1 Thessalonians 5:8, ‘But we belong to the day, we should be vigilant, having put on the breastplate of faith and of love, and the helmet of the hope of salvation’ Consider, specifically, what it means to have the ‘hope of salvation’ as our helmet (περικεφαλαίαν, literally, that which is ‘around the head’). A helmet …
Isaiah 51:3, ‘…YHWH comforts Zion; He comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her deserts like the garden of YHWH; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.’ On the cross, our Lord and God enters into, bears, and—indeed—becomes the ‘waste places’ of His Bride’s …
In many ways, it would appear that tremors of existential uncertainty have been rumbling through the collective millennial soul since the mid 2010’s, and my prayer has been that this animation might be used by the Lord in some small way to achieve the twin end of dismantling the explicit and implicit arguments of …
The Wounds of God – An Animation about Doubt and Love at the Cross Read More »
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
Proverbs 25:11, ‘A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.’ A classical understanding of ‘the Beautiful,’ recognized ‘Beauty’ as that which appears when diverse parts harmoniously agree with one another, revealing a new whole within the concert of their unity. The idea of ‘fitness’ in Proverbs 25:11 seems to …
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, …
Job 19:25-26, ‘For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the dust. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.’ With these words, it is as though the the skeletal hand of Job’s faith, livened by the breath of the …
John 11:21, ‘If you had been here…’ ‘If you had…’ — With these words, Martha’s imagination conjures a state of affairs that she believes would have been better than what has, in fact, happened…If Jesus had been here, Lazarus would not have died, she and her sister would have been spared the pain of loss, …
Hebrews 2:8-9, ‘we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him. But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.’ Notice the …
1 Peter 1:5, ‘…who, *by God’s power*, are being guarded *through faith* for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.’ Note that in this verse, Peter tells us that it is *God’s power* that guards the believer, but the means by which His power guards them is *their own faith.* The power …
The Paschal Trilogy – Part III/III – Resurrection Sunday Luke 24:30-31, ‘When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him.’ The disciples did not recognize the Risen Lord until He *broke* the bread and …
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, …
Isaiah 60:20, ‘Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for YHWH will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.’ (also v.4) Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, and I was asked by my Sister-in-Law to create an image based on Isaiah 60:20 that …
2 Corinthians 12:9, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for [my] power is made perfect in weakness.’ The weakness that Paul speaks of here—weakness in which the anastasiform (resurrection-shaped) power of Christ is brought to completion—are the very same weaknesses that Christ bore in Himself on the cross (Is. 53:3-4). That is to say, they …
Psalm 42:11, “Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.” How do we know that ‘we shall again praise Him’? How do we know that this darkness is going to lift? That we will rise again from this pit? That the hopelessness that has devoured days, months, years of …
Hebrews 11:1, ‘…faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’ You’ve probably heard someone ask, ‘If God wants people to believe in Him, why not give us irrefutable proof?’ But that line of thinking misses the point entirely. The desire to have ‘proof’ is the desire to have specific …
Isaiah 37:14, ‘Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of YHWH, and spread it before YHWH.’ The Text Considered The letter that Hezekiah receives here is a message from the king of Assyria saying that YHWH is unable to save His people …
2 Corinthians 4:17-18, ‘This light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.’ The sufferings of this age—which are the sufferings of Christ on our behalf—are working eternal glory for those …
1 Cor. 15:58, ‘Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.’ These words about steadfast laboring form the capstone of chapter 15 which focuses on the resurrection of Christ and of His people in Him. What …
2 Cor 4:17-18, ‘this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.’ Paul does not say that our afflictions in this life will *give way* to glory, but that our …
