head is moving and working in the Body (wherever that Body may be) you rejoice with them, and when you hear of struggle, you pray for them.

*The focus shifts from us, and what we’re doing, and onto Christ, and what He is doing. The emphasis is no longer on what we can do as a church, but what Christ is doing in His Church. It is no longer about us and our congregation or church trying to win our city, but about Christ and His Church being what they are supposed to be, and thus allowing Christ to do the rest. It is no longer about plans and events and programs and power evangelism and rallies and etc. It is about Christ. When He is the One moving through us, and guiding us, and telling us the next step, we are then part of the Church.

*If we don’t go to a “church,” then how are we going to get to know other Christians in our area? I find that the majority of Christians that I know don’t come from the church that I used to attend. In fact, the majority of the community God has put around me has been established by God. We’ve met in the strangest of ways. My wife worked with a woman who just so happened to be invited to our bible study and thought she should join. Her husband went to school with me. I’m very good friends with a family about 30 minutes away from our house, and we would have never met them if it weren’t for the fact that God performed a miracle in my heart by sending me to Lakeland, Florida with them. I would have never met the people who are in the city just north of us if it weren’t for God granting me the job I have and sending a missionary from Georia right into my path. (If this is her, or anyone who knows who I’m talking about, then don’t be confused. You were sent to me in a time where I needed to hear a voice from God in my life. That is a missionary for all I care.) Her whole family and fiancé are beloved.

Invisible Cloud?

*Without the understanding of how Paul could reference an entire city, which very possibly had thousands of converts within it, and not write to specific local gatherings, we can’t understand our unity with the invisible cloud of witnesses. We think it is about the here and now, that which is seen and heard. We consider those whom we know and whom we’ve come in contact with. Most days, it doesn’t even pass through our minds to pray for those in India. How, then, can we grasp that in God there is an unbroken continuum and an unbroken link between those who are on this earth and those who are asleep?

*The invisible cloud of witnesses are with us. They are here, along side, next to us. They battle with us. They are unseen, yet still present. And, in fact, they are possibly able to do battle and to aid the saints to an even greater degree now that they are past. They have left the realm of the physical an entered into the spiritual realm. Here they do battle with Satan along side of us. It is almost as if while we’re here on this earth, our characters is what does battle by revealing the glory of God to all of creation, but when we’ve passed, it is not only our characters, but our legacy.

*In this, all I can seem to do is assume. What is safe is that the legacy of those who have passed is continuing to sharpen and fine-tune the characters of those who live on. Can the number of people be counted to get great benefit from reading Spurgeon or Wesley or Augustine or Saint John of the cross? These are people who have long passed on, yet their stories and their lives and their teaching remains and continues to persuade and lead people into deeper relations with God.

*As one Greek philosopher had said, “You can’t enter the same river twice.” The river might have the same name, but it is always flowing. There is new water every second. The Body of Christ is, in the same way, a river with a continual flow. When a righteous person passes, they aren’t gone. They don’t disappear for a while, and then they are resurrected at the end of the age. Their soul must go somewhere. (We must assume.)

*Jesus references the soul in Matthew 10:28: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Now, my question is about the soul. When we pass on, where does our soul go? Obviously our body is in the ground. Yet, our soul isn’t buried there with us.

*Watchman Nee had given most of his life to the understanding of the body, soul, and spirit. Though I disagree with much of what he stated, one thing I do agree with is that the soul is a non-physical part of our bodies that has it’s own characteristics. This is obvious, however, Nee takes it to another level. I highly recommend his book, The Latent Power of the Soul. In this he expresses that the soul has a power, and that power can be released. Other religions have learned how to release this soul power by fasting, meditations, and other forms of self-exhaustion. The point is to try and destroy the flesh so that your body is only a shell. You don’t give yourself to your carnal habits. This produces in you a breach in your flesh so that your soul can be released.

*Though this is highly philosophical, and I’m very skeptical of the way it is worded, I like the idea of the soul having a power in it. There seems to be something that sits right within me when considering that mediums can contact “the dead” (whether those dead are truly those who have passed on or only demons) through their souls. Through soul power, people in India can read minds, levitate, calm animals, and even make objects move without touching them.

*These are real phemonema. There are actual events and people have been recorded as having these abilities. Though we think them of fantasy and nonsense here in America, and most of Europe, they are common realities in some parts of Asia. How does this relate to the invisible cloud of witnesses? It is only to say that the soul might not actually get buried in the ground with our bodies, and that there might indeed be some sort of a power in our souls that can either aid or rebel against the purposes of God.

* I don’t know that there is a way to explain this, nor do I know if there are too many Biblical references. Certainly, I can take verses and stories and apply them, but there aren’t any concrete Scriptures to validate these opinions. I’m willing to admit that.

*Yet, one of the problems that needs to be considered is the problem of eternity and time. What most believe is that when we die, we go out of time and into the eternal realm, where we stand before God in judgment, and He then declares us to be blessed or cursed. This comes from Scriptures such as Revelation 21:11 and Hebrews 9:27.

*Even if we believe that there is some sort of a waiting time for the consummation of all things, we hold to the idea that eternity (whether in Heaven or Hell) is timeless. I must beg the question: what if it isn’t? What if time and eternity are as much one as the fabric of space and time? What if eternity is actually just another age with days, years, decades, and millennia? Lets go even further. What if these days, years, decades, and millennia are actually corespondent to our days, months, years, and decades? What if time for us is time for them?

*We can see that in Daniel 10, the angel comes to Daniel and tells him, “The prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days.” Wait… an angel was resisted, and that somehow caused for him to be postponed in delivering his message? It was an actual 21 days? Or was it just the angel’s way of speaking in terms that we know? But if it was only a figure of speech, then what did the angel really mean?

*What about Saul and Samuel? Saul contacts a medium, and the medium goes to contact the man in whom Saul wishes to speak… Then Samuel comes and speaks with Saul. There’s only one problem: Samuel is dead. Did God allow Samuel to come back in a specific moment of time, seeing as Samuel was in eternity and timelessness? Or was time still active and Samuel’s appearing was granted by God? The same question can be asked about when Jesus met with Elijah and Moses on the mount of transfiguration? Was Samuel still here and present on this earth, though invisible? And then when Saul needed his counsel, God allowed for this dead man to be made visible again? Can that really be a valid answer? Can we really put our faith in the idea that God would send us back to a specific time in space-time? It might be what is most simple, but it isn’t what is most logical. There are great depths that seem to be revealed in simply asking these questions.

*What about Elisha and the chariots of fire? Obviously, there is indeed an invisible realm that is parallel to this one. There is a spiritual world that fights along side of us. Elisha was able to see an army of chariots of fire. He was able to understand that the Lord’s army stood along side of His people. So, then, when the servant of Elisha was afraid, God openned his eyes, and the servant saw. Was this possibly a revealing of something greater than we know? Was God revealing to this servant, and to us who read the story, of an invisible realm that is always here and now and with us? Was God showing that eternity is not bound by our physical cosmos, but is still within time?

*The invisible cloud is always here and with us. It reminds us of our past. It wars with us for righteousness to prevail. It helps us in our times of need. It speaks words of counsel, and it beckons us to be greater than we are. They who have passed on call us forward to be the end-time people of God. They, together with us, help us to hasten the day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:12). What if those of history continue to war even after life?

*The Greek word describing “the age to come” is aion. It is literally translated as an age or era or period of time. When Jesus refers to the age to come, which is most commonly believed to be Heaven, He is speaking of a new era. It is the dawn of a new time. It isn’t going into timelessness, but instead of timelessness and eternity and heaven crashing into this time based cosmos. I speak only speculatively, for I only know that the invisible cloud fights along side of us in their legacy. The rest is assumption and playing with thoughts and ideas. Yet, what if…

*The Hebrew word is Olam. It speaks of something to respect of “to the distance of the horizon, and then some.” So, basically, olam is as far back in time, or as far forward in time as the eye can see, and then beyond. It is usually translated as eternal, or eternity. In the New Testament, the word for eternal, when speaking of “eternal life,” is aionios. This is different than aion. Aion is simply another time. It is sometimes translated as forever, but it doesn’t mean that, and it certainly doesn’t mean outside of time. The word aionios means without time; from the beginning to the end; forever; never ending; eternity as we know it.

*If you start to study this out, you start to see that Jesus speaks of both an eternity that has no beginning or end, just as God has no beginning or end, and an eternity that is within time, has a specific beginning and end. He speaks of them synonymously. They are happening at the same time, in the same place, and we are a part of both. The idea of olam is only given to God, because He is the only one who is everlasting. Yet, the New Testament seems to blow the Old Testament idea out of the water and say, “Not only are you going to be God’s Bride, but in being God’s Bride, the two really do become one flesh, and now you are granted certain Godlike qualities.”

*Excuse me while I venture into heresy (