Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tatami Gallery - 57
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Gallery notes:
April - June 2010
He is our wonderful place of rest, our *only* place of rest!
Gallery notes:
April - June 2010
He is our wonderful place of rest, our *only* place of rest!
Joy
Mistaken Devotion
The Joiner
Cherished
The Work: Trust, and Fear Not
Blinded By Sinai
Helpless Corrects Helper
Beginnings
Tatami Gallery - 56
Previous Gallery - Next Gallery - Index of Galleries
Gallery notes:
March - April 2010
Like the verse where He says as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins from us... in the same way it's like here I see that He has journeyed as far as east is from west in order to find us and love us, to call us home to His love!
Gallery notes:
March - April 2010
Like the verse where He says as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins from us... in the same way it's like here I see that He has journeyed as far as east is from west in order to find us and love us, to call us home to His love!
Agree
By Ramone - April 8, 2010
This picture was painted at a cafe on April 8, 2010...
I asked You what was on Your heart for people here. You said, praying for harvesters. So this is a picture of us agreeing with You, praying for harvesters to go give Your love & proposal (marriage!) to people who You love so much, who need You so much! You are in our midst as we call on You & ask in Your name for Your will! And You are saying "Thank you!" (Thank You, Lord!)
I can't help but wonder about the word "agree", and how it has the sound of "unity" to it... is there a message from Your heart about "unity", Lord? Yes...
Your "unity" comes through the act of loving. Not through a static feeling (a noun, "love"), but it is in the action of loving (a verb). Often in a church or group we want to "be unified" or feel unified, believe all the same thing, or have the Holy Spirit in everybody working through everybody, etc. And a lot of our attempts to reach those goals fall flat.
Unity and the flowing of the Spirit come as we extend ourselves in loving others, in praying for others, caring for others, sharing with others, confessing to, repenting to, forgiving others, and especially through carrying one another's burdens.
So is Your message here, "Be one"?
"No", You say. "Be filled with My heart for them!!"
When we focus on "be one", we're worrying about ourselves, about our appearance, about our own mechanics and perfect state. I feel You saying to us to stop worrying about "us" and start thinking about "them" instead, about loving others instead. Then we will be "united" with Your heart, because Your heart is for them, too! And as a nice side-effect, we'll end up a lot more united with each other, too.
In other words, the key to John 17 "unity" is John 13 "love"!
One more note, about "harvesting". Usually we think only of getting decisions, conversions, and then multiplying those. Often we're not interested in them (the people themselves) like You are! We love people enough to convert them, and then leave them after they've converted. Then when they begin to feel the emptiness, we try to make them find fulfillment by converting others (the same as we've done for ourselves).
But you don't just want to "convert" or "save" people. You want to be with them, and forever! You want to marry them! Spend time with them, continually love them and enjoy being with them. "Loving" for us is often a means to the end of getting a conversion, instead of the end itself. But for You, loving is itself the ends!
Here in this picture, You and Your people are in agreement on this, and You are crying to us to ask for harvesters interested the same kind of "harvest" that You are!
"Cry out! Long with Me for them! Agree with Me!"
God's Land
By Ramone - April 3, 2010
"To take someone’s life because God said, “This land is my inheritance” neglects the truth that the nations are Christ’s inheritance... [and] our neighbors are also our inheritance. So if we kill our neighbors to possess their property, aren’t we robbing Christ of His inheritance and trading our eternal inheritance (our neighbor’s lives) for an earthly inheritance that is temporal?"
-- Hazel Holland, "Who Are the 'Israel of God'?"
See also: God's Land (at Weeping Jeremiahs)
Witnesses
You Are My Righteousness
Suffering Redeemed
By Ramone - March 15, 2010
A friend asked me if I would paint a picture for him, so I prayed and this is what God showed me. My friend had literally been beaten up because of his beliefs, because he believed in doing the right thing and treating people fairly. It was a very difficult situation and difficult to change people with hardened, unloving hearts. When I prayed, God told me to tell & show my friend that all of his sufferings are redeemed in Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't do anything wrong, He treatd people fairly, He helped and loved the weak, but people beat and killed Him. Not just "people", but *we* beat and killed Him. My sins did it! He suffered for all of our sins.
So all of our pains and sufferings are redeemed in His wounds. Nothing is wasted in Him. Every wound we have suffered, every scar, every pain ... everything will be healed in Him. Everything will be made useful in Him. Nothing will have been fruitless in our lives, even in the things we did (or that happened to us) before we believed in Him. He redeems everything. That means He brings good things out of every bad thing that we have suffered (or that we have done to others, too!). In other words: God wins! In everything! Love wins! In everything! Even if pains and sufferings come today, we can look at Him and His wounds and we can know that He has already won. Everything will be redeemed.
