Malachi 4:1-3……..(Join the Dance)
“Then shall the virgins rejoice in the dance, both old men and young men together…” Jeremiah 31:13&14
There is a dance going on. A wedding dance. It is the dance of the Bridegroom (Christ) and the Bride (the Church). No, not that boring old building on the corner. The living, breathing Body of Christ; like the one here in Rose Creek Village. A place where the Bridegroom and the Bride dance together every day. Every day we practice keeping in step with the Bridegroom. Listening to the music of His heart and the melodies of Heaven. Does that sound strange to you? If it doesn’t, then that is probably because you’ve already heard the song to one extent or another or you’ve been practicing the dance steps and are becoming familiar with them.
The call is going forth to come to the wedding and to join in the dance. Does your heart long to dance with the Bridegroom? To be swept off your feet and to fall madly in love with Him? The Christ in the heavenlies (Jesus) and the Christ in the earth (the Church) move in concert with one another; listening to the melody that issues forth from God’s heart.
This is a dance that only disciples of Jesus Christ may do. Its not for the faint hearted or the doubleminded. It is a dance that those who have given up everything to be with the Bridegroom may do. It is a dance of joy, gladness, and thanksgiving for the life that He has given to those who are laying down they’re lives to follow Him. Do you still want to learn the dance? Its a difficult one at best because you can’t dance this dance by yourself. You have to dance this dance with others who have abandoned everything to dance with the Bridegroom. Just as a bride leaves her fathers house, and all her old life to be joined to her husband: so to must all who wish to dance with the Bridegroom. Its a life long commitment just like getting married. All that the Bridegroom has He freely gives to his Bride. However, there is a cost. The Bride must freely give all she has to the Bridegroom. It is a life for a life.
Once that is done and the vows have been exchanged the dance begins…..
The work of staying in step is now all that can be done. You have to listen to the tune and sometimes its not all that easy to hear. But one thing is for sure, if you’re listening to the wrong tune you will know because you’ll be out of step with all of the other dancers. It won’t be hard to tell; you’ll be bumping into everyone else in the dance, and always going in the wrong direction. You will always feel out of place and apart from all the other dancers. You’ll be alone because you are dancing alone. How can this be? I am part of a group. Well, let me show you…..
The whole world dances alone. Even those who are part of a group. The individual inhabitants of planet earth all dance alone; each to his own tune. Whatever tune you want to dance to, is your tune. But its not really your tune, its Satan”s tune. He just tells you its your tune, or leads you to believe its your tune.
How do you tell if its his tune? You’re alone. You feel very lonely even in a crowd of other dancers. You thought you were dancing with the Bridegroom, yet you can’t see Him or feel His nearness. Worse yet the tune you listen to has no real melody, or harmony, and you feel irritated with the other dancers. Everyone you come into contact with is oblivious to you. You are doing the dance of Hell not the dance of Heaven. They may look similar but they aren’t…..and the only way to tell the difference is the feeling of lonliness. The dance of Hell is a lonely dance. To make matters worse you can be at the wedding, and be dancing, yet be alone.
The ones who are dancing with the Bridegroom are happy, contented, and feel very loved. Have you watched the bride at a wedding dancing with her husband? Thats how you should feel dancing with Him. Thats how you should feel dancing with others who are dancing with him.
Not only that but you should also feel the pleasure of the Bridegroom as He daily tells you of his great love for you. You feel it deep in your heart and see it on the faces of those that are dancing with Him also.
You’ll have to stay alert and be on your toes; because He changes direction frequently and if you’re not careful you may get out of step and have to find your way back. So, if you don’t like change, and you would rather listen to the same old ho-hum song, then hit “x”. Forget you ever saw this blog, at least till you stand before Him, and He reminds you that you did get an invitation to dance at His wedding.
Now if this sounds exciting and wonderful to you…..
Get your wedding garments on….
and come join the dance!
(What are you waiting for? This is your invitation!)
A Wedding in Cana of Galilee
On the third day ther was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, the mother of Jesus was there; so was Jesus and his disciples.( John 2: 1&2)
Last weekend I attended the wedding of two of our children here in Rose Creek Village, where I live. (see www.rosecreekvillage.com) I decided to post some of the photos I took at the celebration. I like to digitally enhance or alter my photos. So, what you’ll be viewing is a creative alteration of the photographs that I took at the wedding. (If you click on each image they will enlarge)
Everytime I go to one of our weddings I always end up being reminded of the wedding in Cana where Christ performed his first recorded miricle. Two things stand out to me about what happened there in Cana: The first is that God picked a wedding for his son to do his first miracle, and second is that the actual miracle involved water and wine. In this story (John 2: 1-12) I see a picture of the wedding supper of the Lamb is the first. Then symbols are to me a prophecy of sorts. The wedding is on the third day. Jesus is ressurected on the third day. The water becoming wine is significant in that it represents rebirth and new life. Oh the joy that will fill his heart and ours on that day of days!
We like to dance at our weddings so there are a lot of dancers pictured here. In my mind the best way to express joy is to dance. Ther are many examples of God’s people dancing for joy in the scriptures. My favorite is King David dancing a the triumphant entry of the Ark of the Covenant into his city.(2 Samuel 6:12-15) Who wouldn’t dance with joy over the merciful and loving covenant that God makes with His people?
This first one is of the wedding couple. I’ll put up a series here and explain as we go.
By the way, alot of the pictures came out blurred because of the action and the low light levels. This may be dismaying to some but I actually like that effect when trying to portray movement either in a photo or in a painting. I also like to crop for effect. This way get to arrange the composition and take advantage of those spontaneous occurances that happen when photographing in crowds. Everyone is either smiling or moving in this shot, with the exception of my friend Benjamin leaning against the wall in the background.
Other effects that can turn into interesting images are when things are just plain out of focus. Movement does that but there is always contrast, form, and color to take advantage of when trying to frame subject matter.
At this juncture someone is probably asking “Whats this dude’s problem?” Or, maybe not, if you appreciate color and form in abstract. This couple was just married in the fall of 2009. There names are Quinn and Amy Pennington.
They are also in this next picture. As you can tell, I’m having a field day with my photography program. I love the distortions I get when I adjust the contrast, brightness, and color controls. Everything gets very surrealistc and etheral. I can also introduce a mood buy making the tint and color temperature cool or warm. For instance, I did most of the adjustments toward the warm side because it delivers a romantic feel to the composition. Most of these have sort of a peachy or coral color tint that reflects the candle light and tea lights that lit up the room. I love candle light especially in photos.
Here’s an example of what I,m talking about in this shot of the bride and groom.
We also borrow heavily from the scripture that says: “ Then shall the virgins rejoice in the dance…” These next few pictures depict some of the young girls in a celebatory dance. You must witness first hand the beauty and grace that is exhibited by the dancing that our young ladys do. They choreograph all of it themselves. Which is also a tradition that we have here. Every wedding, festival, and and passage is puntuated with their dances. Occasionally there are crys and shouts of “Do it again, do it again!” and sometimes they do a repeat performance. Then othertimes they just smile and shake their heads no. Then you realize that they had to overcome too much stagefright the first time to
want have to another experiance with it just yet. This young lady’s name is Hosanna. A great name for a dancer at a wedding, don’t you think? Of course her name comes from Christ’s entry into Jerusalem where the people were crying” Hosanna, Hosanna!” which means” God save us now.” Everyone who says her name makes a plea to God for salvation. I love it.
We have another wedding coming up. This next couple is betrothed to one another. We are all very excited about they’re devotion to our Father and his Kingdom. We can’t wait to see what He has instore for them. Her name is Chasah(pronounced : Chaw-sah) and his name is Brian. Here they are dancing:
( By the way all these pictures can be viewed in a larger format if you click on them.)
Brian and Chasah have encouraged our hearts in the way that they have walked in holiness with each other, with us, and with our Father. May Yahweh bless and keep them throughout this life and the next.
Is this a picture of the joy of the Lord or what? This is my favorite of all the pictures I took that day. Brian is a good friend of mine, and that we have been through alot together. The other thing you ought to know is that Chasah is my God-daughter. She decided that she wanted me to be her God-father, of course I said yes. Gotta tell ya, I’m honored beyond words…….. I love these two. They exemplify all that is the Body of Christ in Rose Creek Village and the joy that we experiance from the life that He has given to us. Come and see………..
“Let there be light….” (the story continues)
The bible is a book of riddles. Anyone that studies it for any length of time will eventually see this. That is if they read what it is really saying, not what they want it to say, or what they’ve been told it says.
It is a spiritual book, (or collection of books) written by spiritual people, for the edification and instruction of spiritual people. Religious people have a really hard time with it, or more accurately, give other people a hard time with it. How many times have you heard religious people say: “The bible says…” . That always irritates me because they are using it as a means to an end. I’ve heard it said, “It don’t say nothin’ you gotta look at it!” more appropriately, you have to feel it. You have to look at it with your heart, not examine it with your mind, because it defies logic. It is a book that is revealed.
Christ called His disciples His friends. (John15: 13-15) The reason he said that is because He was revealing to them everything He was doing. He said that a master doesn’t explain to his servants what he is doing, but a man will discuss his business with his friends. Like wise God, who is just like his son,(John 14:8-10) discusses His affairs with His friends. You have to be a friend of God to understand His book. Which, by the way, is a record of His thoughts and feelings on a variety of issues. However, if He doesn’t know you, there is no way He will reveal anything to you about what and or why He does what he does. Why else do you think He would say,”Depart from me you workers of iniquity, I don’t know you.”(Matthew 7:23) Without revelation from God, a worker of iniquity is the best one can do. Iniquity simply means lawless. A better way perhaps would be to say, disobediant bondservant or runaway slave. Does that sound too harsh to you? Consider this, once again :
“Not everyone who says to me “Lord,Lord…” will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, Only those who do the will of my Father, who is in Heaven will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) How can you know what His will is if you don’t know Him, and more importantly, if He doesn’t know you? Are you a friend or just a runaway slave?
04/09/2010 | Categories: art | Tags: acrylic painting, bible illustration, Bible instruction and commentary | Leave A Comment »