Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

God will silence your enemies–C.H. Spurgeon. Thought for the Day.

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“Sometimes God pleads the cause of his people by silencing their enemies. What a remarkable instance you have of this in the case of Jacob! His sons had most cruelly and basely killed the Shechemites. Having betrayed them by false promises, they then slew them in cold blood. Jacob said, “Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.”

How strange was it, that he suffered no molestation; surely the Lord had cast a solemn awe upon the hearts of the Canaanites round about. His all-commanding voice was heard in their hearts, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophet no harm;” so that though Jacob’s family was grossly in the wrong, and his sons had committed a foul deed, yet nevertheless, the Lord pleaded the cause of his chosen servant, and his enemies were as still as stones. It will often be so with the Lord’s peculiar ones. When your foot has slipped – when you have spoken unadvisedly with your lips, if you have deeply repented of the sin, you may leave the matter before God, for he will either silence every dog’s tongue, or turn their barkings to his glory.”

From a sermon entitled “God Pleading For Saints, And Saints Pleading For God,” delivered July 10, 1864

Poems on Marriage from Wendell Berry and R. S. Thomas

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                                                                                                        R.S. Thomas
Anniversary
Nineteen years now
Under the same roof
Eating our bread,
Using the same air:
Sighing, if one sighs,
Meeting the other’s
Words with a look
That thaws suspicion.
Nineteen years now
Sharing life’s table,
And not to be first
To call the meal long
We balance it thoughtfully
On the tip of the tongue.
Careful to maintain
The strict palate.
Nineteen years now
Keeping simple house.
Opening the door
To friend and stranger;
Opening the womb
Softly to let enter
The one child
With his huge hunger.
R.S. Thomas
A Marriage
We met
under a shower
of bird-notes.
Fifty years passed,
love’s moment
in a world in
servitude to time.
She was young;
I kissed with my eyes
closed and opened
them on her wrinkles.
‘Come.’ said death,
choosing her as his
partner for
the last dance. And she,
who in life
had done everything
with a bird’s grace,
opened her bill now
for the shedding
of one sigh no
heavier than a feather.
– RS Thomas, ‘A Marriage’,
The Blue Robe
How joyful to be together, alone
as when we first were joined
in our little house by the river
long ago, except that now we know
each other, as we did not then;
and now instead of two stories fumbling
to meet, we belong to one story
that the two, joining, made. And now
we touch each other with the tenderness
of mortals, who know themselves:
how joyful to feel the heart quake
at the sight of a grandmother,
old friend in the morning light,
beautiful in her blue robe!
Wendell Berry

 

The Bird I would most like to See: A Puffin

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Atlantic Puffin

A Puffin. That’s the wild bird I most want to see.

Last year, I saw a penguins in the wild, in New Zealand, which I never expected to–indigo penguins, yellow-eyed penguins, and crested penguins. I also saw an albatross, which I never expected to.
Next on my hit-list is a puffin.
Where should I see them?

Wisdom Calls Out, Proverbs 1: 20:23. Day 8, Jan 8

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Wisdom Calls Out

Proverbs 1 20-23


 20 Out in the open, wisdom calls aloud, 
   she raises her voice in the public square; 
21 on top of the wall she cries out, 
   at the city gate she makes her speech:

 22 “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?
   How long will mockers delight in mockery
   and fools hate knowledge?
23 Repent at my rebuke!
   Then I will pour out my thoughts to you,
   I will make known to you my teachings. 

How long will mockers delight in mockery?
1 Blessed is the one
   who does not sit in the company of mockers
so begins Psalm 1. 
I tend to think that God despises mockery because is it is the opposite of his nature. He is straight-forward, he says what he thinks, and says it straight.
Mockery says what you do not believe, as when Pilate jests to the King of Kings who stands before him  brutalized, bleeding, degraded and dehumanized  “So you are a King?”
There is something a bit evil about it. Is it a refuge of cowards? Or of the stupid and inarticulate who cannot find the right words to express their emotion. I know that when I am so angry that words fail me (!!!) I resort to mockery. 
Irony, satire and allegory are powerful weapons in the writer’s arsenal, so I need to think this out thoroughly. 
 Repent at my rebuke!
   Then I will pour out my thoughts to you,
   I will make known to you my teachings. 

As repentance is a pathway into the Kingdom of God, it is a pathway into wisdom and knowledge. 
God holds mockers in disdain, and will not reveal his thoughts and teachings to them. Repentance, ongoing daily repentance opens the door to knowing God’s thoughts and teachings. 

Beth Moore, wonderful Bible teacher: “God has me on a Keychain”

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I love Beth Moore. I have led at least a half dozen of her studies, and recommend them for keeping your spiritual intensity at fever-pitch!

Oddly enough, I often think of her saying, “God has me on a keychain,” partly because I don’t really understand it.

I think she meant that her life put so many demands on her, and she found it so intense, that she could never stray far from God, far from being on God’s keychain.

Beth Moore, for you English people who have no idea whom I am talking about, is a tall, slim, beautiful, blonde Texan, and the leading women’s Bible teacher in the US. She is sincere, passionate, and has an amazing gift for bringing the Bible to life, for relating it to life, for making the spiritual life EXCITING!!  Amazingly, this vibrant, passionate, fully alive woman was sexually abused over a long period in her childhood—and was put together by God.

Her ministry has been scandal-free–no sexual scandal, no financial scandal, no heresy scandal, no accounts of bullying, manipulation or spiritual abuse–scandals which have beset other American male and female preachers.

I think this is partly because Moore has taken extraordinary steps to keep her mind and emotions pure and focused on Christ. She says she plays worship music when she drives long hours with her employees to speak around the country–to safeguard against idle chatter and gossip. She has worship music in her house through the day, again to focus her thoughts. “Do you always live in God’s presence like this?” she was asked. Her answer, “I don’t dare not to.”

I would recommend her studies of David, Kings, Moses, John and Paul. Some may permanently change your life. All will give you much spiritual joy and pleasure while you are doing them.

 

 

My Son, in Whom I am Well-Pleased, Matthew 3, 4, Day 6. Jan 6.

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Matthew 3
 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 

LOL! Now, I am not sure if that is an appropriate Biblical comment, but really LOL! Would you want to be the one to so address the religious establishment of your day, “You brood of vipers.” A hissing nest of people, whose very nature is to sting.

One of the first imperatives of every institution is to guarantee its preservation and continuance. One of the urgent imperatives of those with an unconverted or partially-converted heart who have power, civil or religious, is to hold on to that power. Preserve the status quo.

So, do we address them as a “brood of vipers,” and have our heads presented to Salome on a platter?

The prophetic calling—truth-telling– is both a gift and a burden. Truth-telling needs to be tempered by hearing God’s directive to tell the truth. Because not every truth needs to be told.

Telling truth is a double-edged sword. The Pharisees would gladly have had his head on a platter. But the people loved him.

8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 

Repentance is the key to entering the Kingdom. Not just when we are first converted, but it is indeed the key to keep stepping into the Kingdom of God—the Kingdom of peace and joy–on a daily basis.

Daily repentance whether dramatic 180 shifts in direction, or tiny tweaks of mind and heart.  

9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 

And he does. All those who have entered God’s kingdom by faith are children of Abraham who entered that Kingdom by faith, as Paul explains.

10 The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

The continuing Baptism in the Holy Spirit is the greatest transformer of personality that I know.

If you have not known it, or known it in its fullness, seek it, and keep seeking it.

I have had an early experience of the Baptism of the Spirit, accompanied by the gift of tongues in my teens. But there is so, so much more I long to know and discover of the fullness of the Spirit.
To have more of God’s spirit fill me is, in fact, my most urgent felt need.

According to the ESV Study Bible, the Baptism of Fire is the experience of purifying fire all Christians have to go through. No kidding!

 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 

This is what I so, so love about Jesus—his total freedom from concern about status, position, and importance. He is “tomorrow’s man” in R.T. Kendall’s phrase; his ministry is going to exponentially surpass John’s and everyone else’s.  And he knows it!

 Why does he ask John to baptize him? Among other things, he is endorsing John’s ministry, message and mission.

And what about highlighting the importance of your own precious, beautiful ministry, Jesus? 

He leaves that to his Heavenly Father. 

14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

 15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

And here is a beautiful mountain-top experience. Heaven opens. The spirit of God descends.

And God says, I love you. I am well pleased with you.

As believers in Jesus, this is our reality. We are God’s children. He loves us. He is well pleased with us, as we are in our infants and toddlers, no matter the mess, and tears and sleepless nights and wrecked interiors.

Enter this reality in your times with God.

Heaven opens over you.

The Spirit of God descends and alights on you.

And a voice from heaven says, This is my child, whom I love.
I am well pleased with her.

It takes a while for our hearts to really get it, doesn’t it? For it to become our reality!


Matthew 4
  1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 
And that is exactly how the Spirit deals with us today. 

Moments of exaltation, of high spiritual experience and excitation are followed, almost predictably, by the wilderness, by temptation.
So it is wise to be prepared for temptation after sweet and intense experiences with and of God.

On a psychological level, it could be seen as a natural reaction of over-excited, over-stretched nerves.

However, this is a continual pattern in Scripture. The strengthening and insight and joy of mountain-top experiences are followed by tough wilderness experiences, when temptation comes straight at us, leaping at our throats.

2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 
Forty days, the Biblical period of spiritual transformation.

3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Use your spiritual power to meet your own needs exclusively, without reference to your heavenly Father.

 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Jesus fights temptation with quoting Scripture (Deuteronomy each time). How intimately he knew it.

And it is true, of course. Bread, physical nourishment, the things of this earth, simply do not keep us alive and happy. And perhaps it takes having everything you need and want to know this is absolutely true.

So what is food for our hungry, thirsty, restless spirits?

The word of God.

I am going to feast on it over the next few years, because I have a hungry, thirsty, restless spirit, which can no longer live on just bread, or the good things of this earth.

 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
   “‘He will command his angels concerning you,
   and they will lift you up in their hands,
   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Another temptation. To show off.  

Show off your spiritual powers, abilities and specialness.

If Satan judged this to be a strong enough temptation to entice the Son of God, how much more will he tempt us to show off and posturize.

How will this temptation strike us? It will probably be in line with our own spiritual gifts. Prophets will show off their ability to hear the word of God; teachers will be tempted to teach more to show off their cleverness than for any good it might do; leaders will be tempted to created big flashy programs to make people admire and envy them rather than to serve people. And writers and bloggers??

 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Do not deliberately do foolish things, relying on God’s protection.

 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 

Wow, who could resist this one? The Son of God could!

9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Satan speaks to us and tempts us through our own minds. He is described as a liar, and the father of lies (John 8:44).  As the ESV Study Bible notes, Satan did not, in fact, have the power to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, and their splendour.

The persuasive logic with which our temptations comes us, with their false promises of happiness are almost always false. False—and illusions from a liar, and the Father of lies.

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

And this is indeed the great battle for a Christian.

To love God, and serve him with our whole hearts.

Our idolatrous hearts, which can be described as idol-factories, rapidly making idols of money, success, sex, pleasure, travel, praise, social position, reputation, our houses, our appearance, you name it….

 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

There is an end, there is an end to periods of temptation, the divided mind, the struggling vacillating soul. And when we come through on the other side, bruised but triumphant, God frequently sends angels to comfort us.

As they comforted the sweet triumphant son of God.

Proverbs 1, 10-19, Day 6, Jan 6

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10 My son, if sinful men entice you,
   do not give in to them.
11 If they say, “Come along with us;
   let’s lie in wait for innocent blood,
   let’s ambush some harmless soul;
12 let’s swallow them alive, like the grave,
   and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13 we will get all sorts of valuable things
   and fill our houses with plunder;
14 cast lots with us;
   we will all share the loot”—
15 my son, do not go along with them,
   do not set foot on their paths;
16 for their feet rush into evil,
   they are swift to shed blood.
17 How useless to spread a net
   where every bird can see it!
18 These men lie in wait for their own blood;
   they ambush only themselves!
19 Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain;
   it takes away the life of those who get it.

Do not harm an innocent person for any gain to yourself, whether in status, position, or wealth.


Though you may get away with it in the short run, in the long run, you only ambush yourself. What you have gained unrighteously will harm you.


How will this work out? Because, contrary to appearances sometimes, this world is in the hands of a just Judge, who loves justice, and who, as Paul says in Galatians, will ensure that men reap what they sow.