Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for loving us so much that You sent Your only Son Jesus Christ to earth to be born as a helpless baby, to grow up as a man, to suffer and die a cruel death on a Roman cross so that our sins could be forgiven and we could have eternal life with You.
If
we ever doubt Your love for us may we see our Lord suffering and dying
for our sins on the cross. For this is a picture of the depth of Thy
love for each one of us. Help
us this Christmas season to understand the reason our Lord Jesus Christ
came to earth; to meditate on Thy great immeasurable love for us, and
may we love and worship You with our whole heart and soul and mind in
return for all You have done for us, in Jesus mighty name. Thank You,
Lord. Amen.
"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." ~Psalm 46:10
"Be Still and Know~Autumn Still Life"
I painted the above painting "Autumn Still Life" several years ago.
Every
fall as soon as the pumpkins and gourds would appear at the farmer’s market or
in the grocery stores I loved to go and buy as many as I could just so I
could make paintings and sketches of them.
Pumpkins and gourds are symbols to me of the fall.
As I sat and painted them, it was my way of holding onto the wonder of my favorite season, of holding back time.
I am a slow painter. I knew that the pumpkins and gourds would deteriorate over time.
Just as the fall would fade into winter; just as each of us will grow old, our youth vanish, like the green summer leaves turn to autumn gold each year then wither, and eventually fall from the trees altogether.
The original painting for this still
life was painted in acrylics on canvas paper. Acrylics dry up fast, yet my pace was more suited to that of the oil painter.
I would listen to worship music
as I painted. Everything in my studio was filled with the presence and peace of
the Lord.
God says in His word, “Be still and know that I am God...”
(Psalm 46:10)
When creating a still life, artists must be patient,
composed and steady while trying to recreate a moment in time in the life of their subject with their paintbrush.
There is a beautiful peace in the process of painting, especially in painting still lifes. For painting a still life forces you to slow down, to stop, to examine, to
look, to see what is really before you.
This is the opposite of the hectic, busy, non-stop
work-all-the-time pace of our society. Such a fast pace induces stress, worry,
and anxiety.
But there is great peace in being still. That is God’s message in Psalm
46:10.
"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
And that is silent message in every artist's Still Life.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for this Thanksgiving Day. We are so thankful for all of Thy blessings You pour upon us each day.
As the holidays approach and our pace grows more and more hectic, help us to remember to come before You and be still, to be quiet, to know that You are God and that You are in control.
Assure our hearts that all will be well because You have not left Your throne. Whatever is going on in the world, whatever is challenging me in my world, You are still on Your throne and Your word declares that You will never leave me or forsake me and that You are in Heaven holding all things together by Your mighty word. Thank You for these wonderful promises in Thy word. Lord I love You, in Jesus' mighty name, amen.
"Christ Washing Peter's Feet" by Ford Maddox Brown (19th C British Pre-Raphaelite Artist)
The Heavenly Servant
John 13:1, 3-10 (ERV)
It was almost time for the Jewish Passover festival.
Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go back to the Father.
Jesus had always loved the people in the world who were his.
Now was the time he showed them his love the most...
The Father had given Jesus power over everything. Jesus knew this.
He also knew that he had come from God. And he knew that he was going back to God. So while they were eating, Jesus stood up and took off his robe. He got a towel and wrapped it around his waist. Then he poured water into a bowl and began to wash the followers’ feet.
He dried their feet with the towel that was wrapped around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter.
But Peter said to him, “Lord, you should not wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “You don’t know what I am doing now. But later you will understand.”
Peter said, “No! You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “If I don’t wash your feet, you are not one of my people.”
Simon Peter said, “Lord, after you wash my feet, wash my hands and my head too!”
Jesus said, “After a person has a bath, his whole body is clean. He needs only to wash his feet. And you are clean...”
In this Scripture passage, Jesus is giving His disciples a powerful visual metaphor of His mission on earth, who He is and why He has come.
The Apostles will not understand the full scope of His mission until after His death on the cross and resurrection though.
"So while they were eating, Jesus stood up and took off his robe."
Here Jesus is showing that He laid aside His Heavenly Throne temporarily and in the words of St. Paul, "although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men." (Philippians 2:6-7 NASB)
"(Jesus) got a towel and wrapped it around his waist. Then he poured water into a bowl and began to wash the followers’ feet. He dried their feet with the towel that was wrapped around his waist."
Jesus, their Master and Lord, performed this humble task of washing His disciples feet, a menial chore that normally a slave or common household laborer would have done, in order to graphically demonstrate His mission from the Father.
He also wants to remind them that He is their example in all things. Whatever He does, they must likewise do. Be humble. Love one another. Serve one another. Why? Because He is their Lord and has asked them to, just as He is now on His earthly mission because His Father has asked Him to do it.
You can never have love without obedience in true worship.
Why does Jesus need to clean the disciple's feet? Because they are stained with sin.
Jesus is showing them that His mission is to cleanse people of their sins. What would have been the filthiest part of the body in a time when most people walked everywhere over rugged roads and basically wore sandals?
Jesus came to cleanse the filthiest part of each of us---our hearts.
Matthew 15:19-20 (NASB) "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man...”
Jeremiah 17:9 (NASB) “The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
Jesus came to cleanse away the stain of sin that each of us are born with and to make us whole, to redeem us from the curse of death and hell and to give us His own righteousness which we could not ever earn by being good enough on our own. Only Jesus Christ can wash our sins away.
Detail: Ford Maddox Brown Artist 19th C British
Peter said, “No! You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “If I don’t wash your feet, you are not one of my people.”
Jesus Christ told Peter that if He did not wash him, he could not be one of His people.
Only the shed blood of Jesus Christ can wash away the stain of our sins.
Jesus Christ was the spotless Lamb of God sent to bear our sins on the cross as a blood sacrifice. He died in our place so that our sins could be forgiven. In Christ's demonstration to His disciples He had wrapped the towel of a slave around Himself and washed their feet as a slave would have. We are all slaves of sin apart from salvation in Christ. Sinless Jesus took off His beautiful Heavenly spotless sinless robe and put on our robes stained with the slavery of sin and bore them on the cross.
"For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." ~2 Corinthians 5:21
Hebrews 9:22 "And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."
On the third day God raised Christ from the dead. All who receive Jesus into their hearts as their Lord and Savior will be raised from the dead and given eternal life with Christ in Paradise.
John 11:25-26 (NASB) "Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”
By washing their feet, Jesus wanted to leave His disciples with a powerful visual reminder of what His earthly mission was all about.
His humble, selfless act still speaks to us today about our need for His cleansing from our sins.
It tells us to follow His example of obedience and love to His Father and to serve one another humbly out of our love, obedience and worship to Him.
John 3:16-17 (NASB) “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Thy only Son to cleanse us from our sins.
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for laying aside Your Heavenly Throne for a season so that You could suffer & bear our sins on the cross & die in our place;
Thank You Holy Spirit for making Thy truth known to our hearts,
The Bible opens with this beautiful account of the creation:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light." ~ (Genesis 1:1-3)
The soul apart from Christ is very much like that place at the dawn of creation when the "earth was without form and void and darkness hovered over the face of the deep."
For without Christ "the light of the world" we walk in darkness. The bible says that Jesus was "the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man." (John 1:9)
The Gospel of John opens much like the book of Genesis:
John 1:1,3-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in *darkness; and the darkness *comprehended it not.
Jesus Christ is not only our Creator, He is the Light that moves upon our spirit that brings the Eternal Day into our hearts when we receive Him as our Savior.
When Jesus Christ comes into our hearts, His light shines into the formless darkness of our souls, and His grace turns our chaos into order, our confusion into peace.
When Jesus comes into our hearts, His light not only illuminates our darkness but His word promises that all the forces of darkness shall not be able to overcome His light within us as we abide in Him.
Scripture says that the darkness cannot comprehend Christ's light.
The word comprehend as defined by the Strong's Bible Dictionary can be interpreted in several ways:
The darkness does not eagerly receive Christ or the things of God.
The darkness cannot possess Christ or those who have His light abiding in their hearts.
The darkness cannot perceive, comprehend, or understand Christ or the things of God.
The darkness cannot ever overcome Christ, His Church, and all those who are abiding in Christ's light.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, bring the light of Christ to all who are in darkness today. If any are experiencing confusion, fill them with Thy peace for Thy word says that "God is not the author of confusion but of peace..." (1 Corinthians 14:33)
Thy word promises that "...the Lord blesses His people with peace." ~ (Psalm 29:11)
Lord, thank You for Being our Light, our Salvation, and our Peace, in Jesus' name, amen.
2 Thessalonians 3:16 (NIV)
"Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you."
