Tag: Christian

The Love of our Moms

This year we have had an amazing amount of rain in Southern California and it has produced a super bloom of the most gorgeous flowers! Even driving on the freeways has produced traffic jams and rubber necking at the amazing flowers and greenery. Here in the dry Southern California region we do not always get to experience this display of beauty in the springtime. It has almost made us forget how amazing Southern California is and why we live here!

I remember being very excited every year to see the state flower come emerge. The California poppies are my favorite. It flooded my mind with that excitement again. I used to plant seeds because it had been so long since I had seen them. I would cultivate the ground, fertilize and pick the weeds to breathlessly wait for them to come and show how beautiful they are to see.

Watching the little green sprouts emerge from the clay based soil they were planted in provided a background color of contrast to see them popping up out of the soil. The anticipation of the next part of the plant maturing was ever on my mind. I sometimes would check two or three times a day to watch them grow. Why aren’t you growing faster? Oh, but you are so cute don’t grow too fast.

I would check for pests and shoo them away. I was often looking to see what beautiful butterflies would be attracted to them and carefully watched to make sure they didn’t like them too much. I surely didn’t want them to become dinner or a snack. I spent time in the utmost care to make sure they had been taken care of with the best of everything. The sun did it’s job as well as the oxygen atmosphere. They were given water and spoken to with kindness.

As they grew in each stage of their life, I was always curious to see how beautiful they would be in their full maturity. The days went on and I continued the needed care of each and every flower. Sometime the neighbors or walkers-by would stop to admire them and offer tips or goodly advice. The poppies had plenty of room to grow and thrive because I had cultivated all in and around them.

Soon it would be time to look at them and know they were done. The days lingered a little longer and finally they were ready to do the job they were created to do! It was time to show their beauty to the world. All the work and effort put into them had paid off! They were amazing to see, experience, thrive and go on to be appreciated and honored. WOW and WHEW!

As moms we go through these stages of being moms! We are amazing people who LOVE our children. We hope and dream and cultivate and intentionally LOVE OUR CHILDREN!!!

We are readying them for their future as well as for the future of the world they will also change. Be encouraged as you pour into your children. The results are not seen immediately but the success is seen later. Every good thing you put in them will come out in even more goodness. Yes!! It really works that way! Pray for them otherwise you will not see the seeds come to grow in them. Love them ALL OF THE TIME. No, you can not spoil them by loving them. It’s just the opposite! If you are having a hard time at what you see in them, then sometimes it requires us looking at ourselves. Read your Bible and get scriptures to pray over them. They need you ALL the time. They need to know you will love them no matter what.

TO EVERY MOM! YOU ALL ARE DOING AMAZING JOBS!!

LOVE YOU MOM!!!

 

 

 

 

Purpose: Finding & Celebrating First Fruits

JesusSculptrure
Jesus, Unfinished by Jana Rawling

 

Recognizing the Victory

Discovering and walking out our Purpose can be difficult, especially if we take our eyes off Jesus. One way to ensure we stay focused is to find and celebrate the first fruits of our efforts. God is faithful to give us strategies for success, but we must engage with Him and receive.

Celebrate every time something happens that is a victory for God’s Kingdom. Let God know how you recognize His hand in your life and that you are eternally grateful. Give God the first ten minutes of your good news before calling your friends and family. He wants to tell you how proud and excited He is that you are seeing positive activity in your life.

And above all God wants you to know and understand how much He loves you. Here are some verses to get started:

 

Proverbs 3:9-10 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Honor the Lord with your wealth. And with the first fruits of all your crops (income); Then your barns will be abundantly filled, And your vats will overflow with new wine.

 

Exodus 34:22 Amplified Bible (AMP)

You shall observe and celebrate the Feast of Weeks (Harvest, First Fruits, or Pentecost), the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering (Booths or Tabernacles) at the year’s end.

 

Exodus 34:26 Amplified Bible (AMP)

“You shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of the Lord your God….

 

Leviticus 2:12 Amplified Bible (AMP)

As an offering of first fruits you may offer them [leaven and honey] to the Lord, but they shall not go up [in smoke] on the altar as a sweet and soothing aroma.

 

Leviticus 23:10 Amplified Bible (AMP)

“Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am giving you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the [a]sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.

 

Nehemiah 12:44 Amplified Bible (AMP)

On that day men were appointed over the chambers for the stores, the contributions, the first fruits, and the tithes, to gather into them from the fields of the cities the portions required by the law for the priests and the Levites; for Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who served.

 

James 1:18 Amplified Bible (AMP)

It was of His own will that He gave us birth [as His children] by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of His creatures [a prime example of what He created to be set apart to Himself—sanctified, made holy for His divine purposes].

 

1 Corinthians 15:20 Amplified Bible (AMP)

The Order of Resurrection: But now [as things really are] Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, [and He became] the first fruits [that is, the first to be resurrected with an incorruptible, immortal body, foreshadowing the resurrection] of those who have fallen asleep [in death].

 

Romans 11:16 Amplified Bible (AMP)

If the first portion [of dough offered as the first fruits] is holy, so is the whole batch; and if the root (Abraham, the patriarchs) is holy, so are the branches (the Israelites).

 

Romans 8:23 Amplified Bible (AMP)

And not only this, but we too, who have the first fruits of the Spirit [a joyful indication of the blessings to come], even we groan inwardly, as we wait eagerly for [the sign of] our adoption as sons—the redemption and transformation of our body [at the resurrection]. ♥

† By God’s grace.

Creativity: Tips for Creative Expectations

Angel 2, Unfinished by Jana Rawling

What’s Your End-Game?

Concepts & Messages

You’ll need to know your target audience and have a solid concept before you start your creative work if it’s for commercial purposes. The concept will drive the design, so trust your research. If you still aren’t sure of the design, go back to research and concept.

If your creative work is for yourself, God or others on-commercially, the concept can be loose—though research should still be a serious driving force for creativity. Loose concepts for non-commercial work allows the viewer to participate in the interpretation of the work.

First Break All the Rules

I’ve always told students that you must know the rules before you can break them. You can break them from a position of intelligence or ignorance and professionals can tell the difference.

Get Out of the Box

Research, research and more research can help you to get out of the box you may be in or may want to break through. Research and let it go to allow your subconscious mind to most of the work. When you get back to it, you’ll be surprised at how things begin to fall into place.

Holy Spirit & Angelic Helpers

I’m pretty convinced we have access to creative angels and of course, Holy Spirit is always there to guide us in strategy, wisdom and creativity. I always pray and ask before I start work and during the entire creative process. I don’t have all the answers and two heads are better than one. ♥

 

† By God’s grace.

Purpose: Called & Chosen

Maze
Photo by John T on Unsplash 

Excerpt from the Foundations of Love Online Course by Hardwired for Worship.

You Have a Purpose for Being Here

Everyone has a Purpose whether they believe it or not. We need to know our purpose in order fully walk in who we are in Christ Jesus. Finding our purpose is hardwired into our DNA—some people ignore the unction to seek out their call and some are filled with an insatiable drive ask the question, “Who am I?”

However, it’s not enough to know our identity, we need to understand our identity in Christ. To know who we are in Him expands our awareness, and our ability to love, from ourselves to others and back.

Remember, Jesus said this:

Matthew 22:36-40  |  “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus answered him, “‘Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you.’ This is the great and supreme commandment. And the second is like it in importance: ‘You must love your friend in the same way you love yourself.’ Contained within these commandments to love you will find all the meaning of the Law and the Prophets.”

To know ourselves means we can know God and others. Then, we can love more deeply, purely, godly and holy. This is our all-encompassing purpose.

 

Made in His Image

Our identity began in Genesis when God made us in His image. We must know God—His character, His commandments, His names, His love for us, Jesus, and Holy Spirit—in order to know ourselves (If you need help understanding who you are, study the Scriptures by searching the internet for “Who am I in Christ Jesus.” There is a lot of help there.).

God has hundreds of names in the Bible (Another topic of study on Identity.). We are to reflect those names in our character, values and daily life. This is part of His plan for us, this is how He designed us.

Romans 8:28  |  “So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.”

 

Trust in God

God does have a plan for our lives and when we discover that plan, we begin to carry unspeakable joy, peace and happiness. Struggle and drama either fall away or we begin to look at it from the eyes of Jesus. When we see our struggles as blessings our lives are enriched in ways we never fathomed. The pain and suffering become vehicles of joy and gladness.

1 Peter 4:13  |  “Instead, continue to rejoice, for you, in a measure, have shared in the sufferings of the Anointed One so that you can share in the revelation of his glory and celebrate with even greater gladness!”

We are to consider ourselves special and worthy of God’s love and plan as we suffer. This is one of the harder realities for people to accept. The truth is our suffering has meaning beyond what we can understand in the Kingdom of God. This is where we must trust God and have faith that what we are suffering for is going to be used for good and that we are fulfilling God’s purpose.

Psalm 92:5  |  “… Depths of purpose and layers of meaning saturate everything you do.”

We have our overall calling to love God and others and we are each given a unique purpose. This unique purpose is hardwired into who we are. The people seeking and asking who they are and what their purpose is will find it. Our purpose is already written, and we are already fulfilling it spiritually in heaven.

Matthew 6:10  |  “Manifest your kingdom realm, and cause your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth, just as it is fulfilled in heaven.”

 

Do Everything in Obedience

We often run amok. We have ministry ideas that are wonderful and helpful in serving and loving others, but we are often not fulfilling our unique call. This is where frustration and unfulfillment comes from as we serve. We end up opening defiled doors and we walk in rebellion and disobedience to who we were designed to be.

We can just look at our fingerprints. We are all different and we all have been made to do something special for God’s Kingdom. And when we engage in that special purpose, we will be successful in walking out our salvation narrative.

Proverbs 19:21  |  “A person may have many ideas concerning God’s plan for his life, but only the designs of his purpose will succeed in the end.”

The great thing about finding and walking in our purpose is that God becomes our boss. He is the most caring and understanding leader and mentor we could ever ask for.

Proverbs 4:25-26 Watch Where You’re Going  |  “Set your gaze on the path before you. With fixed purpose, looking straight ahead, ignore life’s distractions. Watch where you’re going! Stick to the path of truth, and the road will be safe and smooth before you.” ♥

 

† By God’s grace.

 

Creative: Made to be Creative

PeopleWorking
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Excerpt from the Foundations of Love Online Course by Hardwired for Worship School of the He.Arts.

Made in God’s Image

We are all creative whether we believe it or not. We are made in God’s image as creative beings capable of engaging in the phenomenon of making something new and valuable. We are creative at our jobs whether we are mechanics, waiters, painters, or physicians. We can develop new solutions to old problems, if we are willing to apply ourselves to the Creative Process.

When we want to create any change or solve any problem in our life and our relationships, we can use the Creative Process to do it. We can seek to better understand the problem and work through it with a simple step-by-step formula to find solutions. Change is within reach and we are hardwired to learn and grow in Christ Jesus.

We can take the Creative Process further when we work through it with others, such as family. They say that two heads are better than one, and five are better than that and we agree. Teamwork in the right environment is a powerful tool to amplify our creativity. Our solutions will have more depth for more solid foundations. This is how the Kingdom of God and the Body of Christ is designed to work.

The basic Creative Process includes:

  • Exploration and Analysis
  • Ideation and Brainstorming
  • Designing and Planning
  • Developing and Producing
  • Evaluating the Solution for Improvement

Note: Each step of the process is enriched by using imagination and play.

We are hardwired to use our sanctified and righteous imagination to create effective solutions.

The imagination is a powerful, lifegiving tool given to humans to go higher and farther than we ever knew possible. We can launch ourselves into far away galaxies, sail through the stars, dive the oceans’ depths, and fly through forests unknown. And, when we use our imagination, we can feel like we are playing like children in God’s immeasurable Kingdom.

We are called to be like children in Scripture and we are designed to play. We are healed by the laughter and we are lifted by the joy. We are hardwired to play and do so with healthy competition and the fulfillment of community as we engage with others. Play activates our imagination and God’s Creative Spirit to pour out everything we need to address the challenges of our day. ♥

 

† By God’s grace.

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