Tag: beauty

Transforming Beauty

Yield your spirit to My grace, your sins to My forgiveness, your will to My guidance, your body to My service, your emotions to My love.

Meditation Thought: “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4:4-5)

Thanksgiving consecrates – by the Word and by prayer.

“Take everything in your life, both physical and spiritual and by your will, run it through the glowing mist of My pure Spirit within you: it will be cleansed from all sin, ugliness, tarnish, evil and emerge glowing and beautiful with reflected light and internal light.

If you do not see beauty, then it is because you are looking through your own eyes and not the eyes of faith by the Spirit. Correct your vision at once: by immediate prayer and supplication, by yielding your spirit to My grace – your sins to My forgiveness, your will to My guidance, your body to My service, your emotions to My love.

My power is released, not through pious self-consciousness of seeking me, but through the un-self-consciousness of total absorption and fascination with the Personalities of the Trinity.”

Burden Transformed

Our energies can be concentrated on the present not the past, on God’s will for us, and not our will for another, and upon the full, true significance of life, not a superficial misconception.

Meditation Thought: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

This does not refer to physical labor so much as the labor we force upon ourselves due to our misunderstanding of what the Father desires from us. We “load ourselves down” with guilt – Jesus will remove the burden, if we believe He came to do so.

We fret under doubt about our decisions and worthiness. Jesus lifts these from us as we perceive ourselves as He perceives us – as children of a loving Father.

God has provided a world of beauty, of order – yet of unfolding mystery – for us to discover and enjoy.

Through Christ we learn to appreciate all that is good, to forgive what is bad, when forgiveness is sought, and thus relieve much of the strain of living. Our energies can be concentrated on the present not the past, on God’s will for us, and not our will for another, and upon the full, true significance of life, not a superficial misconception.

The beginning

Just as a drop of food coloring will make water a pale tint, as you add more drops, it becomes vivid – a complete change. So as we let Jesus come into our lives, we are completely changed.

Mom had a well-established routine of prayer time and meditation before she ever began recording them in these journals. (See about this blog page.) We are forever grateful to her friend Mary Lou for giving her the blank book that inspired her to begin writing them down. Today’s entry is from the first page of the first book.

“For a long time I have wanted to keep a journal of family events and spiritual progress – of ideas as they come, feelings, etc. Much is lost, but I hope to keep a current record now, and as time (and memory) permit, to reflect on what has happened previously.”

The entry is fairly long, and totally awesome, and I will type the whole thing here – but if you don’t have time to read it all, let me start with an illustration from the middle so you don’t miss that:

“Just as a drop of food coloring will make water a pale tint, as you add more drops, it becomes vivid – a complete change. So as we let Jesus come into our lives, and as the Holy Spirit guides us, and we become more and more mature Christians, our lives are completely changed.”

Now, back to the beginning…

“This morning I had a particularly moving prayer and meditation time. For some time I have been concerned that my desire for beauty, harmony and order was a selfish, impractical desire. However, today it seemed God was conveying to me that He has a plan for each of us – that He made us in His image, yet each person uniquely fitted for the job he is do do. The qualities of beauty, harmony and order are all in keeping with His World and His Word.

It seemed I was to do my work through qualities of yielding, softness – although these are not particularly in my character, it seemed that (as experienced in ‘My Heart’ – ‘Christ’s Home’) – if I will relax and let Jesus guide my hands (tongue, etc.) He will reach others through me, using these very qualities of beauty, harmony and order that are comforting to me, and yet have up til now been a source of aggravation because I could not attain them to my satisfaction.

I turned in the Bible then to Romans 10:8 through 15:6. It all seemed very clear. Especially interesting: 10:15 ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace with God.’ Also 11:6 ‘And since Abraham and the prophets are God’s people, their children will be too. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be too.’

12:3 ‘Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has has given you. Just as there are many parts to our bodies, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of it, and it takes every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do… (6) God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well.’

13:9 ‘All 10 (commandments) are wrapped up in this one, to love your neighbor as you love yourself… It is the only law you need.’

In meditation, I had the concept that just as a drop of food coloring will make water a pale tint, as you add more drops, it becomes vivid – a complete change. So as we let Jesus come into our lives, and as the Holy Spirit guides us, and we become more and more mature Christians, our lives are completely changed.

Romans 13 ‘Obey the government.’ (Obey authority: This brings order.)

Romans 12:18 ‘Don’t quarrel with anyone. Be at peace with everyone, just as much as possible.’

Late afternoon – Karen came in to talk with me, and I was writing in mid-afternoon. We had a wonderful discussion about God, and I felt I wanted to see if she’d like to read “A Man Called Peter”. She read one of the sermons to me while I ironed and washed dishes. She really liked it and wants to read the book. Then we read ‘The 4 Spiritual Laws’ and the ‘Holy Spirit’ booklets. It’s been a wonderful day – thank you Lord!”

I would have been 12 at the time and don’t have a specific memory of that day but reading about it brings a smile and a warm sense of love. So typical of a summer day with my Mom. Today is my birthday – this entry is her birthday gift to me. I echo her sentiment “Thank you Lord!”