Posts of Shorts with Art
SATAN’S DELIGHT: A WANDERING MIND
We wander into the past,
He’s right there to inspire regrets, resentments, or “memories” of better times.
We scan the present landscape,
He loves to point out the dangers, and all the people we cannot trust.
He leads us to a mountain top to behold the future.
There he dangles us between fear and fantasy.
No wonder the Master commands us to abide in him.
As the branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine, Neither can you, unless you abide in me. (John 15)
Which means:
Stay focused.
Get under my yoke and walk with me.
One thing is needful.
We cannot control the absurd images that keep dancing past the window of our minds,
But we can control what we invite in,
If we want to live by faith, we need to delete the bad seed before it takes root.
Prayer: Dear Lord, we confess to you that we allow our minds to wander and allow dark thoughts to fester. Rescue us from these thoughts and feelings that separate us from you. Give us the desire, the focus, and the control to abandon these dark thoughts and to even be repulsed by the bitterness that grows from them. Instead, help us to abide in you, drawing your good, loving, kind, forgiving, pure, holy nature into our minds and souls so we may nurture good thoughts that bring healing to ourselves and to others…. so that we may bring delight to you, precious Lord. Amen.
Message: Richard E. Bieber 2019 Printable/Shareable Copy
Featured Artists: Jane Spencer
Website: Facebook/artJSpencer
NO ONE CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:24)
Those who are called by God and confess the name of Jesus are called to be participants of His divine nature.
It is expected from us to please God—as Jesus did—to trust Him and to be faithful.
It doesn’t mean to live like a hermit.
It means to give up the right to ourselves—giving up dreams, wealth, positions, reputation, and even our own lives—in order to please and serve the One who calls us through Jesus, by his immeasurable and limitless grace.
It doesn’t mean to stop working and to live on the mercy of others; or to abandon the care of your spouse, children, relatives and neighbors who may need your support and financial help.
The Lord says;
“Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)
Why is it essential that you learn to live this way?
-So that you may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. (I Timothy 2:2)
-So that you be trustworthy before God, the Body of Christ, and the world.
-So you won’t be swayed by corrupt politicians, and traders of lust, and of the sinful pleasures of this life.
-So you won’t be tricked by false prophets who corrupt God’s Word.
And as we strive to serve Him, God’s own Son protects us and the evil one cannot touch us.
Prayer: Lord, help us with these divided hearts of ours. Help us to put you first, to love you more than anything on this earth. Help us to lay our lives before you, trusting in your grace and protection. Help us to choose to live righteously, seeking your kingdom, your presence, your divine way, to be devoted to you and to despise evil. Amen.
Message: Richard E. Bieber 2016 Printable/Shareable Copy
Featured Artist: Chris Powers Website: Full of Eyes
WILL YOUR HOUSE STILL BE STANDING?
“Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock.” (Matthew 7)
It is a dangerous thing to hear the words of Jesus.
Those words are light like no other words ever spoken on this earth.
They liberate the soul.
They empower those who believe and obey them.
But once we have heard the words of Jesus, we are no longer innocent.
We cannot plead ignorance.
We have heard.
What we do with those words will determine our destiny.
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22)
Maybe we struggle and stumble as we try to live those words.
But the Master knows when our heart is set on doing his will.
Sometimes we repent and ask his forgiveness.
Sometimes we pick ourselves up and start over.
But we keep going.
Then comes the storm.
“And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”
The windows rattled and the floor creaked, but when the storm ended our house was still standing.
Words from the Master’s mouth sustained us…
…. because they passed from our ears into our hearts and became rock-solid deeds.
“And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand.”
We may know every word that Jesus spoke in the gospels.
We may be able to quote the Sermon on the Mount from memory.
But are we acting on those words?
Do we keep going, when we stumble?
“And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7)
It is a dangerous thing to hear the words of Jesus.
Once we hear those words, we cannot “unhear” them.
Those words are alive.
They follow us.
They haunt us.
They call for action.
“Forgive!”
“Get rid of that grudge!”
“Live by faith.”
“Speak only the truth.”
“Keep your eye single.”
“Love your enemies.”
“Pray for those who give you a hard time.”
When the rain falls, the flood rises, the wind comes crashing through….
….will your house still be standing?
Prayer: Lord, may our house still be standing despite the storms that hit us. Help us to take the words you speak to us and make them such a deep part of who we are that we stay strong, that we stay firmly attached to you, never unhearing what you tell us. And yes, may your living words not only continue to sustain us, but continue to follow us, continue to ring in our hearts, continue to spur us to act, so that no storm can separate us from you or from doing your will. Amen.
Message: Richard E. Bieber April 2021 Printable/Shareable Copy
Featured Artist: Melani Pyke
Website: melpyke.com
THE REVEALER
Forget about trying to prove the existence of God.
You can’t.
There is only one way anybody ever gets to know God:
When God chooses to reveal himself.
And Jesus is the Revealer.
All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Matthew 11
You want to know if God exists?
Seek him.
You want to know what God is like?
Seek him.
Begin with Jesus, the Revealer.
Start listening to what he has to say.
His words open doors for those who pay attention.
His words change the landscape for those who walk in their light.
What contortions we go through in order to “find God” or “receive salvation”!
The way to God is simple.
Jesus promises that if we seek, we will find; if we knock, the door will open.
Even now he waits to show us the way.
Forget your “theology” and your “philosophy” and your “mathematical calculations”, and your “proofs”.
If you seek, you will find.
“You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me;
Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life”.
John 5
Here I am, Lord!
Help me to find my way to you!
Prayer: Yes, Father, help us to find you. We seek you. Reveal yourself to us. We want to know you. Help us to listen to your son so we can truly find you. May we hear what he says. May we choose the way he reveals to us. May we really come to him and find the life you have for us. Amen.
Message: Richard E. Bieber 2020 a Printable/Shareable Copy
Featured Artist: Courtesy of Melani Pyke Website: melpyke.com
SOUR ATTITUDE IN A SWEET VINEYARD
“I don’t mind working in this Vineyard. But why has the Master stuck me in this boring corner?
It’s slim picking here.
It’s lonely.
No one seems to appreciate what I’m doing.
I’m not sure how long I can go on in this desolate place.”
And if the Master moved you to a more “interesting” and “challenging” part of his Vineyard, would you do better work—with a better attitude?
Chances are your attitude would turn any part of the Vineyard into a dry place.
“If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:7-11)
Whatever work you have been given to do,
Wherever you have been placed by the Lord’s mercy,
He will accomplish through you an eternal work….
….if you abide in his love,
….if you allow his joy to rule your heart.
Where he places you is up to the Master.
How you function in that place is up to you!
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:12-14)
Prayer: Lord, help us to let go of these sour attitudes that make us bitter, that hinder our work, that hinder our vision, and that separate us from you. Draw us close so we can abide in your love and be filled with joy and vision about what we can accomplish even in the darkest, driest, and loneliest of corners. Help us to take up the work with sweet attitudes, with faith, with gusto, and with fervent prayers fully expecting our work to bear fruit because you are there with us. Amen.
Message: Richard E. Bieber 2007 Printable/Shareable Copy
Featured Artist: Michael Cook Website: Hallowedart.co.Uk
MAYBE IT’S TIME
When I leave this world….
The sun will still rise.
The stars will still shine.
Folks will be going about their lives as always.
The devil and his angels will be getting all the gusto they can before their time is up.
And God will still be in control.
Maybe it’s time for me to let God run the world as he sees fit.
To just serve God quietly in the place where he has put me.
_______________________
Actually, it’s a relief to let God run things without my help.
To let the Lord Jesus fit me into God’s program wherever he chooses.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”(Matthew 11)
“But what if God forgets something?”
“What if the devil makes trouble?”
“What if things don’t unfold the way I expect?”
There is nothing you can remember that God could forget.
There’s no evil that God cannot conquer and redeem.
Nothing can get in the way of God’s Kingdom, as it prepares to swallow up all darkness with its light.
“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (Revelation 1)
Prayer: Yes, Lord it is time for us to give up our need to control everything, to give up telling you how to do things. Help us to trust that you are all in all, first and last, that you are alive forever, that you and only have the keys of life and death and you that you will defeat darkness and evil forever. Help us to stop fretting and just get on with the simple things, the light things you call us to. Amen.
Message: Richard E. Bieber 2021 Printable/Shareable Copy
Featured Artist: Michael Cook Website: Hallowedart.co.Uk
AWAKE, O SLEEPER,
RISE FROM THE DEAD
Awake O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.
Ephesians 5:14
It’s not just the Gentiles and the Pagans who are asleep.
Many of us, who call ourselves believers, are lost in slumber.
Asleep to the voice of the Lord.
Asleep to the cry of Lazarus at our gate.
Asleep to the Spirit’s call to repent.
Asleep to the signs of the time.
Time to wake up and do more than smell the roses.
Time to rise and trim our lamps.
Time to rise up and let our light so shine before men…
… so that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven.
Prayer: Lord forgive us for being asleep especially during these times. And yes, help us to wake up to your voice, to wake up to the cries of the weary before us, and to repent of our stupor. May we shake off that stupor and become who you call us to be; prepared to go out and bring such healing to this world that countless numbers can’t help but give glory to you, precious Lord, because your light is shining so brightly in us. Amen.
Message: Richard E. Bieber 2016 Printable/Shareable Copy
Featured Artist: Laura Wright Pittman Website: via permission of Sanctified Art
BE NOT DISMAYED
“Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; don’t fear the reproach of men, neither be dismayed at their insults.” (Isaiah 51:7)
Don’t be dismayed when the reviling’s come from “born-again Christians.”
Don’t get bent out of shape when you see “evangelicals” exalting Christian celebrities and national leaders whose hands drip with greed and whose eyes are veiled by deceit.
Jesus is Lord.
He will deal with these imposters when the time is right.
“Listen to me,” says the Lord.
Don’t waste time bemoaning the hypocrites.
Just repent of your own hypocrisy…
And focus on the words that come from the mouth of God,
Jesus’ words.
Judgment has already begun at the household of God.
What will things look like when God is finished cleansing the church, and the fire of judgment spreads to the world at large?
Be not dismayed.
Don’t get discouraged.
Rise up from beneath your Broom Tree and go into God’s Vineyard and get to work.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:12-14)
Prayer: Oh yes Lord, help us not to be dismayed by the hypocrisy, cruelty, apathy, coldness, and finger pointing coming from the religious around us. We admit that we are finger pointing as well and that our dismay is consuming us. We repent of our obsession with their hearts, our fear of what they think, and our lack of faith in how you are going to work in their hearts. And yes, help us to look to you, to rise up from our broom trees (our desolation and distress). May we lift our drooping hands and strengthen these weak knees of ours and get up and be the instruments of healing and the peacemakers you call us to be. Amen.
Message: Richard E. Bieber 2017 Printable/Shareable Copy Featured Artist: Laura Wright Pittman Website: via permission of Sanctified Art
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