Analytic Camouflage

How bright we can be.

Yes in our modern society we have come to understand psychology, to grasp the lessons of history and weigh current events against the past plodding of our forefathers. And our physical science –mercy, we have mastery of so much biology that we can do a heart transplant, and calculate the requirements to send a man to the moon and bring him back again. Yes the modern man is so much more sophisticated than before. We no longer merely cultivate gardens, we have landscape architects for beauty and our mass production agriculture has GPS controlled nutrient application and yield calculation. We can gather knowledge at the touch of a button on the web. And we can find out the wind speed of an approaching storm.

All this capability can make us so full of ourselves. We can come to the master of all that we are learning about and try our mind functions on Him. We can assess the odds of an event taking place and try to figure out where the resources most likely can or will come from. We can apply all we know to the point of missing all that He is. Our capacity to think is the same as those who came before us, but the subjects for us to apply them to are many more, and better organized. What does this do to our relationship to Him? Depends on what you do. You can analyze the position of God for eternity and never discover a thing that was not known by Adam. He experienced Him before the nasty little introduction of our very self-awareness that makes us think we can be like God. All the assessment in the world is merely another form of fig leaf. In the cool of the morning when we go to walk with Him and try to converse with Him we better leave it all behind. Lest He call out: “(your name) Where are you?”

What’s in your Worship?

Thanks,

Tj

See the rest of the series at SculptureByTj.com

Dual Mindedness

One side pokes out at the space with high contrast but has no mouth. The other side is caged in, mouth open but no depth of statement can happen with that mouth. We swivel on our axis and can easily turn from one side to the other.

When we come seeking God, He may speak to us, but our double nature holds us from accepting His word. What is our true response to His prompting? We often are in denial that we even have a problem with what God is trying to tell us. We avoid His truths if they don’t fit our past experience, or if they seem too simple or hurtful. We want it our way, but we hope it’s His way, and faced with the difference we can’t decide, so we vacillate.

How often we just slowly wander away from Him in a moment of his speaking. We may not even realize that we are in denial of His position. Our double mindedness prevents us from going deeper, and we stay at our current level or slide backwards, .......... to reticent to accept his communication.

What’s in Your Worship?

See the rest of the series at SculptureByTj.com

Big Monkey

What do you call an 800 pound gorilla? …. Sir.

That is the old joke. We all carry a certain number of monkeys. They are things that must get done. Some larger than others. Just respect for them, and their magnitude, does not deal with them. Business management texts tell us to beware what monkeys we actually accept on our shoulders and which ones we hand off to others. They seem imperative to success and drive us, consuming our mind. They are dangerous, putting careers and objectives in peril if not satisfied. Watching a big one we note a quick twitch of that head and a focused grunt in our direction bodes a possible lashing out of those powerful limbs.
What if this sucker jumped on me?!

We know the scene of an ape’s tirade, so violent and noisy. So how do you carry your personal monkeys? Is there a particularly big one at the moment? Like all the rest of the creatures in this world these things are predictable and can be subjugated by the man or woman who grasps the difference between them and us. All these were made to populate the world that you and I inhabit. But we were created to cultivate this place. We were first given the task of naming these beasts, then tending them. When we come to our maker we bring with us our tendency to be concerned for our various tasks, but they should not rule us. They should not drive the spiritual relationship. Each of these will pass, along with our concern for them, even the 800 pounders. And yet our time with God will remain.

Do not let the primates of your life run you, or you risk skipping the real power for their tending.

What’s in your Worship?

Green Envy

Envy, just green with it. That is how we find ourselves so often. It will sometimes drive us to spread gossip about others, a bit of sabotage for the competition. Oh, the tainted and spoiled spirit that can manifest from our comparison to others. And oddly enough it goes on in every single strata of society, from the least to the mighty, from the toddler to the old miser. Rock stars not happy with a recording selling three million when another sells ten. Have you ever gone into prayer with a supplication for more, born of a mere desire to compete? What debts have we accumulated simply because we must keep up with the Jones?
 
Pride and envy can produce a wagging tongue that is as green as the bacteria that inhabit a stagnant swamp. And if it is rolling off our tongue imagine just how much must be on the mind, and how deep the furrows in the cortex that these impulses travel.
 
 Proverbs 26:22 The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts.
26:20 Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.

What’s in your worship?

Spanking Clean

You know the room, it has white carpet, and white furniture possibly even with plastic covers. The walls are immaculate with carefully selected decorations. Yes, everything is perfectly dust free and practically sanitized like an operating room. Oddly enough this space is labeled a living room but so seldom does anyone go there that it bears no evidence of ever being lived in. Yes indeed it is spanking clean, by design and upkeep.

We often believe we must have a place like this to receive guests properly. After all, what would the neighbors say? Have you ever mowed the lawn twice so the criss-cross pattern is perfect? Have you spent time putting the contents of a cupboard into order by size? Have you contributed more money to your hair stylist than to, say, a missionary? What happens when you want to receive the utmost of visitation? How can you prepare to receive the Holy Spirit of God and enter into worship in spirit and truth? The truth of the matter is, you will never scrub it clean enough, never get it straight and orderly enough, never ever produce an orderly organized self to God almighty! There is simply no cleanser no disinfectant that can provide a space appropriate for Him. Those who must chase dirt until the last molecule is purged do so in an endless futility. Prepare yourself for a visit from God? How? We cannot create a bubble of nice, when we live under a smokestack spewing soot all day. So we must just give in, come to the Christ who was provided for just this condition we hate. This state of unclean, that we can neither sponge or vacuum, replace or organize. It is simply tainted by the nature of our being here in this fallen world. Cleanliness is next to sinfulness, because the perfection of a loving God can not be approximated so, why try?
He has offered you a free coupon for a complete make-over, and frankly, you will never achieve it yourself. So take the deal. Give up your personal preparation, it’ll never be ready.
What’s in Your Worship?

The Shielded Heart.

We shield our hearts from everything, we defend our pumping blood and the deepest cores of our very lives from contact with anything that could go too deep and cause us harm. Any extraction is too costly, so don’t risk it, better to keep this defended.

Our Spouses and children certainly belong there. But so do our extended families, and our neighbors too, according to the commandment, if we are to love. But we fill our hearts with the distractions of our world as well. Slowly we come to love our home, our car, our ball team, our careers, our work. Soon our entire heart can be so full of stuff that we want no more.

If we have experienced loss, we know heart break and heart ache. This experience builds calluses. “ Let’s not let that happen again. Man, too painful”. As we have a few bad experiences we begin to shield this heart from anything that might pierce, and only let in what we know to be safe. Then we focus on those nice safe ones. Or worse case, we grow so callous that we harbor evil in there and have no room for compassion or any extension toward another soul who may be presented to us with a need. And most of us can become so mesmerized by our mundane loves that there is no real space for the Holy Spirit of God. We come to our efforts of worship, hearts too filled with the rest to extend it, to open it to our loving father God who knows all about how these other things have affected us. It takes a concerted effort to unchain the shield we construct and let Him in there to heal and strengthen our life’s blood. It is so difficult to remember that He is the source of this very life that courses through at the pumping of the organ.

What’s in Your Worship?

That Comment

How are you dressed? Are you concerned with what others think? Feel that you maybe out of style, fashion, inappropriately dressed? Did you hear someone comment about your attire? As you see others what comes to mind? You may find yourself formulating comments in your mind about how others are dressed: “Suit and tie -he is trying hard to impress,” “baseball hat in the building, obviously no manners and not a professional. Does he hide a bald spot?” “Torn stockings, can’t she afford to keep those kids dressed?” The list goes on and on and we all do it, judging those around us and fearing their judgments in return. As a friend once prayed: “Forgive me Lord for what I am thinking and thank you for not letting it come out of my mouth!”
We were designed by God to be observant, and make judgments and discernments in order to cultivate his garden. This means spotting places for improvements, and planning actions to make them happen. But “the fall” gave us the twisted air of superiority and the fear of inferiority. Both these states translate into our bizarre obsession with our clothing and the insidious little game of words on the topic. How often when we stand to seek God we merely dwell on the comments made about us, or those we would make about others. It is a little obsession, but for some people it grows into an all consuming and total obstruction to a state of presence with God. Do you desire to be seated in the place of honor? It is not your attire that will get you there.
Consider the very first clothing. Fig leaves, quick covering from embarrassment. And the next set? God slew animals and made them of skin, introducing the concept of death to Adam and Eve in the making of the garments. We have not changed in all these generations.
From the 6th chapter of Mathew V 25: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life…what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying ….. 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

This is one of the OverHeads, exhibited in various cities in the US. for more see SculptureByTj.com
Thanks
Tj

High Flying Expectations

“Oh man, I can’t wait to get that thing! I barely slept last night just thinking about how great it is going to be! It will make me so happy, so complete. This is really it , I’ve wanted this for so long.”

Then we get it and within moments we begin to test the truth of those expectations. Then we note the first flaw, then another. If we encounter a major flaw too quickly the shock of disappointment strikes like a rock, pow. What! Oh Crap!

The aerodynamics of our expectations begin to wither. The spiral downward ensues, and as we pass the threshold of negativity our opinion of that object of our desire is shattered. The thud of a wasted mass of anticipation is heard hitting ground, softened by cold rain. The parade is over. And we begin the cycle again.
Maybe we learn from the roller coaster ride, maybe we don’t.
Maybe we grow skeptical that anything is achievable, that any object will be true to it’s expectation. Maybe we become so sour to anything new that we adopt a bit more vicious version of Eore's litany “It will never work, why bother.” No one wants to be the delusional twerp who believes in a hopeless cause and then fakes bits of outcome to bolster his lame mental construct.
Our Maker desires neither unreal fantasy nor skepticism from us. He wants us to come without any of this. Our physical world gives us so many conflicting lessons that we cannot reconcile with an all-powerful spiritual being. So we must approach empty. This is not an amusement ride. Forget the trestles and the launching devices. There are no seat- belts either, just Him and you and all that He is which is not comprehend-able to our mortal selves. The Highest of our expectations are specks of dust to him. And the greatest disappointments rectified by his mere glance in eternity.

What’s in Your worship?

More of this stuff at SculptureByTj.com
thanks
Tj