Roots

Most of us 'Children of the 60s' came from middle-class American families with middle-class American roots and middle-class American values engrained in us since childhood. When the time was ripe, we threw off our parents' values and society's norms in an attempt to be free from all the chains of hypocrisy and greed that were consuming America. But there was one thing that kept all the LSD trips, all the intellectual enlightenment, all the swelling emotions charged by the meaningful songs of our prophets from breaking those chains. The one thing we lacked was the power to break free from the rotten, selfish seed that was passed on to us from our middle-class fathers. Though we could not see this at the time (we were too caught up in the excitement of the moment), we would soon enough.

As we young hippies got older, our desire for middle-class comforts began to outweigh all the 'enlightenment' we had received. "Don't trust anyone over 30" was a forewarning of what we'd be like by forty. It proved to be true. By the time middle age arrived, we were no longer out to change the world. Our voice had been silenced. What our parents had wanted for us all along — security, success, becoming a valuable asset to the prized heritage of middle-class America — was now ours. We'd become a part of the American Dream we had protested against in our youth. Our greatest challenges now came from trying to justify our "yuppie" success or explaining away the compromise of getting our own thirty-acre kingdoms.

Yes, the hippie exterior eventually wore off exposing the roots that were still there. Like it or not, we've become a generation of 'hippie-crits'. Being a hippie-crit is like wearing a mask that you think is really you, but when you pull it off, you see that underneath the mask, you're really no different than your daddy. You act like someone who detests the establishment, pretending you want nothing to do with it, while all along living in what you condemn. A hippie-crit is a person who presents himself as someone from the 60s Movement, who prides himself in nostalgic memories, but who forfeits his integrity for the comfort of the middle class. A hippie-crit is worse than a hypocrite in many ways, because as a 60s hippie he proclaimed the ideal of a better way, an alternative to the 9 to 5 job, and as a 90s hippie-crit he is firmly entrenched in what he once scorned. Despite the words he speaks, he has compromised the goals he once sought.

Our parents' view of life was one of hard work, faithfulness to wife and family, and living by the golden rule. They were actually a lot closer to the Garden than us because they lived more closely to the covenant of conscience that all mankind has within to lead them back to their Creator. At least they made no bones about working hard to support their families (that's us!) … and for the most part they gave us a standard of loyalty and faithfulness that we could at least remember in the height of all our rebellion.

After all is said and done, the love of self-life has proven to be the failure of the Movement. No student is greater than his teacher, but when he is fully trained, he will be just like his teacher. You are what you are. You can't escape the seed in you that's been passed on to you from your father. That nature is passed on from one generation to the next. It's inherent. The birth of the Movement came from a stirring of the heart, but nothing in the 60s had the power to deliver us from the death grip human nature had on us.

Remember walking down the street stoned out of your mind, thinking you're different from the Establishment around you? Remember the pride you had when you ridiculed the guy in the three-piece suit and laughed to yourself thinking you were free? In the midst of a scene like this did it ever dawn on you that you were just like him or realize that what's in you is no different from what is in your parents? To see this is to take the first step toward the open door of freedom.

There can be no true Movement unless we find a way to escape from those corrupt, selfish spiritual roots. As mature, middle-aged ex-hippies, we ought to be able to know this by now. But what can we do about it? Our only escape from these roots is to experience a true renaissance, a rebirth, a regeneration of our human spirit. Where can we find someone with the authority to bring about this renaissance? Where is the man who is free from the curse of self-life? By definition, love is giving yourself up or laying down your life for someone else. So, someone with the authority to lead such a Movement would also have to be someone who loved. The life he lived would be full of love, not merely in words, but in actions, right?

When this profound truth is understood, then the fascination of the ages can begin. What fascination? Our fascination with the life of a man not born under the curse of self-life, the One whose spirit was free to love like no one else had ever loved. He willingly became a sacrifice, like a lamb, or like a seed that fell into the ground. That seed died so a whole new creation could spring forth on the earth. This new seed has roots that go down deep into the soil of love and shoots that spring up with a life that never ends, one that is starting to fill the earth and ultimately the universe, forever and ever. This seed was the man Yahshua. He is gathering His people from every nation, every tongue, every race, every background, every orientation under the sun to become seeds also, just like Him.

This gathering is the beginning of a Movement that will one day produce the Twelve Tribes, a nation of communities whose Sovereign king and ruler is the Messiah Yahshua. It is He with whom we are fascinated; it is He who gave us the glory to live as one. In the same way as He is one with His Father in heaven, He gave His disciples that same glory to make them one. This twelve-tribed nation exists as a new social order that once had its beginning in Jerusalem in around 30 AD. It was the true Renaissance, becoming a new creation, that Yahshua's followers experienced. This Renaissance was into a life together where people shared all things in common. This life of sharing is the perfect environment to show the world a demonstration of love being perfected in unity, the convincing proof that all barriers between people have been torn down, including that between parents and children.

This life is the life we longed for in our hearts when we tried to abandon the path of a society sick with disease in the 60s!! The worst disease was in a religion called Christianity, which tainted and defiled the real life of Yahshua and robbed us of our rightful fascination of Him.

But now this Movement has begun by the actual Spirit of Yahshua in a people, completely outside the ranks of Christianity or any other religion on earth. This shared life, this witness, is the only proof that will convince the world that Yahshua's blood actually has the power to forgive and to cleanse a person from his sins and to tear down all the barriers that divide. Seeing this demonstration is what will convince all the people in the world that God did truly send His Son and that He really does love all of mankind. It will, at last, vindicate the true God, the Creator of all! The completion of the life that was begun in Jerusalem is what will bring about the end of this age. We are living in and experiencing the time when the Renaissance of the ages is beginning. Come join us and let Yahshua set your soul free!