Nothingness

 I believe, "In the beginning God" (Genesis 1:1). There really is no other option. The universe sprang into existence from nothing? Nothing. Like the black box pictured above? There is no such thing as nothing. It can't be black, it can't be empty, or go on and on and on--those things are all part of the existing universe. Nothing is a concept, like evolution beginning with the Big Bang fantastically growing from hot hydrogen to helium to all the other elements, and even more fantastically producing life and eventually us. Producing us who create art and music and prose. All from nothing? Nothing is a concept like evolution existing only in the mind. "In the beginning God" comes to us from time immemorial, from the beginning, words at first probably passed on orally (like Kunta Kinte's African lineage), then written in Hebrew, the ancient text. "In the beginning God."

Night Watch Service

Have you ever read the "Songs of Ascents" (Psalms 120 to 134) as a unit? The word ascent (the King James Version uses the word degree) indicates that, as you read these Psalms, progress is being made. These Psalms are like a pilgrimage from one place to a higher place. 

The pilgrimage begins in Meshech (by the Black Sea) and Kedar (in the Arabian Desert), living alone as an alien among foreign people who hate peace. Our goal is the temple in Jerusalem where God dwells. We progressively move closer. Soon "our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem" (Psalm 122:2).
The Night Watch Service I wrote about in my last post is described perfectly in the last two of these pilgrimage Psalms. Psalm 133:1-2 reads:
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is

For brethren to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious oil upon the head,

Running down on the beard,

The beard of Aaron,

Running down on the edge of his garments."

Yes! How good and pleasant it is to be there with your brothers and sisters and the precious oil of the Holy Spirit. Psalm 134 is like a synopsis of the whole evening:
"Behold, bless the Lord,

All you servants of the Lord,

Who by night stand in the house of the Lord!

Lift up your hands in the sanctuary,

And bless the Lord.

The Lord who made heaven and earth

Bless you from Zion!"

And the LORD who made heaven and earth (imagine how huge and powerful He must be) blesses us. It's beyond comprehension.

Prayer Services

Last night I was at my church until 4:15 in the morning. We had a Night Watch Service of prayer which had started at 7:00 the evening before (so we went for nine hours and I was there the whole time). We worshipped God and had different members from the congregation lead in various aspects of prayer such as thanksgiving, intercession, and praying for specific needs.

We've also been fasting throughout this past week, and during the week had two prayer services in the mornings, one during the evening and services every day during the lunch hour.

Tonight a gentleman name Dolu Ashani led us in the session on "praying for specific needs." He told us to make a list of ten things we want God to to do for us in the coming year. Dolu encouraged us to think big; pray to "achieve uncommon success." My list included salvation requests for family and friends and requests for God to move within various aspects of our local church. However, Dolu encouraged us to pray for ourselves. I prayed that God would establish me as a professional artist working in my own studio this year (this blog is a testament that I've been praying for this specifically for several years now, although it's been my desire for many, many years since I graduated from art school). I'm not giving up. People during the service were prophesying that we were experiencing an "open heaven."

I also requested to take take a trip to Israel to photograph the country, and to take various digital communication courses at nearby school of technology.

I'll just mention these three specific requests for now (art career, trip to Israel, studying digital communication). The rest is up to God.

Body of Christ (Conclusion Part 2)

After the summer when Harley had prayed for me I went back to work teaching grade six. Teaching grade six was very difficult for me. I won't go into detail but for me it was like a disease, and I wanted healing. My prayer with Harley was like a prayer for healing.

About two and a half months after praying with Harley, a prophet from South Africa named Mike Haswell came to our church. During the service he spoke directly to me. He began by saying to me,

"Something you need right now, right?
The victory of God.
God says, I'm going to begin a work on your behalf.
It's not time for you to look at this one,
and look at that one,
and say, why is that one blessed?
And why is that one blessed?
But I'm sitting in the same place?"

And those were exactly the questions that I had been asking God. I felt as though God were speaking directly to me through this prophet of God. The words the prophet spoke to me were very encouraging. "The Lord says . . . I'll show victory in this day." He spoke many other words and I was encouraged because God was speaking directly to me. This is exactly what the Bible says should happen in the church, in the Body of Christ--if you want to know the truth about anything, look to God's Word, the Bible. If it lines up with the Bible, it's true. That's why God gave us the Bible; it's our foundation to the tangible. 1 Corinthians 14:3-4 states, "everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort . . . he who prophesies edifies the church."

Mike Haswell spoke to me during the Sunday morning service and was going to speak again that evening. Just before the service one of the men who had working in the sound booth that morning came up to me and gave me a cassette recording of the morning service. He said he thought I might like to listen it.

So I began to listen to this recording in the car on the way to work each day. I had an hour and twenty minute drive to work each day so I had plenty of time to listen. God was speaking to me.

I finally decided to transcribe the prophecy which Mike Haswell had spoken to me, and I began to study it in detail. God had given these words to me through His prophet and I wanted understand and obey them. And that is what I have been doing.

This past Sunday our pastor told the congregation, "Those mighty miracles that you are praying for are closer than you think."  

Body of Christ (Conclusion Part 1)

This morning during my devotion I read about how Paul was saved (Acts 9:1-31). Verse 3 reads, ". . . suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him." My conversion was similar in respect to the "suddenly" (there were no actual flashing lights, although in my spirit there was: it was awakened). I had watched (this was around Easter in 1998) the last part of the video Jesus of Nazareth several times with students at the school where I taught, and my life was transformed, just like that. All I did was watch the video and I became, as Paul puts it, a "new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

And that is when I became a member of the Body of Christ. I became a son of God (Galatians 3:26-4:7). I became a member of the family. So did my son Isaac. Actually he was a member of the family all along. It took us several years before we finally found a "church home." God gently led us to where we worship now in St. Paul.

Here's how the Body of Christ functions. It's us working together. Paul uses the metaphor that we are like a body. One person is an eye, another an ear and another a foot, and together we function as a body (and hence the body of Christ) (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). Peter says that we "like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house" (another metaphor) (1 Peter 2:5).

Let me share a testimony of how the Body of Christ has worked for me. In my entry 'The Deal" I shared how I have asked God to make me a professional artist. I had learned from reading books by a man of God named Kenneth Hagin that you could do that sort of thing. Kenneth Hagin had prayed with hundreds of people about all sorts of things, and they've had their prayers answered. All you need to do is believe. Sometimes it's good to have someone to pray with. It gives you a point of contact. Jesus said, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done by my Father in heaven" (Matthew 18:19).

Two and a half years ago during the summer a speaker came to our local Bible camp. His name was Harley fiddler and he was an older gentleman. I learned that he had worked with Kenneth Hagin in the past so I asked him if he'd pray with me. He said he would, and I met with him the following evening after the service. Harley had finished his sermon by saying, "God has not lost the recipe for making manna." In other words, God still knows how to perform miracles. Harley was just the man that I wanted to see, and I showed him the scriptures I had collected to support my case to become a professional artist, and then we prayed (he led). We clasped hands (like we were going to arm wrestle) and he prayed for me. Harley's wife was there too and she prayed along with us. Isaac my son was there too, and when Harley finished praying he prophesied that Isaac would one day work with youth. That same thing had been prophesied about Isaac when we were in Israel, at the Mount of the Beatitudes, and also one Sunday at our church after the service by one of our pastors. Isaac spent last summer working as a counselor at a summer camp for kids. That's the way the Body of Christ works.

After praying with Harley I was excited because I believed that God would do what His Word says he will do. I still believe that God will make those things happen. It is while you are waiting that you really develop your faith. I have learned a lot about prayer and prophecy and the Body of Christ over the past two and a half years. I've learned a lot about faith and and believing and trusting God. The scripture I quoted above from 1 Corinthians in verse 28 states, "And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles [Harley is an apostle], second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues."

The Body of Christ AKA Family (Part 4)

   In my last entry I wrote about evidence that proved the truth of the Bible (and I will share that evidence in the near future); however, here's another piece of evidence, although this evidence is somewhat circumstantial and subjective in nature. It seems quite eido to me (that is, empirical, observable, see the first red entry, last blog). I'm talking about the above picture of a group of Palestinian Christians attending a mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, taken by Christopher Anderson and which appeared in National Geographic in December of 2007. What other explanation can there be for the behavior of these Palestinians than to say that the glory of God has come down (glory in Hebrew is defined as "weight, but only figuratively in a good sense, splendor or copiousness"—and I must include the etymology of copious from the Merriam-Webster dictionary: Middle English from the Latin copia abundance, from co- + ops wealth, power, help). So, instead of the glory of God we could say the weighty goodness, splendor, copiousness and abundant wealth, power and help of God, and that is what the people in the above photo are experiencing. That's why they look like they're going on some kind of a trip, because they are going on The Trip. 

   It's great to be a member of the the Body of Christ: you can see a picture of a group of people from another part of the world and you love them as your own brothers and sisters, because we all have the same mind blowing Father. I have brothers and sisters in Palestine, in Israel, in China, in South-East Asia, in India, in Europe and Russia, in Africa, and all over the world. We all have the same spiritual DNA. We're a big, big family with a big, big Father who lives in big, big heaven. And He is so good, good, good. Try reading Luke 15: 11-24 (Jesus is a genius when it comes to metaphors) and see how much the father (God) in the story loves his son (any one of us). And then come and join the family.

What Is Jesus Doing in Heaven? (The Body of Christ Part 3) Continued

   This is a picture of my studio. It's kind of cramped and I seem to have little time to spend there. See that pine door? It needs to be finished and installed in the kitchen, and there's a roll of flooring on the floor which needs to be installed in the porch. There's lots to be done around the house. I have lots of ideas for my art and I hope to share them and document their progress through this blog. To make art is my heart's desire. God placed that desire there, and that's why I'm asking him to make me a full time professional artist.

   Jesus is running his church from heaven, but we're not a bunch of robots. Each of us has a free will. He wants us to "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7). 

   Here's a passage from Ephesians 1:18-23 which give us a peek into the spiritual realm. This is Paul speaking, and I'm going to interject a few comments in red: "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know [the Greek word for know, eido, means to actually perceive with the eyes, or by any of the senses. In other words, it means to observe the same way a scientist would, empirically. So in other, other words, according to this passage, we can actually observe "the hope" (read on)] the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparable power for us who believe [we, as believers, can actually observe (with our eyes and other senses) the afore mentioned hope, riches, and power]. That power [emphasis mine] is like the working of his mighty strength, which he [the glorious Father (verse 17)] exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come [This is quite inclusive power]. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything in the church, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills everything in every way."[So Jesus Christ, The Messiah, the Anointed One, the King of Kings, who said, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you," has been given the authority by God to "fill everything in every way," in the Body of Christ, of which I am a menber]. 

   If you don't think God only wants to do good things for us, and wants only the very best for us, just start reading the Bible. It's TRUE. And I've got an excellent piece of evidence to substansciate that claim that I will share with you in the near future, eido type evidence.