Category: Personal Perspectives

Video interview with Matheus Lapa (#1)

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by Martin Scott
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Over the past short while I have been touching base with Matheus – from Brazil but living in Canada. We first met when he was (and continues) to translate for when he was translating for me on Zoom earlier this year. I suggested I made a few videos with him… for a number of reasons. He is younger than me by a few years (BTW my calculator seems to be back functioning and shows a difference of 42 years between us!!!… Age 23, things 23 years ago etc. have become very significant for Gayle and I, so that caught my interest); he is living cross-culturally and has / continues to think through the implications of his faith.

I made 3 interviews on Monday – this being the first, just pressing in to issues of what difference(s) are there in living cross-culturally.

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Interpreting the signs

A new career calls

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by Martin Scott
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There are times we put 2 and 2 together and probably don’t get 4, but then there are other times… See what you think.

A short while back they began to film in the street round the corner from where our apartment is in Madrid. So there we stood, Gayle and I watching. Along comes one of the helpers who asked us to move on… apparently our reflection was in the window and this was not at all helpful as the whole setup was set in the 1920s. Of course I did wonder if this rather junior guy had missed the obvious – pull me in at least to be an extra. Whatever…!

So here we are some 18 months later and police notices go up – all cars out of the street, all surrounding roads blocked off, with our street as the main focus. Another series is being filmed. Set in the 90s, a series called Paraiso. Could just be coincidental, but maybe it is a sign. They are using this area as they wanted a setting that has not changed since the 90s. Surely they will need someone like me who has not changed since the 90s… after all how many can they find like that, I ask myself.

So while waiting for the call, I will see if I can sort out my calculator. For some reason it has begun to malfunction, I know this as when I tap in 2+2 it is giving me all kind of random answers except the right one.

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Water

New Supplies... Neighbours need it

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by Martin Scott
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The screenshot above of the Palestinian woman bathing her kids puts a different perspective to any complaint we might have about life. It again illustrates that we are in the top x% of the privileged in the world.

A small challenge this morning making breakfast with no running water. Dirty dishes that we could not wash yesterday, no water in the tap, no water in the toilet cistern… at least I had a shower back in February so that part was not urgent…

So here is a story.

Saturday morning we get a panic call from Alejandra. We have never met her, but we sent her our keys so as she could stay in our apartment in Madrid. We can go back there legally now, but for over a year we were not able to travel there because of lockdown. We all have choices to make, and we sensed that giving her the keys was a redemptive choice, redemptive as it pushed back against a culture that we do not wish – we have to sow where we want the world to go, surely that is the practical outworking of refusing to acknowledge the lordship of Caesar?

The boiler is broken and water is pouring out. She then said she woke at 2.00am to the sound of rain, but it sounded inside the apartment. Back to sleep… woke and got up at 8.00ish. So some 6+ hours of water pouring out had caused quite a lot of damage, inside the kitchen and to the apartment below as well.

One day later, we had just been out for an hour, and when we came back the neighbour asked if we had water. Up we go and discover no water. An hour later he owns up that he had drilled through our water pipe, with the words that we had heard the day before – ‘Your water poured out everywhere’.

Compared to the Palestinian woman in the screenshot our situation is a blip, an inconvenience… but 2 cases of ‘all your water came pouring out…’ over neighbours are either coincidental, weird or…

Our entry to Madrid was ‘ up the inside of a sewer pipe’. We certainly had challenges, and then to remind us the upstair’s (there is one floor above us) toilet leaked through our ceiling. Not too pleasant water coming in. Now in both places our water has poured out (sorry neighbours!).

There is only one source for water – spiritual water. How we connect to that source can change. In both places the first step was that the mains water supply was stopped. Re-connections, new conduits etc., had to be put in. Then a connection back to the main source. I don’t think we are reading too much into it, for this has been our story this year. Thank God for water (past), thank God for the sign that neighbours can benefit from ‘your water pouring out’. But we are now in a season of getting a whole new supply of water, different pipes etc… OK more to it – but I think this might be a sign wider than ourselves. A year is here for connection to the one and only source, but expect changes, for the flow to neighbours of the old supply is changing.

Oh… and hopefully by the end of today we will be able to wash the dishes, and I will need to consider carefully if another shower might be due.

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Where do you want the world to go?

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by Martin Scott
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So we have a birthday in the apartment today. I have had more birthdays than Gayle (they do get a little repetitive don’t they?) so this one is definitively hers. She is now older than 45… Been an interesting few weeks.

Gayle is convinced that many aspects from 23 years ago (did you pick up the maths there – 46 divided by 2) are somehow coming round again but very differently. Interesting cos when I was 46 I got up in the early hours of the night with two prayers. ‘If it’s OK with you I would like anther 46 years, I think I might need at least that long to make some kind of difference…’ and a second prayer… ‘Raise up some 23 year olds who carry all the maturity of a 46 year old, who show no fear of demonic powers, can discern where cities are at and call for their destiny.’ First prayer took no length of time at all, the second quite a bit longer. A few weeks after this I had an interesting experience. I called someone asking them if they would be willing to take on something that I had initiated. I had not spoken to them prior to this on the phone, and as far as I remember never after. I recounted my 46/23 night time experience and the person listened, then once I had finished said to me ‘You do know what day this is?’ I had no idea what they meant (Tuesday, Friday… whatever). It was their 23rd birthday. I might at times be slow to catch on but that got my attention.

I am no longer 46, indeed I had a revelation a few days back while running. The revelation was that I am probably already beyond half my life span. I’ve had to think about that since then – as I am only half way between 60 and 70…

So today belongs to Gayle. And amazingly in the days before her birthday so many ‘coincidences’ of what took place 23 years ago.

We are both very grateful for months of protracted meetings in ‘Marsham Street’ 24/23 years ago. So many people found faith. A wonderful input to those gatherings, Dale Gentry, said amongst many other snippets of wisdom ‘sow where you want to go’. Inspired by those gatherings in 1998 and went to Leeds to meet with Steve, Mike, Paul and others to suggest we meet across the city to pray (I met with them 23 years ago). A couple of months later Sowing Seeds for Revival began. Never asking to go anywhere, but one city and region opened after another and led to 8 years of fairly intensive travelling.

Now here we both are 23 years on from that time. So much has changed. Nothing looks the same. The fires burn as strong but the expectation of outworking? So different.

Sow where you want to go has become

Sow where you want the world to go.

Sow into people who are carrying / desire to carry something of the future. This I understand as being the nature of the New Testament understanding of ‘gift’. Freely offered to enable someone to move toward their destiny.

Seedtime and harvest. 23 years ago a lot of seed. Seed sown with expectation. But… expectation just does not cut it by itself, for expectation is shaped by the past. 23 years later, and during these past 23 years fruit, fruit, fruit. Seed sown on good soil; but then seed sown into the world; seed that was ‘the word of God’ becomes seed that is the ‘sons and daughters of the kingdom’ (parable of the sower gives way to the next parable). Sow where you want your life to go becomes sow where you want the world to go.

We are grateful for the connections we have where there is church growth. But absolutely sold out to the places where there is world growth.

It is a good time to have a birthday.

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The Door is Out

Trying to enter through the exit door

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by Martin Scott
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After I finished recording the previous two conversations with Michele she launched into two dreams she had had a number of years prior that shaped her direction. I said, let me record that second one! Here it is. When God has called us out there is something to see (if we turn around)… OK I will let her tell it.

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Conspiracies

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by Martin Scott
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I receive every week the ‘Weekly Word’ from Jeff Fountain (YWAM and The Schumann centre for European Studies). They are always informative and today he tackles head on ‘What is it that makes ‘evangelicals’ so susceptible to conspiracy theories?‘.

https://weeklyword.eu/en/evangelicals-and-conspiracy/

He has felt compelled to write as the silence of ignoring it he now considers is to be complicit. Are there decisions taken behind closed doors that if we found out about them would cause deep concern? Without doubt. Yet when we propagate conspiracy theories that cannot be substantiated are we really promoting the hope that entered the world when the proclamation that Jesus’ body is not in the tomb but that he is risen? Or are we feeding distrust (leads to suspicion, hatred and violence) and fear?

I have had many shocking experiences in a Christian context. One that sits up there quite highly was in 2008 prior to the USA presidential elections when I heard from a pulpit a youth pastor proclaim that no-one should vote for Obama because he ‘was a Muslim’. I challenged him afterwards saying that there is no evidence for that claim. He replied, acknowledging what I had said, and then added, ‘I know, but it helps our cause to say so.’

We might not like a candidate or their policies but we also need to realise that the world we live in is messy. Charles Strohmer interviewed a Christian pastor (Joel Hunter), way more conservative than I am, who was one of Obama’s spiritual advisers. It is worth a read, not to endorse Obama, but maybe to slow us down a little in our assessments:

Conversation with Conservative Pastor Joel Hunter, Spiritual Advisor to President Obama

It is as Alexandr Solzhenitsyn said that when we draw the line of good / bad between ourselves and someone else we will inevitably live it out with great error. The line does not run between us but runs through us and through them. Let’s assume the line comes through me and I am 55% ‘good’ (go on be generous to me and it is only a hypothetical example) but the part that is not on the ‘good’ side is pretty significant also. (How do we measure the ‘good’ part? I think the level of love in difficult situations I show, and to what extent I am able to see, as that is a measure of ‘those who are in Christ’.) That good / bad dualism stems from the garden and came to an end in the Garden, so that the future ‘garden’ might be where there will be no more tears, no more sorrow…

Paul seemed to expect that the touch of Jesus would be transformative. He exhorted us not to speak a falsehood. That is challenging. Not to lie is not too difficult, for we can bend the truth and still not tell a lie. But not to speak a falsehood… not to leave someone else with a wrong impression.

Time to stop, otherwise I will be reviewing the generous 55% ‘good’ level.

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An Interview

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by Martin Scott
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I was interviewed by Stephen Hill (New Zealand) a week ago and I will embed the YouTube below. Stephen wrote an excellent prophetic commentary on John’s Gospel that I read and benefited from during the beginning of the lockdown. I have the highest respect for Stephen, he is honest and transparent, and his insights come from his clear relationship to God – and also to himself. He knows God, and he knows himself. Here is his site:

https://www.ancientfuture.co.nz/

Check out his interview with Andy Glover – I watched that this morning, and I valued greatly his down to earth but profound revelations about 2021:

https://www.ancientfuture.co.nz/post/conversation-with-andy-glover

https://www.ancientfuture.co.nz/post/some-prophetic-thoughts-for-2021

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What words can we use?

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by Martin Scott
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Words have meaning. Probably the true meaning is what is attributed to those words rather than the ‘root word means’ (cringe when your favourite preacher does that). Some words, in certain contexts, probably simply become unhelpful as the hearer cannot make the adjustment needed to enable the word to be the bridge that brings across a healthy concept. Gayle and I do not use the word ‘Christian’ in Spain. One could use it, but by the time all the qualifications are put in, perhaps the listener will have switched off. We tend to use ‘follower of Jesus’, acknowledging that phrase also needs explaining. Indeed one might wish to suggest that the ‘God’ word is too loaded with meaning already to be of use! Where does one stop? (I was very struck by Michele Perry’s phrase that ‘our words create worlds’.)

In one of the Zoom groups someone said I am not sure I like the ‘saved’ set of words. Again not without validity. If saved immediately communicates ‘saved from hell / saved from the wrath of God’ we are going to face a difficulty in using it. We have moved so far from ‘saved for…’ when we use the saved set of words. (I have been so blessed in one Zoom group where there is a view shared from a Catholic perspective, and another coming from an Orthodox viewpoint when looking at such concepts.)

[And ever so important and got nothing to do with this post… to accompany the current three books in the series I have been writing some articles relating to those books. Find them at https://3generations.eu/explorations. For the techies – pages are stored in JSON files, and loaded via javascript, with the text in MarkDown format. Thought you might like to know (David in Alsace?). A lot faster than accessing a database.]

Words, can they be redeemed? Some maybe can’t or in certain contexts might not be able to be redeemed. Then we come to the New Testament. That presents another challenge to us. Here are a few words used that could be (could be??) misunderstood:

  • basileia – kingdom (of God) and Empire of Rome.
  • eirene – peace. Peace through the cross; peace by the sword (with the temple to peace built on the hill deicated to war in Rome.
  • ekklesia – ‘church’ or Roman governmental office.
  • king of kings = Caesar or Jesus (as also Saviour, lord, lord of lords).
  • son of god – Caesar or Jesus?

The terms are so obviously parallel, and used without an immediate explanation of ‘Jesus is Lord, but not like Caesar and not like…’

And the painful word ‘despot‘ – well not really, the Greek word despotes is used of Jesus and of God is used some 5 times in the New Testament. We might get the word despot from this but it does not get its meaning from the word despot!

I find it interesting that the New Testament easily used words that were in common use all with an Imperial meaning already stamped on them. They were greatly redefined though as they could only be understood through a Jesus’ lens.

Some words we might not be able to use as they have become too corrupted; some we might have to use with explanations; all words we have to use through the Jesus lens of our lives. As Francis of Assisse said

Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.

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Perspectives