Tuesday, June 06, 2017

The Battle is Lost (but yet, it's strategic)

I recently asked for help paying my bills. Based on the response, and since web traffic and funding have both dropped significantly in recent months, the message is received. The season of full time ministry has passed. It's been a good run, but honestly, I have felt defeated. Battle fatigued. Spent. Aaron, likewise. The fight to keep this little outpost manned is lost but the war is not over. The response to my plea had another message in it, so please read on. We're not selling sunshine and rainbows, but there is a bright ray of hope beaming through.

Most of my life I "paid my own way," because that has been the Lord's provision, and I always supported other ministries and people. In 2011, I left the work force with a meager savings, moving to Pittsburgh at the end of October to be near Aaron (who was and still is struggling with a disability) and minister full time. The cost of living is much lower here than in California, but at the end of my lease in 2012, my savings were nearly used up. Aaron's family was very kind to take me in. Shortly before the time came for me to move out, a patron showed up. Thanks Susan! She carried the burden until recently, and what a blessing it has been! While many others have been very supportive, no other patron has come forward. Aaron is partly subsidized by his Dad and has a meager income through disability, and he's once again, by far, my biggest patron. But we can't cover the cost of living, and so ends this season. The practical reality is that there's a minimum level of health and wealth that has to be maintained to do what I do here.

We have paid up the web hosting and domain name "theopenscroll.com" for a while, and the blog and YouTube channel costs nothing to leave in place, so the legacy work remains. We still intend to continue, Lord willing, according to His provision, until this season's appointed end.

I want to express my gratitude to those of you who are invested in this work of The Open Scroll, and in us workers, Aaron and myself. For those of you who pray, who give sacrificially or even just casually, regularly or even a single time - thank you. We could not have done what we have without your help. We know that, when the day finally arrives when time is reset into the past, the Lord's accounting of everything in this "extension" season will remain on record. His promises do not fail, ever. The Lord has certainly continued to encourage us through all the struggle with validation of what remarkable things He's been showing us, and we also continue to be encouraged with the evident fruit of this ministering in the testimonies of those of you who share your touching stories with us. We grieve with you in your sorrows and rejoice with you at the Lord's favor!

Please pray for us as we turn our attention to making up the difference between what the Lord is providing through the collective "you" and what my living expenses and financial obligations actually are. We've got a strategy and we've begun exploring some options. Any funds received will help us continue the fight. I have some longer term obligations with an apartment lease and Comcast contract to cover, and possibly moving expenses, if that's going to be required.

The response to my plea on May 31 resulted in a single donation, which arrived via a check in the mail. (Thanks Pam!) I had been led to set a clear target, as a sign so I would know how to proceed. Falling short of the goal, which had to do with a time limit and specific amount, it was apparent that the season of full time ministry had ended. Last night, I had finished watching another remarkably relevant film and, after a brief email exchange with Aaron, who had watched it the day before, I was reflecting on what I had seen and it occurred to me that the amount I received in that single donation was exactly 1/5 of the target amount. In this was a message that really spoke to me and put a spring in my step!

I haven't published much about the 1/5, because it's for the Great Pyramid video I keep mentioning. Here's what I did share, in a post from Tuesday, May 23 (Arrival (2016), The Universal Language and the Tower of Babel)

“A few days after I knew I would be dropping everything I had been doing to return my attention to the Great Pyramid's function and role, the Lord dropped an early morning waking up insight on me about David and Goliath. I was contemplating David's armament, a sling and the 5 stones he took from the brook. The stones and the brook have to do with time. David slew Goliath with one of the five stones. Why choose five when only one was needed? Some suggest that the others were intended for Goliath's 4 brothers, but here's what I came to understand. There were five because it made the one that killed Goliath one of five, 1/5, which is to say that the one resonated with the five. Over the next few days, and weeks, really, the Lord added insight through many means, as Aaron can affirm. The 5 and 12 are connected, the association of 5 with damping in acoustic resonance, insight into why the key military installation we call the Pentagon has that design, about the pentagram leveraged for dimensional portaling, the dodecahedron shape of the universe and of DNA architecture, and so on. With, Arrival's 1 of 12, it made perfect sense to me. Time weapon. Their shells or ships were like smooth stones from a brook. One resonates with the 12. Each is the 12th part. They are a single unit, or measure. They are resonant with time. David's stone from the brook was resonant with time as a damping element. Applied to Goliath's forehead, that stone that resonated with the 5 damped his oscillating pineal gland, his illumination and connection with the life of his god. David put out his light. ”

So what about this sign of the 1/5 donation? While the battle was lost in failing to keep this outpost manned, I understand now that this is a strategic maneuver. The Lord of Hosts has a plan and He's working it to perfection. It's the long game. You may note that the subject of time is central. David pulled the 5 stones from the brook. Water as time, and the stones, like in Joshua 3-4. The 5 is related to 12 in the context of time and resonance. The 1/5 sign had to do with money, and, “time is money,” which is to say, money represents time.

One of the peculiar elements in all this has to do with our names, Schlenker and Hermann. Hermann: Army man. I was told by a Schlenker I met in 1981 that he had done some researching of the family name, and this man, who was a military officer, told me that a schlenker was a soldier who fought on the front lines in feudal Teutonic armies of the middle ages. A schlenker's weapon was the sling. The David vs Goliath battle is rather personal to me, for reasons that should be obvious, and the 1/5 sign speaks to me loudly. This is certainly reminiscent of the dream I had about fighting the green snake, after I lost some fingers in an accident about 18 years ago.

One of the scriptures that has been a source of strength in this season of uncertainty in direction has been the following.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. ~ 1 Corinthians 15:58

And so we carry on in this direction that is new again.

Blessings in Y'shua!

Bob (and Aaron)

1 comment:

  1. Google, the god creator. Playing games "from far in the future."

    https://singularityhub.com/2017/06/06/no-more-playing-games-alphago-ai-to-tackle-some-real-world-challenges

    Excerpts:

    Humankind lost another important battle with artificial intelligence (AI) last month when AlphaGo beat the world’s leading Go player Kie Je by three games to zero. AlphaGo is an AI program developed by DeepMind, part of Google’s parent company Alphabet. Last year it beat another leading player, Lee Se-dol, by four games to one, but since then AlphaGo has substantially improved.

    Kie Je described AlphaGo’s skill as “like a god of Go.”

    AlphaGo will now retire from playing Go, leaving behind a legacy of games played against itself. They’ve been described by one Go expert as like “games from far in the future,” which humans will study for years to improve their own play.

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