Monday, March 26, 2007

The Jilted Lover


This painting is about the groom... Jesus

In the book of Philippians in the Bible, a man named Paul talk about Jesus

"Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. "

The unfathomable God, wrapped Himself in this finite flesh and bones....
The all powerful became fragile...
The beginning and the end took on the form of the decaying and dying....

All to marry us.

Humanity and God were one in the Garden. There was a great divorce. So God comes down in human form to speak to us about this eternal life with Him, takes away all the barriers and places the guilt on himself, and offers us marriage again (John 17:3)

In this painting, we see Jesus, the Almighty, as a new born.... new, weak, fragile... in this world coming with an engagement ring....

Coming to be rejected by most.

the Rejected lover. The Jilted Lover

Heart Transplant


This has to do with sabbath and identity.

We have a PDA in place or the heart... on the PDA is "Sunday/ To Do/ Be productive"

Have you really ever tried to take a day off? Really... not do anything? By mid afternoon when i haven't called anyone, or emailed, or done something... i feel so worthless. i'm such a slave to productivity.

Alot of us are. We always are go go go. and when we aren't we freak out, become restless, or fall into some kind of depression.
So much of our identity is wrapped up in what we do. We have forgot how to just be. We have forgotten that in the silence the One from which we have all come from speaks to us about who He is and who we are in Him. This is where are value comes from. This day renews us to do the rest of the week where we are told so many other things.....

Affair


The only time Jesus ever compares God with something else is when He says ,
"You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and wealth."

This is our biggest mistress.
So much of our our security, purpose, attention, identity, time, energy, value is spent on wealth.

We are the bride of God.... and we are having an affair.

Made in the Image of Me


This painting is about our view of self and others.
We live in a culture that is obsessed with what we look like on the outside... and often our image of ourself is based on those standards instead of the view of the Creator.
We strive to create our own worth through our own activities and accomplishments.... and we often hold these standards of worth to others as well.

We ignore the purpose of intent by the One who knits us in our mothers womb.
We ignore the joy and worth of the Creator.

The Value of $300


This painting is about materialism.
It's not saying owning stuff is wrong. It more has to do with the end of Schindler's List. During this film, Schindler had been using his wealth to save the lives of Jews during the Holocaust. After it was all over... in this last scene, we see him looking though his goods, showing a pen, saying "see this pen. it has gold on it. i could have gotten two jewish lives for it."

The comment on this painting isn't about owning things... but more about do we know the value of what we have. For $300 you could buy an ipod, but you could also save the life of a child for a year. This truth exist... and we have to wrestle with the knowledge of this truth.

I wonder if we will have a moment of retrospect where we question the value of what we kept.

"Adultery of the Church" write up


In December, I was in prayer and was pretty much downloaded these paintings.... God asking me to make them and put them out there. I struggled through each one personally as no creator can make something that communicates a message without first having to apply it to there own lives. It was a very humbling and sobbering experience.

I believe they communicate a larger message that God is saying through many different venues. The message is this:
we have left our first love... and He is calling His bride back to Him. He is a jealous husband and He will do whatever it takes to remove these obstacles of adultery from this relationship. We often allow these idols exist because of our comfort, security, and pride in ourselves. So if these things must go in order to bring us back... then they will be challenged.

My prayer and hope for these paintings is a response of repentence.

This is the write up I had at the show:




Read this:

“On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.”

'Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, "Live!" I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare.”

'Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.”

'I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD.”

'But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his. You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. Such things should not happen, nor should they ever occur. You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them. And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them. Also the food I provided for you—the fine flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat—you offered as fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign LORD.”

'Woe! Woe to you, declares the Sovereign LORD. In addition to all your other wickedness, you built a mound for yourself and made a lofty shrine in every public square. You built yourself a high place at the top of every street and made your beauty abominable, and you spread your legs to every passer-by to multiply your harlotry. You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and provoked me to anger with your increasing promiscuity. So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd conduct. You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied. Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied."

'How weak-willed you are, declares the Sovereign LORD, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute! When you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment."

'You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! EZEKIEL 16


Does this passage freak anyone else out? I mean, did you know this kind of language was in the Holy Bible?
And can God really say, “spread your legs... to multiply your harlotry”?

Apparently He can. This is a specific passage where God is speaking to a specific group of people, Israel. Awhile back He entered into a relationship with them, a commitment to be each other’s one and only, and now we see that Israel has breached that commitment and has “cheated” on Him.

What I find interesting about this passage is the language God uses. It’s not this booming stale voice from the sky like we picture from Monty Python films. But it’s this excruciatingly painful lament of a husband over his bride. In fact, we see at the end of this passage that God’s relationship with a people is viewed as a marriage.

I’m newly married myself and as my wife and I are on this journey, I’m finding my preconceived notions of what marriage is is falling away and being replaced with the reality of this commitment. And commitment is the biggest part. So with this reality, it seems to me that commitment context between a group of people and God is viewed in His eyes as an intimate, loving.... marriage.

I live thousands of years later from when this passage was written. And even though there is not a specific nation that God has chosen anymore, there are many people who have chosen to commit to Him and have in fact become His bride. This is a language that is used a lot in the North American Christian Church... that they are the “Bride of Christ.” If you had to peg me in somewhere I guess you could put me in this group... although I’m not always sure I want to be pegged with the North American church. The reason is there is so much garbage that has been mixed in with the true essence of knowing God... and it repulses me as much as the rest of society. But having been on this journey with the “Bride of Christ”, having seen what I’ve seen, and in light of this passage from the Bible, I have to look and ask myself, “Is there anything to convict us of being a whoring bride?”

These paintings are based on that question. These are muses on our own idols... the adulterous tendencies of the North American Church... the things that fall into the category of a relationship buster. They are an insider commentary on what we say we believe but where in reality we prefer strangers to our own husband.

They were made in the utmost humility and grief.

Monday, March 19, 2007

it's been so long....


the last time i wrote something on this blog was two years ago... which seems like a lifetime ago. i guess i didn't really get into blogging to much. i don't know... it seems a bit narcissitic doesn't it? it's almost like a journal that nobody will read out of the millions and billions of other pieces of information out there. but oh well, why not? maybe there will be something helpful that i can put down that may inspire, counsel, or motivate someone else.....
maybe it will just be good to start journaling again.

anywho... it's good to be back in the game

scott