Authority and Power

28 July 1999

And Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. (Matthew 28:19,20)

And he (Jesus) said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned." (Mark 16:15,16)

This week we will begin to apply the last few weeks messages on community development within the existing structure of the church and as a means to further the great commission through works of charity. On the good ship Diversity we will work with four main communities: Agriculture, which includes all aspects from preparing the earth to partaking in the communion of fellowship with a good (or lousy) meal. Business; including appropriate technology for sustained subsistence, to management seminars based upon a creation model instead of the bankrupt evolutionary model that drives this world's racist and exploitative free market economy. Housing appropriate to the local environment and family size. Medical help to all those whom God has created in his image, regardless of ability to pay or repay.

Before we get into specifics however, we should this week look briefly at the great commission to help us understand what may be required of us to make this or any other form of community development or restoration a success. If you look closely at all Jesus sayings on the subject in the more accurate translations, Jesus claims always authority. He doesn't claim power. If you look at Genesis 1 you see the Word or God invoking the power of the Spirit to create creation. God spoke and it was, some thousands of years ago, not billions, but that is another topic. This being the first illustration of the separation of authority and power. God, while acting in unity of the God-head, is creating designing and fabricating creation from nothing instantly.

Some time later sin enters the picture, pointing to the cross, Jesus still maintains his authority over all creation, the question must be did Jesus ever lose his authority or the Holy Spirit his power. Not in this newsletter or in the actual creation. But what we really come to very quickly is the issue of Free Will and reality. Just because I claim to have it, in reality with God as sovereign, doesn't mean that it is true. It just means that I affirm it even though I shout or pout or carry on in some means. The Bible clearly teaches and the reformers affirm that I am a slave to my sins. To say I have the will to be able to do good, without God's divine help, makes me a damned fool. Through the grace of God alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, I may possibly enter into that free state, but there can be no other way, and even then that state, much is mystery and is open to problemic debate.

If Jesus has all authority and the Holy Spirit has all power why are not all people saved? Logically, it must be because for reasons known only to God, he chose some people for his own and some people he didn't. Interestingly, that is just what the Bible says in many places. For God's reasons, some are elected for his own glory while he allows others to go their own way. These are the great debates of church history. Augustine and Pelagus, Luther and Erasmus, the Reformers and the Roman Catholic church, followers of Calvin and Arminus, for some points of reference.

In the stated passages, Jesus calls us to go into all nations, (not all races, for races is a worldly term and an important part of Darwin's evolutionary dogma) and make disciples and preach the gospel by doing what he told us to do. We are then told to baptize believers or followers in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This act denotes those people whom God has chosen as his own, or at least affirm their selection into the historic church.

Why works of charity, why not just stand on the street corners throughout the world and shout. Jesus saves! Do you know Jesus? This is what Jesus has done for me! Seems for the last few decades we have been there, done that. Perhaps it is time we demonstrate some of the gospel's love. The old line, "Your actions speak louder than your words." comes to mind. Just think for a minute if God has saved us from eternal punishment and others are still bound for that damnation, shouldn't the church use a little more of her God given talents and resources, to design and implement a sliglty more sophisticated program for Y2K and beyond?

The words of Jesus, delegated to the church gives us the authority, the Holy Spirit, the comforter, will enable us through his power. Why hasn't it happened? We must be doing it in our own sinful way, in our own authority and power and not God's way. Going back to the Garden of Eden, the woman says in Genesis 3:3, to the serpent, "but the fruit... you shall not touch it lest you die." They did, we do, and everything we touch in or own flesh results in death. The power to die has been given to us as our authority and our power. God is the God of life, we ourselves are resposnible for death. That alone should help us to contemplate the powers we invoke in our lives, work and ministries.

In that context, we can only look to God for his salvation alone and as a consequence look to performworks of creative life, in our lives. Perhaps we should take to heart the heart of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20. Creative non self-serving works, centered on God's authroity and power alone, by charity (love) we give ourselves in service to others. We need some sort of system within the organization of the church to accomplish this, communities as we have defined them are far from perfect, but they can be a positive step in the right direction.

Prayer plants:

Well, the home page for meyersfalls.com has been loaded to the server. None of the links are activated yet, but if you would like to visit you can get some idea of where I would like to see this lead. I have also added the domain name of oikosvirtual.org, as a way to increase a business potential base. It would function as a cooperative small business link, to try to add a biblical and creation based presence to the big and heavy internet cancers or pioneer species. As the Lord provides it would also be nice to be able to support the whole Chronicles of Diversity trip, it really isn't that much more than the actual cost of the ship. Then it would be possible to build 4 actual communities of the best qualified persons, without them necessarily having to raise all their own support.

The housing situation is still up in the air at this time, but I made my suggestions, after \ request, on what is needed to maintain residence here and as far as I know now they are under review. There are some remodeling projects that would provide the financial support and time to continue this and related works, which would be a real blessing. May God's will be done.

An opportunity to do a community development project in the Rainier Valley has also surfaced. This is something that I have never actually done but have done much planning over the last few years. As presented to me at this time, it is not really something I think fits the whole plan, but it could be revamped into another project that could add support potential to the Chronicles effort. Low income housing development and restoration. I just need the financial support to get there and direction to see if it too is part of the Lord's plan.

Thanks so much for your planting of seeds of prayer. For example, the internet thing I have tried, without success any number of times, it now seems to be God's timing, now it is tying all the many strings together into a cord, by grace and faith in God's authority and power and not my own.

Grace and shalom to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jerry