Responding to the supernatural suddenlies of God by Paul Jackson (2010) is a short little booklet (about 50 pages) covering the last ten years of Paul Jackson’s church in Brisbane. In some ways it is Jackson’s testimony or biography of how God moved in his life, his youth group and the church.

The part of his story that interested me the most was when he quoted from the Old Testament story of Obed-Edom. Obed-Edom enters the Biblical narrative in 2 Samuel 6:10-11 where we read of David’s first unsuccessful attempt to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. “Instead, he (David) took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household.”

Jackson then traces Obed-Edom’s own journey to Jerusalem and includes Biblical references to further mentions of his name. It seems that Obed-Edom’s desire was to be wherever the ark was, because for him this meant being in the presence of God. He had experienced the blessing of God and was determined to chase after it. Jackson then relates this to our own journey.

Overall an interesting little book of how God worked in this particular church.