Creation

The last few days I have been working on a DVD project. I have been collecting pictures, organizing data and now finishing up on editing and production. It takes a number of things to create.

Time
Ideas
Tools
Skill
Raw material worth working with

But do you ever wonder about the God of creation, creating through us. I have been used by God a few times to heal the sick. I could feel the power flow through me. It was neat. At other moments of divine healing I must confess I didn't feel a thing. I have also wrote some stuff. At times I have felt the pleasure of God in the writing. At others I felt nothing.

Why doesn't God make it easier on us to feel anointed, filled, empowered? Why are we still like Moses, needing to enter into some dwelling place of God in order to get filled up and re-aligned? Is it because that is the best way for us?

Many of us today are seeking to be the people of God who live daily lives in which God creates in our world through us. We are longing to partner with God, we want to be used of God in the daily grind. This is God creating. It is what we were created for.

So as we live and create projects, write, pray for the sick, raise the dead; let's all keep the amazement alive. Let's not seek an easy way, but rather let us all love paying the full price for God's creative power on the earth. Like Mary let us have a surrendered heart, even if we cannot fully comprehend the cost.

Thy Kingdom God, Thy will be done

Intention

Intention

Two lads had the task of sweeping the floor. The first lad set out to do so that it would glorify God. It was his intention that all that He did, in regard to sweeping the floor, was to God's glory. And so He swept.

The second lad had no intention of sweeping the floor to the glory of God and went about His business in a most excellent way. In fact it was near perfect, as one who is fallen in nature yet skilled at sweeping, can sweep. So in the end we have one very clean floor done in the human spirit of excellence and one no so clean floor done to the glory of God.

Now which one glorifies God?

Do not both floors glorify God. The second glory God in that God gave to man the gift or ability to do things well. So the one who, not seeking to glorify God, did glorify God by doing his task well. So God is glorified as the one who makes man able to do things well, even excellent (to a degree).

The second also glorified God because of the intent. For the one seeking to live and labor in such a way as to glorify God in all that they do, does glorify God. God smiles at the intent of the heart, not the cleanness of the floor, and is delighted and glorified.

And maybe you are such a person that the gift given to you, the thing you are called to do, you can do with great skill and excellence. So adding to this excellence you determine to intend to do all to the glory of God, and so you can do so, glorify God, on all levels.

So no beggar is denied glorifying God and no person of excellence allowed to do so without putting forth the natural effort required. Both can fail, by lacking intent or skill, and both can succeed.

And so two men went up to the temple to pray. One a rather great person of prayer and the others no quite so.....

Grow more than UP

When the seed that was planted
Became the very thing that was sown
I was greatly troubled
Was there nothing more than “natural living”
But finding a tee – one of life
I found that each seed
Good or bad
That is planted under this tree
Becomes something all together different from what is sown.
It is as if the seed can grow, not up
But heavenly
Such a seed my heart desired to be

Prodigal Son

I have found that I have very much been the prodigal son for quite some time now. The pain on my suffering body has been used to drive me away from the true love of my Father in Heaven and invited me down a great number of wayward roads. Each of these paths has it's own beauty, but that is just it. The beauty they offer is themselves and not at all like the beauty of the one who is everything, sacrificed, surrendered, redeemed and restored.

How often we quote the passage of scripture that "His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts", only to live as though He is and they are. For me the time I have lost is the result of trying to live. I have spent a great deal of time, money and energy in trying to live. But now, years later, I am no better.

How I long for the days when one prompting of my heart resulted in generous love toward God. The times when I died to my self and lived for the gain of Christ Jesus. This gain was not in great exploits but in hidden surrender. It was in the delight to love, the joy of sacrifice, the thrill of bringing a pleasure of joy to another - namely God himself.

All this I can do in any state in which I exist. I need no better marriage, no better body, no better status of wealth to give all that I have to Him. When and why did I loose this "first love"? I started to loose it when I sought to be something, leaving behind the significance of being in Christ and seeking to be more. More what?

The first principle of growth in God is obedience, not in part but the whole. Without total obedience all growth is only an illusion. I know this better now but grieve that I had to lean it so deeply. Regardless of Bible study and reading, regardless of prayer, small group attendance, learning and yes, even regardless of worship, without obedience a person is not growing in the riches of Christ Jesus. Do not spend years of your life trying to improve. We do not need to find the right method. We need to do His will.

In the instruction on how to pray..."Thy kingdom come, thy will be done..." Is about how we live, and not just about the type of request me make. Never again should we separate living from Christianity. How sad it is if we have all the right information and not once ounce of the King or His Kingdom.

Honor Mom

Loving and honoring Mom and Dad is one of the most natural things we should do, if we think about it. Not many of us, so far, can say we came to exist without a Mom. We had a person who gave up a part of their life so that we could have a life. What should be natural than loving that person?

I think we actually need to be trained to dis-honor our Moms. We need others to tell us that we are not loved, not cared for, not connected. Yes I know there are some cases where this is true. But for most of us we are loved, cared for and connected. It is one of the most natural things to do, love you Mom. Surely Mom's are like God, for they too first loved us.

I don't get to see my Mom much. But in my heart I long to have her deeply know that I love her. She is more than a mother to me, she is the source of my life on the earth. I mean I can account for all the biological requirements needed to have life, but Mom was the person who bore me, who carried and cared for me. This was not just biologically, it was also emotionally and spiritually.

So to all of us who have Moms. You gotta love em, literally, you gotta love them!!!!