~ I made this because I need to be reminded of it. The idea is that doing this a little at a time can actually become quite significant over time. Too often we wait for inspiration to come and then start to do something.
There is however value in plodding along also. Little things do lead to a lot.
(1) In Genesis 12, God tells Abram to head out to Canaan. He does so. However when he gets there, he finds a famine in the land, and so heads off to Egypt.
10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. ~ Genesis 12:10
~ While in Egypt, Abram gets himself into a pickle with Pharaoh on account of his wife and has to leave.
(2) In Genesis 26, Isaac, Abraham’s son is considering leaving for Egypt on account of a famine in the land where he is at. However, he is told by God not to head out there.
“Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time … The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you.” ~ Genesis 26:1-3
(3) In Genesis 46, Israel is en route to Egypt to go see his long lost son, Joseph, when God appears to him and basically tells him to continue on to Egypt and not be afraid to go there.
And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
3 “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. ~ Genesis 46:2-4
(4) In Ruth 1, we find that Elimelech and family head off to Moab from Bethlehem on account of a famine. Things do not go well for them there and eventually Naomi returns to Bethlehem with her daughter-in-law, Ruth.
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. ~ Ruth 1:1-2
~ There are folks who say that the reason why Abram or perhaps Elimelech & family ran into the problems that they did was because they left the Promised Land. As such they fell out of God’s will.
I don’t think so. I think that the famine necessitated their decisions. Moreover were they not to go to Egypt or Moab or XYZ, then God likely would have told them not to. He stopped Isaac from heading out, so why would he not stop the others?
~ I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley some whiles back and really liked it a lot. There seem to be a number of themes running through it, like Deism, the dangers of Science, and so on. I am trying to do some additional reading on the book, so I have collected some links to the some articles on said book. They are listed down below. In addition, I have also tried to design a book cover for said work and have posted it here.
Links:
1) The Theology of Frankenstein: Deism vs. Biblical Theism by Dr. James S. Gidley at Ordained Servant Online (OPC)
2) The Soul of Frankenstein by Dr. James S. Gidley at Ordained Servant (OPC)
3) The Education of a Monster by Dr. James S. Gidley at Ordained Servant (OPC)
4) Frankenstein at 200 and Our Creations: A Cautionary Tale: A Review Article by Gregory E. Reynolds at Ordained Servant (OPC)
4) Frankenstein @ Triablogue
5) Frankenstein and Blade Runner @ Triablogue
~ The following is note that I am excerpting from a commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, that I reading and it regards the following verse:
“To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints…” ~ Romans 1:7a
“We should not overlook the plural. We sometimes speak of an individual man or woman as ‘saint’ or refer to ‘St. Peter’, ‘St. Mary’, or the like. This is not a New Testament usage. The word is never used there of any individual believer. It is always plural when used of believers, and the plural points to believers as a group, a community set apart for God. Again, the term does not convey the idea of outstanding ethical achievement which we usually understand by ‘saintliness’. While the importance of right living is insisted on and may even be implied with this very term, the main thrust is not there. It is rather in the notion of belonging to God.“
~ I found it interesting that the word “saint” in the singular is not found in the Bible. So I did a bunch of searches on online bibles at BibleGateway and yes, Morris’ is exactly right. The word is not there. Only ‘saints’ in the plural is found in the Bible.
~ Additionally, I found it interesting that what seems to be the primary meaning of the term saint is that of a person who belongs to God. Its nto so much about having reached the Nth level of holiness and such.
~ I think that having faith is one of those either you have it or you don’t issues. Yet sometimes it just simply needs to be maintained continuously. Other times its enough to have it for a moment and thats that. It depends on the situation. Its kind of like the continuous and perfective sense in grammar.
Continuous:
So for example, so long as Moses’ hands were supported by Aaron and Hur, the Israelites were winning the battle. But then if his hands ever went down, then they would lose… sink.
Or take for example, Peter walking on the water. So long as he keeps his eyes on Jesus and exercises faith, he is able to walk. However when he sees the winds howling, he gets scared and takes his eyes off of Jesus. At this point, he starts to sink.
Perfective:
On the flip side, there is faith that comes to us in a perfective sense. Here some X takes place just once, but the effects continue on through time – you’ll see what I mean.
Lets go back to Moses. For the Red Sea to part, Moses likely only had to raise his hand/staff once and it parted. He did not need to keep his hand up all night as he had to go down and walk through it with the Israelites.
When you realize that you are a sinner cut off from God, and then repent of your sins and turn to Christ Jesus, accepting Him as your Lord and Savior (i.e. exercise faith in Him), then you are saved forever. This is a one time act in your life. You do not need to go through this every morning again and again.
Another example, John 4:46-53,
Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed.
While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him,
“Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.
Perfect!
The following is taken from Philosophy Made Slightly Less Difficult: A Beginner’s Guide to Life’s Big Questions by Garrett J. DeWeese & J. P. Moreland.
~ I have not been able to keep on top of this blog due to a busy work schedule. However here is something that I want to note really quickly. The Bible often speaks of new things. Here is a list of verses that speak of something new.
New Song:
I will sing a new song to you, my God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you…” (Psalm 144:9).
New Heavens and a New Earth:
“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind” (Is.65:17).
New Covenant:
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah…” (Jeremiah 31:31).
New Mercies:
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;great is your faithfulness”
(Lamentations 3:22-23).
New Heart and Spirit:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;” ~ Ezekiel 36:26
New Wine & Oil:
“The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil” (Joel 2:24).
New Wine and New Wineskins i.e. New Ministry:
“And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins” (Matthew 2:22)
New Command:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34).
New Life:
“Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life” (Acts 5:20).
New Way of the Spirit:
“…we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6).
New Creation:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17)
New Humanity:
“His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace…” (Eph 2:15).
New Self:
“…put on the new self…” (Eph 4:24).
New Order:
“They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order” (Hebrews 9:10).
New Birth:
“…given us new birth into a living hope…” (1 Peter 1:3).
New Name:
“I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it” (Revelation 2:17).
New Jerusalem:
“…the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God” (Revelation 3:12).
All things:
“And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5a).
And if I were to put these in any kind of order of how things proceed or happen, it would be this.
New Birth
New Heart and Spirit
New Name
New Life
New Self
New Creation
New Humanity
New Mercies
New Command
New Covenant
New Order
New Wine & Oil
New Wine and New Wineskins i.e. New Ministry
New Way of the Spirit
New Song
New Heavens and a New Earth
New Jerusalem
New – All things
~ The book of Ecclesiastes begins with the following:
1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
or alternatively:
1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher;
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
~ There Hebrew word translated as meaningless or vanity in the verse up above is the word, hebel (הֶבֶל). Quite literally it means something like breath or vapor (although not in the sense of respiration). However in terms of the way that it is used in Ecclesiastes, it means everything from breath-like to absurd to futility to emptiness to transience to… you get the point.
Here is verse 2 again, only in Hebrew, and you will see the word hebel (הֶבֶל in red) littered all over it.
*Note: Hebel = H-B-L or H(הֲ)-B(בֵ֤)-L(ל) and since Hebrew is read right to left we reverse the letters to get L(ל)-B(בֵ֤)-H(הֲ).
I.e. So we have:
~ Don’t worry if you do not know Hebrew, as this is not quite the major point.
The point that I am driving at here is that… Well, there is something interesting about the word hebel. Hebel also happens to be the name of someone in the Bible. Who? It is the name of Abel, whose story is found in the book of Genesis. Lets go there quickly…
“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.
…
8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
~ Genesis 4:1, 2, 8, 9
Its quite interesting, that Abel’s name is really Hebel. It quite an odd name to have, no? I daresay it is even ominous to have such a name. What if Ecclesiastes 1:2 used his name instead? It would perhaps be something like what is here below.
Now often enough in the Old Testament, a person’s name often was indicative of something significant about their character or even their life. For example, Jacob means deceiver and he certainly lived up to his name. Alternatively, there is also Jabez, whose name means pain or sorrow. It seems that he did live a difficult life.
Now given that Abel’s name really is Hebel, one must ask if there is anything going on here. Why is Abel, Hebel? I mean, he was a righteous and godly man. So what is going on with his name? Here is a thought or two?
1) Abel’s life was vapor. It was but a momentary breath. He did not live long. We don’t know his age, but it seems that he died young.
2) In terms of external appearances, his life was meaningless, senseless, absurd. It was Hebel. Why? This is because he was a good person who did all the right things and yet was murdered. His is a story of a bad thing happening to a good person. It does not make sense. That is not all however. Abel/Hebel was murdered not just by anyone, but by his own brother. Someone who is supposed to love, protect and nurture him, instead deceives, betrays and murders him. This is absurd. This was the first murder in human history. An innocent man’s life is taken. It is rendered meaningless in an instant.
The above two, I submit are a couple of reasons why Abel is so named Hebel. I am sure there are more.
I think that Ecclesiastes is deliberate it in its use of Hebel. This is so because the book is trying to show that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, human nature changed. It became sinful. There is something wrong with all of us. I think that what Ecclesiastes is trying to show is that the dark themes running through human history are themes that have been there from the get-go. No sooner than Adam and Eve fall, than do we see their own son, Cain committing murder.
Adam and Eve fall. Human nature changes for the worse. However it is not as if, it takes hundreds of years before we start to see the evil deeds of human nature. No, rather we see it in one generation. We see it right away.
*Note: I am working off of the Westminster Leningrad Codex.
~ I found the following quote while randomly surfing and thought it was cool. So I made the following using a free image from Imagebase.
~ I am jotting a quick note from Tim Keller’s book, Every Good Endeavor. This is from page 189-190.
Isaiah 28:24–29 says, ‘When a farmer plows for planting … when he has leveled the surface … does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? His God instructs him and teaches him the right way… Grain must be ground to make bread … all this also comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnnificent in wisdom.’
This is remarkable. Isaiah tells us that anyone who becomes a skillful farmer, or who brings advancements in agriculture, is being taught by God. One commentator writes of this text, ‘What appears as a discovery (the proper season and conditions for sowing, farm management, rotation of crops, etc.) is actually the Creator opening His book of creation and revealing His truth.’
Remember that farming is an analogue to all culture making. So every advancement in learning, every work of art, every innovation in healthcare or technology or management or governance, is simply God ‘opening His book of creation and revealing His truth’ to us.”
Some quick notes on the side:
Proverbs 16:9 says,
“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
and a slight bit earlier, Proverbs 16:1 says,
“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord..”
~ What 16:9 is saying is that we should go ahead and make plans. However the final fall out will be of God.
~ And 16:1 seems to be saying something similar. We should go ahead and plan what we will say, but the final fall out of words will be from God.
So go ahead and prepare for a job interview or speech or an uncomfortable phone call with someone. Then pray about what you are going to say and then leave it at that.
~ Just something I did on the side…
Kohaku means amber, and Hinode means sunrise. So Amber Sunrise!
~ I have a bad habit of buying too many ebooks and never getting around to reading them. Its hard to resist when Amazon puts kindle books out on sale for $0.99 – $3.00. And its also hard to resist d/l’ng free epubs for my Nook.
Not too long ago, I was in a hunt for free epubs and found this by an old chum of mine: The Art of Literature, by Arthur Schopenhauer. Having never before seen this I picked it up.
Schopenhauer is a famous philosopher, known for writing tomes such as The World as Will and Representation, but – but, I don’t actually read any of his Philosophy because I find it to be too abstruse.
However I read his non-philosophical stuff because whether intended or not, I find it to be hil –
– arious.
Case in Point: The Pessimist’s Handbook, a collection of essays describing and justifying Pessimism.
Anyway, all that said and aside, I want to excerpt something from the above, because I think its a lesson for me on exercising moderation with my ebook acquisitions. Were Herr Schopenhauer alive today, I think he would have modified this excerpt to fit our contemporary situation with ebooks.
Anyway, here it is:
“A library may be very large; but if it is in disorder, it is not so useful as one that is small but well arranged.
In the same way, a man may have a great mass of knowledge, but if he has not worked it up by thinking it over for himself, it has much less value than a far smaller amount which he has thoroughly pondered.
For it is only when a man looks at his knowledge from all sides, and combines the things he knows by comparing truth with truth, that he obtains a complete hold over it and gets it into his power. A man cannot turn over anything in his mind unless he knows it; he should, therefore, learn something; but it is only when he has turned it over that he can be said to know it.”*
~ This day and age, it is so easy to get books for free, especially if they are from yestercentury. I just d/l’d some Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and … can’t remember … earlier.
But its far better to read less and know it well, than to read tons and not only not know it well, but know it incorrectly.
*Note: On the side, I want to note that there seems to be something oddball about what old Schopenhauer is saying. He seems to be saying that in order to think something through, you first need to know it. Then he goes on to say that you cannot be said to know anything unless you first think it through???
Huh? There seems to be some kind of chicken and the egg – which came first – type of thing going on here… Ehhh.. whatever…
~ Something I did on the side for a Portraits Challenge…
Just something I did on the side…
~ I noticed online that a bunch of artists were doing art of various sorts and saying that it was related to something called the Golden Ratio. So I got curious and did some reading on it.
And …
And it turns out that the Golden Ratio is something that artists from Leonardo Da Vinci to Juan Gris to Who-Knows-Who, have at times experimented with in their art.
So what is the Golden Ratio? The Golden Ratio is a number, namely, 1.61803398875 . . . It turns up in a certain mathematical sequence called the Fibonacci Sequence, which is:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, … and a drawing that often goes with this is:
(Basically, if you pick any two sequential numbers in the Fibonacci Sequence and divide the larger by the smaller you will start to get the Golden Ratio. I.e. 3/2 = 1.5, 5/3 = 1.666…, 8/5 = 1.6, 13/8 = 1.625, etc. )
And . . . anyway as I was looking at the “Golden Rectangles” drawing and looking at the types of stuff other artists have done with it (snails, turtles, birds, etc), it occurred to me that there was a big gigantic elephant sitting right in it! Soooo? So, I just had to draw the elephant and voila! There it is!
~ I read this verse this morning and just loved it. So I made this.
~ The photograph, I got from Pixabay. I don’t know how to take photos like that. The rest of the modifications, the text, the arcs, the colors, etc., I did.
~ Just some scribble on the side. I have this fascination with sort of, kind of catching the essence of something or someone and I want to do this in an abstract, minimalist fashion, using the least number of lines possible. So here is a drawing of the fastest land animal in the world, (0-60 in 3 seconds) – cheetahs.
~ Whew! Well, I finally got it done. (I hope.) For a long whiles I have been working on drawing a Lady-Considering-Some-Lilies and have been stuck, but now… whew! J’ai fini! I got this done by abandoning my project of drawing lilies like so and similarly so below:
And moving on to water lilies (Nympheaea Odorata).
The problem was that I never could find just the right photos taken at just the right angles. So I decided to wait until Spring until the lilies were a blooming. Then I would see them with my own eyes and draw them.
And Spring has come but the lilies have not yet appeared – at least not where I live. And in the meanwhiles, my attempts to draw these have been somewhere between an “Ehhh” and a “Bleah!” So, I will have to keep on trying. Some other day, some other time, I just might be able to pull out an “Oooh!” and an “Aaah!” along with a “Wow!” and “Voila!” Anyway…
Cutting it Short:
Soeeee… Just a few days ago, I happened to stumble upon water lilies (N. Odorata) and was like “Perfect! This will do.” They are not actual lilies as in genus Lilium and neither are as beautiful as the superbums or the candidums up above, but whatevvs … The Odorata is good enough for me. And I love the sound of that word, Odorata. Very cool.
Anyway… dum de dum dum. And so. Here it is…Nothing special. Nothing fantastico as I am not a professional artist.
All that said and aside – a word as to where this came from.
A long time ago, the poet Emily Dickinson wrote something somewhat droll in a letter. Viz.,
“The only Commandment I ever obeyed — ‘Consider the Lilies.”
I thought that that was really cool. Just so Emily. This comment just got into my head because I like lilies a lot. As such, I did some reading and thinking. Dickinson got said command from a certain verse in the Bible, viz., Matthew 6:25-28, which is,
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? … Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin…”
And I don’t quite know how I want to say what I want to say so I guess I will just say it.
Sometimes in life, we may find ourselves in the icks, the acks, the ughs, the yuks, the murks, the dumps, the groans and so on. We just get caught up in some funk and our thinking gets stuck in a cul de sac. The same old thing over and over again.
It is at times like these that we just need to get out and go find some lilies and take a deep wiff. I have found that this actually helps. And I mean that even quite literally so. Just get out and find you some lilies and then you look at them, examine them, appreciate them, consider them, Yea – Behold them. And of course get your wiff. Take in a deep deep breath. Get some redolence in you. This is just the right antidote for the funks.
Now…
Will it solve all your issues with the icks, acks, and ughs? No, not entirely. However, it will give you some distance and distance is perspective. Perspective helps.
Ok. I’ll close out with this:
“Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true,
whatever is noble,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable
– – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things”
(Philippians 4:8).
Find your lilies.
~ I have not blogged in ages because I have been stuck on some artwork. I have been trying to draw certain kinds of lilies and have not been able to find satisfying references, so I thought I would wait until Spring is out, and then go a looking for lilies and if I find them, then examine live one from every angle possible.
In the meanwhile here is something in passing:
~ Basically the thought is something of the following sort: Historically philosophers from Augustine to Aristotle to Berkeley to … to WhoKnowsWho have stated that happiness is a byproduct. This means that you do not pursue happiness per se, instead you pursue other things and happiness results. This of course assumes you are pursuing the right things.
~ That said, of late I have been wondering if unhappiness is also a byproduct. Is it the result of pursuing things that are not so good? I think that it is and is not.
It is a byproduct in the sense that you can pursue things that are not good for you (e.g. a bad relationship) and the end result is that you are unhappy.
It is not in the sense that you can pursue unhappiness proper. How so? Well, you can be unhappy just simply by sitting down, twiddling your thumbs and doing nothing. Pursue nothing and you will be unhappy.
Hmmm… Something tells me that I need to keep thinking. Anyway…
~ My two cents worth – I have found the following to be quite helpful:
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” ~ Matthew 6:33
Summa: If you pursue unhappiness, you will be unhappy. If you pursue nothing and you will be also be unhappy. Soeeee? Pursue something.
~ I am reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and must say that if there is such a thing as Literary Tenebrism, then this is it.
So I put some stuff together and came up w/ this.
Of the painters up above, Caravaggio is known for being the Tenebrist par excellence. Tenebrism is a form of painting that involves what can best be described as a lightening of the lights (and all colors) and a darkening of the darks. It is what you get (almost) when you have just candlelight. It is also very much so what happens in a church sanctuary when Tenebrae is observed.
Shelley’s writing is like that. She really highlights a lot of things within a scene and really gets involved in details giving them much color and yet – yet the whole story is set against a really dark background.
I will probably come back and post some excerpts here but the book is available for free online at Adelaide University.
Also here is an article I found online: The Theology of Frankenstein: Deism vs. Biblical Theism
Also will say – Mary Shelley is a must read. Don’t watch any Frankenstein movies unless you have read her first
Been busy and also stuck on some other artwork (= Consider the Lilies), but in the meantime looking at something like those metallic fences or gate-like ornamentation gave me an idea. So here it is:
~ I could have done it a wee bit better, by working out a Rule of Thirds / Golden Ratio thing, but decided just to eye it.
Alternative title: En France, les chats mangent des escargots.
~ I recently did the pic below using Sketchbook Pro, a tool which is now free. The poem is something I wrote some years ago but I am setting it to the art along with a devotional by John Piper of Desiring God Ministries.
~ In the pic below we have a character from the Bible, Job seated on the floor. He is surrounded by some broken pottery. The story of Job is basically about this guy who goes through some intense trials and some intense processing thereof. I will put a link to an animated explanation to it down below.
Words for the Wind
Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind? (Job 6:26)
In grief and pain and despair, people often say things they otherwise would not say. They paint reality with darker strokes than they will paint it tomorrow when the sun comes up. They sing in minor keys and talk as though that is the only music. They see clouds only and speak as if there were no sky.
They say, “Where is God?” Or: “There is no use to go on.” Or: “Nothing makes any sense.” Or: “There’s no hope for me.” Or: “If God were good, this couldn’t have happened.”
What shall we do with these words?
Job says that we do not need to reprove them. These words are wind, or literally “for the wind.” They will be quickly blown away. There will come a turn in circumstances, and the despairing person will waken from the dark night and regret hasty words.
Therefore, the point is, let us not spend our time and energy reproving such words. They will be blown away of themselves on the wind. One need not clip the leaves in autumn. It is a wasted effort. They will soon blow off of themselves.
O how quickly we are given to defending God, or sometimes the truth, from words that are only for the wind. If we had discernment, we could tell the difference between the words with roots and the words blowing in the wind.
There are words with roots in deep error and deep evil. But not all grey words get their color from a black heart. Some are colored mainly by the pain, the despair. What you hear is not the deepest thing within. There is something real within where they come from. But it is temporary — like a passing infection — real, painful, but not the true person.
Let us learn to discern whether the words spoken against us or against God or against the truth are merely for the wind — spoken not from the soul, but from the sore. If they are for the wind, let us wait in silence and not reprove. Restoring the soul, not reproving the sore, is the aim of our love.
~ I need to remember this for later – Do not want to lose track of it.
Excerpt:
The narrative bristles with irony:
To borrow an analogy from Luke’s Gospel, Those inside have been “knocking” in prayer that a figurative door may be “opened” for them (Luke 11:5-10), for Peter’s release (Acts 12:5, 12)—yet fail to believe that the answer to their prayers is knocking on their door!
…
Excerpt taken from The faithless prayer meeting—Acts 12:5-16
~ Some whiles back I did some art related to Hosea 8:7. Some one suggested that I animate it… So I gave it a go and here it is:
~ It is interesting to note that the most frequently found command in the Bible is ____________ Guess? It is not “Love one another” or “Love God” or “Forgive others” or “Do unto others”, etc. No. It is “Do not be afraid.” That is the most common command found in the Bible. It is given to the person reading the Bible as well as to various characters found in the Bible such as David or Jacob and ?!? Va va va voom – the Virgin Mary – Merry Christmas!
~ That said – there is something else in the Bible that is interesting and this is the most frequent promise found in the Bible. Like the command, this promise is also given to those reading the Bible and also to various characters and figures in the Bible. And what is the most frequent promise given in the Bible? It is “I [God] will be with you always.” Yes, God will always be with us – through good times and bad and even beyond the grave.
~ Now all that said – what is particularly interesting is that often enough the reason (i.e. rationale given) for the command is the promise. The command is grounded in the promise.
~~> I.e. The reason you ought not to be afraid is because God is with you always.
So what follows below is a smattering of verses that I started to collect and edit with said command or promise or both. This is just a smattering because it got to be too much work so I cut it short. Anyway here it is in case its of interest.
Genesis 15:1 “… the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. …”
Genesis 21:17 “God … said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid…”
Genesis 26:24 “That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “… Do not be afraid, for I am with you…”
And… Genesis 46:3, Numbers 21:34, Deuteronomy 1:21, Deuteronomy 2:4, Deuteronomy 3:2, Deuteronomy 3:22, Deuteronomy 7:18, … cut
Deuteronomy 20:1
“… do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you.”
And … Deuteronomy 31:6, Deuteronomy 31:8, Joshua 1:9, Joshua 8:1, Joshua 10:8, Joshua 10:25, Joshua 11:6, Judges 6:23, 2 Kings 6:16, 2 Kings 19:6, 2 Kings 25:24, 1 Chronicles 22:13, 1 Chronicles 28:20, 2 Chronicles 20:15, 2 Chronicles 20:17, 2 Chronicles 32:7, Psalm 27:1, … cut
Matthew 10:31 “So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
Matthew 14:27 “But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
Luke 1:30 “But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.
Luke 2:10 “But the angel said to the Shepherds, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.'”
…
Revelation 1:17 “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.”
~ The above is Jubilia. Its random stuff I made while experimenting around. I tried to convert it to a Mary with a yellow halo and stuff. It did not work so… it is what it is.
An experiment on the side with CorelDraw. I’m playing around with the trial version of CorelDraw. Its got some nifty features.
~ I was wondering if I could pull off some 3D stuff with the Hosea pic down below in a previous post. So I experimented and made this the night before. It consists of the word Holy Holy Holy! (in Hebrew) as found in Isaiah 6:3 –
“… they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; …”
I used Blender 3D to make it and then created a video out of it. There is an error in it that I need to resolve. The script letters are individually backwards… but I will figure it out.
However WordPress would not let me upload videos unless I get a WP account for which I have to pay, so I converted it to an animated gif and loaded it.
The lighting is a little bit of an ehh… and these grid like lines showed up after I put it through the gif animator maker. Ehh again but whatever. Just an experiment.
~ I am reading through Hosea and came across the verse below. I know I’ve seen the verse before and I don’t just think in the Bible. It just has some kind of familiar literary ring to it. So anyway in thinking about what it means, I had an idea and decided to give it a whirl.
~ The Hebrew I got from two places. First I googled around and found a free Hebrew font, Stam Sepharad CFM from the kind folks at Open Siddur Project. Thanks!
I also got the verse from https://biblehub.com/texts/hosea/1-1.htm
I then pasted the verse into Affinity Designer, set it to the d/l’d font and played around. Since Hebrew is read right to left, I was curious how this would work.
*Note: If some of those letters looked scrunched or upside down, etc., thats ok. It a whirlwind… To get the effect that I want, I think I will ultimately have to do this in 3D.
At least thats what the late David Foster Wallace (DFW) said. DFW believed that everyone worshiped something. Anyway, I was intrigued by a quote of his, so I made the below… I don’t know if DFW was a Christian, but its an interesting though not well known fact that he did attend church weekly.
