by Donya Dunlap | Aug 27, 2019 | Bible Study, The Spiritual Life
Several days ago I read Psalm 2 for my devotions and was struck by the invitation recorded in verses 7-9:
I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces lie a potter’s vessel.”
Our God is such a gentleman! He made a plan for His Son, to make the ends of the earth His possession, to bring all nations under His rule. But the Son has a choice. “Ask of me” and it will be done. Obviously the nature of the Trinity and their unified relationship makes this passage more complicated than those three words alone, but as I was reading this Psalm normally referred to when speaking of the judgment of God, I was surprised to have this kind exchange brought to my attention.
I considered this invitation, this relationship between God the Father and God the Son and realized we as His sons and daughters have the very same relationship. You and I are invited into the same fellowship that the Trinity enjoys! Isn’t that amazing?
- You’re invited into God’s family. The water of your new life has been paid by the blood of the Lamb. “And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” – Revelation 22:17
- You’re invited into God’s presence and His kingdom purposes. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” – John 15:4-5
- You’re invited into God’s plan for your life. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me an ego and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” – Jeremiah 29:11-13
- You’re invited into an intimate relationship with your Creator and Savior. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” – Revelation 3:20
- You’re invited into rest, leaving the worries of this world in His capable hands. “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30
- You’re invited into healing. “Come, and let us return to the Lord; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.” – Hosea 6:1
- You’re invited into a behind-the-scenes look at His wisdom and the mysteries of His universe. “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” – Jeremiah 33:3
God invites us, but He never forces us or demands we comply. He offers a choice. Would you like life or death? Healing or brokenness? Purpose or wandering? Wisdom or foolishness?
The invitation has been extended to you, engraved by His hand and sealed by His blood, but it is up to you to accept, ask, open the door, and take His yoke. You are wanted, accepted, and welcome to join hands with the King of the Universe. The choice is yours.
by Donya Dunlap | Oct 25, 2012 | Art and Design, How Great is Our God, The Spiritual Life
As a beginning designer I knew very little about what artists call The Creative Process. When working on a logo, I might sketch out a few ideas, but then I would jump right into my design software and work on flushing out a solution. I skipped several important steps.
Before you can adequately summarize an organization, a person, a product or group into a symbolic representation, research must be done. You need to learn all the various aspects of the its goals, its personality, its people, its mission and more before you will know how to begin a design.
From there you need to brainstorm. Taking into account all the various things you learned in your research, you then begin to consider images that symbolize those concepts and how they relate to each other. You have to consider color and the color meaning, single shapes, complex shapes, and styles. You have to try out a multitude of ideas and from there refine and refine and refine until you arrive at a completed image that adequately represents everything your client is trying to communicate to their audience.
There is a similar creative process that happens in our relationship with God.
Often we are saved and become comfortable at a church then jump right into super-Christian mode and try to serve the Savior without really knowing Him. We skip the learning and meditating parts of getting to know God and try to make Him happy with us based on our performance.
This kind of mentality hurts us and our “audience” in several ways.
- We never know what it is like to have a true, deep, meaningful relationship with God
- We lack an understanding of who God is and how He views us as His children
- We are continually frustrated with our shortcomings, and translate that into a belief that God must not be pleased with us either
- We misrepresent God to others by not walking in the Spirit and therefore causing unsaved people to think that Christians aren’t any better than the world which also effects their view of God
I wrote of this in my soon to be released book, Forgetting the Fairy Tale:
We blissfully enjoy all of God’s blessing until He takes away a relationship, or allows us to have a terminal illness, or doesn’t allow us to get married, or anything else contrary to our picture perfect Christian lives, and then we turn our backs on Him. Why? Not because He doesn’t love us anymore, but because we really never loved Him. We never got to know Him. So when He does something that doesn’t match our image of Him we get angry… We become bitter.
God is so far above us and His ways are so much higher than our ways. We will never be able to truly know Him in all of His complexity because we are human and He is divine. But we can continually grown in knowledge of His person and His grace if we “do our homework” so to speak. If we stop the continual motion of our lives and simply sit at His feet, read His Word and listen for His voice, He will reveal Himself to us.
James 4:8 tells us to “draw night to God, and He will draw nigh to you.”
The reason that we struggle so much with what God does is that we don’t know who God is. We need to pause, rewind, and court our Savior. Just like any human relationship, understanding and love takes time.
I encourage you to pull out some paper and colored pens and hang out with Him for a while. Write out His characteristics and what they mean to you. Look up verses that talk about His majesty. Read through the Gospels and write down observations of Jesus’ character and personality that stand out to you. Draw picture graphs outlining truths of who God says He is and who He says we are in Him. Get creative!
What can you do today to get creative with your relationship with God? I’d love for you to share your ideas in the comments below.
