“Connections”
BLOG BURST:
"Artists paint and paint and paint some more. The other day I read an article from an author who said he was an artist. He was seeking advice on how to sell his work and how much they were worth. He started by saying he didn’t want to brag, but he was a really, really great artist and his paintings were really, really something. At the end of his writing he said he had not been to art school, hadn’t been to college and hadn’t graduated from high school as of yet. It left me with the same feeling I had when I was asked by a fellow artist, will I be more famous if I use oil or acrylic?
Paintings are works that engage you and can even bring you to your knees. Viewers as well as artists can have feelings and emotions about the works they’ve seen or produced, but it’s not true love. Often there is that question, “What is true love?”
John MacArthur in his sermon, “Love: A Feeling, or An Action? From Corinthian 13 tells the difference
Here is a couple of excerpts:
“Few people have any idea of what true love is. Most people, including many Christians, seem to think of it only in terms of nice feelings, warm affection, romance, and desire. When we say, “I love you,” we often mean, “I love me and I want you.” That, of course, is the worst sort of selfishness, the very opposite of agapē love.
Self–giving love, love that demands something of us, love that is more concerned with giving than receiving, is as rare in much of the church today as it was in Corinth. The reason, of course, is that agapē love is so unnatural to human nature. Our world has defined love as “romantic feeling” or “attraction,” which has nothing to do with true love in God’s terms.
The supreme measure and example of agapē love is God’s love. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). Love is above all sacrificial. It is sacrifice of self for the sake of others, even for others who may care nothing at all for us and who may even hate us. It is not a feeling but a determined act of will, which always results in determined acts of self–giving. Love is the willing, joyful desire to put the welfare of others above our own. It leaves no place for pride, vanity, arrogance, self–seeking, or self–glory. It is an act of choice we are commanded to exercise even in behalf of our enemies: “I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:44–45). If God so loved us that, even “while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10; Eph. 2:4–7), how much more should we love those who are our enemies.”
POETIC PONTIFICATION:
“The convoluted acts that we think are facts
Never spending time to see where it lacks
Never looking deeply in our minds and souls
Standing on presumption ever so very bold
But the curse is deep and strong tearing us apart
We so need the only remedy there is for the heart!”
“Find a painting that crystallizes the memories of your mind and brings you to the truth. Have a great day and a good week!”
"Find my paintings, or may my paint-tings find you!"
Douglas Auld
Copyright MMXI Auld, Ltd
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