Category: light

31 Days of Quiet


But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 
for it is light that makes everything visible. 
This is why it is said:

“Wake up , O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.” 
(Ephesians 5:13-14 NIV)

Think of the 31 Days of Quiet series as your personal pantry to spice up your devotions. Click here to see what’s been stocked so far.

Do you ever get bored or stuck in your relationship with God? Even if you did, would you admit it? Sometimes, I get stuck in a spiritual rut. Nothing seems to quicken my spirit. I feel dried out and thirsty. To help me overcome my spiritual apathy, I am dusting off a favorite book of mine from Pam Farrel. In her little book, 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time, she offers thirty suggestions to add variety to your times with God.


Each day this month, I will share some tidbits from her book, practice it in my own quiet time and then report in on how it went. I would love for you to join me here. If you do, feel free to drop by the comment box and let me know how it’s going.

Now, let’s listen in on what Pam has to say about variety and our quiet times…

As we creatively spend time with God, God becomes more real.

. . . the task at hand [is] to make the words of the Bible so real that Jesus isn’t some flannelboard God, but the intimate Savior, the indwelling Holy Spirit and the caring always-present Father.

I want to experience God with the range of emotions that he created me with. I want to see him work in a variety of settings to conform me to his image, so I want to give him lots of opportunities and lots of tools.

This book is dedicated to fellow travelers who long to respond to God, to be attentive to his voice.

These ideas are designed to counteract dryness or boredom, to provide relational connectedness if your quiet times have become academic or intellectual exercises or just to allow you to have a little fun and enjoy the presence of the One who created you. The ideas here are meant to spark your own ideas. Picture them as spiritual caffeine for your soul. Pour a big cup and drink your fill.

©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam http://www.Love-wise.com

Linking up with the 31 Dayers at The Nester.

i'm doing it!
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Guest Poem from Slyvia Robertson

He has given me a new song to sing
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done
 and be amazed.

    They will put their trust in the Lord.
(Psalm 40:3 NLT)
  
 
I am so pleased to have Slyvia share a poem with us today. She and I “met” at one of those famous blogosphere link-ups. She responded to my call for poetry and sent us this contemplative piece that she wrote when she first became a believer. She told me that although it started out as her new song, she now considers the poem her signature song.
Slyvia blogs over at The Sylvr Pen, where she aims “toward more fully living the Christian life.” Her recent posts contemplate the life, death, resurrection and words of our Savior.
Here is her poem. Feel free to leave Sylvia comments on this post.
 
A New Song
 
I’ve had enough of sepulchers,
Of corridors of cells for bones
That click their way in idiot grins
Down hall to hall,
From cell to cell–
 
 
Of subway faces:
Vacant masks that hang and sway
In synchrony with dark machine
That carries them they know not where.
 
 
Pour forth the light!
And let the prism of my frame
Fragment the beams in diverge’ rays,
In hues and tints and shades of glory
To pierce the lids of sightless eyes
And spark the fire of life again
Within the walking dead.
 
*(Copyright 1980, Sylvia K. Robertson. New then. Still new today)



Photo art by Kel Rohlf



Photo Art by Kel Rohlf
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Bare: Open to View; Exposed

I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things.
(Isaiah 45:7 NKJV)

 
Bare canvas, what will you reveal? Our potential placed upon the easels.


She asks, are you nervous?

I was nervous. How did she know? She’s my sister.


At the art supply store, her canvas was grabbed up and in her hand.
Aren’t you going to look around?
Nope, let’s go. I want to paint.
I tag behind her to the checkout counter. We head home.



Barely in the door, I grab the easels, paints and brushes.

The bare canvas asks for paint, for brush strokes. We feel exposed. What color should we use? We close our eyes and then pick. She mixes gray. I decisively choose black. We try different techniques. The broad side of the brush, then the narrow, and then swish and skip the brush.

I pause to photograph our beginnings.
 
 

 

 

Little by little we unfold. Immersed in the process, we pause occasionally to peek at each other’s progress. We applaud; we interpret, adding meaning to each other’s work. I am glad she wanted to paint today.

How do we know when it’s finished, she inquires.

I don’t know. Just keep painting.

And then slowly, we come to completion. She adds a little more detail. We marvel at what we’ve done. We encourage each other to sign our work. We each add two little initials, claiming and saying yes to ourselves.

 

“Untitled” by Juniper Gillian
 
 
“Many Suns Rising” by Kel Rohlf

 
 

 Linking up with:

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Illuminate: Brightened With Light

 
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God
was hovering over the waters.
(Genesis 1:2 NIV)
 



 
And God said, “Let there be light,”
and there was light.
 
 

 
 
 
 God saw that the light was good,
and he separated the light from the darkness.
(Genesis 1:3-4 NIV)
 
 
As this month comes to an end, desire calls me closer to the flame of God’s light. I want to explore and express His light in fresh ways. As I follow God into the unknown of the future, I see a blank canvas. God hovering over me.
 
The old landscapes and portraits of my life stacked in a dark corner will still speak of who I am, but I want more than the past to define me. A clean, fresh start draws me.
 
I realized recently that as I child, I did not trust my own expression. I let my art teachers “help” me. I may have started a painting, but when I was dissatisfied with my efforts, I would call the teacher over. Inviting him to paint in where I felt deficient to create an image as realistic as possible.
 
As I grown woman, I want to trust myself, as one created in the image of God, capable of expressing my own unique voice and style. I may have to copy others for awhile, and ask them to teach me. But in the end, I hope what others see on the canvas will be a purer expression of me.
 
I desire illumination. God decorating my life. Broad strokes of the Holy Spirit brightening my perspective. I want to engage my spirit and my intellect in God honoring ways. His light shining through all my being.
 
 
Linking up with:
 
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Peace of Mind

Advent{ures}: Let’s Go to Bethlehem

 

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,
whose thoughts are fixed on you!
(Isaiah 26:3 NLT)

The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing. The Messiah’s Spirit let them in on some of it—that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when. All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves—through the Holy Spirit—the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!

So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.” (1 Peter 1: 10-16 The Message)

 
 
Did you ever notice that most of Yahweh’s prophets led strange and difficult lives? Their lives were distinctive, set apart from others. Holiness marked their lives, and at times their lives were literal object lessons.

Think of Hosea who is asked to take a harlot for a wife, in order to reveal to the Israelites how prone they were to straying from God and chasing after other gods. Or Elijah, Elisha and Ezekiel who lived as wandering prophets, confronting kings and wayward people who either scoffed, derided or attacked them. Or weeping Jeremiah.

And after four hundred years of silence, there’s John, the cousin of Jesus, who lived in the wilderness eating honey and locust. So as to literally be the “voice of one calling from the wilderness.”

Yahweh’s prophets spoke some of the most beautiful and convicting poetic oracles known to man. Isaiah comes to mind. Even though the first 39 chapters are full of impending judgment, points of light break through the darkness.

Here are some verses to ponder:
 

Come, O house of Jacob,
Let us walk in the light of the LORD.
(Isaiah 2:5 NIV)

 
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light ;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.
(Isaiah 9:2 NIV)

The sun will no more be your light by day,

nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the LORD will be your everlasting light ,
and your God will be your glory.

Your sun will never set again,
and your moon will wane no more;
the LORD will be your everlasting light ,
and your days of sorrow will end.
(Isaiah 60:19-20 NIV)

{See also Isaiah 10:17, 45:7, 50:10, 53:11, 58:8, 60:1}

 
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