Advent 5

Lamb

5. A Lamb

This picturesque name for our Savior is unambiguous. In the Old Testament, abundant prefigurements explain the meaning of the term as a perfect, innocent, substitutionary sacrifice for the sin of others. We read this in the stories of Abraham's offering of Isaac, of the first Passover and the blood on the doorposts, in the countless mentions of temple offerings, and in John the Baptist's specific naming of Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Then we read of the life and work and work of Jesus, how He never sinned, how He helped and served, how He gave His life for others, and how His death atoned for all the sins the lambs' blood never could. This Lamb though had a different ending to His sacrifice: He arose from death and lives eternally, and gives that same gift to those He Justifies.

Genesis 22

Exodus 12

Numbers 6:14

John 1: 36

Hebrews 9: 12, 22

Revelation 14 : 4; 17: 14

Quilt Reborn

I figured it out! I figured out how to get photos from my device to make a post! 🙌🏻 

I took these photos last night to share this quick project but then realized I wouldn't be able to get them here. But! I figured it out! So here they are...

Here's my quick sewing project- 

This week is my #1 son's birthday (on St. Nicholas Day) and tonight his dad and I will be meeting up with him (and his brother) for a birthday supper in the big city.  I recently found this quilt in a storage closet in the barn. It is the quilt I made for Kris when he was a boy and he loved it and used it daily.

 

I've since learned a lot about fabrics and how poorly some are made. In the future any project that I hope will last a lifetime will need to be made from high quality, expensive goods. This quilt, just from a normal amount of love and wear, has fallen apart and is irreparable.

What I did was cut parts from the middle, the less worn area, to make a pillow cover to give Kris for his birthday.

Though less worn, the fabric is still very fragile so won't last a long time but he will get a bit more enjoyment out of his boyhood quilt.

(I had to switch to my laptop to finish this post as the digital device was too uncooperative but at least now I can get photos transferred which was the main reason I was unable to make many posts this year)

Dutch Masters and Amsterdam

More Views of Amsterdam

Most of the populace rides a bike for the majority of their transportation needs. Some live on boats, like you see here.

And More Art

Two versions of Peter’s Release From Prison, by students of Rembrandt.

And more to come.....

Advent 4

Angel

4. Angel of the Lord

An angel is, by definition, a messenger. This is someone who speaks for another, someone who is sent to make the delivery, to transfer from one mind to another some information. We know that generic angels are spirit beings created to serve God, usually by helping His people. Though some angels fell away and now pervert that duty by trying to drag people away from God, they are still messengers, just of lies now. In the book of the Revelation we read that pastors are called angels of their respective churches, for they bring God's message to His people. Our Savior is also called an angel, and He also brought messages to people. He is called the Angel of the Lord, indicating His message is from His heavenly Father. His message is about God's plans for His creatures. The first use of this term is in the first book of the Bible in the account of Hagar, when she was cast out of Abraham's household with her son Ishmael and left, as she thought, to die. But God speaks directly to her about the blessings awaiting her and her son, and the speaker is called both the Angel of the Lord and God, which would lead us to equate Him with the Son of God. Elsewhere the same term is used of created angels as we can deduce from the context. In some of the over six thousand uses of the term we cannot be sure if the name refers to our Lord Himself or one of His heavenly servants. But some uses are quite clearly referring to the Second Person of the Trinity. For instance, in Acts 7: 30ff, in Stephan's testimony to the high priests, he speaks of Moses seeing the Angel of the Lord speaking in the burning bush, then shortly thereafter he calls this speaker God. So we can know that Jesus is Himself both the Word of God and the Messenger of God's words.

Genesis 16; 21: 17 – 20

With Today’s Advent Theme

From My Sketch Book 

Top of the List

The Greats

Yesterday and today we visited museums with some of the best art in the world. I filled a sketchbook, at my leisure. And I was able to take some pictures, which are not great, but which, over time, I will try to share with you.

That is Rembrandt’s The Night Watch at the end of the hall with the crowd of people in front (and a guard on either side, to prevent any attacks - it was slashed in the 70’s)

Tomorrow very early we head home to get back to work.

Advent 3

Three/One

3. Three Men/ The Lord

The account of Abraham's Visitors is often not given the attention it deserves. The focus is usually on the message delivered, that Abraham and Sarah would have the child promised to them, the son who would be the first part of God's delivery on His promise of a Savior for the whole world. That is a wonderful and miraculous story. But Who delivered the message is quite vital to the story. The Bible words read, “… three men…. The LORD.” This is the Spirit in Flesh. The Divine communicating with weak and doubting humanity. This chapter has many interpretations (and you are welcome to your own). The typical explanation is that one person of the Trinity and two angels come to visit. This Person is usually said to be the Son, (John….) who gives a message of a foreshadowing of His own miraculous incarnation. Then Abraham talks to Him to plead for the righteous in the wicked cities, while the “two men” are equated with the angels of the following story events. But this isn't the only viable interpretation. In other cultures this event is given great honor in art works. The Three Men are all depicted as divine and identical. The use of alternating singulars and plurals in the text is significant. “They” speak simultaneously, as one. God identifies Himself as the instigator and manager of the action. God says that He will go see the wickedness of the cities, and send judgement on them, which He does from heaven (ch 19:… ). His angels, plainly identified and never addressed or worshiped as dieties, carry out His rescue work in the following chapter. In the event of Abraham's visitors, however, God plainly says He is present, and Abraham addresses Him as the One true God. Abraham knows he is in the presence of God, wrapped in and veiled in flesh, with His glory hidden. Abraham has talked with God frequently before this and obviously recognizes God when he sees Him. Over his lifetime Abraham had his faith stretched to the breaking point with the long wait for the fulfillment of the promised son, with the self-manipulated “solution” to the wait in a wrong son, with the command to cast out that first son, and with the later command to sacrifice the promised son; but in all he could remember Who gave him the promises, and his faith held firm. We have those words, too.

Genesis 18: 1 – 33

Amsterdam Viewing

Museum Tour

My family gave me a gift of a trip to Amsterdam to visit art museums. (That is like going to Chicago/Denver/Atlanta for you in US. Close.) Maria is in charge. We had a lovely day today meeting Rembrandt, figuratively. Following are some photos of the city and where we went.

At the airport.....

Centraal Train Station (they like vowels here). It was very foggy today, atmospheric.

A church across the way.

Rembrandt Huis Museum, where he lived and worked and trained apprentices. We both decided we would be happy to live in that house, narrow, winding staircases notwithstanding. This is the entrance hall where Rembrandt had paintings for sale, mostly by other artists. He was a dealer, too.

The Amsterdam Hermitage, with Dutch pairings on loan from Russia, where Dutch paintings were bought up by the bucketloads.

Night time in Advent.

I almost filled a sketchbook today with drawings from various paintings. Maria was very patient, so I could take my time. I will get pictures of those to share later.

Advent 2

The Seed

2. Seed of the Woman

While Jesus is often called the Son of Man in the latter parts of the Bible, He is first, from the beginning of creation, denoted as the Seed of the Woman. In this there is much of significance. It revealed that a Savior to solve the problem of sin would be human, would be born, would proceed from a woman. God, in speaking the first prophecy of the Savior to humanity, did not suggest a random happening from out of the blue, but that the salvation would be His own doing, and thus the redemption divine. Through the development of that prophecy in subsequent time, the message was further refined so that mankind knew that the Redeemer was God Himself, yet still the Seed of the woman. This is incomprehensible, marvelous, but wholly true and exactly what happened. God omnipotent and eternal became truly human, wrapped in time and space and the laws of nature. And thus – while conceived miraculously – He was born, all so normally, of His mother. And what a blessing this is for women. While she committed the first sin, she was most graciously given the honor of using the essence of womanhood to be a vessel of the Redemption. The name, The Seed of the Woman, is a way that God gives honor to all of His female creation and all of their toils and joys of motherhood.

Genesis 3:15

Advent 1

The Word 

This is the first of a series of Advent meditations, for my family and anyone who wants to follow along. It is intended to help keep our focus on the Reason for the Season, and lead up to the themes of our Christmas services this year.

1. The Word of God

This name is about as basic as a name can be: a name is a word for something and our Saviour is called The Word. This encompasses every other word in existence, in every language, and all of the essence of language, and thus the totality of discourse, all reasoned communication (for that is what words are for, smut and gibberish notwithstanding), all expressed thoughts, all formulated propositions, and all delineated conclusions. Our Lord is all of those things, and all of those things proceed from His essence if they have any meaning at all. So if something is named or discussed or described or proposed or concluded, it can only happen because Jesus is named, revealed, described, presented and finished as our Lord. That is quite remarkable to consider. If words were gibberish, if words were random, if words had no fixed meanings, if words were not strung together in some reasonable and knowable order, we could not understand one another's thoughts (granted, even with words we sometimes cannot) or find meaningful ways of acting together. My “Ulka bulunga ti” could mean “Let's go have ice cream,” but you would never know. But because our Lord is The Word, we have meaning and order and possibilities for communication.

When God speaks, He speaks through Jesus' essence, and that essence came to earth Incarnate, to us, to give meaning to our lives and discourse. Blessed is The Word.

Genesis 1: 3ff

John 1:1 ff

Revelation 19: 11- 16