Reflection: Creation: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     What makes you feel separated from God? From others?

2.     In what ways do you think you separate yourself from others? From your own heart?

3.     Do you think of Christ as being the center of all creation always? How does that change our perspective within our diversity?

4.     What word do you hunger to hear from Jesus today, knowing that His word is not void?

Share: What word would you like to share with someone who is isolated?

Creation: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Romans 8:39

“Nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Seen and unseen. All creation.

All creation is in the Lord. Whole in Him.

We divide and separate, measure and attempt to control amongst ourselves but in Him we are all one. With each individual unique and beloved.

So far beyond our understanding. There are believed to be 9,000 to 10,000 species of birds and 10 quintillion insect species. Each one is also distinct. All forms of life are infinitesimal to our limited insight. Only the Lord see each fully and clearly.

We cannot comprehend the vast expanse of all life in its fragility and beauty.

And yet, although we stand in awe at creation’s staggering diversity, we continue to divide and separate from each other setting up barriers of judgment and prejudice towards those we don’t even know.

Separated internally and externally. Hardened hearts. Self-oriented.

All can dissolve under His mercy and forgiveness that daily challenges us to choose His promised grace in all situations and to all people.

Accept that nothing can separate us from His ongoing, consistent, generous, designed, personal love. And live into joy.

Thank you, Lord for Your everlasting presence and purpose in our lives even in our stubborn isolation.

Psalm of Worship: Isaiah 55:12

“For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

John 1: 1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”

           

            In the beginning

                        stands the Lord

                                    breathing

            His love, His mercy,

                                    His life

            Into every fabric of

                        creation.

            His soul, His model,

                                    His sphere.

            Ingrained within

                        each heart

                                    beating out

            His pulse, His being,

                                    His pact.

            Inside to keep

                        all threads

                                    connected by

            His will, His passion,

                                    His word.

            Lord, please lift us out of our time-clock world to listen. I pray for us to walk in Your time with Your heart and to see with Your eyes.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 40:3

“And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;

Many will see and fear, and will trust in the Lord.”

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Why did we recognize the ‘realities’ that technology can produce yet struggle to recognize God’s realities in our lives?

2.     Since often we do realize that human creations can be undone, do we apply that concept to faith and allow doubt to wonder at God’s promises of new beginnings?

3.     How can we compare our ability to be creative with God’s spoken creation?

4.     How should we not?

Share: From invisible to visible. What words of hope has God spoken into reality for you?

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Substance

When we pause to

truly look at creation’s

sphere—amazement

pours into awe. Struck

by infinity layered in

color, detail, shape.

Each piece uniquely

situated. Crazy quilt

pattern of exuberant life

un-replicable.

Why then doubt a

Master’s hand, lovingly

shaping day, writing stars,

painting landscapes,

breathing substance into

all His heart’s desire.

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     How difficult is it for us to accept that the One who created all also wants to speak with each of us one-to-one?

2.     What do we lose when we resist His ‘ownership’?

3.     Why do we often build up our own defined worlds instead? Out of arrogance? Or fear? Or…..?

Share: How does God speak life and hope and vision through His creation to you?

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Hebrews 1:2, “but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.”

  

“Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Prophecy and promises. Beginning and middle and end continue in the call to shout out the good news—the gospel.

Jesus Christ has risen.

Saviour of the ages. Prophet’s Messiah now present among the people. Emmanuel among us. God here walking and talking and healing and forgiving sins.”

Jesus Christ has risen.

Spoken word. Shout it from the rooftops. Declare it far and wide and high and deep. Spread it through all the generations. The heir has come. “Let the earth rejoice.” Hope and faith welded together.

Jesus Christ has risen!

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 71:23

“My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to Thee;

And my soul, which Thou hast redeemed.”

Kingdom Manna

Treasures

Matthew 18: 3, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The dedicated docent rambled on through the details, emphasizing safety for the giant elephant seals and for us as we prepared to navigate their domain. Sun sparkled sand caught my shy two and a half year olds attention and he kneeled to sift it through tiny fingers. The docent paused mid-sentence. “Amen” my son whispered. “Amen!” he stated emphatically as the narration continued.

Throughout the two hour tour he silently rode his father’s shoulders, eyes dark with wonder. Then as the docent began his summary, “Yes! Jesus loves me” burst from my son’s lips. Startled, we smothered our laughter and moved as far to the back edge as possible. Shh, I touched my finger to his mouth. He reached over, patted me on the cheek, and sang even louder.

That evening we walked out to see the stars in the coastal sky. Astonishment rippled throughout his entire body. My son threw back his head and opened wide his arms.

“I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” Jesus said.

Too many times I have walked through Your domain Lord with a silent heart and blind eyes to the beauty surrounding me. Instead I swat at mosquitoes, moan at muscle aches, mutter at stumblings. Instead of worshipping You, of awe at Your creation, of wonder at Your details. Expand my sight Lord, to look for You and see You with a child’s eyes.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 119:37

Turn my eyes from looking at vanities;

give me life in your eyes.

Tabernacle

Blue

Threads of remembrance

visual reminders

sewn in fringes,

outermost curtains.

Blue edged, hemmed

woven in corners

encompassed color.

Precursor to

understanding

Advocate’s explanations.

Creation blue

seamlessly stretched

breathed counsel.

Numbers 15:38, “speak to the Israelites and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put blue cord on the fringe of each corner.”

Leaving Egypt Behind

Scripture: Exodus 32:16, And the tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets.

Written creation. Majestic life. Teeming oceans, teeming insects, teeming cities, teeming stars. Flowers and grasses and shrubs and trees. Cactus to redwoods. Kittens to giraffes, worms to elephants. Parrots, crocodiles, penguins. Sand dunes, rain forests, ice caps. Mountains of lava, mountains of rock, mountains of snow. Streams tricking, rivers raging; wave tossed lakes, mud soaked ponds. Life in nature and universe declaring the work of God’s hands.

Written commandments. Moral law. Simple statements. Staggering commitment. Boundaries for community. Boundaries for conscience. Boundaries of wisdom and righteousness. Boundaries of judgement. “For there is no partiality with God. Who will render to every man according to his deeds.”

Written Christ. Manifest love. Ensconced in mortal flesh. Word of truth, word of grace, word of salvation. God Himself given as a gift to mankind.

Written covenant. Ministry letters. Ambassadors of love’s new commandment. “Being manifest that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.”

Written by God’s own hand.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 102:18

This will be written for the generation to come;

That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.

Leaving Egypt Behind

Scripture: Exodus 31:6, And Behold, I Myself have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are skillful I have put skill, that they may make all that I have commanded you:

Appointed for a task. Equipped with talent, with knowledge, with skill. God appointed skills. Placed in hearts for a purpose. God knew by name and by assignment those equipped with necessary craftsmanship.

Created to create. What a joy to know our gifts and talents are God given in our hearts. Heart skill. Crafted into our makeup. “Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”

Apply our hearts to nurture, to practice, to use our skills diligently Lord. To be ready at Your call. To serve You in our crafts. To joy in creation. To be faithful. To respond.

Lord, assist me to live creatively, seeking to serve You through Your gifts in my heart.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 37:23

The steps of a man are established by the Lord;

And He delights in his way.

Leaving Egypt Behind

Scripture Exodus: 7:11, Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts.

Exodus: 7:12, For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

“Work a miracle,” Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron. Dutiful to God’s earlier instructions, they complied. When Pharaoh’s magicians duplicated the sign, he believed himself within his rights to reject God’s authority. God’s wonder had an explanation. Pharaoh’s own people could replicate it. Never mind that Aaron’s staff swallowed up the others. Further investigation should disclose the secret. Pharaoh proved he had no obligation to relinquish his power to God.

Hands on science museums give all ages an opportunity to reproduce natural phenomena in a structured environment. A crashing tidal wave or teeth jarring earthquake can be experienced without dread. There’s a comfort to knowing such powerful forces have a definition. We retain a sense of control in the face of the unexplainable. Except the deeper we delve into scientific revelations, the deeper the awe. When we describe in biological details the process involved and potential complications of a child’s first nine months, the birth becomes even more miraculous. Beyond human comprehension. Beyond controllable boundaries.

Face to face with God’s power. Creation.

Pharaoh refused God’s reign. “Coincidence,” mankind reasons. “God-incidence,” said one pastor.

Have I settled in accepting absorbable imitations rather than recognizing Your sovereignty in my life?

Perhaps we’ve learned to make little rainbows, Lord, but none can compare to the majesty of Yours. Thank you for displaying Your signs and wonders throughout all Your creation. Thank you for working Your miracles. Thank you for life.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 77:14

Thou art the God who workest wonders;

Thou hast made known Thy strength among the peoples.