Job 23:8-10, ‘Behold, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive Him; on the left hand when He is working, I do not behold Him; He turns to the right hand, but I do not see Him. But He knows the way that I take…’ In verses 8-9, […]
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
Matthew 13:44, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field…’ In this picture, I wanted to focus on the ‘hiddenness’ of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God—the reign of the risen King—is a treasure, to be sure; it is a treasure worth all that we are and have. And yet, it is
Philippians 3:10-11, ‘That I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.’ Jesus Christ is essentially and irreducibly the crucified and risen one, and so, to truly and intimately
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Matthew 10:1, ‘And He called to Him His twelve disciples and gave them authority…’ Matthew 10:16, ‘Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves…’ Summary Thoughts: To wield the authority of the Lamb who slays the Dragon through His death is to walk as sheep in the midst of wolves,
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
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Psalm 46:2, ‘…though the earth gives way…’ In Psalm 46, we see that YHWH God Himself is the unshakable refuge for those who have fled to and hidden themselves in Him. To emphasize this point, the Psalmist employs catastrophic language about the earth itself being shattered, the mountains being hurled into the sea, or the
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
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
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
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Psalm 102: 24-26, [v.24] ‘Oh my God,’ I say, ‘take me not away in the midst of my days—you whose years endure throughout all generations!’ [v.25] Of old you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. [v.26] They will perish, but you will remain… Heb. 1:10 cites
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
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1 Corinthians 12:26-27, ‘…if one member suffers, all the members suffer with [it]; if a member is glorified, all the members rejoice together. Now, you yourselves are the body of Christ, and individually members of it,’ We are members of the body of Christ, and, in His suffering, Christ has suffered the sufferings of His
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John 6:68, ‘Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life.’ When the torrents of confusion and uncertainty and doubt hammer against the disciples’ faith, what is it that binds them to Christ? It is not an elaborate system of apologetic arguments, it is not a collection of manuscript evidence, it
Gen 50:20, “…you *meant* evil against me, but God *meant* it for good…” Don’t miss the parallelism in this statement. It is not that Joseph’s brothers *meant* evil, and that God *used* their actions for good, it is that—in the very same action—the brothers meant evil and God meant good. There are at
Hebrews 10:34, “…you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” If we honestly consider what the Spirit is saying to us in these words, it truly is revolutionary. How do disciples of the slain and risen Lord respond when—because they
Job 36:15, “He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity.” He delivers the afflicted by their affliction….another way to say this is that the Lord uses adversity and suffering as a means of deliverance and sanctification and healing for those who experience adversity and suffering. Affliction is made to
