The difference between spookism and miracles occur through out "Peace Like A River." Jeremiah performs various miracles through out the story such as healing Mr. Holgren's face, touching the broken saddle, ending up near Davy at Roxanne's, gasoline not running out, etc... As we are reading the book, we notice that the miracles are an overflow of who Jeremiah is. He never manipulates the miracles to happen. They just happen in and through his lifestyle so naturally. I personally do not find this challenging, but I believe this lifestyle would raise many controversies within our SEU culture. In the Bible, Jesus performed various forms of miracles. He was one with the Father, so this was a natural overflow of his personhood. A challenge to many Christians today would be the question of why aren't Christians living a life like this and seeing the miraculous happening as part of a normal Christian life. Many take a step back and say that it is not for today or these miracles are not realistic. I believe this is just a path of doubt and unbelief. So how exactly did Jeremiah live a life like this? I believe he had a very personal relationship with God. He sought "1st the Kingdom and His righteous." Everything flowed from there. Another way to see why these miracles happened as an overflow of Jeremiah is his character. Jeremiah had the fruits of the Spirit. He was a lover, yet strong. I believe that if we are striving to become like Jesus in character, miracles like this will happen as an overflow. Spookism is something that comes into the church as a form of manipulating who God is. People use the supernatural to meet their selfish needs when miracles should just occur as part of the normal Christian life. People get weird and end up using their emotions to dictate what they want and call it God. I think SEU does a good job at staying away from spookism, but this culture may need to develop good character so it creates a move for the miraculous to take place.
