Things are not as they appear...

Flying not-too-high in a 4-seater plane last week ~ with the sun just at the point where shadows become long and reach across fence lines spilling onto the neighbours fields ~ I took this picture, of the Ontario landscape below.

As I have been editing my photos from the plane-ride, I keep coming back to this one.
This lone tree in the middle of so much agricultural land grabbed my attention.
I wonder about it.

What makes is so special that the farmer would deliberately leave it be and plan all his crops around it, instead of removing it to make seed-time and harvest that much simpler?
It wasn't near a house for added visual beauty or near a barn for livestock to enjoy some summer shade.
Smack dab in the middle of a field surrounded by other fields.

It speaks to me.

When I am alone, I need to remember that God sees me, not from ground-level where things are judged by their substance...
but
He sees me from His perspective. From His heart.
He sees the impact my 'shadow' is having in the sphere of my influence.
He knows and understands.

This tree reminds me that I too, must not judge others from my limited horizontal viewpoint.
But from a heavenly view.
The shadow of the tree stretches farther than even it's roots might grow.
It is not hindered by other trees, fences or boulders.
Like my spirit; it's shadow is not contained strictly by the physical but affects the unseen.
I cannot see from ground level the length of the shadows and ripples another is having in their world.
I cannot know whose lives they have touched.
I cannot know what areas their souls have spilled over into.
I want to learn better the art of looking past the substance, the body, and into the soul, where the Light lives.

Unremarkable in itself, the tree; like me; is never out of the Father's vision.
Unremarkable from the ground; but my Father sees from His perspective...
He sees me with the eyes of Eternity.

For Sparky

Dear 'Sparky"'

One of the many amazing things about God is; He has made it very easy to come to Him and receive forgiveness and reconciliation back to Him.
Becoming a Christian is the simplest thing ever. It is just a long, legalistic church history that has made it all about 'rules and being good or bad'.
TRUE Christianity is not about rules.
It's about grace; which is; receiving something we don't deserve instead of getting what we do deserve.
Living for God SHOULD boil down to one thing; listening to His Spirit IN us and obeying it.
The way we get His spirit to come live in us is...
to ASK Him to come to live in us.
Simple. But true.

The Bible says that when Jesus died and rose from the dead because He lived a sinless life; He went back to heaven but LEFT US His Holy Spirit to be our Comforter, Counselor, Healer, Teacher, Guide... etc.
It is NOT meant to be for intellectuals! But for 'children'. :) like me.

(Read;"Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: 'Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You've concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that's the way you like to work.' Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. 'The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen. -'Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.' Matthew 11:25-30 MSG"


SO... we are made with a BODY; a SOUL and a SPIRIT
...THE SOUL is where most of our issues lie.
It consists of our MIND, WILL, and EMOTIONS.
It is in our SOUL where the battles are raged;

.. when we try and live through our emotions, we are fickle and flighty and our life is a roller-coaster of mood swings. We may 'feel' like Jesus loves us one day and NOT feel like He should the next.
Based on our feelings; we will either get frustrated with our faith and give up all together, or we'll 'feel' that God is disappointed with us and might give up on us.
FEELING-based living is very inconsistent and scary!

AND.... when we live through our MINDS we analyze everything that happens, and try to make all our decisions based on what the predicted outcome will be.
Eg; if I do 'A' then "B' should happen and then I'll be happy."
Living based on what we KNOW turns people into self-righteous, independent control-freaks.
Our 'faith' becomes based on US. On what we 'do'...how much we've read the Bible, how much information we have learned from books or shows or schooling...
We intellectualize spiritual things. We become 'religious'.
Pride is one of the huge fall-outs of living from our Minds...and when people live with PRIDE; they don't 'need' God. He's just there for emergencies instead of being our LIFE-source.

SO>.... living out of our SPIRIT.... is about RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!!!
He LOVES US!!!! He wants to be actively part of our day-to-day, moment-to-moment thoughts, motives and choices.
Our Spirit becomes ALIVE or born again as some Christ-followers would call it; when we accept that we cannot do ONE good thing to earn God's favour and that HE has already done EVERYTHING to bring us back into a love-relationship with Him by coming as a Man (Jesus) and dying as a SUBSTITUTE for OUR sin.
Our sin separates us from God. Jesus is the bridge back to Him.
When we accept that; that Jesus did it FOR us; and invite His Spirit to live through us; we become NEW.... also known as; Born Again; also known as; Christian; also known as; a Believer in THE Way.

SO...living out of our spirit; which NOW has the actual SPIRIT OF GOD in it to make it alive; means we can choose to live out of our emotions; (reacting) our minds (controlling/analyzing) or our spirits (saying, "God what would you like me to do right now?", or "God, I need you to give me direction...")
Usually the best prayer is "Oh God, Oh God, Oh God.....have mercy on me!".
:)

It can happen in a split second; or it can take days, even months to 'know' from His Spirit, what He would have us do.

But His Spirit in us is not just there to tell us what to do.
He lives in us to bring us peace, joy, love, patience, kindness, self-control, comfort, healing, discipline and so on.

I call it 'Living out of the Centre.'.
When I consciously live from the spirit; the Centre of me; I get the wonderful realization that the God of the Universe is IN me and loves me and wants to work through me.
It is not always clear. In fact, it is called "Seeing through a dark glass" in the Bible.

YOU... were living in relationship to God the night you were laying on your bed talking to Him and praying and then, He came with His spirit and brought you peace and rest after you obeyed His nudge. COOOOOOL!!!

Okay...I've rattled on long enough.
I could go on MORE about how our misconstrued ideas about who GOD is; along with things that have happened to us in life; keep us from being ABLE to receive His truth from our spirit....
Blockages to spiritual truth...but that could take another hour and cause you to break out in a rash.

loveya! ~ lil' red