Hi all,
I
was hungry for pizza one night and knew that Barb being Barb, would
have some leftovers in the freezer. I opened the freezer and saw what
you are seeing here. To my uneducated eye it looked like a gathering of
unwanted food banished to the frozen Arctic with no particular pattern,
like so many ice floes thrown together by unseen forces. But I knew
her well enough that this confusing gathering of former popcorn and
cookie tins and aluminum wrapped leftovers was actually highly organized
according to her system.
She had said we had pizza in the freezer, but there I stood with open door, clueless. "Honey, WHERE in the freezer is the pizza?"
She responded, "It's in the pizza tin!" Hmmmm...."Pizza tin? Which one is that?" I asked, still staring into the Arctic wasteland. Without complaint she got up, walked to the freezer, grabbed the tall Christmas tin you see on the left, set it on the counter and said "Here, this is the pizza tin."
We've had that Christmas tin for years, a gift of popcorn long ago that found continued use warding off freezer burn of foods we've wanted to save for future meals. As I pried off the lid, behold, carefully arranged slices of pizza in zip-lock plastic bags were revealed, 4 slices to a bag, each bag neatly stacked one upon the other filling the tin. She is so thoughtful and organized and I love that about her. But I had to ask: "What makes this Christmas tin the pizza tin?", trying to connect the dots.
"Of course this is the pizza tin! Pizza is Italian. Italian flag colors are red, green, and white. This tin is red, green, and white, so this is the pizza tin!" I stood dumbfounded, it suddenly made perfect sense...now...lol.
Learning how the Father and Lord think
Sometimes the Lord's logic seems to be on another wavelength as Barb's was to me that day. Once she told me her process of thinking I understood it, though thinking like that wasn't natural to me. But it was logical to her, and once initiated into her system, I understood how she thought.
First thing to understand: We are invited to come up to His ways and thoughts. "His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts." This is often spoken to say we'll never know this side of heaven why He allowed something to happen. Don't get me wrong - There are mysteries we won't know until heaven. But using this passage in this way is not how it was written.
That passage from Isaiah 55:1-13 does not say God's ways are so high above ours He is impossible to understand. He is not saying the Christmas tin is the pizza tin you poor earthling if only you understood.
The chapter is about a man repenting and leaving his own ways and thoughts, accepting the invitation to come up to God's ways and thoughts:
"Look! Everyone who is thirsty, let him come to the waters...Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near...Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts, let him return to the Lord and He will abundantly pardon...for my ways are not your ways, neither are my thoughts your thoughts says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Did you notice
The Father is extending an invitation to forsake his ways and thoughts and come up to my ways and my thoughts!
We are told in Romans 12:1-2 to experience a metamorphosis in our lives by renewing our mind to think like He thinks, and then we "will be able to discern the good, well pleasing and fully finished will of God" in our lives. He wants us to come up to His higher ways! We are His kids after all! Don't we want our kids to think higher thoughts and live in higher ways?
No more fleeces, no more 'If this happens to me I'll take it as God' to guess His will. In I Corinthians 2:9 it says our eyes, ears, and imagination cannot know what God the Father has prepared for us, meaning we can't discern His will by circumstances and natural means. But in v10 he says, "These are the things God reveals to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of (Father) God." He continues in verse 12 saying, "We have received the Spirit so that we may know the things He has freely given to us."
Let die the notion you must divine His will by natural circumstances. Now you are His child, born into the family, and you have His Spirit inside so you can know by His Spirit in your spirt what He has prepared.
I
was hungry for pizza one night and knew that Barb being Barb, would
have some leftovers in the freezer. I opened the freezer and saw what
you are seeing here. To my uneducated eye it looked like a gathering of
unwanted food banished to the frozen Arctic with no particular pattern,
like so many ice floes thrown together by unseen forces. But I knew
her well enough that this confusing gathering of former popcorn and
cookie tins and aluminum wrapped leftovers was actually highly organized
according to her system.She had said we had pizza in the freezer, but there I stood with open door, clueless. "Honey, WHERE in the freezer is the pizza?"
She responded, "It's in the pizza tin!" Hmmmm...."Pizza tin? Which one is that?" I asked, still staring into the Arctic wasteland. Without complaint she got up, walked to the freezer, grabbed the tall Christmas tin you see on the left, set it on the counter and said "Here, this is the pizza tin."
We've had that Christmas tin for years, a gift of popcorn long ago that found continued use warding off freezer burn of foods we've wanted to save for future meals. As I pried off the lid, behold, carefully arranged slices of pizza in zip-lock plastic bags were revealed, 4 slices to a bag, each bag neatly stacked one upon the other filling the tin. She is so thoughtful and organized and I love that about her. But I had to ask: "What makes this Christmas tin the pizza tin?", trying to connect the dots.
"Of course this is the pizza tin! Pizza is Italian. Italian flag colors are red, green, and white. This tin is red, green, and white, so this is the pizza tin!" I stood dumbfounded, it suddenly made perfect sense...now...lol.
Learning how the Father and Lord think
Sometimes the Lord's logic seems to be on another wavelength as Barb's was to me that day. Once she told me her process of thinking I understood it, though thinking like that wasn't natural to me. But it was logical to her, and once initiated into her system, I understood how she thought.
First thing to understand: We are invited to come up to His ways and thoughts. "His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts." This is often spoken to say we'll never know this side of heaven why He allowed something to happen. Don't get me wrong - There are mysteries we won't know until heaven. But using this passage in this way is not how it was written.
That passage from Isaiah 55:1-13 does not say God's ways are so high above ours He is impossible to understand. He is not saying the Christmas tin is the pizza tin you poor earthling if only you understood.
The chapter is about a man repenting and leaving his own ways and thoughts, accepting the invitation to come up to God's ways and thoughts:
"Look! Everyone who is thirsty, let him come to the waters...Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near...Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts, let him return to the Lord and He will abundantly pardon...for my ways are not your ways, neither are my thoughts your thoughts says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Did you notice
The Father is extending an invitation to forsake his ways and thoughts and come up to my ways and my thoughts!
We are told in Romans 12:1-2 to experience a metamorphosis in our lives by renewing our mind to think like He thinks, and then we "will be able to discern the good, well pleasing and fully finished will of God" in our lives. He wants us to come up to His higher ways! We are His kids after all! Don't we want our kids to think higher thoughts and live in higher ways?
No more fleeces, no more 'If this happens to me I'll take it as God' to guess His will. In I Corinthians 2:9 it says our eyes, ears, and imagination cannot know what God the Father has prepared for us, meaning we can't discern His will by circumstances and natural means. But in v10 he says, "These are the things God reveals to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of (Father) God." He continues in verse 12 saying, "We have received the Spirit so that we may know the things He has freely given to us."
Let die the notion you must divine His will by natural circumstances. Now you are His child, born into the family, and you have His Spirit inside so you can know by His Spirit in your spirt what He has prepared.
Just that jump in thinking from looking for His will 'out there' in a theology of 'if this happens and that happens it must be God', to 'He lives inside me so I'll learn to sense His Spirit inside for direction', is coming up to His ways and thoughts.
Pizza tin or Christmas tin?
What did you think of Christians before you were born again? Your thoughts have changed from 'Those crazy fanatics who shelter themselves from the real world with the religion crutch' to 'My brothers and sisters I love you so much!' You've come up to higher ways and thoughts on this subject. You are thinking like God thinks on this subject.
What did you think of talking in a language you had never learned (tongues)? "Those crazy Pentecostals, those nutty Charismatic's - their elevator doesn't go all the way to the top! The lights are flashing, the bell is ringing and the crossing gate is down, but no train is coming down their track! Those weirdo's. Someone has blown out their pilot light!" But now - you speak in tongues and think that is normal. You are thinking like God thinks on this subject.
Christmas tin, pizza tin. You've connected the dots on things that were never logical before, but now make perfect sense. You've been initiated into the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. You know mysteries that are foolishness to the uninitiated, but are in fact higher thoughts and higher ways.
How does that airplane fly?
Have you ever realized Christopher Columbus could have flown to the America's in 1492? He could have, because the same laws of aerodynamics that allow birds and planes to fly, existed in 1492. But if we could go back in time to suggest to him he could fly, we would have been laughed to scorn at the least.
The higher ways and thoughts were all around him, but he was ignorant of them. He saw birds fly, but couldn't connect the dots to how man could fly, leaving thoughts like that to dreams and imagination.
Miracles aren't what?
A miracle is defined as an event described as inexplicable by the laws of nature, a violation of the laws of nature to bring about a good result, or an unexplainable 'act of God'. But a miracle is not a violation of the laws of nature, but that of higher laws superceding lower laws.
An airplane or bird doesn't violate the law of gravity to get off the ground, it uses higher laws to temporarily supercede the lower laws to fly. We can now think in the Father's higher laws that supercede the lower, earthly, carnal laws. We can think higher thoughts that supercede lower thoughts.
When you tell the truth instead of a 1/2 truth when you are caught, you are choosing the higher law of truth. When you respond with love to someone who has done you wrong, you choose higher laws. All these are in fact higher, though at the time are confusing to those who can't walk in them. They may take time to be proven to be higher ways and thoughts, but they will be proven so.
The Father wants us to see more to our lives than what appears to be a bunch of aluminum foil and tins with no apparent order. He wants us to understand what we are seeing and walk in higher ways and thoughts - to learn how the Christmas tin logically became the pizza tin....more next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
Remember to use cwowi@aol.com for email to me
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