• Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
    Mark Twain
  • I was smart, but I had not yet learned to listen.
    Stanley Hauerwas (highly-respected, oft-quoted theologian.)
  • The collective hallucination was that life can change, quite suddenly and for the better. It still strikes me as a noble desire...
    Mavis Gallant
  • To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.
    Oscar Wilde
  • If you've forgotten the language of gratitude, you'll never be on speaking terms with happiness.
    Old saying
  • In the 21st century the artists will lead us. They are the ones who dream. Dreams and pragmatism are always in tension.
    Donald Goertz
  • The world has introduced you to yourself, and bound you to a destiny that was not your own.
    Ex Vice-President, Zambia
  • Artists don’t owe the world anything, least of all explanations.
    Sam Haskins
  • We are sleepwalking towards an avoidable age of crisis - one in seven people go hungry every day despite the fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone.
    Barbara Stocking
  • When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure
    Rudolph Bahro
  • Church history has proven again and again that true revival is ignited from the ground up, and never the top down.
    Neil Cole
  • Dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are.
    Dr Gene Sharp
  • The narrative of redemptive history is pointing us in the direction of love where violence is no more.
    Walter Brueggemann
  • Can the church stop its puny, hack dreams of trying to ‘make a difference in the world’ and start dreaming God-sized dreams of making the world different?
    Leonard Sweet
  • The strongest cultural force at work today is the power of story.
    Robert McKee
  • Thanks for the underground and disparate church that stills know how to be the wonderful body of Christ.
    Steve Lowton in a recent email.
  • Instead of being born into debt (to society, the ancestors, God, the cosmos), perhaps we are born into gratitude: the knowledge of how much we have received, and the desire to give in turn.
    Charles Eisenstein, author, Sacred Economics.
  • Your vocation is where your greatest passion meets the world’s greatest need.
    Frederick Buechner
  • The future: it is "already here – it's just not very evenly distributed".
    William Gibson
  • We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith.
    Pope Benedict XVI
mobile view

The Traveller’s Rest- Return of the Cavemen (and women)

By Paul Leader | Nov 03, 2011

Day of the Adullam Cave

On Sunday I was invited to speak at a friend’s church. A rare event these days, and not one I crave for nowadays like I used to,  but through relationship rare things do happen. Passion is a relatively new church started out of a desire to see something new in the Rhondda. Heard that many times before as well, and yes wrap away the packaging and inside is similar structure and format, but there was something I sensed in this group of people as they gathered. Something that excited me about their future, not as a church but as a group of people. It was like I saw their pain of the journey, their reason for being misunderstood and marginalised, the dust on their feet as they had walked over the desert ground. I saw through the raw, passionate worship, which was as far removed from the polish of C.D. worship as you could get. Behind the songs of joy and worship there was lament and tears, reality. I had not heard this sound many times before here in Wales but it was the sound of the guts of the earth being spilled out. It was the sound of Cymru, raw, wild, untamed, dangerous. Reminded me of times I had worshipped with the precious guys at Antioch in Llanelli. It was the sound of people from the Cave. I was stirred and reminded of the gathering at the Cave of Adullam in the time of David. This was a broken gathering, but one finding a mending in it’s brokenness. This was the return of the cavemen and women. The distressed, those in debt and the discontented gathered to David. A people finding unity in their brokenness and rejection. The marginalised connecting together for strength and protection. On the run but finding one another. I sensed God’s heart that these were the days of the Adullam’s Cave.

Collecting the Scrap

In a religion promoting holiness and striving for perfection there was no room for the impure. The Law of God seemed to be so clear in how to deal with the dirty one’s, the scrap. There was a dump, a place outside the camp for these types of people. They had no place in the Holy of Holies. Some of the rejected and messed up one’s would even be dispensed of through stoning. Religion is great at creating insiders and outsiders. Those welcomed and those rejected. Those who come up to the mark and those that fail. This type of religion is quick to judge lepers and prostitutes and tax collectors and adulterers. For these people there is only the margins and caves. But then Jesus comes. Thank God He did not stand in religion. He breezed through the margins. He looked inside the caves. It was like He went around collecting the scrap. ‘Any old iron?’ He was the first great recycler. What others would throw away, Jesus would patch up and find a new use for. That is why David was the ideal captain. He himself was a man on the run. He would fail and get dirt on his feet from the desert floor. His heart was real. Not striving for perfection but for God.

The Cave’s Embrace

These are days for the cave’s embrace. The distressed can come and not have to pretend that everything is all together. Definition of distressed; much troubled, upset, afflicted, intentionally marred or faded, damaged or previously used. If that is where you are at feel the Cave’s embrace. I know I can relate to the being used and intentionally marred parts. Sadly through my life within the walls of organised church. But do you know what I am not scrapped and rejected anymore. I have experienced the Cave’s embrace. Written out by man but written in by God. I’m still part of the story even here in the margins. Those who have debts can come. Not to be judged but to be embraced. People in debt get in even greater trouble because of shame, and sadly church has added to this shame. Quoting verses about being no man’s debtor. The first step to getting free from debt is talking about it. In the cave their is no shame. In Passion a guy has recently become a Christian and he stood up to share his ‘testimony’. It was honest, raw, real and he spoke of his debts. They had created a safe place to share at this level, which is rare. This sharing was the first step to freedom. He had felt the embrace of the Cave. The discontented, the not happy with the status quo bunch. How often on our journey in particular do we get criticised for steppingoutside the bounds of organised church for being too discontent? Never satisfied. Personally hundreds of times. These people are great at making you feel guilty so you feel you have to try to settle in another so called ‘spiritual home’ or church. I have come to the conclusion though that it is okay to be discontent, especially with how things are. Yes we are told to be content whatever the circumstances, and that is a Biblical tension, but I am learning more and more to be content in my discontentment. It does not end up in moaning and groaning to everyone then but it turns into life and freedom. I have found the embrace of the Cave. One final group that I feel I want to mention here is the Divorced or separated. Talk about maligned, misunderstood, written off. Not mentioned in 1 Samuel but I am sure the heart of God is the same here. How the ‘church’ has mishandled many because of a lack of grace to those in broken relationships. Marriage is forever!!! That has been rammed down people’s throats until they have become sick of it and then end up being ostracised and left for the rejected pile. Yes this is the ideal but life is never full of ldeal it is full of mistake, blood, sweat, wrong decisons, conflict, people. Broken marriages bring broken lives, and Jesus loves broken lives. He is looking in the margins of the page right now for those who have gone through divorce and re-marriage and broken relationships. He wants to say to you, you may have been marginalised but you have never left His page. He has never crossed you off or written you out. You are written in His story as far as He is concerned. As I have written before the margins will become the central story. Divorce is not the end, but a new beginning under grace. People of the margins everywhere, it is time to feel the Cave’s embrace.

Posted in Paul's comments, Personal Perspectives, Prophetic Perspectives, Theological perspectives | Comments closed

I believe in the supernatural #5

By Martin Scott | Nov 01, 2011

Where are the boundaries between what is natural and what is supernatural? When is the discovery of a new treatment classed as ‘natural medicine’ and when might it be seen as a supernatural intervention of God as he works with those who press in with a passion for discovery? When is the development of a ‘natural’ ability a cross-over into something supernatural? What about a reversal of ‘natural’ trends such as climate change as a ‘supernatural’ goal…

So I am aware that this is a big subject and the scope in these few blogs is fairly narrow. I am willing to accept that there has been a flakiness in some charismatic claims, not helped by a fear that to face reality is to weaken faith – whereas Abraham faced the fact that his body was past it, yet believed God. True faith does not deny the facts. Again with Jesus and the prayer for the blind man: after the first prayer he was not instructed to take it by faith, and Jesus accepted that the healing was not complete, for he prayed again.

There have been such false divides between charismatic / social gospel; personal salvation / corporate transformation. It is these divides that I would love to see closed. The Gospel (and God!!) is much bigger than the compartments we have made.

We all live with our passions. Passions fuel our prayers. I pray daily for the supernatural manifestations of the kingdom of heaven. And in this I am on a journey. So a little personal trajectory outlined below.

For a number of years I pursued healings and was privileged to see many wonderful God-interventions. I saw the majority of those inside the four walls, in the context of worship and prayer. I have no doubt that the more one focuses on such things the more it takes place – after all the only time Jesus ‘failed’ in the realm of the miraculous was in the context of corporate unbelief (Mark 6:1-6, a huge Scripture that needs an expansion). So corporate faith is ‘conducive’ to miracles. I have also been privileged to see miracles in homes where an invitation was given to come to that place, but the greater manifestation was in the corporate setting.

We live on an island where there were accounts of many miracles in the recent past. However, we have found that many believers had never heard of them, and that as far as we are aware that those not professing faith have certainly never heard of what went on. We honour what took place, but if we are looking for a new continent we have to see something different take place.

I remember reading an email from someone who came to faith, he lived in a town where one of the largest, best-known churches in the UK meets. He said ‘I am not sure what I am going to do, because church is not very public where I am.’ However, many come in by car and train week by week. But behind closed doors it is not too public. Inside the walls and God is so present.

I am grateful for the four walls – where would I be without that as part of my journey… but where am I aspiring to go?

Posted in Theological perspectives | Tagged , | Comments closed

  • I am the main contributor to this site, though there are guest writers from time to time. Hopefully, what is presented are perspectives not the final word!

    I am currently developing a part of the site with a focus on the 'gates of society'. That section will develop more as a forum with links to other articles, so that it becomes a resource for the future. I will also be looking for other contributors into the various subject-areas.

    In my spare time(!!) I enjoy putting together wordpress sites, and also coaching people to make their own - open to hearing from you on that too.

Signing papers soon

By Martin Scott | Oct 31, 2011

I will get back to ‘proper’ posts soon. All the profound and absolutely clear beliefs I have (not to mention ‘correct’ in the ‘I believe’ series), my incredible insights into the world around us etc., but for now I am a little too positive about the move to Cádiz to do something too proper. Maybe mañana…

I’ll try not to repeat from the previous post but to close the loop, with hopefully a few encouragements to those who are launching out into the unknown. How did we go about finding the apartment? A lot of looking on the internet before going gave us about 20 possible places to consider. Prayer before ever leaving here as we felt the battle was not there but had to be won here before getting there. This really shifted things (at least for us) in the Spirit where we began to feel the pull from Cádiz to come (prior to this we felt the draw but a silence from the city to our intended move).

Our flight in was one of the bumpiest internal flights – similar to a few I have been on over the Amazon in storms – we have been on. We felt this was a reflection of the journey thus far. We had marked a place to view on the Monday as it was the place we were drawn to, and either wanted to settle it one way or the other first. However, the landlady was in Madrid and was not able to come on those first few days, indeed was not sure if she could make it that week. Those type of incidents tend to alert one to ‘either this is God in the sense of closing a door, or God is in this because it is marked with a battle’.

Having ruled out places to buy the first 2 days and switching to rental options. Nothing clicked. One possibility was to take a one bedroom over the road from a very-heavy-duty Catholic shrine with the apartment having a Buddha centre stage. Are we to live there we asked? Slightly relieved that this was not to be the place.

So to the last place – which should have been the first place we were to see. Get there and she is locked out, so we have to have a conversation looking up… Well the good news is we have put in a deposit, will fly to Madrid in December to sign papers and pick up the keys. So we are on the move… probably just before Christmas.

Oh and her email just happens to be (translated) search the sky / look up in the air!!

Posted in Reports | Comments closed

Streets of Cádiz

By Martin Scott | Oct 29, 2011

Home (for now) after a few days of walking streets, climbing stairs (feel sorry for us), eating great food, good wine (don’t feel sorry for us). Great to meet Simon and Amy – quality people who are connecting with people, working hard and praying. They will be good to walk with over the next few years.

Finding a place to live is always a wonderful challenge. Has to be a place that can be called ‘home’, and a place that really enables us to connect with the land. Given that Cádiz is a place of history we certainly feel it is important to live right in the old city so that as we live, walk streets and pray there that we have the maximum amount of leverage possible.

Prices are inflated (even with a horrendous unemployment rate of 40% in the area) but it looks as if we will pay close to what we are paying here but for 1/2 the space. Crazy!! This weekend we are beginning to try to see if the place we are homing in on will work, then will talk to the owner about dates and prices.

We had a list of around 25 possible places to look at. We began to look to see if we should buy… ruled that out before too long. Then switched to looking at renting. Before too long ruled out the many places that are on the third or fourth floor but without an elevator…

And the place we are pursuing for now is interesting, when looking at things from a ‘being led by God point of view’. It should have been the first place we saw on the Monday, but the owner was stuck in Madrid, so did not arrive till the Wednesday late at night. We then managed to arrange to see it on the Thursday (we left at 7.00am next morning). Turned up at 6.45pm, to the lady standing on the terraza looking down at us on the street (this was an exact replica of our last visit there when a man was looking down and the Lord had put on our hearts that in Cádiz we had to look up if we were to make a connection. We engaged him in conversation and then made an arrangement to see an apartment – the only one we saw that visit). So the exact replica caught our attention. Why was she outside? She had gone out of her apartment and the wind had blown the door closed and her keys and mobile were now inside!!! She was outside in her pyjamas. We had to come back later once the locksmith had rescued her.

So she shouted ‘¡Venid otra vez a la ultima hora de la tardé!’ So back we came in the dark, the last place we saw, at the last hour on the last day… And we think it will work. 50 sq metres (which I think is about 500 sq feet). So what furniture to take, when to move, how much to pay?

But ready to go. Here is a little video of the streets and a couple of aspects of our hunt.

cadiz flat hunting from Martin Scott on Vimeo.

Posted in Reports | Comments closed

The Traveller’s Rest- Chasing Rainbows and Shadows.

By Paul Leader | Oct 27, 2011

Conference junkie

First off a confession. I am a recovering conference junkie! It is not that many years ago that I was running around the U.K. to see and hear the latest big name. I would drive for a good couple of hours to hear a Name prophet or worship leader. I threw myself into the Sunderland refreshing by attending nearly every conference they had and if I could not make it personally I made sure I ordered all the teaching tapes and books by the main speakers, after all I may be missing what God is trying to say to me. Remember the frustration ofringing to book for a prophetic conference in Sunderland only to be told it was unexpectedly full. I told the woman on the end of the phone that they should have seen that one coming and put the phone down disappointed. How would I survive now? What is God saying? What if He had a Word or encounter for me? Used to visit my wife’s sister and her husband up north, not to see them but to have freebie bed and breakfast to go see Paul Cain, Mike Bickle, John Paul Jackson, names, names, names. the cult of celebrity started in the church if you ask me. Well ask the other Paul who even at the start had to speak into the situation and say ‘it is not about I follow Paul, I follow Peter etc.’ But being a conference junkie is hard to stop. I needed the fix. Then the great names came into Wales. Conferences on my doorstep. Not so much running but more to go to. Wales you shall be saved. Wow another Word. What amazing days to live in. I then had a subscription to Sky just so I could get these speakers into my living room via the God channel. Now I could be a part of every revival and refreshing in the earth and not even leave my house. Rodney Howard Browne, John Arnott, Rick Joyner, all beamed into my house. Surely this is how Obed-Edom felt when he had the Ark of the Covenant in his front room, how blessed am I. But then something must have happened. I do not know whether I grew up or blew up but I think I was conferenced to death. Remember sitting listening to another prophet from overseas preparing myself for the latest revelation and God just whispering into my heart, ‘Wales doesn’t need another visit from another prophet, what it needs is here in the guts of the Nation already. A nameless, faceless people not out for platforms and pulpits, a people buried in the Nation poured out for a people.’ That was about ten to fifteen years ago. Took a while for that to sink in because I became the conference speaker, but that bubble was soon to burst. Almost over night I stopped running around investing my time and money in these big events and speakers. The junkie was junked.

Never Heard of them

Now I find myself in a strange place. It is almost as if I have had my T.V. taken away, the computer and had no access to any tabloids or magazines. I am out of touch. When I have had trips to India or Africa and have lost touch with the news etc, the world goes on and you do not even realise it. That is how I now feel in the Christian ghetto and world. Lately a few people have excitedly told me about speakers they have travelled to see and hear, and new refreshing and revivals going on and I have to look at them blank and say that I have never heard of them. It makes for almost awkward moments because they want me to agree about how wonderful these speakers are, and they are probably good don’t get me wrong, but that is just not where I am at right now. Do I feel like I am missing out? There would have been a time when I would have said yes to that, but not any more. I have nothing against the gatherings but I don’t need them anymore. Gatherings have taken on a whole new relational dimension for me rather than some impersonal big meetings with the next big thing. Chasing the next touch or the next Word or the next wave. Is that really what it should be all about. Each new wave disengages more people who don’t get it or get into it. This creates insiders and outsiders. I am now one of the marginalised one’s that don’t even know what is going on any more. I find myself switching off when people go on about big speakers. The celebrity cult is massive in Christianity and we need saving from it. We criticise the world for it’s X-Factor and Big Brother world but we are even worse. I now cannot stomach the God channel.

What are we chasing?

I may sound like a grumpy old man but I am concerned we are investing in the unimportant. I cannot point the finger because I did it for many years. I chased rainbows, a pot of gold that I could not reach by attending stuff. I was taken in by the stuff, the dynamic, the charismatic, I chased the big thing for years spending loads of money doing it while I struggled to pay bills. Went to all this stuff and neglected time with my family. I never got satisfied because the rainbow kept shifting, I could never quite find the end of it. All along if someone had only told me and kept telling me, the treasure was here all along in this jar of clay. I already had the treasure inside me. The same Spirit that rose Christ from the dead lives in me. Wake up Paul Leader and smell the coffee!!! I was chasing shadows. Shadows in Scripture were only a taste of what was to come, the real thing. The tabernacle of Moses was only a shadow of Christ dwelling in and through us as Living Stones. We seem happy enough chasing shadows when the reality is so much more dynamic. Christ in ME!!!! Now I have learned the art of being content in my discontentment. I have no desire to chase the next big thing, and anyway I do not even know what it is called anymore. What is the latest refreshing? The latest big name could come to my town and I would not know who he was. I would not buy his book because I do not know what he has written. Am I missing out? I don’t think so because the life I have full of family and friends and work colleagues and links of heart and spirit are so fulfilling I do not need to be a junkie anymore. I am free to live without the latest dose of whatever is around. I no longer spend my whole life chasing rainbows and shadows.

Posted in Paul's comments, Personal Perspectives, Prophetic Perspectives, Theological perspectives | Comments closed

A pause in the supernatural?

By Martin Scott | Oct 22, 2011

I will get back to the supernatural (!!!) in due course, but given the pressing issues that are everywhere economically, I felt it is time to make a few further comments. I have followed at a distance the Republican candidate debates in the US, and this is certainly not a comment on them or anyone of them, but am so aware how so much of politics comes down to ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’ What a time to be alive when a fresh set of values could be on the table. Value is not tied to how much we can consume / spend / borrow. Just shows that money still is the big one.

A recent New Scientist article (thanks to Ian Storie for sending me the link) coming at things from an interconnectedness of networks. It is not suggesting that this is bad or good, but comes to the conclusion that

“super-entity” of 147 even more tightly knit companies – all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity – that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. “In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network”

And the entire network is a listing of some 37 million companies and investors worldwide. This article is not about a conspiracy or the like, simply trying to analyse how things are. Now it also means that a shift in one place can cause an enormous knock on effect.

Another example of monopolies is the pharmaceutical industry. I have talked with Andy Knox (GP) and he has told me about the major savings that can be made when moving away from labelled drugs, to the same, but non-branded drug. I do not have figures for the UK, and it is often easier to obtain figures for the USA, so forgive me that the figures are from there. If in the US non-branded drugs were issued the current amount spent annually on prescribed drugs would drop from $300,000 billion to $30,0000 billion. A transfer to the pharmaceutical industry of close to $270,000 billion a year, or about 1.8 percent of gross domestic product.

We might wish to see the ‘Bush tax benefits’ to the wealthy cut (or the equivalent in our country) but even if they were it would only put $680 bn into government funds (0.25% of the pharmaceutical figure).

So arguments can abound of private vs. national health but it seems to me the real problem lies when making money is the bottom line. The bottom line has to be defined by creation not by dollars or euros or the like. When we support private health we also need to consider who we are funding. There are many reasons why someone might have private health insurance – my comment is not on that, and we all live in a world where to engage we have to compromise… but we also have to make choices that are redemptive.

Makes it interesting when we consider stewardship. Wise stewardship is not about paying the least and making the biggest profit and then (of course) tithing it. There are times we will need to take money and let it go into the ground. ‘Losing’ money is not the worst that can happen. Not using it redemptively is probably the worst.

No maybe this is not a pause in the I believe in the supernatural. It is certainly not if we use the terms spiritual and consider creation as our context.

Posted in Prophetic Perspectives | Tagged , , | Comments closed

The Traveller’s Rest- Swedish Travelogue.

By Paul Leader | Oct 20, 2011

Learning On The Go

On Monday night returned from a seven day trip to Sweden. This was a return trip to a Nation on the back of visiting through the rambling words of these blogs. Rambling as in sometimes lots of talk but also rambling as in sharing about the walk. A walk that always seems to be unfolding and shifting and challenging and changing. As my life touched and journeyed through the Nation with my friend and companion Geoff Reed from Cramlington, near Newcastle in the North-east of England, we both realised how much we were learning and being continually shaped by the journey itself. Geoff also a connection via the blogs and a visit to the north-east of England. This was truly a walk in the new along the ancient paths. We spent four days in Helsingborg in the south, right on the Danish border, and then moved up the country a short way to Borås. This blog is some reflections of the journey. A personal perspective that I trust will help us see a part of God’s heart. Like the journey itself it my be full of random comments and lots of loose ends, but hey that is the reality of this adventure.

Part One: Helsingborg

A city on the border of Denmark. A contended city like many border cities. Through it’s history has been part of both Nations. A city of much bloodshed on the streets. Is a very obvious gateway city as a ferry terminal and centre of new business reveal. The headquarters of the famous Ikea is here, where we were given a tour inside by our host Torbjorn Erling, who along with his wife Anna-Karin and daughter Johanna, made us feel so at home. Torbjorn is a gatherer and connector. Not out of any sense of building ministry or title but out of love for those he walks with and love for the city. Was a part of a few gatherings connected by prayer, but more than that there was connection out of love. Love for fellow travellers. Those sowing into the heart of the region of Hoganas and Helsingborg. We met a small group of leaders with a strong bond, not joined by that normal competitive spirit but through heart. Broken leaders, poured out for the city. One a pastor of 500, another a leader of a small spontaneous house church network, both shoulder to shoulder for the sake of the city. It was great to meet individually with these guys and just share heart and journey. There were questions on all things and sometimes no answers. Here are just a couple of personal reflections. Do our prayers change the city or bring transformation? Big question. After thinking about this as we gathered in many different ways to pray for change I think the answer is yes but maybe not in the way we are all looking for. I asked the question how does transformation come to a city or a Nation? One life at a time. If prayer draws us deeper into connection with Him who is already present then that can bring change to me. Then every time I change it already changes the city. Transformation comes as I am transformed, moving from glory to glory. Transformation happens just by me being here. As we live love, freedom, peace, joy etc. the atmosphere of the city is already changed. As we listened to leader’s struggles and the weight of the work and expectations spoken and unspoken there was a sense that there had to be a death to leadership of position and title. This constant need to perform and be seen to be a success. Always waiting for the next big thing or the next answer. Shifting positions and churches but still the same issues. Lives full of doing the stuff but not full of life. Was stirred about a wave of buried leadership. If apostles and prophets are a foundational ministry they must be underground and unseen. In the dirt and mud of the earth, the city, the Nation. Getting their hands dirty. Not to oversee but undergird. Not to be the voice but to connect others to The Voice, the whisper. To serve and not to be served. A seed sown into the earth that has died. Only that type of seed will bear much fruit. Maybe never gaining recognition by man but always seen by God, even in the depths. Always drawing out of others, always prefering others in love, poured out as a drink offering, broken, earthen vessels. Walking shoulder to shoulder and not breaking rank. Never taking ownership. I saw this so much in Torbjorn. What a big heart to just serve and love. As we left Helsingborg we left with hope for the City. People prepared to sow in the opposite spirit of the fought over nature of the city of the past. People not building empires but demonstrating kingdom love and hope. People that will always be a part of our hearts like the wonderful Erlings, Rickard Cruz, Jonas Hallobro, Alejandro Gallardo, and others. Not forgetting Mohammed who we prayed for, a young man recently saved, a sign for the city. Firstfruits. Helsingborg we love you!!! To end this chapter a quote from Jonas, ‘I was expecting something dynamic but instead found life.’

Part Two: Borås

This was a return visit to Borås and the home of the wonderful Maria and Bjorn Isacsson. Maria has one of the biggest hearts I know. A heart that reaches out to broken pastors and their families, to immigrants and generally to anyone that comes in her direction. This led to the opportunity to pray for many people and to stand with them in this part of their walk. To hear stories of lives torn apart and living on the edge of society. Women about to be deported, family members lost, brokenness. Moslems coming for prayer out of the desperation of their heart. The story of hope of Milena, an immigrant whose life was turned around through miracle. Now walking in fulfilled prophecy. A walking ball of life and fun. Already a leader of a new way, a cleaner but boy what she is carrying into people’s homes is nothing other than God’s glory. Meeting Bradley Abrey and Ja-Kyung Moon, two lives being sown into the nation in mission with Operation Mobilisation. In one moment there were people from four continents in one room, Asia, America, Africa and Europe. Many languages where translation was interesting, we joked from Geordie to English, to Swedish to the immigrants language. The many coloured God displayed in one place. We also felt the weight of a so called ‘spirit of death’ on the community. Five pastors all losing their sons to suicide. Why? Expectations, guilt, too much weight? Making the call more important than the walk? To close I want to bring an ancient story that became the focus for both Geoff and I, a learning place, a dwelling place, a place of refocus and hope.

Part Three: The Garden

In the garden were two trees; the Tree of Life and the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The second tree being the forbidden tree that brings death. That is why we kept being drawn here, why is there a spirit of death? Where are the roots of death? In the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The evil bit we understand, sin leads to death, no arguments there. But the knowledge of GOOD!!! As I once read, trying to be a good Christian is eating from the wrong tree. Praying, reading the Bible, preaching, unity, etc. etc. All these things are good but if they do not flow out of the right tree, they become a weight of expectation and a yoke we are not prepared to carry. That is why we can become weary in doing good. Only see postion as a way of serving God. Feel that fasting will make a difference. Too many children of Christians, especially leader’s children, live with such a weight of hope and expectations. They feel they can never be good enough. They need to be released to live and even become the prodigal. They need to be shown love not depentant on anything. A love that we all need to return to, the love of a Father that just wants to walk in the cool of the day with us. That whether we pray or not He loves us. Whether we read the Bible or not He loves us. Whether we ever do anything for Him or not He loves us passionately. This is the Tree of life. The mystery revealed to the church at Ephesus, that we are loved. That by the time Revelation was written they had forgotten. They did the good stuff but forgot the key, their first love. They were called back to the Tree of Life. Eating from this Tree will bring a freedom to all people, including the children. Son of Christian parents you do not have to be a youth leader, you do not have to go to prayer meetings, you do not have to go to church!!! Parent you need to parent in a new way without unspoken weight and control. You cannot live your hopes and dreams through them. They must be allowed to have their own dreams. They must know you love them whether they stand or fall in these dreams. Teach them to eat from the right tree. We do not fast and pray to draw near to God, that is good but it leads to death. We draw near to God and then those things flow from that place out of love response. The same with all other spiritual discplines. It is time to stop doing the good stuff, it is killing us. It is time just to dwell at the tree of life and eat from the fruit of freedom.

Posted in Paul's comments, Personal Perspectives, Prophetic Perspectives, Theological perspectives | Comments closed

I believe in the supernatural #4

By Martin Scott | Oct 18, 2011

I could also post this as an ‘interesting Scripture’. 1 Cor 11:30:

“That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”

Interesting world-views expressed here and also interesting when we try to interpret it from a western one. (And desperately not trying to claim my world-view is able to interpret this accurately!!) So I will try to throw out some comments for consideration:

1. There is a world view that not all sickness is ‘natural’ or just inevitable.
2. The same applies to death – it is hard not to read Paul as suggesting that some are dying prematurely.
3. Here the results are connected to not discerning the body of the Lord… not straightforward language but given the wider context of Corinth has to have a primary emphasis on a lack of discernment re the family of God.
(4. Maybe – and I think so – where there is a right discernment there is a greater level of health.)

Then a point that I think has to be made and this one does cut deeper at the individualistic ‘I am not my borther’s/sister’s keeper’ mentality:
5. He does not say the guilty are sick and die.

This last point is very interesting. If we see the promises of God as covenantal with a people, rather than individualistic we will be pressed into some fresh approaches. I think such an approach is inevitable:

OT (summary) if you sin out of the land you go and into Exile… Daniel, Ezekiel are righteous, but out of the land they go, and they do not shout the promises of God back to him. They stand in the gap in intercession realising that they are under judgment, not personally, but corporately.

Now if the way I live can affect the health of others that is a huge challenge. And of course we can apply this beyond that of physical health.

I remember being impacted when the first time I met someone who later became a friend, received discernment that a persistent and serious physical problem this person had was not the result of something natural, nor something occult such as witchcraft, but was a ‘result of something much more powerful’. He said this comes as a result of jealousy from within the household of God. What had resisted medical help and concerted prayer of over a year went in minutes as that was reversed. The effect that the household of ‘faith’ has. I have seen on many occasions since that date physical healing come forth when that jealousy spirit from either within the family of God, or from someone in close relationship, is broken.

Posted in Theological perspectives | Tagged , , | Comments closed

I believe in the natural #3

By Martin Scott | Oct 16, 2011

No not a misprint!! And on the day of the week when many celebrate the greatest supernatural event of all – the resurrection, what better day to talk about the affirmation of the natural? In the push for the manifestation of the supernatural we cannot do this with a denial of the ‘natural’, creation as God has given and as he will redeem. We are not spirit beings having a brief human experience, we are human beings, waiting for the redemption of all creation. We are not headed for heaven, we are waiting eagerly for the new heavens and the new earth – with the emphasis on re-newed, not ‘new’ in the sense of never having been in existence before.

I guess we will probably still eat in the age to come.
The resurrection of Jesus is one of the greatest affirmations of humanity and creation. It is not that ‘He is alive’: life after death was totally uncontroversial in the Jewish world; it was that ‘He is risen from the dead’ (his body is no longer in the tomb, he has not been resuscitated as per Lazarus, he has become the sign of justice, faithfulness, new creation, time is distorted for ever…). And when risen from the dead, one of the things he does is cook breakfast and eat with the disciples. Awesome. How many things are basic to this life: breathing, drinking, eating and sleeping? He breathed on the disciples, so we might be able to assume that air was in his lungs; and certainly what we do know is he ate. Not because he would die but because he affirmed creation.

(I guess we will probably still eat in the age to come, maybe grow our own fruit and vegetables… make our own wine…)

Israel had some amazing miracles in the desert – manna, food being flown in, rocks that yielded water. They enter the promised land and those miracles stopped. The land was to produce for them.

Food multiplication is wonderful. And in the days ahead why not look for some signs of that nature in our kitchens? And yet James says,

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead (2:15-17)

There are some miracles God does not want to perform. He wants justice, equity, generosity, the transformation of the structures that currently enrich some and impoverish others. He wants our hands dirty… or maybe our feet so that he can wash them.

We enter into the suffering of creation, and do not just come with the miracle that turns everything round. I see this in Jesus himself. He called people to pick up their cross, follow him, for in doing so there would be the possibility of life for others.

So I did not label this a separate section of ‘I believe’. They sit together. They leave us sometimes without neat answers. We do not abandon one for the other. We are called to bring them together… we are not called only to fill the heavens, but also the deepest parts of the earth. We live not by avoiding death, but only by embracing death do we live. Because he is risen we both pursue the miraculous and turn away from the miraculous. We do not leave earth behind, we do not even simply come to people with heaven, we come, live among and people experience heaven.

Have we – the people of God begun on this journey? I think so. The aftermath of ’97 is just that. Welcome to the world that no-one can fathom. We will have to grow enormously.

Posted in Theological perspectives | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Occupy – a sign of the kingdom?

By Martin Scott | Oct 15, 2011

In my blogging at this time I am writing about the need for the supernatural, and opened yesterday with the two signs Jesus gave to John – and in the necessary context of not being offended. Supernatural manifestations and social transformation being the two signs.

If God is involved in his world. If those of us who make a claim to be followers of Jesus are to be the salt of the earth; if we do not make our first focus on self-preservation, nor even on ‘church’ growth, then there are all sorts of possibilities.

Today the ‘Occupy’ protest is seeking to go worldwide. Their website says:

United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future.

Is this a sign of the kingdom? Well I am sure it is part of something rising that is a kingdom manifestation. There are times in history that are ‘fuller’ than others. Surely we are in such a time. A time of great reversals… a time of answered prayers. Democratisation – not in the sense of the democratic process which might be a step forward – but in the sense of the empowerment of the marginalised (see Pentecost for this paradigm) has to be a sign that something is coming through.

An interlude: wisdom in an open letter

Here is an open letter from Jim Wallis with some wonderful words of advice and a seasoned perspective on some of the current changes. Some of the language in the letter was stunning:

  • what is taking place not being a protest but a think-tank
  • a transition from the pseudo-ethics of endless growth to the moral ethics of sustainability
  • do not demonise those you view as opponents

And for me such a ciritical piece of advice:

I would advise you to cultivate humility more than overconfidence or self indulgence. This really is not about you. It’s about the marginalized masses, the signs of the times, and the profound yearning for lasting change. Take that larger narrative more seriously than you take yourselves.

So again I say what days we are living in.

The streets hold the future

Another article I have just read says of Greece:

“Most economists and bankers believe Greece is insolvent. So, increasingly, do officials and politicians in Berlin.” (Now I think this is stating what would seem all-but certain.) But the part of the article that grabbed me was the following:

There are summits and then there are the streets. In the days ahead there will be much negotiating over how to save the eurozone but the Greek people – not just public sector unions – may simply upset the plan.

I have no doubt about the fullness of times that we are living in. And in the fullness there is both an unravelling, a seeing of things as they are, and an incredible confusion. There are many uncertainties in the immediate future.

To quote Delirious?

Open up the doors and let the music play
Songs that bring your hope
Songs that bring your joy
Dancers who dance upon injustice
Let the streets resound with singing

I think the streets are beginning to make a sound. Maybe not totally tuneful, but when a new sound clashes with an old sound maybe we should not expect too much too soon.

Posted in Personal Perspectives | Tagged , , | Comments closed

I believe in the supernatural #2

By Martin Scott | Oct 15, 2011

Cultural and theological readings can be problematic. Healing can be seen as a culturally relevant sign of the kingdom’s nearness in the NT, but that signs in our culture might be different, for example. So to cut to the chase, my reading is that Jesus and the Gospel sowed seeds for total world transformation, but the seeds sown do not override or supersede the continued expectation among Jesus-followers for supernatural interventions.

At one level I have seen enough, but unless someone can really show me differently, I have also read enough of the Gospels to convince me that the manifestation of the supernatural can and should be at a greater level of frequency than is experienced.

Maybe we are too analytic, maybe that does not help us simply live. Ever thought about Jesus instructions in Matthew 9:8 to the 12 he sent out? ‘Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.’ We can theologise it, maybe they just got on with it. The problem with a tight theology is that some things do not fit with what we know is ‘correct’. And if we approach the issue to find a water-tight theology we will find this text a tough one to squeeze into our box. Heal the sick, but in the same breath ‘raise the dead’. They certainly did not expect to raise every dead person. Now my point is not that they expected only to see the same number of sick people healed as dead people raised, my point is that our theology (‘healing is in the atonement’, ‘confession brings possession’, or whatever) will always leak, and that maybe in the NT there was a greater excitement about Jesus, and all sorts of things spilled out as a result through these commissioned people.

No, we cannot settle everything theologically and even if we did we would still have the issues of experience to deal with. Situations such as Smith Wigglesworth’s own daughter being deaf right through her life, for example. Or, I have stayed in the home of someone who has seen – in reality – more healings than I have had hot dinners, including a woman raised from the dead outside his own house on the street, and yet had to bury his own son. Experience.

So today my suggestion is let’s not work it all out, let’s be a lot more free and see what just spills out. And theology? For me the ongoing question, ‘so if Jesus were here what would be happening?’ is enough to spur me on, after all Luke’s Gospel was just what Jesus began to do and to teach.

Posted in Theological perspectives | Tagged , | Comments closed

I believe in the supernatural #1

By Martin Scott | Oct 14, 2011

So I can get knocked for the title, so let me start there. Right language is so difficult to find. When our world-view is that heaven is not up there somewhere, but that it is a dimension that is in, through, above, below and beyond the material world we live and move and have our being in, there are many interactions between heaven and earth. We could describe all of those as supernatural, or we could describe them all as natural. Perhaps supra-normal, supra-usual might be more appropriate for where I want to go in these blogs. But for now ‘supernatural’ will be the shorthand word.

Transformation is our mission – teaching what Jesus taught us, a discipling in our own lives that goes beyond personal morals, and a discipleship in the nations (not nation-states, but the world of humanity) that speaks of more than discipleship classes for new believers (which I also believe in). Messiah came to bring about a movement, the reshaping of Israel, for the sake of the Gentiles: ‘he became a curse so that the blessings of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.’ When Jesus was asked by some of John’s disciples if he was the one or should they look for another, he replied with an instruction to tell John what they saw and heard:

Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

In simple terms the signs were in two realms: supernatural and social. With the end result that there is something that can be seen and heard, and the requirement that we do not take offence. Particularly relevant for John, who is in and will die in prison while Jesus is the setter-free-of-prisoners.

Experience and theology

Many years ago I wrote a book ‘Healing then and now’, seeking to make the connection between then and now. An easier book to write would have been ‘Healing now and then’!! This is the challenge. We can either close the gap by lowering hopes and expectations, or by moving into unreality. Both takes place. No my guess is we have to live with tensions that will force us to maturity.

Recently Dyfed Roberts gave a great personal blog about healing: will this be ‘the morning’ when it happens. The opening and closing sentences of the blog are:

I forgot to take my tablets with me this last weekend and sure enough within a couple of days or so I ended up with a migraine. The tablets do something in the brain that usually keep the migraines at bay and they have been a real blessing over the 18 months since they were prescribed… And the migraine? Well I’m back on the tablets and I feel fine again. Maybe next time.

Now I have to confess that there is probably nothing that I enjoy more than being invited to a home where there are people who do not share faith in Jesus in the same way that most readers of this blog do because they need a God-intervention. I hope I never lose that anticipation, though I am also aware I have to mature and realise that there are structures, mind-sets, and even cultures that need a massive God-intervention. The former can be easy, the latter takes our lives in alignment with God’s purposes.

I do not suggest any of this is without difficulty both theologically and experientially (who wants to be disappointed?) but I am convinced that we cannot afford to lose the desire for both sets of signs to manifest. So this will be my focus on and off for the next few days here on the blog.

Posted in Theological perspectives | Tagged , | Comments closed
micro blogs:

  • Indignados are back
    13 May 2012

    One year on the Spanish protestors are celebrating. A poster reads: “Mum, this is what you taught me to do. Thanks!” With a scrawled addition from an anonymous mother: “I always knew you were listening, but I am so happy to hear you say it.”

  • Mark on Temple replacement
    9 May 2012

    Temple is Jesus in John, but followers of Jesus in Mark. See: Kirk.

  • Far right shaping Europe?
    5 May 2012

    This article suggests that the far right is forcing an agenda in Europe. In France – playing on Islamophobia for example; in Germany member of Social Democratic Party suggesting Turkish immigrants are genetically inferior.

  • Alternative to Augustine
    27 April 2012

    Dyfed writes about Irenaeus’ much more optimistic view of humanity and an alternative to ‘original sin’ in the Augustinian sense.

  • Spain & Andalucia
    14 April 2012

    So Spain is now in the eurozone spotlight and Andalucia in particular. No great surprise there.

  • Prophet Benedict
    11 April 2012

    Pope Benedict writing prophetically: “The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning….”

  • Economic penitence
    8 April 2012

    Spain: 24% unemployment… a bail-out this year? Tremlett: Guardian.

  • Spain and a new budget
    31 March 2012

    So a tough budget yesterday. Will hurt. Is it enough? Amazingly Spain ran a balanced budget on average – every year until the eve of the 2008 financial crisis.

  • Spanish ‘baby’ reunited
    28 March 2012

    After 44 years a baby that had ‘died’ is reunited with her mother.

  • Mission Impossible?
    26 March 2012

    Spain with 24% unemployment is looking at €40bn (£33.45bn) in spending cuts and taxes in a budget on 30 March, the day after a general strike. “It’s really moved to the wrong side of the spectrum and is now at greater risk of sovereign restructuring than ever before,” (Willem Buiter, Citibank).

  • New WP course
    23 March 2012

    Want to develop your own WordPress theme? I have a new online course. Great price too. See A Little Ad.

  • Electricity: very useful!!!
    20 March 2012

    So we discover today that our landlady has not paid the electricity bill, saying she had transferred to our name. However, no payment and not in our name so unless we get a payment in tomorrow we are cut off. Found out today at 18.00h. Ah well I know what we are doing tomorrow!!!

  • Watch this
    15 March 2012

    Diane Coyle OBE, economist and author lecture at University of York. (Thanks Joanna for sending the link.) Incisive and provocative.

  • Two meaty posts

    Here are a couple of great meaty posts: NextReformation on the Atonement, and Mike Morrell on evolution, development of humanity, the fall, his new book and…

  • Spanish holocaust
    10 March 2012

    Paul Preston has just published ‘The Spanish Holocaust’: a look at Franco’s legacy, suggesting that the victor prolonged his revenge, liquidating 20,000 opponents after the war, and condemning hundreds of thousands to prison, exile, ostracism or poverty as Franco made a calculated investment in terror. ‘Sociological Francoism’ living “on in the democratic Spain of today”.

  • Judge Garzón
    2 March 2012

    Been a big month in Spain. Garzón an amazing judge in the land has been acquitted on one count – he opened up the hidden history of the deaths in the Civil War and much more. Acquitted but guilty on other charges. Political trials to silence him. Here are a couple of articles:
    Tremlett: Guardian and BBC.

  • Fresh water
    29 February 2012

    Here is an awesome project to give fresh water through desalination. moerkwater.com. We are in touch with people involved. Do you know a need for this?

  • Narrative theology
    27 February 2012

    Two excellent posts by Daniel Kirk on Narrative theology. Maybe the most provocative is “Narrative theology, instead, recognizes change in the people’s expectations and even in the nature of the fulfillment of God’s promises.” Here are the links (I think there will be more to follow): link 1 and link 2.

  • Valencia: street protest
    22 February 2012

    This article seems to give a fair report of the current state of play in Valencia. February and crisis in the Peninsula?

  • Streets of Spain
    20 February 2012

    Not sure what is being covered outside Spain, but in excess of 1m people on the streets, objecting to the austerity measures of the new government. ‘We are living in 2012, supposed to be a time of freedom…’ ‘The epoch of Franco has returned’ were two quotes on the TV tonight.

Recent comments:

Categories:

Recent posts:

Links:

Videos:
  • The upside-down church
  • Mark 5 & Europe
  • Christendom & Europe
  • Developing a WP site
  • New WP Online course