Physical body vs. Spiritual body

What if the defining factor of any person’s joy in life is actually based on their attainment of alignment between their physical reality (body, decisions, actions, behavior, beliefs, etc) and their own unique spiritual reality.  The closer attuned the person is, the more joy that person experiences.  Of course the spiritual reality is within the domain of God and/or the Kingdom.  The focus on the physical body is actually, then, the cause of pain, anguish, sin, separation from God.  That focus on the physical is due to fear, over-reliance on physical senses, deceipt.

Projects

I passed my PMP certification exam today!

Something even more interesting happened though, right before I went in to the building to take the test.  Out of nowhere, I thought to myself, hey I’m going to play "Bible roulette".  I grabbed my Bible from the backseat floor, and whimsically and without a second thought flipped to whatever page I landed on, and started reading.  I landed on the first page of the book of Haggai, which is the 2nd shortest book in the Bible (next to Obadiah).  What caught my attention was Haggai 1: 5-8 where it talks about working in vain for the Jews own interests, when what God wanted was for them to "Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified."

I took this experience as a possible working of the Holy Spirit, leading me to consider how he is equipping me with purpose.  At some point, he will call me to collect wood and build his house – which may mean any of a number of projects.

I pray that I will understand when and how he is calling me.

Lesson from God in Tithing

In prayer today (after reading Chapter 2 of Hearing God), I had a vision that I believe came from the Holy Spirit.  I was a little boy, and I was with a man (who I understood to be the Father), and we were basically in a blank space (nothing around us but empty space, but not dark).  I asked for a large sum of money (which I recently did do in prayer, for which I believed the response was affirmative).  When the Father figure gave it to me, I saw myself (as a little boy) run around and then throw a huge pile of the money.  I took this to mean that I would just ‘throw the money away’.  After denial and then reflection, I responded that "yes, I would just throw it away, but I am dependent upon you, Lord.  Your will be done through me."

Then the scene seemed to ‘reset’ and this time, the Father gave me small pieces of money at a time.  I thought about how I have been tithing with the money that has seemed to me to be above and beyond my salary (bonus and website development).  Then as He was giving me more money, I was distributing that money like cards on a card table, small stacks spread out.  I took this to mean that I am to distribute my money to various causes and ministries in small increments.  Then I saw one of the piles ‘light up’ (so to speak), or somehow became more noticeable.  I then put more money in that pile.  I took this to mean that as I see how each cause or ministry uses the money toward God’s kingdom on earth, I am to increase my investment / gift accordingly.

That was the end.  I then had a repeated feeling to write the experience down.  I tried to fight it off for a while, but it was very persistent, so here I am.

I love you Lord and I trust you.  Thank you for molding me into the man you want me to be.  I live to grow in my relationship with you and bring others into, and strengthen their, relationship with you.

Beer

Since largely giving up drinking (I don’t know how long ago), I have bought six-packs a couple of times.  Both times, when I have drank, I have felt that drinking pulls me away from God.  God is working in powerful ways in my life right now.  Alcohol seems to (in reflecting on my experiences and state of mind afterwards) result in a disconnection from God.  I am not willing to accept any behavior in myself the would result in diminishment of my connection with God.  I want to live out God’s plan for me.  I need to be ‘in tune’ or in touch with his directives.

Website development

I am truly experiencing the power of God right now.  As I wrote on 3/2, I have been studying website development.  Right when I finished studying Head Start XHTML and CSS, Jen pointed out on Caitlin’s preschool’s newsletter that they were looking for someone to update their website!  Talk about good timing!  I contacted the director right away, and we’re moving forward with it.  Nothing is really contractually solid, but it will be a good experience, good practice, and good for my portfolio.  I have already come up with a new design and showed it to [my wife], [father in law and his wife], my mom and [step dad].  Everyone seems to really like it.  [my father in law and his wife] even sound like they are going to refer me to [my father in law’s wife’s] daughter to put together a website for her.

The part I’m really struggling with is how to charge for my work.  Hourly, per page, per project, etc.  After a lot of discussion and some prayer, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to estimate a range and the school director can tell me what works with her budget.  Whatever amount she is comfortable with, I will devote the appropriate amount of time.

After talking with [my oldest daughter] and [my wife] about things, [my wife] seems like she’s very interested, and there may be opportunity for her to do some business development for me.  [my oldest daughter] has also expressed interest in graphic design, since she’s taking a class in school for it.  What a blessing it would be for each of us to work as a team!  We’ll see what the Lord has in store for us! 🙂

Lord, I trust your plan. I’m excited to see your plan unfold! What wonders you have in store for me! Thank you for the opportunity to serve you. Thank you for working in my life in such powerful ways. I pray that you would use my talents and the talents of those around me, especially my family, to serve and glorify you.  Amen.

It’s been too long

It’s been way too long since my last entry.  Why would I stop right after my baptism?  It doesn’t make sense to me.

However, I have experienced what I feel is the Lord preparing me for work.  I have been heavily engaged in not only studying for the PMP exam, but also learning how to develop web pages.  I feel called in this way, and it feels like a natural ‘fit’ of my talents, abilities, and passion.  My feeling is that whatever I develop needs to be free to the user, and (obviously) centered on being Christ’s "hands and feet".  I need to stay sensitive to how He is calling me in this (or other) way(s).

Later in the evening…

In my Rock Church sermon study tonight, pastor Miles said the following: "You get saved… you get equipped… you get sent out".  This directly correlates with (and confirms?) my prior entry (above) in my energy toward learning to build websites.

Rewards for Obedience

I have recently been convinced (through Amazing Facts as well as other timely reading) that drinking alcohol is a hindrance to my relationship with Christ.  Just as I have come to understand the blessing given for sexual purity (thoughts and deeds), I have a hunch that there may be a blessing awaiting me to claim for obedience to rejecting this temporal pleasure (of the flesh) as well.  Just as I have learned to call upon the Lord to shelter me from impure thoughts, I also can call upon Him to shelter me from other temptation (alcohol).  I need to:

1. Recognize the threat (either in advance or real-time)
2. Ask for shelter
3. Trust that shelter will be provided

Prayer

I have realized that I have been approaching prayer selfishly.  Prayer is deliberate ‘opening’ to experiencing God.  It’s not necessarily to “get your questions answered”.  Bring your questions to God, but realize He will answer when / if it is in His plan to do so.  So there’s no disappointment from “unanswered” prayer.  Spend time with Him, express your feelings and thoughts, and open up to His direction.

Lining Up

I am just blown away by how the Lord is lining things up in my life – thank you Lord.  Today, I went to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles with people from work, and after eating, I thought to myself ‘that was pretty good tasting but I should not have eaten it if my body is a cell of Christ’s body, if my body is a temple’.  Now I’m watching Amazing Facts and it’s talking about how the concept of the temple is cover to cover in the Bible, and how the body is one of the temples referred to.

Steadfast

In prayer I felt that God impressed upon me that I am doing the right things, and that my priorities should be prayer, Bible study, other study.  He also reinforced that I must be steadfast.