God

TRUTH VS. REALITY

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

A while back, I received a Word from God that it was time for Christians to start living according to the TRUTH rather than reality.

The actuality of so much of our Christianity is that we live in a reality that is well beneath the truth that would set us free.

We serve a God who says “Sin shall not be your master.”, while continuing to live with addictions.

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We say “Our God’s name is Jehovah Rophe the Lord who heals!”, yet so many of us settle for sickness never even inquiring at His throne to see if we might be healed.

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We say our God is a miraculous Provider and yet many of us struggle with having enough generosity to even give a tithe back to God.

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I have my own challenges with reality…BUT…I am working them through. It is time . It is TIME! IT IS TIME! We must start living according to the truth and not according to the lesser realities which are trying to keep us bound. May Truth break our chains!!!

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THE SHAPE OF THE RHYTHM

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

My daughter, Melanie asked me, the other night at supper what this new life/ ministry rhythm I have been talking about will look like in real time.

I suppose, I am going to really begin learning what it looks like next week, when I return to full time work, but I have been giving some thought to the shape of the rhythm as I walk out these final days of this October sabbatical.

I have never been very successful at fitting ministry into a rigid structure or shape so when I think of the future of my personal ministry rhythm I do not think of it like a triangle, square, cube or pyramid.

Glowing cube and triangular shapes floating amid colorful stars

I have always seen ministry as complex pattern of interconnected threads that move in and through the world I inhabit, some of which I connect directly to and others which I connect to only through a series of other threads that come across mine.

Repeating ornate pattern with peacocks, leaves, vines, paisleys, and glowing accents

Ministry rhythm to me is a battle between math and music. It is structure for a thing that must be limited, for the sake of the one doing it, but that doesn’t want to be limited by time or space.

Fierce musician battling an equation-covered automaton in a magical library

Ministry rhythm is about a schedule but it not JUST about scheduling; It’s about values and distractions, urgent things and important things; It’s about legacy, living in the moment and releasing what’s important into the right hands that will take up the stewardship of things left behind; It’s about the moment and the millennium; It’s about the beat I am currently playing and the acknowledgment that I am working through a whole symphony of movements that I need to be aware of because the whole effects the page of music I am now playing and vice versa.

Two travelers follow glowing musical notes through an enchanted forest toward mountains

OK, that is a fairly chaotic explanation. SO WHAT IS THE SHAPE OF WHAT’S NEXT? Right now this is the best I can come up with.

Surfers and volunteers on boards; visible text reads “VOLUNTEERS” and “3027-2028.”

I suppose that doesn’t help you much… but it helps me a bit.

MOVING IN…

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

I have just finished my morning gauntlet of prayer and study. I am moving in to the rest of my day and further into the rhythm that will be 2027 and 2028.

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These last days of sabbatical are the beginning of a new practice that will probably take the rest of 2026 to work into the fibers of my being.

Yesterday I took my sister to the Irish Festival at the Winchendon Community Park for her birthday.

We listened to some amazing music and did some window shopping at the booths. We shared bangers and mash and Guiness beef stew, apple cider and apple fritters. Then we finished the day with cake and ice cream at home with the kids. It was a great day.

As the day came to its finish line, I walked the dogs and closed in the chickens making sure Hen Solo was with her sisters before locking the coop gate. It was an early night to bed and I realized as I laid my head to the pillow that I had not followed the rhythm as planned. I had not planned for the expectations of others. I had not considered alternative pathways to move into the evening gauntlet of prayer and study. I had not taken an aside from the festivities of the day to pray for even ten minutes.

I have prayed today that Jesus would help me move in to the rhythm He has shown me as my next step. I have asked Him to show me how to fold the rhythm into the life He has given me, how to adapt this life and its demands to the life He is bringing me into. The way lies before me. Learning and wisdom are the prayers of my heart. I ask without doubting that I will have the learning and wisdom and that what He wants will be established.