Outburst

Outburst means to have a sudden release of strong emotion. It can also mean an outbreak of a particular activity as in "a wild outburst of applause."

Psalm 19:14 says to let the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart be acceptable in the sight of the Lord; your Rock and your Redeemer.

In the past I have had outbursts of strong emotion; negative outbursts when my flesh acted up and out. I have also had outbursts of strong emotion when my Rock and Redeemer Lord caused everything within me to give a shout of praise while applauding Him wildly.

This picture has a fiery look to it; it looks explosive. What are your outbursts like?

Do they bring the burn of hurt and woundedness to another? Do they curse? Are they filled with hot anger from careless lips of a prideful unteachable heart?

Or do your outbursts bring blessing and hope, joy and strength? Do your outbursts INSIST on believing with a stubborn faith that God is absolutely in control, has you in the palm of His hand and will PROSPER you in the midst of testing and trial?  THAT kind of explosive outburst is an inner wildfire that cannot be contained and it WILL spread.

From out of the HEART the MOUTH speaks. 

May your outbursts be because of the One who BURNS within you.

NEW Day

Felt impressed to name this particular painting NEW Day (emphasis on new). It reminded me of a pretty sunny spring day where the "hidden lovelies" were popping up after a harsh winter.

Some of you may feel like you have been caught in the "dead" of winter for a long long time wondering if life was EVER going to show you blossoms of promise where you have planted seeds of faith, hope and love.

The answer is YES.

Almighty God is indeed the Maker of heaven, earth, and the NEW day.
May He show you on this day the lovelies that have been hidden and may your eyes feast upon the exceedingly abundantly extravagant beauty of them because of the One Who is altogether lovely.

Cracks

Ever experience those days where you feel like you don't have a crack in your armor, but maybe in your soul? Black cracks that run deep and all you can do is focus on them and groan.

I am so thankful that God understands my GROAN. I am also thankful that He knows where the cracks came from in the first place.

As I sat in His healing presence, He and I talked about these painful cracks. One of the intriguing things my Creator pointed out to me is that they bring out DEPTH.

So whether it is in a painting or in my life, these cracks CONTRIBUTE to the overall picture; the art doesn't look quite as flat and I am somehow not as shallow.

But Deliver Us From Evil

I had the Aurora families in mind when I composed this photograph tonight.

It is simply a shot of my hands with one small flashlight as the lighting source. A camera mounted on a tripod with a timed release took the shot while I held my hands under the lens. Nothing remarkable about all that, but it DID give the effect I was looking for  to comfort those who mourn:

I cannot debate the "higher ways of the Lord" when my humanness simply does not understand and I cannot accuse my Savior of being evil Himself for giving man a free will to do despicable things of ALL kinds, and I don't know what was going on in the minds of those who were experiencing the horror of this attack, but I DO know that the Lord is well able to save when His Name is called upon. I DO believe in death bed conversions and I am absolutely certain that the old saying, "there are no atheists in fox holes" rings true when murderous EVIL comes charging to steal, kill, and destroy.

For those who are sorely tempted to "curse God and die" as Job's wife bitterly told HIM to do, I pray that the God of ALL COMFORT will pour Himself upon you.

I don't know if those who lost their lives that night had their hands clasped in prayer or in the hand of another loved one or even a stranger, but I pray this picture helps you SEE the following:

The Lord is a VERY PRESENT help in time of trouble. The Lord was holding the hands of those who knew Him as Savior until the very end and some grabbed His hand for the very first time that night.
For THEM, their future looks extremely bright. THEY have been delivered from evil for all eternity.

I pray that as you look at this picture that you will see the Hand of the Deliverer gripping the hand of one crying out in the darkness and I hope that you will see that the hands also represent the MANY intercessors who are praying for you, your children, your spouse, your siblings, your friends, your loved ones; those who survived the attack and those who did not.

May the Lord DELIVER you from evil that would make your heart sick. May the Lord DELIVER you from evil that would accuse Him of being deaf, blind, and uncaring. May the Lord DELIVER you from evil that causes nightmares. May the Lord DELIVER you from evil that says God is dead and that the "dark knight of hell" is in control. May the Lord DELIVER you from evil that shouts to you to NEVER EVER FORGIVE OR FORGET. May the Lord DELIVER you from evil by overwhelming you with His loving kindness, compassion, provision and healing power He not only CAN do, but that He WILL do.

Blessed are those who mourn for they SHALL BE comforted.

How Beautiful

On July 7 2007 I was in Nashville attending THE CALL to pray for our nation. I had my camera with me to record this time in our history and joined the MASSES on the stadium field.

There were many people of all ages, colors, and nations worshipping and praying as one. A man was lying prostrate in front of me and, like so many, had removed his shoes.

I was so taken by this moment that I almost felt guilty for having my camera out, but I felt an unction to take a picture of the man's feet because I KNEW one day I would use it somehow and that day is now; five years later...

What was your first thought in the first two seconds when you looked at the picture before you really read the words? Was it anything like, "Man, those are some nasty dirty feet" as you zeroed in on the grime, the callouses, and how wrinkly the feet looked?

THEN the words began register and two in particular leaped out at you...

Beautiful...

Feet...

Let's stop right here. Some of you really give your feet a hard time verbally-ie-"I've got the ugliest feet known to man; my toes are hideous. I can't stand my feet" blah blah blah.

Let me ask you this:
Did you see the words GOOD NEWS on the feet or were you so focused on the dirt and callouses that you had to take another look. Let that sink in (but with NO shame or condemnation) for a moment and let's point out some other things regarding the picture.

The different colored textures that you see represent the roads we sometimes have to walk when carrying the good news. Those roads can be ROUGH. Literally rough and relationally rough. Some don't want to hear good news. Others live in places where their HEARTS are open, but the ROADS are not. Rough. Strenuous. Which is harder?  "I told you NO I don't want to HEAR it" or "Oh please come" while the roads and jungles seem to be blocking your way with NO.

So off you go; you and your branded feet that say GOOD NEWS. Did you notice that the GOOD NEWS has a blood red color to it? The GOOD NEWS also has "an outer glow" via Photoshop and it "casts a shadow." That made me snicker how the Lord uses EVERYTHING, even filter names in Photoshop, to prophetically point out something He wants us to see. Like Peter, our SHADOW can fall on people and they can be HEALED.

Finally, the deliberate light blast on the man/believer's jeans are to show that in the PRESENCE OF THE LORD we are bathed in His Light and in His glory.

Feet no longer are ugly looking and stinky smelling if we're the one crying out for help FROM the pit or  the one walking TOWARD the pit with BEAUTIFUL FEET... how sweet is the smell of deliverance and how radiant from being shod with the Gospel of Peace and GOOD NEWS.

How Beautiful.