The Halo. . .
Scientists believe that, beyond the planets, our solar system is surrounded by a huge cloud of of invisible objects. This is called the Oort cloud . It it were back lit somehow, seen from the nearest star this cloud would look like a halo. This halo is huge. It is estimated to extend 18,000,000,000,000 miles from the sun. That is a big number, 200,000 times the distance from the earth to the sun. At this distance our sun would be a mere pip of light, really indistinguishable from the other stars in the inky sky.
It is dark here. It is cold, estimated to be only 4 degrees above absolute zero at noon. The population of comet-like objects residing here is huge. These countless billions or trillions of objects, these denizens of the dark spend changeless ages doing what they have always done, from the day of their creation, until something happens. A passing star, the merest gravitational nudge of a distant hydrogen cloud softly tweaks, softly perturbs their utterly predictable, unyielding existence.
Not measurable at first, only ever noticeable in hindsight, this mere wisp of a zephyr, the wind from a butterflies wings would be a hurricane in comparison, sets in motion a progression of events that long years later results in a glorious triumphant race into the domain at the center of their rotation, a race to the sun. . . There this fragile crusty ball of rock and ice, warms and begins releasing plumes of gasses, which are quickly ionized in the solar wind. These gasses create a wondrous tail, a light for all to see. . . a marvel. . . a miracle. . . and it all started with just a tiny tiny nudge in the right direction.
I think about our reaching out. It is discouraging to me sometimes. There just seems to be so little movement for such a large effort on our part. And yet sometimes I see glimpses, of this cloud, this Oort cloud, if you will. This immeasurable and dark cloud that surrounds us, that surrounds Life Tabernacle. A lady at work, tells Sister Plunkett that Life Tabernacle is her church! This lady has never been inside the doors at 1135 Middlebury Street, but we've prayed with her. We've prayed with her son in jail. She gets our fliers every month. She claims Life Tabernacle as her church. Numbers and numbers of men and women in the jail know those of us who minister from LTC, they've first heard about the Lord from us, they've been healed, we've prayed for loved ones. . . please I'm not excluding all the other wonderful ministries, Hands for Christ, people touched in the malls, grade schools, city parks, other churches. Life Reflections, many people who never cross the threshold of LTC get the newsletter once a month and keep up with our testimonies and wonderful articles. The choirs singing in Rhapsody in Green, caroling, traveling WOW weekend. Home friendship and on and on, many wonderful ministries, wonderful outreach events.
All these things add to our gravitational influence, to the halo of invisible bodies around us. All these things add to the people not actually attending, but now, due to these outreaches, in distant rotation around the center, around the Apostolic Son. All that is now needed to send them on their glorious orbit to the center, is a small perterbation in their lives, a bump in the road, a marriage not working so well, a health crisis, the loss of a loved one, many of you have your own stories along this line. I do.
We are having an effect in building the kingdom of God. We are planting, planting, planting. This is the season of planting. What is the crop? We really don't know what we sow. We know it is seed, but what kind? Is it the early lettuce that we want to plant, up in a few days, gone in a few weeks. Or is it an orchard of magnificent apple trees that will continue to bear on their own for generations? Which do you want? The trees take a long time till harvest. There is the planting, the tending, the protecting while tender and young, the pruning and finally after long seasons, the harvest.
Let us pray for God to perterb those in orbit around us, to begin their journey, to send them to the center, to send them to the Son.
Dave
It is dark here. It is cold, estimated to be only 4 degrees above absolute zero at noon. The population of comet-like objects residing here is huge. These countless billions or trillions of objects, these denizens of the dark spend changeless ages doing what they have always done, from the day of their creation, until something happens. A passing star, the merest gravitational nudge of a distant hydrogen cloud softly tweaks, softly perturbs their utterly predictable, unyielding existence.
Not measurable at first, only ever noticeable in hindsight, this mere wisp of a zephyr, the wind from a butterflies wings would be a hurricane in comparison, sets in motion a progression of events that long years later results in a glorious triumphant race into the domain at the center of their rotation, a race to the sun. . . There this fragile crusty ball of rock and ice, warms and begins releasing plumes of gasses, which are quickly ionized in the solar wind. These gasses create a wondrous tail, a light for all to see. . . a marvel. . . a miracle. . . and it all started with just a tiny tiny nudge in the right direction.
I think about our reaching out. It is discouraging to me sometimes. There just seems to be so little movement for such a large effort on our part. And yet sometimes I see glimpses, of this cloud, this Oort cloud, if you will. This immeasurable and dark cloud that surrounds us, that surrounds Life Tabernacle. A lady at work, tells Sister Plunkett that Life Tabernacle is her church! This lady has never been inside the doors at 1135 Middlebury Street, but we've prayed with her. We've prayed with her son in jail. She gets our fliers every month. She claims Life Tabernacle as her church. Numbers and numbers of men and women in the jail know those of us who minister from LTC, they've first heard about the Lord from us, they've been healed, we've prayed for loved ones. . . please I'm not excluding all the other wonderful ministries, Hands for Christ, people touched in the malls, grade schools, city parks, other churches. Life Reflections, many people who never cross the threshold of LTC get the newsletter once a month and keep up with our testimonies and wonderful articles. The choirs singing in Rhapsody in Green, caroling, traveling WOW weekend. Home friendship and on and on, many wonderful ministries, wonderful outreach events.
All these things add to our gravitational influence, to the halo of invisible bodies around us. All these things add to the people not actually attending, but now, due to these outreaches, in distant rotation around the center, around the Apostolic Son. All that is now needed to send them on their glorious orbit to the center, is a small perterbation in their lives, a bump in the road, a marriage not working so well, a health crisis, the loss of a loved one, many of you have your own stories along this line. I do.
We are having an effect in building the kingdom of God. We are planting, planting, planting. This is the season of planting. What is the crop? We really don't know what we sow. We know it is seed, but what kind? Is it the early lettuce that we want to plant, up in a few days, gone in a few weeks. Or is it an orchard of magnificent apple trees that will continue to bear on their own for generations? Which do you want? The trees take a long time till harvest. There is the planting, the tending, the protecting while tender and young, the pruning and finally after long seasons, the harvest.
Let us pray for God to perterb those in orbit around us, to begin their journey, to send them to the center, to send them to the Son.
Dave
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