Thank you for this thread and your elaboration in the comments, Matt.
It is no surprise to me that the Spirit continues to hold the launch of CovenantClusters as my own thoughts go along with yours...and we at The Abbey are those who do tend to be bridge builders and not separatists.
I was laughing to myself at the whole "homogeneous" discussion. I take a cue from nature here: milk. We don't drink homogenized milk at our home because the process turns the good fat into bad fat by breaking them down so small that they are no longer able to separate and come to the top as cream. They are, however, so small that they can leak out into places where they do damage.
Hmmm....
However, when you leave the cream alone, it has that tendency to rise to the top. There, everyone sees that it is separating from the milk. And in order to get it back into the milk before you drink it, so that the protein and other nutrients can be properly utilized, we have to shake everything up. Yeah...we just have to get in the habit of regularly shaking things up!
Hmmm...is that cream representative of the Holy Spirit?
Sometimes cream is scooped off the top for special purposes...like butter and ice cream. But these are special treats that we can use to help bring the wonder of the cream out into other areas. The non-fat milk is not wasted--it gets used to make other things that nourish the body.
Hmmm...the Abbess feels a future blog post coming on, so I'll stop blog-clogging here!
So...what does anyone out there "lurking" think about that?
I'm sure I'll be back to process it some more...but we do not "pasturize" here any more than we "homogonize"--so it will take a little time. The benefits of not killing the milk and pulverizing the cream are worth it!
Shaking it up regularly....


