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Eden
Job Balaam Israel Bethlehem |
Promise Series |
Eden -- Promise Series $600
Reflections by the Artist on
A Promise Given in the Midst of Despair
Garden of Eden
Though we may think of sin (as a whole) as a deep black swallowing pit, I do not think we see our own every day sins in such eternal dramatics. (If we did, would these sins be so hard to avoid?) The sins that tempt us, tempt us to manipulate our own solutions.
They weave gently and persistently into our truly God-given desires and hopes and turn these good things away from God.
Eve knew that God gave good gifts. She had tasted and seen his goodness. Her mistake, her foolishness, her selfishness, was in trying, on her own accord, to control her enjoyment of that goodness.
I have tried in this piece, to illustrate the sins that intrigue me and tempt me. The sins that look eerily beautiful seep far more deeply into my heart than those that are easy to check off my “Holier-than-thou” list. What conflicts, manipulations, or boundaries does God’s promise of hope and redemption need to cleanse in us.
God has promise hope and Himself before we relinquish control of our lives. His promise from the very beginning was made on the face of sin, and that promise gently, quietly penetrates our lives.
S. Jewell S. McGhee
A Promise Given in the Midst of Despair
Garden of Eden
Though we may think of sin (as a whole) as a deep black swallowing pit, I do not think we see our own every day sins in such eternal dramatics. (If we did, would these sins be so hard to avoid?) The sins that tempt us, tempt us to manipulate our own solutions.
They weave gently and persistently into our truly God-given desires and hopes and turn these good things away from God.
Eve knew that God gave good gifts. She had tasted and seen his goodness. Her mistake, her foolishness, her selfishness, was in trying, on her own accord, to control her enjoyment of that goodness.
I have tried in this piece, to illustrate the sins that intrigue me and tempt me. The sins that look eerily beautiful seep far more deeply into my heart than those that are easy to check off my “Holier-than-thou” list. What conflicts, manipulations, or boundaries does God’s promise of hope and redemption need to cleanse in us.
God has promise hope and Himself before we relinquish control of our lives. His promise from the very beginning was made on the face of sin, and that promise gently, quietly penetrates our lives.
S. Jewell S. McGhee
Job -- Promise Series $600
2007
Available
Available
Reflections by the artist on
Promises from Job
In the midst of despair, Job, a man who had everything and now has nothing, calls for the end of his life, for understanding, justice, a right-ness to be made to his impossible situation. When suddenly he stops, he remembers, he trusts. From the pile of garbage he is sitting on, he is willing to trust God. He doesn’t understand; he is willing to keep asking.
Not every moment of his life was so full of despair, God had been faithful, and Job knew that He would continue to be faithful despite appearances to the contrary.
It is easier to follow the path of our life if we know the One who paved it. It is easier to face the corners, the turnarounds, and the seemingly dead ends if we remember that it doesn’t have to make sense to us. The path is too long. We can’t see the beginning of our path nor the end. Just as we begin to coast comfortably, he so often turns us around and sends us in another direction.
With the smell of feces, sitting on a pile of garbage, surrounded by the criticism of his confidants, dripping from painful sores, and abandoned by the only family that hasn’t been tragically killed; from this hard place he stands in front of his friends and tells them, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” Job 19:25
S. Jewell S. McGhee 2007
Promises from Job
In the midst of despair, Job, a man who had everything and now has nothing, calls for the end of his life, for understanding, justice, a right-ness to be made to his impossible situation. When suddenly he stops, he remembers, he trusts. From the pile of garbage he is sitting on, he is willing to trust God. He doesn’t understand; he is willing to keep asking.
Not every moment of his life was so full of despair, God had been faithful, and Job knew that He would continue to be faithful despite appearances to the contrary.
It is easier to follow the path of our life if we know the One who paved it. It is easier to face the corners, the turnarounds, and the seemingly dead ends if we remember that it doesn’t have to make sense to us. The path is too long. We can’t see the beginning of our path nor the end. Just as we begin to coast comfortably, he so often turns us around and sends us in another direction.
With the smell of feces, sitting on a pile of garbage, surrounded by the criticism of his confidants, dripping from painful sores, and abandoned by the only family that hasn’t been tragically killed; from this hard place he stands in front of his friends and tells them, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” Job 19:25
S. Jewell S. McGhee 2007
Balaam -- Promise Series $600
2007
Available
Available
Reflections by the Artist on
Balaam
Promise Series
A prophet stopped between two walls.
A spear pierced through a man of Israel and a daughter of Moab.
We are stopped by sin, caught up in it. The prophet left his house saying, “I can say only what God has for me to say.” Was it then on the journey that selfishness? or greed? Twisted into his heart? Was it betrayal?
Caught by God. Stopped. Held between two walls. God humiliated Balaam, then he spared him, so that he could use him.
Balaam spoke of God’s strength, like the horns of a wild ox. Of Israel’s victories, like a crouched lion, readying itself for its prey. And he gave a promise,
“I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
A star shall come out of Jacob,
And a scepter shall rise out of Israel.” (Num. 24:17)
Since Moab could not successfully curse Israel, they invited them…to eat. Invited them to eat that which was sacrificed to their gods, then to worship these gods: to worship them by yoking themselves to daughters of Moab and whoring with them. And, before long, this sin had twisted and clutched Israel’s deepest hearts. Graciously then;, God in his anger stopped them;. He drove a spear through a couple while they were still in bed. God stopped his people, humiliated them, then he spared them, so that he could use them.
Caught up in my own wanderings, I am relieved to have a God who will stop me, hold me, heal me, and use me.
S. Jewell S. McGhee
Balaam
Promise Series
A prophet stopped between two walls.
A spear pierced through a man of Israel and a daughter of Moab.
We are stopped by sin, caught up in it. The prophet left his house saying, “I can say only what God has for me to say.” Was it then on the journey that selfishness? or greed? Twisted into his heart? Was it betrayal?
Caught by God. Stopped. Held between two walls. God humiliated Balaam, then he spared him, so that he could use him.
Balaam spoke of God’s strength, like the horns of a wild ox. Of Israel’s victories, like a crouched lion, readying itself for its prey. And he gave a promise,
“I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
A star shall come out of Jacob,
And a scepter shall rise out of Israel.” (Num. 24:17)
Since Moab could not successfully curse Israel, they invited them…to eat. Invited them to eat that which was sacrificed to their gods, then to worship these gods: to worship them by yoking themselves to daughters of Moab and whoring with them. And, before long, this sin had twisted and clutched Israel’s deepest hearts. Graciously then;, God in his anger stopped them;. He drove a spear through a couple while they were still in bed. God stopped his people, humiliated them, then he spared them, so that he could use them.
Caught up in my own wanderings, I am relieved to have a God who will stop me, hold me, heal me, and use me.
S. Jewell S. McGhee
Israel -- Promise Series $600
2007
Available
Available
Reflections by the Artist on
Abraham
It was a setup: hundreds of years in the making. A father was chosen. A younger son set apart from his brother. A king anointed from among the shepherds. The path was tedious and the path was long. God set out to captivate, refresh, and redeem his children “in the fullness of time.”
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Galatians 4:4
God sent to us a baby, he lived, he loved, he had a heritage, and he was the echo and the fullness of his family line. He was a second Adam, a man set apart to change the tide of sin. He was a second David, a king anointed from the lowest of professions. And in Him, like Abraham, “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3
S. Jewell S. McGhee 2007
Abraham
It was a setup: hundreds of years in the making. A father was chosen. A younger son set apart from his brother. A king anointed from among the shepherds. The path was tedious and the path was long. God set out to captivate, refresh, and redeem his children “in the fullness of time.”
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Galatians 4:4
God sent to us a baby, he lived, he loved, he had a heritage, and he was the echo and the fullness of his family line. He was a second Adam, a man set apart to change the tide of sin. He was a second David, a king anointed from the lowest of professions. And in Him, like Abraham, “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3
S. Jewell S. McGhee 2007
Bethlehem -- Promise Series $600
2007
Available
Available
Reflections by the Artist on
Bethlehem
Promise series
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathath,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.
Whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
Therefore he shall give them up until the time
When she who is in labor has given birth:
then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.
And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD,
In the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they shall dwell secure,
For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.
And he shall be their peace.” Micah 5:2-5
David was chosen from a small town and an insignificant clan and transformed from a shepherd of sheep to a shepherd of a nation. He was a shepherd and a king. Like an iceberg or a star, only a tiny part of his greatness was easily visible.
Is it surprising then, that the same God who anointed a teenage shepherd to be king, would send his next great king, his Son, as a tiny helpless baby? God delights in parallels and paradoxes. “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” I Corinthians 1:27
S. Jewell S. McGhee
Bethlehem
Promise series
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathath,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.
Whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
Therefore he shall give them up until the time
When she who is in labor has given birth:
then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.
And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD,
In the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they shall dwell secure,
For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.
And he shall be their peace.” Micah 5:2-5
David was chosen from a small town and an insignificant clan and transformed from a shepherd of sheep to a shepherd of a nation. He was a shepherd and a king. Like an iceberg or a star, only a tiny part of his greatness was easily visible.
Is it surprising then, that the same God who anointed a teenage shepherd to be king, would send his next great king, his Son, as a tiny helpless baby? God delights in parallels and paradoxes. “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” I Corinthians 1:27
S. Jewell S. McGhee
