Sleep on it! You're His poem, masterpiece

When the Lord comes to Solomon in a dream at night and says, ‘Solomon, I’ll give you riches and power, whatever you want; what can I give you?,’ Solomon answers, ‘I want wisdom.’ I Kings 3:15 says, [15] And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream.

“When the text says ‘Solomon awoke,’ what’s meant by that is, ‘You know, it doesn’t help you to work incessantly; stay up half the night, get up early to go to work, work through all kinds of difficult, sorrowful, hard, painful experiences--God gives you His gifts when you’re not working at all. When you aren’t even conscious; you’re asleep,’ " explains Jordan. 

“Think about that. It’s not of works; it’s His workmanship, not of us. Think back through Scripture. When did God give Adam Eve? When did He cut the covenant with Abraham? He put him in a deep sleep. I mean, Solomon isn’t the only one in Scripture that that’s true of.

“When Paul says, ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,’ he’s saying God’s the one who gives the blessing, not based on your merit, but on His giving. ‘For we are his workmanship.’ This is HIS doing.

“That word ‘workmanship’ (Ephesians 2:10) is talking about a ‘work of art.’ A masterpiece. Preachers like to point out that the Greek word translated there is the word we get our term ‘poem’ from.

“That word comes over in English as ‘poem.’ You’re His work of art. You’re literally the form through which He’s going to express Himself. A masterpiece is something you do to make yourself known.

“Romans 1:19-20 says, ‘Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. [20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.’

“Everybody knows something about God. He manifested Himself. Romans 2:14 says, ‘For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.’

“You see, God has indelibly printed into the heart of all men some information. You have to educate yourself out of that, and what the 'educated' guy says is, ‘Well, if you want to be sophisticated and educated, you have to get over your primordial tendency to believe in the superstitious idea of something bigger than you.’

“To get over that is to get over the mystery of life itself. You can look at creation and see the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God; the fact there’s a Creator revealed, and in that term, ‘things that are made’ is a translation of the exact same word in Ephesians 2 about workmanship! Creation is God’s workmanship; His masterpiece demonstrating His wisdom, His understanding, His knowledge. He’s placed it in the Creation!

“When you look at the Creation, what you’re seeing is God manifest His purpose; what He’s accomplishing. You find out about Him!”

(sorry for long lapse here; I've had a novel cold/virus for my lifetime! That's what you get working in very close contact with elementary schoolchildren! new article tomorrow)