Starting to come together!

So, i've started to get some ideas together for my research at last! Am still quite scared that I'm not intelligent enough to undertake research, but...with God's help etc etc!

The vague chapter topics (at the moment) are something along these lines!

• Music in nature (music of the spheres / Shakespeare)
• Music as communication – works both ways
• God’s music – biblical, creator / composer God
• Man’s music, faithful performer / faithful interpreter (music and sex - don't sing about God anymore, so sing about sex - replacing one ecstasy experience with another????)
• Universality of music - why is it that music is always linked to spirituality, around the world?
  

These may not make a lot of sense at the moment, I'm not sure that I even know what they mean, but I intend to find out!! I had a long debate with Pete (supervisor) yesterday about whether God sings! The only biblical reference we could find was Zeph 3:17..."He will rejoice over you with singing". However, on closer inspection, the Hebrew doesn't necessarily translate as singing, ah well! So if anyone has any ideas about the concept of God singing, or even making music, please let me know! At the moment, the sentence I'm clinging to, to prove or disprove is...
"If God created music is He merely the composer – we are the performers/interpreters – therefore we are the distorters or faithful conveyers of the message?"
It seems that God has created the ability for His creation to sing, or make music, and therefore, all creative ability stems from Him, therefore, is it justifiable to claim just this, that God is the composer, and that anything we 'compose' is merely an interpreter of that which He has already written!?!?

Hazy I know, please let me know what you think guys, and if you know any Christian musicians, especially writers / composers, please send them a link to this, I'd love to hear their opinion on this!

R x

SOME PREACHERS SHOULD READ THEIR BIBLES!

Romans 12:2 - Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world...

I went to my first Soul Survivor a couple of weeks ago, and I've got to say, it was amazing. It's such a blessing to be in the middle of a crowd of 10,500 young people (I did feel a little old!) who are all worshipping, it's a blessing and a privilege to be amongst this! The worship was stunning and engaging, although did take a little to get into the swing of things, having been worshipping in small Methodist churches for the previous few weeks!

The ministry times were superbly handled, allowing for a freedom for people to worship and be ministered to, whilst dealing with manifestations of the Spirit in a way that would reduce the 'scary' factor for young people in particular who may not have experienced the huge variety of physical, emotional and vocal responses to the Spirit. People are strongly encouraged to pray for those around them, whilst supported by a large, trained prayer team. Anyway, enough of the praises, I have but one small issue!

The final night brought with it a pastor of a church in London, with a strong prophetic and healing ministry. The guy came on stage in a beige coloured suit, with open collared shirt and rather good tan, which, I'm slightly ashamed to say made me concerned due to the steroetype of US TV evangelist! Luckily, he redeemed himself with a strong Brummie accent! What he said was great, and I had no problems with the content, I just again, became concerned when slightly over enthusiastic he would randomly slip into an american accent! I couldn't help but think that this, coupled with the general look, this guy felt that he had to fit into a model that we so often cringe at! Now there is no doubt that God moved that evening, and people were healed and people came to know Jesus as their saviour, and was amazing and phenomenal, but my overriding memories unfotunately will be of this pastor who really needed to immerse himself in the opening words of Romans 12:2!

Please tell me if you have had good experiences of ministers with prophetic and healing ministries, those who've been able to break away from this stereotype! I'd love to be reassured that it is possible!!

Gb
R x

So much to write...so little energy!!
Wow...there's loads of stuff I want to blog about so going to have to do it a little bit at a time! So lets start with...The Miracles of Jesus!
This series with Rageh Omaar I'm finding intriguing at the moment! I'm not sure if i'm enjoying it yet though! There seem to be so many issues that as a Theology student i'd like to take issue with, some of the reactions that Jesus has to people and events, even how some of the events are portrayed I find questionable. Let me explain. One of the first things to hit me in the initial episode was the way in which the crowds were portrayed to be hassling, quite violently, for Jesus to feed them, whereas I, and other Christians I've spoken to, agree that Jesus did the feeding of the 5000 miracle as an act of compassion, not because He was pressured into it. Again, I and a friend questioned the thought that Jesus might collapse after raising someone from the dead, from the sheer physical, spiritual and emotional drain of it all.
Now despite the obvious brilliance that, well, at least they are discussing this stuff on relatively primetime TV, and on the whole, not doing too bad a job of it, something that I had been thinking about in the course of my research came to light here. It struck me that really, the things I found most at fault here were those that made me think, "I never imagined it to be quite like that!" I, as many, have been brought up with very traditional sunday school teaching, never really having to think about the nature of Jesus for myself, as i've always been told what it is! So now I would question, to what extent have my experiences and teaching, built up a concept of how I think things would have happened? Yes, maybe most of those are based on good historically based research, but we are creative and imaginative human beings, has my imagination made up for what my brain did not know or learn!?!

Our esteemed Principal at Cliff, Martyn Atkins, in his lectures on Preaching uses the term palimpsest. This is simply where a manuscript or artwork has been written on more than once, therefore the original is obscured, as preachers we must work through the layers of our own perceptions, our congregations perceptions, even history's perceptions, to get down to what the original scripture is trying to tell us. Maybe the same has happened here? My perceptions of how Jesus would look, act and react to situations are to some extent the result of palimpsest, and hence I have this reaction when I see something that doesn't necessarily sit right with me!

Well, the series has yet to finish, and it will be interesting to see the conclusion Rageh Omaar reaches, including considering his upbringing as a Muslim...we shall see!

R x