My place

I am at the moment preparing to teach a class.  Part of the lesson will be to teach new members that they have a perfect fit in the Body of Christ.  In this lesson, I will be using the classic "Puzzle and each person is a piece that fits in only one place within the puzzle" example.  During the preparation for this class, I realized that we tend to focus on where we belong in the Body of Christ, always seeking to move up, in what we consider to be our purpose.  We focus on "ourselves" and where "we:" belong.

God's focus is on "us" and our eyes should always be set on Him, relationship.  Whenever our eyes leave Him and move to us, we have our perspective and motive all wrong.  We may be going through the right motions, but is our heart right?

What happens when a finger is cut off from the body?  The body and head still function, but the finger withers and dies.  What happens when a leg or arm is amputated?  The body and head, although it must compensate, still function, but the limb withers and dies.  What happens when one is paralyzed from an accident?  The  body and head, with the aid of proper equipment, continues to function, despite it's hinderances.  The affected parts of the body become lifeless and useless, but the rest moves forward to live a full life.

What I have learned through this is that we are placed within the Body of Christ, not for Him, but for us.  His desire is that not even one shall perish.  When we do not plug in, and function with the head and the rest of the body, we wither and die spiritually.

 I have even seen people who are paralyzed from the neck down, who still continue to function, even though the head is all that works properly.  The rest of the body is compensated and carried through.  Regardless of whether we take our place in the body of Christ.  The Head, Christ, will still fulfill that which is prophesied.  He is still coming.  He may have to compensate for the body that is now hindered, but He will fulfill His part.

His desire, is that we are with Him, and functioning with our eyes on Him.  I want to be able to here Him say, "Yes, I KNOW you", when that time comes.  I want to develop a relationship with a real, and loving Father, who desires even more to have one with me.  It is because He first loved us, that we love Him.

About this blog...

I spent the night considering how to best go about posting on this blog, and still be able to share the experience of getting to know our Father personally with you.

I have decided this is best portrayed in my just talking and sharing Him with you from my daily life.  This type of posting can get personal and open my life to others.  I do not mind this as long as you keep in mind that I am not perfect.  That I also make mistakes, even in my path to becoming more like Him.  Just like when a baby learns to walk, he starts off wabbly, and falls down often.  He still gets back up and tries again.  This is how my walk to be Christlike has take place.  I have learned that eventually, you don't fall down very often.  But, you do find new areas of development that come as we age.  This is also true as we age spiritually.  Welcome to this journey of growing up spiritually to experience a real Heavenly Father.

Cactus Pricks

Hi,

I am going to begin this blog with a thought from a dream.  This was directed to a particular person, however, it also applies to many who will read this.

In this brief dream, I saw a tall, dark green cactus with its many thorns going all the way up.  My eye was led to a beautiful red flower at the top.  I saw someone walking up to the cactus, determined to see the flower.  As he tried to smell and touch the seemingly irresistible flower, his finger was pricked, with a drop of blood.  He quickly pulled his hand back and tended the prick.  However, he could not resist trying again to get to the flower.  This continued until his hand was bleeding and really sore.  A few times, he actually reached the flower, but after a while, he was getting pricked continually.  He could not seem to resist this flower, even though he was hurt from trying to touch it.

This reminds me of the world.  As children of God, we often see, seemingly harmless, things in the world.  We step in to touch and smell, and it did not seem to affect us much at first.  So, we continue, until we get deeper and deeper, becoming desensitized to the hurt it is pushing us further into.  The devil is so subtle, that we often do not know that we have stepped not just onto the fence, but over to the other side until it is too late.  He dangles what looks good and harmless just like a carrot right in front of us.  And most often, we tend to follow it until we look around and cannot seem to figure out how we got where we are.  We often tend to not even realize we are in trouble until the pain is so bad that we have hit rock bottom.

I am so glad He is a merciful and forgiving God, patient with us.  There is only one way to keep from falling into this trap.  That is to know your Heavenly Father, His character, His voice, His love.  It is through knowing Him intimately that we are able to recognize the fake, the false.

My favorite verses are Proverbs 3:5&6:  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and He will make your path smooth and straight"  (paraphrased from a few different translations).  It is only when you know someone, have a relationship with them, a close relationship, that you can truly trust them.

Meditate on these verses for a while.  I will continue and add to this thought in my next post.

Blessings,
---joy

Children at Play in China

The latest drawing is finished.  I finished it in Hong Kong during my week stay there this past week.  In China, there are parks in every apartment complex and many areas of the cities, to encourage exercise.  Most of the equipment is designed not just for children, but to be used as exercise equipment for adults.  Every morning, adults can be seen in the park walking and using the equipment to tone muscles.  Children use the equipment to play and burn off energy.  

Drawing in progress....

Children at Play, China 8.19.2010

These girls were playing in a park off the Pearl River in Fangcun, Guangzhou, China.  I also have a reference photo of a few more children playing jump rope, and riding bikes.  I hope to draw these in the future, as time allows.

Joy's New "How to Draw" Squidoo Lens

Here is my latest Squidoo lens:  How to draw a stemmed rose held in hand.  The final drawing is this stemmed rose based on 2 Cor. 2:15.


How to draw a stemmed rose in hand