On 24th June, the US Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe vs.Wade. The next day 25th, we had our Freedom! retreat which also proved a ‘turning point’ for many of the participants.
Early the next day, 26th I set out on my friend Keith’s bike. Cycling 10 miles through fierce winds and rain I found I had been blown Saint Brendan-like to Nendrum, an early Celtic monastic settlement.
Conscious of God’s hand directing me there I began to wander around the site.
I first discovered that one of only 4 “Open” days in the year had occured the previous day – the same day as our retreat had “opened” the way for people to turn back again to God.
My next discovery was the Tidal Mill which I had not seen on a previous visit many years before because it had only been excavated as recently as the year 2000! Apparently it is the oldest example of a tidal mill in the world!…….where the power of the natural ebb and flow in the tides had been harnessed by the monks to grind their grain without cost to creation.
This reminded me how I had once read that in those early centuries of the church, had the creation honoring Celtic mindset rather than the domineering Roman way prevailed at the Synod of Whitby, we might not now be facing a global environmental/power crisis!
While that may have been the thelema(will) of God it was clearly not the boulema(plan) of God. Thelema + time = boulema.
This however is “The Day that the Lord has made” as described in Psalm 118: The time has now come for responsible stewardship of the earth and the coming of God’s kingdom with the honoring of His Law.
The other message from Nendrum for our day is the engagement and application of God’s Law at a local level.
These Celtic monastic settlements, in contrast to their European counterparts, were not outside and apart from, but rather formed the very heart of, the local community. The physical layout demonstrated the priorities of a chapel at the centre to which the monks retired 5 times a day to meet with God in worship and pray before returning to demonstrate his life in education and labor.
Our Freedom! retreat lasted a mere 12 hours. But as 20 people walked in the light and in covenant relationship with one another, this little God gathered group, diverse in nationality, age, denominational background, education and gender, moved from mostly ’strangers’ to a beautifully bonded community…….of the King……Jesus.
As we all set out to drive home at the end of the day and return to everyday life, I noticed this sign
We had glimpsed in our day together the presence of the One who is named in my song The Bridge,** which concludes
………and He is our way beyond Eden,
………..For He’s King of this Heavenly realm”
The overturning of Roe vs. Wade is only the beginning of the demise of the evil Globalist Empire as the “little people” of God become a beacon of hope for all, as they let their lights shine in a demonstration of his design for man and woman, husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister.
The divinely instituted building block of family will in turn form the foundation of restored villages, and then nations until the kingdom of our servant King spreads to gloriously engulf the whole of ‘God’s globe’
Hallelujah!
**The Trek and The Flame CDs