It's one thing to model creativity with youth. It's another thing to watch it flame up and take off.
Word pictures are like that for me. Perhaps, it's like the collage I take so long to assemble, and then a song or a word of life comes to me and now that abstract collage says so much about the God who loves me and acts on my behalf. The activity of making becomes an unspoken cry or intercession or prayer. It comes back to me with a blessing that I could not have invented. It SPEAKS to me. The word of life that comes is from the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth.
When these Epiphanies come, I jot them down in a prayer journal. On a day I am glum and depressed, re-reading these gems of light brings the activity of Jesus to mind and declares his concern and attention for one such as I. In Jeremiah 1 verse 12 the author declares: "For I am alert and active, watching over my word to perform it."
This interaction is truly a marvel. It surprises me. It gets my attention.
Sometimes I awake in the night to jot down a download of phrases.
Something that took place earlier in the day comes into focus and it's like someone is beside me, reminding me, revealing something to remember, to latch on to, or celebrate.
At four in the morning, I awoke and began writing down what came to my mind:
Behold My hand, Karl. Behold My joy.
The download played back the images of my pastor in the youth room. On his open palms lay two wide cloth strips - he deep in thought - suddenly a flurry of motion. Faster than I have seen him move before, he had set up a folding chair, and was on top of it, pushing the ceiling panels up, and fixing to suspend the two completed efforts of the teenagers. His hands tying the cloth strips around the ceiling bars, figuring it all out on the fly, impassioned, taking the initiative himself, engaged. As I stood by aghast and still. He continued until the two student assemblages were hung up to his SATISFACTION.
Another download came. A teen standing up, all smiles, holding the upper frame above her head, the long multi-colored cloth strips running down to the bottom frame. Her leg and arm slipping between the parallel strips, her mouth declared "STEPPING OUT OF JAIL." The next word that came to mind was RELEASE!! As in, being freed from bondage or set free from mental oppression.
The next download was of a teen with many cloth strips tied end to end to end, stretched out, standing over by the room wall, looking at its length and wondering aloud: "I WONDER HOW LONG THIS IS?" He and the girl stretching the full length out to touch opposite walls in the youth room. The next words were curiosity - willingness - eager.
Then, an older theme from 1998 flashed by and became a declaration or an affirmation of what the length of cloth strips meant. The Pleasantville vision (
full text here). In a classroom the teacher explained that there was nothing outside of Pleasantville. The road merely returned back to where it first started. A student asked Bud what was outside of Pleasantville and Bud explained "the roads do not go in a circle but they go on and on." The Spirit of truth interpreted: "they go and on and on deeper in the Holy Ghost. In other words, falling in love with Jesus!"
The next image was of Bud standing out in the rain, arms extended up, and declaring to the students huddled in the gazebo: "It's okay to come out. It's only rain." The Spirit revealed: "there is nothing to fear when it came to the Holy Ghost and the way he operated, his baptism, his healing, his involvement, the result was the same, he brought us close to himself."
The notes he gave me on Pleasantville were about being transformed by the Holy Ghost into lovers of Jesus Christ. Where spirituality was expressive. You could use your own words to express your admiration to Him.
The next scene was in the film where Bud told his TV father Wayne: "Don't you want to tell her she is beautiful?" And Wayne in tears nods his head. The Spirit said: "tell Jesus he is lovely. Go ahead and tell HIM."
The download concluded. A sense that Jesus was showcasing His activity. Pay attention, remember, celebrate, he was doing something here. "Behold My hand. See My joy."
By this time I was crying with tears. Grateful. In wonder. Praising the name of Jesus.
prayer journal entry on April 11, 2015
Carrollton, MIssouri
Karl Marxhausen
Recently I found out that Martin Luther from the sixteenth century valued the rich words that came to him and directed him to his loving Savior. I would like to add that quote here, because I was happy and amazed that the Spirit of truth was sharing with him as well.
"Frequently when I come to a certain part of 'Our Father' or to a petition, I land in such rich thought that I leave behind all set prayers. When such rich, good thoughts arrive, then one should leave the other commandments aside and offer room to those thoughts and listen in stillness and for all the world not put up obstructions. For then the Holy Spirit himself is preaching and one word of his sermon is better than a thousand of our prayers. I have learned more from one such prayer than I would have received from much reading and writing."
"If the Holy Spirit would come in the course of such thoughts [methodical preparation for worshipful prayer] and begins to preach in your heart with rich, illumined thoughts, do him the honor, let these rationally formulated thoughts, reflections and meditations fade away. Be
still and listen for he knows better than you. And when he preaches
note that and write it down. In this way you will experience miracles."
Martin Luther
From a little treatise, "How To Pray." Luther's Works, Devotional Writings, Volume 43:193-211. (quote courtesy of God Is Faithful, David Dorpat, Creation House, 2008, p.264)
