From Cheryl
Mary of Agreda
"Mary of Agreda was a Spanish nun whose passion was intercession. Each day she entered her prayer cell, where she would plead for the souls of the Native people of the American southwest. So great was her burden for the Aboriginal people that God took note. In her spirit she would "go" to what are now Texas and New Mexico. She would meet various tribes there, talking about Jesus to those who had never heard of him before. Reports began to come to Fraz Alonza de Banavides, father-custodian of new Mexico, of a "woman in blue" who would miraculously appear to the First Nations people, proclaiming the Kingdom of God. He decided to get to the bottom of this. Corresponding with priests in Spain, he tracked down Maria de Jesus, now mother superior of St. Clare in Agreda. She admitted that she was indeed the woman in blue, sharing her faith among the Natives. He crossed the Atlantic to investigate. She was able to describe the clothing and customs of specific tribes by name and identify specific individuals among them. When he asked her where she learned so speak all the Indian languages, she replied, "I didn't. I simply spoke to them-- and God let us understand one another" Marry of Agreda allegedly experienced over five hundred of these prayer trips over the course of a decade while never once physically leaving the four walls of her convent in Spain"
Philip was transported in the bible,(Acts 8:38-39) so we know this kind of this is possible, but isn't such amazing acts and phenomena restricted to the characters and events of Scripture? I think this shows not necessarily. Have fun responding. (I got all this info from Brad Jersak's book Can You Hear Me?)
"Mary of Agreda was a Spanish nun whose passion was intercession. Each day she entered her prayer cell, where she would plead for the souls of the Native people of the American southwest. So great was her burden for the Aboriginal people that God took note. In her spirit she would "go" to what are now Texas and New Mexico. She would meet various tribes there, talking about Jesus to those who had never heard of him before. Reports began to come to Fraz Alonza de Banavides, father-custodian of new Mexico, of a "woman in blue" who would miraculously appear to the First Nations people, proclaiming the Kingdom of God. He decided to get to the bottom of this. Corresponding with priests in Spain, he tracked down Maria de Jesus, now mother superior of St. Clare in Agreda. She admitted that she was indeed the woman in blue, sharing her faith among the Natives. He crossed the Atlantic to investigate. She was able to describe the clothing and customs of specific tribes by name and identify specific individuals among them. When he asked her where she learned so speak all the Indian languages, she replied, "I didn't. I simply spoke to them-- and God let us understand one another" Marry of Agreda allegedly experienced over five hundred of these prayer trips over the course of a decade while never once physically leaving the four walls of her convent in Spain"
Philip was transported in the bible,(Acts 8:38-39) so we know this kind of this is possible, but isn't such amazing acts and phenomena restricted to the characters and events of Scripture? I think this shows not necessarily. Have fun responding. (I got all this info from Brad Jersak's book Can You Hear Me?)
posted by Michael | 10:39 a.m.
9 Comments:
So am I the worst and most jaded skeptic? I always find these stories to be a little like the stories pastor's tell in their sermons: interesting but of quesitonable origin. I'd like to see a little evidence. Aren't we, after all, supposed to test the things we're told?
I think prayer is important (not sure whether I think it changing God or not), but this... I don't know.
I understand the skepticism, being a skeptic my whole life, about all sorts of things... but my friend Raena is in Hong Kong, and she's seen blind people healed, and even prayed for a man whose butchered hand got healed. She met a man (and saw pictures)who saw someone being raised from the dead. This was this biggest one, I thought only Jesus raises people from the dead... but just because it goes through a person doesn't mean Jesus isn't doing it... and also peter prayed for a man and raised him from the dead. Ok.. so this is kind of unrelated to my quote... But Mel.. I agree I think we miss out on these things like healing because we're skeptical we're afraid someone's gona turn it into something completely ungodly (ahem.. tele-healers) We're afraid that if we believe that we can heal people by praying for them and faith that we'll start accusing sick people of not having enough faith... I don't think we have to do that. I really believe that Jesus heals when we ask him with faith... but I also believe that sometimes there can be a reason for sickness or whatever... so.. it's all about finding balance
p.s. in the book, "Can You Hear Me" He has more recent examples of people praying for other countries, and having some sort of over seas experience during prayer. One was of a paralyzed boy who was questioning what his purpose was... pretty awesome purpose God gives him I think.
Sure, I haven't seen something like this myself... but then, I haven't seen much of anything. Who am I? Just some 22-year punk outta Winnipeg.
DC Talk sampling rolls around my brain... You ever seen God? You ever seen him? I've never seen the wind... Obviously this is a little different, but God is infinite and his followers almost infinitely diverse. Why on earth would I say "no, this cannot be"?
If things like this can't happen, I've met a LOT of dirty liars who otherwise seemed like stand-up men of God.
was this woman transported in spirit or for real? and does that make a difference if philip was transported for real? anywho, excellent discussion. tough issues. God has all power.
i am a skeptic myself, and i'll share with you two opposite things i have experienced in my life. 1. our youth group, when i was in grade ten when to a youth conference called downpour here in the city. the entire service we sat at the back watching people cry and laugh and fall on the floor and reach there hands out to God, and worship. it was the wierdest thing i had ever seen up until that point in my life. so we sat in the back and watched the "show". was i skeptical back then? yes. do i think that was genuine now? 2. at cbc me and my friends caught wind of a healing service, so we went, and again, sat in the back and watched the show. it seemed so ridiculous. these muslim people were going up and getting healed, and the children of these people (and there were a lot of them) were up on stage to, except they had no idea what was going on. and then the speaker would say things like, "oh, now these children are Christians." they didn't know what was happening!! am i skeptical of healings? sometimes. was i skeptical of this one. yes.
so, in conclusion, i have no idea. i just went off, and in retro-read, this doesn't make any sense.
We are Christians. Our commission is to preach the gospel. The gospel means good news. What is the good news?
Biblically... what is the theme of the gospels I mean
Glad you clarified... my first reaction today was "the good news is that it's a snow day."
Seriously though, I beleive that the good news is that God loves us, totally and completely. Jesus tells his disciples to go preach the good news BEFORE the cruxificition, so people who only focus on the suffering are, I think, missing the point. The cruxificition is a further exmaple of just how much we are loved.
love is everything. God's love flows down to us through Jesus. We love Jesus. Our love for Jesus compels us to do strange and weird things.
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