“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.”

My work provides a platform for me to reveal God and it provides a platform to then follow up with articulation of who he is, why we need him and what he has done in providing redemption. 
 
For me personally my photography has been a powerful blessing in drawing me closer to God and to growing in dependence and confidence in his care and provision of salvation and everything else. I tend to be a very angst filled person but I find that in photography the hope God’s goodness, faithfulness, greatness and abundant redemption are the focus of my work. I feel ministered to and blessed by God as I photograph the beauty of his creation.

Dear Young Artist:

Remember your first love—how much you enjoyed creating as a child. If you ever lose that sense of joy, you will need to reflect on why you lost that spark. Of course, the craft of expression takes much “dying to self” and much discipline. A discipline of any form takes perseverance. But when we are going through a period of training, we must remember the reason for our training. Our journey needs to have a specific direction. Our direction need not be toward being successful and being famous. We need to start from your first love; what we cherish, what we are, and what we value. As T.S. Eliot wrote, “our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time.”

C. S. Lewis writes about what the Bible calls the “Good News”: “God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature” (Mere Christianity, p. 167). The message of Jesus has been distorted in recent times in culture. The gospel of Jesus is not a message that we can be trained to run faster and jump higher in a race of moralism. The historic work of Jesus is still relevant in the Twenty-First Century because, despite the advancement in technology and communication, the distance between us is greater, and the bloodshed of hatred continues to spill, spreading our “Ground Zero” conditions all over the world. We cannot possibly meet God’s standard of righteousness and goodness. We do not love each other. We cannot even keep our own promises, let alone God’s commands. St. Paul reflects on his own efforts of trying to meet God’s standard and confesses: “What a wretched man I am!” (Romans 7:24) And he emphatically states, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Jesus’ love for us can only be received as a gift. Only when we rest upon himas a gift,does he give us wings, to hover between heaven and earth. These wings are gifts of grace, aligned to the original intention for our being. Our journey will begin in a Garden and end in a City. We are headed toward the City of God, a reconciled city, humanity, nature and God.

Read the rest here.

I  named my weekly Sunday posts “Sacred and Secular in Union on Sundays. This is really a misnomer because for the believer there really is no divide that comes into union on Sunday. All of our life – our thoughts – our hopes – our desires – our jobs – our relationships – our gifts belong to God. For those of us who have been redeemed Christ’s love and work completed at the cross has created not only a change in our allegiance from our rebellious sinful selfishness but has in reality created a new creation, filled with God’s Spirit. Similar to God’s breathing life into Adam in Genesis, God for the believer breathes new life through the Spirit into us. We are now able to live life in union instead of rebellion against God. We are able to fulfill our calling as being image bearers of God. We can love his world as he does.

This week I have been studying Galatians and two verses stood out as showing this divide is not an option for believers. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is  no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20) And “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. for neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” (Galatians 6:14-16) We are new and the life that we live belongs entirely to God. With this new life comes a new way of seeing ourselves and a new way of relating to the world. One of the amazing mercies of this new creation life is that we don’t do it in our own power but the Spirit of God works in us accomplishing this way of life. We live in dependent trust that he is good and faithful. We live in dependent trust that he will complete this transformation that has occurred with our new life. We live in dependent trust that our lives can be lived to love his world the way that he would. We live in dependent trust that our gifts empowered by his Spirit in us bring him glory and reflect him to a world in need of redemption.

So if there is no divide between Sacred and Secular for us as believers how does this impact our art? It changes everything because all that we create whether explicitly religious or not is a reflection and statement about God and his redemption, about his out working plan of redeeming his fallen creation to himself. I can think of at least five ways this should change our approach to how we fulfill our identities as artist followers of Christ. 1) We recognize that by the very act of creating art we reflect God. The question we grapple with first is do we reflect him truly or inaccurately. 2) The ultimate glory in all we do is his. We must recognize his gifting of us and give him credit. We must create things that are glorifying to him. 3) There is a reality that we create as a reflection of his creative power. Don’t settle for cliché commercialism but create rich, powerful, moving art that shows his detail and care in creating. 4) If we deconstruct with our art we should deconstruct the fallen broken exploitive world. Show its dark and destructive allegiance. 5) Construct an alternative reality based in God, Christ and his spirit that tells of his love, his mercy, his redemption, that shows faith, repentance and hope, and promises the reality that one day all will be made new by him.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ktizo/pool/show/ 

To the church:

An artist knows that what you can see and observe is only the beginning of our journey to discover the world. But you wanted proof, instead of mystery; justification instead of beauty. Therefore you pushed artists to the margins of worship, while the secular world you helped to create championed us, and gave us, ironically, a priestly role.

Instead of having quality artists at the core of your worship, we were forced to operate as extras … Meanwhile, in the institutions called museums, concert halls and academia, we are asked to be gods. You gave away artistic expression to the secular culture. And yet do you not know that Our Father in Heaven owns all of the earth?

Rather than giving devotion, they had to become a celebrity merchant, selling their goods; instead of giving of themselves to the Giver of gifts, they have become purveyors of a commodity. Artists have insight into the invisible qualities of the Reality; but you have forced them to serve only the visible, utilitarian and the pragmatic.

God has always, from the beginning, been an artist. He has spoken through the prophets and poets. The Bible begins with Creation, and ends with a New Creation. Everywhere in between God has chosen broken vessels, his creative creatures to create in love.

To artists who are Christians:

Create for our Father, improvise with the Spirit. Create through the Medium who binds all things together, and then you will begin to hear sounds of “the world that ought to be.” Surely, there will be birth pangs right up to that time. There will be more “Ground Zeros” created by destructive minds, twisting creative impulses into diabolical powers. Undo what they have done. Stand upon those ashes all around us, and open your hearts: look up, to Create in Love.

You must become as one; the Body of Christ. Love one another. Love is creative: Love is generative. Be diligent in the work of bringing unity in diversity of the Body. Art provides a wonderful example of diverse voices, instruments and colors to be brought together for the magnificence of the whole. You are God’s Masterpieces, a tapestry of diversity, created in Christ Jesus to birth more Masterpieces.

To artists of a distant country:

Finally, let me address the artists of the far country (Luke 15:13); you are starving though you have much. The corrupt world has given you celebrity, and the ephemeral treasures of the earth. Return to your first love. Come home. Creativity is a gift; art is a gift. Do not make it to be other than that, or you will be crushed by your own gifts: and do not try to numb the pain you feel down inside of you with anything other than drinking in the Holy Spirit.

You know you are seeing such a photograph if you say to yourself, “I could have taken that picture. I’ve seen such a scene before, but never like that.” It is the kind of photography that relies for its strengths not on special equipment or effects but on the intensity of the photographer’s seeing. It is the kind of photography in which the raw materials–light, space, and shape–are arranged in a meaningful and even universal way that gives grace to ordinary objects. – Sam Abell

As I continue to work through and pray about the development of Ktizo a community of Christian artists I want to highlight three ways in which art is able to tell about God. These three are: reflection, illustration and illumination.

Reflection - The first thing we encounter in the Bible is the reality that God reveals himself as creator. The earth is formless and void and God creates. He brings things into existence out of nothing. “And God said ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” Over and over God creates life out of nothing. The story of God as creator doesn’t end in Genesis. God creates a people for himself out of one elderly man and his barren wife. Even in the New Testament this revelation as God as creator is seen. Jesus the Messiah comes and creates life out of death. Sinful people are born again with the Spirit as new creations, restored in relationship and renewed to reveal God as a good merciful creator God. Over and over we see that God restores and renews what is broken. He creates new life in all of us. God is a thoroughly creative being.

We as his image bearers are made to reflect his nature. The artist is a great conduit for reflecting this fundamental characteristic of God. The artist creates beauty out of nothing and in their work reflects what God is like.

So what makes art different? I think it has to do with the next two areas: illustration and illumination.

Illustration - Art has a tangible way of making reality knowable. Biblical truth, the nature of God, the real working way of love, the brokenness of sin, the fragileness of life, the futility of life lived apart of dependent obedience trust  can be known by all when they are illustrated. By illustrated I don’t just mean drawn but written, sung about, performed, sculpted and photographed.

I’m a big fan of books and when I read I am drawn into the story. A good story has a way of illustrating truth and reality clearly. In Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale “The Selfish Giant” I’m able to understand the mercy and transformative power of God. In the boy, who is clearly intended to be seen as a Christ-figure, I understand the reality that by Christ’s life and wounds we are changed and because of his wounds we are assured that when death comes we will be with God. Or think of Aslan, the great lion, in CS Lewis the Chronicles of Narnia in his death for Edmund we understand substitutionary atonement in a way that makes sense and we can get our heads and hearts around. Songs can illustrate as well. One of my favorite hymns is It is well with my soul. This song clearly illustrates the dependence and certain confidence that believers have in both peace and trouble. Or think of a photograph of impoverished and orphaned children living in Kenya. Doesn’t the photo illustrate the reality of the fall, the pain of death, and the dehumanization that oppression brings? The photograph hopefully moves us to act in compassion. We are moved to be like God who heard the cries of his children in Egypt and acts to redeem them from their oppression.

Art has unique ability to illustrate Christian truth, beauty and reality in a way that an outline or simple recitation of facts often can’t and leave an impression that sticks with you beyond that moment you see, hear or read the piece.

Illuminate - Art is uniquely suited to illuminate Christian truth, beauty and reality. I want to define what illuminate means in a very narrow and specific way. By illuminate I mean it lights a path where we can hear or see God and where we can respond as he reveals himself and calls and draws us to him. Art creates space for God to work in us.

“Then for any who would express themselves creatively, there is the realization that our art can’t bring change, that our art isn’t the source for change.  But also there is the challenge to create beautifully, intelligently, with such passion, such deliberation, such obedience that we may create a space, a physical space or a pause in time, in which God can draw us and draw near to us.”

Art is uniquely suited to illuminate our path and create space for God to change us. As I think about why I love singing  It is well with my soul so much I have to admit that the song completely wrecks me every time we sing it. Through our singing God reveals my sinfulness in doubt and in letting circumstances drag my confidence away from him as the good, faithful and merciful God. Singing the song illuminates my brokenness and brings me to my knees hoping for God’s mercy and transformation to turn my doubt into confident trust. It also creates space for me to hear the gospel and to find hope in the mercy of God. God doesn’t just illuminate my brokenness and sinfulness but he also illuminates my only hope “My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”

The mission statement for Ktizo is:

Kitzo is about enabling a community of artists within the church who through their artistic expression reflect the reality of God and his redemptive purposes for the good of the church and humanity.

Our values are:

Beauty – community – creation – redemption – revelation

Hoping to find and build a community of artists who trust in God, support and enable each other to fulfill our identities as artists in Christ. If you or anyone you know are interested in participating please let me know.

Our sensibilities today are not fooled by the novelty of the camera process; modern men clearly feel the individual personality of each of the authors of different photographs, although made at the same time and in the same space. We feel the personality of the photographer as clearly as that of the painter, draughtsman, or printmaker. Actually, camera and darkroom manipulations are a technique, like oil, pencil, or watercolor; and, above all, the means of expression of human personality. – Edward Weston