Designing for the King: Bringing Christ into the Home

Good morning my dears,

I recently read this article on the CBN. It resonated with me, both as an interior designer, and as a Christian wife and homemaker.

Designing for the King: Bringing Christ into the Home

by

Deana Murphey

"What do you generally think of when hearing interior design? If you’re like most people, you think of decorating a space and making an environment beautiful. More importantly, interior design carries the responsibility for everyone’s emotional and spiritual well–being. I see a real need to not only make our places of habitation functional and beautiful, but also to bring order to the environment so that it can be the safest, happiest, and most fulfilling environment we know.

Imagine living in the same environment year after year without adapting it to personal lifestyle changes, desires, needs, comforts, growths, or expansions. Imagine designing only to fulfill your selfish motives. Imagine not engaging in the design decisions of your home. Imagine your home void of family unity and deprived of peace and safety. Imagine expecting a spiritual foundation in the home while only living and designing by the world’s standards. Imagine your home environment as one of chaos, fussing, and arguing with no signs of peace.

Chaos? But I’m a Christian!

Yet this is occurring in Christian homes today. A beautifully designed living or working environment is not necessarily an orderly or peaceful place. A simple solution may seem to be designing your environments in the latest trends; rearranging some pieces; making upgrades; purchasing new furnishings, big screen TVs, and toys; changing the colors; copying the designs of someone else; replicating a design from TV or a magazine; or perhaps removing a wall to expand a space. Then your new upgrades may temporarily appear to reorder the fragments of your emotional life. But without inner restructuring, you will, over time, become discouraged with the further likelihood of being frustrated and stressed, which, in the end, leads to chaos.

Chaos is an appalling, unsettling word, creating feelings of confusion, disorder, disarray, turmoil, and pandemonium. No one wishes to be associated with such a word, let alone connect it with your living spaces. Chaos suggests designs that disconnect you from your lifestyle, history, memories, values, personal tastes, disciplines, social needs, godly desires, and God. Chaos connects you to selfishness and leads you into deception. You then become void of peace, wholeness, individuality, morals, and celebration of self. You live in chaos as a result of the way you think, which results from what you have been exposed to. You must change this because it robs you of the values of life. It opens the door to fear, and fear is a direct weapon the devil uses to deceive and steal from you.

The Christian Home

Your home environment should reflect the same nature and genius of God. It should embrace order and life. And it is much more than just having everything neatly placed, put away, or organized. Many people think of chaos as untamed space filled with clutter that can alter the crisp composition of a design. But there’s chaos in people’s homes, whether it’s visual, atmospheric, audible, physical, or environmental, simply because of the way the world system is set up. But if you are a born-again child of God, though you are in this world, you are not of this world. And your assignment here is to first bring order to the chaos within for a clear behavior path to bring order where you live.

What if you could move beyond the limitations of your mind, remove the anxieties and negative emotions, and design your home to please all of its inhabitants, enhance your relationship with your family, and develop a deeper friendship with God? You can infuse your living environments with peace, experience joy, and become energized with the power that’s linked with design solutions and spiritual well–being.

After five years of researching, studying and praying about the Christian home, I finally was led to create a step-by-step guide on designing a sanctuary to escape the stress of this world! Do you want to reverse the chaos in your life? Would you like to create a home that is beautiful, yet functional? How about designing a healthy, stress–free, peaceable, orderly, fun, and spiritual environment?

The Answer

There is only one way to accurately answer these questions. You must go to the place where design originated—creation in the Bible—to see how design was divinely introduced and brought order to a chaotic environment—and ultimately to your life. It is best summed up by the InterVarsity Press Bible Commentary on Matthew 15:

Among those who accept the Bible as God’s Word and as canon (a measuring stick), the test of a statement’s authority should be its conformity to biblical principles. Yet many of us, for all our insistence on the authority of Scripture, pay surprisingly little attention to it; little time researching context, background or other factors essential for understanding the Bible. We may work hard to assimilate various trends of popular culture yet spend little time assimilating our lives to the Bible’s teachings.

When divine order and structure prevail where you live, it is evident that first the same emanates from within. This is how God designed you and the way he desires you to live—out of the good treasures of your heart. The present world does not reflect the kingdom order originally intended for your enjoyment on earth. Designing your life and your home the world’s way enslaves those who participate in it, thus controlling you and becoming your master, falsely promising freedom. The Bible clearly reminds us that no man can serve two masters, either he will hate one and love the other (Matthew 6:24, NIV). However, all of God’s children have the creative ability to eradicate chaos and create order in the earth by design. The design begins within your heart and spills over into your home environment. This becomes the spiritual aesthetic element in your home.

Integrating your Faith

The spiritual application of design also begins within. My Designing Within S.Y.S.T.E.M. helps you Shape Your Spirit To Eliminate the Mess so you can:

• Fill your thoughts on God’s word;
• Direct your conversations based on God’s truths; and
• Determine your actions in accordance with God’s direction

It will help you understand how meditating on spiritual truths is vital to life, home, and family. It will bring your mind in agreement with your spirit. Designing within will make your home design experience more stress–free, rewarding, and successful. It will reveal the purpose and directives to designing in view of God and family relationships."

You can view the book here.

“The most important of the Lord's work you will ever do will be the work you do within the walls of your own home.”  

Harold B. Lee

~Kiki Nakita ~

You can follow me on Instagram, Pinterest or Bloglovin'.

Christmas at the Billy Graham Library

We had a lovely evening on Saturday night at the Billy Graham Library. We arrived before the sun set. We walked around the bookstore and had a light dinner at the dairy barn before touring his childhood home and watching a live nativity. Afterwards, we did a little Christmas shopping and gift wrapping with Cory's famous hot chocolate and cheesy Hallmark movies.


Billy Graham's childhood home.

 

For a sneak peek inside Billy Graham's childhood home, here's a compilation I made.

 

Hope your getting into the Christmas spirit, only 10 days to go.

Those Wounded by God's People and Walk the Path to God

In this interview Moira Brown sits down with Billy Graham's daughter Anne Graham Lotz (Rev. Billy Graham's daughter) to talk about her book 'Wounded by God's People' which discusses the unfortunate circumstance when people are hurt by the church, or hypocritical Christians and how to move forward from this.

 

 

Charlotte has a street called Billy Graham Parkway, which coincidentally leads you to the international airport where millions of people come and go as they ascend into the clouds on a journey. A little ironic, don't you think?

 

The Billy Graham Library is a memorialized legacy of the works by Billy Graham and his ministry. I strongly admire the family because they're so real in how they talk about this life journey, our walk before we reunite with God.

 

In this video his daughter Anne Graham Lotz talks about so many subjects that I can relate to. Christians leave the church because of hypocritical Christians, and I've met quite a few who've left me wondering why they're trying so hard to prove themselves, rather that living the life of example.

 

Luckily, I grew up in England, the home of the Church of England, the Queen and the protestant reformation. There are Christian churches in every village or hamlet which are all deep rooted in traditionalism. Also, there's the UM church which is a lot more progressive, but not as progressive as some of the Christian culture in America today.

 

My memories of church were idyllic. I remember my sister and I would skip to the graveyard in our summery floral dresses and pick wild flowers to place atop the graves. Every time I go back to England, we always reminisce over several graves of dear friends, and villagers who passed in the twenty years since my Mum moved there.

 

For awhile, I kept a very idyllic mindset. When I first arrived to the US I made some of my very first and lifelong friends attending South Hills Bible Church in Spokane, WA. The reason I loved that church was it's fabulous Pastor Sonny and his wife Judy, who always invited the international students to fellowship at social events, or to their house for milkshakes. Every Sunday after church and class we'd all meet at the Rockwood Bakery to chat for hours about the days sermon. A conversationalist like me loved that I could open up, and share my thoughts and views from my cultural perspective.

 

Then, after moving to Portland, OR for college I noticed that there weren't as many churches, but more 'spiritual' people who lived there. Our college was founded on strict Catholic roots, was 80% female and unlike other colleges there were no parties. I had lots of girlie roommates. It was a time in my life where I could live with so many different characters. I had to learn to respect different religions and cultures.

 

After college I moved in with my dad. I also went to work with my dad, and slipped into the routine as I had for almost nine summers before. My dad rarely opened up, or shared feelings, unless he was talking about growing up or his parents. His family, especially his dad were very strict. There was a conduct as to how you were to behave, and their German Catholic roots meant most prayers, or confessions were done in private in accordance to Matthew 6. It wasn't until he was sick that he started a Bible study, and we talked about death. He simply said "The belief in God is Heaven and the disbelief is Hell". I think when we're facing death, especially when we feel like it's before our time we question God, and ask "Why me?"

 

Then you look at all the injustice in the world. The pain and suffering of billions of people who just so happened to be born in a certain country, to certain parents. Why would God allow them to go their whole lives without them knowing about Him, and His unconditional love? I did lot's of theological studies on the cultural, historical and geographical views of religion, and it broadened and expanded my mind. God is love, or if you don't believe you could describe God as Energy, without which, there would be no evolution of human life.

 

Then I met Cory. We both had such similar thoughts and our conversations have gone all night at times. We both got each other, and felt completely comfortable around each other since we first met. However, we met while I was going through a hard time in my life. Within five years I lost all my grandparents, and my dad after a two-and-a-half year battle with cancer. Cory was kind of the forgotten one, who rarely spoke up, leaving him working from home, a little depressed and rarely opening his blinds.

 

Maybe there was a reason we met during the hardest time in our lives? These times got even harder. When my family, who is nuts actually accepted Cory with open arms. I couldn't believe my dad even supported our relationship, and not until recently, Cory shared that my dad once whispered into his ears "thank you for taking care of Kiki". Cory's family is also nuts, and I felt like I wasn't accepted in the same way at all. I often felt uncomfortable and judged. His family were loud about Jesus, but make some different moral choices that both my husband and I are not comfortable with. Each to their own.

 

During my time in the Tri-Cities, WA I was the unhappiest I've ever been in my life. I suffered in my faith extraordinarily. I felt like I couldn't trust God's people or the churches threw heritage out the window.

  

Then we moved to the South, the Bible belt, and we've noticed a big difference in the importance of Christ in the everyday lives of our friends, neighbors and passers by who wave or graciously stop to tell you a compliment. It's like the modern day Mayberry. There's no need to prove yourself, because almost everyone here is Christian. As a couple we've thrived, and Cory now works for a ministry and a wholesome family channel.

 

We now attend a UM church, that reminds me more of my childhood with lot's of people who are a little more conservative in their worship styles, yet progressive in their views. We study theology, philosophy, history, genealogy, geography and continue to travel to expand our life experiences. As a couple we have grown exponentially in knowledge and in our walk.

 

Our lives are short. If we find our God given purpose we'll have fulfillment. Our legacy is our children, and grandchildren who keep us alive in their memories, their thoughts, so be a good memory and encourage others with kind words, and hope they'll forgive you for the words you have to say to repair your relationship with each other.

Christian Salvation By Grace, The Sinners Prayer, Hypocrisy, Unconditional Love, And A Thanksgiving Prayer

As Christians we are to have faith and truly believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for the sins of the whole world, was resurrected by the Father to give us eternal life, and ascended to the right hand of the Father where He is our advocate and makes intercession for us.

How about some music.
 

You are born again by receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit upon faith in the gospel truths. My dad was raised German Catholic, as most Germans are and my mom was raised Church of England, as most Anglicans are. The question of salvation by grace, or grace and works is disputed between Protestant and Catholic churches. Although saved through grace, a Christians heart should strive to be like Christ and help those who need a blessing in their lives.
 

Ephesians 2:8-9 says

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

 

Many Christians receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit when churches present a salvation invitation or altar call to recite the sinners prayer, however, baptismal regeneration is not scripture in the Bible. 

 

Some biblical scholars have even labeled the sinner's prayer a "cataract of nonsense" and an "apostasy", although proponents of the Sinner's Prayer point to scriptures like Luke 18:10-14 to say it is in the bible.

 

Luke 18:10-14 says

¹⁰ Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

¹² I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

¹³ And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

 

Although I went to a Catholic convent during primary school, and a Catholic Liberal Arts college, my mom took us to the UM church which is a lot more progressive, but not as progressive as the Christian culture in America today.

 

How about some more music.

 

Since it's beginning in the 20th century, the sinner's prayer has been prayed by individuals within many Protestant churches. These individuals feel convicted of the presence of sin in their lives and desire to form or renew a personal relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ. It is intended to be an act of initial conversion to Christianity, and the only way to receive salvation.

 

On a leading Pastoral magazine's page, Dr. Jay Bohd, PHD explains the implications on the Christian faith with Personal Relationships with Christ.

A “personal relationship with Jesus” leads to relativism. After all, implicit in the notion of a “personal relationship” with the Lord is the conclusion that one can define that relationship as one pleases.

Furthermore, the danger with encouraging a personalistic view of one’s relationship with the Lord also encourages a personalistic view of the doctrines of the faith; in other words, it may lead toward “cafeteria Christianity,” wherein individuals maintain that they are entitled to believe or disbelieve certain tenets.

So, do we need a “personal relationship with Jesus”? Yes, of course we do. However, a “personal relationship with Jesus” does not seem to indicate fidelity to the Church. Conversely, though, fidelity to the Church does certainly indicate a “personal relationship” with Jesus—in the context of the Church Jesus himself instituted, and in conformity with his will.

One of the biggest reasons individuals leave the church today is the hypocrisy, of those who claim to be Christians, yet use relativism to judge whether or not "they are good with God." When individuals look to Christians, they need to see us Walk the Walk, be a role model, an example, a purpose.

We're all imperfect, but acting as a hypocrite who talks the talk, yet acts more immoral than they do, leads individuals to wonder if we've truly repented our sins, and choose to live our lives for ourselves, and not for Christ.

In this age of reality TV and social media, many Christians profess themselves publically, so that everyone knows that they have a “personal relationship with Jesus.” Oftentimes these Christian seekers pray for themselves out of a personal agenda, and proclaim “a word” that they “felt” was given to them by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 6:5-6 says

⁵ And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

⁶ But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

 

 

Non-believers may not believe in God, care for church, or some Christians behavior and would rather just accept death, and rest forevermore under the Earth. Perhaps if we all saw each other equally, and not as "special" or "chosen", for God is a universal symbol of unconditional love.

 

Ephesians 2:4-5 says

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
 

1 John 4:9-10 says

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

 

We all want to live our lives with purpose, and to know why we're here, and where we'll eventually go. We join a church family to hear the parables and the word of God from the pages of the Holy Bible for example, an encouragement, for fellowship, and support as we navigate this path called life.

Let's pray

by Vienna Cobb Anderson

 

God of all blessings,
source of all life,
giver of all grace:

 

We thank you for the gift of life:
for the breath
that sustains life,
for the food of this earth
that nurtures life,
for the love of family and friends
without which there would be no life.

We thank you for the mystery of creation:
for the beauty
that the eye can see,
for the joy
that the ear may hear,
for the unknown
that we cannot behold filling the universe with wonder,
for the expanse of space
that draws us beyond the definitions of ourselves.

We thank you for setting us in communities:
for families
who nurture our becoming,
for friends
who love us by choice,
for companions at work,
who share our burdens and daily tasks,
for strangers
who welcome us into their midst,
for people from other lands
who call us to grow in understanding,
for children
who lighten our moments with delight,
for the unborn,
who offer us hope for the future.

We thank you for this day:
for life
and one more day to love,
for opportunity
and one more day to work for justice and peace,
for neighbors
and one more person to love
and by whom be loved,
for your grace
and one more experience of your presence,
for your promise:
to be with us,
to be our God,
and to give salvation.

For these, and all blessings,
we give you thanks, eternal, loving God,
through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.