St. Paul's Mission,

CharityWorld Tour, Y2K,

on the SS Diversity

21 May 1999

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

So goes the greeting of Paul in hia letter to the Romans and these same words are also repeated in most of his other epistles. As Paul wrote in the first century, the grace and peace of God, to all who come is still being offered because of the propitiatory sacrifice and the subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ taking place almost Y2K ago.

It is documented that Paul took at least four missionary journeys traveling through out the known world. That work, that trip, that mission still goes on. Many of you are serving that mission in the spirit of St. Paul, on soil foreign to your birth. If the Lord wills, this letter begins the description of a World Tour that you can become involved in, through your prayers, and local involvement when the tour is in your area. Since most scholars believe that Jesus was born in 4 B.C. (Before Christ). Perhaps Saul was born of Jewish parents in the city of Tarsus two thousand years ago, in the year zero, or would that be one? This could be a Y2K birthday trip!. Whatever birthday Paul would celebrate next year, really isn't overly important except for Paul's labors on our behalf, we are able to celebrate our new birth. That is a reason for a special journey!

The citizens of this world will celebrate the change of the millennia, with bugs, drugs and all sorts of wild and crazy carrying's on, celebrating their sinfulness, in wild times not knowing that since instituted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 the calendar suffix, A. D. stands for the Latin, anno domini, (In the year of our Lord). To God be all Glory!

I'm not at all into alternative Halloween Harvest Parties and alternative Easter Egg Hunts, but I think it would be appropriate that a diverse group of Christians could demonstrate the Charity (Older Authorized Versions) described by Paul in First Corinthians 13, in a community trip around the world in a ship tentatively named Diversity. If a diverse group of Christians can sail around the world in the "grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" and not kill each other, only God knows what other miracles God has wrot, for this generation.

Those currently infected with the diseases Y2K fever, or American religious moralism are probably too sick to have fully recovered by the time we hope to set sail. This trip is designed to help those in perhaps 30 ports of call, see that only through the love of God, preached through the gospel, can men and women, truly serve mankind in agape, vocational service, as eternal personalities working in community, rather than diverse, self-serving individuals. Over the next few letters I will lay out some of my ideas about this trip of an eternal lifetime, and as always I cherish your inputs. Some comments now about the last newsletter, some time ago.

Kadesh Revisited.

I got a couple of responses about my teaching on why Moses could not cross the Jordan, so I will briefly make some overall comments.

I fully admit from the background given in the teaching itself, it could appear that I was boasting that I'm better than poor old Moses. Oh, contrare! What I am saying is I (and you) have been given a greater, gift than, Moses in his time and place in creation and recorded history could understand. That gift is in the person and work of Jesus Christ, taking place two thousand years ago, in the vicinity of the city of Jerusalem, in a tiny country called Israel. Because of the gift, my sinfulness is forever washed away, and I have been adopted as a child of God. It is written down and it is a promise that stands forevever.

In the context of that message and to mak an effort to keep the message as short has possible, I was trying to rely upon the Protestant Reformation dogma, presented in earthier editions of Oikos to give you an understanding of where I was coming from. Others have said, that sometimes it is difficult to follow my on ramps and off ramps, to where my teaching freeway is going, that too is a valid criticism. In order not to beat a dead horse, after all a horse loose on a freeway not able to find and off ramp, will very quickly become a dead horse. The proper context to the whole Kadesh caper, is found in the Book of Hebrews, the whole book relates and it is divinely inspired, Chapter 3 is a good place to start. Subsequent to that, a brief word study of propitiation, should help clarify hanging hairs, from that horse. If by chance your nearly inspired version does not include this word, perhaps you should find a better translation for your study, teaching and preaching.

Next, Did Moses know Jesus?

Since we have been discussing Hebrews, this time not the book, but the people, the ones we now call Jews, it would be well to discuss this little point of Christian doctrine, since the Trinity is one of the essential teachings of the historic Christian faith.

Today, the typical Christian witness to the world is, "Do you know Jesus?" One size fits all, Without some context, some on ramps and off ramps, we again quickly run into another dead horse. Praise the Lord, this time it is not my faulty engineering. Let's disregard the freeway that all paths lead to God and yours just goes through Jesus. Not because this heresey isn't important, however it is just a subset of the earlier Kadesh discussion, you can not cross over that Jordan River, with yourself or Moses as your bridge.

Jews and followers of Islam, as a general rule believe that Christians worship three Gods. "Don't you believe the Father is God?" "Yes!" "And is Jesus, the Son is God?" "Yes!" "And isn't the Holy Spirit also God?" "Yes!" "Well there you have it, three persons, three Gods, yes?"

"No!" "I don't understand? I just worship one God, the Almighty!"

Well now you should go into a discussion of three distinct persons, being of one substance, one essence, God, all three existing before time began, and after time ends, eternal. A little knowledge of the Nicene Creed might help also, even though it is a bit too liturgical and dogmatic for those seeking a relationship with Jesus. Having explained these things, state that the Trinity is a great mystery of the faith. "Well, why is that so?" Well in the words of a great Jewish rabbi, "The Almighty can do whatever he wants, whenever, andby what ever means he chooses, and who is man to question him!"

Did Moses know Jesus? It is impossible for one to truly know El Shaddii (God Almighty) and not know his son and his Holy Spirit. Since the Lord said he knew Moses face to face, (Deuternonomy 34:10) who are we to question the Almighty, or is written Word.

That's all for now folks! We will again becoming to you soon through this very channel, when our topic will be the parable "The Pastor's Classic" A story about the gift to the pastor, who loves to cruise the interstate, above the legal speed limit. This story will also be the on ramp to the ocean of thought of why anyone in their right mind would like to organize a trip around the world in a 300 foot ship with a hundred plus, strange Christians, doing a bunch of charity and other boring stuff in the name of Jesus Christ. Till then, God Bless and Happy Trails!

Jerry