Who's glory are you using your gifts for?

(a love letter from a friend to a friend)

So many times we do things that we think are glorifying God, and so many times we seek the glory of men. This is true! I did have many gods, so many I didn't know which one to serve first. And even when I came to the Lord I still kept serving other gods. It is insane to think that you are walking with Christ and you love Him and you still live in disobedience to Him. I tasted the goodness of the Lord and yes He is Good. The worst thing is to sin willingly against Him. The gap between me and God sometimes is so great that I wonder if I ever was close to Him. The thing is that the more I want to get closer to God and to submit to Him the greater the temptations have became. I do love Him and all I truly desire is to serve Him and do His will. I fell and my fall was great. Getting up is kind of humbling because one thing I can't do any longer and that is to get up on my own, so I have to stay down and humble myself and in due time I know that the Lord will exalt me. When?

This is up to Him.

I do believe that there are great artists that the Lord has used greatly to change many lives through the work He inspired them to create! Yes!

When I was a little girl and no one preached the Gospel to me, in my grand mother's house there was a little icon hanging on the wall. The image on it was Jesus Christ crucified. I was mesmerized by this little icon hanging on the wall. It was beautiful. I would come and stair at it for long periods of time. I remember it as yesterday! It was marvelous, indeed.

Little that I knew that the Lord planted a seed in my heart about His Son Jesus Christ who was crucified for all men sins through this little icon hanging on the wall in the lower room in my grand mama Tota's house.

There is also music I have heard as a little girl, church music that I still hear in my spirit. Paintings, music, poetry, Psalms I truly believe are the expression of the soul and the spirit of men.

If I was mute and I had no way of talking, but the Lord had given me the gift to paint I would have painted what the Lord was giving me in my heart, so my paintings would have been a wisdom that came from the King of kings.

The Lord blessed me with many gifts. One of them was to paint. But when I came to the Lord I forsook my gift of painting because I was not painting for the glory of God. I used to write poetry and I was skillful at it, but I forsook that gift also, then I used to act for living for a long time but I let go of that gift also, because nether one of the gifts I had were glorifying God. Every time I looked at a painting or a movie, I wanted to cry because I was good at it but I had forsaking it. I had forsaken the very gifts God had given me. I had forsaken who God created me to be for His glory. The Lord also gave me the gift of singing and loved doing it, but it was not to glorify God.

So to make the long story short, I forsook all of those gifts, acting, writing poetry and screen plays, singing, painting. I forsook the very gifts God gifted me to use for His glory! And that was sad as if I forsook my hands and my voice and decided not to use them. And I started to seek for other gifts God simply did not give me. I wanted to glorify Him with something I did not have!

Back in the days, I used them for my glory and the glory of men and I loved being worshiped for my creations. After all we are made in God's image and His likeness. We are gods and gods love being worshiped.

But God gave me my gifts to worship Him with them.

Just like the talents Jesus is talking about, that if we do not use them He will take them away and give them to someone else. See people create and the gifts God gave them they use to worship the evil one and plant seeds into the hearts of men.
To me painting is just like singing. I express my song on a canvas skilfully for the glory of God and the deaf can see what God has placed on my heart and that is His glory and love.

So beloved, this is what came from my heart. Use your creativity and your gifts, whatever the Lord has given you for His glory! Whatever your gift is, whether that is singing, painting, writing, cooking, cleaning, dancing, composing or being a mechanic, or a doctor, a musician, a barber, a plumber, an accountant, a teacher, a baker, a police officer, a president, a chemist, ets. is like giving your very hands to the Lord to paint through you , as if you give your very voice to the Lord to sing through you, ets., as when you give your temple to the Lord to live through you. How can we share God's wisdom andbeauty if we keep it for ourselves?

Whatever your gift is dedicated to the Lord and He will be glorified through it!

I love you and I bless you in the name of Our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ!
It is an honor to share the riches of my heart with you! This riches came from above! This riches God gave me to share with you! This world would have been an ugly place if there was no art, and music and good food! All good gifts come from above and we are to worship God with our gifts and to give Him the glory for giving them to us! In doing so He will be glorified Other wise painting and singing would have been a sin?! We plant seeds with our gifts! And when we use our gifts for God's glory they are good.

Love: Princess Antoaneta

08.15.07

03:33 p.m.