{"id":991,"date":"2012-10-16T14:43:58","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T20:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billintheblank\/?p=991"},"modified":"2012-10-16T14:43:58","modified_gmt":"2012-10-16T20:43:58","slug":"see-how-to-get-lifted-by-angels-with-joel-j-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithwalkers\/2012\/10\/see-how-to-get-lifted-by-angels-with-joel-j-miller\/","title":{"rendered":"See How to Get Lifted by Angels with Joel J. Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s not just a book. It\u2019s an experience. I know it sounds like the tag-line for something Disneyesque, but that\u2019s how Joel J. Miller\u2019s latest book\u00a0Lifted by Angels: The Presence and Power of Our Heavenly Guides and Guardians<\/a>\"\" made me feel.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t just read it, my soul felt mystically reawakened\u00a0by the\u00a0ancient truth of these angelic hosts that surround us each day and night.\u00a0I know that sounds a strange statement coming from an Evangelical raised in Fundamentalist circles who\u2019s supposed to fear anything that sounds\u00a0like Roman Catholicism, but there it is.<\/p>\n

Joel makes the persuasive case from Scripture and the first seven centuries of church history, that we ignore a careful study of angels at our own foolish peril. He lifts the \u201cgossamer veil of this material life\u201d to show us a realm of darkness and light,\u00a0wonder and worship, power and humility \u2014 the realm of angels that mystically\u00a0intertwines with our own.<\/p>\n

Joel calls\u00a0Lifted by Angels<\/em> a \u201cmeditation.\u201d Rightly so. As I read, I felt as if I\u2019d been transported to a secret garden just outside an ivy covered, stone church, hand-hewn and weathered by the centuries. There\u00a0beneath a leafy bower, as I meditated on\u00a0fresh perspectives and\u00a0pithy reminders of these ancient celestial brothers, I felt a growing sense of ease. It was as if I had thought the odds good\u00a0for a Kingdom win\u00a0prior to reading. But now my eyes had been lifted to see countless, flaming warriors behind, above, and beside who\u00a0ensure that\u00a0our Lord\u2019s Kingdom cannot fail.<\/p>\n

Lifted by Angels<\/em> itself lifted my soul and gave me courage to continue forward regardless the darkness that threatens to block the way.\u00a0We\u00a0are not alone, nor ever can be. Throughout the book, I often felt as if I were being reintroduced to my \u201ceager, older brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lifted by Angels<\/em> reawakens a sense of the mystical so often lost in\u00a0Western Christianity, confined as it is by the scientific method, step-child of the Industrial Revolution. In my parents\u2019 era, if they couldn\u2019t measure it, it failed to qualify. In today\u2019s Information Age,\u00a0 if we can\u2019t Google it, we\u00a0view its existence as suspicious. Yet Joel\u2019s book reminds us that angels not only exist, they are often segueing between our physical and their spiritual realm with an ease that at once humbles and terrifies.<\/p>\n

As in Joel\u2019s other books, there is a precision in his writing, evidence of a careful thinker and a diligent and talented wordsmith. There\u2019s something comforting in Joel\u2019s straightforward style. It\u2019s\u00a0elegantly written prose that pricks the heart at the will of the Spirit \u2013 and, no doubt,\u00a0through the hands of the angels.<\/p>\n

Artistic readers will appreciate his appeal to ancient iconography and artistic representations throughout early church history to illustrate how those closest to the time of Christ perceived the presence and function of angels among us. He manages to unify what is usually a stodgy study \u2014 church history \u2014 with a vibrant, experiential theology that reverberates to the core of our soul\u2019s daily existence.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0many references to ancient Church fore-bearers outside my usual purview\u00a0left me appreciating the richness and diversity within Christianity. Evangelical readers will find the following topics especially stimulating for thinking outside their theological boxes:<\/p>\n