Christmas Teepee, as talked about in last episode, was only phase one of creating a place of fellowship for Christians of a different sort. It’s not meant to be of the usual norm. Messages of a different type are shared here. It’s not exactly a comfort zone, and the messages are not always comfortable either.

If you have not noticed, the world is rapidly changing, and so are the people seeking God. They have a hunger for a more true word. An arrow that flies straight and true. But how do we get an arrow to fly straight and true? Especially if we’re that arrow!

Phase two of L7D Teepee and Sabbath Farm… (Note: the Teepee is only referred to as Christmas Teepee during the Christmas outreach.)… but phase two involves setting up an archery range. We have begun that phase. By spring I expect to have it ready as temperatures warm.

My own story concerning the Bow is as this, I use to target shoot with a recurve bow. I found it enjoyable and fun, even relaxing. On a family day at the farm, everyone took turns seeing what they could hit with that bow. Many arrows were lost. But we had fun.

Sad thing is, my bow was in the barn when it burned down. Yes, that same fire that charcoaled one side of the Teepee and led to beauty rising out of ashes for a Christmas outreach. I also had a stand-up paddleboard and a twelve speed bike in there. All three gone. Ashes.

I told my wife, out of the three, I wanted to replace the Bow, and maybe get into it more this time. Rather than a recurve, learn to shoot a compound bow, set up an archery range and invite others to come and fellowship around God, nature, coffee, and the Bow. I see metaphorical type messages that could be taught from a Bow, of which one I hope to share now.

Why compound this time, rather than simple recurve or longbow? The trad bows as they call them, “traditional” bows. Why compound this time?

For reasons I cannot explain, I was just drawn to it this time. That which I was not drawn to before, I now was. The challenges involved with a more complicated and technical bow, which I was not drawn to before, I now was. The greater power and accuracy I was not drawn to before, I was now. And as with all things with me, if any spiritual significance relating to our current and future time, perhaps it’s time for a stronger bow!

So… Spiritual Lesson #1 from “The Way of the Bow” relates to L7D. If you’re a reader of this site, that should come as no surprise. “Living in the 7th Day”, the day of REST. Jesus said, come unto me and I will give you REST! Is that what you’re experience in the Lord has been? Or are you stressed out and run ragged? If so, you have not learned L7D.

Living in the 7th Day requires a certain lifestyle on our part. There are wisdoms involved. Spiritual knowledge of how God designed this reality to work. And if we put to practice the disciplines of that knowledge, then we enter a REST in Christ like the Israelites leaving the wilderness for the land flowing with milk and honey. It’s a whole different way of living. And for these particular lessons, I’m calling it “The Way of the Bow”, actually, the compound bow to be precise.

If you have ever shot both a trad bow and compound, you immediately learn the most obvious difference. On a trad, the more you pull back, the harder you strain. The more you pull back, the harder it is, and trying to hold that full power position for any length of time is hard. It only gets harder the longer you hold, even unto you either shoot or fail.

On a trad bow, the easy part is in the beginning of the pull, and hardest at the end, the full power position. But the compound is hardest at the beginning! And you enter a position of REST at the full power position! How the heck does it do that? Well, in the physical we’re talking a set of cams that an engineer could explain very easily. But I’m more interested in the spiritual picture.

You see…what the mature child of God knows…the grown child, now man or woman… God’s Word teaches us to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. And what does that involve? Spiritual disciplines of prayer, gratitude, faith, habits, knowledge, and etc. that are the regular part of a mature Christian/spiritual warrior that seeks FIRST the Kingdom of God. And Jesus said if we live in this way, we enter His supernatural REST!

So…just like the compound bow…it might seem hard at the beginning of your pull each day, as we pull on God…as we pull on our Kingdom…but if we are faithful to train ourself in this way, Jesus promises us we will drop into a powerful REST I call L7D.

AND…the greatest power of the bow is in that position! Full power at less strain! A physical picture of a spiritual principal of less force, and more faith! That mindset moves the action from my strength to God’s strength! I fill the pot with water, and then God turns my water to HIS wine! Less flapping on my part, and more soaring like the eagle! L7D. I’m the sailboat, not the motorboat or rowboat. I’m the Bride, the female, He does the heavy lifting! Like I do for my wife.

Yes…developing good disciplines and habits might seem hard at first, but the pay-off always comes if we endure to the mastery. Memorizing and praying scripture is a powerful skill we can develop if we really want to. It took me a long time and I had many set-backs, but I now love praying Psalms 91. I finally got it memorized years ago and have enjoyed praying those benefits for years now.

Folks… for what is coming, mediocre is just not going to be good enough. The mediocre is how we have gotten into this situation. Discernment is going to be critical! And I can tell you right now, in our current church condition, most Christians will not be able to discern and resist the shiny objects Satan is using for bait. They will bite! They are already biting! The addictions will become even stronger! And with the fishhook in our mouth, Satan will slowly wear us down and reel us in.

Oh we may fight for a while. We might even put up a good fight. Satan might have to let the reel out a couple of times, give us some more line so we think were okay, but then the pull begins again. Hard as we fight, we’re losing ground because we have not understood our Lord’s ways. We need to be free! We need to be free of that hook and only God’s truth can do that for us, as we apply and obey His Word and knowledge. God habits. Kingdom habits. Warrior habits.

You can begin pulling the bowstring today, in a different way than you have before, with new knowledge. Just like a marriage, everything God has to offer comes in His Name! Say yes to His offer of marriage! Fall in love and gain His Name! Call upon the Name of Jesus! Before it is too late and hell reels you in. There is a different way of living. It is not the American Jesus we have been taught, but the Bible Jesus we should have been taught! And for what is coming, hunger for the real thing is growing! And that’s what we need! That’s a good sign!

Jesus asked His disciples, “Will you leave me, too?” And they said, “Where else would we go, Lord? Only you have the words of life.” Only you have the real thing. The disciples knew this one thing, that if they failed to learn what He was teaching, there was no place else to go. He was and is our only hope.

The Way of the Bow. What does it teach us? How can an arrow fly straight and true? This we need to know. Next episode: “Adjusting our Sights”.