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Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Not Finished
Lately when I see all the political things going on and I get on Face Book I see well to be honest a mess. No matter what is going on around you this week I want you to remember God is still in control and He is still at work. Isaiah 66:1-2 This is what the Lord says: "Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Could you build me a temple as good as that? Could you build me such a resting place? My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine. I, the Lord have spoken! I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word." Proverbs 15:3 "The Lord is watching everywhere, keeping his eye on both the evil and good." Christians take heart because God is not finished with us.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Correlating Creations
I have a friend David Hill who knows that I write Bible studies and fictional stories. He's an artist skilled in many areas I am not, yet when we get together and talk he tries to understand how my mind works as far as writing. I don't understand it all myself. For about 6 years I've done some form of writing. In Genesis 4:2 it says this. "Years later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel. When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground." God has designed things we are good at. If you study the Old Testament you find it often mentions people as skilled craftsmen. I don't consider myself in that category yet but God has given me things I'm good at and enjoy. Friday night I was driving home from work and for most of the year I have had two fictional stories I've been working on. Many times I've become frustrated at my own ability to add more than a paragraph a month to either story. People who crochet or knit get my frustration. my wife Marion does both and I've seen that look of frustration a lot. Those that know my fictional writing know I use characters from video games, cartoons, comics, wrestling and my friends to tell the stories. This little tidbit I'm about to share is especially for David. I've spent about 3 weeks or more thinking and trying to determine how this character Tigra fits into one of my stories and how to introduce her. So I picked up this four issue mini series of comics to learn who Tigra is at her core. So Friday night it hit me how she was supposed to fit in the story. Then Saturday on my way to work I got to thinking about a week before I had been praying about my writing. God does things in His timing. See I called this blog Correlating Creations for a reason. Before each Bible study is sent or typed I ask God to use it to glorify Him. I came to the conclusion that God knows I enjoy both types of writing but sometimes my flow of fictional writing seems to slow down because there's Bible studies he wants me to share first. See my creative writing correlates to day to day life, prayer, and drawing closer to God. If I tried writing creatively on my own then God wouldn't be answering my prayer of helping me write what glorifies Him. Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his Will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." See I have to seek Him in all I do no matter what type of writing I do or how I live day to day. He has to be First! Proverbs 16:3 "Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed."
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Search
When I was much younger I remember praying asking God to let me see the beauty he placed in others. So often when you meet people your mind groups them into categories and makes judgement calls. I know this because I've done so and I've been the victim of people thinking I should act, think, or look a certain way. I was reading in Proverbs and this verse stood out to me. Proverbs 11:27 "If you search for good, you will find favor; but if you search for evil it will find you!" Friday I had a frustrating day and honestly things kept getting worse my anger grew as I focused on the negative. I had to keep praying and I kept coming back to 1 Peter 5:7. "Give all your worries and cares to God , for He cares about you. The part I needed most from that is to get my focus off the negatives and remember God cares for me. When you're having a bad day that is hard to do. The mind is a dangerous place full of warfare for the Christian. Psalm 118:24 "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." My friend David Moody posted that verse on facebook and then went on to say whether he was in a bad or good mood it was still a day the Lord had made and it was still a day to be joyful about because his mood didn't change the fact that God made the day and it was good!
So the next time you have a bad day I want you to have some weapons you can use. Matthew 6:25-34, Colossians 3:1-3 and Philippians 4:8
There's a line in the song All in All by Dennis Jernigan that says "Seeking you as a precious jewel Lord to give up I'd be a fool you are my all in all." If you want to find bad in others and situations trust me you'll find it. If you seek God and the things of heaven you'll do a lot better in the long run.
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Tuesday, October 11, 2016
52:10
You often hear people at churches say it's hard for me to memorize scripture. Query. Do you remember lyrics to songs? Interrogative. Do you know off the top of your head lines to your favorite movies? Cue my best Laurence Fishburne impersonation. "What if I told you, you could memorize scripture with a song?" Intrigued? Good, glad you're still paying attention. 52:10 is the tile of a song by Rich Mullins. It is actually the verse found in Isaiah 52:10. The verse says this in the New Living translation. "The Lord has demonstrated his Holy Power before the eyes of all the nations. All the ends of the earth will see the victory of our God." The words to the song are simple. "The Lord has bared his holy arm. The Lord has bared his holy arm. In the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the Lord's salvation. The Lord has bared his holy arm. His holy arm."
At this point some of you may say so what does this verse have to do with me. You need this verse as much as I do perhaps more depending on the reader. Because some of us like me are control freaks. Some of you are already pushing back saying "No, I'm not!" But you see you are because you can't handle me calling you that and you need to be in control of what I just said about you. That's why I have an example of being a control freak and not even knowing about it. This is from one of the best written fictional novels in my opinion called Spider-Man The Darkest Hours. This is a conversation over breakfast with Mary Jane Watson-Parker and Peter Parker.
"You don't like things you can't predict." Mary Jane said. "Things you can't control. You don't know the magical stuff, and it doesn't lend itself to being predicted or controlled--so you don't like it." "So now I'm a control freak?" I asked. She looked at me for a second. Then she said, "Peter, You've spent your entire adult life fighting crime, protecting people from bad guys of every description and otherwise putting yourself in danger for someone else's sake--while wearing brightly colored tights with a big black spider on the chest I think It's safe to say you have issues." "With great power....." I began. She held up a hand and said, "I agree. But an abstract principle isn't why you do it. You do it because of what a robber did to Uncle Ben. You could have controlled that if you were there, but you weren't and you didn't. So now you've got to control every bad guy you possibly can. Be there for everyone you possibly can. That's control freaky. Constructively so."
See being a control freak yes can be good but there's downsides to it. When our lives get askew by minor things we react with anger, tears, meltdowns, frustration. When I start getting angry I have to stop and it's never easy to calm down. But God has bared his holy arm and said He's still in control and we're not. We need this verse to remind us of that. I've been having a very hard time learning this lesson this week. My dad taught me this years ago and maybe you need to hear it too.
3 Fundamental Principles of Life
1. There is a God.
2. You are not Him
3. There is no vacancy.
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
A Certain Point of View
If you ever watched the original Star Wars trilogy you find that Luke, Obi-Wan and Yoda talk a lot about things being from a "certain point of view". With stories there's usually your side, their side and what really happened. Human perspectives can be so totally different than God's and death is something that absolutely confuses us. Our responses to people dying around us and how we act towards others and even respond to God can be well bizarre. I've seen a lot of death. I lost all of my grandparents and two uncles. My wife recently lost her only remaining grandparent. this makes both of our parents orphans. Friday night I was reading chapter 57 of Isaiah and the first verses just stopped me. God is about to show you a different point of view on death. "Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die." Did you catch that part? Sometimes the godly die because God is protecting them from the evil to come! That's something to really think about in regards to people you love dying. If God is taking them to protect them from evil to come and we're still here get ready because it's about to be a learning opportunity for you and it sounds like the roller coaster was just turned on. click click click........ Better seek God because the ride is about to get bumpy!
what you will find with the songs I've added to this is they all have to do with getting God's perspective.
4HIM - Ride Of Life because you can't have a roller coaster reference without a song about a roller coaster
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