This is a Prayer that has taken a year to paint. I will paint over it soon and start a new one.
You can enlarge any picture by clicking on it.
You can enlarge any picture by clicking on it.
Yahweh...
...Our Father, our Maker, who loves us greater than we can love our own children...
...Who lives above and beyond us... beyond the limits of what we can see, even with our mightiest tools, beyond the sky, beyond the stars, beyond the galaxies, beyond the edges of space and time...
...holy, holy, holy Lord...a name I speak with trembling reverence; I will not utter it casually...
...nor any of the names that set You aside from all other gods...
...may Thy Kingdom draw near...
...where we live, that w may live as You have asked...
...and do as You have commanded...
...on Earth, this place of struggle and weakness...
...and thank You for sending Your Spirit, The Comforter, to guide us, whisper to us, that we may have light in this world where the Prince of Darkness walks in the shadows...
...and may it be here as it is where You dwell, where You rule all, where no one seeks to disobey, to be self-centered, where a single day in is preferable to a thousand in this realm of darkness creeps, but as it is in Your courts where beings of might and majesty and ageless beauty humble themselves before a throne made of pure glory...
...a place beyond our imagining, beyond the walls of this universe, a place of glory we are unequipped to behold while we live as mortals...
Feed us today Lord, and help us to not worry about tomorrow, just provide for us this day as You have always done...
...and help us to remember, as You feed us, that all we do should be in rembrance of what You have done, are doing, and will do...
We repent, we plea, we plead, please, do not hold deal with us as we justly deserve, but have mercy, grant us Your grace, forgive us for putting ourselves first before You, our maker...
PRIDE, ANGER, GREED, GLUTTONY, ENVY, LUST, SLOTH
And teach us to forgive, may we forgive those who hurt us, those who betray us, those who slight us, those who scheme against us, just as often as You take our selfish sins upon Yourself and forgive our self-centeredness...
...and take your crook, Great Shepherd, and hook it about our stubborn necks, pull us from the edges of high places and lead us to peaceful pastures where we can be at rest with You...
...and deliver us from ourselves, protect us from what we should not know, what we should not choose, protect us from drawing near to temptation, and guide us back when we fail...
and keep the forces of darkness away...
...for You have the power to crush the serpent, to drive away the Prince of Darkness, he who calls himself the bearer of light... the great deceiver.
Holy, holy, holy Lord.May all the world see You and know that You are the source of all that is good, all that is right, all that is beautiful and just and fair and glorious...
Forever and ever and ever and ever...
Amen
Our Prayer Room
It is a place for the people of our church to go any time, day or night. The Lord's Prayer I just showed you is there. It took me a year to do, and now that it is done, I am ready to paint over it and begin again.
Here is a quick tour of what the room looks like. Soon we will repaint the entire room so we can begin fresh.
21 comments:
Powerful
Beautiful! You have a great talent. Thank you for using it for the Lord. I am enjoying these.
I am also still praying for you and your family, but I'm not sending an email address. I'll just keep praying. No reason to stop anyway, right?
Dear CS,
I tried the adress, but the mail was returned.
Anyway, I'll keep on praying.
Felisol
Lord, hear our prayer.
Amen.
You have such a gift...
Don't paint over it. It's beautiful. I love the room.
Elizabeth
These are just incredibly beautiful, heartwarming, uplifting...
Praying for you. Our service went down yesterday after a big storm...I'm back online and making my rounds. God bless you, my friend.
Dear Curious Servant..
Never before did I see how much meaning there is in the Lord's prayer.
By your painting it in word phrases, I can really see.
I think before now I have just taken it for granted as we used to say it every morning at the start of the school day.
Too bad though the children are not allowed to say it anymore.
This post was surely written by the Curious Servant that we have all learned to love as a real special friend...His name is Will!
You know the guy, eh?...Love Terry
Hey C.S. I don't think you should paint over this one. It is one of your better paintings. Either leave it there or sell it or give it away. It would be nice if whoever gets it would get you a new canvess.
Just catching up here, I've semi-retired from blogging for a while.
I will be praying for all your family for a long time. I am weeding out some blogs I read now, so probably won't read your new one.
If there is a MAJOR prayer need other than what you think I will be praying for could you please tell us all right here.
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Oh yes, best wishes for this coming school year. We need all the good AND Christian teachers we can find.
Your witness means more than you might think. What you say and how you tell of yourself lets those students your are a Christian. One who lives his faith.
I've had quite a few experiences with students coming to me to ask of, share, or discuss the love and life for Jesus.
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I absolutely love the way you pray! I feel almost drawn to take your lead and attempt to express myself to God similarly. I used to paint a little like this (though devoid of such talent) when I was in my teens and twenties, but have long disabled the function of being able to creatively express myself to God in such a way.
I love that you put a year of your prayer life into this. So often I fail to think outside the box. I am creative, but can not produce a piece of art. I want to paint but am smarted by my lack of talent and technique....but praying art, its actually more like the way one creates an icon! Praying art. What a wonderful concept. Would you be offended if I too attempted to express myself in such a way?
I have oil paints and watercolour and chalks, just sitting there and I feel frustratedly debilitated when I come to use them, but I can imagine that I may be able to pray art, because God hears every prayer
:-)
Dear Curious Servant...My wish for you is that you have a glorious Lord's Day...And Brenda too....Love Terry
Thank you, all.
Ukok: How could I be offended at such a thing? I would be glad to discuss how I do this.
You may have noticed some of the other images in the prayer room I did. I have written about them. You can see them a little better on my Curious Servant Art blog (link on the right).
I especially like the use of Sharpies in prayer. The Lion & Lamb, Suffering Lord, and Praying Hands were all done that way.
If you want a how to, here is what I do:
I lightly sketch out the image in pencil, marking where shadows are.
Then I begin to pray. I write the words that come to my heart. Where I want it to be darker I marker the letters tighter, smaller, more dense. Where I want them to be lighter I open them up, create more space within them.
I keep my prayers focussed on the subject of the art and I let the creative part of me take over.
I'm not so fond of the painting of the Lord's Prayer I did this year. It is too careful, too planned. I want to redo it in Sharpies, a whole different style.
This was the third one I have done in that room. You can see one of the other two here:
http://jobstale.blogspot.com/2006/03/where-does-creativity-come-from.html#links
(Which has others I have done as well)
you should put this in a book
Curious, your art and talent completely awe me. Your generous spirit in advising me on where to begin, well, I can't thank you enough. I am blessed.
Thank you so much. No matter how this turns out, or how bad my art turns out - I feel I want/need another means of prayer and knowing that it is 'allowed' to take such a form, well, it's incredible - I say allowed, but these are self imposed restrictions I have placed on myself!
Sometimes you just need someone else to switch on the light for you, d'you know what I mean?
I think that in a way, you've done that :-)
God Bless you!
the painting looks really nice. don't paint over it.
very powerful
becky
hello there, cs. i know. it's been too long.
*shrugs* what can i say? life gets hectic and internet stuff falls by the wayside. i know you kwim!
this painting is just awesome! you have such great talent! the LORD has surely blessed you!
i love paintings like this with so much detail and meaning, you could look at it for days and days and see something new each time.
God bless, my friend!
Thnak you... I have been blessed in many ways.
Your art is full of awe and transparency. Plus, it reveals so much talent. Thank you for sharing this artwork to us reader
Hi C.S. I hope you are getting back into the school groove and things are good for you. That's my hope and prayer.
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