How is God Preparing You?
One thing I've realized over the years is how God was preparing me for ministry long before I was serving him. When I was in the third grade I fell in love with art. Actually, first I had fallen in love with my teacher and when she hung my drawing on the wall, I fell in love with art.
God has used my love for art in a variety of ways to prepare me for where I am today. One is creativity. I love to think outside the box when it comes to doing church, whether it's ministering to somebody, experimenting with preaching style, or my writing I believe that God has gifted people with creativity in order to use it.
Another thing crossed my mind today as I was explaining some fundamentals of color to a friend. Seeing the world through an artists eye is a lot like hermeneutics, that is, the art and science if biblical interpretation (aka bible study). When we are painting a picture, we have to forget what we think we see and look for what is actually before our eyes. We look at a human hand, for instance, and think we see peach, olive or brown depending on skin color. What we actually see though are a myriad of beautiful colors. There are pinks and blues and reds; several varieties of each color. We look at a shadow and think we see black. This is actually what we were taught as children. It isn't what we actually see however. If a shadow is cast on green grass, what we actually see are darker greens in that area. We have to retrain our minds to see what is actually before our eyes and not assume by what we have always been taught.
When we open the Bible we come with a school full of assumptions based on prior experiences. Hermeneutics pushes us to search for what really lies in the text and not just what we assume. I thank God that he prepared me in this way because it has encouraged me to question my interpretations and attempt to look for what God really meant the authors to say in the Holy Scriptures.
I have yet to master the Bible by any means, but then again that book takes a lifetime to digest its knowledge and Godly wisdom. Look back on your life and meditate on it for a little bit. How has God prepared you for the person you are today? How might He be preparing you for the person you are to become in the future?
Scott Hescht
Psalm 22 Ministries
www.psalm22ministries.org
Life Spring church
www.lifespringfamily.org
God has used my love for art in a variety of ways to prepare me for where I am today. One is creativity. I love to think outside the box when it comes to doing church, whether it's ministering to somebody, experimenting with preaching style, or my writing I believe that God has gifted people with creativity in order to use it.
Another thing crossed my mind today as I was explaining some fundamentals of color to a friend. Seeing the world through an artists eye is a lot like hermeneutics, that is, the art and science if biblical interpretation (aka bible study). When we are painting a picture, we have to forget what we think we see and look for what is actually before our eyes. We look at a human hand, for instance, and think we see peach, olive or brown depending on skin color. What we actually see though are a myriad of beautiful colors. There are pinks and blues and reds; several varieties of each color. We look at a shadow and think we see black. This is actually what we were taught as children. It isn't what we actually see however. If a shadow is cast on green grass, what we actually see are darker greens in that area. We have to retrain our minds to see what is actually before our eyes and not assume by what we have always been taught.
When we open the Bible we come with a school full of assumptions based on prior experiences. Hermeneutics pushes us to search for what really lies in the text and not just what we assume. I thank God that he prepared me in this way because it has encouraged me to question my interpretations and attempt to look for what God really meant the authors to say in the Holy Scriptures.
I have yet to master the Bible by any means, but then again that book takes a lifetime to digest its knowledge and Godly wisdom. Look back on your life and meditate on it for a little bit. How has God prepared you for the person you are today? How might He be preparing you for the person you are to become in the future?
Scott Hescht
Psalm 22 Ministries
www.psalm22ministries.org
Life Spring church
www.lifespringfamily.org
posted by Scott Hescht at 10:43 AM
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