Waupaca Stirring
THE DAY OF JOY-FILLED EXPLOSION
July 21, 2007
Gen 1:3 – 5 God said, Let there be light and there was light.
God saw that the light was good
and He separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light ~ day
and the darkness He called “night”.
And there was evening and there was morning ~ the first day.
1) Light ~ ‘Or (Hebrew)
The initial waves of light energy coming upon the earth.
Later God placed “lights” in the heavens. (Hebrew Ma’or.. light-bearers)
They are permanent generators and reflectors of light waves.
2) Day ~ yom (Hebrew)
Day is distinct from “night”~ the opposite
And each new morning brings a new beginning.
Day ~ throws light upon things that have been in darkness.
Darkness… of our mind or of our heart… is the enemy of God.
So one “day” is extremely important to Him.
“DAY” is His priceless gift of light and life to each of us.
God’s plan for our “day” is half dark, half light. He is a God of contrasts.
We are responsible for each “DAY” He gives us.
There is no escaping that huge and frightening responsibility. That’s fact.
Yet, because He is a God of love, because He knows a day is too enormous for us,
He has broken it down further.
He created for us, “the Mini~Moment”.
This is what we are responsible for. Our own, personal, Mini~Moments. The NOW stuff.
He’d like us to recognize these as God-given.
He like us, in them, to choose Him every time.
Just as we teach toddlers to do a job, bit by bit, so He teaches us.
Just as we demonstrate skills and model behaviors to our children, so He models for us.
Wise parents learn to harness the most awkward and horrid situations and put them to work.
They say things like…
This is a Teachable Moment. That was an Educational Opportunity.
There is such wisdom in treating our Days like that.
Each day is so important to Him.
He is a Now God, and He ever offers us incredible Mini- Moments, which form our “DAY”.
Gen 25:7 The days of Abraham’s life were 175 years.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
These are named for ancient gods and measured by the celestial cycles.
“Sunrise, sunset… sunrise, sunset. Swiftly flow the years.
One season following another, laden with happiness and tears.”
Our days, months and years, our time on earth, is measured by cycles of sun, moon, and stars.
The ONE time measurement not controlled by cycles and orbits is the week.
This unit of 7 days was established by God solely to honor man!
The week was made to increase man’s mental, physical and spiritual well-being.
It is important to remember that God created “all” time but is not limited to any.
He made the day but He does not need one. (the train illustration)
1) God assures us of the regularity of time ~ Gen 8:22
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
and day and night, shall not cease.
2) He also says He will suspend time someday ~ Zech 14:7
On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime, a day know to the Lord. (is this like giving “time” a time-out?)
3) He has expectations over how we spend each day ~ John 9:4
Jesus said to His disciples ~ which would be us ~
As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me.
Night is coming when no one can work.
God is in absolute control of time, of season, of cycle.
Time is His tool, not His dictator.
He does not wear a watch, not impressed with crystal or awed by digital.
He is not regulated, motivated or captivated by the clock.
Not even by our clock.
He is the LIGHT, so He hardly needs one.
According to Webster, our human expert, the DAY is very important.
is a period of light between sunrise and sunset.
Is a period of power or glory.
“call it a day; day by day; day in and day out; from day to day”
Technically, we’ve been forced to divide “DAY” into 3 parts. (its too big for us to handle as 1 unit)
Besides morning, afternoon and evening, we have Natural Day, Artificial Day, and Civil Day.
Natural Day = is the solar day, 24 hours long. Always.
Well, except the day God created a mystery for the astronomy department.
(the sun stood still, Joshua 10:13)
Psalm 19 The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
Artificial Day = is the sun’s appearance above the horizon. Varies with nature’s cycles.
Gen. 1:5 God called the light day… Artificial Day.
The evening and the morning were the first day… Natural Day.
Civil Day = the beginning and the end are determined by culture and custom.
Evening to evening = Hebrews. Lev 23:32
Sunrise to sunrise = Babylon
Noon to noon, sunset to sunset, midnight to midnight and so on.
Biblical uses of the word, DAY are important as well
This day ~ is a time, a season, this very hour. Isa 43:13 before the day was, I AM!
Psalm 84:10 One day in Your courts is better than a 1000 elsewhere..
Psalm 119:164 7 times a day do I praise You!
Prov 4:18 the path of the righteous is like a burning lamp that shines brighter,
brighter to the perfect day.
2 Pet 3:8 With the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand year like a day.
Luke 11:3 Give us this day our daily bread…
In one day ~ is suddenly, unexpectedly.
Ps 36:13 The Lord shall laugh at him (those who plot wickedly against the just)
for He sees his day is coming.
Isaiah 66:8 Can a country be born in a day? Or a nation brought forth in a Moment?
“Unto the today day” ….. “to this very day”
Rom 11:8 God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see
and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.
2 Cor 3:14 but their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains
when the old covering is read. Even to this day…
literal rending is.. “unto the today day” Now. Immediately. this instant!
Heb 4:7 therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, ..
and 3:7 “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
This very day, this Today day, this certain day ~ is all we have. Literally.
You never know what a day will bring ~
Mat 25:13 Watch therefore, for you know not the day nor the hour when Jesus will return.
James 4:14 Why… you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life?
You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Prov 27:1 Boast not of tomorrow for you do not know what a day will bring.
You can’t know what tomorrow brings.
The next day, the next thing. This immediate Mini-Moment. Now. This instant.
Tomorrow is another day. (Remember Scarlett’s last line in “Gone with the Wind”?)
If Father gives you another day, He will provide for it. (YWAM.)
You don’t have tomorrow, you have today. Today is all you’ve got.
Lk 22:43 Today you will be with Me in paradise! Greek “semeron.”
Hebrews 3:13 but encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
2 Cor 4:16 We are being renewed day by day
This day He is stirring us ~
In this Mini-Moment of history, we are caught in tiny eddies of His movement ~ His strokes.
Zechariah 4:10 Do not despise the day of small things.
Father has given us a multitude of gifts to enhance the Mini~ Moments of our Day.
The gifts of the Spirit are wisdom tools for lighting the darkness way.
Someone seriously asked me this question.
“How do I find that deep inner joy when my life is in crisis?
How do I rest in the joy, day in and day out, when my crisis continues?”
I pondered that. Weighed it out. This has been a serious season for many of us.
The advice I took was from Peter. No, not Peter the disciple. Peter Pan!
Clip #1 from the movie, “Hook”
Peter has grown up. He is very, very important but he has forgotten who he is.
Time, however, stands still for Captain Hook.
He steals Peter’s children, wanting revenge, wanting a Peter Pan war.
Peter arrives, under protest, in Never-never-land…
ill-equipped and completely powerless to fight this kind of war.
Clip #1 from Hook ~ freeze on Peter’s sad face.
How many times I reflect that look of hopelessness. How can joy exist in that?
It comes to me that living joy-filled until you explode is strictly a faith issue.
1) To find joy is like to find God.
You must believe that this exquisite joy exists.
Like you must believe God exists.
2) You must believe that this exquisite joy exists for you.
Like you must believe exquisite salvation exists for you.
3) Once you claim this inheritance of joy, nothing can take it from you. Nothing.
There is no Return Counter at God’s Gift Department. No exchanges or returns made.
The only way to lose His gift is to reject it or ignore it.
Do this enough and you will successfully turn it to stone.
Heb 3:7 Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…
You must believe this. And all this believing is a faith issue.
His joy is available to you this day, every day. Take it ~ in faith.
Clip #2 from Hook.
Peter has regained all his childish strengths and is about to vanquish Hook. TA DA!
But suddenly Hook, to thicken the plot, puts Peter in an impossible situation. Sound familiar?
Captain Hook then delivers a most professional word curse… I think you’ve heard this before..
At this point, Peter needs .. lets watch and see what Peter needs.
End Clip #2 from Hook.
You must believe this. And all this believing is a faith issue.
His joy is available to you this day, every day. Take it ~ in faith.
1 Thess 5:5 You are all children of light and children of the day ~
we are not of the night, nor of the darkness.
Sit back, close your eyes and “fly” with this song.
Play “On a Clear Day”
On a clear day, rise and look around you, and you’ll see who you are.
On a clear day , how it will astound you, that the joy of your being
Outshines every star.
You’ll feel part of, every mountain ,sea and shore
You can hear from far and near, a world you’ve never heard before
So on a clear day.. on that clear day…
You can see forever, and ever, and ever… more.
You aren’t in Never-never-land, you are in Forever-and-ever land! His love endures forever!
Clip # 3 ~ Hook
Peter realizes what Joy is and how he can own it, every day.
To live is a great adventure!
End Clip # 3 ~ Hook
To live is a very great adventure!
He has given us one day, TODAY ~ to be glorious ~
exploding with joy unspeakable and full of glory!
The Exploding one lives in their Now Moments.
The Exploder eats, sleeps and speaks in saturated magnificence, spilling joy everywhere.
The Exploder content in all things, for nothing can rob him of his inheritance.
“There is no hiding in darkness if there is even one spark of light.”
The Exploder is one spark of light. He changes his world with it.
May you explode with JOY ~ !
Be released from chains that bind you.
It doesn’t matter who put them on you.
Be released from the need to flock in similar groupings.
Free from needing similar peers to be happy or secure.
Be released from thinking that to qualify for the Kingdom,
people must look like you, think like you, act like you.
Or that you must be like them.
Be released to live, to love,
to laugh, to cry,
to experiment, to experience ~
because to live is a very great adventure!
To believe you are an Exploder contains a heady rush of confidence.
This is not arrogance. It is divine knowledge in who you are and who is on your side.
In an Exploding Mini~Moment (which only you can choose)
You cannot be denied, tamed, redirected or contained.
You are impossibly and improbably free!
Filled with as much as your container will hold.
Overwhelmingly, stunningly and sometimes even terrifyingly, free.
What do you see for yourself this day? Which Peter Pan scene do you live in?
Be faithful this day, in the tiniest hint from God. Obey His slightest wish.
Obedience is the hinge on which big doors hang.
Zech 4:10 do not despise the day of small things
What is Father saying to you in this Mini-Moment? Not later tonight. Not on the way home.
Taking a moment to ask Father for direction ~
Please stand ~ then each one lift up, edify, support or comfort whomever Father has directed you to.
Day ~ throws light on things that have been in darkness !
Walk out now in Faith ~ which is to act on knowledge that God will enable you to do what He has asked you to do.
Glory!
