Creativity and Worship

Creative expression is Worship to you. Our souls thrill when they are captivated by a striking piece of music, or for those with the blessed talent to play music- when their fingers hit the right chords that resound in their spirit and echo into the heavens. That is how my soul and spirit respond when I use the creative desire in photography that you have given me. I imagine this is how my mom feels when she sits at a canvas and her brush dances across the surface, creating beauty that pours forth in worship to the King of Kings. How a dancer feels as she executes her arabesque flawlessly across the stage. How a runner feels when they are in the rhythmic momentum of their jog. How a writer feels when the words flow forth onto the page.

It all cries out "Glory!" Praise! Be magnified O God! 

Those who don't know you think that the thrill of creative expression comes from within, and that it is meant to glorify themselves in some way. What they have yet to realize is that the gift of creativity was given to worship the Creator of all things! Sadly, these gifts can be used to worship self, to worship evil. Worship is exalting something, pouring out our focus on something...you don't have to be consciously involved in a religion to worship something. We all worship something daily. Whether it is the almighty God, ourselves, the earth, other people, the media...sadly, much of the world is deceived. The Evil One is one of deception. Twisting our desires and focus, manipulating us slowly into worshiping something other than God, and therefor worshiping evil. How heart wrenching to realize that if it is not God we worship, it is evil! Because worship is meant for God only. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 

The Word of God directs us to worship God only. Luke 4:8 says: And Jesus answered him, "It is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'" Jesus is responding to the devils attempt at tempting him. Manipulating Jesus' priorities and trying to take something good and use it for his own evil. One of the most used tactics of the enemy. Take good, and twist it a little to use it for evil. Sadly, the evil is subtle, and not realized. Pride, self worship...even "doing ministry" when the goal is to serve oneself and ones own pride. 

The beautiful thing is that we don't have to be manipulated! Glory to God! We are kept on the path of God Worship through the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit. He keeps our hearts right as we come humbly before him. He washes away our pride, our self desire, our inclinations to wander. And as we are washed, we can come to Him in divine worship.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
10 and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
Revelations 7:9-12

Prayer Journal {words and thoughts}

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. I submit myself to your Lordship this morning. I give my day to you. May I do your will and not my own. I submit my mouth and tongue to you, I ask that your Holy Spirit would bridle it, that I would spiritually and consciously reign it in- in how i speak to my children, my dogs, the news that I share with others...let my words be ones of kindness and compassion, giving life, not causing death in heart or mind or soul. Let my words bless, uplift, be pure, sanctified. May I take every thought captive and thus every word captive. May my tongue be unleashed in praise to your name, giving you glory and honor. May I speak with kindness and compassion, gentleness and patience. You made my mouth, let your creation bring you honor, not dishonor. Make me sensitive to the Spirits prompting to check my thoughts or my words, to change them when He instructs me to.

James 1:26, 3:1-12
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless....
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind,
8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?
12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
.............................................................................................................................

If you look in 1 Corinthians 10:5b you will read "...and take every thought captive to obey Christ", and in James 1:14-15 we read "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."

Our words come from our thoughts, our heart. Thus in pursuit of controlling our tongue, we should be taking every thought captive to obey Christ. Oftentimes I thing this scripture is applied to the more obvious thoughts of lust, ones that come from anger, and so on. But perhaps a closer study of our thoughts would reveal that we need to be taking captive thoughts of pride, judgement, and even plain self-centeredness. Or to take captive those lightning quick thoughts that led to an unbridled tongue, words of anger or short-temperedness that should never have been spoken. The path that words take can be seen in James 1. Here it is speaking of sin's conception and the sequence that it follows. First being lured by our own desire- I would say that this applies to our speech also, there is a desire to speak something inappropriate lures and entices us. Then it is conceived (I am thinking here that this would reflect being dwelt on, contemplated, or not taken captive and instead allowed to marinate) and gives birth to sin. The sin I am looking at today is that of the mouth, our words. And words have the power of life or death in them.

Proverbs 4:23-24 says:
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
24 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.

And Titus 2:7-8
7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,
8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Colossians 4:6 talks about life giving speech:
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

And a prayer in Psalm 19:13:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Today I commit to seeking ways to bless with my words, and to give life with my words!

-just megs

If only I could grasp this...

From my prayer journal today:

Thank you that You love and care for us so tenderly. I'm amazed that you love each person on this earth with depth, tenderness, and passion. With love that surpasses understanding- deeper than any love I'll ever be able to feel in my human heart. A God-Sized love.

Thank you that you love the dirty, the stinky, the odd looking, the deformed, the disabled, those involved in religions of deception, those involved in the ugliest of sins, the homosexuals, the prostitutes, the murderers...my heart can't even fully grasp a smidgen of such overwhelming, overshadowing, otherworldly love.

I ask that through the power of your Holy Spirit you would infuse my heart, spirit, mind, and soul with some sort of comprehension and resemblance of this love, and that you would love the world through me, that they would know your Spirit. Change my heart to Your heart, that my first reaction to these people wouldn't be to flinch, ignore, or turn away; but that it would feel YOUR compassion, weep with Your heart, and reach out in Your love.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21