Papa's Ponderings

In the original Star Trek series Spock commandeered the Enterprise to take a friend (Captain Pike) who had been completely paralyzed to a planet forbidden by the Federation. Spock risked jail or death for defying a Star Fleet order and mutiny. In the trial that was held on board the ship en route to the forbidden planet, Spock refused to reveal why he was doing this or release the ship. Spock and his former captain who was now in the wheelchair were the only people who had ever visited the planet. It was populated by essentially benevolent beings that had great mental powers. As the story unfolds of Spock's first trip to the planet it is revealed that a ship had crashed on the planet and left one small girl as a survivor. The inhabitants put her back together as best they could and she was beautiful. Captain Pike had feelings for the girl and offered to take her away from the forbidden planet, but she refused. Pike was confused until illusion of her appearance was removed by the host and she was seen in her true form, a horribly twisted and scarred survivor. For her to leave the planet would be the loss of the illusion of wholeness and beauty. The girl explained that, while everything worked properly, she was horribly disfigured because her well meaning hosts had never seen a human before and did not know how to put her mangled body back together. Pike understood her plight and left her on the planet. Spock took Pike back to the planet where he could share the illusion of wholeness and health and be reunited with the girl he fell in love with. In the last scene from the planet, Pike is see with his girlfriend whole and perfect, thanks to the hosts who took him in. Of course the Federation agreed with Spock's actions and was given a total pardon from any wrong doing. As I continue to review what happened to the Church in our day it appears to me that there is an allusion of beauty and wholeness that is in reality not there in fact. Well meaning and benevolent men (like myself) have done our best to put the Church together as best we can but we have never really seen the Church as God designed her. We have all the pieces and the do function but we have created something that in some ways is grotesque. We need a better image of what God had in mind. We are not far off, but if we rearrange our thinking to better reflect the revealed God of Scripture we can rebuild the church on a better foundation. We can literally do what the benevolent aliens could not do. We can be BORN AGAIN in the truest sense of the word. In the weeks to come, I will share with you what we need to understand and do differently. Remember the original purpose of this Blog for me was to rethink the foundations of our Salvation. For Doni, it was to leave a history for the grand children. I want to rebuild the foundation for them and I believe I the Lord is showing me how. Stay Tuned...for the next generation. The shack study guide.

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