5. Patterns of Home
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
In the last two sessions, we considered a broad layout of the New Testament topic of Spirit and Body, Spirit and Bride, always together as one. In this bridge, we want to bring back in a brief overview of Lesson 19.2 Combining the Tens in Symmorphy IV: Covenant. Then, in going forward, the outline of the remainder of the course comes from dovetailing these two things together, the elements of the New Testament teachings on Spirit and Body-Bride together inserted all through the larger outline of the ten most important verses expressed as the ten patterns of home.
The concept of designing by patterns comes from the text A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, an Oregon professor who, in the 1970’s, developed the theory of patterns.
Making a House a Home. This lesson and the subsequent layout of the course is drawn from Patterns of Home: The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design by Max Jacobson, Murray Silverstein, and Barbara Winslow (2005). These individuals worked with Christopher Alexander and his study of the patterns that reoccur in all human design and then translated the layout of general patterns into the more specific design of those elements that make a house to be a “home.”
In Symmorphy IV: Covenant, we used these patterns of home as an approach to understanding God at Home in His Church. Then, in developing that idea further, we saw that, by a simple re-arrangement of the order, the ten most important verses fitted together wonderfully with these ten patterns of home.
Understanding Life Together. Now, our purpose is not to explain the ten patterns of home by the ten most important verses. In complete reversal, our only interest is to KNOW these ten most important verses and how they govern the substance and the expression of our life together as the Church. The ten patterns of home, then, are an incredibly useful way for us to make that connection between verse and practice.
Now, through the remainder of this lesson, I will use the term “life together,” and inside that term I mean the Church, Jerusalem, the Body and Bride of Christ, as she is found inside of every local Community of Christ, that is, 50-75 people sharing the same property as an intentional Community.
Inhabiting the Site. How do we fit Romans 8:28-30 into life together in every practical application? As part of what we mean by this question, we also mean another question. (For the rest of this lesson, we will go back and forth between questions, meaning both each time.) How does the Lord Jesus use Romans 8:28-30 in practical ways as He designs and builds us together as the Father’s Home?
And then we see that the pattern of home called “inhabiting the site” catches the very heart of what the most important verse in the Bible really means. A house is built in a place. Inhabiting the site means fitting every aspect of the home into the site in which it sits.
Rooms of God. The site of Father’s House is humans inside this heaven/earth, and “many brethren” is where His house is found. This concept of inhabiting the site is of utmost importance for everything that follows, and thus we will spend three sessions attempting to apply Romans 8:28-30 to life together.
How do we fit Ephesians 3:17-19 into life together in every practical application?
We discover that “creating rooms inside and out” catches for us the very essence of Christ living in each one of our hearts. You see, when we see each individual person as being filled with all the fullness of God, we then understand that making a place for each one, rooms inside and out, is making a place for God.
Roof and Light. How does the Lord Jesus use Revelation 12:10-11 in practical ways as He designs and builds us together as the Father’s Home?
Everything found in the pattern of “a sheltering roof” gives us what we need to understand the covering of protection from all the accusation of the evil one that life together must give us.
How do we fit John 7:37-39 into life together in every practical application?
The pattern of home called “capturing light” is simply the best way to consider how the light of the Holy Spirit shines through each window, each member of the community, as the very jewels, the giftings and the fruit of the Spirit. Indeed, we will devote three sessions to this wondrous pattern as well. We will undoubtedly find love stories showing up here.
Proportion and Movement. How does the Lord Jesus use Galatians 2:20 in practical ways as He designs and builds us together as the Father’s Home?
At first thought, the pattern of “parts in proportion” seems disconnected from “I am crucified with Christ”; but on second thought we realize that Christ and us in perfect proportion is what our union together inside of Christ is all about.
How do we fit Hebrews 10:19-22 into life together in every practical application?
Well, “flow through rooms,” moving from one place to another place, entering boldly, taking possession of each place belonging to us, clearly fits this verse. And here we are speaking of the ministry of Christ in the Church.
Relationships In and Out. How does the Lord Jesus use John 15:12 & 1 John 3:16 in practical ways as He designs and builds us together as the Father’s Home?
Again, at first look, the pattern of “private edges, common core” might seem unconnected. Nonetheless, we will discover the very essence of loving one another inside this pattern.
How do we fit Romans 8:19-21 into life together in every practical application?
The pattern here, again, is obvious – “refuge and outlook,” living safe inside all the liberty of Christ, setting creation free into that same glorious freedom. Yet this pattern also speaks to us of the travail and the witness of the Spirit.
Confidence and Personality. How does the Lord Jesus use Hebrews 3:6/14 and 2 Corinthians 2:14 in practical ways as He designs and builds us together as the Father’s Home?
The “places in between,” going from inside to out, is the force of our ministry as we are led by the Spirit, led always IN triumph.
How do we fit John 15:4a, 17:3, 14:20, and Romans 13:14a into life together in every practical application?
And here we come full circle, because “composing with materials” and inhabiting the site are the same thing, that is, God in symmorphy with humans is the larger picture, but composing with materials is finding the joy and delights of each individual member of the community, all their varied interests, to be the very personality of Father through them.
Overflowing Wonder. You have to know that I am sitting here in absolute wonder and joy. I have never known anything more glorious to me than this fitting of the Patterns of Home together with the ten most important verses together with our life together in Christian Community. I have never known such overflowing out from my heart.
My contention “with” God has become more bold and certain than anything I have ever known. Yet it is not “with” God, but rather God through me in contention.
Last evening, while driving alone in my car, I shouted at the top of my lungs the covenant I made with God when I was 22. – I WILL KNOW YOU, in this life and on this earth, AND I WILL BE part of a people who KNOW YOU!!!! –