You Are My Dancing Rhythm

https://jnesbit.com/products/you-are-my-dancing-rhythm

This is a Art Reflection that I wrote and presented at the Gathering House Church in Spokane Washington on March 3rd, 2019. Here is a link to where sermons are posted. 

From the Philippians Series Titled Abounding Love. As a church we purchased a copy of this image to use in our service. I have put a watermarked image here with a link back to the artist website. I highly recommend art work  of James Nesbit to you. 

You Are My Dancing Rhythm 

an Art Reflection by Margot Cioccio 

You Are My Dancing Rhythm is a prophetic art piece by James Nesbit. He is one of the leading prophetic artists of our time. He feels a portion of his assignment from God comes from Habakkuk 2 to write the vision and engrave it so plainly (through digital imagery).  He follows the prophetic words being spoken to the “church” at large by seasoned prophetic ministers and makes visual representations of those prophetic words.

The beautiful ballerina makes the dance look so effortless as she dances on the eternal stage to the rhythm of the masters melody. She reaches up as if to touch the strings as the rhythm, melody and harmony seem to rain down upon the earth where she dances for His glory on the world stage of her life. 

In Philippians the Apostle Paul states, It’s no wonder I pray with such confidence, since you have a permanent place in my heart! You have remained partners with me in the wonderful grace of God even though I’m here in chains for standing up for the truth of the gospel. 

We are all in our own ways invited into the great dance of love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Paul did not let the chains or the conditions of prison steal his joy. He did not allow his circumstances to be an excuse for not finishing His race. I am sure that he must have worshiped and sang during the long hours much as he had done with Silas years before. This time there is no earth quake and his physical chains are not removed in yet another astounding miracle that paved the way for the Gospel to enter into Europe. Not this time. Paul was not chasing miracles. Miracles followed him. The miracle of his imprisonment is perhaps a bit harder to see this side of heaven. As he sat chained to different guards 24 hours a day, he told them the stories of his encounters with Jesus. The prisoner literally had a captive audience. The guards sat as he dictated letters and watched as people would come and go to minister to this rugged looking old man. They could see that he had been through a lot in his time. I can only wonder at the transforming power at work in their lives. Perhaps you and I are part of their family lines. They remain nameless guards so we many never know the lives effected because one old man in chains told stories of his beloved Jesus rather than griping. We must train themselves to be thankful no matter what the circumstance 

Much like a dancer who wants to perform on pointe there are a variety of conditions that must be met to accomplish such a goal. 

Training starts at a young age so that form, strength and alignment are achieved as the dancers feet and bones grow and harden. At age 12 if a dancer has a foot where the toes are all about the same length and she has ankles that are flexible she may be considered as a potential candidate for dancing on point. It isn’t a task for the immature or those who want the easy path. To dance on pointe requires emotional maturity to be able to deal with the pain of practicing at least three times a week. The dancer has to be responsible to take care of her shoes. Her shoes are extremely important to hard and they make too much noise, too soft the feet are not supported. A dancer may go through 3 or more pairs of shoes in a nights performance. They wear out and have to be replaced by new ones. Each dancer has to hand sew elastic and ribbon ties to her shoes and break in the shoes during rehearsals so they are ready for performance. 

Paul also started training early. He studied the scriptures as a child. He was later tutored by Rabbi Gamaliel. He might have even gone on to be a candidate for the position of High Priest.  Many dancers never make it to pointe. Their foot structure, emotional maturity, work ethic and commitment to responsibility all play a role in determining if a dancer will dance on pointe. Paul was fiercely committed to keeping the purity of God’s Holy Word. His passion lead him to persecute and kill Christians. Yet one day the Lord looked at Pauls formation and decided it was time to move him to a new level of revelation. It was the day he had an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. It was the day his life changed forever. God knew he would be able to withstand the anger of the Jew,  shipwrecks, beatings, name calling, trials, hardships jail and finally a martyrs death. God knew that He would not cave because of the difficulties and the riggers of being like the lead ballerina on pointe on the world stage.

“James Nesbit writes the following about this image. “Arise and dance with the King. Your dance may be moving in the beauty of auto repair, or a mother seeing her children well tended to, releasing the rhythm of the eternal song with in them.”

In Philippians, Paul goes on to say “I continue to pray for your love to grow and increase beyond measure, bringing you into the rich revelation of spiritual insight in all things. This will enable you to choose the most excellent way of all - becoming pure and without offense until the unveiling of Christ.  And you will be filled completely with the fruits of righteousness that are found in Jesus, the Anointed One - bringing great praise and glory to God!

Will you wake up and arise and join in His great dance of love to be who he uniquely created you to be for His glory. Will you let the rain of Heavens song touch you like this dancer and move in and through you to be all that He created you to be.  No one else can dance the dance that God has designed for you. Will you join the dance abounding in His great Love. 

The good, the bad and the desperately ugly

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio 

Photo by my son, Niah Ferlito

Genesis 50:20 (NIV1984)

²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.


In this passage it is good to know the story behind it. Joseph is now the number two guy in the world super power of his day. Has just buried his father and his brothers are worried that he might now take revenge on them for the many years of hardship that he suffered because of their jealousy and wickedness. It was betrayal of the highest degree. His own brothers tossed him in a pit and were going to kill him but decided to sell him to slave traders. 
Most of us could understand how he might still hold a grudge against them. 


I think of the story of Corre TenBoom who forgives the guard that was responsible for her beloved sisters death while in a concentration camp. A camp they ended up in not because they were jewish but because they felt compelled as believing Christians to help their Jewish neighbors. 


So you are probably thinking that Joseph and Corre were super duper believers. How does one go through the hardship of loosing family, friends, the dream of the life you had planned, to end up in prison, or as a slave? How is that possibly God's plan.
If you go back to verse 19 you see a bit of Joseph's heart and character. "¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?" It is God who judges the hearts of men. It is God who looks at our motives, our fears, our failures. Joseph knew that he could not see the whole picture - and so he left judgement in the hands of God. 


We don't know if and when a heart will turn to Jesus and be saved. That thief next to Jesus on the cross was a bad dude who deserved to be punished for his wickedness. Yet he decided in that moment to believe Jesus was actually who he claimed to be. You talk about a death bed conversion - minus the comfy matres, pillows and blankets.  We just don't know when people will break and finally be able to receive the Lord. Saul was persecuting Christians one day and ran into Jesus as a blinding light and a voice from heaven on the way to trouble and murder more Christians. He in that instant realizes he was on the wrong road and God uses him to take the gospel to the gentiles. Why him? He was a jurk, a killer, educated, powerful bad guy. Why bother to transform and save him?


I suppose part of going through hardship and the loss of the life we thought we were supposed to have is to realize who we belong to. To know that God walks with us in the dark valleys. In those places where the people we should have been able to trust have betrayed us. In the places where some accident takes away our ability to function and do the things we loved doing. We might even have made poor decisions and choices that have cost us dearly or harmed someone else. We feel guilt, shame, grief, and the loss. We could blame others, ourself and even God. We could live our life as a miserable bitter retch or we could turn to God and say "I don't know how this mess can possibly bring you glory but I give you all of my life the good, the bad and the desperately ugly - I give you permission to use it in ways that I can't even see or understand at this point. I choose to trust you." 


I think that Joseph and Corre and others who have sufferer have a choice to make. Will you choose the path of self pity and bitterness, or will you choose the path of trust and forgiveness. Both found themselves in horrible conditions and yet were able to trust God even when everything made no sense to them. They stopped asking the why's and started looking for opportunities to depend and rely on God right in the middle of all the badness. 

Corrie at one point helps the other women to give thanks for the flea infestation in their bunks. Because of the fleas the guards came in less and left quickly and they had a bit of privacy to pray together and talk about the truth's of the Word there in their flee infested chambers. 


Often it is the difficulties that we face that mold and shape us into Gods person. Joseph is able to save a nation of people and his estranged family from famine and death. He went from prison to guy in charge in one defining moment. But was it really one moment or was it a life time of trusting God and making the best of the bad hand he'd been dealt. 


Prayer: Lord, We choose to forgive, and if we don't know how to forgive, we choose to be willing to forgive and to allow you to begin to work forgiveness in our hearts. We choose to surrender our life to your plans and purposes. We choose to thank you for the blessings that are often in disguise. We choose to thank you for those difficulties that cause us to realize we have no where to turn but to you. We choose to suspend judgement on what is going on and to watch and see what you do with it in time. We give you the good, the bad and the desperately ugly of our lives uses it somehow for your glory and your fame.  

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” 

― Corrie Ten Boom