I just had a quick trip up to Connecticut and New York for some photography work. At one point I had to drive through Central Park in NYC on the 96th street crossover. For those who are unfamiliar with it, the road is cut deep into the granite rock probably 20 feet below the ground surface and normally the bare stone sides are all one sees. This year there was such a profusion of green growth that it felt like driving through a jungle in the middle of Manhattan. They have had so much rain up in New York this year that everything is prolific and green. The trees stand huge and abundant with leaves.
Then I consider the West Coast and their dire need for more water. Fighting drought and fires has become an overwhelming burden that is stretching their resources to the limit. People are leaving California because it is no longer an easy or safe place to live.
We just had hurricane Ida move through the country; we have larger polarities in weather and the consequences that result are getting more extreme. There are of course parts of the world where these changes are even more extreme and even more advanced than North America.
One can also see how political polarities are causing extreme divisions and again making life dangerous or unsafe. Many, many people around the world are trying to get to a place where they can live more safely, where they have a chance to prosper and lead a productive life and bring up a family. What is happening in Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, South Sudan and Myanmar is again an all too real reminder of this situation.
Of course one could develop ‘the state of the world’ at length, but we are all aware of the imbalances we see around us and the unusual concentration of disasters going on.
So where does Christ and the Church come into this picture? How do we and our fellow Christian family members act within this challenging time?
Looking at my own personal paradigm I think I fail, by not holding God up as GOD. Our God is so much more immense, in every sense, than I hold him up to be. He is so much more capable than my mind gives Him credit for. So when I am praying to God those prayers have so much more potential power than I give them credit for. I am doing my own prayers a disservice by not recognizing the power they encapsulate.
There are many accounts of Christians who have walked in the knowledge of the potential power of their prayers, who have seen because of that Faith, God working powerfully, not only in the scriptures but all through the ages.
When I hold the view that God is so much more than I can imagine and Jesus’s life was an example for us to lead our lives by, then I am beginning to realize how equipped Christians are. We know the Lord would not leave us with out the right equipment to be like Him in this world, which we see full of those issues Galatians 5 lists as opposite to the fruit of the Spirit. Our job is to follow and know that the fruit of the Holy Spirit has so much more power than the works of the flesh; when the church as a whole seeks the Spirit and not the flesh we will truly see evident Gods awesome power in all things.
Let us pray for a united church walking in the Holy Spirit. That is powerful. That is love working.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Please let us know how we can pray for you.
Love and Prayers,
Michael and Christine
Kingdom Arts Ministry 