My Testimony...A Picture Worth a Thousand Words...

The Gospel is about the grace of God, and the grace of God is the Gospel.  I testify to this daily. 

And while others express their polite, educated disagreement...

I testify again.

Sunday in East Tennessee - Church Sign

I went out by myself (again) today for a couple of hours...armed with my vintage Brownie Hawkeye and Instagram on my phone...on a quest for the perfect picture.

Oh, man, was I rewarded:

...talk about your catch 22...

Only here.  Only in east Tennessee.  Lord, I love the Bible Belt!

My New Camera - A Vintage Brownie Hawkeye

I have two words for you:  Madeleine Peyroux.  Pour yourself a glass of great Merlot, and turn up your speakers.

::deeeeep breath::

I know, right?  Bliss.  The song La Javenese describes my day today...though I haven't a clue what it is saying.  The mood.  The mood of the song has been the mood of this day.

I wish I could rewind this day, and take you with me.  What.  A.  Perfect.  Day.

I woke up, and decided that, with The Preacher in Venezuela, and my youngest visiting the basketball coach at his future college, I actually could go do whatever I felt like doing...without anyone missing me. 

Without anyone needing me.  Oh my dear sweet Lord.

La Javenese.  I don't know what that means, but that's all I got to say about that.

I grabbed my Nikon and was out the door.  Sans makeup.  The world was lucky I got dressed!  I was bustin' to cash in my "get out of jail free" card.  (Not that my home is a jail or anything...I've just been tending to lots of details lately.  And I had worked until 2 A.M. this morning! It has been months of "nose to the grindstone" for me here at The Cottage.)

I drove to the University of Tennessee's arboretum, where I walked and shot with the Nikon - the sun was that perfect morning golden.  I haven't uploaded any of those pictures, so I don't know what I've got on my big girl camera yet. 

But I had something else in my back pocket.  My smart phone.  And interestingly, I'm hugely pleased with the Instagram photos I took with it!  Easy, easy...

Shot from a little foot bridge, over a small pond...hear the birds?

How can you not be deliriously happy, walking in total silence, but for birdsong, while praying while taking pictures while inhaling the sweetest fragrance?  I am itching to upload this onto Photoshop, tweak it some,  and slap a texture on it.  And maybe a short quote.

After leaving the arboretum, I swung into an antique shop.  I even left my purse in the truck, tucking it behind the bench seat.  I told myself, "Today is a "look, don't buy" kind of day."

(You know, the kind of day you have after you pay to have your son's car repaired...)

But.  But.  But I found this beauty:

A Brownie Hawkeye camera.  1950's model.  $12. 

Would you say no?  I didn't think so.

My son-in-law, artist and photographer Jonathan Howe looked it over for me, and tutored me regarding this camera.  He even took me to Thompson Photo Supply to get me some 120 film for it - which he painstakingly, in a pitch black bedroom closet, re-spooled onto this camera's 620 film spools.  (620 film has been mostly discontinued, and costs  $12-$15 for a 12 shot roll.  120 film is still available in camera specialty stores, costs $5, and can be used in this camera by respooling it in pitch black darkness.  Thank you, son-in-law.)

My baby is ready to go!  I cannot wait to see what I get with this camera.  The shots I've seen online, all taken with this very model Brownie Hawkeye, are dream-like in quality...very vintagey.  Tomorrow, I hope it will be sunny again, because I already know what I want to shoot, after church lets out...

...the perfect barn, about 5 miles away from my house.

...the same flowers I shot at the arboretum with Instagram (see above).

...some downtown architecture.

...a 50's model  Chevy truck I saw today, with weeds growing all around it, and vines climbing onto it.

...some old signs, if I can find some great ones.

Any more ideas for me?  I'd love to hear from you, if you are a Brownie camera lover!  Apparently, there are quite a few of you out there.  I hope I get some sweet, sweet shots tomorrow.

"Fishing" in Venezuela

Twenty-six years ago, I fell in love with a Preacher. Those are his hands, up there. 

Well...back then, he was a technician at an engineering company. And he'd preach to anything that seemed it remotely might have an Eternal Soul. He had a six pack of abs, muddy work boots, a big smile, and eyes looking out at me from underneath his baseball cap that that made me melt like buttah.

Preacher-boy could do "the smolder".

And tonight he is in Venezuela, preaching the Gospel. People came to Christ, tonight, and my heart savors the knowledge that a few more eternities have been forever sealed. Tonight, I miss him. My sadness collides with my joy, and joy is left standing.

Oh, the fathomless grace of God. And the word of His grace, which, the Bible says, is able to save our soul. 

Twenty-six years, four children, one church plant, two decades of home schooling, many mission trips, prodigals-come-home, and two grandchildren later -  I need that word of His grace more than ever.  I need to hear it preached and sung that "He became sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made the very righteousness of God, through Christ Jesus..."

And I am ever discovering how the truth of the Finished Work of Christ applies to my present circumstances.

Professional burden-bearer am I.  I bet you are, too.  We compensate for compensating.  We end up not just dysfunctional.  We end up anticontradysfunctional...whatever the very, very, very opposite of "functional" and whole is.  That would be us, without the strong consolation of the Gospel.

A wrong idea of God - an incomplete understanding of the Gospel - leads to heartache and burnout.

Twenty-six years ago, I fell in love with  a Preacher, who is in Venezuela tonight, preaching of the liberty that is ours in Christ. 

His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.   If just one person - maybe one Venezuelan pastor's wife, in the pastor's conference where my Preacher is speaking tomorrow - can be freed from the perpetual burden of performance-based Christianity, then my time spent on the over-consumption of cookies and feeling mighty lonely will be worth it all.

Second "Grace Revelation"

Last week, I was commissioned to paint another "Grace Revelation".  This is the second "Grace Revelation" sold!  Finally finished, I'm pleased with the result ~

12x12 mixed media canvas, on a background of antique hymnal and book pages...

Painted with acrylics, watercolors, guache, splotches of India ink...all seven colors of the rainbow, three rows of them, with the name of each color written over the top...

With the Scripture verse from Revelation, "...and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald..."

I named this one "Grace Revelation", from my own revelation one day as I was reading the story of Noah in Genesis.  I followed the thread of "many colors"...rainbow colors...on through the story of Joseph and  his coat of many colored favor, through various Messianic prophecies in Isaiah ("...this is as the waters of Noah to Me, says the Lord...I promise never to be angry with you again...") all the way through to the rainbow that is even now around the throne of God - you know which throne. 

The one called "throne of Grace".

Truth and beauty are one in the same, in our God.  The law of God was every whit fulfilled in the Finished Work of Jesus.  He fulfilled every righteous requirement of the law, and He did it on our behalf.  His obedience (righteousness) is now my obedience(righteousness).  Mercy and truth have become intimate lovers - the Bible says they have "kissed each other".  At the very least, they are not at all at odds with each other - all because of Christ. This "God of all grace"...

...oh, He reigns!  Second Adam has reversed the destruction of the first.  We are free.  Forgiven.  The Father is watching for all His prodigals to remember how good He is, and point those beautiful feet towards His house. 

(I will never forget, back in August 2009, when Tim and I received a public word of encouragement - in other words, this can easily be verified by others -  from an English minister we'd never met, who has a prophetic sort of gifting.  He prayed over us and said that the Gospel we preached was accurate and powerful, but the Gospel we were painfully living out in our home was even more powerful, and there was an anointing on our lives for the return of the prodigal.

 Oh.  My.  Word.  Three years later, if you could see...and if only I had time to tell you tonight.  Right now, our church is full of returned and returning prodigals.  Oh, if you could see.)

I gotta stop this and get on with my bad self.  I am making myself cry.

If you'd like one of these paintings for yourself, to remind you of God's favor towards sinners, they take me (on average) seven hours to paint, so it is a labor of love, not of income.  The 12x12 price is $55, postage paid.  Email me, if you want to commission one!

Half of everything sold goes to fund our church's youth mission trip in June, the other half goes back into art supplies.

This one, as of tonight, is still available (post edit: is sold):

(this painting is sold)

Remember "Grace Like Rain"?  (See yesterday's post for more detailed pictures.)


 Though I have received an email that someone intends to buy it, I haven't yet heard the final word.  So this one goes to the first person who lets me know for certain that they want it!

Post edit:  I am now visiting the issue of making prints.  I'll let you know when prints are available!

Art For Missions - New In "The Shop"

I have a new painting up...

"Grace Like Rain"
14x14 canvas
done in acrylic, watercolor, and ink, on a background of antique book and hymnal pages

Finished in a black gallery wrap style, painted edges.

Here is somewhat of a close-up.  You can see some of the hymnal pages...and the fact that it is, indeed, "raining" in this painting...when grace rains, and when grace reigns, beautiful things grow.

It's a given.

Here is a close-up of a portion of the flower-part of the canvas....stylized flowers, graphic style, but also an aged, vintage look.

...and here it is "at home" on my studio wall (my makeshift studio)...so you can see it in somewhat of a real-home context...it looks so cheerful!

 

This piece is $65 postage paid.  Half of everything goes to fund our church's youth group mission trip to train in street evangelism, in southern California - where there is a giant multicultural meltingpot.

The other half goes to art supplies.

I'm already out of a huge tube of titanium white.  And I just went to the art supply store this morning.

Please email me, if you love it, and want to give "Grace Like Rain" a good home.

Next, this one is also available...

This is "Mercy's Promise"...10x20, done in acrylics, watercolor, guache, inks, and hand lettered - folk art style.  Each color of the rainbow is written over the top, and there is a faint swirl design all over the background.  The usual antique book pages are there, but are barely discernable, giving this painting a beautiful depth and texture you can't quite put your finger on...it is "just there".

"Mercy's Promise" is $55 unframed, $75 framed, postage paid.

If  you love it, and promise to give "Mercy's Promise" a good home, or make it a gift to a good home, please email me, and mention the painting by name, so I know which one you want.  I confess to being a little attached to this one...

I can only part with it for a good cause.  Remember:  the full proceeds of half of everything I sell goes to our church's youth group mission trip this June.  The other half gets plowed back into the ground, in the form of art supplies.

God's Foolish Tool - Preaching and The Preacher

"He Ain't Just Fishin'..."

I’ve always known that preaching is a holy vocation.  There is that aspect that we are ALL called to proclaim the Gospel, but we also cannot get around or deny the fact that God calls certain men, in particular, to preach, teach, and exposit the Gospel in two ways: 

1.  To the congregation (teaching/preaching), and also

2.  THROUGH the congregation, TO the world (equipping) 

At no point in a person’s life, before they are saved or after, do they not need to hear the Gospel continually rehearsed to them, taught to them, in short:  PREACHED.  From cradle to grave, may the Gospel be heard and loved and elevated and preached! 

If we value The Message of the Gospel, to that exact level, we will value the preaching of it.  We will support it, promote it, and put ourselves in front of it to hear it.  Every generation tries to say “preaching is irrelevant in our day” – yet the foolishness of preaching will forever be the vehicle or the tool God uses to save and nourish souls until Christ comes again.  In our day of computers and smart phones, preaching is more relevant than ever. 

Please read that last sentence one more time. 

Does this “elevate” the Preacher himself?  Not if he has addicted himself to preaching, as my Preacher has.  “Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel!”  He’s just feeding his addiction.   

At the same time, we can’t deny the fact that some callings have vested in them a contingency that involves eternal souls…souls are contingent on proper Preaching of the Gospel, and the correct application of the law of God...

…just as outcomes are contingent on a lawyer being a good lawyer.  The same as quality of life can be contingent on  a doctor being a good, caring, skilled physician, souls are won and then souls are fed by a preacher who is skilled and courageous and faithful.  How important is this vocation!   As much as we need plumbers, a soul isn’t contingent on a plumber getting his plumbing right.  Souls are contingent when the plumber PREACHES the Gospel to someone else, which hopefully he is being equipped by his church leadership to do. 

I say this, not because I am all about my husband.  I say this, not because I am the Preacher’s wife.   I say this because I too have addicted myself to sharing the Gospel.  The Message (not Eugene Peterson's, but THE Message) is a fire shut up in my bones.  And I am revisiting the fact that a faithful and courageous (and accurate) Preacher is God’s Idea.  Preaching should be AS valued a Profession – more valued, dare I say, (which is SO NOT politically correct to say) – as any other…not because of the man, but because of the Message.

For the sake of the Gospel. 

So next time someone says, “We are all called to preach – preaching doesn’t make a man special.”  We, as well taught believers, should understand their heart.  We “get” what they mean, and should find a certain level of agreement with the statement.  But we must also find a certain level of disagreement with that statement.  Because we deeply value the Message, we instinctively and reasonably deeply value both the act of preaching, and a man who gives his life to the call.

Preaching will always be relevant.  Preaching will always be necessary to our lives.  I challenge you to impress this on your children and your teenagers – this importance of Preaching.  May a culture of honor be further developed in churches everywhere that deeply values the preaching of the Gospel – valuing it almost to a fault, if that is even possible.  Why? 

Because that is part of the equipping process.  WE WILL NOT USE TOOLS WE DON’T ESTEEM FOR REASONS WE ARE NOT PASSIONATE ABOUT.  If we first are passionate about the Message, if we begin to highly esteem and honor preaching as being “the foolish tool” God uses, we will then begin to really listen to,and be fed by preaching.  THEN,  I promise we will begin to open our own mouths to share The Message.

No School Like the Old School.   Preaching is what’s up!!!