60-70 years ago, the concepts of recycling were championed as conservative, frugal values. Coke bottles were reused, encouraged by the 5 cents you'd get for returning the bottle. Flour came in cloth, reusable sacks. Victory gardens gave us fresh vegetables for cheaper. During WWII, the recycling of essential materials was rampant, seen as a patriotic duty to gather rubber, nylon, etc for supporting the troops. We even lived regulated by ration coupons - think of them as the foil of liquid currency that regulated overconsumption.

Now those values are seen as left-wing, communist ideals. Self-sustenance is a hippie thing. Recycling is for yuppies with a coffee shop conscience. Regulating food industries is seen as a leftist agenda of control by the so called conservatives.

All of this to say what God has already revealed - Babylon is such a whore. She'll switch sides for whatever reason suits her. Her political parties are like paying lovers who bargain for the best deal. And she is a metaphor for systems of bad government, greed, corporations, merchants. She's a counterfeit church of materialism and selfishness, welcoming and including all who want some of her delights. Now she entices us with her markets to not produce anything we can actually use.

Do we actually produce anything? Have you raised a chicken? Have you grown your own food? Have you tried making your clothes? -All, let me say again, All of these areas of production we outsource to that whore, that system of commerce, lies and sales - all of these areas are now humanitarian disasters. Factory chicken production is something that destroys the earth not only by perverting the life of a poor chicken, but also from the excess disease and super concentrated nitrogen runoff from feces that suffocates plant life. Clothing - you know what a sweatshop is and yet we still buy the stuff from the social backstabbing suppliers. Gardens are something that old people have - so passe. And yet, if Babylon failed, could you stand?

Revelation 18 stands as a solemn prophet. Excerpts:

"After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice he shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries."

"The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more— " ""

"Your merchants were the world's great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray. In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth."

Would you be weeping at her demise? I know I would, and that is a very sad thing to admit. I want to pull out of Babylon. I want to plug into Jesus - and He made the earth and its production elements something not to be exploited, but to be enjoyed in relationship with Himself.

May God grant us the grace and wisdom to seek to depend on Himself, for His glory - not for the glory of Babylon.

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: raised in the church, born a Bible-belt Southerner, confirmed in the Lutheran church, baptized by immersion, a soul on fire for God; in regard to the church, a trained church of christ missionary; as for zeal, slandering the gays, Democrats and atheists; as for keeping the rules, I justified myself.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

This has been one of the hardest questions for people to answer. I asked people from all denominations, and even one non-Christian took the time to reply. If you've read the posts below, you'll see the variety. Isn't it interesting?

A non-Christian explained that God is basically her own conscience that she connects with. And yet if you look hard enough at her answer, you see that God has His image imprinted on all people in some form or fashion in such an answer.

Many of the other answers were on how to exercise the spiritual disciplines of deep prayer and meditation.

A couple mentioned connecting to God through the person of Jesus.

No one mentioned church.
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And yet Jesus Christ created a church that was called the Body of Christ, the Royal Priesthood, a Temple of Living Stones. The titles go on and on but they epitomize connection to Jesus. The richest connection I've ever had to God was in ekklesia (gathering of believers for the express purpose of honoring Jesus as King) in Poteau, Haiti. You can check out part of the experience because I taped it...secretly. http://www.youtube.com/HCDPnetwork We sang to each other.

We sang to God. We burned with passion in our hearts. There were tongues being spoken (Haitian Creole and English). Jesus was lifted up. We shared our lives with each other. We ate together. We told jokes. We told silly stories, family stories, and serious stories. We submitted to each other. I went with my host wherever he took me; he slept on the floor so I could have a bed. What an honor to experience the love of Christ by the body of Christ! I was spiritually fed and filled. As I fell asleep on a bed blessed by sacrificial, Jesus-love, the father of the house prayed in his room, his voice deflecting off the roof to all the house - and he was praying for us, reading the word aloud.

These people awoke with the Lord on their lips. They went to bed with the Lord on their lips. Their actions were all in love. They put Jesus at the head. No clergy. Submission and every member functioning. It was mindblowing the amount of wisdom and love and connection that was going on between us and Jesus. It only happened twice in my life, and both times during trips to visit the Haitian church.

I know it's not ekklesia if I wasn't committed to it: but they were. And my short visits to their ekklesia were marvelous.

Sigh. May we come together and connect to God through His Son Jesus with His pure bride, us.

From my mother: "About connecting to God – I think we need to understand that we may not "feel" His presence, but if we’re just talking to him conversationally all day long (out loud and silently) we are communicating. Sometimes the feeling comes and sometimes it doesn’t. I read that after Mother Teresa started ministering to the poor, she quit "feeling" the presence of Jesus, but she never stopped talking to Him!!!! How faithful is that?"

From my coworker, C "God is somewhat like the conscious people have that they use to make decisions based on their own ethics and values. Your conscious occurs in your head and is a process of thoughts. You ask your conscious questions and it gives you answers...I don't have a personal connection with God but I still pray for the well being of others and ask God to keep them safe. I feel I do this because the way I grew up experiencing church and that I wish the best for people that I love. I don't ask God for favors for myself or thank him for things that happen in my life. I believe that the things that have happened in my life are from my own decisions/mistakes or from the actions of others or events. I rely on my own conscious to help me make my decisions in life....I have been told by people that they have actually "heard" God speaking to them. I guess some people connect with God as a friend and talk with him about everything." for the full answer: http://www.shapevine.com/pg/file/theradicalway/read/35394/csanswertomyquestiononconnection

From S, my coworker: "I tend to look at life pretty simple>>>Maybe, if this person would think of God as having supernatural favor over their life. Because he lets us know in his word that he wants to do unusual things in our lives, (provision, healing, opportunities, restore, etc). Or maybe, if this person would look at God as being first and last (beginning and ending) when needing someone close to discuss their problems with, someone to hold them when times are hard or friends are few. Their worship and daily walk with him would be on going, and not just once in a while."

From my coworker, D: "Ok, I would have to ask who God is to them. All we talk about is how much praise God deserves, how powerful he is, how big he is, how great he is. Although those things are true, it makes people feel intimidated and inadequate in the presence of God. God is not personal to people. We don’t know what he looks like, what his hobbies are, things like that that make people want to be friends. I would approach it by talking up Jesus. He is God. He is the one we can relate to! I think if we concentrate on developing our relationship on Jesus, who we know very well, our fear and intimidation of God will come down and our relationship will grow in even more personal ways...I think if we concentrate on developing our relationship on Jesus, who we know very well, our fear and intimidation of God will come down and our relationship will grow in even more personal ways....Connect to Jesus by learning more about him, seeing his life, knowing what he has done for you, then connect to the Spirit, ask him to grow you, build you, intercede in your life. Then the more we experience God around us the more easily we can approach him." read the rest of the response at http://www.shapevine.com/pg/file/theradicalway/read/35405/dsanswer

A few years back I was explaining to a very practical Christian about how we need to hang on to God and how the battle is not to vanquish the sin in our lives, but to run to God and let Him battle for us. Then he asked a haunting question, "Yeah, that's nice and all. But what does that look like?" I had no idea what to tell him. I assumed every Christian (i mean, Goodnewsical Jesusian) kind of knew how to talk to God, run to him, hold onto him. I guess I thought a Christian would know that God is a being with person-ness, not a set of practices and teachings. But how do you explain that?

So, since there are bright minds and spirits on the Shapevine site, how would you describe connecting to God to someone who is practically minded? I'm looking for some answers outside of the busted old answers of pray more and read the bible more. More smacks of guilt.