For the last three days I have been making a jigsaw-puzzle - you can see a picture of the unfinished version of it at the top of this article. I haven't made a jigsaw-puzzle for over 20 years, maybe 30, I don't remember exactly, as I have never been particularly interested in them. My mother liked doing them when she was still able to see. Anyway, my wife decided that she would like to do one so I rummaged through the children's old toys and found one. My wife built the frame, putting most of the edges together, and I sort of 'took over' after that as she was too unwell. I guess it was the challenge of doing it that got me hooked and before long I was spending three or four hours a day, time I could probably have profitably and better used for other more important things. Yet it was relaxing too and besides, it was different, and broke the routine. Sometimes you need that to 'clear the air'. We are commanded to relax too.

Most people start by putting the edges of a jigsaw-puzzle together in order to create a frame to work in. We all of us need to frame our lives - know its approximate boundaries and what it is we need to build within those boundaries. Andy Stanley calls them 'guardrails'. The Bible calls them the Torah, the mitzvot or commandments. We need guardrails and laws so we don't wander off into purposelessness, sin and destruction. Now I suppose others may adopt a different strategy in puzzle-building by finding some object that stands out in the picture and, without bothering about the edges, build their puzzle around that. Interestingly enough - because I think this is built into the psychology of all of us by the Creator - every puzzle-maker I have ever known has always started with the edge or frame and then finds multiple objects in the picture that are easily identifiable from the pieces, and tries to connect them all together (see picture below). That too is inbuilt because it reflects the need to build relationships between objects, between people, and - most important of all - between us and Elohim (God). Each object in the puzzle relates to the other in some way, even if it is only to define its place in the whole. We, too - all of us - have places in life, in our 'neck of the woods', in our particular time and space. It is where the Creator designed us to be for our own blessing and for the blessing of those purposefully placed in our reach, and we in theirs.

What you end up with as you build your puzzle is then a bit like a spider's web only the threads are joined by rectangles because a puzzle is a two-dimensional map of sorts. The object I chose, after my wife had built the frame, was a big, bright red boat so that was where I continued building outwards toward the nearest edges of the frame. And since there weren't many pieces with bright red on them, it made it easy to locate them. Then I assembled the houses and other smaller, less colourful boats, ending with flag poles and TV antennas giving me a connection to the sky. That left only the sea and the sky to be done - the most boring parts. You can see what I mean in the picture. My wife did little bits here and there and then went and started a second puzzle! The evening before, my artist-daughter became fascinated by the water, dropped what she was doing, got hooked for a couple of hours, and finished off that part for me, but we ended up with some pieces which didn't fit anywhere. Then my technical son came along, spotted some errors, where pieces had been forced together that shouldn't have been (the same as I had done earlier with my wife's construction of the frame, which was shorter on one side than its opposite), and the water was completed.

What a perfect illustation of what the Body of Christ is supposed to be! Our respective talents and interests are supposed to complement one another, thus making the journey through life all the more pleasurable. Learning to work together cooperatively is an important part of becoming the Bride of Messiah because His allegorical Bride - us, His talmidim (disciples) - is polygamous, not an idea our egocentric Western culture, as it has become, likes very much. As we relate to one another, we're supposed to relate like Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah toward each other and together toward their husband, Jacob, only to do it rather better and without petty jealosies and selfishness. So though I did the bulk of my puzzle (as it became) - a picture of my life - in reality it became a team effort of four. All the people who have shaped my life for the good have therefore been indispensible. And for the helpers there was a certain satisfaction at having been able to help and do their part. We too have our rôles to perform in the shared vineyard of ministry and of life. Cooperation and sharing is a great remedy for pride and selfishness so long as we're boasting of one another and not in ourselves. As Paul wisely counselled:

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others" (Phil.2:3-4, NIV).

Imagine what Jacob's family might have been like if they had taken that counsel! So get involved in others' lives - non-compulsively, of course, and preferably by invitation, respecting agency - and let them get involved in yours, making sure they understand the boundaries or guard-rails you have set up, and be sure to understand theirs - don't necessarily assume they are identical to your own. Respect those differences that don't force you to sin. We must each define our own space - build a frame or edging around it - and then invite others in for mutual love and sharing. We are, after all, collectively surrounded by an even bigger frame - a series, actually, beginning with ourselves as individuals, then marriages, families, congregations, and so on. There are many frames within frames, making for quite a complex interaction that only the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) can harmonise into a grand symphony of beauty.

Doing something like making a jigsaw-puzzle which involves only two or three simple operations - looking for colours, the shapes of pieces, and specific images - relaxes the other parts of the brain. At first I found it a bit of a challenge, because my brain had not been employed in such a task for so many years, but gradually I settled into it and started enjoying it. Quitting at bedtime was slightly annoying, mind you, but that's all a part of the discipline of setting limitations and being wise. By the third day my brain had become accustomed to the process and started acting subconsciously, rather like a long-distance runner getting into his stride and no longer feeling the initial strain and pain. I found after a while could just stare at the hundreds of pieces lying about and certain pieces would just 'stand out' without any real conscious offort on my part at all and it would just fit into the right place in the puzzle seemingly effortlessly. But I had to be in a certain menatl state for that to happen. This is the transfer from left- ro right-brain centeredness, from the logical to the artistic, creative and inspirational. That kind of intuition doesn't happen if you are impatient, stressed, annoyed or otherwise not enjoying the task. Several functions must lock together before you can transfer to another type or level of consciousness and operate there, or indeed just between the two sides of your brain. It's a bit like revelation, actually, which is where I am leading, you'll not be surprised to learn. Are we not marvelously and wonderously designed and made?

I gave a sermon on the material I am in part relating to you now, yesterday (though this is actually quite a different sermon), a little over an hour after I saw the vision. I am relating this part of it a second time only because the initial broadcast online failed to properly record, which I didn't discover until after the sabbath service was over. The night before I had retired mediating on beauty as a function and facet of Elohim's (God's) character. Because the pain medication I take at night never lasts very long, and certainly never long enough to get a good night's sleep, I arose early to resume my meditation, took breakfast, and went back to bed to grab a little more sleep. After awakening the second time I saw a vivid vision.

I saw in vision - guess what - a jigsaw-puzzle, only it wasn't the one I had been building. I couldn't even see what the picture was of those parts which were completed, which were not the same areas of the puzzle that I had completed in real life. This was a totally different puzzle. I saw that the edge or frame was complete and found myself looking at the top few rows of the puzzle, occupying in area less than a fifth of the whole. Though I can't say with absolute certainly, I am pretty sure it was a beautiful blue cloudless sky, of the intensity and richness that we get here in our northern Scandinavian skies. The puzzle was complete for the first three or four rows. It was flawless, perfectly assembled. Like I said, the blue was rich and deep, and awesomely beautiful. I knew instinctively that it represented the heavens of Elohim (God) and I knew that I understood it. It represented the Great Eschatological Hope, and the refined spirit, the purest or the pure.

As the vision panned downwards I could see that the middle half of the puzzle was completely unformed. Hundreds of plain white, unpainted, jigsaw-puzzle pieces were scattered, unassembled, everywhere in this great space. This shocked me - it took me quite by surprise, and made me aware that a major part of my life was incomplete and was yet to be 'written' or 'painted'. Given I am in my 60's, this at first caused me no small amount of anxiety, because I know that being in the autumn years of my life, I don't have that much time left. The better part of the allotted time-span of my life is over.

Then the vision panned to the bottom quarter of the frame where I could see much work had been done. Three-quarters of this last section - the mid portion and the portion to the right - were completely assembled. And though I could not see the picture that was represented by these assembled pieces, I knew it was very good, and I felt a great sense of satisfaction. Then my eyes averted to the bottom left-hand corner where the 'action' was happening but I could not see it clearly because it was covered in this very fine pastel purple-coloured mist. It was very magical, very mysterious in appearance, and very beautiful. The thin cloud moved about like a mist rising from a still lake very early on a summer's morning as the first rays of the sun begin to strike the surface, evapourating it.

Then I saw that in my left hand was a recently completed chunk of the puzzle, consiting of many pieces. They were a reddish, Burgundy colour but again I could not see the picture on them because they too were partially concealed by a thin mist similar to the one on the bottom quarter of the whole picture. I was actually surprised that the pieces held together as well as they did, but they didn't fall apart, and adhered naturally and firmly. I also knew that they perfectly fitted the remaining quarter of the bottom row. As I layed this quarter-part into the mist in the left quarter, it slowly disappeared from view. The mist swirled around playfully and delightfully and the chunk of the picture joined seamlessly with the rest. Then I knew that the foundation was complete - the fruit of the spring and summer of my life - and I again felt a great sense of satisfaction and pleasure.

I have a pretty good idea what this last quarter of the bottom row respresents because I have been building it separately from the rest of the puzzle for many years. It's a theological, spiritual, emotional complex that has a lot to do with key doctrines of the faith like resurrection, justification, the nature of eternity, and the destiny of all humankind. The whole base is the living principle, shaped and informed by accurate theology, of the restored Kingdom of our Heavenly Father. I have put my life energy and blood - my whole soul - into it. It has cost me dearly in health and in human relationships because people don't like anything new and they especially hate change. But we're in such a time of enormous upheaval and change, as should by now be obvious, and all of this work has been in preparation for this day.

But what of the whole middle section? That has yet to be lived and experienced, it is what I have been preparing for all my life. It is the next and last part of my personal faith journey and mission, linking the heavenlies above with the foundations below. It's the rest of your life too. I have been stripped many times and had to rework what I thought was true and complete many times, only to find it incomplete or over-simplified (and sometimes made too complicated), and sometimes huge areas have had to be totally deconstructed and reconstrutced, and sometimes just redefined.

That foundation is very controversial but it's reality. It's truth. It contains things people would rather weren't there, that run totally counter to the modern culture in almost every way, and to religious traditions. There are lots of what I call 'hot potatoes'. It has driven many friends and brethren away, including intimate family members. It has meant betrayal and persecution, and it's been very painful. Sometimes the flesh - 'Mrs.Job' - has wanted me to simply "curse Elohim (God) and die" (Job 2:9) and become 'normal' like everyone else. But what good is 'normality' if it isn't truth? if it isn't real? How can one have any kind of integrity if one does not walk true to conviction and not be prepared to suffer for it? I never want to have to go through this again. But here I stand and I am satisfied now after having passed through many seasons of doubts because of the assaults by well-meaning but unaware brethren and sisters, those who should have been my friends.

The mist concealed so much of what Yahweh was doing unseen to me in that vision. That it was a pastel-like purple colour was in itself interesting, because purple denotes royalty, and Yahweh has to raise up a "royal [Melchizedek] priesthood" (1 Pet.2:9) and leaders with a shem tov or 'good name' for the last generation. 'Pastelisation' (if I can coin that word) is the softening of a primary colour and denotes both purity (because it is white) and - because it is soft - feminine. Roman Christianity drove the female out of the Besorah (Gospel) by turning the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) into a man, robbing Her of Her Motherhood by turning Her into a male being. It then created a false substitute by deifying a mortal woman, the Virgin Mary, and blasphemously making her into a mythical, sinless co-redemptrix (co-saviour) with Christ by co-opting pagan goddess images (like Morena). By this means demons slipped into the 'Church' and hideously distorted the character of Elohim (God), changing Him from being a Family and turning Him into some mystical all-male Romans Mars-like figure with a sadistic, Luciferian bent. We are rediscovering who the True Elohim (God) actually is.

Yahweh builds the puzzle of our life but we most work on the individual pieces. We have that responsibility. And we have genuine free choice to be reshaped in the image of Christ or something else that is unreal. What we choose to become is not forced on us by some draconian Calvinistic entity. I pray that we may all faithfully complete that puzzle, so that heaven and earth are linked together as echad (one). I can't pretend I understand it all, or even the tiniest fraction of it, because it is altogether too great and marvelous for this pea-brain and sweetcorn-heart to take in. However, all the key doctrines and teachings now neatly fit together. Now the middle part needs filling, just as it was 2,000 years ago on the first Messianic Shavu'ot (Weeks, 'Pentecost') when the Ruach (Spirit) descended with power.

This sounds all very complex but it's also beautifully simple. Indeed, I can reduce it all two two main things - the two things that matter the most to me, at any rate:

• 1. The phsyical resurrection from the dead of Yah'shua (Jesus) accomplished by the work of the Cross, the atonement; and
• 2. The outpouring of Yahweh'sheart - His love (ahavah, chesed, agapé) - on those who trust in Him with open hearts.

I believe in the resurrection and I believe in divine love - that undeserved loving kindness, that unmerited favour, that Elohim (God) has shed on us and which we, in our turn, are to shed on others abundantly and unreservedly without distinction of rank or social status. I believe all else follows from these two. The resurrection is the frame and love is the big area inbetween. The true doctrines - the emet (truth) - is the vessel holding this love in place and distributing it rightly in every direction. The resurrection is the hope of what is to come, given as a small deposit for us to use now, and is what I first and foremost exercise my emunah (faith) in. It is the core doctrine of Christianity:

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of Elohim (God)" (1 Cor.1:18, NIV).

Yahweh bless you and keep you as the Kingdom arises in its fullness! Amen.