How to boil a potato?

Having prayed for years now at the Peoria Prayer Center, I have come to understand the verity of ways the Lord has. It is not just a verity of ways He has to communicate or for intercession. The Lord is just truly creative and freely uses many and various ways to do most everything He does.

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a Christian boiling a potato for dinner and a non-Christian? This would be the difference between a Christian cook and a non-christian cook. But if they follow the same methods, follow the same recipe, show the same interest and care in the product; what is the difference?

What makes a person a Christian? Is it how they cook? Is it how moral they are? Is it how religious, what type of meeting and events they attend? A Christan is a person who has been transformed from being just a human being into a person who is a temple of the Holy Spirit. It is the indwelling Spirit of God that transforms us from "natural" to "born again".

Let me share how a Christian cooks by sharing how they act.

The actor can play a great evil person, not by becoming that person but by the Spirit. Through the help of the Spirit of God the actor can be empowered to amaze people by playing an "evil person". Even more the actor can do so in such a way that those watching are "taken" by the person who is playing the 'evil person" and how they can play that part greatly out of the goodness that is in them. For in the creativity of God a truly good person can play an evil person and by the Spirit all who watch be captivated by the evil, the great job of acting and the wonder of how such goodness can communicate so well.

It is the same with cooking the potato.

The reality of living without God has born the fruit in people(in this case actors) needing to, in some way, "become the part". But in the deeper wonder of the Creator, dramatizing communication is done on the highest level, if it done with the Spirit. It is not a matter of "looking Christian" (as in crosses, lions, fish and such). It is actually being Christian - something I would strongly suggest of all who are trying to follow the way of Jesus.

So Rod, what about the potato? Are you fasting too?

The Christian cook and the non-christian are not just cooking in some different way. They are two different types of beings. One is natural and the other is spiritual. While this is not about human elitism, for that is of the real of the natural man, it is what is required to be of God. Being Christian must come from the spiritual transformation of the inside or it has not happened. If you were or are not changed on that level, you are a natural man trying to act christian (a condition all to familiar in our time).

So do you know how to live by the spirit?

Practice Plege Stoppage

Saturday as I head about the swine flue and it's potential danger (according to the media) I thought this would be a good focus for my fasting and prayer Monday and Tuesday. I thought I could practice stopping an epidemic before I was faces with the real fears and dangers of one being at my door.

I have started by Contemplating Rev. 18:4 and the calling of the people of God out of Babylon so that we do not share in the plagues they do. The people of God are to be separate from the world. But what is this separation for?

To answer that question rightly you need to know exactly what God will is for you in this moment. We have few real bond servants of God who live in such a way that they are free to ask God His will and are not paralyzed by their own presumption or indecision. To know both the love of God and the will of God in this situation is vital. If His will is separated from His love you will have judgment without mercy or mercy without truth.

At this point it is easy to see how we "run to the cross" more than live "at the cross". We are quick to turn to God in a situation but lack the ongoing devotion to live so close that we need not "move to Him" but only "listen". So far I have only found a few people who have so died to self that Christ can actually ask them to agree with Him, even when they are not seeing the whole picture and lack any ability to control.

Gap fillers are quite rare while people with agendas and aspiration quite high.

Creator dad, who dwells on high
Your grander beyond my mind
Maker of all things that be
Unlike human kind

Taking flesh to show us how
Holiness is too our call
Bringing into time
The union, life divine

Getting Smarter

If you want to get smarter, to learn more, this is what you do. You find areas of your life that are uncertain and confusing and work through them. If you find banking, investing, gardening, sports, art or anything else a little beyond what you know, jump in. To paraphrase Leonardo da Vinci, the most creative insight emerge from such states of uncertainty and confusion.

Boy O boy is America on the fast track of education.

Demonstrations

Have you noticed that modern man needs a lot of explanations. Maybe this is why art is not a "big thing" in our culture. If you look at a picture seldom is there someone there to tell you what it means. Art requires you to observe and understand by your personal interaction with the drawing, painting, play or even photograph.

I tried to deduce what God is by the demonstration of Him in the church world. By observing people going to and at church, you would have demonstrated that a great many people love church until it is time to listen to teaching or help others. Church seems to have a lot of visible energy when it comes to community, music or fellowship. We would assume that church life is fun when it is in community but not so much so when it is working or learning together. Maybe God has a "fun time" and a "not fun time".

The picture of God through the messages are usually that "God is love in spite of how hard you life is" and "you should be doing more, but we understand why your not". These messages seem quite different from the actual teaching of Jesus, which are more about how to live than who God is. I guess Jesus assumed that the people could look at Him and see who God is. Maybe Jesus was a demonstration of the Father.

The point is...I think, that we should be demonstrating God more than explaining Him. God is big on freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So if we show people God more, they enjoy the beauty of discovering God. Even the Jesus Video that is used in world missions is more about showing a picture of God rather than teaching them what God has done. The picture tells the story in a personal interacting way.

SO.....
All you art types get busy and get the picture out! We are behind the times in showing Jesus to our culture and the world. Show them who God is and allow the freedom and God and the power of the Spirit to work their part in transforming humanity.

I guess if each of us lives right we become a vi sable image of the invisible God. But lets not wait for that, someone get to drawing.

Inside Out

Have you ever wondered why our insides are inside and not out? I mean I can think of what it would be like not to have skin. To be living beings in which our insides were seen all the time. It might make it quite easy for some operations. But think how ugly, how disgusting things would be. Seeing someones intestines, kidney or lungs we might just turn and go away, not befriending them at all.

But if our inside was outside, what would happen to our ideas of beauty? You know we look at the outside of a person and call them beautiful. Why? When I give a gift to someone, most of the time, the greatness of the gift is not in the wrapping. (I chose the word "greatness" to make myself look better) I usually do not spend any time at all on the outside of a gift. Nor do I pay much attention to the outside of a tackle box, tool chest or computer case. But to my dismay I have spent some time considering some bodily wrappings. Why don't we see skin as gut containers? We would have a whole new idea attached to "he's looking at me".

When you think about it, or when I think about it, the outside is just a blessing to cover the inside. I think God made us that way. We are protected from the inside by the outside. This is also true of our emotions, thoughts and judgments.

God allows us to have an inside place, out of the sight of others to process things. We can take the "stuff we are chewing on" and spend some time with it out of the sight of others. This allows us to go through a process and deal with things in a more beautiful manner, more loving. Some people condemn themselves for going through this process. They think they should be such that they have no need to work through things. I wonder if God has an inside?

If He does we must be in there, getting worked out. Maybe that is what is meant by being "in Christ". We are in the place of getting digested or working our way through the body of the Lord. I don't what to think of what the end result is.

Mind Your Own Business

"Mind your own business" is the advise given to us from the early Church Fathers and mystics who enjoyed the peace and presence of God. Those of us who are filled with facebook, unending news coverage, cell phones and prayer list that can literally be 7 typed pages long, should take note.

If you want to have, let alone enjoy, the presence and peace of God, you will need to limit the number of distractions in your life. One of the most powerful is "getting involved in the business of others. Here are some ways we get entangled.

1) We want to know what others are thinking about us. We spend a lot of time with our minds and emotions trying to justify ourselves or to prove we are right. Hours that could have been spent enjoying God and His peace are lost to unless mental and emotional agreements that accomplish nothing. Is it any of your business what someone else thinks?
2) You can take on problems or issues of others and loose your peace with God. Getting involved where you do not belong results in stress removing peace. While we are not called to separate ourselves "out of" the world, we do not live "in" the world in a natural way. We live un-natural even super-naturally. Just because you know about an issue doesn't make it your business. How much pride do you have to think your can solve everyone's problems? How many of your problems have you overcome. This is not to be condemnation or lazy living. But we need to affirm that every person needs to call on God themselves, to be responsible themselves to live rightly in obedience to God. We cannot fix everyone's wrong living by our intervention.
3) Judging the style, method or ways of others can cost you the peace and presence of God. Because we have so little skill at enjoying others who are different that we are, we have so little unity. We have even come to the place of only liking the ways of God which fit into our personal limited word view. We find ourselves in a church age that is divided into numerous sections of "this is what my God is like" Christianity. The age of reason is past and we have numerous un-reasonable leaders who judge, condemn, ridicule and publicly renounce people who do not serve the God of their own persuasion. You can even go to "Unity Gatherings" that are the same thing over and over and over again. It is like a "gathering for those who already like we are" unity meetings.
4) Working together on a project, from packing for a trip to building a business, can open the doors to getting entangled in the affairs of others. When we delegate or work with other people we need to allow them the grace to be who they are and not just who we want them to be. In numerous marriages one mates lives without the peace and presence of God simply because of the never ending frustration of trying to fix their mate. Hours are spent trying to figure our a way to communicate, direct or manipulate the other person to do something the way I would do it. Allowing others to be who they are frees us from trying to fix everyone and allows us grace to enjoy God in more places.

One pitfall in the quest for detachment is uncaring. We are called to care, to care deeply. But like the teaching that requires us to loose our lives in order to gain them, we too must become detached in order to care in the deepest ways.

God and Rocks

How amazing is it that God compares himself to rocks in the Bible. The Bible is full of "rock/God images". That should be a clue to us that God is real and not some man made religion. For who in there right mind would choose a rock as an image for the thing they worship, love and obey.

So our God rock (fortress, foundation, stronghold, obstacle) is an example of what we ought to be at times - simple, powerful,foundational. We do not need to find endless "new things to do" and "new ways to do new things". We can be like God and just be for a while. In this ambition driven, need to be the best, manipulate my way to the top world, we believers can take a moment and reflect on the anxiety of the rock. I do not mean that we become seekers of nothing. I mean that in our steadfastness we are not moved by the things of this world. Rocks don't fear so why would we?

I tried to google for a picture of a rock. It took six pages before I found some stones. Then in the twenty somethings I found a few rocks. It seems like there are a great many things in our world that desire to be known as "rock". A lot of music stuff, and some people. But somehow I don't think all the people I saw in my "rock image search" were what I would call "rock solid people". If I was from outer space and searched for "rock" you might get the impression that rock means "with little or weird clothing". Or maybe it might mean "to strike a strange pose" or maybe to "hold an instrument in some unplayable way".

Luther used rock music. He wrote "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" You might know it as "a might fortress (rock) is our God". I wonder if some of those images I was were Lutheren?

I'm glad that I got the God I got. I love it that the King of all kings is so secure that He can talk about himself as a lowly rock. I think that the next time I go to the wilderness I am going to be struck with awe at the sight of a nice rock. You and I are chips off the old block, living stones seeking to grow up and be like our Father, the rock from which we were cut. [1 Pet. 3:4-8; Ps. 28:1; 89:26; Isa. 51:1]

Who will fight for us?

In 1 Sam. 8 the people encounter the "bad sons" of Samuel the prophet. His sons took after the sons of Eli and were dishonest, accepted bribes and perverted justice. I am amazed at how this very thing is in the church, but we do not address it. It is like corrupt leadership is OK if it is done with Godly intentions. But that is another issue.

Bad leaders results in people asking for someone to be in charge. It can happen at Walmart or the United Nations, but when things go bad we want someone to be in charge. The result of bad priest is a call to have a king. Hidden beneath the call for a king is also the desire to have someone "fight our battles".

While it can be both a privilege and a calling to fight the battle of others for them, it can also lead to apathy. When a society it entitled to have someone else be responsible for the justice they desire, they can set back and make demands without engaging in the fight.

As Christians we need to learn to fight from a position and behavior of love, but we can battle. Each one of us needs to take on the enemy ourselves. Each one of us is responsible to be a right revelation of God in the earth today. While the imagery of a never ending battle is not comforting to us, it is the reality that we live all our lives in. As I pointed out at the start of this, even int he priest hood, trouble can be brewing.

I guess we need a king. Or maybe we need a King of kings.