Masters Template | Storybook Glen

The Master's Template
Repent, Be One
Come Out of Babylon
by
Sarah (Sally) Marshall

May 5, 2012
Refreshed April 16, 2021

You will notice below that this experience happened in September of 2011, but it was first published May of 2012. In that interim, my understanding of it increased and while writing, even more became evident. As I wrote, I felt and mentally saw a ripple effect not previously realized. The extra information is in part II and part III. It all began with the call for God’s people to become one. I originally meant this written testimony for the people of the church I was born into, but not exclusively. It is for all who will receive it. For me, it is a missing key. It is supported by scripture at the end.

Pressure of crisis creates opportunity for necessary change. At the time this personal experience occurred, I was coming out of crisis. My comfort zone had been threatened by circumstance. This situation was used by God to teach me a much-needed lesson. The church and indeed the whole world today are in great crisis resulting from decades of escalating circumstance. The comfort zone is threatened. Change is needed. Perhaps this testimony, my confession, can prepare and ease the way.

The Master's Template
Part I
Repent

"Awake to union and be one, or saith the Lord, Ye are not mine!" I've sung that line of the hymn many times. So have you. But are we one? I've always been frustrated with my answer to that question. To me, union required a sort of collective willpower that kept eluding us. What could I personally do to facilitate it? I couldn't see my role, and I really couldn't see it happening. Now I can. I feel the Lord has shown me the way. This speaks of responsibility to God. I share it here - a personal confession. The message is powerful. It is all about repentance. After reading it, you are accountable like I am. If you are sincere, you want to read it. If not, do us both a favor and trash it now.

Something occurred in September of 2011 that for me sheds light on "awaking to union." Words came out of my mouth with no precognition. Back then, except for the fact that I didn't intend to say them, the words were no big deal. But now, because of them, I will never be the same. The scripture "Now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face" has new meaning. So do "line upon line, precept upon precept," and "no further away nor any closer than the spiritual condition of My people justifies," and "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." So many scriptures clarified and connected to a new understanding of "union." Those words my mouth spoke become more important every day.

I said them in reconciliation when an old church friend was visiting. Years earlier, her fresh out of college daughter lived with my family a couple years but then became offended and moved out. So - face to face with my friend, I tried to tell "the rest of the story." Without getting all embroiled in past feelings, I tried to explain how the offense had occurred when really, none was intended. I was ineffectually fumbling around with this when I guess the Lord just took over, and that's when the words happened. As I said, they were no big deal to me at the time, but later in the conversation, further related words were said, again with no precognition, and those second words were a huge deal to me, because they addressed the issue of becoming one. They were a total revelation, completely new and yet so obvious and smacking of simple truth, that I don't know why I didn't see it before.

Confusing? Two sets of words focused on one thing - our Master and His mold - key to union. Total accuracy requires names and circumstance, and that’s unnecessary, but the relevant gist of the words is below. If these words are not just vain imagination, the message implies we are missing simple truth, core to everything. Because of its effect, we here are now moving forward in real progress, but I do know that this message is not just meant for me and mine. Perhaps it will help others to move forward too.

The Unintended Words

So - there I was, as I said above, trying to reconcile with my friend, explaining what happened long ago, and I found myself saying words (in bold below) that convey the connected message. If the first words below seem another way of saying “walking by the Spirit,” then you are like me – “no big deal.” The second set of words and their ripple effect are the game changer.

First Spoken Words

"It’s like God has built into each one of us a spiritual structure like a template. (Template - I'd never said the word before. I wasn't even sure of its definition. In essence, it means a shape used as a pattern for making another similar desired shape.) It’s how God has formed us spiritually as unique individuals. It’s what we're meant to be - who we really are. It’s deep inside us, and it communicates by affecting how we feel. It calls us to get real. We all know it’s there; "the real me" hidden deep. God wants us to become it. At first, we only see part of it. We are to change to fit what we see. Then we see more, so we can change further. On and on forever; the template path - the path of our personal repentance.

If we don’t walk that path; if we get off course or stall around, the template will urge us back, irritating us with its call. It will make us feel dissatisfied, unsettled, judged or guilty. We can end up looking for what or who to blame when really, it's our own divine template calling us to account. Blaming won't help. We only find satisfaction when we start following the template path, becoming the vision of who we really are, what God created us to be."

Refusing to become the template vision is huge. It's denying our Lord, hardening our heart - choosing to separate our physical reality from our spiritual destiny. It builds a wall of willfulness that instantly divides us from God. Worse - by insisting on our own way, we become our own God. That’s our choice, but it has consequences. Mercy can't rob justice. Grace ends.

Second Spoken Words

When I quit saying those first words about template, my friend and I talked of other things for a while. As she was about to leave, she mentioned the recent 40 day fast and the call to union, saying, "We just have to put aside our differences and become one." I had thought that too. I was about to agree with her. After all, it is assumed, right? Well, I guess not. Again, words came out of my mouth, but this time preceded by insight. A gigantic feeling of "to the contrary" came over me, as if what she had just said was an obvious, absurd impossibility, and I found myself saying the following words, "That's impossible. People can’t unite as a group, if they are divided as individuals within themselves. Not becoming one with God's plan, building that wall between us and God by overlooking or refusing His intent is major. It's the ultimate in division. There's nothing worse."

Being unwilling to repent as individuals annihilates the possibility of real group union. A bunch of people like that together would just be a "let's pretend" costume party. For anyone who is willing, regardless of age or limitations, pursuing the template vision tears down that dividing wall. The instant we make the effort to find and walk His template path, we immediately become part of the united group known as God's people, even if we don't know who or where they are. We have to avoid the mistake of the “collective cop-out.” It's assuming that just by searching for and being part of the right collection of people, we, along with them, are grandfathered into glory. Nothing is further from the truth. It's avoiding task. The human part of our salvation is all up to us alone. Yes, we are saved by grace. No matter how much we take the initiative to repent, we still exist under a huge legacy of sin. Starting at the beginning of time and stretching to the present, we have been immersed in deception, traditions and culture that are all sinful. To avoid it all and be clear of its effects is impossible. But we must realize that God wants our repentance and will lead us to and through it if we are only willing to follow and obey.

My Confession
Where God Taught Me the
Mechanics of Group Union

Now - my confession. This shows how God worked with me through template feelings before He gave me those words, and perhaps it explains why those first words about template were no big deal to me. I can’t claim to have spoken those words right out of the blue. All of this is grounded in the way the Lord previously changed me to have an effect on others. I just didn’t realize how it went beyond me and my own situation.

I have pursued the guidance of Holy Spirit privately for decades, but corporately I failed. I didn't know how to achieve unity with others - even my own family. Those two sets of words at the beginning of this writing reflect how God used my own template to influence others toward unity. Where I fell short, He filled in. Those words will make me toe the line in the future, but they also show me what He did in the past, so I can pass it on to others who need it too.

First, picture a 62 yr. old widow, kids grown and gone, alone in a 7,000 sq. ft. house on 80 remote acres of forests, fields and gardens. Deer, turkey, coon, eagles, razorbacks, bear, cougar, coyotes, copperheads, cottonmouths, rattlers - we have it all. It was under control with the original family of 7, but with them gone I needed more people, or I needed to sell. My oldest son and his wife moved in with their children on a trial basis. Three years later, they sold their own home. This is not about now but about those 3 years. In telling this, not only am I being transparent but so is my daughter-in-law. Her words are few, but I could never say them. This is our experience together.

In her words, "I'm different now, but 3 years ago I was lazy, fat, self-centered, disrespectful to my husband, and living in total denial. But I thought I knew it all. I found my mother-in-law’s slim appearance, diet, and activity level annoying. I assumed she didn't think much of me. I whined and complained about her to my husband, mother, and friends. I hated the thought of living with her."

She was right in her assumption. Her public display did not match her private behavior. I was deeply worried. But - I didn't say anything. God wouldn't let me. I'm not, as a rule, verbally offensive, but I did have cause. As she said, there were many issues, but laziness was probably the core, and its effect was the hardest for me. I needed more bodies helping, but at first, all I got was more mess. Feelings of resentment grew. I too talked about it with a long-time friend who said, "Lay down the law." But when I talked about it with God, the feeling I got from Him said otherwise - basically to shut up and wait. So, I did, unhappily. I wanted to get instant fix but instead had to give endless patience. I only hoped my son saw something hidden in his wife that I was missing.

God made me aware of more. I knew I should not play victim. Where many could have just put up with the mess, I am a neat-freak. That's my problem, so I took responsibility for it. I stayed in my own quarters and straightened the common areas up to bearable, taking care of my own need without trying to control my daughter-in-law. I confess, I did this in rancor, but the feeling from the Spirit squashed my angry desire to burst. Instead, I did the mote and beam bit. I just quietly pursued my own repentance - openly, not secretly. That did not satisfy my itch to "lay down the law," but it felt right. I waited a lot more - over two years. During that time my daughter-in-law could not help but observe me and witness my repentance. She probably didn't like it, but she saw it. Circumstance brought other people for her to watch, and when she visited her home grounds where her habits began, she observed there too. I didn't know it at the time, but as I stayed quiet, my daughter-in-law was processing.

Eventually it was time to speak. It was easy to know when. In education it's called the teachable moment, and it's signaled by question. My daughter-in-law began asking questions. She asked one question repeatedly in different ways - something like, "So - are you bothered with me?" Wow! I had to answer. What to say? Hurt? Lie? Stall? Condescend? Like the Incredible Hulk, the Spirit hovered over me in tremendous weight of warning, staunching any of that. Other options flashed through my mind, and in retrospect, knowing what I do now, I will tell you there are only two types of answers - speak about her template or speak about my own. With more time, more questions were asked. I learned to always answer one of those two ways. That always led to further questions and lots of discussion, letting us find a common space between us. Speaking this way is important, so some real, shortened examples are below.

Two examples of speaking about her template

"So, are you bothered with me?"

"Well, I'm frustrated with the situation, but really what I think is not important. What is important is the way you feel about yourself. Are you bothered with you?"

or

"So, are you bothered with me?"

"Hey, all I want is for you to become who you really are inside. Then we'll see if I'm bothered."

*****

Two examples of speaking about my template

"So, are you bothered with me?"

"You? I'm bothered with me. I'm such a neat-freak; it's like my brain shuts down in disorder. I have to fix things or escape. I don't know how to change it, or even if it is something I should change."

or

"So, are you bothered with me?"

"Yes, sometimes I am, but I remember when I was your age. I never learned to keep house as a kid. It took me ages to figure it out. I was so embarrassed at college. I didn't even know how to sort laundry."

*****

From mutual loathing to mutual loving; disrespecting to cherishing. No arguing. No manipulating. No winner. No loser. My daughter-in-law says I made her feel safe, but really, I didn't. God did. He first kept me quiet and later told me how to speak. She is product of a hurtful past. It was holding her back. As soon as she felt safe from the outside, she was able to look inside. She saw her own vision of herself, her template, a beautiful person. And now she is becoming it. I can hardly believe how fast she has changed and grown. She is so far ahead of where I was at her age - and not only at keeping house. Her gifts and skills are different from mine but just as valuable.

Example is Everything

Everyone has a beautiful template. Everyone has a hurtful past holding them back. Everyone needs the same safety. If we all will just do our own repenting and leave others alone, they will observe our critically important example, take time to process, question, and examine themselves and then be free to begin their own changes. Once they begin, they will never quit. Repentance becomes exciting sustenance, a wondrous way of life.

I used to be a very critical person. I would see something out of sync with my perception of goodness, and privately pass judgment. At times, we have to at least notice this, because behavior and words are fruit, but I was doing it way too much. It’s impossible to see through the outer mask and observe a person’s inner heart. We can’t see self-doubt, shame, guilt, or hopes, longings, and passions. But they are template feelings. They are hidden to observers, but they are what first encourage change in an individual. Today, although I still notice inconsistent behavior, I seek for understanding, because I know that everyone carries a beautiful template, and if I do anything at all, I must seek to enable that person to find it, and I must do it not with lecture or correction, but through example testimony.

Like a pebble tossed into water, the effect of other people just seeing our repentant example, ripples out into ever widening circles of influence, and begins a chain reaction, that makes others feel safe and frees them to self-inspect and begin following their own repentant paths. Union can't come from outside argument. It has to come from the spread of inside motivation. It may feel like shooting in the dark, but really, it's just faith - knowing if we all repent individually, God will accept and bless us corporately. Example is everything.

The Master’s Template
Part II
First - Achieve Inner Union

I attended Graceland College four years. I lived two years in one dorm (Patroness) and two in another dorm (Tess Morgan). The dorms had live-in house mothers who did room inspection every week. The house mother of the second dorm became somewhat famous for a secret she practiced. Her dorm had the reputation of being the best kept. You might think she was a real task master, but you would be mistaken. Instead, she only insisted each girl, every day, make her bed and keep it attractive. She knew people couldn’t look at one thing they did well, like keeping a bed pretty, without it having a carryover effect into the rest of what they did. It worked like a charm. Carryover was her secret to a well-kept dorm, and it is also a secret to everything else we do, including achieving union.

Finding Your Repentant Template Vision
Spectacular vs. Mundane

When you look at yourself, do you like what you see? What is your template call? Only you can find it, and that might seem tricky at first. Never assume it has to be some spectacular demand; more likely a call to lose weight than a call to Nigeria.

Right! The template path concerns everything we do, even and especially the mundane. Much of mundane behavior requires change. When very young, children are subject to outside influence. They adopt much of what they see and hear. It’s called imprinting. The habits of parents, peers, and other people are never all in sync with God, yet they mold the youth. They can become a worldly trap, putting us in a bondage from which we must break free. God waits for signs of that first.

“They already know!” One evening years ago I unashamedly listened to one side of a phone conversation where my son tried to convince someone of the need to repent. Spiritually, I became engulfed with the realization that his efforts were futile, because “they already know!”

The beginning repentant walk is a no-brainer. The imprinted, ingrained, casual, callous, mundane. We already know it. Our daily routine is made of the mundane. Our true fruits are found in mundane behavior when we aren't trying to impress other people. Although I have many pursuits, my past template challenges have included mundane things like my talking, eating, exercising, reading, spending, and dressing. Sometimes, we don't want to change the mundane. We might think it unimportant, but really, it's square one. Carryover. Do it to get to square two. Template call starts with the small and obvious and then moves to greater, less obvious and more spectacular. “Line upon line, precept upon precept.” Tackling the mundane is the crucial beginning.

When we accept the challenge of changing what we already know, we let go of bad habits. That letting go is a carryover skill also. We must first become clean before the Lord by letting go of wrongful ways in ordinary thinking and acting. Carryover. Letting go in private behavior where we are in complete control, leads to letting go in group situations where we aren't in total control. If we won't let go of our ordinary, private, often hidden vice to follow the Lord, we aren't ready to try group union for Him.

Yes, becoming our template vision may mean first controlling our weight, our anger, our language, our spending or our free time activities. Maybe we should get priorities straight, get healthy, get more sleep, quit drinking, respect our husband, cherish our wife, spend time with family, quit being lazy. Taking care of the mundane is a huge spiritual step. We can’t move to the extraordinary until we can handle the ordinary. Nigeria might be next, but we're no good there if ordinary life at home is out of order. No matter where we are, being an example of any kind of uncontrolled behavior gives others permission to be the same. That’s bad example testimony - no good in Nigeria. On the other hand, lots of in-control template people at home would make a culture that's contagious. People would want to see it. The influence would be tremendous - unstoppable - awesome power for the world to witness.

The Barrier to Template Repentance - Idolatry

So, what I learned from those unintended words is that union begins with each one of us alone. We aren't God's unless He claims us. It’s not the other way around. Unity of the group first requires the people in that group to be united with God’s intent for them personally. Easy to say, but is it easy to do? No. The whole thing about being God’s people is the challenge of sacrificial repentance, right? Many will be unwilling, wanting to avoid the one requirement for even finding time to think about their template vision.

In pursuing template, the thing that prevents us from getting with God and His vision for us is replacing Him with other gods. Idol worship. Just like in Moses' time, God gets pretty upset with anyone dancing around idols.

Not many years ago, after hearing a preached call to repentance, I remember wondering about my own need to repent. I thought I was pretty safe in that department. I had cleaned up my act in so many ways. One morning I was shocked to realize I no longer remembered how one New Testament story actually progressed. I no longer pursued that pastime but instead was reading "good" fiction. I looked forward to it as free time preference. It had replaced scripture reading and nonfiction too. I had to examine this and decide for or against my choice. I realized my emphasis on something that lacked truth was robbing my connection with real truth and the giver of all truth - my Lord God. Consequently, the fiction reading stopped. It was a template move. An idol had to be banished.

It doesn't have to be a golden calf at the bottom of a mountain. Idols are everywhere, and almost anything can be an idol. Correct that - anything or anybody. Gurus, mentors, friends, television, radio, computers, web society, books - even prophets, church and scripture can all be idols if they prevent us from privately seeking God Himself. Habits, traditions, sports, shopping, work, play - even our food. I once read a book entitled Worship Your Food. It encourages a return to the spiritual bond present in our food and tells how people can become so attached to unhealthy food that they forget the God given purpose of it as the essence of healthy life. Anything - you name it - it can be an idol.

Way back in the 70's my husband trashed the TV to save our marriage. At first, I was shocked, but it didn't only save our marriage, it saved my life. I had no idea the hold it had on me, and free of it, I became a different person. I see TV and now other screens as brain washing idols for everyone. Some think they're immune, but statistics show otherwise. The things are purposely meant to subliminally control the spending behavior of the viewers by controlling thought and paradigm. If you want to begin dropping idols, look for anything that keeps you from getting alone and processing template. Whatever it is, curb it or cull it, so that you can have time to do the important work of self-examining, repenting, and acquainting yourself with the true feelings that come from God.

Game of War

One challenge in my life I wish I had realized sooner is how we idolize competition. As a new widow with five young children, I tried to keep going in the path my husband had begun for us. Out in the country we pursued activities like hiking, gardening and horse riding, and still I trekked fifty miles back and forth to town for other activities, all to match up pursuits for five growing children. Eventually, it all became competitive, even and especially the horses. My children succeeded at all of it – advancing quickly, winning dramatically and reaping applause. But in the midst of that success, disillusion hit. We learned there was a dark side to it all. There is no such thing as "good clean competition." By its very nature someone has to win, and someone has to lose. If there has to be a winner and a loser, which do you want to be? We found that people will go to great lengths to win, even country-folk at lower levels of competition. We worked our tails off to attain competence, but many others did not. Drugs, illegal agreements, money under the table; we were appalled, and in our later years, as a family, we refused to compete but instead performed. (think Harlem Globetrotters) By then I had read a book that opened my eyes. The name of the book is No Contest: The Case Against Competition by Alfie Kohn. I encourage everyone to read it. It will make you ponder our world and what Zion may be.

Competition is defined as one entity pitted against another. It’s where we find people who love to do something just for the feeling of accomplishment and then pit them against each other -- kind of like fighting cocks. Coaches fix, observers hype up, and some go wild in support of their winning pick. Everything in our society is done this way, even our education. The fact is, people do much better when not pitted against each other. There are other societies in this world where it is quite different. The book I mentioned tells about those societies. I only wish I had read it sooner.

A Different Kind of Fight for Christian Soldiers

Every one of us has been immersed in that game of war all our lives, and we have learned its ways. We even practice it in church. It’s comfort zone - part of accepted culture. It's not pretty and it's hard on us. The strain of fixing and fighting each other is ugly and can leave us feeling dirty. But private template repentance is not exactly easy either.

I remember a conference I once attended. The memory helps me understand the difficult Christian challenge in a group setting. When one woman, during lunch break, left her stocky circle of friends, loudly declaring she had to refresh her Snickers supply, two other friends offered to share the stores they had with them. It was all done merrily, and in passing by them, I laughed too, although I did take note of it, having quit sugar decades earlier. Cancer cannot exist without sugar, and now I realize the potential for peer pressure and even peer exclusion if that mundane but harmful habit was dropped by one of them as a repentant act of stewarding the body/temple.

Privately banishing idols and pursuing template repentance causes a different type of fight, and it's a tough one, but it's clean; not more than we can bear but taking our all and requiring divine help. Integrity is the thing; not only to say but to do. This results in the following twofold struggle that will change each of us and also the group:

One struggle is in the dynamics of public reaction to our private repentance, especially if we are repenting of something that others also practice where they will notice our changed agenda (like gossip, backbiting, gluttony, abuse of language, body, or spending). The pebble dropped will make ripples of wide effect. Some will think we're making a statement about them and feel threatened. That’s just their own template urging them to repent in like manner, but they might think we’re judging. Peer pressure will happen. With almost no speaking, we have to quietly overlook the pressure, move on with our repentance and let others do their own processing. Sometimes this is difficult, especially when loved ones or the group pressure us to do what we're trying to leave behind. We can feel like a pariah. We have this in common with abstaining alcoholics among old drinking buddies. Just this one more time won't hurt, will it? Yes, it will!
That brings us to the other struggle. It comes from within. We have become proactive and intend to repent, but we are still carnal creatures of habit. We will lust after our old ways. So, at first, just like any addict, our focus turns to anything that helps us break our bad habits. We will be hungry for only that in our private pursuit, and will avoid other co-addicts, even if they're our friends. If it doesn't further our repentance, it's wasting our time. That, in turn, changes group gatherings. Much of didactic learning would slow or end, like classes, where one does the work and the rest sit back and swallow it. People would only want to pursue their own template, not someone else's. Support groups of those following the same path would replace classes. Worship would change, becoming congregational - everyone questioning, searching, listening and sharing. For God - the supreme teachable moment.

The Master’s Template
Part III
Follow Template Out of Babylon

We are called to come out of Babylon. What does that mean? What is Babylon today? How do we come out of it? My opinion is just another among many and probably oversimplified, but nearly five decades ago, when I gave up TV and started to recover from its influence, I began to see two different ways of perceiving the world.

The first most common way is to "work within the system," and “go with the flow.” Do it like it's always been done, and act as if its precepts are true. Mass media pushes this and controls all who zero in. The masses in turn casually or even eagerly submit to being victimized and sacrificed. The system sucks off them. I call this Babylon. It's everywhere.
The second way of perceiving is to see all that and ask questions. Why do we do it like that? Is that the best way? Is there not a better way? What is God's way? To ask these questions can mark us as strange and even get us in trouble, but doing it with repentant, template guidance will gradually take us out of Babylon.

I live in a place where people who want to be different go to avoid interference. I've met all kinds. Some follow template. I can't help but mention the Book of Mormon message to those I’ve befriended, but I know they, like me, would be repulsed upon awareness of the bickering behind the smiles. We have something great to share with others, but we ruin it. People ripe for harvest witness war instead of repentance. So do our own children.

When we see where the war takes us, we realize we’re in a fix and look for supreme intervention; basically, begging God to dig us out of the hole we've gotten ourselves into. We do it in everything - our health, our relationships, our worship, our work, even our play. The way of the world has become our way. Spiritual depth has given way to the superficial. “Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion!

Lacking Deep Listening

In the mid 80's, after my husband died, with the absence of solace from a spiritual home, I visited and studied the Fellowship for Intentional Community - over 1000 established physical communities of people so drawn to the idea of peace that they are experimenting to find it. Of course, some of them find success and others fail. Big lessons are learned from both the success and the failure. The main discovery has been that differences should not divide us. Instead, they are to be celebrated and embraced; that through hearing and understanding each other's point of view, transcendence occurs. There is a synergy in this behavior that leads to "serendipity" (accidental discovery). In other words - each person's template can hold a piece of the puzzle, possibly an obscure key tidbit, and by closely listening to each other - we might hear God.

People talk a lot. How many truly listen? This is a lesson I am still learning. I grew up in New England where open friendliness is suspect. Then somehow, with slogans like “Be Valiant in Testimony” and songs like “Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war” I got the wrong idea and I think others did too.

Christianity is not pushing forward our “banner” of religious opinions, traditions, and culture before spending the time to get to know the life experience and situation of other people first. Who knows? They might already be better Christians than we are. Past persecution may contribute to this missionary phenomenon. In foreign countries the language barrier can contribute too. Interpreted preaching but no listening, Do the natives want us for our message or for our money and stuff? Read The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, if you can, for better understanding. In some ways, it reminds me of my own year in Mexico. Why don’t we Christians care enough to get to know and value other people first? Is it that we don’t feel safe enough to try?

What if There Were a Safe Place?

As I look back on my life, I see how the Lord has been my back seat driver through template influence.

I grew up in a family of medical people. I started college as a pre-med student. I was going to be a doctor. But as time passed, I knew deep inside something was wrong with that goal. I’m still drawn to understand human health, but now I tackle pulling truth from the vast array of options in alternative or integrative medicine.

Years ago, I was shocked to find that ever since the 20's, real cures have existed for the very worse diseases at far less expense. But this knowledge is suppressed and funds withheld, preventing faster progress in research. Why? Are the powerful protecting us from a lie or their wallets from the truth? I see Babylon in mainstream medicine. Patients and their doctors accept it as the only way to go, and they are pushed there by insurance companies. They surely don't realize they are feeding the greed of a corrupt system that sucks off misfortune and seeks to perpetuate it to keep the love of money satisfied.

What if there were a safe place where medical research was God inspired through template pursuit - where the sick could go and learn how to tap into the self-healing ability programmed into their bodies by their Creator?

No, I never went into the field of medicine. Instead, I graduated with a degree in education. But after four years of teaching, I had enough, and decided to home school my own. Public, private, and even most home education also satisfy Babylon. So many errors taught, not just in subject matter, but in ethics, mores, perceptions, and assumptions.

I remember a family church camp where adults were astounded at my children helping and conversing with them. Those adults could not understand that public schools operate upon and therefore instill the assumption that children are best with their own age and intellect and therefore not capable of adult conversation and activity. This is one thing education should not be. Learning should be a never-ending joyful pursuit, not a stressful competition we're glad to escape. It should target template longing, not waste precious time pushing useless, mandatory requisites.

What if there were a safe place where educators understood template pursuit, and all were successful learners, because they study only what they hunger to know?

Landscaping, gardening, herbology, and alternative health probably should have been my life pursuit. Even when very young, I practiced the art and skill of knowing living plants - how to use them and place them to please the eye and bring health to our bodies. But nobody noticed that, not even me. After all, it was child’s play, right? In later years that love resurfaced and did become a pursuit. As time passed, I realized how the standard methods of farming, gardening and harvesting also were corrupted by the greed of Babylon. Again, I delved into alternative methods that seemed better to me for so many different reasons.

What if there were a safe place where people followed template guidance to farm responsibly, stewarding the land and harvesting untainted crops for food and medicine? If it had happened a hundred years ago and the example caught on, how would the world be different today?

Seeking God's guidance, we here try to leave Babylon behind and find a better way. The desire to do that is inside us, our template, God’s mold. Walking that path is exciting and satisfying, but we do risk the world’s scorn and all that entails. Babylon, the system that sucks off people, exists only because they allow themselves to be victimized. When they quit, it will fall, and when it falls, its remaining willing victims will also perish. Trends show that vast numbers seem to be waking up. Where will they turn? Is it too late now?

Back to the Beginning

It’s never too late to begin. And by beginning to follow that path of personal repentance, we make the most important move. We break down that dividing wall between our self and God. And that’s how we facilitate union – the only way. By focusing on our own challenges, at first mundane and then extraordinary, we won’t even have time to notice the other guy’s error. But it will change others through example testimony, giving others the notion, the permission and support to rebuild their own lives.

The words of the hymn at the beginning of this writing need the next two lines. “Yea, like the Father and the Son, let all the saints in union join.” The Father and the Son – the physical a copy of the spiritual. The Son became the template. He is our example. We first have to repent and embrace God’s purpose in us like Christ did. Then union happens – with God. If we take care of that, we’ll automatically let go of our finger pointing differences, and instead get to know and listen carefully to each other. Then group union will take care of itself.

One Caveat - Communication

Although most of God’s creation communicates in some way, human beings use words. And skill in speaking our words is paramount. When my daughter-in-law first asked questions, God made it clear my words could make or break the situation. If we refuse to learn how to use our words correctly in working at being united; then as a body, we will fail and so far, we have.

Again, always speak about template – Yours or that of the other person or people. This can include factual information, personal history, happenings, questions, confessions, experiential wisdom, fears, feelings of frustration, and observation of behavior or gifts – all of this pertaining to your template path or that of the other person or people. A good book to help with this is Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg.

But what if you are not dealing with a sincere individual or group? Remember, at the beginning of this, it is made clear that one who is not sincere should not even read this. By reading it, accountability happens. Willingness to change to fit the guidance of the Master is called repentance and the template path of repentance never ends. Some people are lazy and don’t want to do the emotional and physical work of repentance or they just value their own agenda more than they value God’s agenda. Only God can change that, usually through chastisement, and sometimes not even then.

Following the Master’s template is the necessary beginning of union with Him. And for group union, after our example testimony, skill with our communication must be learned.

Postscript in August of 2021
The Effect of Template on Me

I have had more opportunity than anyone else to process this message in the words of “The Master’s Template.” Every time I read it; I am challenged anew. I can tell you now, this is a seed, that if planted, will grow and bring forth so much good fruit.

It is a paradox. The fastest way to get to where we want to go seems the slowest. To achieve the group changes needed, we have to shut up and just make the changes we need in ourselves. Furthermore, when we do this, something changes in the spiritual world. The focus is no longer the fight of fixing each other but the peace of friends, each in personal repentance, sharing and learning together. God honors this. We become His people. It really works.

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Supportive Scripture

Jeremiah 32:31-34 (& Hebrews 8:8-13) “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord; 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Alma 27: 43 “Now I would that ye shall remember that God hath said that the inward vessel shall be cleansed first, Then shall the outward vessel be cleansed also.

Doctrine and Covenants 140:5c The work of preparation and the perfection of my Saints go forward slowly, and Zionic conditions are no further away nor any closer that the spiritual condition of my people justifies.

Words of the Beginning Hymn “Awake! Ye Saints of God Awake!”

Awake! Ye Saints of God awake! Call on the Lord in mighty prayer,
That He will Zion’s bondage break, and bring to naught, the fowler’s snare.

He will regard his people’s cry. The widow’s tear, the orphan’s moan.
The blood of those that slaughtered lie, Pleads not in vain before His throne.

Then let your souls be stayed on God; A glorious scene is drawing nigh,
Though tempests gather like a Flood, the storm though fierce, will soon pass by.

Awake to union and be one, or saith the Lord, “Ye are not mine!”
Yea, like the Father and the Son, let all the Saints in union join.