The Wondrous Cross

In my presentation, Forgiven, part of the presentation is done on a most unusual cross. I keep the cross covered until it is ready to be presented. Still everyone can tell by it’s shape what it is. It’s not a plain wooden cross, nor is it a shiny golden cross. No, I call it The Cross of Sin. It’s a cross covered with stories of sin clipped from the headlines. Where I try to make most of my work beautiful, this piece is hideous. When I finish a presentation, I just add stories until it is covered again. I intend to continue using this cross until it is no longer usable. It’s got many layers of stories on it by now and it’s two sided so I can use it twice before having to recover it.

Some might be offended by this. How could I place images of sin on an image so closely related to Jesus. Well the short answer is, I didn’t, Jesus did! Oh of course I did the actual cutting and gluing, but it was Jesus that took all the sin of the world to the cross. Every one of those people committing every one of those sins and atrocities, was someone Jesus died to save. He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. In the presentation, I tell the story of the cross, while doing to my cross all the things that were done to Jesus. By the time I am done, it is a “bloody” nail pierced mess. It is a graphic depiction of what was done to our Lord as He paid the price for you and me. A price we could not pay.

I finish the presentation with Jesus final words on the cross, “It is finished.” It might shock you to know, Jesus did not speak English. He spoke a language called Aramaic and so the word we translate to “It is finished.” is the word “Tetellestai.” It does mean “It is finished.” but it has a secondary meaning. It was a word often used in the ancient market place when a transaction had been completed. The secondary meaning of Tetellestai is “Paid in Full.” That is precisely what Jesus did on the cross and when we place our faith in Him, our debt of sin is paid in full.

What a wondrous thing it is. So many people walk through this word believing that they have little or no value. It’s part of the reason our news is full of stories of sin and desperation. If only we understood the cross and the high price Jesus paid for us there. You and I were worth so much to God that He gave His only Son to set us free. That is an extremely high value and as such we should know we are highly valuable to God, the One who matters most. You are valuable, blessed and highly favored.

Believe it!

God’s Illustrations

Of course we know that God is the Creator of all there is, but have you ever considered that God is an illustrator? It’s true. Look at your Bible and you will see illustrations all over it. No not the pictures and icons and things that may be in there. No the illustrations are hidden in the words and today we celebrate one of his greatest.

A thousand years or more before Jesus, God set in place a sacrificial system, a system, where lambs and other animals were sacrificed for the sins of the people. Did you ever wonder why? Does God have something against the sheep? No God created them. And while I know there is that verse about how the sacrifices are a sweet savor to the Lord, I also really don’t believe it is because God loves the smell of burning sheep flesh. I think God was trying to show us a couple things.

First, He’s showing us that sin costs. The price for sin was a very valuable possession that now had to die and be rendered useless. Second, God is showing us very literally that sin kills these are both superbly illustrated in the sacrificial system, but there is something more.

These sacrifices prepared us for the ultimate sacrifice. Remember the lambs sacrificed had to be perfect, flawless, without blemish and their blood had to be shed. The Bible tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. The sacrificial system was put in place to prepare us for Jesus Christ and His death on the cross, shedding His blood once and for all. Remember how John the baptist introduced Jesus. He said “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus’ death on the cross was illustrated centuries before by a loving God, so that we would be ready to receive Him. He gave us a framework by which we could understand the ultimate gift of love.

Today is Good Friday. I’ve sometimes wondered why we call it that. I’m pretty sure if you told Peter on that day that it would be called Good Friday that he may well have punched you in the face. That day would have felt like a lot of things but none of them would have been good. We call it Good Friday because we know what happened next and because we understand the significance of the moment. We understand that in part because of God’s illustration centuries before.

Be blessed on this Good Friday and live a life that illustrates God’s love to the world.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: POWER

The IllustrationFriday.com challenge this week was the word POWER and there was only one thing that came to mind. The ultimate power move… when Christ, love incarnate and God incarnate, laid aside His awesome power to sacrifice Himself to overpower that which we were powerless against. In that move when Christ looked thoroughly powerless, He overpowered death, hell and the grace for all who will believe. Trust in His POWER, submit to His POWER and live in His love.
This is a sketch of a hopefully upcoming painting with a stylistic nod to pop artist, Keith Haring. Click the image to see this and other pop art images I’ve been working on lately.

Having Trouble Understanding Easter?

Watch this and I think you’ll get it.

A powerful film parable.

Video of the Day: Marc Eckles and the Splat Experience

One of the first performance painters I’ve seen, nails it again!
It’s a reminder that His blood is on our hands, but by His wounds we are healed.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Silence

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Silence

This one was a little different for me. Silence felt hard to describe for a moment. I thought about distractions and considered making an entirely blank piece as that might be silence in my thought addled world, but then I took a different direction. I began to think of a person being bombarded with noise with his hands over his ears, screaming for silence, but what would the noises be. And then I saw it. Many artists, including this one sometimes suffer from horrible self-esteem, maybe it’s because we take so many risks or have so many critics, I don’t know.

I do know this, there are all these voices in society and sometimes in our heads that tell us all kinds of lies about ourselves. We’re too stupid, too ugly, too fat, too thin, worthless, useless and on and on and on. I also know artists are not alone in this many are bombarded with these voices from within and without. We lose when we listen to them. The only way to win is to “silence” the voices. This is not done with some act of violence. We silence the voices when we don’t listen and keep doing what we do. The best way to silence a critical voice is to prove it wrong.

For followers of Christ though, there is a better way. It’s to remember who you are and the high price Christ paid for you. Every voice around you and within you may want to tell you you’re worthless, but the only voice that really matters values you so much that He gave His only Son to die in your place. Let that silence the voices.

Can’t see the image? Click here.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Stripes Part 2

The second image for the IllustrationFriday.com stripes challenge may be slightly less predictable.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Stripes Part 2

Isaiah 53:5 says: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Those stripes were wounds driven deep into the flesh of the Savior by a lead tipped Roman whip. The intense punishment that began what we now call Good Friday. You see before they would place a convicted person on a cross the Romans would beat him nearly to death. Such was the beginning of the price Jesus paid for up. It’s a conundrum. How could a day of such torture be called Good Friday? Surely not because it was a good thing to happen to Jesus. I’m sure the disciples saw that day as anything but good. No the goodness was on the cross. It was Jesus doing the greatest act of good a person can do. He laid down His life for you and me. See, those stripes, they were yours and mine, but he took them.

The word at the bottom of the illustration is Tetellestai. It’s the last recorded word Jesus spoke before dying on the cross. Your English Bible records the word as the phrase “it is finished.” Jesus finished the work of Salvation when he hung on the cross, but that word Tetellestai has another meaning as well. In the market place, in that day, when a purchase was complete the merchant would sometimes shout out Tetellestai and in this context the meaning of the word was another phrase, “PAID IN FULL.” That’s what Jesus did. He took the penalty for everything wrong that you, me and everyone else has done and will ever do and took it on Himself. If you place your trust in Him as your Lord and Savior, your sins are forgiven and your debt is paid in full.

Jesus paid it all.

If you’d like to know more about Jesus and what He did for you, leave a comment or better yet drop me an email at AMOKArts@aol.com

This note is extra meaningful to me today, two days ago my friend Curt left this world. He was a guy who had a lot of struggles in this life but in spite of it all, he came to know and love Jesus. Jesus paid Curt’s price and today as I miss my friend, I know his struggles are over and he’s just beginning to enjoy the very best God has to offer.

Praise God for the stripes that heal.

If you can’t see the image above, click this link.

Sacrifice

Sacrifice

As we pass the Easter holiday, hopefully our minds are still, at least to some degree, on the sacrifice our Lord made for us. It got me thinking of the sacrifices we make every day. For me one of the great sacrifices is time. Time is the great equalizer, rich or poor all of us have 24 hours in a day with which to do what we do. In my case this blog takes time, my job takes time, my family takes time, my art takes time, my ministry takes time and self maintenance and health takes time. It’s all a sacrifice.

In the midst of all the busyness, everything we do requires sacrifice and so it’s important we are careful. I found myself gaining weight over the last few months. The reason for that is simple, I’m trying to get a book finished and develop a speaking ministry. The problem is if I lose my health, I won’t be effective in the ministry to which God has called me and if that happens, what good is all the work I’ve done?

Be careful what you sacrifice and make sure it’s worth it. Also make sure what you’re sacrificing to. We can push ourselves too hard to do things God never called us to do. Ultimately if we’re not sacrificing to God, our priorities are not in the right place.

Bible Reading Guide
An important part of following God is knowing what He wants and a great way to know what He wants is to read His Word. Follow this plan and you will finish reading the Bible in a year.
Joshua 15; Mark 11; Psalm 26
You can also download your own chart here.