The Creative Power of Words - David Kitz

Have you ever considered the creative power of words? Words change the world. They bring order out of

Foster farm, Durham, ON

chaos. Words shine the light of day into the darkness of this world. From the very beginning words have been imbued with divine power. The psalmist reminds us, "By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth."

But it's not only God's words that have this vast power. Our words—human words, whether spoken written or thought have enormous power too. Adam's first job assignment was to speak words—to name the animals. Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals (Genesis 2: 19-20).

Strangely, God didn't do what every parent does. He didn't tell Adam what the animals were called. Adam told God their names. By so doing, God vested mankind with the power of language. Life is what we call it. Our words describe the world and give meaning to it.

MosaiCanada 150, Gatineau, Quebec

Through our words we bring order and make sense of the world around us. As a writer I am continually processing and attempting to make sense of this chaotic thing called life. I do it with words. From the beginning of time, by divine command that's what we are called to do. We are to speak order into chaos—speak accuracy and clarity into this world’s muddled reality.

With our words we shine the light of truth onto a situation. With words we write laws, administer justice and design government. With words we woo and romance and vow our love to one another. Our words create imaginary realms into which we can travel—words that transport. With our words we have the power to elevate the human spirit, or crush someone to the point of suicide.

Finally, there is something innately prophetic about our words. What we think, speak and write is potent. It has within in it the latent ability to become reality. Therefore, we need to guard our lips. See James 3:1-12. The psalmist reminds us not only of the power of the word of the LORD, but also our own words. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

Response: LORD God, help me give careful consideration to my words. Today, may my words, whether written or spoken, be a creative force for good in Jesus' name. Amen.

Your Turn: How has God used your words for good lately? Are your words bringing order out of chaos?

David Kitz experiments in bringing order out of chaos in our nation's capital. His historical novel The Soldier Who Killed a King was released by Kregel Publications on July 25th. 

Beauty of Creation by Steph Beth Nickel

When I think of creation, I almost always think of Romans 1:20: "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made" (ESV).

Enjoy the beauty, the order, and the complexity of His creation ... and think about what they teach us about the Creator.

Here are a few pictures I've taken of this beautiful world ...

Something from Nothing

God made humans in His own image. This is one of the great truths in Scripture, and many have debated what it means.

As writers, we sometimes joke about playing God in the stories we create. We have the ultimate power over what happens to these characters we've created. We can cause great suffering, even death, or we can bestow upon them blissful joy. We hold the power, and they have none.

Although… anyone who's written fiction for a while knows the characters seem to have wills of their own, right? They often rebel and take the tale in a different direction from what the writer expected. It's like they've become real people, no longer two-dimensional cutouts. They say and do — or refuse to say or do — things that give the story a life of its own. Without this dimension, readers are unlikely to care about the story one way or the other.

It occurs to me that I am most like God when I write. In Genesis 1:1, He took an expanse that was formless and void, and turned it into something real, something tangible. Something with colors and textures and sounds and smells and flavours. Something He could share with others.

When I sit and stare at an empty Scrivener page, I can sympathize with that whole formless-and-void thing. And yet, typing the words Chapter One is like saying, "Let there be light!" As I continue to add words, I am setting the stage and introducing the characters who will act out my imagined story.

I am not God, nor am I a god, but I am created in the image of God. He has given me — and you, fellow writers — this unique ability to create something from nothing. Before our fingers hit the keyboard, nothing exists beyond mere wisps in our imagination. Yet, when we are done, we have fulfilled an act of creation that can be shared with others.

Something from nothing.

 Isn't that an awesome way to be made in God's image?

Valerie Comer's life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local food movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.

Valerie writes where food and faith meet fiction in her Farm Fresh Romance series and Riverbend romance novellas. Visit her at ValerieComer.com.

Prayer Bench by Rose McCormick Brandon

Boardwalk along St. Mary's River at Sault Ste. Marie

I worked in a large office building steps away from a boardwalk that follows the curve of the St. Mary’s River along the Canada-U.S. border. For longer than I should confess, I spent my lunch hours in the mall across the street, running errands and browsing, until one day I looked out the mall’s entrance at rapids glistening in June’s sun and thought, “Shame on you!” The next day I joined walkers, joggers, in-line skaters and nature lovers who spend their lunch breaks by the water.

            Twenty minutes into my first trek on the boardwalk, I noticed a bench perched on a steep bank on the river’s shore, half-hidden in a grove of pine trees. The bench caught my attention for its view of the river but when I sat on it, its solitude enveloped me in arms scented with pine. A not unpleasant fish odor hung over the water. Below, ducklings floated on waves behind their mamas.  I sensed God saying, “This is a place where you and I can get re-acquainted.” 

When I was a stay-at-home mom, I set aside the afternoon hour between one and two for prayer. Television and phone silenced, children either at school or napping, I knelt or sat on the living room sofa for my special alone time with God. This private prayer time reduced my worries because I daily transferred them to Him. Confidence to teach a ladies Bible study in my home, witness to my neighbors and accept speaking invitations came from that special hour. Worries and frustrations shrank when I poured them out in prayer to the Father. I found that prayer increased my creativity, my zest for living and even healed my heart of past hurts. 

            Relinquishing this prayer hour was the most difficult aspect of re-joining the work-force. At my busy desk, I often felt lonely for God and wished everyone would take the day off and leave me alone. It’s not that I didn’t pray before feeding my three children and getting them off to school. It’s just that my rushed mornings weren’t conducive to prayer and my sleepy brain often wandered to my daily to-do list.

            The bench gave me a place to be with God and that was an important element to finding my way back to prayer. I heard a Chinese pastor of an underground church tell how, while imprisoned in a crowded, noisy cell, he asked God to provide a place for him to be alone to pray and worship. Not long after sending his impossible request up to heaven, guards assigned him to lagoon-skimming – shoveling off the top layer of the prison’s sewage reservoir. The stench kept everyone away, including the guards. Alone for hours, he prayed and praised loudly.

            In comparison to a prison lagoon, my riverside sanctuary sits in a corner of heaven. At lunch times, I quickly changed my shoes, nearly running from my busy desk to the solitary bench, hoping all the way that no one reaches it before me. As I neared it, I found myself already talking to God – asking for healing for a friend, a teaching position for my daughter, increased creativity for myself, an opportunity to tell a co-worker about Jesus. Some needs brought tears to my sun-glassed eyes. My bench welcomed me. “Sit. Share your anxious thoughts with Jesus," it seemed to say.

            Do you need an alone place for you and God? Ask Him to provide one. Perhaps it won’t be as sense-satisfying as my pine-surrounded bench but it will definitely be better than our Chinese brother’s sewer. Whatever the location, your private place will become precious for what it symbolizes – a place where friendship with God flourishes.

* * *

Rose McCormick Brandon is the author of four books, including, Promises of Home - Stories of Canada's British Home Children. Visit her blogs, Listening to my Hair Grow and Promises of Home. Her books are available here.http://writingfromtheheart.webs.com

This Beautiful Earth—Carolyn R. Wilker

At this time of year, when the garden is growing and flowers around my yard are blooming, it’s easy to appreciate beauty.  I take photos at various times in the season when one kind of plant succeeds another. And seeing other gardens and natural areas to adds to the enjoyment of creation.  

Folliot Sandford Pierpoint might have been a gardener too, or at least an appreciator of nature for he wrote extensively about it.

Pierpoint, born in 1835 in Bath, was both a well-educated man and prolific in song writing, particularly for the church. He wrote the hymn, “For the Beauty of the Earth,” in 1869 (melody by Conrad Kocher). Only one of the many hymns he wrote, this one has appeared in as many as 483 hymnbooks.

1 For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies.

While the refrain has changed over time, the essence of the verses offer praise to God for his creation, but also for his gifts to us, including Jesus’ sacrifice.

Yet it seems that not all appreciate the earth or feel the need to care for it. I feel sad when I walk through an otherwise beautiful park and see garbage lying around, cigarette butts ground out or just tossed on the walkways, as well as fast food packaging seemingly dropped in place. Sometimes public garbage cans are so overfilled during a big event that workers cannot keep up with it, and then a strong breeze lifts some of the items out of the trash can and spreads it around. We cannot blame the wind; it was meant to blow and cool us. But wait…

Maybe you hear a lecture coming on about taking the garbage home or  making sure you’re not overfilling a can. No, not exactly, but there would be nothing wrong with doing either.

Then again, what is all in that can? 

What can you do to be a good caretaker? Many people are already concerned and acting, yet a refresher is often a good thing. This list presents a small number of the things you (and I) can do:

·         Follow guidelines on recycle programs and reduce garbage at the curb each week

·         Purchase only what you need, and whenever possible, with the least amount of packaging.

·         Make reusable lunch bags and water bottles a priority whenever possible

·         Put garbage in a can provided or take it with you to dispose of later

·         Dispose of paints and other potentially harmful substances at appropriate sites

·         Be mindful of waterways and refrain from dumping garbage there; fish and water creatures need clean water too.

For car owners

·         Car pool when possible

·         Keep car well-tuned so it runs more efficiently

·          Limit idling time

There’s so much beauty and goodness, and we must be mindful of the earth. We’ve been put here to look after it. (Genesis 2:15) We are the earth’s keepers and we can do our part to keep it beautiful. Let’s echo the hymn writer who speaks of “the beauty of the earth and glory of the skies.”

 

Carolyn Wilker is an author, editor and storyteller from Ontario, Canada. 
www.carolynwilker.ca

Made for God - Rose McCormick Brandon

One of the ways God reveals himself to us is through His creation – everything we see around us in the natural world, including our own bodies.

“By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see – eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being.” Romans 1:20

God’s message of love and hope for all humanity is revealed in every single thing He created. If we are not willfully blind and choose to look for it, we can see God’s “I love you” everywhere. Of course, we don’t have the capacity to study everything in nature but most of us can see clouds, watch the moon move through its phases, feel the warmth of the sun, eat the harvest the earth produces and listen to waves. We drink water pumped from hundreds of feet beneath the earth’s surface. We live in houses and print on paper made from trees grown from seeds that God himself planted in the soil He created long ago.

 Seeds – human seed, animal seed, seeds that produce food. Seeds contain life. Every seed on earth can trace its roots back to the beginning, back to creation, back to when God spoke the world and everything in it into being.

God is the starting point of everything.

A one-time agnostic who came to believe in Christ, said, “I came to the conclusion that the universe did not make sense without God. I set out to search for Him and found that He was searching for me.”

The person who denies God is like a man who walks over to a table each day, takes a look at the food, and turns away in disdain. Eventually, that man will become hungry because his body was made for food. Likewise, the human soul is made for God, and can’t be complete without Him.

 We have a built-in need to come to terms with God. Often people experience a sense of “coming home” when they finally accept that God exists and that He has shown His love to the world, not only through His creation, but through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Making it Personal: Lord, the worries of this world keep me earth-bound. Help me to let my mind and soul take in the wonder of You and all that comes from You.

 

Rose McCormick Brandon's book, One Good Word Makes all the Difference, can be purchased here.

Visit her blogs - The Promise of Home and Listening to my Hair Grow.

Default Atheists?--Kathleen Gibson

Ever since creation, two corresponding questions have risen, set, and risen again. Like the sun and moon, they loom large on the horizon of human thought. “Who is God?” and “Who am I?”

The Bible records that God created man(kind) in his own image. History shows that man immediately began creating God in his, and that along the way, he killed the God-man, Jesus Christ.

After peering at the God of the Bible through his academic telescope, author Richard Dawkins answers the first question this way: God is a work of fiction.

“The God of the Old Testament,” he says, “is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction; jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Well, isn’t that a lovely bunch of coconuts? Dawkins, whom the media sometimes refers to as the “world’s most influential atheist,” authored the recent book “The God Delusion,” from which that quote is taken.

Mr. Dawkins, it seems to me, has his telescope upside down. “The Heavens are telling the glory of God,” I read this morning in Psalm 18 (an Old Testament reference, by the way). Those words confirmed what I saw in the crimson sunset last evening.

But here’s more, also gleaned from the Old Testament, in Isaiah, chapters 25 and 26: God is: “zealous for his people, the doer of marvelous things, perfect faithfulness, a refuge for the poor and needy, a shelter from the storm, a shade from the heat, the perfect peace-giver, maker of salvation, the Rock eternal, the way-smoother, the establisher of peace, the nation enlarger, the glory-gainer, border extender, the preparer of delicious food.”

God doesn’t need the likes of me to defend him, and he’s likely laughing at Mr. Dawkins’ list. According to the Old Testament, his justice also brings down pride and cleverness. His is the power to discipline nations and peoples; to remove the disgrace of those he loves, to swallow up death forever, and to wipe away all tears.

A high percentage of Westerners declare a belief in God, but given that the litmus test of any belief lies in a willingness to act on it, I suspect the true delusion regarding God lies in another area—atheism by default.

Like Dawkin’s outspoken atheism, default atheism has affected our world a long time. 20th century author Russian Fedor Dostoevsky once made a sober observation about the West. He believed we were in trouble—not because of the God we worship, but because of the God we ignore.

“The West has lost Christ and that is why it is dying; that is the only reason.” Dostoevsky, and many other genuine followers of God before and since, knew the truth: If you wish to kill God—you will also kill mankind. Because without God, there is no life, and no freedom.

Whichever position you take—consider it carefully.

Among other places, author, newspaper columnist and broadcaster Kathleen Gibson ponders faith and life in Sunny Side Up.


 

Christians Who Disagree?

The story of Creation related in the Bible is a study in brevity. It doesn’t give some of the details I wish for. It doesn’t lay out ground-rules, telling us this is symbolic and this is literal. It begins with a faith statement of astonishing breadth in just four words: “In the beginning, God. . .” It lays a foundation that seems from a surface reading to lack solidity, yet embedded within that foundation are countless bits of evidence that stand up to the toughest scientific scrutiny.

Two fascinating books look at many of those bits of evidence. They both carefully and skillfully articulate their viewpoint. They both anchor their arguments on scientific and biblical evidence. They both claim that evidence points with incontrovertible weight towards a designer of super-intelligence. They both dare to name that designer the God of the Bible. They invite the reader to better know that God. Yet they disagree strongly with each other.

Ken Ham argues for a young universe, literal 24-hour days of creation and a global flood that accounts for much of the fossil record around the world. Hugh Ross argues for an ancient universe. Perhaps most fascinating though, both detail an intricacy of design so incredibly fine-tuned that the possibility of it arising from random accidents of nature is outside the realms of mathematical possibility.

In his book, More Than a Theory, Hugh Ross suggests 13.5 billion years since the dawn of creation. He argues for a local flood and each “day” of creation as an age. He points to detail after detail after detail that must fall within incredibly narrow tolerances for life to exist. He argues that those tolerances are so fine-tuned that the probability of finding any other habitable planet in the known universe is statistically nil. He chronicles step after step in the development of our globe so that it could be prepared for life, yet makes the claim and backs it with overwhelming evidence, that the fine-tuning of each of those steps could not have happened by accident.

Ken Ham in The Answer Book points with compelling arguments to creation at 10,000 years ago or less. He believes, and supports his belief with scientific and biblical evidence, that death was unknown before the fall of Adam and Eve. He argues that all animals were vegetarian before Adam’s sin, and that Noah carried juvenile dinosaurs with him on the Ark. His arguments too, draw on a multitude of fine-tuned details that fall within such narrow boundaries as to stretch credibility beyond the breaking point to have happened as a result of random accidents.

Ken Ham writes with slightly less scholarly language, but both authors articulate their arguments with skill and solid science. Both authors have done a great deal of in-depth study. I will not consume months in researching which author has the most compelling presentation, but I will strongly recommend that people interested in this subject read both.

As strongly as they disagree with each other, both authors are fully convinced God is the one and only creator. Both authors point out an intricacy of design completely outside the realms of random possibility. Both authors draw the reader to a deeper appreciation of the majesty of creation and the wisdom of the God behind it.

I don’t think it’s such a bad thing to disagree as Christians, if we can do so respectfully, and still somehow draw people to a deeper grasp of the majesty of God.