ARC GUIDE LEVEL 1
Ideal for getting acquainted with our thought process at Ammi Ruhama Community
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:12-13 English Standard Version
The truth is like a giant puzzle with an infinite amount of pieces. The picture is a copy of an original masterpiece we have never seen even though we look at the box every now and again. We have managed to piece together a small fraction of the pieces to form what knowledge we have, but, as puzzles go, we’re a long way from framing the finished work. Here and there we have small incomplete sections of the truth about this or that topic but largely we fill in the uncomfortable blanks with our childlike drawings on pieces of what we have reasoned are there–the problem being that when the real piece pops up it can be difficult to let go of our place holders that are blocking the advancement of the puzzle. If it wasn’t difficult enough already, consider that this has been going on from time immemorial and restarts with every life. There is no crowdsource puzzle solver that can replace the original pieces in a person’s life, they must find the piece for themselves, even if led to its general vicinity. So, to summarize, we all have a copy of the puzzle with varying sections completed with original pieces but cannot ultimately show which pieces we know to be original and which pieces are place holders, if we show our puzzle to someone else in an effort for them to know what it looks like, we can only give them a copy of any of the original pieces we ourselves have, which means that their piece will be imperfect until they find the original at which point they will have to give up their placeholder piece; which they likely will not do as we are fond of those pieces passed down to us. It is in this world of infinite pieces that we have the pride to claim a finished puzzle that others must subscribe to in order to be in fellowship with us. Outside spiritual formation cannot replace the hard work of finding each puzzle piece for ourselves, or replace the deep surrender of giving up whole swaths of the puzzle we thought we had pieced together but were mere imitations of the original pieces passed down to us.
Ammi Ruhama Community 