The Greatest of These

 
John 13:35 "Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples - when they see the love you have for each other."

Have you ever been in a relationship where God's call to love them became very difficult? I can practically hear you all saying, "YES!" Every relationship that's worth it becomes difficult at times. Through this past year of marriage, I have been experiencing this tension in a whole new way....Funny thing though, it's not because my husband is so extremely hard to love but because for the first time in my life I can't simply "just run away" from a conflict...

Interesting, because as I try and fail over and over again to love fully when it's hard, I now have new eyes for the God who loves me when time and time again I fail Him. I run from Him, fake it with Him, twist His truth. But God continuously brings me back saying, "Kristin, I love you. I will always love you."

I made the painting above thinking about the simplicity of God's Word. The background is full of hymns and responsive readings representing God's truth expressed in the world.  These things are good, but not the most important thing. According to John's Gospel, LOVE is the most important thing. You can't miss Jesus' command to love one another in John's Gospel nor in this painting. Our lives should be the same. No matter the words or actions of our day, the most important thing our lives speak to the world is our love for one another, made possible only because He first loved us. 

Praise the Lord for tough relationships and imperfect people to remind us of the only perfect Man and His deep love for us!

Clothes...

Colossians 3:12-17 "Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

How many of us can truly say we put on these clothes? Clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience? I for one do not. If you know me, you know I do like to wear cute/beautiful clothes. :-) One thing is certain, God this week has been dressing me like a little baby in humility. He's reminding me of my failure, or not so much failure, but lack of perfection and holiness. He's saying, "Kristin your clothes look like knock-off rags to me." (I've never been big on brands, but it works well for this application)

www.bible.lifeway.com has a link for the KJV with Strong's. There you can find many definitions and root means of words in Scripture. The Greek word for on ("Put on...") is "the sense of sinking into a garment." I think often I waste time running around in circles, wondering and worrying. "God why can't I just learn to be patient with others?" "God why am I so judgmental?" "God why am I so selfish and ungrateful sometimes? You have blessed me sooo much!" I fall over and God comes to my side to comfort me and clothes me better than any of my "knock-off rags" ever could.

Picture this:
"Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.""

Praise Him! Even if your not a bride or soon to be bride, you can sense the beauty of God readying His bride-the church-in the clothes He has prepared. I want to encourage you all right now to look at the expectations you hold for yourself (and second what you hold for others). What are your motives? Why does it have to be done perfectly? Does it really have to get done today or this week? God gently reminded me multiple times this week that my expectations are far too high. God alone is perfect and I am not. My weaknesses allow for His glory and hand to be visible. Just like Adam and Eve in the garden, my sin makes me feel shame. Quickly, God runs to my side and clothes in my need even when I don't deserve it.

Matthew 6:28-30; 33

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?... But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Fellowship Offering

Fellowship in Christ is a beautiful, beautiful thing and I just continue to be reminded of that over and over. Sometimes its through being reunited with that dear friend that God has blessed you with and sharing with each other all that the Lord has done, whether over a cup of tea/coffee, typing through Skype, or in the midst of a tear filled conversation ended with prayer...Sometimes its through the sweat, tears, and evidence of the importance of the body in a silly game called basketball...And sometimes its seen as two are united in and through Him as they enter in to a life of sanctification and refinement together. There's a "profound mystery" in all of these as God shows His face in a variety of different ways. Often its difficult to understand His purpose and plan. Often it is so clear it feels like He's right there causing certain things to occur. With either situation, I seem to hear God say, "Kristin trust me. Trust my plans and let go of your worries for your family, friends, and future. Give them to me and allow me to fill you with peace as you walk with me."

I made this painting for Mark and Liza De Younge who just got married October 22. These were their wedding passages:
Ephesians 5:1 & 21-33
"Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God...
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."

I love how this picture of a husband and wife is to be an image of Christ with the church! I love how over and over in the Bible God uses different tangible, visible things to show His truth to us. I love how God is so creative in the different ways He seeks to draw us to Him.

Even the Old Testament, which I often skip over or lack the understanding to fully comprehend what God was trying to make evident, shares the importance of fellowship in Him. Leviticus 3 talks about the details of a fellowship/peace/wellness offering (translated as any of the three). My study bible states this about these passages: "Two basic ideas are included in this offering: peace and fellowship. The traditional translation is "peace offering," a name that comes from the Hebrew word for the offering, which in turn is related to the Hebrew word shalom, meaning "peace" or "wholeness." Thus the offering perhaps symbolized peace between God and his people as well as the inward peace that resulted. The fellowship offering was the only sacrifice of which the offerer might eat a part. Fellowship was involved because the offerer, on the basis of the sacrifice, had fellowship with God and with the priest, who also ate part of the offering." This sacrifice was given not to atone for sin but in thanks to God.

When I start to create these collage/paintings I often do a lot of cross referencing. After I made the base coat but before I the major of my cross referencing, I went with my roommate Morgan :-) to her hometown of Sully, IA. There we explored an old, vacant house with one of Morgan's friends, Jaden. We saw a beautiful curtain hanging in the window and I said, "I want to use that for my painting!" Jaden preceded to karate chop the window out (the house was on his families' property) and rip down the curtain for me.

God knew.

I then cross referenced to these verses:
Hebrews 10:19-25
"Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Jesus Christ has crashed through anything that separates us from the Most Holy Place! We no longer give sacrifices of animals because Christ has sacrificed Himself for us. He desires us to "draw near to God with a sincere heart." He gives us one another that "we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." So we continue in fellowship together with Christ as our sacrifice. He gives us our family, He gives us our friends, He gives us all those around us in His perfectly planned timing. This can also go the other way though too. God works through you to be that person that spurs those around you to Him. So maybe your married, maybe your dating, maybe your single...Maybe your a best friend, an acquaintance, a teacher, a coach, a teammate, a roommate, on and on...All relationships are a part of God's plan. He desires you. He has opened the curtain. He loves you.

The curtain is the center, ivory fabric on the painting. I pray this painting spurs you on towards Jesus Christ the head of us, the church. Love you all!

Joy, joy, joy, joy...down in my heart

Psalm 119:32 "I have run in the path of your commands and you have set my heart free."

As of late, I've been thinking a lot about my testimony or simply God's work in my life over the past 21+ years. I'm amazed by His gracious Spirit at work in my life when I realize the different paths that He protected me from as I grew up and made different choices. As I painted this for Hannah and Greg (based on Isaiah 55 and Pablo Naruda's poem "Your Laughter"), I became more and more thankful for the joy that is found in Jesus Christ and none other. My favorite part of Isaiah 55 says this "...so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace, the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed."

This post is a short one, but if you're reading this I pray that the Spirit will urge you to dig deeper into a relationship with our King that He may produce beauty, joy, and peace in your life. Making fruit that will last and inspire others to pursue Him, too.

Thanks to Greg and Hannah, whose joy in life and each other has been an instrument of the Holy Spirit to teach me.

PS Anyone, wanting updates from my AIA trip email me at kneth@nwciowa.edu

Grafted in

This summer I have been invited to many, many weddings. This turned into a source of inspiration to bring out a part of me that isn't always very evident in my life. I decided to make something for gifts instead of buying something (cheaper, more meaniful, and lots of fun). So after seeing a my friend Emily's graduation gift, I started on my own version of a collage/painting. The picture on the right is one that I made for Andrew and Halee Stimson, both of which I met at NWC. They both traveled to Israel last summer and I just want to share with you the message that God was teaching me about as I was making this and prayerfully meditating.

John 15 talks about the vine and the branches. Christ is the true vine and God is the gardener. We must remain in Him to bear fruit.

As you can see there's a lot going on in this painting and I see it being similar to our lives. We have good and bad things swirling around us and cluttering our lives. Often we look to these instead of what will really bring us true joy and fulfillment.

When you look at the painting you can see some pretty things, some not so pretty things around the center focal point. This shows how in order to bear fruit that lasts we must remain grafted in Christ, the true vine, and His unlimited grace given to us on the cross. When we are abiding in this ultimate grace we find our definition of love being redefined by the true love of our Lord that is both unconditional and undeserved.

Lord Heavenly Father,

I pray that your Spirit fills and renews all who read this post and glance at my rediculously inadequate attempt to be like you, the true creator. I pray that you give them eyes to see your word come alive in their life. I pray that you give them strength to pursue loving you and others with even more zeal. Ultimately, I pray that you continue to refine them as you cover them in your unconditional grace. Thank you for the gift of your son.

Amen

Thank you Andrew and Halee for boldly proclaiming this message as you were united in marriage as a vessel for our King.