Diamonds in His Hand

The Bible says we Christians are the temple of God’s spirit. Jesus referred to himself as the temple when He declared “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it.” He was indeed destroyed on a Roman cross, and in three days He was rebuilt by being raised from the dead.

We too have been crucified with Jesus Christ by observing the ordinance of baptism, and we have been raised with Christ by being born again as a new creation. We share in the life of Christ, a temple in which God dwells.

Why then do we keep reverting back to the age-old temptation to build a temple for God made with human hands? The Old Testament temple was demolished nearly two thousand years ago, but we try to remake it in our day by constructing artificial edifices in our ministries, in our church organizations, in our programs and our corporate hierarchies. We elevate our ministers to the status of priest, forgetting that all are called to ministry and all are chosen to become a Holy Priesthood before the Lord. We send our young ones off to religious schools, forgetting that discipleship is the responsibility of every church member and primarily belongs in the family: fathers teaching sons, mothers teaching daughters.

Jesus Christ is head of His church, and we are God’s temple. Let’s not attempt to fashion something for God by our own efforts, but let us learn what it means to embrace the identity and gifts we already have in the Holy Spirit. He is more able to achieve His eternal purpose here on the earth than we can possibly imagine.

Don’t build the temple. Be the temple.

I find my center of excellence when I give myself permission to expand and contract my mind at regular intervals. What I mean by this is I must have times when I am soaring at the 20,000 foot level, alive with infinite possibilities, seeing the world from an entirely new perspective. I need those times of daydreaming and inventing in the outer dimensions of imagination.

But I can’t stay there. The desire to stay on the mountaintops of destiny is the lie that keeps dreamers stuck in the world of fantasy and robs them of the success they believe they deserve.

So I also need those times of constriction. Looking at the details, pouring over every angle, every technical aspect. Sweating over the resources, people, time, energy, the things we always think we don’t have enough of. Long hours, fatigue, stress, heartache, loneliness. The stuff everyone wants to avoid.

But I need those times because that’s how the work gets done that is conceived at the 20,000 foot level. And I need to find that place of peace where, on a given day, whether I’m up in the clouds or digging around in the dirt, I know that what I’m accomplishing is good.

Embrace small as well as big. Embrace the lows as well as the highs. Bread only comes after the flour is ground and the dough is baked in the oven at high temperatures. When the heat is on and the daily grind is getting you down, remember this.

There’s something about the iPad that lends itself well to writing. I use it all the time for note taking and private journaling, but I haven’t used it much for blogging.

Part of my frustration stems from Tumblr not having a native iPad client. But I just decided to bite the bullet and purchased Tumbilta, a 3rd-party app you can use to write and interact with Tumblr. Only time will tell, but so far it seems to work pretty well and covers all the basics.

Hopefully it will inspire me to write here more!

I’ve known for a while that, after finishing my album Garden Journey, I wanted to begin working on an album of songs. My musical background is pretty much entirely in performing and recording on instruments and not doing vocals, so this would be a stretch for me.

I grabbed my guitar and engaged in some songwriting this evening, and boy it felt good. Honestly, I didn’t really intend to write a song…I was just starting to worship God and was sick of all the songs I know. Which, when you think about it, is the perfect inspiration to write a new song.

Now I’m more excited about this songwriting project, because I think that if I just continue to be intentional about playing and messing around without forcing myself to come up with something brilliant; if I focus more on the joy of music and of connecting with God than the commercial product; maybe something really good will ultimately emerge.

Who knows. At the very least, I’m enjoying honing my acoustic guitar chops. :)

I (Jared) have been working under the moniker of Yarred (a more Hebraic rendition of my name) for over a year now to release an album of Light Ambient music perfect for prayer, massage, and relaxation. I’m excited to say it is finally released!

Garden Journey will be in online download stores by early May, but you can signup to get a free copy before the end of April. As they say, what have you got to lose?

Check out the soundclips and read more about Garden Journey here. There’s an interview, Q&A, and all sorts of interesting tidbits.