Perspectives | hosted by Martin Scott

Mar

2010

We need believers who…

I recently watched the film Shawshank Redemption for the second time. Such a profound message, and I understand why it is such a favourite film of Neil Cole’s (read Organic Leadership). Hope of life beyond the four walls of prison being what keeps people alive and what is viewed as very dangerous by others. People who have a status inside the institutionalised world, but cannot survive outside it.

I said to Gayle – we so need believers who are making these kind of films, releasing a God perspective to the world. Film-making is a task for believers. They don’t need to make a film with John 3:16 appearing somewhere in it, just these type of messages.

Then I paused and began to think. Do we need that? Would that be the best? Maybe there are other ways we need to think.

Christian filmmakers, Christian writers, Christian politicians, Christian… yes please, and into every area of life and influence. But also given that the kingdom is not top-down, that we are to be salt in the earth, maybe there is another approach:

maybe it is not so much we need believers who are making the films as we are to be those who shape what films are being made. Is it our responsibility to change what is being produced through our prayers, lives of obedience, pouring out our lives? Maybe not taking the top of the mountain, but influencing the shape of that mountain?

I love the verse:

God has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us (Acts 17:26,27).

Subtle messages in a film, leaving people to wrestle with what they are seeing is maybe more God’s way than films made by believers.

We need both. But we really need people who take responsibility. We might not have the ability to get a place of influence; the doors might be shut to us (after all there is a beast loosed that without its mark we can find ourselves restricted as we follow Christ); but we are called to steward God’s gifts to humanity.

Success means we are the ones who did it; effectiveness means that God was able to do something through our co-operation.

So to a season of good films.

Posted in Prophetic Perspectives, Theological perspectives | 7 Comments

Mar

2010

And Corporations are not gods

By Cheryl

Chris Bourne’s essay on the subject of Mammon is really helpful. I think sometimes we find it difficult to see the difference between God’s offer and that of Mammon. It often appears, many times with the approval of the church, that the two are really not so different. Or perhaps we need only reject the ‘unrighteous’ aspects of Mammon. I guess we get to define those unrighteous bits and they shift a little from culture to culture and over time.

I try to remember two things when I begin to get afraid that God will fail me this time in my need. I remember that the system that defines Mammon is based on the assumption of scarcity that requires inequality and greed. And it will ultimately theologise some sort of justification for itself (Darwinian economics of culling the weak). And that God’s Kingdom ways are based on the assumption of abundance (as provided by God who can surely break the ‘laws’ of physics that He created i.e. loaves and fish) and that leads to generosity, fearlessness, and sharing. Kingdom economics are based on sharing with all who we know as neighbour, which actually includes our enemies.

Martin believes we must not miss this moment and I agree, for the lives of millions if not billions are at risk under the rule of Mammon. There is an article in the Nation online magazine that speaks of how corporations have corrupted the environmental movement. They do this by funnelling large amounts of funds to environmental organizations in exchange for those organizations pursuing agendas favourable to the corporations. While I don’t rely on environmental organizations to save us (at this point really, I mean really, only God can do that) it is disheartening to see greed govern once again, to the point of destroying so much. Here is a quote from the article by Johann Hari:

So it has come to this. After decades of slowly creeping corporate corruption, some of the biggest environmental groups have remade themselves in the image of their corporate backers: they are putting profit before planet. They are supporting a system they know will lead to ecocide, because more revenue will run through their accounts, for a while, as the collapse occurs. At Copenhagen, their behavior was so shocking that Lumumba Di-Aping, the lead negotiator for the G-77 bloc of the world’s rainforest-rich but cash-poor countries, compared them to the CIA at the height of the cold war, sabotaging whole nations.

The current economic system of Mammon is set up with an explicit legal definition that makes corporations into gods. Legally, corporations are more than humans, they are super-humans. Thus their disdain for human life and all that is good and important, including care of the earth for future generations. This super-human god exists only to own and exploit resources, make profit even if it destroys the resource, and to get rid of all those who would oppose it. It is a totalitarian system. It has many ways of going about its tasks and Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine is instructive in this.

The answer will be more and more of us forsaking this worship, willing to risk our lives and livelihoods on God’s way. The current crash and economic shake up confronts us with this option. The Kingdom is about wanton sharing, a risk-taking that defies all rational belief because it sees the God who made everything as loving. It isn’t about living more simply or differently within the system. In Christ we are removed from the system and every relational transaction takes place under His authority and in obedience to Him. Economics, from giving to someone who asks to directing our funds to Kingdom projects, is always a relational transaction. This is an exciting moment as more and more people are disenchanted with Mammon. This god has failed precisely because ultimately it can only destroy in its hatred for life. I believe God has amazing things coming up as He continues to shake this earth and its destructive systems. They are good things that will challenge us to the core. Thank God, He loves us so much He will take the time to challenge us and call us further into His ways.

Here is a link to the article in the Nation:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100322/hari/single

Posted in Cheryl's comments | 4 Comments

Mar

2010

Service and worship

By Martin Scott

One of the great challenges in living eschatologically is that we are always working toward something, yet never arriving. Yet we are called to release today symbols (and substance) that point to tomorrow. This is why I believe the issue of finance is so key.

On the subject of finance, Chris Bourne has put together an extended piece under the creative name of Mamon is not your mother! Check it out.

I do not believe it is possible to separate the issue of economics / business / ‘making’ money from God as Creator. That great creative expression is within humanity, and is valued by God. (I still have to get there with the podcasts, but the final vision is not of a restored Eden, but of all of Eden expressed in the context of a city. City building is our job, and God comes to redeem our work.)

Work then is to have eschatological value. It is of service to humanity and for those of faith, worship to God. Are there jobs that are not compatible with our faith? What value (reward given) should be attached to a particular job?

I have heard stories of believers from Africa who have resorted to working on the streets (prostitution) in order to support themselves when they found that money was virtually impossible to earn in a European context. Does that make them sinners?

Then what about those who are able to shape markets with the result that inequality springs up globally. I read recently, the invisible hand of the marketplace makes individual greed a source of strength, and because if the weak are not “eaten,” society itself becomes weaker. A little ironic, as many who subscribe to the marketplace belief are Bible-believing people who are totally anti-Darwin, yet the thinking is along the lines of the survival of the fittest!

How do we value someone’s work. Here in Mallorca I am very impressed with the work of many who care for the trees and parks. I wonder how much they are paid? What about those who invest in the future generation – the teachers who are shaping those who will be the future shapers. The medical workers who express values of care.

Is there work, means of earning money that is not compatible with our faith? Sure, and there is the pain that we are not interacting with a perfect world. My gain might be someone else’s loss: we do not yet live in the win-win world where there will be no more tears.

Do we need to see a revaluation within our world? I am convinced that the Babylon rising up will never be finished. There is no tower that can reach heaven. We live at a time in history when there will be enormous changes. Yes Babylon will restructure, reshape… big bonuses will be paid out… but we have entered a time when there is a re-balancing. At such times there is a shift one way and the other… but the economic crisis is not over.

Posted in Personal Perspectives, Prophetic Perspectives, Theological perspectives | Tagged Eschatology, new testament | 4 Comments

Mar

2010

The Traveller’s Rest-Wherever I lay my hat that’s my home.

By Paul Leader

This may not surprise you if you have been following my blog over these past few weeks but I do not get many invitations to speak/share/preach anymore. Oh I do get a few sweeping statements like, ‘you’ll have to come and preach for us sometime’ or ‘I’ll give you a call and you can come share with us.’ These statements are rarely carried through. Anyway how can anybody have somebody in the pulpit who is not part of a church/denomination/congregation even house group? I am not in submission to anybody after all, must be rebellious, will only lead their congregations astray!!!

Sunday….

was one of those rare times I had an invitation to speak at a small church/chapel in Aberdare with a predominantly older than me congregation. As I was thinking about what to share with them I started reading about the life of Jacob, an amazing story. Why did God seemingly ‘prefer’ to work with Jacob than goody-two shoes Esau? The mummies boy, the trickster, the homeboy, the conniver over the hard working, father pleasing Esau. Not getting into the ‘does God have favorites?’ debate here, but I find this intriguing and so encouraging. Encouraging because the Bible is full of social misfits, failures and outcasts that get chosen to do special stuff; Moses the murderer, David the adulterer, Peter the denier, Thomas the doubter, Paul the hater-all chosen by God for the special stuff. And in this dubious list is Jacob the deceiver.

Jacob the forced pilgrim.

Jacob never became a pilgrim by choice, situations of his own doing, in a plot with his mother, left him with no choice but to leave home. He was rejected, alone, totally lost in the terrain of the wilderness. A home boy that became a wanderer. Looking for distant family that would hopefully take him in. It was during one night in the desert that he took a stone and went to sleep. Then something incredible happened, God appeared in a dream with the angels of God ascending and descending. A holy moment in an unholy place. An encounter without invitation. The supernatural in the most natural of surroundings. On a journey, in the wilderness, not planned, not prepared for…But God!!!!

Bethel

When he woke up he said ’surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it…This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven…This stone I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house…’

There are many church buildings in Wales called Bethel, the house of God. What a misrepresentation of the original Bethel. The Lord was in this place. Where exactly? The wilderness, the journey, the rejected place, the in between area. Or as God answered Jacob, ‘wherever you go.’ The house of God is not a building or a static place, but where God is all along on our journey, even when we don’t know it. The gate of heaven is where we are, connected with God, wherever we are. BUT why do we always try to make static the house that is not made with hands? Even Jacob put down a stone and said this shall be God’s house. What is it with making something concrete and immovable all the time? We will follow this theme through at a different time.

The Aisles of Asda

This brings me to the discovery in my own journey of the house of God being where I am even though I did not know it. As I shared before I found the transition from church pastor to night-shift shelf stacker very difficult. I had one of those nice comments from someone this week, joking but pointed all the same, ‘oh how the mighty have fallen!’ Bless them for making me feel like crap. But then it came to me,’ better to be a mighty man fallen than someone still parading on the pedestal.’ That is how I felt though when I went on nights, humiliated, embarrassed, a failure, let down by God and man. Did not realise the life full of pride that would even think this work is below me. Thought it would only be very short term before something else turned up, something better. I was tired all the time, aching all over, working hard at a job where I found no satisfaction whatsoever. I hated it when I bumped into people who asked me ‘what are you doing now?’ I would mumble about doing nights and then add until God opens up a new door. What I did not realise was I was already walking through the door. Unlike Jacob I cannot point to a specific supernatural encounter other than what i shared last time of how God made Himself so real in that hotel room. But since then I have discovered that God was there in those aisles all along even though I did not realise it. That there is Bethel, none other than the house of God, the gate of heaven. He is so real and He walks with me and talks with me. The connections that have been made in that place are amazing. The friends, the companions, the fellow journeyers, all at different stages of belief/non-belief but all a link in my journey at this time. Johnson the Roman Catholic believer from India, H the artist, Sam and Dan the musicians, Terry the Cockney joker, Mike the Irish lapsed Catholic, Dai the ladies man always sharing about his conquests, and that is just some of the guys. not even mentioning the girls at the moment. This is my community, my family, my congregation. And I have learned to be content wherever I am, especially in those aisles that transform so often into holy places. But I am learning not just the aisles, but home, family, social life etc. All places of Bethel experience. And no, unlike Jacob I am not going to put down any stone and say this is the place. Wherever I lay my hat that’s my home, and His as well.

A few Asda stories

Next time I will share a few Asda stories as well as share whatever I find to share, whatever the journey uncovers.

Some chose pilgrimage, some are forced pilgrims,but whoever we are and wherever we are may we experience the Bethel of God today and everyday.

Posted in Paul's comments, Theological perspectives | 16 Comments

Mar

2010

Anxiety and greed

By Martin Scott

Anxiety. Well I am not an anxious person by nature, but I can also confess that there are occasions that I think: so what of the future, and how will this and that work out? Money and provision (not the same but we can so easily confuse the two).

Cheryl sent me recently an interesting article (huffington post), here is one excerpt:

Rich and poor alike were sucked into making heroes out of those who seemed to be able to turn everything they touched into gold. Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel lost virtually all of his personal wealth and his foundation’s, up to $37 million, to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. “We gave him everything, we thought he was God, we trusted everything in his hands,” Weisel said.

So trust in the ‘experts’ has been eroded, but the real challenge for me is for my trust in God to grow. So anxiety is a challenge. How we relate to God will have a huge impact on how we relate to money.

Another aspect (and Cheryl sent me a great personal article on this) is how we relate to those we consider the ‘other’. (I am using my own words and might not do what she wrote justice.) I will include the full article later, but consider:

The question of the city is how do non-kin live peaceably together. There are aspects of our brains that allow us to live with kin…

And that is the key to the city: it is made up of others. Others can be fairly neutral strangers, folks that one has the opportunity to adopt as friends (honorary kin) or they can be enemies. Many societies allow different rules regarding strangers/others/enemies. One is allowed to take advantage of them, or exploit them. When opportunism arises in relation to an enemy/stranger/other one is justified in acting against them. Again this can cover a range of behaviour be it sexual, economic etc. Some societies, recognizing that trade depended on the safety of strangers had special rules for caring for those who were from other places, they had to, at least initially, be treated as honorary kin with hospitality rather than as enemies.

So the city is a place full of strangers, i.e. potential targets of opportunism. Opportunism can be positive as in ‘I see an opportunity to deliver a service or start a business and take it and it victimizes no one’. Or it can be more like predator and prey. It can involve the happy exploitation of customers, or the oppression of employees, and the destruction of nature because the opportunity exists and all of those others do not merit kin-based behaviour.

Greed is opportunism that exploits and oppresses others without recognition of the social limits in a community. That is why we are told in I Cor 5:11 that we should not even eat with a greedy man. A greedy man is one who recognizes no limits on his opportunism and will happily harm others (including often his kin) to meet what he understands are his needs (i.e. Jesus is not his provider so he must be an idolater). This breaks community and so he is barred from table-fellowship. Though it seems to me in the history of the church we rarely enforce this one.

The more I read on the city the more I think opportunism is a key issue.

So how we view ‘others’ is very key as to how we relate in the financial realm. Who is my neighbour?

A little more tomorrow. Read below for the full article from Cheryl.

Posted in Personal Perspectives, Theological perspectives | Tagged Cheryl's comments, discipleship, new testament | 5 Comments

Mar

2010

That Living Light that cannot be quenched

By Cheryl

There is a new version of the New Testament due out soon called “The Voice”. In the first chapter of John it declares that before time was measured the Voice was speaking. This Voice, present with the Creator, shaped the entire creation. And His breath filled everything with a living light that can never be quenched (my paraphrase of the first 5 verses of this version).

I think of that Voice as singing creation into being, singing with joy and delight, utter ecstasy. And what a creation it is. It is a creation worthy of its Creator. All of creation dances with joy; it quivers with gladness, just to be in relationship with the Voice. Just as the Voice sang creation into being so all of creation sings for joy to the glory of the Creator. Many years ago, God allowed me to hear the stars sing and I sang with them. It was a glimpse through the Spirit into the dynamic wonder of the universe. The canticles of heaven ring out if we would only hear them.

And then I think on the state of Creation at this point. I think of the Po River. The other day there was an oil spill (likely deliberate) into a tributary that flows into the Po River just above Piacenza. Within hours the oil had reached the Po. The Po is an important river in Europe and it flows all the way to the Adriatic Sea. This is the time of the year when birds are just beginning to nest as wildlife awakens from winter dormancy. The songs of the Po River today would appear to be sad ones full of distress.

I often grieve how we have destroyed so much of creation. I prayed for the Po River. I believe that we will have to have many million miracles in order to see Creation redeemed and restored. So I prayed that the angels would sweep up the oil removing it from the River. I prayed for the birds, the fish and the wildlife. And the next day there was a headline in the newspaper that the amount of oil left in the River was far less than had been expected. Now the news is that the River, very swollen from rains and snowmelt, is moving so fast that they are having trouble cleaning up the remaining oil. But the fast river itself may save the important estuary where the River joins the Adriatic Sea. I continue to pray for the healing of the Po for the oil is just an emergency. There are long standing pollution issues here that affect fish, birds, wildlife, and the humans living along the River.

I wonder if we believe in a God big enough to restore creation, to act redemptively despite all that we have done. I wonder if our unbelief keeps us from answering the call of the Voice, a call to give ourselves in love to the redemption of all of creation. We need to hear the cosmic lamentations and respond with our whole hearts. Then we can be trained in a new way of living, one that honours the Creator of us all. The living light can never be quenched, that is the hope, and that should spur us forward.

Cheryl

Posted in Cheryl's comments | 3 Comments

Mar

2010

Podcast with Jennifer Moore #4

By Gayle Scott

In this final podcast Gayle interviews Jenny (and she will explain why now she is Jennifer) about the very personal experience of losing her husband, Alan, in November, after 30 years of marriage. The process of grieving, coming to terms with prophetic words that are awaiting fulfilment, stories from the hospital.

Intimate and profound. Listen, be strengthened. Make a comment that Jennifer can personally read.

(For those who tried to open this already: apologies, I typed in the address wrongly – should be functioning now.)

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Posted in Others, Podcast | 10 Comments

Feb

2010

The Traveller’s Rest- I think we’re alone now.

By Paul Leader

Deconstructing a Christian life

You never fully appreciate how much of your life is intrinsically wrapped up in something until you lose that something. Whether it be the loss of a loved one at one level, or the loss of a job at another, life takes on a completely different perspective when that someone or something is no longer there. I experienced much of this over the last five years or so. A journey deconstructing the church is one thing, but when it comes down to it this does not have the effect of your own deconstruction. Having your life and all you have lived for and all that is familiar taken apart piece by piece until there is nothing left.

Personally I had gone through the experience of seeing my father go through the battle with cancer and thankfully win. but just as he was breaking through with the chemo my mum was diagnosed with the condition in exactly the same place. She never recovered. This loss is never replaceable with anyone or anything. An influence on my Christian upbringing, difficult at times, but she was my mum. Now she was gone. Soon after I was to lose my Nan who was also an amazing influence on my life and a rock. Watching dad go through the grief was heart-wrenching. But then one day seeing him pick up the pieces with a new woman was also difficult. Life was changing, relationships changing, familiarity disappearing, constants no longer there.

Deconstruction

Had gone through this process in church life but it finally led to me being deconstructed instead. I resigned after a very intense battle with families and religious spirits. When finally the new young leadership that I had pieced together during the journey asked me to become more pastoral I had had enough and put in my resignation. I was very battle scarred. Wounded, hurt, disappointed, disillusioned, would even say bitter. But then there was always my itinerant preaching and prophetic ministry. In Wales Emerge was emerging with it’s emphasis on the supernatural. I never quite fit in there. The conference scene was drying up for me. When people find out you no longer ‘go to’ a local church they slowly stop inviting you to speak. Who wants a loose canon? My diary went from being full nearly seven days and nights a week to being totally empty, and this happened in such a short space of time. This is when I realised how much of me was wrapped up in that. How much of my identity was what I was doing not who I was. I loved preaching, I thrived on deconstructing and reconstructing church no matter who got hurt, I loved the daily life and the conferences and the attention.

But it was all gone…

For six months we survived on fresh air. At this point I was steadily getting into debt. My pain began reflecting in my whole life. I would not say I suffered depression but I was depressed. Did not have any meaning to my life anymore. At first the freedom from church life was amazing and liberating, but the space….the alienation…..the rejection…..the humiliation. The after six months I finally found a job working nights in Tesco’s local store. Working nights for the first time when you are feeling down on yourself is not recommended. I felt like this was the full humiliation now, from conference speaker to shelf-filler. Then there were those times when you bumped into people, and it was only then because nobody phones you anymore. Those great questions; ‘what are you up to now?’ I work on the night-shift in Tesco’s. (See unbelief and shock on people’s faces.). ‘Are you going anywhere at the moment? (i.e.church) No. (See end of conversation coming quickly.). ‘Do you think you will ever pastor again?’ No. Then the dreaded ‘we must have a coffee sometime (translated I will forget about you until next time I see you.)’. After six months in Tesco’s I moved over to the competitors Asda. Still working nights but it was a new store and a new team and time for a new beginning. The place of my restoration and revival.

But I still had to be totally stripped to my bone first before that could happen…

It is exactly a year ago I hit the bottom of my world. My life totally deconstructed. Lost my mother, my home in Lakenheath was changed beyond recognition. No church or recognised ministry. Night-work, disappearing ‘friends’. What else could be stripped away. All through my journey my wife Allison had been so patient. She watched me go through it in church leadership meetings. She listened as I told her of the latest critics. She stood by my side as I carried out my mad ideas on deconstruction and the prophetic. She loved the double-minded man who was unstable in all his ways. When the church life shrivelled up she was there loving me. But the deeper I fell into the pit the harder this was getting. The strain on our relationship was unimaginable. We are held together by elastic, but one day this snapped. Our communication broke down, our battle-ground changed from church to home, not in violence but in atmosphere and words. The wounds were getting deeper and deeper until one day exactly a year ago I packed my things and left. I was now sitting in a hotel room with nothing but my pain…and God!!! He was there watching it all. I was about to realise the truth of what David had written many years ago

even if I lay my bed in the depths you are there.

I had experienced what Jonah had, even when you jump overboard God is in the waves and the storm. All I had was God…but God was enough. People talk about God rescuing them, well he did me. He was more real at that moment than at any time I had prophesied truth to the Nation or preached to 17000 in India. He was real and He took the mess that I was and started to put me back together immediately. After a real wrestling session for a few days and nights He did something inside me and I knew I had to return home.

A rescued, renewed marriage

In a short space of time this relationship was restored to a miraculous level of love and trust and fun. As Bono once wrote, we are ’stuck together with God’s glue.’

A rescued, renewed family

My four boys embraced and forgave a failed father over a short time. We have such an amazing time now. I love my boys to bits and often see God in their lives and experiences.

A rescued, renewed faith

He is real. He lives outside the box and He is real. The journey continues apace. Fresh vision for life. Fresh definition of ministry and calling and living for Him. The world is my parish. The world is my oyster, just wish there was not so much grit involved. He is in all and through all. I can now live what God had been revealing to me all along, but I needed to be totally stripped bare, nothing from the former journey could go on. Painful, life changing, the thumb print of a master potter. The broken hip joint from an angel. I walk with a limp but I am still walking.

He dwells in the aisles of Asda!!!!

Will tell some more stories about that next time.

So deconstruction!!!! Anyone want a bit of that now?

Even in the valley of the shadow of death, your rod and your staff they comfort me.

He is the God of the shadow!!!

Posted in Personal Perspectives | 20 Comments

Feb

2010

Another ethical element

By Martin Scott

Sitting here this morning I was thinking about the whole aspect of money and where I will take these blogs, and I began to reflect on what I wrote about a shaping element for ethics. There is one more key one here that I should add:

the ethics of the new testament are not a simple ‘right / wrong’, but are set in a relational context. Let’s take Paul’s words (assuming it is Paul!!) in Ephesians 4:25

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

Seems to me that he pushes ethics to a very high level… lying (what I say) becomes putting off falsehood (what a person understands about what I say, a call for openness), and sets it in the relational context of ‘members of one body’. This is clearly a inter-those-in-Christ context, but we can add Gal. 6:10

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers

which indicates that (although there is a distinction) there is no difference in our approach to those who are not of the family of believers.

So putting this together how about we think when approaching money, making money, business (and what if I wrote the ‘banking system’) that we seek to operate within, or toward, that framework of:

eschatology (what is the most redemptive activity)
relational (how does this benefit the other party)

OUCH and so huge.

I wrote ‘toward’ because we live in a fallen world, and our eschatology is not shaped by some utopian dream, but of the necessity of heaven breaking in on earth.

Raises all sorts of questions – what can we engage in? Are there some systems that are too fallen they cannot be redeemed? And when we enter the money realm, is there a win-win for the many or only a win for the few?

Posted in Personal Perspectives, Theological perspectives | Tagged discipleship, economics, new testament | 6 Comments

Feb

2010

Podcast with Jenny Moore #3

By Martin Scott

In this third conversation with Jenny I ask her about the involvement that took place with a gypsy community in Leatherhead. A community facing eviction, that she along with others began to support, eventually winning a reprieve through the High Court. As an aside, from a geographical and spiritual mapping perspective, this was also very key:

in a nutshell Leatherhead was a community that, in measure, was shaped through two manor houses. One prospered and is still there today; the other is no longer there and the landlords tended to be those who used the place and took the wealth elsewhere. The town today manifests an economic divide that corresponds to that original shape. (Very typical of Smyrna places, with a predator/victim shape.)

The gypsy families ended up buying the ground where the old manor house was situated (today between a sewage works, rubbish dump and the crematorium). Taking the ground they experienced rejection. Getting involved with them I see as a key element.

Spiritual warfare is always earthed. The heavens change shape to allow the people of God to make a difference on earth through occupation. Ok… enjoy what you listen to:

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