Day 4: Week 7 (Creativity Is The Door)

[russhutto]

Creativity Is The Door

1) Central Passage(s):

Genesis 1:1-2:4
Psalm 19:1
Isaiah 65:17; Psalm 51:10
Genesis 1:27
2 Chronicles 20:14-17; 21-22
Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19


2) My Daily Praise:
Share your poem!

3) My Daily Surrender:
Being creative often means doing strange and out of the ordinary things (Acts 16:25; Luke 7:37-38). When was the last time you did something "strange" or out of the ordinary (creatively) for your MOST WORTHY LORD?

[WorshipVanguard]

Central Passages:
I must admit the Lord has been stretching me in the creative area over the past couple years. Coming from an analytical background, my left-brain likes to kick in a lot. More and more I try to use my right brain to simply think creatively to praise my Savior. Today was a good exercise and a good reminder that we have creativity because our God is creative. So, I should be more confident that my creativity blesses my Father no matter what others may think about it. Just like when my son brings me his drawings from school. I love them because he said he made them just for me. No one else will value them as much as I do. My creativity to the Lord is the same way. I make something just for Him, and he loves it! No one can value my creativity as much as Him! I love my God!

Daily Praise:
Lord, today I could not get over thinking about the royalty you have. I remember long ago singing songs like “Majesty”, “How Majestic is Your Name”, and “You are My King” but I can’t remember it sinking in this deep until recently. What excites me the most is that you are always on your throne! No powers, authority or nations will ever overtake you! There is nothing that can happen to me without your authority. What confidence I can have in you because you have this authority. Amazing! With that said, here is my poem I wrote for you:
You are king of an unshakable kingdom
Rulers of every nation fear you
My Lord, my God you are forever
I delight in your safe refuge

Daily Surrender:
Lord, I must admit I get skeptical when I first see something new tried in church. I do immediately seek your Spirit and try to assess where the worship is going. Is it honoring you or honoring those presenting it? Admittedly, my first response is skepticism toward the artist. If I sense your spirit in the new thing, I try to participate but it’s tough. Lord, help me recognize more quickly if something new is from you. I don’t want to miss out on the blessings you have for the gathering. Also, help me venture out and try new things to show you my love for worshiping you. Just as my son loves to “do art” just because he loves those he’s creating for. It gives a whole new extra insight to “faith like a child.”

[InHisName]

Central Passage

Even though every lesson of this study has spoken to me in some way, this lesson went straight to my heart. In fact, my heart started speeding up a bit when I got into the reading! To be creative for Him! To write poetry and sing new songs for Him! This is what he wants us to do! I feel like this is what I was made to do...words and sentences and thoughts and feelings combined with music to glorify Him! I'm the opposite of Melanie...I'm so right brained...it took me a while to properly learn how to effectively teach 5th grade math! :D So having this "go for it!" lesson is exciting!

Daily Praise

You are the Maker of man, the Writer of history
your power knows no bounds
You are Redeemer of all, in You there is victory
let our worship and praises resound

I want to go on and on!! God you are good! You are my all in all. Praise you!!

Daily Surrender

I like to think I'm open and creative, but really, I'm probably pretty conservative and worried about what people think. I had the opportunity to teach a short lesson in our Sunday school marrieds class (mostly from the first week or our study!) and when I was going through the "ways to praise"-clapping, singing, shouting, dancing, kneeling, etc...I realized I'm not comfortable with doing some of them!! Lord, take away any self-conciousness so that I may truly worship you!!

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

Central Passages
the thing that jumped out at me as I read this lesson is how much resistance there has always been in the church to the very creativity the lesson talks about. Think back to Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven. Their music was written as church music, yet they were criticized by the church for the worldliness of their music.
Fast forward to the 20th century, and you see church leaders and members objecting to just about everything that had any creativity in it. "If it isn't exactly the same, tired thing that has been done as long as anyone can remember, then we don't want it in our church."

Even those of us who have been part of implementing innovation and creative change in our churches, tend to want to cling to what we have done, and not keep moving forward. I shouldn't be satisfied with the creativity of yesterday; I should consult God daily for what new thing he wants from me.

My Daily Praise
Write a poem and keep it to four lines?:rolleyes:

In the quiet of this moment, Lord
A new song I will sing
Springing from my heart, based on Your Word
My morning offering.

My Daily Surrender
It's a funny thing. Most people become more adn more set in their ways as they grow older. I was much more rigid as a young man than now. I'm much more open to creative change than I once was.

Lord, thank you that you have shown me (and still are showing me) that, though you never change, and your word never changes, you have given us the freedom to be creative and implement needed change as our world changes. Let me never revert back to the closed-minded person I once was; keep my heart fresh and open to new ideas.

[bkwestman]

1. Central Passage
- What a neat thought - "Christians have the capacity to be more creative than our nonbelieving counterparts" because of the Holy Spirit living in us. Let's not leave the creativity to the secular world! He whispers ideas to the listening ones. Wow - let me be listening to Your voice for creative ideas! Definitely God gives us the license, and He desires, for us to be creative. Let's not forget about that when we feel so uncreative.

2. My Daily Praise
- Oh boy - it's one thing to say it, but another to do it! Writ a poem?! I'll have to work on that.

3. My Daily Surrender
- I actually love to try new things! This isn't an area of struggle for me, but I do struggle with people who are closed to new ideas. I think I like change, but as someone pointed out to me, I like change when I'm the one making the change. If someone else tries to change something on me, that's a different story. So, Lord, help me to be open to seeking after creativity that comes from You, whether You whisper the idea to me or someone else. Please keep my ears open, though, to Your voice so You don't need to whisper an idea to someone else that You wanted to tell to me.