In which I play in the fields of Scripture | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

The Spiritual Practice of Bible-Walking

Anita Mathias — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 18:09:46 +0000

A neglected corner of my garden I have loved the Bible for most of my life. When I skip time at play in the fields of the Lord, skip time with the Bible—that fresh, startling way of viewing reality—for even a week, I miss it. My life feels a bit flat and wearisome. I knew […]

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On Choosing to Believe in the Divine Inspiration of Scripture

Anita Mathias — Sun, 08 Nov 2015 13:40:15 +0000

I keep looking up the number of stars in the galaxies, forgetting, looking them up again. Too many stars to remember how many. 70 thousand million, million, million. 70 sextillion. So many stars. So many galaxies. Such a big universe. Anything is possible. * * * When I consider the heavens, the work of your […]

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A Very Long Pregnancy: Or, How to Live in the Land of Unfulfilled Promises and Deferred Dreams

Anita Mathias — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 10:23:55 +0000

The early chapters of Abraham’s story make painful reading. Again and again, through the decades God promises him a child: At the great oak of Moreh at Shechem, when he was 75; at Bethel, when he lets his nephew Lot have the more fertile land; and near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, […]

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On Brothers and Inheritances, and When Jesus is Exasperating

Anita Mathias — Sun, 26 May 2013 22:23:41 +0000

So this is C. S Lewis’s famous trilemma: when Jesus is outrageous, as he often is, you have to decide. Do you laugh him off as a lunatic, blow him off as a liar, or bow the knee as to your Lord? The aggrieved brother in Luke 12 was faced with Lewis’s trilemma. “Teacher, tell my brother […]

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Deliver us from Evil

Anita Mathias — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:47:03 +0000

When I try to pray while walking, or in the car, I use the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6 9-13) to organize my thoughts, and am often astonished again by its richness. Forgiving aught against any as a condition for receiving the Lord’s forgiveness, for instance. “Do not bring us to the test,” the Lord instructs […]

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Opening a New Chapter, a New Year, Under the Eternal Eyes of the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End

Anita Mathias — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 22:06:42 +0000

I listened to the entire Bible on my iPhone this year—the NIV’s dramatized edition– as I walked the country trails around Garsington, Oxfordshire. And the year dies spectacularly as one walks listening to Revelation—chilling, majestic, dramatic. His eyes were like blazing fire, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. And coming out of […]

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Thoughts on the Puzzling Parable of the Ten Minas

Anita Mathias — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 23:04:16 +0000

Luke 19 11-271 God gives us almost infinite freedom. The master says, “Put this money to work until I come back.” How should the servants do that? They are not told. God leaves us free to choose how we use our gifts, like loving parents leave their children free to follow their own bliss and passions. It’s […]

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Six Reflections on Spiritual Growth

Anita Mathias — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 23:13:51 +0000

Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.” 20 Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21 It is like […]

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The Parable of the Dishonest Steward. Frank Talk on Money.

Anita Mathias — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 23:01:51 +0000

We grappled with The Parable of the Dishonest Steward (Luke 16 1-15) in my small group. The Steward soon to be dismissed, too old to dig, and too proud to beg, leverages the last thing he has–his connections– to make friends knit to him by gratitude once his job is over. He is commended for […]

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When the Risky Word of the Lord Came to the Lonely Prophets

Anita Mathias — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 19:12:33 +0000

I am listening to the Bible in a year while walking country trails. Listening to a whole book in a long walk or two, helps me see “the big picture” of Scripture and its themes. The Prophets have grabbed me. You just don’t mess with those Prophets, because God is with them. And yet, it’s a lonely […]

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