2 Corinthians 12:10, “For the sake of Christ, therefore, I am well pleased in weaknesses, mistreatments, calamities, persecutions and distress, for when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul’s definition here of ‘weakness’ is broad, essentially embracing the total experience of mortality in the fallen world. ‘Weakness’ is the curse of Genesis 3, in […]
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John 20:16, “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’” Mary stands weeping outside Jesus’ empty tomb…She weeps over the loss of her beloved Lord, but more than this, in weeping over Christ’s death—in which all the pain, grief, sin, death, and damnation of the redeemed creation are borne—she weeps for all the sufferings of the world. In
If I were to summarize the message of 1 Peter in one sentence, it’d be something like this: ‘In the Suffering and Glorified Christ, Christ-imaging exiles suffer in the living hope of glory.’ The Christ-follower is united to Christ Himself (Peter is no less emphatic about this than Paul or John), and—as such—can expect the
Isaiah 53:5, ‘He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds, we are healed.’ See how substitution is expressed in the very structure of Isaiah’s words, like lashes falling on the Lord’s back, we hear the repeated refrain ‘He…for
Psalm 57:8, ‘[I will sing and make melody!] Awake my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn!’ The Glory of God is that Body that hangs in terrible beauty upon the cross. That Crucified Lord, that Pierced One, that shattered Heart, that One who gives His flesh as food and His
Revelation 21:4, ‘And He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and Death will be no more, neither will there be morning, or crying, or pain any more; the former things passed away.’ In the presence of God dwelling with us in Christ every tear is wiped away…mended beyond imagination….comforted beyond all conceiving….healed so deeply
An animation concerning the ‘dark night of the soul,’ and the transformation of sorrow to joy through the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord – Thanks to Isabelle Thom for the incredible music in this piece, check out more of her work at: https://soundcloud.com/user-823112044
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2 Peter 1:19, ‘And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in dark place, until day should dawn and the morning star should rise in your hearts.’ Peter speaks of 3 lights: a lamp, the day, and the morning star. First,
Isaiah 9:6, ‘For to us a child is *born,* to us a son is *given*…’ In the literary structure of Isaiah 9, the eschatological light, joy, freedom, and peace promised in verses 1-5 are entirely grounded upon v.6 and the brith of this child, the giving of this son. Now, the Apostle John certainly read
Hebrews 3:7-8, ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion…’ Why does the author of Hebrews cite Ps.95 (and so allude to Exodus 17) in this context? How does this situation apply to his readers? It would seem that the parallel to the ‘voice’ of Ps.95 / Ex.17
Job 9:23-24, ‘When disaster brings sudden death, He mocks at the calamity of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He covers the face of its judges—if it is not He, WHO then is it?’ In this post, I’m not commenting on Job’s evaluation of the situation, only on the
2 Corinthians 1:5, ‘For just as the sufferings of Christ abound for [or ‘unto’, ‘εἰς’] us, so through Christ also abounds our comfort.’ Because the one and indivisible Jesus Christ is irreducibly the Crucified and Risen One, in Him, suffering and comfort are “hypostatically” (i.e., rooted in personhood) united. Just as there is no Crucified
Psalm 139:18, ‘I awake, and I am still with you.’ In context, this verse speaks of the Lord’s faithfulness to preserve His people through the night and waken them to His presence in the morning. However, bearing in mind the double meaning Scripture assigns to the concept of ‘sleep’—i.e., both the sleep of physical rest,
Ecclesiastes 1:4-8, ‘A generation goes, a generation comes…the sun rises, and the sun goes down…around and around goes the wind…all streams run to the sea…All things are full of weariness…” According to these first verses of Ecclesiastes, the world is full of soul-numbing weariness, and this is exemplified in the cyclical nature of the world
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Proverbs 30:5, ‘Every word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.’ A number of things to note in this verse. First, see the wonderful hope (or terrifying certainty, depending on the posture of our soul toward Him) that every single word God speaks WILL prove true. Period.
Luke 12:50, ‘I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!’ The ‘baptism’ in view here is the crucifixion. Much could be said about this passage, but all I wanted to consider in today’s post (and picture) is that Jesus knew what was set before Him
Isaiah 1:9, ‘If YHWH of Hosts had not left to us a survivor (or, in the Greek OT, ‘seed’), we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.’ Ultimately, the judgment humanity has to face is not an attack of Assyrians or an exile to Babylon (the judgments Israel faced when Isaiah wrote the
Exodus 14:14, ‘YHWH will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.’ Moses speaks this promise to Israel as they stand on the banks of the Red Sea. Death is before them in the churning waves of the abyss, death is behind them in the hammering hooves and flashing swords of the Egyptian
A bit of a longer post today. Besides creating art for Full of Eyes, I’m also the pastor of a small congregation in rural Ohio. Recently, Anna Mae, the mother of one of our members, fell down the stairs at her home and her frail, 94 year, old body was terribly broken. The prayers and
