Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Archives for September 2012

If Christianity were an Untrue Myth: Would “a Christian Life” still be beautiful?

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  • Photo of monks working in a garden

When I was teaching myself French, using BBC videos, I heard a French monk sum up his life of silence, community, service, work in the sun, prayer, discipline, regularity, simple eating, simple living, no private possessions, saying, “It’s a beautiful life in itself.”
I last read John Piper’s Desiring God when Irene was a baby, so I can’t quote verbatim, but Piper describes a similar statement by a French monk, and then quotes Paul,  “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” He goes on to say it would be foolish to live a Christian life, and follow Christ, if Christ were not in fact the resurrected Lord.
                                             * * *
 In contrast is Puddleglum, the heroic Marshwiggle in The Silver Chair.
 Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things–trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. . .Then all I can say is, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one.
And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just four babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world.
I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can, even if there isn’t any Narnia ’ (The Silver Chair)
  * * *
I myself have absolutely no doubt of the existence of God, or of Jesus. And, when it comes down to it, it’s because of personal experience of them.
In one of her videos, American Bible teacher, Beth Moore, says she was asked, “How do you know that Christ is real?” She answered, “If he wasn’t, then I must be crazy, because I talk to him all the time, and he answers.”  
                                                      * * *
In the unlikely event that all the times small and astonishing miracles happened because I prayed; things changed; people changed; I changed—were just a coincidence; if the times when I came to prayer depressed and beaten down, and left full of joy, if all this too was illusory– it would still be worth following Christ.
Today, I read someone honestly saying what he wished on his high school bullying tormentors:
I used to wish bad things for those guys. I hoped that karma would get them. That they would be impotent. Or in unhappy marriages. Or living miserable lives. I wanted revenge but, alas, vengeance was not mine to be had.
Oh come on! Why would we choose to live in this angry mental state? This horrible turmoil. This impotent hatred. This evil, negative mental state.
How much better to follow Jesus’s instructions to “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who persecute you.”
And be free. And live in a mental state of peace and good will and high energy.
                                                      * * *
“Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.”
Even if Jesus were not God, would it not be better for us to be women of your word, to be trusted and relied on, rather than lying, or changing our minds, or whinging our way out of things if something better came along?
·      * * *
“Do not worry. Do not be afraid, ” Jesus says many times, in many ways.  “I have worried about many things in my life, most of which never happened,” said Mark Twain. So have I. So have you. Wouldn’t it be better not to worry about many things most of which never happen–whether Jesus were God, or not?
                                             * * *
Gentleness–Jesus teaches. The Kingdom of God is within us, and so preserve your peace, and sweetness. Let there be honey within your soul.
Gentleness, he preaches: If someone forces you to go one mile, go two. If someone slaps you, don’t slap him back. He would retaliate, and you would both be bruised. Gently turn the other cheek.
Oh all this is sublime, almost to the point of insanity. Sublime, and wise. Isn’t it better to march two miles in love, and prayer, than one in hatred and resentment? Isn’t it better to have one hard, and one gentler slap, than retaliate, and end up with broken bones?
 * * *
Oh Jesus, you are sublime, and you are wise, and you are brilliant, and it makes total sense to follow you teachings whether you are God, or not.
But, oh, how delighted I am that you are indeed my Lord, and my God!


Can an Individual Change Another Through Prayer Alone?

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I have a good friend, who prays constantly. 


He married, when very young, a woman who’s “feisty,” in his words, and bossy and critical. (They have 6 children, and not much money, so my sympathies are with her).

Anyway, my friend told me that when he sees something he does not like about his wife, or one of his children, he makes a note of it on the little index cards he uses to pray, and takes it up with God.

For instance, he started praying that his wife would be more gentle with him. 

That his son, whose ambition it was to own Microsoft would love God more than money. 

That his children would be less mean to each other. 
                                           * * * 

And most of these things came to pass. 

But not without several changes in my friend himself. These included an emotional and nervous breakdown during which he was unable to work and accepted the Kingship of Jesus over himself (the very Lordship he had so wanted his children to acknowledge.)
                                                     * * * 

Back to my question. Can an individual change another through prayer alone?

Yes, I believe so.  

If prayer works, and is for real–and the whole thrust of Scripture tells us that does and is–than prayer can change anything, including the people we love.

It takes a while, it takes faith–and since God has a sense of humour which borders on the perverse–it might often involves changes in the deep structure of our own personalities. 
                                                              * * *

Prayer is dynamite–explosive in its power–and we are invariably caught in the friendly fire of our prayer for another.

And change, the shedding of our dragon skin–is never without pain.
                                               * * * 

When I see a desperate need for change in someone else, which neither my advice, nagging, bullying or manipulation can bring about, I resort to prayer. (As I get wiser, I am glad to report, this is becoming more of a first resort rather than a last resort.)  And it does work, invariably, in surprising ways.

Hudson Taylor had this amazing goal and motto, “To Move Man, Through God, by Prayer Alone.” He used this in small things (when his employer forget to pay him) and in large, to raise tens of thousands of pounds for the China Inland Mission.

The hearts of people are in the hands of God, and he sways them how he wills. And an old adage goes, “Prayer is the hand which moves the hand of God.”

(An edited archive post)

Why I go to Charismatic Festivals

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Georgian Bainov with his fiddle
Photo: Better photo of Heidi dancing here :)
Heidi Baker dancing in the River of God before her talk

I no longer attend a Charismatic church, but do occasionally go to Charismatic meeting or conferences. I’ve been to three this year, to RiverCamp, Revival Alliance and to listen to Patricia Bootsma, leader of Toronto church made famous by the Toronto Blessing.
A blog commentator seemed bemused as to why I do go. I am reasonably careful and intentional about my use of time—certainly lead an examined life!–so obviously wouldn’t go without good reason, but it’s good to try to verbalise the reasons.
1) Ah, this is perhaps the biggest reason: Worship.
 Sometimes, one’s spiritual life can get mind-centred, or me-centred. You know, praying about one’s concerns, praying for guidance, learning about God from the Bible, reading about the spiritual life. It is ME seeking God.
What setting aside a few days to worship God in community gives me is the experience of worship. Forgetting self, forgetting all the restless thoughts of a restless mind, forgetting everything, just submerging myself in the sea of God. Oh, how lovely that is, to forget self, leave self behind, and soak in the sea of God.
Oh, I love it, love worship, but worship is the weakest link in my spiritual life. I am not very good at it alone at home—simply because I have not practised enough. My mind takes over and talks to God. I tend to pause the worship music and meditate on the lyrics. But in the company of hundreds of others, I am carried away by the music, by the lack of distractions, by the fact that I can’t really escape from the room or pause the music–and oh, I worship God, and I find that my soul was craving for it!!

We are made for worship, that is what we will be doing in heaven, and, so worship fulfils a need of even the most cerebral soul.


2) People like Heidi Baker, John Arnott and Bill Johnson have a deeper faith and knowledge of God than I do. They write and speak well. So in listening to them, I see a high water mark of the joy, faith and miracles which, to my way of thinking are part of “the normal Christian life.” I realize there’s so much more. I want to strive for it.

2) My work–writing!!–is very intense, and so am I. I cannot go on writing for long weeks without a break. I could go to Europe, and do so, several times a year. So far in 2012, I’ve been on three trips to Istanbul, Ireland and Copenhagen, and to three Christian conferences.

I found both stimulating and very interesting, but the latter will have a far greater influence on the course of my life than the former. The latter have brought me more joy, and, more importantly for me, wisdom and direction.
I wouldn’t want to only go to retreats and conferences, but sometimes there is an emptiness in hedonistic travel, and I crave quietness, wisdom, and God. Ideally, I would construct holidays with time to seek God, as well as to explore.

3) I do pray most every day, but at home, I am mainly reading, writing and blogging. I am not setting aside long hours to seek God’s face, to seek his direction. At retreats and spiritual conferences, that’s all I do!

So I sometimes get direction for the year ahead, as when I received clear direction that it was time to return to writing and to wrap up my memoir in the course of the next 12 months.
This has only happened once, but we receiveda prophetic word which significantly changed my daughter Zoe’s confidence, emotional state, and sense of call and direction.
If a life is a work of art, always in flux, in spending time with God, I receive fresh direction; good ideas; ideas for tweaks to blogging, daily routines, financial practices etc; encouragement, guidance, and new inspiration. And occasionally a sentence or two or a clear direction from God.
If one thinks of time as a raw material, a resource, then investing your time, and more importantly, your whole will and spirit and soul into seeking God and God’s guidance is a great investment.

4 “Better is one day in your house than a 1000 elsewhere.”

Well, is it true, or isn’t it true? If it’s true, why not act accordingly?

I guess by choosing to spend days in praise and worship and listening to Bible talks from those far deeper in the holy river of God, I am making this choice: that a day in God’s house is better than a thousand elsewhere.
6 It’s a great experience for children to spend time thinking of spiritual things, and to develop a depth to their own spiritual lives. Being young, being impressionable, they have had spiritual experiences, like being slain in the spirit, which I have not had.
7 My theology on this is borrowed. However, I first received the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues when someone prayed for me to. I experientially know that I am more likely to be touched and refilled with the Spirit when someone deeper in the River prays for me to, or when I spend a long time in God’s presence seeking this. And being filled to overflowing with God’s spirit is a prize well worth seeking!!

 I have two retreats planned, one in Germany, one in Wales, which will combine a rest, long walks, some exploration, and much time resting, learning and being strengthened in the holy river of God.


In which I Practise Praying Every Ten Minutes: The Ten Minute Worship Revolution

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Irene, delighted with and thankful for the sash of her new dress!


I have attended two conferences organized by John Arnott, on whose beat the hugely influential Toronto Revival was born.  They have influenced the course of my life—deeply introducing me the love of the Father; immersing me in soaking prayer ; and, most recently, introducing me to a ten minute worship timer.
A worship timer?
Carol Arnott was incurably ill, and went to the Community without Walls in Germany, where Rolland Baker was healed of dementia and cerebral malaria.
There Dr. Arne Elsen suggested the 10 minute worship revolution, using a timer or a buzzer which goes off every ten minutes, when you stop everything and worship. He cures five terminally ill patients, mainly cancer patients a week, through this infusion of positivity, joy, thankfulness, worship and praise.
Well, I was interested. I have seen 3-4 people bedbound with ME, who have been cured by stopping spiralling negative thoughts (I am too ill to do this—talking will tire me—walking will exhaust me etc.) and exchanging them with positive self-talk through the Lightning Process (a highly effective neuro-linguistic programming course, which I haven’t been on. Not religious as far as I know. )
So, this every ten-minute worship really should bring an infusion of the positive thinking which is  a neglected aspect of Jesus’ teaching, not to mention joy and praisefulness (both things I have sought) into one’s day to day life.
Zoe and I bought one the day we heard of it. I adore it and have used it every day for the last two weeks.
It’s will probably take 3 weeks to fully get into the habit of it, and for new neural pathways to be created. And I will report on any changes in my temperament and emotional state in about six months.
But the first two weeks (which is about how long it takes to get the hang of it, and to begin reaping the benefits, according to successful users) have been peaceful and happy. I don’t know how I will be able to live without it. If I turn it off for a nap or while having coffee with a friend, and then forget to switch it back, something feels wrong. I am less productive, time seems more lumpy and stolid instead of flowing in a grace-infused stream.
                                                               * * *
 So here’s my experience. I haven’t been using it exclusively to worship, though, increasingly, that is what I am doing every ten minutes.
1) Thankfullness
I usually stop when my ten minute timer goes, and thank God for something. Often something I may not have otherwise thanked God for. New people following my blog on Facebook or Google Friend Connect. The blog’s growth. The success of my children. The sweetness of Roy. The glory of my dog, and ducks and rabbits (okay, I adore animals!!). Blue skies. The orchids in the room. Time to pray. To read. To study the Bible. To write. Gratitude that earning a living is not all-consuming, but leaves us time to be organised and peaceful and quiet.
And my mental state slowly changes through this discipline of praise every ten minutes. Becomes more positive, more ebullient.
2) My Use of Time Significantly Improves
I have never worked full-time, and have worked part-time for about 3 years, teaching at Ohio State University, Binghamton University, and William and Mary, as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, and Adjunct Professor variously.
So my work habits have really been those of a dreamy, dilatory, distractible writer than a professional.
But, my goodness, this timer really helps. So, I am reading articles in the New York Times or the Guardian. But really should be writing. The buzzer goes; I worship. And, if by the time the buzzer goes again, I am still dilly-dallying, well then, I know something is seriously wrong, and settle down to work.
Yeah, you just can’t procrastinate and waste time that much when you are going to pray every ten minutes!!
It keeps me on track—with what I intend to do, what I have done, what I am going to do that day. Sort of gets me back into the river of surrender and discipline.
3) It keeps me positive. Roy, who is used to, and loves, working for hours with intense concentration was appalled at the thought of being interrupted every ten minutes.
However, once, when I was telling him off (very gently, and most justifiably:-), he burst into a huge grin. “Now you will never be annoyed with me for more than ten minutes at a time,” he said. Yeah,  it’s very annoying when you are telling someone off and timer goes off telling you it’s time to worship God, and you have to drop your moaning. And praise God!!
Seriously though, the first few days, my timer often caught me thinking something negative about something or someone, and instead I found something to be thankful for in that person or situation.
The second week, it’s been rarer to be caught out thinking negatively by my timer. It is truly beginning to change the tenor of my emotional life.
4) Impact on Family Life
We have long, leisurely family meals, which last nearly an hour. And the buzzer goes off several times during dinner. And we all go round the table and thank God for one thing we are grateful for.
And of course, consciously expressing gratitude makes you more grateful.
5) Praying in Tongues adds a depth to one’s prayer life, especially in areas in which one may not quite understand why one is stymied, or what or how one should pray. I usually pray in tongues haphazardly, when my heart is full, though I do so most days. Now I have a little slot for it.
6) Prayer to be filled with the Spirit is a prayer which is always answered (Luke 11:13). And to be filled with the Spirit is one of the desires of my heart—both to experience the joy and wisdom of the filling, and to be able to bless people from the overflow of God’s life in me. My timer reminds me to pray for this.
7) Awareness of God’s Presence. Again, using the worship timer helps me to be more aware of the presence of Christ, right here in the room with me, and in his hands a stream of bubbling waters which he offers to anyone who is thirsty and comes to him to drink.
Praying briefly every ten minutes incorporates prayer into the rhythms of my real and emotional life. I find that I am frequently living and working in an ambient state of praise and prayer, coming a tiny step closer to the injunction to pray continuously.
8) Worship is a weaker element of my spiritual life. I need the tides of communal worship to really lift my spirits into self-forgetful worship. I haven’t practised worshiping alone that much. So the worship timer is introducing this neglected dimension into my prayer life.
9) Visualization—Praying every ten minutes is a rich practice. Sometimes, I just relax and visualize. Me dancing with Jesus. Jesus breathing the Holy Spirit on me. (John 20:22). Me dancing in the waterfall of God’s presence and power and creativity.
10) Big Asks—I am using this exercise to be thankful, praiseful and to worship, to just love God and be, rather than for big-wrestling change-my-life kind of prayer. But if I am conscious of a need as my buzzer goes—I am stuck with my writing; worried about a kid, I send up celestial smoke signals, of course. Please help.
Incorporating it into work and exercise—If the buzzer goes off while I am reading or writing, which I often am, I pause, thank, praise, pray, and resume. If it goes off while I am walking and listening to a novel, or an easy theological book, rather than search through all my pockets for my iPhone, pause it, pray, then rewind to get into the flow, I simply multitask, and silently thank God for the book, the glory of the day and the fields around us, while the narrator continues reading me the book.
Yeah, so I am happier, more on track, more peaceful since I started using the ten minute worship timer. I recommend it.
(And here’s the link to Catch the Fire timer I use.)
  
  

“Who Am I?” a poem by Bonhoeffer; Spurgeon on how to lead a Bible Study, and other fascinating links

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1  Who am I ? by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country-house.

Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equally, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were
compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?

Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?

Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!

Written March 4th, 1946.


Let us, dear brethren, try to get saturated with the gospel. I always find that I can preach best when I can manage to lie a-soak in my text.
I like to get a text, and find out its meaning and bearings, and so on; and then, after I have bathed in it, I delight to lie down in it, and let it soak into me.
It softens me, or hardens me, or does whatever it ought to do to me, and then I can talk about it.
You need not be very particular about the words and phrases if the spirit of the text has filled you; thoughts will leap out, and find raiment for themselves.
Become saturated with spices, and you will smell of them; a sweet perfume will distill from you, and spread itself in every direction; — we call it unction.
Do you not love to listen to a brother who abides in fellowship with the Lord Jesus? Even a few minutes with such a man is refreshing, for, like his Master, his paths drop fatness. Dwell in the truth, and let the truth dwell in you. Be baptized into its spirit and influence, that you may impart thereof to others.
If you do not believe the gospel, do not preach it, for you lack an essential qualification; but even if you do believe it, do not preach it until you have taken it up into yourself as the wick takes up the oil. So only can you be a burning and a shining light.

3 A Christian Voice for Barack Obama from The Huffington Post.




Encounters with the Angel of Writing

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I heard a really amazing talk last month on writing at—get this!!– a large Charismatic Conference, RiverCamp. The speaker Mark Stibbe talked about the angel of writing, and prayed for an anointing to write for us.

I asked for it; I received it.

I have always felt guilty and conflicted about my writing, since I got married in 1989: wasn’t there some laundry or housework to do?  Should I be encountering God in a laundry basket as a male spiritual adviser suggested?

Now I saw it as a calling, a spiritual gifting. An anointing!! I have, on a daily basis, written more words than ever since then. When I am stuck, I visualize myself as standing in the waterfall of God’s power and anointing, and ask to be refilled with the spirit.

* * *

Another thing Mark Stibbe said that interested me was that “Seeing” was a spiritual gift. If you have a gift for leading Bible studies, he said, you “see” things in the text which most people do not. I have long had the experience of seeing riches in a Biblical text which I thought were totally obvious to any reader, but which, apparently, were not. But I had never thought of this as a spiritual gift.

Stibbe talked about the gift of “seeing” as you write. And the manuscript which I had been stymied over for 15 years began to shape and coalesce in my mind as he spoke, and over the next couple of days.

That evening, a sweet Elim Pentecostal minister, Trevor Baker, in his sixties or older, spoke about how he had been stymied with his first book manuscript—his autobiography—for decades; how Mark Stibbe prayed for him; how the block dissolved; how he finished the manuscript in six months. He asked us to buy the published book!!

Stibbe himself spoke about how he received an anointing to write when John Wimber prayed for him.

(I am reading a book called The Anointing by R. T. Kendall, unusual, brilliant. It says God’s gifts and call are irrevocable. It examines how one might be able to transfer an anointing to write, let’s say, or be able to preach brilliantly, or heal, while no longer in a fresh, close relationship with God.)

I was delighted when Mark Stibbe prayed that we receive the anointing to write. Over the next few days, I saw the shape my book should take. I saw the painfully long chapters—between 12 and 20+ pages dissolve and reshape themselves into short 2-3 page 1000 word chapters. In the other words, the length of the blog-posts I’ve been writing for the last 29 months—the sound-bites in which I’ve been instinctively thinking. I was filled with a longing to write it, and it has been flowing freely and joyfully since then.

 

In which Angels Sing, and Diamonds Materialize: A Report from the Revival Alliance Charismatic Conference in Birmingham

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“Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Alice in Wonderland.

The Revival Alliance Conference I attended had a special “impartation” meeting in Birmingham on Saturday for those aged 15-30 to receive an “impartation” (with laying on of hands) from the world’s leading charismatic leaders.

There was Randy Clark, whose preaching birthed the Toronto Revival.  John Arnott, the pastor who shepherded the Toronto Revival to a movement which has gone on for 18 years, and is still going strong. The amazing Heidi and  Rolland Baker. Bill Johnson, “the thinking man’s charismatic,” as steeped in the Bible, as in a magical, miraculous world much like the Bible’s. Che Ahn. Georgian Bainov.

So both our daughters go to this meeting, and come back bubbling and bouncing with excitement.  Those watching outside caught some of it on TV screens. As Rolland Baker placed his hands in blessings on the young people’s palms, diamonds appeared. The floor was covered with these diamonds, which rained down from heaven. The more aggressive crawled on hands and knees picking them up. My children got 3 between them, while others got several. The Kingdom sometimes goes to the aggressive. In fact, when the adults returned, there were some of these in the loos, and parking lots.

HERE are eye-witness accounts from the Revival Alliance’s Facebook page. (Screen shots, so a little fuzzy)

 

Capture_sara_mcafferty_1

Capture_sara_mcafferty_2

Capture_sara_mcafferty_3

bill_johnson_text

Our friend, James, an Oxford educated physicist, was particularly fascinated. He picked up two, and compared them with Zoe’s. His had a gold backing!!

Apparently, according to Bill Johnson, this not a rare manifestion. Gold-dust, diamonds, a glory cloud and angelic feathers appear all the time in his church, Bethel in California, and even in houses, restaurants and airplanes where those like Bill who particularly experience “the presence” travel.

Irene, my 13 year old says, “Wow, Mum if Rolland can make diamonds appear, maybe it’s all true.” Oh, I am so old.  My reaction. “Cool.” Did I believe it? Yeah, sure. Why not?

I have heard Heidi Baker tell this story of miraculous multiplication in person, which she also shared with the CBN’s 700 Club.

“It was a 110-degree Christmas Day. There were hundreds of children that were awaiting a Christmas party at their center. These children included girls who had sold their bodies, bandits, rascals, and children from the village. All had all been invited. The challenge was that there were so many children, but only a limited amount of toy bags available. So, Heidi began to give the presents out first to those children who had never received a present before. Finally, it came down to the older girls, but all that was left were bags with stuffed animals in them.

Heidi asked the girls, “What would you like, sweetheart?”

And the girl replied, “Beads.” 

Heidi’s friend and co-worker, a psychiatrist, said “There is nothing in the bags but old stuffed dogs.”

Heidi asked her friend to check the bags again. When the lady reached her hand into the bag of stuffed animals she started screaming, “Beads! There are beads in the bag!”

All of the girls got beautiful, bright beads for Christmas.

“God really is God, and He is much better than Santa Claus,” says Heidi.

In the same interview, she tells this story, “After the government evicted the Bakers from the orphanage, “a friend from the American Embassy came with chili and rice for the Bakers and their 2 children. They prayed over the pots of food and told the 80+ children to sit down.  Everyone ate and was full!”

Do I believe these stories? Do I believe that Jesus changed water into wine, and fed 5000 from 5 loaves? Do I believe that He said that those who believe in him will do greater things than these? Yes, yes, and yes!

* * *

In the evening, there was an impartation for everyone, and as Arnott etc went around and laid their hands on people and prayed, most of the thousands in Bingley Hall fell backwards instantly, “slain in the Spirit.”  Amazingly, my husband buckled as he was prayed for, as did Zoe and Irene. Moi—no! Too self-conscious, too scared of falling backwards, too scared of losing control, too analytical, too much of a blogger observing the proceedings. And perhaps that was what God intended. When I blog, I feel his pleasure.

It was a rather fascinating sight though, to see Arnott and Rolland Baker and Bill Johnson go through the rows, say a brief pray for people, who then fell backwards as if poleaxed.

And there was the sweetest, most angelic singing rising.

I heard it myself, high sweet singing, though the worship band said there were no instruments, and no one was singing.

Here are some accounts from the Revival Alliance 2012 Facebook:

Revival Alliance 2012
Martin Smith leading all the saints joining in one song! Who else heard #angels singing during worship at venue 1??? #revival2012
Photo: Martin Smith leading all the saints joining in one song! Who else heard #angels singing during worship at venue 1??? #revival2012
12538Like ·  · Share

Thomas Kinkade, A Beauty which Never Was on Land or Sea

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 The hilarious, ironic, and spot-on website Stuff White People Like mentions a sure way to convince your white friends that you are totally unsophisticated
“If you wish to ensure that white people will never speak to you about art again, there is an easy escape. Simply mention your favorite artist is Thomas Kinkade and that you are in negotiations to purchase an original from the store in the mall. This will effectively end any friendship you have with a white person.”I realized that when I bought not one, but two Thomas Kinkade repros from a mall, and showed them, happily to a white Christian artist friend. Who was horrified.

You know I really, really do have good taste in art. Promise. And loathe kitsch.

But Thomas Kinkade appeals to something in me. I love his paradisial landscapes. I love the way the seasons are all jumbled together. How trees and flowers from every continent appear. That’s what heaven will be like, I think.

There is this sense of the jumbling of the “natural order,” deranging of nature in Scripture, when it talks of God’s blessing. Aaron’s staff, a sign of God’s power, had buds, blossoms and fruit all together. It’s been a symbol of me of the possibility of the sudden flowering of creativity, a sudden burst of inspiration.

In another of my favourite passages, Ezekiel 47, we are told that the trees on the banks of the river which flows from the sanctuary bear fruit every month because the water from the sanctuary flows to them.

That’s what’s Kinkade’s landscapes remind me off, the beauty of all the seasons together; spring, summer, autumn, winter; and trees and flowers from every continent, blooming in an immense and joyful profusion–together.