There were twelve of us meeting together yesterday morning. The readings focused around the transfiguration of Jesus, and Moses’ veiled face as he came down from the mountain.
Tim asked the prophetic question that struck at the heart of what I’ve been thinking of for the last two weeks – ‘Do we believe that God still speaks out of pillars of cloud? Or was that just for the Israelites?’
In answer to this, I told how I am being challenged to start seeing God at work in the world. My instinct is to find God in the Bible, in books, in theology, in conversations, in ideas. But I am reading Wolfgang Simson’s work during the last fortnight and am completely challenged by the way he looks to things going on right now, to prophetic words being spoken by people and finds God at work in them.
Simson says at one point “God is offending our minds in order to reveal our hearts.” I guess I’m in need offence.
Simson pushes far further than I am comfortable, even finding God’s judgement in natural disasters, whereas my response is to always go back to what Jesus says some place in Luke, when he asks if the people who were killed by a falling tower were any worse than anyone else.
I don’t have answers right now, but God has touched a nerve. I know I need to see him at work in little things, everyday. (‘I just don’t want to end up like a crazy pentecostal or something…’)
The practical effect so far?
- I was walking home from the bus the other day and realised with joy that God was in charge of the wind, was involved in the grass growing and the roses in the park near my house.
- I’ve been praying more, and praying for little things I didn’t use to bother God with.
After I told this, Brad shared that he is being challenged in a similar way, that he’s stopped seeing coincidences as God’s work – but he wants to recover a sense of God at work.
