How Best To Be Truly Creative, Re-Creative, Radically Re-Creational!

Growth in Maturity and “Re-Creative Influence”
“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-15).

Suffering and Sanctified for Doing Good… As a Witness
“Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats; do not be full of fear (anxiety for yesterday or worry for tomorrow). But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…” (1 Peter 3: 14-15—parenthesis added).

Yes, I’m “Pedaling the Persons and the Power”!
As I took a late-afternoon bike ride yesterday, the sunset, the refreshing coolness of the winter-coming air, and the splashes of fall color filled my heart, spirit, and senses.

As I have a habit of doing during my bike rides, I began to address and praise God in cadence with my pedal strokes as Trinity in a mantra of “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…” followed by acknowledging various attributes and blessings of The Trinity—completely one, and yet particularized by the various “responsibilities” each person of the Trinity has within the Godhead and His redemptive plan.

Usually First Amongst My Praises of the Trinity… Is Creation
The Father thought, the Son spoke, and the Holy Spirit fluttered creation, out of nothing, into existence (Genesis 1+2, other places throughout the Bible).

Please pause and dwell upon this for a moment… Have you considered, and re-considered this reality before? Have you gone the extra step and coupled the second big truth onto this one? God created and now He sustains… in the minutest details imaginable… based upon His Trinity Love and Truth.

Like yeast in the loaf, this unspeakably profound and simply beautiful reality began to enfold itself more and more into my heart as I pedaled up a familiar, long, painstaking, and pleasing hill. (I love hills… “Sick”, you claim? Yes indeed!)

Near the top of the hill, as the acids and endorphins surged and intermingled throughout my body, I was reminded that this creative act of God was motivated and fueled by God’s “Trinity… in TRUTH and in LOVE”.

God spoke creation into existence based upon “speaking the truth in love, and loving (itself first, and mankind second) truthfully”. For us, this is reflected in Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 3:15, amongst others like Luke 16, Matthew 7; 2 Corinthians 13; Philippians 2; Colossians 1; Hebrews 12, and many more.

Please hang in there…

When WE speak the truth in love and love others truthfully, even though we do not have the same ability the Godhead did and does to “create all of creation out of nothing”, we DO have the God-endowed, Christ-imparted, and Spirit-driven ability to influence reality not just for time (for the glory of God and blessing of His people), but for all eternity!!

Hearts (our faith and beliefs), spirits (our emotions), and lives (our actions lived out) are quite literally “re-created” (transformed, changed, evolved, conformed) by means of this action WE can take… just as God did “In the beginning…”!!!

The Gravity, the Glory, of Our Words
Do you sense the import of what we’re reminded of here? The magnitude is not the same, but the ministry we are called to is just as true, profound, required, and impactful in many similar ways.

Whether sitting around a campfire, or “sitting in the fire of difficult relationships”, taking the most mundane and the most crucial relationship and/or conversations to the level of speaking God’s truth in love will (guaranteed and promised by the Godhead) transform the world… in time and in eternity. It’s kind of big is it not?!

The Heart of the Matter, Is a Matter of the Heart
If we believe this reality in the heart of our hearts, live and practice it each day, repent when we mess up in some way, share the “re-creative glory and stories” with others, and go after it again… God’s creative persons and power will continue to create, and create, and re-create… right before our eyes, until Jesus returns, and forever thereafter.

And we will all be outlandishly blessed (ten thousand-fold) not only in seeing God “re-create in and through us” in so many ways while we’re here in this redeemed yet broken world, but throughout all of eternity—as we will be given the blessing of seeing how our present-day obedience, gratitude, and love of Love and Truth is reflected in our own and other people’s lives when all things have been made new: There will be a very real and tangible connection between time and eternity, dear friends! “Make time” today… it will last forever.

Future Station and Stories
Yes, God will bless us by “account and heavenly station” (Romans 4:12; 1 Peter 4:5) as well as the stories we will share—many of which will be tied to our having been graciously obedient to “being assertive”—or speaking the truth in love, loving others truthfully; always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have… (And other such acts of gratitude-centered obedience, truth, and love.)

Until we intentionally and hungrily take up a place together at the Training Table again, have a blessed… and “re-creative” day… “TODAY…” (Psalm 95:7-8)!

JohnDoz