Clyde Pilkington Jr

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Clyde Pilkington Jr

A former pastor who left organized religion to enjoy the life of God in the wide open spaces...

08/23/2026

Bigger and Better

We have to tell people the good news: the good news that God is even better than we thought, that the gospel is better than we realized; that their thoughts of God have been too small, too unworthy … that the truly good news is bigger and better and more powerful than the conventional news they’ve been believing and preaching.

Brian McLaren

http://www.StudyShelf.com

08/22/2026

The Ultimate Goal is Completion

The ultimate goal of all things is not endless division, but completion.

The All in all stands at the center of God’s purpose.

The Ecclesia participates in this glorious movement toward fullness. Chosen in Christ before the disruption of the world, believers are destined for participation in the reconciliation and completion of creation itself.

The story of Scripture moves steadily toward consummation, unity, and divine fullness.

The plērōma is the language of completion.

By Charles H. Welch (1880-1967)

Excerpted from: The Pleroma: Paul’s “Lost” Teaching

http://www.StudyShelf.com

08/19/2026

Things Which Were “Out of an Installment” Have Been “Discarded”

… For out of an instalment are we knowing, and out of an instalment are we prophesying. Now whenever maturity may be coming, that which is out of an instalment shall be discarded … (I Corinthians 13:8-11, CV).

Because of Paul’s message of God’s conciliation to mankind, both those who were once near (but separated by a cloud) and those who were far off, now have access, through our Lord Jesus Christ, into the very presence of God. God no longer dwells in a man-made temple, but His spirit homes in human hearts, in close communion with each believer. Those things which were “out of an instalment” have now been “discarded.” With Paul’s perfection epistles “maturity” has been reached. Where, at the time first Corinthians was written, they observed by means of a mirror, in an enigma, yet now it is possible to view face to face and recognize according as we are recognized also (I Corinthians 13:8-12). In spirit we are face to face with God, our Father, right now! There are no clouds in between.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)

http://www.StudyShelf.com

08/18/2026

It's Okay to Not Be Okay

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that realization doesn’t make us less human. When someone you love dies, you miss them. When your heart is broken, it hurts. That’s not a lack of faith. That’s life in a world where death is still an enemy.

Sometimes we put pressure on ourselves to “be strong” because we know God is sovereign. But Paul never said not to grieve. He said we don’t grieve like people who have no hope. There’s a big difference.

Go ahead and cry if you need to. Your Father isn’t disappointed in you.

By Steve Martin

http://www.StudyShelf.com

08/16/2026

“I Will Draw ALL Men”

Jesus tells us that when He is lifted up (crucified on the cross) He will draw ALL to Himself (John 12:32).

Then after His death and resurrection Jesus meets them on the beach.

Simon Peter, then, went up and draws the net, distended with a hundred and fifty-three large fish. And, being so many, the net was not torn (John 21:11).

The word “draw” doesn’t mean to attract or lure people to Himself – so they can become convinced and bite the lure.

This word “draw” in John 12:32 is the exact same Greek word used when the nets were used to draw in the fish.

There was no decision or acceptance on the part of the fish.

Interestingly, the number 153 indicates the same as “all” – since at that time they believed that there were 153 different kinds of fish and sea creatures.

God does it all! He creates us, places us in the sea and includes us all in His net.

This is presented to us by our Savior Jesus just before He is about to be crucified and immediately afterwards on the shore in His resurrected body before many to see!

By Mike Owens

http://www.StudyShelf.com

08/14/2026

Why People Came Close

People do not flock to perpetual heaviness.

There’s a reason that people gathered around Jesus. There’s a reason that they stayed. There’s a reason that they were drawn in. This line explains it. He carried something life-giving. Something light. Something real. People respond to that. They always have. This tells us that something important – not just about Him, but about what people are actually drawn to at a deeper level.

By Clyde Pilkington and Steve Martin

Excerpt from the book: The Leaping Jesus

http://www.StudyShelf.com

08/13/2026

No Biblical Reason

Search as we may, there is no biblical reason for the existence of any denomination. God needs no voice and no interest in this world except His own Son living in hearts, zealously affected by Heaven’s interests. God needs no standard in this world but His own living Epistles, known and read of all men. God has no program in this world, but that one which is propagating the Man Christ Jesus in the lives of individuals. Anything less, anything more, or anything else than this one cause, while appearing to be aiding this cause, is enemy to the cause.

Before we will do the right thing, we are going to have to understand God’s view of all of this manmade duplicity in which we are caught.

Marvin L. Fieldhouse (1927-2001)

http://www.StudyShelf.com

08/07/2026

Not Even Our Trials Can Separate Us From God’s Love

The trials and tribulations we endure are not tokens of His displeasure. They are all tempered by His loving heart. A sense of His love hovering over us in the midst of our distresses is the most blessed of all balms and will enable us not only to endure them, but to enjoy them. Here all the great forces of the universe are arrayed, and none of them, no, nor all of them together, can come between us and the unconquerable love of our God as displayed in Christ Jesus.

Death will be swallowed up by life. Life may lead us far from Him, but not beyond the reach of His love. The present perplexes us, the future fills us with fear, but only when we lose the sense of His love. Powers, celestial or terrestrial, are subject to His sway. Nothing above or beneath, nothing at all has the power to break the bond that binds the humblest and most unworthy saint to the throbbing breast of our great and glorious God. This is more than salvation from sin!

This is reconciliation!

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)

http://www.StudyShelf.com

08/06/2026

God's Unalterable Script.

My days, all of them were written in Your book; the days, they were formed when there was not one of them (Psalm 139:16).

It is comforting to know that we all live the unalterable script that Father has already written for each of us and are sustained by the knowledge of His wise love and care, regardless of how things appear to us.

There are so many parts of the script that, from our own limited view, we would have written differently! But when the veil of the temporal is lifted, we will see with overwhelming clarity just how amazingly perfect His script really was – just exactly the way that He wrote it!

Yet, for now, our hope and reliance on Him, however very feeble and weak it may seem to be, are but “a conviction concerning matters which are not being observed” (Hebrews 11:1). Thus, we look past all things, we see only Father … the source of all things (Romans 11:36).

So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eonian (II Corinthians 4:18).

And we are encouraged by the weaknesses of Moses of old, for it was, “as seeing the Invisible One – [that] he endured” (Hebrews 11:27).

By Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.

http://www.StudyShelf.com

08/04/2026

The Complement Must Come From Within

This principle appears first in Genesis with Adam and Eve but reaches its highest fulfillment in Christ and the Ecclesia.

Among all creation there was no suitable complement for Adam until God formed one from within himself. Likewise, among all celestial beings there could be no external complement suitable for Christ.

The Ecclesia comes out from within Him.

This truth reveals the extraordinary intimacy of our union with Christ. We are not merely followers – we are members of His Body. Such language stretches human understanding; yet Scripture insists upon it repeatedly.

The Father views the Ecclesia in Christ from before the disruption of the world. This calling was not an afterthought. It was woven into God’s purpose before creation itself.

By John H. Essex (1907-1991)

Excerpt from the book: The Pleroma: Paul’s “Lost” Teaching

http://www.StudyShelf.com

Address

PO Box 265
Windber, PA
15963

Telephone

+18007846010

Website

http://www.clydepilkington.com/

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