We had a visiting speaker at church today.
He spoke about the miraculous. There wasn't a great deal that I hadn't heard before, but I felt it was good as a church to hear it. He spoke about how we are often complacent about the miraculous (in western culture) and don't expect it to happen much. Or we go to the other extreme and say that if you're not healed there must be something wrong with your faith etc.
He talked about how God's put us, and we've put ourselves in the city centre where a lot of people are moving to now and where there is a lot of 'sin'. So basically saying we've got great potential to make a difference and show God's love and see the 'miraculous'.
He also picked out two passages in Acts.
Acts 2:42-47
'They joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord's Supper and in prayer.
A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had. They
sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with those in need. They worshipped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity - all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.'
Acts 4:32-35
'All the believers were of one heart and mind, and they felt that what they owned was not their own; they shared everything they had. And the apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's great favour was upon them all. There was no poverty among them, because people who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money to the apostles to give to others in need.'
The speaker used these verses to encourage us to be like the 1st century church meeting together, being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, seeing miraculous things and reaching out to the non-believers. What interested me was that the verses about selling all your things, sharing and giving the money to the poor was completely ignored. Part of me was pleased because I find that idea quite challenging and would rather not think about it, but I wondered greatly why it was missed out. Are we not supposed to do that, are we being picking and taking the bits we want? It just made me think.
3 comments:
The thing that stood out for me was the thought that the disciples were told by Jesus to stay in one place and wait for the Holy Spirit. They were locked in a room and I'm guessing that they prayed for all/most of that time. The HS didn't come instantly but when he did- BAM! They were then able to do the miraculous. Also that miracles go hand in hand with with evangelism/conversion. The lessons for us are maybe that we expect too much too soon and we need to knuckle down for longer stretches inviting the HS. Also that we need something specific with which to apply the new found power that the HS gives us that will be a sign to those who aren't yet Christians.
Yes, that was similar to another thought I had.
When he was talking I thought wouldn't it be great if we could lay hands on and pray for people. I was reminded of a story that Mike Pilivachi tells (although he told it this year with a different emphasis) about a youth group that went back after Soul Survivor and prayed for their church and the place was really blessed etc etc. I was thinking that wouldn't it be great if at the next youth led service we could have a response and the young people (aided by the blue badge brigade) could then go and pray.
Then I thought it would be cool to do that at any and every service. It reminds of early ponderings that others as well as I have had, that we spend so little time in silence - both at church and in our general lives. We all need to stop and wait upon God.
Again, at Soul Survivor (sorry to keep bringing it up, but it's my most recent experience!) the most Godly evident times were when we stopped and waited. We've got to let God come to us - as in not that he's not already there, but you know what I mean. In keeping ourselves and our minds busy, we shut him out.
So yeah... hmm....
Some thoughts that occur to me on reading the above are:
1. I am loath to comprehensively connect the seeming absence of miracles with a failure of Christians to set up the conditions needed to appropriate such blessing – I have seen Christains try so hard and with such faith here that I feel alternative explanations should at least become an area of consideration. This may help address some of the mutual spiritual crabbing that one so often observes in connection with the miraculous and/or blessings.
2. All miracles, in time, become “texts”; that is they leave “traces” in the form of accounts, evidences and interpretations of what happened – even the most spectacular. Clearly the evaluation of such texts is going to be a function of one’s particular Christian subculture and “who rates who” WITHIN Christendom. If Christains have such problems evaluating one another the problems experienced by the great “unchurched” are likely to be even greater. The march of time ensures that any experiences of a paranormal/miraculous kind withdraw more and more into the past and one ultimately engages with the paranormal via history. One’s reports of such experiences may well be either ignored or badly evaluated by Christains of different sub-cultures, let alone the “unchurched”. There may be a case for keeping one’s special experiences quiet, as any in case they mainly impact those who are closest to such events, and have little long-range effect.
3. See the 13 August entry in my VNP blog - Letter to Christianity. This letter relates to the membership/message tension in our faith. This issue must be factored into to the miraculous/paranormal question as Christians form closed social/membership groups and this, as I have already said, impinges upon their evaluation of both the faith and experiences of other Christains. Churchianity clearly has a strong “who you know, not what you know” component, although Christains may be in denial about this. In any case my letter is going to be very unwelcome in some circles.
4. Early church communism. What level of NT behavior should we map to own situation? Do we copy the NT right down to the last oil lamp and sandal and make the Amish look like something out of star wars? Or do we copy the “policy on the hoof” approach of the NT that sees the church constantly improvising and reacting to changing circumstances?
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