BERAKAH
Berakah is a Hebrew word for blessings.
Grace evokes gratitude like the voice an echo.
Because God blesses us, we bless God. We respond with that which we have received.
SACRIFICE
The Creator Son comes as a man, enters the depths of cosmic chaos which sin has wrought. He takes on himself the full force of the Father’s judgment: the Judge is judged in our place, absorbing the impact of evil and disorder. On the third day, the destruction and distortion are transfigured and redirected. In Christ, all that is ugly and subversive in the cosmos has be purified, beautified and fulfilled. Therein lies the promise for the transformation of all things..
IMAGE OF GOD
Deep in us is brokenness. God with his deep compassion pours his healing love into us.
GLORY OF GOD
The glory of God shines, indeed, in all creatures, on high and below, but never more brightly than in the cross because in giving his life for the world, in emptying himself in servant love, the nature and character of God is fully manifested for the entire world to see.
NO PLEASURE IN CHAINS
God desires to free us captives from any and all forms of bondage.
Also we with God can work for the liberation of others, helping to free them from every form of bondage-religious, economic, cultural, political-that sin uses to stunt or thwart or cram our lives.
COMMUNITY
Creation itself was not complete until there was community, Adam needing Eve before humanity was whole.
Community- a place where each person is taken seriously learns to trust others, depend on others, be compassionate with others, and rejoice with others.
We are set apart for service to one another. We mediate to one another the mysteries of God. We represent to one another the address of God. We are priests who speak God’s Word and share Christ’s sacrifice.
No Christian is an only child.
REDEEMED
God slowly and gently searches, gathers and purifies those parts of us and brings about wholeness.
STANCE OF LIFE
Be blessed by God and then be a blessing to those around you.
LET GO
These are encaustic paintings.
We all try so desperately to work out our lives and relationships. We don’t have to carry it alone. We can let God carry us. He promises that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
SOW
All suffering, all pain, all emptiness, all disappointment is SEED: sow it in God and He will, finally bring a crop of joy from it.
REAP
All suffering, all pain, all emptiness, all disappointment is seed: sow it in God and He will, finally bring a CROP OF JOY from it.
MT. ZION
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which CANNOT BE SHAKEN but endures forever.
SUFFERING
The promise is not that we will not have suffering … but that no injury, no illness, no accident, no distress will have evil power over us, that is, will be able to separate us from God’s purposes in us.
All the water in all the oceans cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside. Nor can all the troubles in the world harm us unless it gets within us.
SHALVAH
Shalvah is a Hebrew word for the RELAXED STANCE of one who knows that everything is all right because God is over us, with us and for us in Jesus Christ.
