Front Page Article
"The Lenses of Reformation Concerning River Convergence and Ports"
by Dr. Patti Amsden
Rivers, highways, railroad tracks, sidewalks, and other pathways provide a system for people or objects to move from one location to another and they serve as conduits between one boundaried area into another. The earth is divided into territorial jurisdictions and each jurisdiction is under the management and governance of those granted authority in the territory. To cross a boundary, thereby leaving one jurisdiction and entering another, the people or objects must enter through a gate, a port, or a border by fulfilling the legal requirement set by the boundary guardians of the new area.
Reformation lens #1 – Ports, doors, boarders, or gates serve to limit access from one jurisdiction to another and serve as a check point for the new boundary’s guardian to determine who or what is allowed to enter the new area.
Parents guard the home acting as safekeepers for the children, the family assets, and the generational momentum. Elders guard the flock of God from devilish agendas (Acts 20:28; I Pet. 5:2) Civil leaders guard their lands from enemies both foreign and abroad (I Chron. 28:1). The priests in Israel were guardians over the clean and the unclean (Lev. 10:10). Guardians act as sentinels in a pathway, whether that pathway be a river, a highway, a railroad line, or a computer/cyberspace feed, that seeks to cross a boundary and carry product or people into a new jurisdiction.
Reformation lens #2 – Gatekeepers have the assignment to guard against unwarranted and unlawful trespass and, thus, destructive influences.
When ports of entry allow righteous trade to occur and where products from one area can be exchanged in a new area, a measure of the dominion mandate is occurring and culture is expanding. Ports of entry guarded by godly gatekeepers expand the fruitfulness of the earth and afford the population the opportunity to have a more abundant lifestyle.
Reformation lens #3 – The effects of the curse and of scarcity are rolled off as people cooperate with one another in the development of the earth’s resources and exchange the good fruit of their labors at ports, gates, or doorways guarded by faithful gatekeepers.
As reformers, we must comprehend the concept of jurisdictional authority and the responsibility of gatekeepers to guard their land from harmful, sinful or corrupt people, goods or practices. When more goods flow through the gates into a territory, the population of that land can partake of more abundance and enjoy a garden-style existence. For bountiful trade to occur, people must cooperate with one another. For the abundance to be a blessing upon the people, the guardians must keep out the profane, the destructive, and the abominable. Ports are gates of entry. Ports have the potential to bless or curse the population. As reformers, we must faithfully guard the boundaries over which God has placed us and we must pray for those who sit in positions as gatekeepers in the ports.
Reformation lens #1 – Ports, doors, boarders, or gates serve to limit access from one jurisdiction to another and serve as a check point for the new boundary’s guardian to determine who or what is allowed to enter the new area.
Parents guard the home acting as safekeepers for the children, the family assets, and the generational momentum. Elders guard the flock of God from devilish agendas (Acts 20:28; I Pet. 5:2) Civil leaders guard their lands from enemies both foreign and abroad (I Chron. 28:1). The priests in Israel were guardians over the clean and the unclean (Lev. 10:10). Guardians act as sentinels in a pathway, whether that pathway be a river, a highway, a railroad line, or a computer/cyberspace feed, that seeks to cross a boundary and carry product or people into a new jurisdiction.
Reformation lens #2 – Gatekeepers have the assignment to guard against unwarranted and unlawful trespass and, thus, destructive influences.
When ports of entry allow righteous trade to occur and where products from one area can be exchanged in a new area, a measure of the dominion mandate is occurring and culture is expanding. Ports of entry guarded by godly gatekeepers expand the fruitfulness of the earth and afford the population the opportunity to have a more abundant lifestyle.
Reformation lens #3 – The effects of the curse and of scarcity are rolled off as people cooperate with one another in the development of the earth’s resources and exchange the good fruit of their labors at ports, gates, or doorways guarded by faithful gatekeepers.
As reformers, we must comprehend the concept of jurisdictional authority and the responsibility of gatekeepers to guard their land from harmful, sinful or corrupt people, goods or practices. When more goods flow through the gates into a territory, the population of that land can partake of more abundance and enjoy a garden-style existence. For bountiful trade to occur, people must cooperate with one another. For the abundance to be a blessing upon the people, the guardians must keep out the profane, the destructive, and the abominable. Ports are gates of entry. Ports have the potential to bless or curse the population. As reformers, we must faithfully guard the boundaries over which God has placed us and we must pray for those who sit in positions as gatekeepers in the ports.
