1.2 Focus and Layout
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The guiding idea of this course is that the Lord Jesus Christ reveals Father as He is in and through His many-membered Body, brothers and sisters, family, living life together, loving one another with a pure heart fervently. Thus at every point and in every circumstance, any local Community of Christ is, literally and substantially, the Body, the visible form of the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself in Person, in that place.
By the continual fellowship of Jesus Sent, then, Father Himself is made known. That you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3).
Definition and Purpose. When we speak of Community, we are speaking of life together. Life together is not a merging of the individual into a “group,” but rather, the voluntary participation of individual believers in Jesus together as a family or partnership. And thus, an intentional Community of Christ is a sharing of many things of daily life, even while honoring and highly regarding each individual person in every way.
This course is intended, then, to set forth the many things that must be considered and applied in order for this gathering together unto Christ in the celebration of Tabernacles, Father among us, to be fully successful, fully the revelation of God. Christ is a many-membered Body.
The Fulness of Christ. The full completion of God’s Salvation, the fullness of Christ Revealed is Christian Community. That fullness of Christ has never been anything except Christian Community, and it never will be anything except Christian Community. Yet Community is the completion, not the beginning. Christ begins as every Word God speaks coming into the heart of each one who receives Him, becoming them as they are in every present moment. Then, going forth as a Spirit of Power from each one, Christ connects His Church together as His Body.
The church, which is His body, the fullness of Jesus who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:23). Heaven-only is temporary; heaven-only is passing away. Brethren dwelling together in unity – is life forevermore.
Focus #1.
The first focus of this course is that we are placing out in view a manual, so to speak, a layout for the practice and order of Christian Community through the Age of Tabernacles. In spite of the fact that we are defining the Church as a full Tabernacles Church, yet we do not separate the Church now as she is in substance, walking AS IF she is that completed Church inside these present mortal bodies.
Now, here is God’s manual for His Church – See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you in the mountain (Hebrews 8:5). That pattern is the Lord Jesus Christ, yet Christ now lives as us and we are a mess. Thus our goal is to draw all that is Christ into all that is our mess together.
The Application of Theory. Pattern is another word for “theory.” There is a definition of theory that presents theory as “airy-fairy ideas divorced from practical application.” This is an unfortunate and inaccurate definition of the word. Please, allow that definition to vanish from your mind, otherwise we cannot know reality as it is.
The blueprints for a house are the theory. Building the house from the blueprints is the application of theory. I have always found that spending time and thought on creating the blueprints, that is, the theory, always results in time and money saved in the application as well as a better finished product in every respect. Every time I have seen blueprints scorned, the result was unnecessary extra cost and a poorer product in the end. This is true, not just in construction, but in every aspect of life.
God’s Theory. God is big on theory and He is big on application. See that you make all things (application) according to the pattern (theory) shown you in the mountain.
People who plunge into Christian application without a clear knowledge of the Covenant inside their hearts produce that which dishonors the Lord Jesus Christ. We see proof of that fact everywhere we look in Christianity. You have a theory. And you will build by your theory regardless. But if your theory is not God’s theory, the house you build will not be God’s house.
More than that, Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it (Psalm 127:1.)
Jericho from the Start. You see, EVERY individual person coming into a new Community of Christ WILL possess written all through the fabric of their beings a PROFOUND theory of how things should operate in the community. And each individual theory is built on top of deep assumptions of what life is all about. And from the start, “My way is better than your way,” stands as Jericho on the borders of the land.
Let me give a for-instance. You gather together. Someone says, “I don’t believe in leadership.” They are lying. That very statement is a bold assertion of domination over everyone else. Someone else says, “You guys make the decisions; I’ll be happy just to go along.” That sounds humble, but it’s not; it is a refusal to walk side by side bearing all costs together.
Three Levels of Logos. Most of the four prior Symmorphy courses in this program, Purpose, Essence, Kingdom, and Covenant, has not been the visible part of the theory, that is, the blueprint of God’s house, but rather the underlying foundations of that theory.
Now, application is not something written or drawn or recorded. Application is our actually walking together in a location as a Community of Christ. Refer back to Lesson 3.1 Logic and Thinking in Symmorphy II: Essence. The three levels of logic, that is logos, that is Christ, are first, underlying definitions, second, the theory or pattern or blueprint by which the facts are arranged, and third, the knowledge of the facts themselves.
According to the Pattern. Purpose through Covenant served to establish the underlying definitions and assumptions that are God as He speaks inside of us as our life. This course, Symmorphy V: Life, then, is not the application, which is the actual life together, but the theory for that life, that is, an actual, readable blueprint of God’s House.
And if you attempt Christian Community without God’s blueprint drawn out from God’s assumptions, you will bring forth only bitterness and death. – I know. See that you make all things according to the pattern. That is, we ourselves are not attempting to create that blueprint, but rather to place before our eyes God’s only Blueprint, the Lord Jesus Christ, as He IS.
Oour Home. Inside of this first focus, then, is the reality that the Church as Communities of Christ is Father’s Home first and thus, our Home in Father second. For that reason, the outline of the course is structured by that incredible lesson in Symmorphy IV: Covenant, “Lesson 20.2 Combining the Tens.” And thus, this combining of the Patterns of Home with the Ten Most Important Verses in the Bible has become the general outline of our life together.
We are using, then, the building of a house, as God builds a Home for Himself and for us, as an ordering concept for how we approach this “manual” for Christian Community, Symmorphy V: Life.
Focus #2
The second focus of this course is that it is the Spirit alone who gives life to the Body. It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing (that is, the flesh is the source of nothing), the words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are life (John 6:63). The body without the spirit is dead (James 2:26).
Just as Spirit and Word cannot ever be separated, but are always entwined together, part of one another, so Spirit and Body or Spirit and Bride cannot ever be separated. You will find the Holy Spirit paired together with the Body of Christ all through the New Testament. There is one Body and one Spirit (Ephesians 4:4).
Immersed and Drunk. Consider what I am calling the eleventh and twelfth most important verses in the Bible. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body… and have all been made to drink into one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).
Spirit and Body, you and me, utterly together. The Holy Spirit immerses us into one another as Christ’s only visible Body. At the same time, you and I drink together of that same One Spirit. Spirit inside and out of our individual human persons equals the Body of Christ.
Spirit and Church Together. Consider these words: And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh (Acts 2:17 & Joel 2:28). Spirit upon flesh – this is the planting of Christ in the earth as His Church. Death is the splitting apart of spirit and flesh, of the Holy Spirit from the Church. Life is restoring the vital connection between the Holy Spirit and humans, between heaven and earth.
Paul, Peter, James, and John wrote much about the issues of the Holy Spirit filling our fleshy life together as Love among us. As we learn to walk together in all the functions and operations of the Holy Spirit, we are possessing ever further measures of Christ our life.
Focus #3
The third focus of this course comes out from a profound statement coming through the final lessons of Symmorphy IV: Covenant. – Our action of loving one another IS the single most powerful influential force in the universe. –
The love of God flowing among us as we walk together must be the foundation of any topic we might discuss in this course. It’s not about the “order,” it’s about the love. Yet love has its own special and unique order, an order you and I have never known because we have never loved. Love one another is not something you and I are capable of doing; love one another is God among us.
Reciprocal Love. As you progress through this course, you will find a development of the concept of reciprocal love. Reciprocal love is not “love for others.” Reciprocal love is a fully equal continuously back and forth flow of God as love between two and among many. Reciprocal love is sharing all things together in purity.
But reciprocal love, though the commandment of Jesus – Love one another – has never really been known among Christians. What would a life of this back and forth honor and regard for one another be like? You see, reciprocal love is not part of human ability. Reciprocal love is God among us, the Father Himself as our every ongoing connection.
Love One Another. And so this issue of Love, as it is found in both Old Testament and New, must flow as the weaving of the fabric all the way through our study. The Shulamite of the Song of Songs, Isaac and Rebekah, the Bride and the Lamb, all these love stories are part of the romance found inside of the Community of Christ.
Love one another. God Himself in Person found in all the daily interaction we share together. Love one another in the kitchen and around the dining tables. Love one another in the gardens and the fields. Love one another in the wood shop and the mechanics shop. Love one another in the laundry and the school. Love one another – God at Home with us.
Limiting the Focus. This course is written entirely upon the assumption that the learner has fully completed Symmorphy III: Kingdom and Symmorphy IV: Covenant. For that reason, although the expression of life flowing out will be inherent in the assumptions regarding life together, we will not re-teach Kingdom, but only life together. And although the foundation of Word will be found undergirding every topic, we will not re-teach Covenant, but only life together. And although we are using three primary patterns through this course, building God’s Home, possessing our Promised Holy Spirit together, and telling stories of romance, we must limit those things entirely to this purpose – a practical manual for life together.
The Layout Ahead. The layout of this course, then, follows the same layout of the ten patterns of home, specifically combining those ten patterns with the ten most important verses. Thus, that pattern serves as an umbrella layout into which we can insert three things, Father at Home, the union of Spirit and Body/Bride, and the practical considerations of successful Community.
Before we begin the pattern, however, we must bring three things into our picture as the foundations of all that will follow. We must know the meaning of Father at Home. We must know how our precious union with the Lord Jesus Christ fits itself into our walk together. And we must know the role of the Spirit giving life to our every interaction.
From Site to Roof. Then, inside of “inhabiting the site,” we will apply Romans 8:28-30 to our life together, specifically, the nature of symmorphy applied to Community. We will include the nature of the spontaneous community arising out of the Spirit as well as the protected spaces of fellowship and friendship.
Inside of “creating rooms inside and out,” we will apply Ephesians 3:17-19 to our life together, rooted and grounded in love. We will also look at every member supply. Inside of “sheltering roof,” we will apply the qualities of “covering” that are part of life together. We will investigate how we are members of one another, how we share all weeping and all joy with each.
From Light to Love. Inside of “capturing light,” we will explore how rivers of Spirit flow among us in our life together, including the gifts and fruits of the Spirit, how they operate in the Church. Inside of “parts in proportion,” we will apply the axis lines of the cross, protecting Christ our only life, to the structure and order of God for His Church.
Inside of “the flow through rooms,” we will apply Hebrews 10:19-22 to our life together. We will include ministry in the church, how we boldly share Christ with one another. Inside of “private edges, common core,” we will investigate how loving one another is the foundation of our life together. We will see that the purity of God in community is maintained through life laid down and love poured out.
From Outlook to Materials. In “refuge and outlook” we will apply our calling to set creation free to our life together, how we together are the only true witness of Christ in the world. In “places in between,” we will apply our confidence in Christ, that God leads us in triumph every moment inside our life together. We will investigate how we hear the Holy Spirit and how we together are led by the Spirit.
Finally, in “composing with materials,” we will find that each one of us abiding in Jesus and Jesus in us is the only fabric of a successful Church. We will look at how we are symmorphosed together as the glorious body of Jesus as well as the Spirit and the Bride together saying, “Come.”
This Journey. This course, Symmorphy V: Life, sets forth guidelines drawn from the pattern of God regarding our life together as the Church forever. Thus this course is meant to serve as a manual for Tabernacles Community.
The guiding idea of this course is that the Lord Jesus Christ reveals Father as He is in and through His many-membered Body, brothers and sisters, family, living life together, loving one another with a pure heart fervently.
We accept fully that this vision requires a full and practical commitment to one another. Yet we walk this journey into life together, into an endless unfolding of the knowledge of God through a family of humans, KNOWING first that we are carried by Jesus, that we are utterly in the best of Hands.