CHAPTER 31: CREATIVITY 2025
(Merry Christmas)
Creativity is God given. Why would we use it for anything else but His Glory, His Work, His Will? Because I make the mistake of thinking creativity is for my glory, my work, my will. It’s an easy mistake, especially for those who do not know the Lord, but be clear, it is a mistake. Imagination is definitely a God thing, I think about what God has created from absolutely nothing.
Acts 17:24: “The God who made the universe and everything in it”.
The world doesn’t mention that anymore, I hear only of the science that seems to have taken the place of God. That means that science made my creativity? Good question I ask myself. Did science create my imagination? That would mean that science created me. That makes me feel weird. Instead, I try and remember what God said to Moses on a day when Moses was feeling a little insecure.
Exodus 4:10-12 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
What do I do with ideas, concepts, simple or complex, intuitive, brilliant and helpful? What has mankind done with this beautiful gift of creativity? It appears like not a lot of good. Manipulate, control and disparage one another? Invent the atomic bomb, Covid, politics, socialism, communism, human trafficking, abortion, just to name a few.
Let’s get back to some better creative ideas that God’s mind actually created, unfettered by man’s indecency.
In Genesis 1 through 2, God created the Heavens and the Earth. In verse 3, “Let there be light,” and in the Psalms the Word reminds us that he made us, he made me and you and scripture confirms.
Psalm 139:13-14 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
God does warn against using creativity for harmful gain. He makes it clear Creativity is not a weapon to destroy His work.
Proverbs 6:16-19 These six things the Lord hates,
Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look,
A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.
Everything just mentioned is a dangerous way to use God’s creativity. Destruction requires God’s protection of His people and the retaliation against those who cause destruction. Which side of the fence will any of us be on in the condition of the world? You see it takes imagination to deceive, and a warped imagination to be deceived. So much effort and planning in creativity to hurt or harm others. What does that have to do with business and financial responsibilities? Well, I’m sure we can all answer that in numerous different ways and I’ll mention a few of them here in a second, but let’s start with the illicit lies associated with creative control.
Biblical Examples of God’s Judgment on Deceivers
Ezekiel 13: God declares He will punish false prophets who use magic, tell lies, and build flimsy walls (metaphorically) for His people, promising their deceitful work will be destroyed.
2 Thessalonians 2:11: Paul explains that God sends a “strong delusion” to those who refuse to love the truth, leading to their condemnation, as they believe falsehoods.
Matthew 7:15: Jesus warned of false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing but are inwardly ravenous wolves, showing God’s eventual unveiling of their true nature.
Okay, I think we get the idea of dangerous ways to use creativity. What is one of my favorite ways that scripture describes a creative solution to a huge problem. Back in the day of Moses, he had about 2-3 million people walking in the desert. That is a lot of administration. It was a challenge, an overwhelming challenge and Moses did not have a solution. God answered the call in a man named Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law. Jethro, advised him to delegate authority by appointing trustworthy, God-fearing leaders to handle daily disputes, preventing Moses from burnout and allowing him to focus on teaching God’s laws and presenting major issues to God, a model for “modern leadership” emphasizing delegation, wise selection, and shared responsibility. Jethro pointed out Moses was “wearing himself out” by judging every case alone, so he suggested creating a hierarchy of leaders (thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens) to manage routine matters, while reserving complex cases for Moses, ensuring both justice and efficiency. He never told Moses to leave it to everybody else, rather over-see and teach and follow up. Seems normal today, but back then it was the beginning of what we consider normal today.
Exodus 18:20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
Creativity for the responsible. As I promised, let’s have an example of creativity that is not God’s honor in our businesses. Creativity ways to borrow money, lie to the bank, evade taxation, lie, cheat and steal customers, bait and switch change orders, that is the usual way. In horrible ways the medical industry does how many procedures that are not necessary in the name of health and well being and it is neither.
Whether it be gambling with life, or on investment opportunities that may or may not yield a positive gain, whatever the mind can achieve in sin, the mind will investigate and without God, the mind will implement such dark directives.
The troublesome root of all creative financial decisions, include borrowing money to make investments, giving up personal guarantees, collateral of all kinds and many, many more. Our creativity abounds in these very financially dangerous areas. One thing we do know. Creativity both good and bad — is in delegates to the mind, body and spirit. Unfortunately, when it serves things not good, our mind, body and spirit are affected in the same spirit. Creativity in music, love, art, solutions to a better life, ministry, teaching, in such an environment creativity is an incredible tool.
In the hands of the Master, He molds each of us into the Refiner’s fire, making us completely into an amazing work. In the Bible, the “refiner’s fire” is a metaphor for God’s intense, purifying judgment and trials that burn away impurities, dross, and sin from His people, transforming them to be holy, righteous, and fit for His purpose, much like a silversmith uses intense heat and hammering to purify precious metals. Key passages like Malachi 3:2-3 and 1 Peter 1:6-7 connect this fire to both national cleansing and individual faith testing, revealing the true character of a person or a country, a process of deepening spiritual growth.
Jeremiah 18:3-4 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
We are all creative. We must create to survive. We learn how to do things. Things we need. We learn to make food, furniture, entertain the kids, live in the environment.
The edge of brilliance, genius, learning, math, book-keeping, build, rebuild, landscape, woodworking, organize, art, music, writing, any number of everything! If I strive, albeit challenging, but if I strive to make all my efforts for the glory of God, my eventual outcome is better. Be patient. Let the Lord prepare the way.
Psalm 27:14 Wait[a] on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!
People, as we are selfish, we dream and scheme and lie and manipulate. Using our creativity for our own selfishness, and sometimes in the name of all that is good and holy. Not good, think about it.
Proverbs 10:2 “Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.”.
Anything can become a false god. Ambition is a good one. We all get very creative when it comes to ambition. Thomas Brooks, a puritan wrote this about ambition.
“Ambition is a gilded misery, a secret poison. Ambition is a hidden plague, the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the original vice of the angels, and Adam and Eve. Ambition is the destroyer of virtue, the blinder of hearts. Ambition turns medicine into malady and remedy into disease. High seats are never but uneasy, and crowns are always stuffed with thorns.” So says Thomas Brooks.
We all know the stories of blind ambition. We all are exposed to highly ambitious self-promoting people. It has caused many people to sell their souls, compromise their convictions, violate their beliefs, and sacrifice their character, and essentially destroy relationships all around them. Ambition is often associated with adjectives, like unscrupulous, self-centered, proud, driven, insensitive, careless. Ambition often leaves a trail of carnage of family friends. When Paul says he has ambition, his ambition is to be pleasing to the Lord. Big difference. Very big difference.
The Bible forbids that we have ambition to please ourselves. The Bible elevates the noble desire to have ambition to please the Lord. Now that takes a the challenge to creativity doesn’t it? What does that mean, well let’s see. One translation translates what is good for creativity is as follows: 1 Timothy 3:1 with these words. “To aspire to leadership is an honorable ambition. To aspire to spiritual leadership is an honorable ambition.” So the word I’m getting here is “aspire.” It is pleasing to aspire to greatness in the eyes of the Lord, not in the eyes of man. It’s a noble thing to want to be a leader if you understand what that leadership means, leadership is a stewardship for others for which you are accountable to God. You teach others to serve the Lord, that is leadership. Do you do that when you borrow money by lying, cheating and stealing. Is it for the honor of God?
John 6: 63-71 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[a] and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.”
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
“Every child is an Artist. The problem is staying an artist when you grow up” – Pablo Picasso
“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced” – Vincent Van Gogh
2 Corinthians 9:8 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
Oswald Sanders suggested this, “that Jesus came into the world to save people from their selfish ambition.” One writer says, “Because we children of Adam want to become great, He became small. Because we will not stoop, He humbled himself. Because we demand to rule, He came to serve.” Jeremiah 45:5 says, “But you, are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them?” Pretty plain. What exactly is Chapter 31? The power to create. Huge. Super huge. What will I stand before Him and say I created with my imagination? Chaper 31 Creativity 2025.
Amen.
