Tenets of The Land of Iona
✶ The Larger Story
True "Christianity" is a Story. It is a romance, a tragedy, a comedy, a fairytale. This Story is at the heart of the Land of Iona. This Larger Story is the Gospel, it is the Story that was written on our hearts--and we are invited to find our place in it, live in it, and play our crucial role. This Larger Story is critical to remember and share with the world because it reveals the character of God and His offer of freedom and restoration for our hearts. Telling The Story to the hungry soul will help the human heart understand the context of his/her days. For more about The Larger Story see
Epic,
The Sacred Romance or
An Endless Falling in Love.
✶ Eternal Circles
The heart of Iona--The Larger Story--is held pure and true at the Round Table as a beacon in the night for travelers. God calls His Bride--Iona--to become His intimate allies and take their seat on His mythical Round Table. The Table is round for a reason, for no one sits at the head or the foot of The Round Table. God's belief in our freedom is the center of this mythical Table, around which Knights from across the Kingdom and time gather, with Jesus Christ sitting among us as one of us, our brother and our most fearless and powerful Knight. These Knights of like-hearts hear the voice of God, know their place in the Larger Story, and are willing to act upon it. They freely form small fellowship circles which operate within the large circle of fellowship.
✶ Purpose
In the Land of Iona, we desire to encourage each other to live in the Larger Story, walk in Truth, come to know God's good heart, rise to the fullness of our own individual callings, and to keep a fire of Truth burning where travellers and pilgrims may be able to light their candle at its flame. Our purpose is to create an environment where we can live in community, and move organically--with the Trinity--in the fight for freedom without the walls of denominationalism, the hindrances of hierarchy and the ruts of traditionalism.
✶ We Claim our Place in the Bride of Christ
We recognize that while we are part of "the true church," the Land of Iona is not "a church." We do not desire to be a part of any bureaucratic religious structure or become one; rather, like the early Celtic Christians, we will strive to form kindred bands; fluid, organic, mobile, flexible and intimate. The 'true Bride of Christ' is a spiritual force and while Christ's invitation is open to everyone, only God can truly know the heart of another person. We believe that the Father's desire is to raise all of us orphans up into a captivating Bride for His Son, and His ultimate desire for us is to enter into a marriage-love relationship with Him.
✶ Revealing the True Character of God
Having been intelligently designed by Love, for love, to love - the deep oneness between a man and a woman best reveals to us the core of God's heart towards us. We that live in mythical Iona believe that we can know His good heart and as we come to know His heart more fully, we will be drawn into a heart-level trust of God. It is our desire to reveal God's heart towards humanity. Knowing that the Trinity is currently fully engaged in the dangerous rescue of His creation, and that He is calling us to be His intimate allies in the battle for the human heart draws the residents of the Land of Iona to live as intimate allies and character witnesses for Him. For more about God's Heart see
Epic,
The Sacred Romance or
An Endless Falling in Love,
Waking the Dead,
See with New Eyes,
Journey of Desire
✶ The Message of the Heart
Here at Iona, we believe our hearts are at the center of human life. But, the human heart has been kept in bondage by Evil and lulled to sleep. God has come to set the human heart free. He seeks to awaken each heart and calls each person into a journey of restoration towards increasing wholeness and freedom. From personal experience, we know that walking with God and receiving His intimate counsel causes irreversible heart-change. Since God's new covenant promises to "take away our heart of stone" and "give us a new heart"--a good heart--we believe that our hearts have been transformed by the Living Triune God and are now good. As the Bride, in the Land of Iona, we desire to give to each other from our hearts, not out of desperation or a feeling of duty or guilt, but from a whole heart. We recognize that the largest battle we face on our journey is a loss of heart. Therefore, we are dedicated to fighting for our own hearts and for the hearts of others. For more about The Message of the Heart see
Waking the Dead.
✶ Walking with God
God desires that each of us experience abundant life (the actual offer of Christianity). We, in the Land of Iona know that walking with God into abundant life is a life-time journey. We believe that God meets us where we are along that journey. It has become our consuming desire to follow the Spirit's movements on our hearts towards abundant life and live in the currents of the Four Streams (as described by John Eldredge): Walking with God, Deep Restoration, Receiving God's Intimate Counsel and Spiritual Warfare. A critical component to our personal journey of the heart is being able to hear the voice of God. He speaks directly to our hearts as well as through Scriptures, nature, and any other method He chooses. We recognize that each of us in the Land of Iona are not now all that we will be and new journeys will be taken. As a collective land, our tenets may be revised and tactics may change as we walk with God and follow the call of the Wild Goose! (Early Celtic believers referred to the Holy Spirit as the 'Wild Goose,' --a name describing the free and wild nature of God [John 3:8]). For more about Walking with God see
Waking the Dead,
Captivating,
Wild at Heart, ,
Way of the Wild Heart.
✶ We live in a World at War
Here at Iona, we believe that humanity was born into a cosmos consisting of more than we can observe with our senses. Things are not always what they seem. We will spend all our earthly days engulfed within a violent clash of spiritual kingdoms. Holding this warfare worldview helps explain our days. In addition to other humans having sway in our lives, we are subjected to the results of spiritual battles which can significantly affect our lives. Our cosmos has been hijacked by spiritual forces, minions of the Adversary of God. His desire is to distort God's character, make God out to be the Enemy, and thus thwart God's plan for humanity, the earth, and this universe. Here lies the heaviest battle to fight - for God's heart has been called into question by Evil itself. All the powers of hell are directed at making us forget who we are, at killing our hearts, and at making us distrust God's heart. Most humans live in this matrix of lies - forgetting that the Larger Story has a villain. The good news is that God is a Wild Lion - a Warrior who fights these forces, and by the sacrifice of His Son, has secured the victory in Heaven and now we each have a crucial role to play as intimate allies of His in completing the victory on earth. For more about World at War see
God at War
✶ A God of the Possible
Amidst this War, God grants an astounding degree of freedom of choice to humans and angels. He exercises His free will as the Author of creation, partially settling the future within His plans. The beautiful character of God is revealed to the universe as He chooses to enter into a dynamic relationship with humans--desiring to be affected by us--thus allowing true love to occur between Himself and His creation. For more about The God of the Possible see:
The God of the Possible,
The God Who Risks,
The Most Moved Mover
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