another viewpoint

Through the Fog, oil and cold wax on 12×12 panel SOLD

Do you ever get a glimpse of something and you’re not sure what it is?

Maybe my newer abstracts are that “something” to you. 🙂
It has been very interesting to hear what others are seeing. A friend was over and was at first turning her head sideways to look at a painting. I gave it to her and she began turning in different directions and sharing some new stories. It was beautiful the way it spoke to her. Reminding me of days as a child looking into the clouds with friends and waiting expectantly for new things to be revealed.

It’s often how it is in the spiritual world too. We can read a passage over and over and then sharing with another, they see something we did not. A reason I love having conversations about God’s Word.

In three different places, I am in the book of Ephesians. A devotional, recent church messages and a study group. It’s sharing even more life! We’ve been digging out the promises of God. Seeing how He views His creation and encourages His children. Recognizing God’s heart in the prayers that are still very alive.

I think that’s why I’m also enjoy the The Passion Translation and The Message as I study. It removes some of the lenses I have used and reveals hidden things before not seen.

The Passion Translation (TPT) Ephesians 4 – Our Divine Calling
As a prisoner of the Lord, I plead with you to walk holy, in a way that is suitable to your high rank, given to you in your divine calling. ² With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience. ³ Be faithful to guard the sweet harmony of the Holy Spirit among you in the bonds of peace, ⁴ being one body and one spirit, as you were all called into the same glorious hope of divine destiny.

⁵ For the Lord God is one, and so are we, for we share in one faith, one baptism, and one Father. ⁶ And He is the perfect Father who leads us all, works through us all, and lives in us all!

I pray this week you will take some time with a familiar passage and ask the Holy Spirit to share some new insight. Maybe discuss with another over coffee or tea.

Thank you Lord we are not left to our own devices, that you have richly blessed us and continue to guide us in all truth. Let us not get so focused on our own understanding that we neglect to seek and ask for Your wisdom.

even in storms

Night time is not the right time to get great color photos of your art work but it will suffice to demonstrate today. This was a photo from a friend. I loved that it captured both storm and beauty and asked if I could study it. My study may seem a bit different but it’s to get paint out and capture some parts of the photo. Not exact. Not precise. More the feeling of that moment of study. This photo speaks richly. First seen on a higher resolution computer screen, it lacks a lot on my laptop but still inspires.

We often will look at something and have a quick thought, impression or understanding. It’s when we take some time to study the scene, person, situation or passage – when something more comes.

Relating to God’s word, I think of the mystery that requires revelation and why we are told to “meditate” on His word day and night. We have different perspectives during light or darkness.

Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Ephesians 4:26

Relationships should not be a holding tank for the storm. They should be a place of grace, forgiveness and hope.

We could concentrate on the storms or chose to look for the sun setting, seeking the rainbow, the  wonder, the possibility and promise.

A verse comes to mind…

He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Psalm 23:5

Thank you Lord that even when things seem the darkest, when the storm seems the roughest and everywhere we turn seems to be bleak, there is a table of Your goodness ready and waiting for us to discover. Thank you that through Christ we are more than conquerors! Let us share Your good news through this week with those we encounter so they too can see Your goodness in new light! 

 

 

 

seeing more

Have you ever heard Louie Giglio speak on the INDESCRIBABLE? Several years ago he spoke locally and it was very exhilarating to SEE through his descriptions of God’s creation. You might like to SEE in a refreshing way today! He has a longer message that might even touch your heart more.

Let us SEE with new eyes Lord. That each day, we will have further wisdom and revelation in our knowledge of You. That we will be further amazed at Your hand at work in every second of this world and our individual lives. Thank you Jesus for bringing us into this Kingdom on earth – as it is in heaven! 

behold

verb

archaic . literary

1. see or observe (a thing or person, especially a remarkable or impressive one).

   Example: “behold your king!”

I  have intentionally omitted an image for the day so that your imagination can be used further. One of our greatest strengths is our mind. To be fully functioning, it needs to include both creative and logical sides. I don’t believe the “mind of Christ” exists only in knowledge. We have often discounted our imagination by calling it vain. Twisting what is really said in 2 Corinthians 10.

I’d like to leave you with the word BEHOLD today. A place to engage your imagination in seeking the Lord. Each place we step, every person we encounter, all of the wonders of nature that surround us have something for us to BEHOLD. A message for us to learn from, to share, to ponder.

Lord – let us BEHOLD Your presence today. Let us BEHOLD Your creation today. Let us BEHOLD Your love today. I pray we would walk in anticipation of seeing, of beholding, of imaging WITH YOU. Not in a way to usurp You but in a posture of knowing You more fully today and everyday. That what we behold would reveal Your heart to us so we would walk more fully in Your ways. 

ask.answers come

Spirit Dance

After I wrote on Jesus coming for His Bride, I listened to a message while I was doing some work. It was on Jesus and the Bride. My before bed reading talked further on Jesus and preparing His Bride. Prayer with a friend also ended up sharing again – the Bride of Christ!

The Lord knows the questions of our heart. He longs to give us answers even more than we want to know them. His heart is that we would have questions. His desire is for us to know Him more. Not just to know “about” Him but knowing the intimacy of His heart. Through this we will know ourselves even better. It’s not a knowing that comes from self-reflection of how bad we goofed but of who our Creator has designed and called us to be.

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
    to search out a matter is the glory of kings.
Proverbs 25:2

Thank you Lord that You long to share the secrets and mysteries that surround us. Thank you that You graciously give and give and give. Let us learn to be the BEST RECEIVERS of Your wisdom and grace! 

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Romans 8:32

vision source

New Discovery

Last weeks ministry conference brought many great points to ponder. I’ll share a few areas I look forward to digging deeper on.

The story of Cornelius and Peter’s “confusing” call to go to him. Peter finds revelation from his “vision” and “stepping” in obedience.

Was going to Cornelius safe for Peter?
Was it comfortable?
His vision of animals and to kill and eat – how does that translate to all “people” being acceptable to God?

God’s ways are seldom our normal ways! 

Peter fairly exploded with his good news: “It’s God’s own truth, nothing could be plainer: God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from—if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open. The Message he sent to the children of Israel—that through Jesus Christ everything is being put together again—well, he’s doing it everywhere, among everyone.”
Acts 10:34-36

Peter was trying to limit God with his reaction to the vision. Yes a great follower but still being shown more. He dared to step out in what was uncomfortable.

Thank you God that we have such examples of faith in action. Not just faith in traditions and understanding, but faith that what You share is even more important. Let us not discount what You are revealing to us each day. 

in the words

There is so much depth to God’s Word. Beyond searching out… yet we try, we seek, we explore, we ask. We read again and again, we memorize, we pray…

but…

Who am I to understand God?
How can anyone really comprehend?
Why the parable, the hyperbole, the paradox?

1 Corinthians 2
And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ² For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— ¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.¹² What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. ¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 

¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for, 

“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

Thank you Holy Spirit that you are one with us and one with God. That you are the counselor and guide to reveal God’s mysteries and truth as we seek understanding. Let this week bring us new wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You as we seek Your heart and Your ways.

noel

Wishing you a Christmas filled with awe, wonder, hope, joy and peace. May this beautiful song and video fill you with even more love for this one called Jesus as you celebrate this Noel “birth of God”.  God’s blessings to you and yours.

The birth of a child who is also a King, Savior, Redeemer, Shepherd, Lamb, Healer, Light and more. 

you have promise

Coming Home

I think of Mary and Joseph traveling that long journey for the census during pregnancy. Not knowing when the baby might come, if they will find a place to sleep or what it really means for this child named “Jesus”.

God’s word is so filled with promises,
with mysteries,
with miracles,
and questions…

He knows every hair on our head (and those that have fallen out), those buried dreams we have locked away in our heart and the hurts that have never been voiced. He knows our deepest dirt and still loves us completely.

We can’t dilute that love. It doesn’t change no matter what we do in this life.

His character is constant. Even if He doesn’t like our actions – He loves us. We are ALL made in His image. We are ALL worthy of His grace. He loves us intimately, He loves us immensely and He wants us ALL to know and experience that love.

Lord I pray that this Christmas we will take some extra time stop all the worldly fuss, to sit with You, to ask You to share Your heart, to listen and realize that voice that has always been “whispering” is really Your voice trying to share love and wisdom. I pray we would realize the fullness of Your gifts to us and find new boldness on how we can share them with those we meet along the way. Thank you Jesus – for Your gift of life.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you! They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Psalm 145:8-13 

 

depth of words

Often its just a word that comes for me to dig into. Today was “fathom” and I hope the verses will speak a rich story to your heart.

Fathom – an open arms measurement – usually to measure the depth of  water but also in depth of thought or embracing of something. 

I used to think that God was just too angry, too mysterious, too distant, too great, too big to be known or understood. And even more – who was I that He would care about me or my life. BUT GOD – rich in mercy and patient with our learning…shares so much through Jesus and the Holy Spirit to show us more of Himself.

I pray today you can open your arms, your heart and your mind to know His greatness and the depth of His unconditional love for you. He has created you in His image and calls you amazing!

He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted. Job 5:9 & Job 9:10

Can you fathom the mysteries of God?
Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? Job 11:7

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom. Psalm 145:3

He has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity in the human heart;
yet no one can fathom what God has done
from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord,
or instruct the Lord as his counselor? Isaiah 40:13

Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and
his understanding no one can fathom. Isaiah 40:28

If I have the gift of prophecy and
can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2