I've had an Epiphany!

Artwork: The Punishment of Korah Artist: Botticelli Date: 1481 Gallery: The Sistine Chapel In 1481 Botticelli was summoned to Rome . He and several other artists had been selected by Pope Sixtus IV to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel. These artists included Ghirlandaio and Rosselli from Florence , and Perugino from Umbria . This was some twenty seven years before Michelangelo began his work on the ceiling. The frescoes were completed in a relatively short period of time, about eleven months. The artists submitted a sample fresco for approval by papal officials and Botticelli's contribution was three paintings, "Events of the life of Moses", "The Temptation of Christ", and "The Punishment of Korah".  The painting depicts three episodes and tells of a rebellion by the Hebrews against Moses and Aaron. On the right the rebels attempt to stone Moses after becoming disenchanted by their trails on their emigration from Egypt . Joshua h...

“How dare you!” When I think about it, it seems like I don’t hear this phrase much anymore except in movies, and when I do hear it, it’s usually coming out of the mouth of a guilty person. It’s often used as an ad hominem argument of sorts. The priests, the prophets, and the people who heard Jeremiah prophesy against the city of Jerusalem and the temple dismissed what he had to say by dismissing him. Self-righteousness finds strength in numbers, not that it needs the help. I do just fine justifying my sin on my own. But when I find others who agree with me, and “righteous” people to boot, it makes it all that much easier to turn a deaf ear to the law that kills and ignore God’s call to repentance. This “mob mentality” is the sinful nature’s friend and Satan’s ally. You would think that if we could isolate individuals from the mob, some of them anyway, they would lose some of their resistance to the truth that should be so obvious to them. Our God finds a way. We love to hea...

Hear this word that the Lord has spoken concerning you, O children of Israel, concerning the entire clan which I brought up from Egypt, saying: “You alone have I chosen from all the families of the earth, therefore I will visit upon you the fruit of all your iniquities.” (Amos 3:1–2) Upside down. That was my position as I went over a cliff on a mountain bike one summer in Devil’s Den State Park in northwest Arkansas. Whoa! It reminded me of the time I was upside down on a zip line at Camp Lutherhoma in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. And these experiences remind me of the day I was grammatically, linguistically, and morphologically upside down when I first heard the phrase, “Niphal participle.” (Here substitute your own upside down moments; e.g., on a trampoline, while water or snow skiing, body-boarding, surfing, trying to learn Greek, on an amusement park ride, and the like). Upside down. You know the feeling—on a roller coaster, connected to a bungee cord, or trying to ...

Restore the Roar -  Midweek Lent 1 The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa —the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake,  when Uzziah  was king of Judah and Jeroboam  son of Jehoash was king of Israel.  2  He said: “The  Lord  roars  from Zion  and thunders  from Jerusalem;  the pastures of the shepherds dry up,  and the top of Carmel  withers.” Amos 1:1-2 Susanna Petroysan heard her daughter cry out, “Mommy, I’m thirsty. I want a drink.” She and four-year-old Gayaney were stuck in a basement beneath tons of collapsed concrete and steel. It was December 7, 1988, and an earthquake in Armenia had just killed 55,000 people. “Mommy, I’m so thirsty. I want a drink.” After feeling around in the darkness of their basement, Susanna found some shattered glass. She used it to slash her left hand and then gave the hand to Gayaney to suck her blood. Days passed. Susanna had no...

Artwork: Jerusalem , Jerusalem Artist: J.J. Tissot Worship Theme: "It is God's will that you should be sanctified" (I Thessalonians. 4:3). What if we have ignored God's call to holy living? God says to examine ourselves, repent of our failures, and ask for his forgiveness. Yet we never do any of those three perfectly. We must confess that, as an old prayer says, "we have no power to defend ourselves." So how can we not end up among those who permanently reject God's rescue? Only by God's constant grace in Christ. In his mercy God even used Jesus' rejection by his Jewish countrymen to put Jesus on the cross. Rejoice doubly, then: Christ did not reject his Father's will, he died for you. In Christ God will also keep you from rejecting him. Old Testament: Jeremiah 26:8 But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and s...

Christ In Our Home Devotions 2nd Sunday in Lent Jesus longs to rescue Jerusalem. 1. Make the sign of the cross over yourself and say: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 2. Pray Luther’s Morning or Evening Prayer: I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger. Keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please you. Into your hands I commend my body and soul and all things. Let your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me. Amen. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have graciously kept me this day. Forgive me all my sins, and graciously keep me this night. Into your hands I commend my body and soul and all things. Let your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me. Amen. 3. Pray the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father i...