Studying to Create

John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” – KJV

The first chapter of John reveals the personality of Jesus as being the Logos or the Spoken Word of God.  It reveals to us that the expressed Word took on the form of flesh.  The chapter goes on to defend the fact that “without Him, nothing was made that has been made” meaning it took the Word to make everything.  So we can clearly see that there is a “direct connect” between The Word and divine creativity.

Remember, we have a goal that what we present would cause people to fear the Lord.  Not be horrified but to revere; admire, respect, look up to, hold in the highest regard and to be in awe of God.  How can we do this without consulting the scriptures in our creative process?  There is no doubt that we can produce things to make people jump.  However, how straight will they walk when the come back down?  If we are communicating the Words of Life through our presentations then there is more of a chance that what we do will have a Godly impact on the observers.  So what’s in the Word?  Well let’s examine the text and see what we can draw out as a basis for studying to create.

First we see, “the Word was made flesh”.  Now we know Jesus was without sin so when we examine the word, “flesh”, we are not talking about the sin nature but rather the literal, “soft substance of the living body, which covers the bones and is permeated with blood”.  Not just any flesh, Jesus was not a goat, chicken or a guppy but in human form.  Do you remember the old cartoons when they tried to show how cold it was by freezing the character’s breath?  Can you picture God the Father speaking and His breath freezing to form the Christ?  Maybe I’m challenging your imagination too far but the idea is that the Word prepared a body so He could travel into time and represent God on Earth…in a tangible format.  God doesn’t want his Word to be aloof from us but He’s giving us something we can feel.

Now God was not looking to make a temporary connection, his endeavor was to dwell with us.  The word dwell has to do with a dwelling place or a tabernacle.  The intention was that the Word would take up residence with us like a family member moving in.  Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…”  If you ever had a German Chocolate Cake then you know that “rich” means loaded and dense.  His desire is to saturate us to the point where we get cut and bleed scripture.  Why?

The next phrase says, “and we beheld His Glory”.  In this case, the word “glory” means, “splendor, brightness, of the moon, sun, stars; magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, grace; the kingly majesty of the Messiah; the absolutely perfect inward or personal excellency of Christ”   This was the fulfillment of the prophesy in Isaiah 40:5, “The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”  If we back track in chapter 40 of Isaiah, the Glory of Lord, causes, valleys to be exalted, mountains  to be brought low, crooked placed straightened out and rough places smoothed over (Isa. 40:4)  In other words, His Glory levels the playing field.  So what are the demolition and construction tools?  Grace and Truth!

First we see His Glory is full of grace.  In this passage, grace is, “good will, loving-kindness, favor; of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues”.  When you think of grace, think of an umbrella that protects you from the elements.  Under the umbrella there is security or safety.  The rain is still coming down but you are not getting wet.  By rights you should be drenched…if it wasn’t for the umbrella.  The grace of God allows us to walk through life’s challenges and experiences and learn from them rather than be consumed by them.  It’s grace that allows us to come out of a storm stronger, wiser and better.  Truth be told, it was grace that provided salvation; “the holy influence that turns souls toward Christ”.  Grace is what started the process, mercy provided the sacrifice but if it wasn’t for His Grace, there would have been no need for the blood to be shed.  WOW!  Can we create presentations, write songs, and paint pictures that reflect His Grace; whereby God could use it as a vehicle to exert His holy influence upon souls, turning them to Christ?  Not without His Word.

Next we see that His Glory is full of truth.  This “truth” is defined as, “the gospel or what the gospel represents”.  This is why the two go hand-in-hand as being representative of His Glory.  Truth tells us that all have sinned and fall short of His Glory.  (Rom. 3:23) Truth tells us the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life.  (Rom. 6:23) Truth tells us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  (Rom. 5:8) Truth tells us that if we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we shall be saved because when we believe in our heart we are justified and our confession is what saves us. (Rom. 10:9-10) Seems like very elementary stuff, but if it’s so elementary, why are so many on their way to hell?  Probably because at times we endeavor to share the things that will cause our life to be abundant or we share the things that allow us to cry through a trial but do we purpose to share things with the intent of soul winning?  Christ came that we would have an abundant life, yes, but it begins with knowing for sure that we will be able to spend eternity “dwelling with Him”.  This is the gospel truth; elementary, but it still saves.

So here we see The Word came to us so we could get a picture of the Glory of God; full of grace and full of truth.  This grace and truth was intended to be so much apart of us that God can use the manifestation of both in us, to draw people to Himself.  If we are going to be an effective tool in the hands of the master, we must be deliberate about our study time.  Yeah, probably everyone who reads this article can claim some form of creative genius and if we are not careful we’ll think that our genius is from us and not from the God who gave us life and strength and really the abilities we posses.  God has a purpose for our creative gifts and we must consult His blueprints if we are going to construct something that truly reflects His Glory.