Changes

Things are changing so quickly everywhere!  The beginning signs of Spring are in the air!   The robins are back and building nests for their young.  Daffodils and crocus are showing off their fancy dresses in the sunshine.

Other changes though are in the wind.  The Soviets are again acting as if the Cold War were again happening (if indeed it ever really stopped).   The dollar is weak and threatens our economy.  Many people are without jobs in our land and the world at large, struggling for day to day survival.

I also have heard of earthquakes in California this week and we all know about the mudslide in Washington where rescuers are still working.  We have a jet missing with many lost people on board.

God has promised us He will never leave us nor forsake us.  No matter how many difficult changes there are He is at work bringing people into His Kingdom and using His servants who are faithfully serving to do so.  We must not lose heart at seeing the birth pangs of the end times but be all the more persevering in sharing Christ with all who will listen, serving others in love, not being devisive and looking forward expectantly to our Lord's return!

Diet

It's a new year!  People are talking about diets again.  I am needing to lose weight too and have already begun changing my eating habits. 

I also have been thinking on what stuff do I need to diet from for my spiritual life to improve?
I am not writing as much since I starting working fulltime in October.  But then again, there are things I need to cut out that would enhance my spiritual walk and enable me to write more and create more in my art for Him.


Things like:  playing too many video games on my ipad, watching too many recorded shows on tv, complaining about things I don't like,  reading too much other stuff instead of my Bible. 

What should be on your spiritual diet list this year?  Things and habits you need to cut down on or lose completely to enhance your relationship with Christ? 

Some "food for thought"!

Tree of Life

In the womb

He starts our heart

God breathes life into

Each of us He creates

Giving us a spirit

His image

I am the vine

Jesus

You are the branches

Everyone created

He is our Living Water

Sustainer

All can choose

Remain on the tree

Or be cut off

Take the Living Water

Bearing much fruit

Take the world’s water

Be cut off and burned in the fire

Remain in Him

Sustained as

His Living Water

Flows through you

Growing you

From a tiny twig

Getting stronger through

He who abides in you

Branching out

More and more

As He works through you

Pruned through the

Harshness of this world

To increase His yield

Reaching even more for Him

Blown by the breeze of

The Holy Spirit

Unseen but felt

Directing the path

We reach

Those we touch

Bringing forth fruit

All true believers

Abiding in Him

A spiritual tree

All His plan

Branching out into God's

Glorious tree of

Life eternal

By Tracy Whipple Copyright 2012

 

 

Eden

 

Where has Eden gone?

Did it disappear with the flood?

Man was banished from it forever?

The Bible is the Garden of Eden

The Place where we meet with God

Tranquil

Refreshing

Nourishing

Where He walks with us

Talks with us

Teaches us

Shows us His love for us

His compassion

His mercy

His grace

Who we are to Him

His Bride

His children

Our beauty

Our value

But also

His greatness

His power

Our Redeemer

Our Rock

Our Fortress

Our Deliverer

We treat the Bible like it is a chore

Gotta get it done

Put it back on the shelf

Duty overwith

Just like the fall in Eden

Meet with Him

Then walk away

To be our own gods

Calling the shots ourselves

Fearing, failing, angry

Deceiving, burning out

Carrying the load alone

Not hearing from Him

Believing we are alone

That He doesn’t really love us

When we’ve left Eden on the shelf

Eden

A place to meet with Him

Walk with Him

Learn from Him

Grow in Him

Know Him

ALIVE

 The Living Word

The Garden of Eden

Tracy Whipple ©2012

The Window of Opportunity

Spring has been springing here in Kansas for most of the Winter it seems.  One of the things I know I always enjoy is when it gets really nice and warm and breezy, opening the windows and letting out all the musty, dusty, staleness of being closed in all winter.  I love sitting by the window with the sunshine washing in and feeling the freshness of the breeze blowing across me.  It is so refreshing.

On Sunday, Pastor Joe, talked about prayer.  He mentioned how it is like opening a window of our soul in invitation to God for meeting.

So when I open this window, if I think of the metaphor,   I am inviting God in His Holy Spirit to blow into my soul and push out all the musty, dusty, staleness, and sinfulness I have accumulated.  I am sitting there basking in the warmth of God's marvelous light snug in its embrace as He holds me and warms my soul encouraging me as I walk in this world of darkness.  If I sit there too and open His word, I let the sprinkling of Living Water rain on me like the unexpected Spring shower that blows in my window. 

Then I am thinking why do I have to only open the window sometimes?

                           Paul in First Thessalonians 5:17 talks about praying without ceasing. 

So I can, if I choose to,  throw ALL the windows of my soul open wide and let Him blow through me meeting with me in a freshness I have never experienced.  Basking in His light, love and warmth.

                                                              WITHOUT CEASING 

    That is what He desires for us to do.  But He won't make us open the windows.  He wants us to be willing to open the windows and invite Him to meet with us. 

Take the window of opportunity and start with one window and let Him freshen you and go from there.
                                              You just have to open it and invite Him in

To The Heavens

Psalm 36: 5,7  Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies...How priceless is your unfailing love!


God's love reaches to the heavens.  How many of us box God's love in?  How many of us only let it out when we need it?

There are some of us who never know it at all. Never even open the box to see what His love looks like.

There are some of us who only let His love out of the box at Christmas and Easter when we remember what He did for us and then only allow it out when there is an emergency and we need Him more than ever. 

There are some of us who let His love out on Sunday mornings when we worship and maybe on Wednesday nights at prayer meeting each week but come home and put the box back on the shelf and go our own way all week long after that. 

There are some of us who let it shine in our lives wherever we go fighting against closing Him up in the box.  We are amazed at how He works in our lives and the amazing things He does through His love and it makes us sad to see others who never experience this amazing love all the time.

Go outside one clear night and really look at the sky.  Don't be distracted by stuff going on around you or worried about someone next door thinking you are a kook because you are out staring at the stars.
The universe is IMMENSE!  I can't even begin to imagine how large it is in my mind. 

Psalm 36: 5,7  Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies... How priceless is your unfailing love!

His LOVE is immense like the heavens you are looking up at!  How can we wreck things by boxing that up?   How much do we miss out on when we do?  My heart breaks for all that I have missed.  My heart breaks for all that you have missed.

He loves us so so much.  Unfailingly!

The Art of Lively Discussions

Jesus was a rabbi.  A spiritual teacher.  In the society He lived in young men who showed promise in learning the Torah would follow the rabbi.  This meant that they would eat, sleep, pray, talk, and think like the rabbi.  They were learning to eventually BE Him. 

Another thing that these men would do is that they would talk about various scriptures from the books of our Old Testament.  Not only would they simply have a discussion, but they would hold lively debates over issues often by pointing to other scriptures that apply and using their learning to help them make their point. These debates helped solidify their understanding of the scriptures and gave them further insights as they learned from each other.

God has given us many mysteries in the Word.  In fact, I kind of like to think He is a mystery writer.  I want to read it more to know how it ends and figure out things that are not very clear.  Last Sunday our pastor, Joe, was talking about how God created us to be searchers and discoverers of His mysteries.  I like thinking of that.  It makes perfect sense.

As people we are always learning and searching for answers.  How does the human body work? How does the universe work?  How did people in ancient history live?  I find myself continually amazed by simple things such as petals on a flower or how different plants have different species of insects that pollinate them.  Such small but complex things that are part of God's creativeness. 

Do I approach His word in the same way?  Noticing the complexities in such small things and being amazed by them?  Some things we really can't know for sure.  But He wants us to ponder them, think on them further, ask Him about it and learn more about Him.  I can only imagine at this point in my life that perhaps all of eternity will be spent just learning and discovering Him and His greatness because He is infinite. 

I also think however, that we have missed the boat on lively discussion as Christ followers.  If we are to follow the rabbi as the scripture intends and become more like Him each day.  We also need to engage each other more in lively debate over the scriptures.  I am not talking about arguing each other down in some shouting match over who is right or wrong.  But talking to one another about what we think about scripture, what God has shown us about a passage.  Listening intently to each other.  Thinking together about it and how it applies to our lives.  Then go back to the Word and look it up again and think on it some more.

I had the privilege of a couple of lively discussions this past week.  It felt like a breath of fresh air in a stale dry landscape of personal quiet time.  It enriched my thinking and drove me further into the Word to understand more and think and pursue Him.  Did we agree in everything we talked about?  No.  Did we know all the answers to the mysteries?  No.  Did we get into an argument over who was right or wrong?  No.  It was  lively interesting discussion.  It made us think. 

We are rabbis in training.  How can we train if we don't look at the Rabbi and what He says?

We need to slow down in life.  Take time with each other to meet and talk about Him and what He is doing in our lives, what He is teaching us from His Word, what we think about the mysteries that aren't finished in the Word.  How do they apply to our lives?

Mysteries to ponder that I have been thinking on this week:

1) The Book of Life -  How does one get in there?  When are folks blotted out?  What does it mean and how does what I know it says about it apply to my life?
2)  Did Jesus preach in hell?  Hint:  begin in 1 Peter 3.  If so who did He preach to?  Why?  Does Abraham's bosom apply to this issue?  (this one is what I am looking into now)

Feel free to comment back with other scriptural mysteries to ponder or thoughts you have on these mysteries above.    I would love more things to think on further!