You are visitor: Give my love to Zoe -5
Dear Jerry,
Thanks for this:
On a personal note, Zoe "Nelson" Mouser continues to have his way with the crows in the neighbourhood. You may be interested to know about his middle name Nelson. When E… adopted Zoe from the animal shelter in Boston, the name Nelson was on his cage and underneath it the words, "Not Wanted." Apparently someone earlier in the week had taken Zoe home and upon learning of his deafness had returned him to the shelter. In some ways Zoe has brought much joy to most of my neighbours (with the exception of one) and everyone speaks of his hearing impairment and takes great care in watching out for him. He has really made a difference in the life of one man who seldom left his house and now anxiously awaits Zoe's "visits" during the day.
Our next door neighbour is baby sitting his cousin’s cat. It is a fearless kitten, black with a white smudge of a face. It calmly walked in to our house last Wednesday and took up residence on the settee on the very spot where Rusty, our less than intelligent, Jack Russell, sleeps during the day. He had to be nailed to the floor at this bare faced act (he hates cats but not as much as he hates King Charles Spaniels!). Meanwhile the daughters who dote on him suddenly focused all their attention on the kitten. Rusty became confused and perplexed and is now in pet counselling!
There are so many things I want to ask you and somehow with your trips away and my holidays we seem to have lost something of the thread of this conversation.
So here are some of the questions I wanted to ask you…
Are you attending church yet?
I know you are praying but are you reading the Bible?
How are things with the family?
Is there a Church close by?
Do you already have some kind of affiliation?
I look forward, when you are ready, to receive some answers to those questions you feel comfortable with.
Labels are however funny things. Let me share some personal experiences with you in the hope you might find them relevant. When I was in my first parish they said to me that I was too "Catholic" for their tastes. In my second I was too "Evangelical" and radical. In my third I was too "Conservative". Here I have been asked if I am a "Fundamentalist". When I went to Spring Harvest last Easter a colleague asked me if I had become a "Charismatic".
I guess I am all of these things. But that’s not possible. No I guess it isn’t is it? I don’t really care anymore. I am a Christian with a scientific training, interest and bent. I am also aware that the terms I have used above carry different meanings in the States.
I think what I want to encourage you to do is to discover the real Christ and the real experience of God without getting lost in denominational claims to truth.
I don’t for example regard myself as a "Charismatic" however I read this in a book called "Telling Others" by Nicky Gumbel, he is quoting from "The Memoirs of Charles Finney" – published in 1876. He writes:
"Finney’s experience of the Holy Spirit occurred later on the same day as his conversion.
The Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me. Indeed it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love; for I could not express it any other way. And yet it did not seem like water but rather the breath of God…. These waves came over me and over me and over me one after another…"
When I read this last week I froze. Here is man quoting another man both talking of classic Pentecostal type experiences. Last year when I was going through that really bad time of persecution, which we discussed at the time, I was overwhelmed on several occasions by an experience that was almost exactly like the one described above. It was so wonderful I often long for it again. Waves pulsed through my body, like rings descending from my head to my feet. Again and again it happened. Almost always on a Sunday morning as Jennifer and I sat in prayer together before we went out to Church. I simply asked that the Lord would be with me and take control. As this flooded physically over my body I was sure Jennifer would be able to see it. It was a real physical experience.
Apart from Jennifer (and one fellow minister) I have never discussed this before, it was far too precious and strange and wonderful. The Lord seems to be saying to me that the time has come for me to share this particular experience with you. There were many others at that time. If I choose not use classic Pentecostal language to describe this then that is deliberate. I don’t regard myself as fitting into any camp and equally language in itself can act like a prison for an experience and people can cease to listen to you once you have been allocated a label. I don’t think this is the way of Christ.
I share this with you – why?
I guess because it is part of my trying to help you know that God is real and to encourage you to plough your own furrow, not doing it your own way a la Frank Sinatra, but rather that you discover God in all his splendour and power for yourself and not through a cultural and denominational filter, that requires you to imprison God within its own framework of acceptable experience.
I must stop now. Parish work beckons. I hope you don’t mind me sharing this with you.
Every Blessing,
Stuart
Christian Network