Oh Wow! Check this out!

God's Brag Book.

Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; ~ John 5:39


I love how when God develops a theme He makes sure I get His point.

Recently I've started thinking of the Bible as God's Brag Book.  No, seriously.  Exactly like those little books proud parents drag round full of random snaps of their kids.

I have excellent teachers.  It is not their fault that what my mind has fastened onto is the trivia, the incidentals, the weird.  I have the big picture, being a big picture thinker & all.  What I am enjoying is colouring it all in.  It's along the lines of wandering round, as you do, with the jig~saw pieces that won't fit anywhere in your hand & every so often you take them out, look at them, study the big picture, fiddle about for a bit then someone goes, "Oh, that belongs here!" & pops it into its spot & suddenly all the next pieces go flashing into place as well.

Anyway we have been paddling through the O.T ~ which is cool but O.T you know, & I've heard about the Red Sea parting all my life & how the Jews made a golden calf while Moses was up the mountain talking with God.  I knew about the brass serpent [& how seriously weird is that story?] & I was like, Where is the relevance for me?  Now I get the big picture, remember?  But what's with all the details?

You all being so clever & well instructed & practical  probably have this already but I did not ~ which is what I get for sticking my head in the clouds & my nose in a book.  The exodus from Egypt is a story within a story.  This is extreme metaphor.  How did I ever miss this?

The story of the exodus is a metaphor for the Christian journey.  We are released from the slavery to sin by the shed blood [the Passover Lamb], walk through the sea of baptism [cross the Red Sea], get taught the word of God [Mt Sinai] & are brought to the very outskirts of Kadesh Barnea.  It was from here the spies were sent out to survey the Promised Land, remember?  So 2 things, because just like the Israelites this is where the majority of Christians falter: We have to coss the Jordan [the 2nd baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit] & enter in trusting in the Promises of God.  And just like the Israelites so many of us hang back & go ~ Not possible.  The land is inhabited by Giants.

Oh, & that snake story!  Well, in order to drape a snake over anything, even a brass snake, you really need a cross piece on your pole.  And if you put a cross piece on a pole what do you have?  I know!!!  It makes me happy! A picture of sin nailed to the cross. * Dancing a little jig here.*

And some trivia just because it amuses me:  There is a a natural geological land bridge at just one place in the Red Sea, which is actually quite deep, sitting as it does in the Red Sea Rift, which is part of the Great Rift Valley.  And then there is Jabal al~Lawz with it's charred mountain top & it's verbal history amongst the locals that Moses camped here with his Israelites.  Just as the bible says. Not everyone agrees with this theory; surprise me, but there is good evidence for it & it is in this area the underwater land bridge crosses over. The link is quite long but it covers all the points in detail, including the land bridge.  Interesting stuff.

Then there is the extra I learnt metaphorically about Abraham & Isaac.  See, this works for me in a deep & profound way, in a way just the stories do not.  This stuff anchors me deep & roots my faith like the cedars of Lebanon.

One:  Genesis 22:2 is the first place in the bible the word love is mentioned ~ & it is in relation to a Son of Promise!

Two: He had wood; wood is always symbolic of the cross.

Three: He had fire [the Holy Spirit] Interestingly the fire is not used but also there is the donkey & the burden bearer also represents the Holy Spirit.

Four: & this should just blow your mind considering what Abraham is there to do!  verse 5. We will worship & then we will come back to you!  Not I; We.

Five: Guess who carries the wood? Yep, the Dearly Beloved Son.

six: Moriah is part of a mountain range of which Golgotha is part & guess how high it is. 777 feet, & 7 is the number of perfection!  Repeated here 3 times, representing the trinity! 

Gosh I love this stuff!

And the best bit:  It is here, in this particular story, you see God snap shut the door on Satan legally.  Due to the terms of covenant what is demanded of one party can be demanded of the other.  Without this Satan could legally claim God wasn't playing fair by sending His son.  Because of the covenant terms, because Abraham met the terms, God was legally required to reciprocate & so could send His son to redeem us ~ & there wasn't a thing Satan could do about it!!!

What Abraham Saw

The good, the bad & the ugly.

“Reality continues to ruin my life.” ~ Bill Watterson

New beginnings, different paths.   Life is galloping along at a frentic rate but I have survived.  I am very tired.  Too many late nights & early mornings.  The late nights are fine ~ my sleeping pattern being what it is ~ but the early mornings!  Well, actually, it's not the mornings so much as the mid~morning when my body suddenly decides it's had enough & it is definitely nap time.  As I am in class then that's not so good!

The house is ugly.  It has rained all week.  The washing piled up in the bathroom.  The washing piled up in the sink.  The cats piled up around their people.  When I did not come home with Dino Wednesday Marlow just about took people out in his dismay.  Then, we missed our usual boat.  There is nothing rattier making than seeing the boat lights disappear down the channel & knowing you've just missed a boat with an hour to wait till then next one.  We rarely miss boats these days but some things are beyond our control.

So this morning I began the washing.  Four loads down, one to go.  Star & I made trifle.  I was generous with the alcohol.  The kitchen is clean ~ or more precisely, I can see the bench tops!  I poisoned the rampant weeds, for which I am technically not responsible but if I don't do it they invade our property.  I trimmed the mock orange blocking the light into the kitchen window.  Now I am too tired to think straight I'm about to start my homework. Ho~hum.  I can remember doing this in high school ~ & uni.  You would think I'd've move on but apparently some things don't change.  Looks like coffee to midnight runs are still the in thing.

Am I enjoying it all?  Early days.  Honestly I'm not sure just yet.  I really love the teaching from this man  ~ he's covering the O.T history.  I know lots of it already but it falls nicely in my comfort zone & his teaching style suits me.  We are doing healing ~ waaay outside my comfort zone.  I leave that to my friend, Seeking.  And we are looking at covenants ~ I knew the meaning but tracing it through from beginning to end is proving enlightening.  The teaching style doesn't suit me so well but, so far, this is not proving to be a difficult subject. We conferenced with Mark Hankin for the beginning of the week.  Amazing speaker but I really don't think I've retained all that much.

The hardest thing for me is how noisy it all gets.  I know.  What a thing to whinge about but I dread praise & worship times.  It gives me a headache ~ on a bad day a full blown migraine.  And yes, I know all about David leaping about singing & praising God & what happened to Michal for complaining about his antics.  It still gives me a headache.  I have no idea how one worships like this.

I am going to talk about Abraham soon.  I finally understand what he & God were doing in the wilderness.  It makes me happy.

Hear ye, hear ye....

The Vocal Manouevres'  Heavensong performance at St Stephen's, Brisbane, was taped.  The tapes are being cleaned up at present ~ cars, sirens, that sort of thing, & eventually part thereof will go up on youtube.  All the choirs have had a chance to listen to the raw sound during rehearsals this week & if I do say so myself we are awesome.  I will post a link as soon as I have one so stay tuned!

Speak to me of your salvation.

There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy ~ Henry Miller.

Do you remember the day you got saved?  The year?  The month?  Perhaps the very hour?

I don't have a clue.  For me it has been a long slow process, complicated by the church I grew up in which does not strongly teach  a salvation doctrine.  Oh, it's there.  It's not that deranged, but it is wrapped up in things like baptism & confirmation without a strong emphasis on repentance & the new man, never mind the poor old Holy Spirit.

When I began delving into these things for myself  I was hugely frustrated.  I read from the scriptures that it was possible to really know God, better even than Abraham, Jacob, Issac ~ or even Moses!  The problem was I didn't know a single church where the power of God was evident.  Oh, I knew individuals ~ though rarely well~ but church!  What a dreary wasteland of doctrine that proclaimed the power of God but denied its reality.  And it wasn't for want of looking.  I took my degree at USQ where there are more churches per square yard than just about anywhere else in Australia.

What is a girl to do?

Being me I went to the bookstore.  There was only one in town at the time & it was pretty much establishment stuff but eventually I came across one or two books that suggested the gifts of the spirit were not confined to preaching, teaching [men only, please] or helps.   I read about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  I was confused.  I thought there was only one baptism for the remission of sins.  Actually I think it's an apalling choice of words but hey, what do I know?

And being me I did not go looking for someone who might know something about this.  I didn't even go looking for a church where the gifts were in evidence.  I probably wouldn't have recognized it if I'd fallen headfirst into one.  Nope.  I read & I read & I read.  When I thought I understood what they were talking about I began experimenting ~ & we do all remember I'm much better at the theory than the practicalities, don't we?

Somewhere along the way, more by the grace of God than good management on my part, I recieved the gift of tongues.  I flipped because there was no interpretation & I was worried that Satan was counterfeiting.  Honestly, I shouldn't be let loose on my own.  So I had a gift I almost never used.  To say nothing of the fact Dearest wasn't on board at all & we were both, by then, accutely aware, of the misuse of the charismatic gifts in multiple churches.

Much, much later, having found what I needed in the silence of Quaker worship & learnt much better how to hear from God a dear friend prayed for me & I was able to accept God's gift with graciousness for what it is ~ & if I start getting insecure the interpretation is there.

Just the same I have never been drawn to charismatic churches.  I am a quiet person.  I like snuggling in quietly with God, just Him & me, alone in the silence.   I can get along very nicely without all the bibbing & bobbing & shouted Halleluias, thank you very much.  I get lost & overwhelmed in large charismatic churches.

For me the issues of repentance, the new birth, the evidence of tongues were personel experiences that took place out of the limelight over a long period of time.    They are part of my journey towards knowing God ~ & truth be told, I am still more than a little leery of the exuberiant public spectacle evident in so many charismatic churches. 

 I can't put my finger on an exact date, or hour, when I was born again.  I know I have, at different times, gone through all the steps, though not necessarily in the right order [is there a right order?]  I know God's Spirit dwells within me.  I know I am walking towards that which I have always earnestly desired, intimacy with God; it is the journey, not the destination.  Thus there has never been any conflict between the charismatic & my Quaker expression of my faith.

And then, then!  Rhema wanted to know the when.  As if without an exact date it never happened.  Ummmm, I don't do numbers, people.  I tend to be more than a little vague about exact details.  So, because, like my cats, I am insatiably curious, who knows exactly when they were born again?  Saved, if you prefer that term.  My ear is open like a greedy shark...[Gosh that's an awful quote!  So awful it's unforgettable!]

Although my royal rank causes me to doubt whether my


kingdom is not more sought after than myself, yet I


understand that you have found other graces in me.  ~ Elizabeth I



You ever read a book that makes you hopping mad with steam coming out your ears?  I got me one of those.

I am reading Gregory's The Virgin's Lover ~ awful title.  It sounds completely disreputable  ~ which is not so far off the mark.  Ok, so the daughter of Henry Tudor & Anne Bolyn was hardly likely to be chaste & I certainly knew the rumours about Robert Dudley & Elizabeth before I began ~ & certainly Elizabeth's vanity was obsessive, to say the least, but despite the fact Elizabeth was a Tudor with all the Tudor faults [the temper, the libido, the arrogance, the vanity] I always had rather a soft spot for her as a clever young woman who survived the court intrigue ~ including the whole country's mad desire to marry her off to anyone who would have her! 

 I do not like Gregory's Elizabeth.  She is snivelling.  Vapid.  Wishy~washy.  Even given how young she was, how tenuous her position, how insecure & that historical documents do portray Elizabeth in this less than flattering light during the early years of her reign, she was possibly the best educated woman in all of Europe & it beggars belief  that she was as gullible as Gregory portrays her.  On the other hand I could well believe she played her court like a court musician!

Then there is Dudley & a smarmier, more ambitious man it would be hard to find.  No woman in their right mind would trust him with their heart for a moment.

To say nothing of Dudley's wife, Amy, who is portrayed as quite the wrong wife for him: small minded, tedious & bourgeoisie.

There isn't a likable character amongst the lot of them.

But what really gets me wild is the backdrop because this is the England left divided by Catholic Mary & the nominally Protestant Elizabeth, with Edward briefly thrown in for good measure; a land where you could lose your head for believing the wrong thing; a land where one's religion could make you lethal enemies,  lose fortunes, cost whole inheritances.  You would think people would have a greater care for their immortal souls.  Their shennanigans make the 21st century look like a toddler's day out.  Yes, I know they didn't have access to a bible but they did have access to the Holy Spirit.  What were they thinking?!

Meanwhile, over in Spain, they're fanning the flames of the Inquisition...

All this in the name of God.  Give me a good Pagan any day!

Struck by the Spirit.

I'm always trolling for trivia. ~ Lynne Abbey

I'm sure something important got taught this week.  Something deep ~ profound even.  I think I missed it.  What my brain has retained is the trivia of small things.

From Genesis 1 ~ 11 covers 2000 years. Adam could have talked to Noah's father.  See, I don't do numbers & all those big improbable ones made no sense until it was pointed out these lives actually overlapped. This is important as things about God got passed directly, straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.  The Chinese character for boat is vessel  with 8 people = ark.  There are 2 Greek words for *Time* [don't you hate English sometimes?; it really muddies the waters]: kyross [like moed & meaning appointed time] & kronoss [sequential time.]  I think my spelling may be a little odd on these.  Man's length of days shall be 120 years not 3 score & 10.  Yes, it's there in Genesis 6:3.  The other is referencing the Israelites wanderings in the desert from the Psalm of Moses.    During the time of Peleg God divided the continents.

I am pretty predictable. My head may already be crammed full of absolute trivia but I can always make room for more.  I am really enjoying the teaching from this man ~ on O.T history.  We are also considering covenants ~ which I know a bit about so feel secure enough there but healing is another matter.  I've come in very late & not being from a charismatic background am foundering a little with the theology of it but it will sort itself out.  It doesn't help I don't have much interest in healing.  It is always the practical things that are my undoing.  So long as we stick to the theory I'm just fine! Or trivia.  I'm real good with trivia!

What has been really wonderful, remembering I've had a lot of experience with the other sort of Christians, is that when I got asked why I was starting early & I had to 'fess up it was because I got directed to, I was absolutely, totally 100% believed & they believe, as I do, that God will provide the money.  Just as well as it is all still tied up!!!

Which is all very well & good but I have no real idea why God wants me there.  Do I even want to know?  Possibly not.  I probably wouldn't like the answer.  I'm such a good little ostrich.  My head is firmly in the sand!

The silence from here is deafening, isn't it.  There is a reason for that.  Not only do I have a head cold, God put on the accelerant & I started college on Tuesday.  That gives me a week to sort of get a grip on things before Star starts schooling again.  You have no idea how insane I feel. You have no idea how insane the cats are being.  Star feels deserted.  The business, which we need to support all the insanity, exploded.  Lurching.  I do hope God knows what He's doing!  I mean, He's dealing with me, right.

And today's great quote:  You can lead an atheist to evidence but you can't make them think!

It doesn't matter which side of my family you look at , it is only good for 2 things: farming ~ or seafaring.  My father managed to do both over the course of a long life.   He grew up in the heartland of market gardening & as his sister was later to remember, if an unusual plant was to be found in the district it would be found in their father's garden.  Of another relative it was said she gardened all morning ~ & read all afternoon.  [I'd take that any day!]

My father was the youngest of 4 boys & an older sister.  The boys were considered rather wild though it was Shirl who took out Dad's teeth with an axe!  Eventually  Dad & his brother, Merv, bought a cattle property together.  Bega is still in the family ~ not our bit of it, sadly.  The house is a lovely old queenslander nestled amongst the hills west of Brisbane with bits of the family scattered here & there about the district.

We headed out to Bega on Saturday to celebrate a cousin's wedding anniversary.  Star, of course, has been several times, but Dino was away while Lib was working out that way so this was his first visit to a place everyone who knows it is very fond of.

The other thing my family does well ~ at least those who have the gift ~ is music.  My cousin, Peter, has a fine tenor voice & has sung at family dos for decades.  Saturday was no exception.  He's very casual & serenaded everyone perched on Bega's verandah rail while the little kids scooted down the ramp on the trike.

 Girl cousins are a little thin on the ground in Star's generation but she did catch up with my brother's girl.  We had to prise them apart in the end.

It was a beautiful day & we had a lovely time ~ as one does at these things.