Is Bible help readily available that is pertinent to artists? I'm often asked about a curriculum to follow that is specific for Christian visual artists who are engaged in the pursuit of creativity.
The Palm & Pen School was created to guide artists into their unique journeys with Jesus, using the Bible as the definitive resource book for all aspects of creativity.
There is no other book which can authoritatively
Inspire and chasten
Offer comfort and rebuke
Reveal flaws and grant pardon
Expose and cover over with grace
Prune and grow you
Cause you to weep and encourage you to rejoice
Drop you to your knees and lift you up, restored and tall
Beggar you and offer you immeasurable riches
I know of no other. So why would you want to turn anywhere else for help?
Eager as you are to develop as a Christian artist, God is interested in all of you. The changes He works are from the inside out—from your spirit to your art. Therefore, His curriculum is personalized and completely unique. There's nothing formulaic about it.
Bible help for Christian visual artists is found in His written words. Your journey begins and continues with surrender to His plans and purposes, by learning to hear Him from the pages of your Bible. With the Holy Spirit as your trusted guide you will be led into all truth.
So what do I teach?
I present what He taught me from promises He made and kept—help that came in unusual ways, accounts of grace for unexpected challenges faced in the process of art....The act sharing my stories is powerful, because I know well the strength that I draw from the accounts of others. Testimonies are at the heart of our journeys as Christians for a simple reason—God never changes. He has promised that what He does for another He will do for you, if you can just trust His words.
Of course, learning to trust is a slow process incrementally developed over time—through many seasons of blessings, but mostly through challenges. No one enjoys difficulties, but they are the furnace in which your faith is refined into pure gold.
"And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God." Zechariah 13:9
God desires that we mature into people who intimately know His nature and character. Unfortunately, reaching that place of confidence in Him only begins when we surrender to Him as Lord, or Master, of our aspirations. As self willed, autonomous beings, submitting to His direction and leadership is tougher than it appears. We are naturally prone to doing things our way and charting our own course in life.
To hope to escape the rigor of the process is foolish. No one does. The twists and turns in your journey will be unique to you, and through them He will custom fit your curriculum to match you!
Your strengths will be polished and magnified and your weakness, gently highlighted.
Remedies will be suggested to you, and if you choose to take them, you will find yourself slowly transformed.
All this is possible only if you consistently seek counsel in the right place— the Bible.
Help is provided as the written word is "quickened" to you as you read in faith. The love story of the Bible has YOU at the heart of it with God wooing your fidelity and trust. Anticipate hearing from Him every time you settle down to read. It is like no other book on the planet!
However, its power is only manifested when acted upon by faith, when His power is released on your behalf to change you, and the circumstances of your life in more ways than you can imagine!
These truths dawned on me slowly, but once learned there is no way that you can dissuade me from its supernatural power. God honors His word, He will show up to make it real to you.
In the Bible, we either receive help as
Direct commands and instructions or
Indirectly, from the riches gleaned as we study the lives of those who have gone before us – 'the great cloud of witnesses' cheering us on.
But its words, theories, ideas and concepts remain dormant until they are acted upon and put to work by faith. Then the resulting outcomes are breathtakingly powerful and undeniably inspiring so that you are left with no doubt that God just spoke to you, or rescued you, or helped you, or took care of your need.....
Precious truths I've gleaned from the Bible to specifically benefit Christian visual artists are presented at SaraJoseph.art. I've trusted and acted on God's counsel for over three decades now. His precious and timely help has consistently transformed my life and my art. I pray that it's visible in all that I create or do. If not, stick around and watch me for a couple more years.
Extraordinary events in an ordinary life are attention grabbing. My life is full of such accounts, inexplicable, except for God!
Keep in mind while browsing, that although I have presented some possibly useful ideas, I do not make claims to being conclusive in anyway. Thousands of years have come and gone, and no one can boast of gleaning all the riches in the Bible! Making it relevant for your own life, in the time that you've been granted here on earth is truly a worthy pursuit. Nothing can take the place of your own lessons learned.
God still speaks today through the Bible. He will help you form your own conclusions.
There is no other guaranteed way to grow as Christian artists, than to spend time studying the Bible with the God of the Bible, creation and all creativity.
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