Thursday, April 22, 2010

Earth Day Birth Pangs

Sedona, AZ © Karla Hall 2010



I dont live on an old, decrepit Earth! I live on a gloriously alive and beautiful place created by God that rejoices in its Creator and is pregnant with anticipation of the joy thats coming next! The idea that our earth is old, wheezing and barely making it is really silly...yes, its groaning, yes, we can do things to be good stewards of our home here, but I feel the guilt and finger-pointing Messiah complex that is often associated with "Earth Day" totally misses the point.


Romans chapter 8 is one of the most amazing places in the whole Bible, and The Message translation really brings out the relationship we have to the earth..hopefully it will help explain better than I can:




© Karla Hall 2010

"This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!"




Sedona Az, © Karla Hall 2010
"That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens."

"All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy."

~Roman 8:15-25 (The Message translation)

Skye Portal © Karla Hall 2005

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Resurrection Victory

Happy Resurrection Day everyone:)!!

This year I have been meditating on the POWER of His resurrection. I have heard it said that the resurrection of Jesus was the single most powerful thing God ever did...creation was amazing, but in the resurrection God was also bringing all His power to bear to break the horrible bondage of sin and death and defeat it forever!

To sit and think of all that was accomplished with Jesus' death, the three days in the earth and His glorious resurrection truly is awe-inspiring, but the absolutely amazing thing to me is that the Holy Spirit through Paul says that power is now at work IN US:
"...(That you may) realize how great is the hope to which He is calling you- the magnificence and splendor of the inheritance promised to Christians- and how tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God. That power is the same divine energy which was demonstrated in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and gave Him the place of supreme honor in Heaven- a place that is infinitely superior to any conceivable command, authority, power or control and which carries with it a name far beyond any name that could ever be used in this world or the world to come" ~Eph 1:19-23 (Phillips)

We live in a transition time, between earth and Heaven. As we move forward towards the return of our King, we walk on this earth as kings & priests unto our God:

"Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." ~Revelation 1:4-6 (NKJV)

As believers He is calling us to realize that the resurrection power at work within us can be allowed to flow out from us. These Rivers of Living Water can move in our lives and the lives of those around us to affect TRUE change and to bring the rule of the Kingdom of Heaven to flood the darkness of the world around us with LIGHT, PEACE, and VICTORY!!!

When Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah and proclaimed "today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing", He was proclaiming our purpose on the earth, our calling, our destiny:

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
       Because He has anointed Me
      To preach the gospel to the poor;
      He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
      To proclaim liberty to the captives
      And recovery of sight to the blind,
      To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
       To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD
~Luke 4:18-19
Read those words aloud- YOU are the ME in those verses!  If you are born again, then you are" His body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence".  When you allow the rivers of living water to flow out from you, you are a light bringer, healer, deliverer through the power of the resurrected Messiah that lives in you!

Let us pray for one another to understand and walk in this truth, as the Holy Spirit showed us to pray in Colossians:

(I pray) that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

~Colossians 1:9-13

Amen, so be it:)!!!