Hiking In Grace & Capturing My View

Creativity Bootcamp- Day 1 "ivory"

06.06.10

“Ivory”

The first day of the creativity boot camp was “ivory”. The medium I am choosing for this boot camp is photography. I am taking on this journey not just to push me to dig deeper at my art but to search out who I am. Someone asked me about a year ago “who is Sharon?” and I had hardly anything to answer. The “about me” section of my blog has always been hard to fill in.

As I began to think on this assignment and pray about where it should take me, my first thoughts of the word ‘ivory’ took me to the keys of my piano… however they, being attached to a rather modern digital piano, are not very ‘ivory’ to say the least.

Music being still on my mind, the word ‘ivory’ took me to my grandmother’s old hymnals and an old favorite book of mine. The pages of both are aged and are therefore very ‘ivory’.

My grandmother played the organ and piano in church for many years. As a kid I loved listening to her play. She could play anything. From “Round and Round the Mulberry Bush” to “New York, New York” to “Nearer My God to Thee” and even a bit of Mozart in between. As a child I wanted to be able to sit and play like that but I never had the patience or the ‘stick-to-it-ness’ to learn it well.

After giving my life to Christ at the age of 20, the Lord took me back to that piano. With a new found hunger to be more useful to His service I took myself back to the keys with a deeper commitment to learn – better.

Music has always been important to me. I enjoy communicating through song. Songs of my Savior; what he has done for me in my life, what he can do for others in their life, and lifting up praise to Him -the author and finisher of my faith. The hymnals were opened to specific songs that have held meaning in my life.

The book is the biography of John G. Paton, a Scottish missionary to the cannibals of the South Seas. A man who, through great heartbreak, continued on for the cause of Christ, against a stream of tremendous tribulation, to win the heathen cannibals to their Creator and Savior, all the while wearing a kilt. (For him Sunday attire was a kilt, he preached in it with zeal, and just think… kilts are always made of wool and he lived in the tropics.) Not only do I love the missionary aspect but having Scottish heritage makes me even more fond of this old saint.

I enjoyed getting out my camera and actually having purpose in seeking out what to photograph. I think I am going to enjoy this boot camp, as long as I can keep up with it. These next few weeks are some of the busiest I have had in a long time; funerals, birthdays, anniversaries, the only thing missing is a wedding it seems.

Click on over to find some linkage in the comments to others who are participating in the boot camp with their selected mediums. They range from writers, to crafters, fine artists.

Kindred Spirits

05.25.10

I am unwrapping and celebrating the gift of friendship.

Friendship founded on Jesus Christ.

Friendship found in His service.

Friendship of another ministry wife hiking a bit further ahead of me on her trail.

Friendship where there is no judgmental undercurrents.

Friendship that provides a bit of refuge from the storm that is life.

Kindred spirits of sorts.

I am thankful for blossoming friendship.

Emily is unwrapping gifts on this Tuesday. Stop over and check out what other gifts others are Unwrapping on this Tuesday.

Two Kinds of Gardens

05.24.10

As I was pondering the well watered garden…

the Holy Spirit caused me to think about two kinds of gardens.

The vegetable garden and the flower garden.

A garden full of hearty veggies or fruits to help others grow in their spiritual walk with Christ.

Experiences the Lord brings us through to help others along their way as they face similar circumstances.

There is also the flower garden that gives quiet refuge and peace.

That place where people enjoy the sweet fragrance

of Christ wafting through lives lived out for the glory of God,

for passers by to inhale, stop for a spell, be refreshed, and be blessed.

I believe I’d like to be a bit of both as I hike along.

A Watered Garden

05.24.10

“And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water,
whose waters fail not.”

I don’t know about you but I would love to be that watered garden whose waters fail not. Lets take a peek at Isaiah 58 to see how we can become that garden.

Isaiah 58:9b If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

There are a few prerequisites for us to get to that desired goal. Verse 9b tells us that we need to put off the yoke of sin, stop judging others, and speaking empty words.

In verse 10 we are told to draw out our souls to the hungry. Who are the hungry? I see two groups of ‘hungry’. One group is made up of those who have not received the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and so they try to fill that hungry spot with lots of things: jobs, money, wealth and position. The other group of hungry are those who have a relationship with Christ and that “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matt. 5:6) We are to give out the gospel to a lost and dying world and to feed each other with the Word of God. Matthew 4:4 tells us “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” We are to be feeding each other spiritually with God’s Word. God commands us to edify one another in love (Eph 4:16), to help each other to grow in our Christian walks with the Lord. We are to “satisfy the afflicted soul” by helping others through difficulties and struggles.

This leads to a promise: “then shall their light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:” As we draw together in unity to spread the gospel and edify one another, God will lift our light up out of obscurity and brighten it as the noon day sun! (hmm… let your light so shine before men… a city set on a hill cannot be hid…)

That brings us to the promises of verses 11 and 12.

The Lord will guide us continually. (vs.11) How great is that!! He promises to never leave us or forsake us, to guide us continually. He will satisfy our souls even in drought and make us strong!

So that… we will be like a well watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not… watered with the water of the Word of God whose waters fail not. What a tremendous promise!!

It actually gets better! Verse 12 says that our ‘spiritual children’ will build the old waste places, it will bring revival, and we will be called “the repairer of the breach” but I like this one even more, ‘The restorer of paths to dwell in“.

Paths to dwell in. That path which leads to life eternal, that’s the one to dwell in, to LIVE in. That narrow way he asked us to hike with Jesus. Not that broad way that leads to destruction.

God’s Goal for Fasting

05.24.10

Isaiah 58:6-12

6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.

9a Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.

Verses 6 tells us the right motivations of a fast and the Lord’s desired goal of that fast done in his will. To free us from sin, to lift heavy burdens (often times not placed upon us by the Lord but by others), let the oppressed go free (are you being oppressed by insecurities or others opinions of you?), and to break all those “yokes” that we have allowed ourselves to be attached to unequally.

Verse 7 tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

THEN…

In verse 8 to 9a, God promises wonderful things! Our light, the light of the gospel shining through us, shall break forth as morning! We will be healed. People will notice something is different in us. The glory of the Lord will be our protection. We will call out to him and have favor with him, he will listen to us.

Getting our lives in line with his will is his goal for us. The end result is to cause us to cry out to him and he will answer with blessing and favor.