Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Call Me, Please!
By Ramone - November 23, 2008
When I was in high school, my friends almost always liked to do something on Saturday nights. A movie, billiards, hanging out at someone's place, a video, or something. Someone would usually begin the phone-calling, checking to see what someone else was doing, and then the plan would go round to each person.
I have this strong memory of many times when I was waiting for the phone to ring. And sometimes or often I remember it not ringing. I waited, watched TV, and there came a point in the night when I realized I wasn't going anywhere. Maybe I eventually called and got ahold of someone, maybe not. Sometimes it was because the plan was cancelled, but more painfully sometimes it was because someone had forgotten to call me. (Might've had something to do with the fact that I didn't drive yet?)
Anyway, it was tough. So one day some time ago when God told me that He often feels the same way, I understood, and I cried together with Him (and still do even now as I write this).
So often we don't call God. We may not think He is going to answer. Or the sheer 'trouble of it' (going to Him and waiting on Him) might be too much for us. We'd rather just get on with our plan so much of the time. Often we talk about Him but don't talk to Him. And then often we talk to Him but don't wait for Him to answer.
But most often we spend time deducing His answer without actually calling Him. We take the manual (the Bible), extract 'principles' from it to operate by, and the result is that we often cut Him Himself out of the equation. We know God is like this, and this is His will in this or that situation, so we can claim the right things and go forward. No need to wait on Him. In a sense, there's then no need for Him Himself, for His Spirit.
So I think of God --and I feel His heart and weep His tears-- waiting eagerly by the phone for intimacy with us.
God, help me (and all of us) just give You a call more often! Help us learn to wait on You, to realize that You want deeper intimacy, and help us to face You to do that, Lord! It's really 'flesh'-killing to face You and wait on You, but hearing You is so rewarding, God! Break our hearts with Your broken heart, Your waiting-by-the-phone heart, Jesus!
*****
This picture came together with "Images/shadows" --
Images/Shadows
By Ramone - November 23, 2008
Before my wife and I were married, we wrote to one another and talked on the phone for about a year and a half. She lived in Osaka, I lived in southern California. It was a long-distance relationship. I had some good pictures of her that I loved, but oh, the real thing was so much better! Now that we live together, I realize I haven't looked at those pictures in years probably. They're happy memories. But I love my wife herself.
How would she feel if one day she found me talking to and gazing on her pictures? If she asked me a question, and I replied looking at her pictures, what would she think?
"Hey, I'm right here!"
I believe God is telling many of us in 'Christendom' that we have been looking to images, and in so doing have missed out on the Real Thing who is waiting to communicate with us in deeper and more intimate ways than we have ever known.
There are a thousand things that can be idols to us. Some are obvious (statues, icons, artworks), some are less obvious (ideas, theories, books, ministers, ministries, theology, even Scripture at times). But mainly here I will speak of images, icons, statues, artworks.
These things can be beautiful, and perhaps they can turn us to thinking of God, but if we are depending on them then there is a problem. If we need the external stimulus, then there is a problem. Yes, we can't [usually] "see" God now, but,
"Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29)The Holy Spirit is generally invisible for a good reason, I think. I believe God knows what He's doing, you know? If He had wanted us to depend on sight, then I think He would've made the Holy Spirit a bit more visible. But if He had a darn good reason for being invisible, then it would be good for us to learn it and submit to Him.
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8-9)
We live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
I think it connects to how ancient Israel saw God (in the cloud) all throughout the exodus, and yet they still turned away from God. Somehow He knows that we are better off living by faith instead of by sight. It's what we need.
The Lord said to Moses, "How long will these people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?" (Numbers 14:11)I got this picture as I was putting my son to bed the other night and was myself resting in God's presence. I began to feel this on His heart, that many of His beloved children are turning away from deeper intimacy with Him because they are looking to images... and they don't know that images are becoming substitutes for Him Himself, even replacing Him at times (idols). They don't know that more is available than what they know. They are bottle-fed on images and come to depend on them, defend them to others, and train others to depend on them.
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There's a time in the process of maturing when we must put down our images--things that are a mere shadow of Him--and draw closer to Him whether we can see Him or not.
And I think of Him... how He must feel when we don't turn and face Him, when we talk to things that are the image of Him, but don't expect to have more communication than we do, and don't expect that we can know Him deeper. I think of how He must feel, how He does feel, and I can only cry.
God, be Yourself the great 'iconoclast'! Spoil our images of You with Your very reality, Your fresh and overwhelming presence! Ruin us with Your presence, Your reality, Your substance, Your intimate touch and love, Jesus! In Your name I cry, amen!
*****
See also: "Graven Images" (at Weeping Jeremiahs) and "Hallowed Above Me" (at Heart For Adventists)
*****
This picture came together with "Call Me, Please!" --
Monday, November 24, 2008
The Mountain Station
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Remind Me (2)
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By Ramone - November 16, 2008
This is a follow up to the original "Remind Me" picture and its poem. It came under similar circumstances as the first picture, and reflects a 'bigger' understanding that even when I can't see my own heart amidst my many 'cracks', I can see God's heart, and His heart is BIGGER and MORE POWERFUL than all the chaotic darkness trying to get me!
In my moments of weakness,
remind me of who I am.
Show me what is truly me,
and what is not me,
but is my enemy.
Remind me of my true heart;
and when my heart fails,
remind me that Your heart does not.
It's Your heart --not mine--
that is my rock, my strength.
Tell me in my doubts
how You are powerful.
And that I only need to choose
to resist in Your name,
And faith overcomes feeling,
spirit quiets soul,
and all is made clear;
I see who I am,
and who You are.- Ramone Romero, Aug.15 '08
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Wait for God!
By Ramone - November 15, 2008
You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning;NIV)
My God turns my darkness into light. (Psalm 18:28,
My beloved is a shining and fiery light. (Song of Songs 5:10 LXX) These two pictures came the night of a prayer meeting with brothers and sisters in the Lord. As they began to worship I was unable to join in with understanding because of my low Japanese level, but my I turned my soul to the Lord, worshiped in spirit and listened to the beautiful sounds of the worship (to tunes that sounded very Hebrew, actually). As I did so, my hand began to want to draw.
I began to see red and yellow lines in an arc, and then in another arc opposite. Soon I could see what the picture was in my mind, but even as I drew it and finished it, I did not know what it meant. Naturally you'd look at it and think of the fire of the Spirit, or someone who is "on fire" for the Lord. But that wasn't it. Somewhat oddly and a little embarassed, when my turn came to speak at the meeting, I shared the picture --along with the fact that I did not understand it!
As the meeting went on and drew to a conclusion, however, the Lord began to help me understand. This is a picture of "unceasing dependence on God" (as Andrew Murray worded it). Our "flame" depends on Him, on being open to Him, on continually waiting upon Him, for Him Himself. On the back of the first picture I wrote:
I need You. I depend on You. I have no other way but Yours, by You.The second picture began to come as I was readying to leave the meeting. I had only brought certain colors with me (red, brown, yellow and black) but had not used the black. As I thought of it, I began to "see" some black lines, and knew I would receive something as I was going home. God blessed me with time waiting for the train to begin, and then a seat on the crowded train so that I could finish. But as I began the second picture, I quickly began to understand that it would not be as joyful as the first picture. When we cease to wait upon Him, we unwittingly cut off our source of flame, and snuff out our own flame.
Below are the names of each picture, along with some words from Andrew Murray's book Waiting on God. I pray you are blessed and spurred to seek the Lord Himself, to wait on Him continually and at every step.
You are my flame, Lord!
"I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait. And in His word I do hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning." (Psalm 130:5-6)
All that the Church and its members need for the manifestation of the mighty power of God in the world is the return to our true place, the place that belongs to us, both in creation and redemption, the place of absolute and unceasing dependence upon God...
It is simply and truly our restoration to our original destiny and our highest nobility, to our true place and glory as people blessedly dependent on the All-glorious God.
- Andrew Murray, Waiting on God
Ceasing Dependence
"They waited not for His counsel." (Psalm 106:13)
The great danger in [our] assemblies is that in our consciousness of having our Bible, in our past experience of God's leading, in our sound creed and our honest wish to do God's will, we trust in these and do not realize that with every step we need and may have a heavenly guidance. There may be elements of God's will, application of God's Word, experience of the close presence and leading of God, manifestations of the power of His Spirit, of which we know nothing as yet...
It was when God had given the water out of the rock that they did not trust Him for bread. It was when God had given Jericho into his hands that Joshua thought the victory over Ai was sure, and did not wait for the counsel from God. And so, while we think that we know and trust the power of God for what we may expect, we may be hindering Him by not giving Him time, and not definitely cultivating the habit of waiting for His counsel.
- Andrew Murray, Waiting on God
Sound the Trumpet!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
On the Steps
By Ramone - November 14, 2008
This is a picture of me on the night of November 6, 2000, just outside my university's computer lab, trying to pray. My world had just been undone. I grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist church believing that its prophet (Ellen G. White) wrote completely biblically and that SDA truth was the most correct kind of Christianity out there. But on this night, I read an investigative report on a website about Ellen White.
Granted, in the 90's, I had begun hearing things once in awhile about EGW's plagiarism, copying someone else's work and printing it as her own (the usual SDA comeback was that it was okay to do that back then -- not true, I later found out! She had to withdraw one book called "Sketches From the Life of Paul" because the original authors threatened legal action). Or I remember hearing an SDA pastor telling me about a picture at the EGW estate (I grew up in the same town as the SDA General Conference headquarters) of EGW wearing a pearl necklace, despite the fact that she had blasted people for wearing jewelry. So to make her message more consistent, the church actually tried to air-brush out the pearls from the picture! But it had been exposed. Of course, I just laughed at it at the time rather than deal with the real theological ramifications of it -- rather than deal with the challenge it posed to SDA "truth". Like most good Adventists, I kept my faith in what we taught and I decided that people who said those things were usually bitter or angry at SDA for some other reason.
But this night in November 2000, when I looked at that one particular website, the information was just too much to ignore. I couldn't rationalize it away any more. There was much more than plagiarism or pearl necklaces. There is a lot of medical evidence that explains not only her visions accompanied by somewhat epileptic symptoms, as well as her bi-polar hyper-religious and legalistic bents, while at other times seeming to be normal and kind. The most disturbing part was that over the years, the institution tried to keep it hidden (like the necklace, ironically). When people in the institution tried to expose it, they were usually told that they had to leave their jobs. I wish I could remember all the evidence, and I wish I could point to that site again. I think the page is down now, but most of the information can be found on various investigative EGW sites and former-Adventist sites (as well as much, much more).
But for me, that night, the evidence of what I read was too much for me. I left the computer lab and fell down on some stairs outside. I wanted to run away and disappear in the woods. You see, I had just finished working as an SDA missionary in Japan for a year. I had taught the Bible, SDA truths, and Ellen White. I taught honest people that these things were the truth, that this was what God wanted them to know. And now, it all looked like it was a lie. Going off into the mountains seemed like the best thing to do.
The worst part was that for that moment, "Jesus" fell with Adventism.
Like most Adventists, I believed that everything we taught was from God, and that Ellen White was God's prophet, writing God's words. If she was false, and everything she wrote was Biblical, then the Bible must be false. I can't describe the sickening fear that I experienced at that time.
So I prayed. Or tried. I wasn't sure if God was real, but I prayed anyway and tried to forget about what I'd read. I can't actually remember what I said when I prayed. I think I couldn't really say anything. I barely was able to utter, so shattered was my belief and faith in God Himself. Even though I had felt His presence for the first time just two years earlier. Even though I had heard Him speak to me for the first time in the previous year (as a missionary). Even though He had healed a homeless man's infirmity as a result of the ministry we did in Japan. When EGW was exposed, "God" came down with her, and for a terrible moment, all the things He had done in my life and that I had done with Him fell, too.
Somehow stumbled back into the lab, began to read a book by Hazel Holland, detailing a prophetic dream she'd received and its interpretation. A friend of mine had found it on the internet, and I was about to read it (not taking it seriously, mind you) when I browsed around and ended up at the investigative EGW report that shattered my faith in her. I returned to looking at Hazel's book more on auto-pilot than with real interest.
At first I was cautious, but then my heart began to pound. I began seeing my whole experience in Adventism from a new perspective--God's perspective! He knew that things had been hidden. He knew that when I was growing up, I saw many things inside the church that didn't seem right, but that I wasn't able to talk about it because I was told that nobody was perfect and that it was wrong to criticize God's church. But as I was reading, I began to know that God's heart cries for His children! He loves us, and He knows all the things we go through! He sees all the hidden pains that we often are not able to recognize and cry about. He hears all of His children's cries.
I sent off an email to the website administrator (that was hosting Hazel's book), and he forwarded it to her. The next day Hazel emailed me with the shocker: she lived five minutes from my university! Little did I know that God had been preparing her for this, that through other people God prophesied to her that students would be coming to her. So she had started to get her home ready for meetings. So I went that same week, tested her with the Adventist questions, and she spoke the Gospel instead, which broke through my Adventist testing questions. The Gospel won. And I began to discover that God is a lot bigger than I had imagined. It was the beginning of me entering His Sabbath rest in Jesus Christ -- not one day a week, but 24/7, finding out that Jesus Himself is my Sabbath rest.
(You can read a little more about what happened later in my post here: Why I Left Adventism)
I've shared all of this because for reasons I can't fully write right now, God had me paint this scene from my "shaking", when I was on the steps, ready to go into the hills and leave everything. Basically, die. And I did die on those steps. And God raised me up. He resurrected me. What I would leave behind (Adventism) is like death compared to the life I've discovered in Jesus Christ now and His Holy Spirit who speaks to me, comforts me, lifts me up, and ministers His sweetness through me to others.
That moment on the steps was critical. It was one of two times in my life when I didn't know what or how to pray, and yet God answered my prayer! I think a lot of Adventists are going to find themselves "on these steps" in the coming days. And like it was for me, for so many of them "God" will fall when EGW/SDA is shaken. Most tragically, many will wander out into the hills and leave everything altogether. Many will "die" inside and not be resurrected. This is part of why God had me paint this -- for intercession, for them, that they not stay in death, that they not go out into the hills dead. In Jesus' name I pray and cry. Amen.
Friday, November 14, 2008
永遠に見つめる
あなたは神の花嫁
あなたは神の星
神はあなたの星、
あなたの永遠の夫
私たちは神さまの瞳を見つめる
永遠に
永遠は今日始まる
神の御顔を求め
神の瞳を求める
そして神が見つめ返されるのを見る
あなたを、愛して
主人以上のお方（ああ、私の夫）
私の尊い鳩よ、私の見捨てられ
傷つき孤独な者よ。私の愛の呼びかけを聞け
あなたは、この王の心を奪い虜にした。
あなたが歌えるように私の命をあなたに与えた
ああ、私の夫
ああ、私の夫
あなたは主人以上のお方
あなたの苦労の砂漠と谷で
私のあなたへの心は揺れ動く事がない事を知りなさい
傷を通しあなたの主によって建て直され
洗われそして光を放つ
あなたにあがなわれた愛された者
愛された花嫁として私は永遠に
あなたの瞳を見つめます
"Eternal Gaze"
You are His bride.
You are His star.
He is your star,
your eternal Husband.
We will gaze into His eyes
for eternity.
Eternity begins today.
Seek His face,
seek His eyes,
and see Him gazing back
at you, loving you.
"More Than My Master (O My Husband!)"
O My precious dove, My forsaken one
Hurt and desolate, hear Me call in love
You have ravished and so enthralled this King
I gave My life for you so that You might sing
O my Husband
O my Husband
More than my Master
You are my Lover
In your deserts and valleys of trouble
Know My heart for you is unshakeable
And through brokenness you will be restored
Washed and radiant, honored by your Lord
And forever I'll look into Your eyes
As Your ransomed love
Your beloved bride
Link to English Page
主よ、来てください！
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私たちはよりいっそうイエスさまを求めています。イエスさまが来られるよう求めています。私たちは聖霊と神さまの心を求めています。私たちは覚悟ができていますか？なぜなら神さまは本当に神さまの心を私たちに与えたいと思っているからです！しかし、この事は私たちを砕くことになります。それは私たちの人生そのものを、そして私たちの物事の運び方を変えることになります。神さまの心は私たちが知っている以上に大きいのです。神さまが私たちに与えたいと思っているものを受け取ることができるため、私たちは（教会も）喜んで必要な部分を神さまに砕いてもらう事ができますか？私たちは今以上に神さまの心を受けるため、必要ならば今までの良い物を手放す事ができますか？
"Come, Lord!"
We are asking for more of Jesus. We are asking for Jesus to come. We are asking for His Spirit and for His heart. Are we ready? Because He really wants to give us His heart! But it is going to break us. It is going to change our whole lives and the "way" that we do things. His heart is so much bigger than we know. Are we willing to let Him break us (even in the church) where we need it so that we can receive what He wants to give? Are we willing to surrender the good ways things have been for more of His heart?
Link to English Page (with longer story)
殉教者
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兄弟たちは、子羊の血と、自分たちのあかしの言葉のゆえに私は神さまが私たちが殉教者になるように召されていると信じています。痛み、苦しみや迫害を恐れることは自然なことです。しかし神さまの御手がいつも私たちを守っていること、私たちは救われているということ、そして私たちの身体に何が起ころうが、または「火」の中を通る時に、神さまの御手の中は安全であるという事を私たちが信じるようにと呼びかけておられます。
彼に打ち勝った。彼らは死にいたるまでも命を惜しまなかった。 （黙示録 １２：１１）
現在、インドのオリッサで迫害されているクリスチャンのためにこれを描きました。
しかし私は神さまが「これはオリッサの人々のためよりも私たちのためである」と言われているように思います。西諸国や日本のような先進国では福音のこの部分（殉教）を説くことがあまりなかったり、新しくクリスチャンになった人たちにもこのことについて語らないと思います。時にはこの事について話すこと避けることさえあったと思います。その代わりに、健康と繁栄のメッセージを福音に加えました。そしてオリッサのような所でクリスチャンが迫害されていることを知ると、まるでそれが異常な事であるかのように彼らを心より気の毒に思い、心配します。彼らの苦しみに同情するのは良い事ですが、私たちは彼らがキリストと使徒達の歩みに従い続いている事を悟りません。彼らは固く立ち、十字架へとキリストに続き神さまの約束がどれほど真実であるかを学びます。私たちは彼らの身体的な解放を祈るべきですがしかし、それ以上に彼らが身体的に解放されようがされまいが、彼らがキリストにあって固く立つ強さを与えられるように祈る必要があります。そして私たちも同じようにキリストにあって固く立てるように祈る必要があります。
"Martyrs"
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony;I believe God is calling us to be martyrs. It's natural to be afraid of pain, suffering and persecution, but He's calling us to trust that His hands are always protecting us, and we are saved, safe in His hands no matter what happens to our bodies or what "fire" we go through.
they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (Revelation 12:11)
I painted this for the Christians being persecuted today in Orissa, India, but I felt the Lord saying that it is more for us than it is for them. In the west and in developed countries like Japan, we don't often preach about this part of the gospel or tell new Christians about it. I think we've even avoided it at times. Instead we've made health and prosperity part of the gospel. And then when Christians are persecuted in places like Orissa, we feel genuine pity and worry for them as if it were an unusual thing. It's good to sympathize with their suffering, but we don't realize that they are following in the footsteps of Christ and the apostles. They are standing firm, following Christ to the cross and learning how true His promises are. We should pray for their physical deliverance, but more than that we need to pray for their strength to stand firm in Him whether they are physically delivered or not. And we need to pray the same thing for ourselves, too.
Link to English Page
Thursday, November 13, 2008
油注ぎ
私はダビデの家とエルサレムの住民の上に、恵みと哀願の霊を注ぐ。彼らは、自分たちが突き刺した者、私を仰ぎ見、ひとり子を失って嘆くように、その者のために嘆き、初子を失って激しく泣くように、その者のために激しく泣く。 （ゼカリヤ１２：１０）私たちが今以上「力」を必要としているのではありません。また私たちは「油注ぎ」からまた別の「油注ぎ」を追いかける必要はないのです。神さまが私たちに受けて欲しいと思われている油注ぎは今、この時に受ける事ができるのです。神さまは私たちに神さまの砕けた心を受け取って欲しいのです。私たちのために死なれた一人子を私たちに与えて下さった時に砕けた心を、神さまがどれほど愛しておられるかを知らない人々のために砕ける心を神さまは私たちに受け取って欲しいのです。どんな「油注ぎ」よりも神さまの心を受け取る事が私たちにとって本当に、本当に必要なのです。そして神さまが愛してやまない人々は、どんな「力」、しるし、奇跡よりも、神さまの心は彼らのためにあることを知る必要があります。
"Anointing"
"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on Me, the One they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son." (Zechariah 12:10)It's not more "power" that we need. And we don't need to run after "anointing" after "anointing." The anointing God wants us to receive can be received right now. He wants us to have His broken heart, the heart that broke when He gave His only Son to die for us, and the heart that breaks for people who don't know how much He loves them. More than any "anointing" we desperately need His breaking heart. And more than any "power" or signs or wonders, the people He loves so much need to know His heart is for them.
Link to English Page (with longer story)
私の勝利
私がますます変えられ、また栄光から栄光へと変えられる程、主よ、それはあなたが私にして下さったゆえであることを知ります。私が今、変化のどの段階にいようともそれは既に十字架と、あなたにあって終わっているのです！私がどのように感じようと、この蝶はあなたにある私なのです主よ、新しく造られた物なのです！ありがとう！あなたが私のために十字架で成し遂げられたゆえに私は死に、私の命は今あなたのうちに隠されています。
あなたがたはすでに死んでおり、あなたがたの命はキリストと共に神のうちに隠されているからです。 （コロサイ３：３）"My Victory"
誰でもキリストのうちにあるなら、その人は新しく造られた者です。古いものは過ぎ去って、見よ、全てが新しくなりました。 （コリント人への手紙 第二 ５：１７）
The more and more I’m changed & transformed from glory to glory, the more I see that it’s because of what You’ve done for me, Lord. No matter what stage I am at in my transformation, it is already finished in You and in the cross! No matter how I feel (like a worm often!), this butterfly is who I am in You, Lord —a new creation! Thank You! Because of what You have accomplished for me on the cross, I have died and my life is now hidden in You.
"For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:3)Link to English Page
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)
預言とは
神さまは私たちを預言をする心へと召されていると信じます。預言する事とはとりなしする事の一種です。神さまが愛される、ある人達への神さまの心を受け取りそれをその人たちへと伝えます。神さまは過激な、とりなしの愛へと召されています。神さまが人々を強烈に愛しているにもかかわらず、様々な理由から、時に彼らは神さまの彼らへの心を感じたり聞く事ができません。神さまは私達が神さまの人々への心を求め、受け取り、そして神さまの愛と共に（行動と共にある愛、言葉と共にある愛）彼らが、彼ら自身が神さまを知り、神さまの彼らへの心を聞き、感じる事ができるまで彼らを愛するように「破れ口に立つように」と私たちを召されています。
"Prophecy is..."
I believe God is calling us to the heart of prophesying: To prophesy is a type of intercession— to receive His heart for someone He loves and give it to them. He’s calling us to radical intercessory love! For many reasons people at times cannot hear or feel God’s heart for them, even though He loves them intensely. He’s calling us to “stand in the gap,” to ask for & receive His heart for them, and then love them with His love—in action and in word—until they themselves can know, hear and feel His heart for them.
Link to English Page (with longer story)
欠点（割れ目、裂け目）
本来私たちは完璧でありたいと思っています。私たちは砕けてしまったところや、弱点や不完全さを持っていたくはありません。なので私たちはそこに絆創膏をはってみたり無視したりします。私たちは絶対他人に、特にノンクリスチャンにその「欠点（割れ目、裂け目）」を見られたくないんです。しかし神さまは私たちがその「欠点」を見て、個人的な苦労や弱さを他の人たちと共に分かち合う事を恐れないようになって欲しいと思われてます。みんな誰でも弱さや不完全さ、欠点を持っているんです！私たちが神さまの恵みを信頼して歩む時（私たち自身での変化、完璧さ、準備ができているという事、堅実さの代わりに）神さまはご自身の栄光のために私たちが弱さなどを分かち合うオープンさを用いられます。私たちの欠点を通して神さまの栄光が流れ出るのです！
"Those Cracks"
We naturally want to be perfect. We don’t want to have weaknesses, imperfections, or broken places. So we try to patch them up, or we just ignore them. We definitely don’t want others to see these “cracks” —especially unbelievers! But God wants us to see our “cracks” and not be afraid to share our personal struggles & weaknesses with others. Everyone’s got them! As we walk, trusting His grace (instead of our own transformation, wholeness, readiness, solidness or perfection), He uses our weaknesses and openness about sharing them for His glory. It’s through our “cracks” that His glory flows!
Link to English Page (with longer story)
神さまはあなたに聖霊と火とのバプテスマをお授けになります
聖霊さまを信頼しなさい。聖霊さまがあなたのうちにおられる事と精錬する火である事を知ってください。あなたの全ての失敗、誘惑、苦労、罪、くだらない物の中で聖霊さまがあなたのうちにおられる事、そしてあなたにとって良くない物全てを焼き払って下さる事を知ってください。そしてその中で休みなさい！あなたの周りの物事がどのように見えるかによらず、あなたの心がどう感じるかによらず、もしくはあなたの「経過、事の成り行き」がどうであるかによらず、聖霊さまがどのようなお方であるかを知りその中で休みなさい。聖霊さまが、それら全てを引き受けて下さいます。聖霊さまのうちで休みなさい。聖なる、精錬する火。そして聖霊さまがあなたのうちにおられる事を知ってください。
"He Will Baptize You With The Holy Spirit And Fire"
Trust God the Holy Spirit. Know that He is inside you, and He is a purifying fire. In the midst of all your failings, your temptations, your struggles, sins and all your junk, know that He is in you and will burn away everything that is not good for you. Rest in that! Rest in who He is, not in the way things look around you, not in how your heart feels, nor in what your “progress” looks like. He will take care of it all. Rest in who He is—a holy, purifying fire—and know that He is in you.
Link to English Page (with longer story)
アーティストより
「預言的アート」と言うのは神さまの心からのもので、あなたを通して成されます。神さまと、あなたが一緒になってアートを作ります、神さまと心を分かち合いそして人々と分かち合います！イエスさまの御名によってみんなに祝福を！
ロメロ ラモン
Prophetic art is art from God’s heart, but done through you. God and you get to make the art together, share your hearts with one another, and share your hearts with others! Bless you in Jesus’ name!
Ramone Romero
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
For the Apostles' Creed
My friend at Hollywood SDA church asked me if I could contribute some pictures to an art show they're having following a time of studying and reflecting on the Apostles' Creed. Here are the four pictures I've felt led to contribute, with comments and Scriptures.
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_______________________________________________________
I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
"Father"
In the beginning was the Word(John 1:1-3 & 3:35, 1st John 4:10 & 3:16, John 3:16, Zechariah 12:10) _______________________________________________________
and the Word was with God...
God the only Begotten Son, in the bosom of the Father...
The Father loves the Son...
This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins...
This is how we know what love is.
God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son,
so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
"And I will pour out on them a spirit of grace and supplication.
They will look on Me, the one they have pierced,
and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child,
and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son."
He suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into the depths. On the third day He rose again.
I believe in the forgiveness of sins.
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"Forsaken (for me)"
"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
and by His scourging we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
God made Him who had no sin to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
(Matthew 27:46, Isaiah 53:5-6, 2nd Corinthians 5:21)
_______________________________________________________
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
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"Eternity"
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of His glory.(Ephesians 1:13-14, John 5:24, 11:25-26, 1st John 5:13) _______________________________________________________
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die."
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
I believe in the holy catholic Church,
and the communion of saints.
I believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Amen.
"Reduced"
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.(Philippians 3:7-9, John 3:30, 1st Corinthians 2:2, Psalm 115:1) _______________________________________________________
He must become greater; I must become less.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Not to us, O Lord, not to us
but to Your name be the glory,
because of Your love and faithfulness.
"Christ and Him Crucified"
An afterword from the artist
When my friend asked me if I could contribute some art about the Apostles' Creed, I prayed and felt the Lord moving in me to make two new pictures, as well as use two previous ones He'd given me earlier. I didn't know how they'd fit the Apostles' Creed at first, but as I prayed and began the new pictures, the "big picture" became clearer.
Like the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed is just so basic, so simple, so apparently plain and perhaps even boring. Unadorned. Un-poetic. Un-complicated. But its bare, laid-out truth is astounding. The reality which it so plainly states is earth-shattering. It is the gospel. It contains the core, the essentials of the faith entrusted once and for all to the saints, that Christ is everything. He is the center. He is our salvation. He is the good news. It is about Him. He is the message.
Today, the Creed presents to us "Christ and Him crucified" and challenges us by calling us back to "the simplicity that is in Christ" (as Paul worded it). We have all been led astray. We have carried many things in addition to the Cross, and we need the simplicity of the Creed --"Christ and Him crucified"-- to bring us to our knees before the Cross. It is about Him, not about us. He has taken our sins. And if we are willing to surrender them at the Cross, He has even taken our efforts to adorn, improve upon and complicate the simplicty of His gospel. The Creed re-focuses us back to the focus of the apostles and all true disciples: Christ and Him crucified.
Re-centering on "Christ and Him crucified" causes us to realize that our salvation, deliverance and vindication are there on the Cross, accomplished 2,000 years ago. As Charles Wesley penned, "Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia! Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia! Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!" And we begin to see that the Cross represents an exchange --He took my sins and gave me His righteousness-- and that God now calls us to identify with Jesus Christ:
I was crucified and died with HimI surrender my history, my "heritage" at the foot of the Cross. And in its place I receive His heritage, His inheritance that I did not deserve. I receive a crown of beauty instead of ashes, a garment of praise instead of heaviness, His free gift of righteousness instead of an earned righteousness of my own or according to the law.
I will live with Him
I am now seated in eternal places in Him
Because He lives forever, so do I
I pray that these four pictures, the Scriptures with them, the Creed, and the words I've shared here will bless you and help you hear God's heart crying out to you (and to all of us) to surrender our heavy "heritage" at the foot of the Cross, hear the heartbeat of the Father and know life eternal today in Jesus Christ alone because of the work He has finished for us 2,000 years ago.
Bless you in Jesus Christ,
Ramone Romero
November 11, 2008
Osaka, Japan
Father's Exchange
By Ramone - November 10, 2008
In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God...
God the only Begotten Son, in the bosom of the Father...
The Father loves the Son...
This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins...
This is how we know what love is.
God loved the world so much
that He gave His only Son,
so that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish but have eternal life.
(John 1:1-3 & 3:35, 1st John 4:10 & 3:16, John 3:16) I was not sure what the shiny "stars" meant in Father's hands here. I first thought it meant something about how He is precious, and He holds all things precious, and all things from Him are precious, but the most precious thing of all, the brightest star in the universe, is His Son, whom He gave to us on the cross... in giving us His Son, He has given us everything.
I am beginning to understand now. The starts in Father's hands are us, and we are stars in His hands because of the Star of His heart, His Son, whom He gave on the cross so that we could become His. We are counted righteous because of what He did for us. We "shine like stars" and "like the sun in the kingdom" of our Father because the Word of Life gave His life for us on the cross.
This is a picture of that exchange. The Son given to the cross below, and we in Father's hands as His redeemed stars. It came as I was praying about pictures to lend to a friend's art show. His church had been studying the Apostle's Creed and the show was to have pictures based on the themes of their study. After praying I had already selected three pictures for that show (including a new one the Lord had shown me), when He then gave me this one on top of it (to make four in all -- see link here).
I believe He gave it because He wants us to re-focus our sight on the only thing in His sight -- the sacrifice of His Son! My friend's church is part of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, the church I grew up in and later left at the leading of the Holy Spirit and the conviction of the Scriptures. SDA was founded on many, many things which distracted from the one thing that is needed. A larger framework was created (called "the great controversy") which made the Old Covenant Law the center of the galactic debate and war between good and evil, and which preached the keeping of the law to vindicate God.
But in God's sight, there is no "great controversy". The universe knows the difference between Light and darkness -- it is only we who have been confused about the matter. In Father's clear sight, He sees only two realities: His Son and everything else. Because of His Son's sacrifice, because of what He gave, we are counted righteous. If we do not embrace His Son, we are not even on the map. But if we are in His Son, we shine like stars in His hands.
I pray for my old denomination, that the eyes of their hearts will be opened to the simple "view" that Father sees instead of the "view" that has been handed down to them by their spiritual parents and carefully guarded by the denominational leadeship. In these last days, God is pouring out His heart to us all. All of us --no matter what church we've been part of -- all of us have at times imposed our own "view" of things on what God has shown us. He is pouring out His Spirit on us now that we may lose our view of things and embrace His:
"And I will pour out on them a spirit of grace and supplication.
They will look on Me, the one they have pierced,
and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child,
and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son."
- Zechariah 12:10
"I have made You known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them."
- John 17:26
Reduced
By Ramone - November 8, 2008
My friend who works as a part-time pastor at an SDA church asked me if I could contribute some art for a show they were doing. As I prayed, I felt led to share four pictures, two of them new. This is the first new picture that came, and it is the most "forward" of them all, contrasting the heavy and complicated SDA "heritage" --pictured here in countless volumes of writings-- with the simplicity of the cross, of Christ and Him crucified. As much "fruit" as we tried to boast that our heritage brought in SDA, deep down we knew it was barren, but we kept trying to make it something, trying harder and harder. We've wandered around in the barren wilderness carrying the load of our heritage, feeling far less "assurance" than our literature advertises. I believe God is calling SDA to let go of this heavy "package" at the foot of the cross, and find freedom and life once and for all.
In a very real sense, it is the same picture that I painted later the same day called "Letting Go", which depicts the "root" of all that "heritage", and shows an Adventist believer coming face to face with the realization of the repentance that has been avoided since 1843.
I don't know what reaction the paintings garnered, nor reaction to the note which I sent with them (see below). I don't imagine it was received well, simply because the church has tried to focus on the gospel and function as a healthy part of the community, leaving the SDA heritage out of the picture as much as possible. In that way, merely speaking about these things may have been touching an uncomfortable nerve. And I don't like doing that.
All the same, I weep in God's heart about it. It is one thing to try to reach out to the "community" outside, but then to neglect the community inside SDA that is dying of spiritual hunger, yet thinking themselves as "rich" with heritage but truly clothed only in filthy rags... I know these things are uncomfortable, and we want to press on to see the gospel alone, not looking back. We want to worship in the Holy Spirit and move in His gifts and anointing. Yet the more we ask for Him, the more He will quietly nudge us because He is the Spirit of truth, and He is a consuming fire that will burn away things which hinder His testimony about Jesus Christ. Even things we've locked away in the closet. We lock them in the closet because we don't really like looking at them or don't agree with them, but we can't completely throw them out, and they continue to wreak havoc among us spiritually (the fear of throwing the heritage out being the principality of the demonic grouping which protects smaller spirits and grants them a measure of immunity).
I am grateful for the chance to have shared this picture and the others, and pray that God uses them for His purposes for those who saw them. I'm thankful to my friend and his church for showing them. I worry that the message may have been lost on some who might've seen these things as an "interesting view" or something for "good discussion". However, I leave these things with God. I should add that the sky color is "yellow" because the sun is setting because spiritually the hour is late and night is almost here. The reality of the time is very important, and is part of God's cry in calling us to come to the foot of His cross and release our heavy packages.
Below is the note I asked to have accompanying prints of the four paintings I entered into the art show at the SDA church.
When my friend asked me if I could contribute some art about the Apostles' Creed, I prayed and felt the Lord moving in me to make two new pictures (this one came first, and another one a few days later), as well as use two previous ones He'd given me earlier. I didn't know how they'd fit the Apostles' Creed at first, but as I prayed and began the new pictures, the "big picture" became clearer.
Like the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed is just so basic, so simple, so apparently plain and perhaps even boring. Unadorned. Un-poetic. Un-complicated. But its bare, laid-out truth is astounding. The reality which it so plainly states is earth-shattering. It is the gospel. It contains the core, the essentials of the faith entrusted once and for all to the saints, that Christ is everything. He is the center. He is our salvation. He is the good news. It is about Him. He is the message.
Today, the Creed presents to us "Christ and Him crucified" and challenges us by calling us back to "the simplicity that is in Christ" (as Paul worded it). We have all been led astray. We have carried many things in addition to the Cross, and we need the simplicity of the Creed --"Christ and Him crucified"-- to bring us to our knees before the Cross. It is about Him, not about us. He has taken our sins. And if we are willing to surrender them at the Cross, He has even taken our efforts to adorn, improve upon and complicate the simplicty of His gospel. The Creed re-focuses us back to the focus of the apostles and all true disciples: Christ and Him crucified.
Re-centering on "Christ and Him crucified" causes us to realize that our salvation, deliverance and vindication are there on the Cross, accomplished 2,000 years ago. As Charles Wesley penned, "Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia! Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia! Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!" And we begin to see that the Cross represents an exchange --He took my sins and gave me His righteousness-- and that God now calls us to identify with Jesus Christ:I was crucified and died with HimI surrender my history, my "heritage" at the foot of the Cross. And in its place I receive His heritage, His inheritance that I did not deserve. I receive a crown of beauty instead of ashes, a garment of praise instead of heaviness, His free gift of righteousness instead of an earned righteousness of my own or according to the law.
I will live with Him
I am now seated in eternal places in Him
Because He lives forever, so do I
I pray that these four pictures, the Scriptures with them, the Creed, and the words I've shared here will bless you and help you hear God's heart crying out to you (and to all of us) to surrender our heavy "heritage" at the foot of the Cross, hear the heartbeat of the Father and know life eternal today in Jesus Christ alone because of the work He has finished for us 2,000 years ago.
Bless you in Jesus Christ,
Ramone Romero
November 11, 2008
Osaka, Japan
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Kingdom!
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By Ramone - November 2-3, 2008
At the art & kids' Sunday last weekend at Jesus Family (church), Pastor Hirao talked about the Kingdom of God and Luke 18. As he talked I looked at the verses and thought about it, and felt this picture -- this childlike, kid-like joy and rejoicing in how much Jesus loves us and accepts us.
People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have Him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to Him and said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
- Luke 18:15-17
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
- Matthew 18:2-4
Saturday, November 01, 2008
The Goal
By Ramone - October 31, 2008
I got this picture on the way home after praying with some friends. It's about waiting on the Lord, and it has to do with how Israel had the goal of the Promised Land before them, but God took them to Sinai first and had them wait a looooong time. Moses was on the mountain 40 days! And in that time Israel got fidgity and didn't know what to do. What they ended up doing proved disasterous.
Sometimes God gives us a "goal" and a vision, and then He calls us to a kind of time of waiting, a "Sinai", and has us wait. He calls us in that time to seek His face (like Moses did) and receive what He wants to give us (like Moses received the law) -- to receive His heart for us!
In fact, this is the goal! Receiving His heart is the goal. This waiting on Him really breaks us, but it is this waiting on Him, this dependance on Him, this is the goal! The "Promised Land" where He is taking us is not the ultimate goal. Rather, what He does here at the mountain of waiting --breaking our desires to "get moving"-- this dependance on Him is the goal. Israel had trouble waiting for God and for Moses, and never got fully "broken" of her desire to "get going". It set her back 40 years and got her into trouble time after time as she moved onto the Promised Land.
Like Moses receiving the tablets from God at Sinai, He now calls us to come to Him, come before Him, lay down our plans, schedules, ideas, even the desires and hopes of going where He's promised to take us. We can't go "there" unless we submit to His lordship here, submit to being broken here. This is the crucial, critical position, because God's goal for us is relationship with Himself. We are brought here to learn this, because this is the goal-- to learn to submit to Him, wait upon Him, and receive His heart. Getting "there" isn't the goal.
