By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
In 1998, I drove to Maine’s Farnsworth Art Museum to see Wondrous Strange: The Wyeth Tradition, an eerie exhibition exploring dreamlike and unsettling imagery painted by the three generations of the famous Wyeth family. Reflecting later, I contrast the human imagination of the Wyeths with the true “wondrous strange” mystery of the Gospel—God’s unimaginable incarnation and redemption.
Continue reading “The True ‘Wondrous Strange’”By Elizabeth Prata
Yesterday I wrote about the forehead. This is a prominent part of the head and usually the most visible thing people see upon meeting. The Lord uses it in verses to indicate a set determination, shame, stubbornness, rebellion. etc. It is a representation of where our thoughts and desires reside in our mind.
Even people unfamiliar with the Bible as a whole know about the “mark of the Beast” on the forehead (or hand), a mark of allegiance and without which they may not buy or sell. Revelation 13:16, 17; 14:9; 17:5; 20:4.
Many others know of the mark on the foreheads of the 144,000 witnesses designating them as Christ’s. (Revelation 7:3).
Catholics smudge the forehead with ashes on Ash Wednesday, the traditional start of Lent. Some denominations such as Lutheran or Episcopal make a mark of the cross on the forehead of the person being baptized.
Did you know the seal on the forehead was also in Ezekiel?
And the LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and make a mark on the foreheads of the people who groan and sigh over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.” 5But to the others He said in my presence, “Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare. 6Utterly kill old men, young men, female virgins, little children, and women, but do not touch any person on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary.” So they started with the elders who were before the temple.
God’s wrath for sin is real. He values those who mourn over their and others’ sins.
Jamieson, Fausset, & Brown Commentary says, upon the foreheads—the most conspicuous part of the person, to imply how their safety would be manifested to all (compare Je 15:11; 39:11–18). It was customary thus to mark worshippers (Rev 13:16) and servants. So the Church of England marks the forehead with the sign of the cross in baptizing. At the exodus the mark was on the houses, for then it was families; here, it is on the foreheads, for it is individuals whose safety is guaranteed.
2 Timothy 2:19 also confirms the seal- “Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His;” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to keep away from wickedness.”
In these New Testament days, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of the deposit. We do not have a mark on us, visible or invisible.
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14).
The Lord knows who is His. Without fail and with a certainty we can only imagine. You will know if you are sealed with the Spirit if your affections have turned from your former fleshly indulgences to holy behavior and desires. If your sanctification is progressing, you are sealed. You are on the rock!
By Elizabeth Prata
Here are some practical ideas on HOW to love as Jesus would have us love. Love these days is in short supply in the world. Our love will shine brightly if we love as Christians- loving our brethren, our families, the pagans, and even our enemies.
Extended quote from Free Grace Broadcaster #159, Love, from Chapel Library: essay The Triumph of Forbearing Love by Otto Stockmayer,
“Let us stop and consider the form of the expression. Of course, so far as we are children of God, Christ is in us. We cannot be born of God without having Christ in us. Christ must indeed be formed in us (Gal 4:19), but at the very moment we are born again from above He is in us.
Might it not be a very practical test, and a Biblical and Scriptural way of proving that Christ is in us, to get into the holy habit of always seeing Christ in our brother? Even if he were born again but yesterday, or only an hour ago, it is well for us at the very beginning of his Christian life to see in him, through faith, Christ abiding in his heart by the Spirit of God; a being of whom God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—has taken possession.
Let us learn to look at our brother as seeing in him the unseen Christ, and we shall help him in a mighty way to take heed that Christ may shine in his life. By this means he will become conscious of the holy ground on which he stands and moves and walks, by having become a Christian. We who have for years walked with Christ must help the babe, the child, to awake to his high calling as quickly as possible.
By recognizing Christ in him, we shall help him to become conscious of the wonderful secret of his new life; and we must prove ourselves to be men in Christ by not stopping short at what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears of the manifestations of the flesh which we may find in the young Christian. We must be able, through Divine love shed abroad in our hearts and free grace in our lives, to look beyond what is seen; we must love our brother through faith in God, that He may bring out the new creation in him in a beautiful way… more beautiful, it may be, than in our own lives.”
By Elizabeth Prata
I have always loved paper. I’m a writer, to comes with the territory! Especially since I spent half my life expressing myself on paper before computer screens were invented. When I was in Italy, I purposely made a trip to the town of Fabriano. That place is one of the earliest and most important places in the West that sparked the trade in paper. The tradesmen there in the 1200s invented vats with multiple hammers, shortening the pounding time necessary to grind fiber to a malleable state. They also invented the watermark.
With a love of paper naturally comes a love of journals. I recently discovered the paper-journal-site Archer & Olive. This is an upscale, super-beautifully designed journal site. Their mission statement says,
At Archer & Olive, we believe creativity and planning should feel inspiring not overwhelming. That’s why we create premium journaling tools designed to support your mental wellness and help you stay organized in a way that feels joyful.
Premium is right. They make stunningly beautiful designs for their journals, notebooks, washi tape, and so on. An especially exciting product is their Subscription box. Inside are a myriad of freshly designed items sent to the subscriber. Each box bundle, and each season’s release of new individual collections, is freshly and uniquely designed by the talent behind the scenes.
For subscribers, the anticipation quickens as the date nears for the quarterly subscription box’s contents to be previewed and then released to the subscribers. They sell out quickly, I understand, and no wonder. They are beautiful as well as practical for the journaler or crafter who likes to create art in such notebooks.
Last week, on September 1, the Subscriber box was released to current subscribers, and a few days later, the opportunity for new quarterly subscribers to buy one was opened on their site.
I enjoyed seeing the glimpses and previews of the new designs, as well as viewing old “unboxings” on Youtube. These designers really know their craft.
Yesterday I read a statement from Archer & Olive that saddened me. Now, the state of social media is known to one and all. You can carve out a quiet corner for yourself by making intentional follows and relentless blocking… but still, the negativity, trolling, and downright hate will be present even when you make innocuous statements or put out a benign vibe. And so it was with A&O. They wrote:
In the past week, we have been getting an unprecedented number of comments questioning our design process. We will be honest, we were taken by surprise by the sudden influx. Our team have a longstanding history of gorgeous designs, long before generative Al developed to where it is now, and we naively believed those years of designs spoke for themselves. However, as more new people find us, we understand that we haven’t built your trust yet, so here’s what we’re doing going forward.
MAKING OUR STANCE CLEAR
Our team quickly put together this page to clearly state our stance against Al-art, as well as including some insights on our design process we have shared before:
NO AI-ART POLICY- https://www.archerandolive.com/pages/no-ai-policy
This page is not comprehensive, but we wanted to respond quickly to show we are actively engaged in the discussion, and working on ways to make our stance clear.
WHAT WE WILL BE DOING GOING FORWARD?
We have plans to continue to share more behind the scenes, and we are talking to our artists about sharing more of their process. However, we hope that everyone can understand that we will first and foremost be prioritizing the privacy and mental health of our staff. All our artists are in-house employees, and after being met with hostility when personally engaging with comments, many have become hesitant to have a public presence.
We do genuinely understand the vigilance when looking for Al, but our designs are created by real humans; real people who are seeing the unfounded comments and increased negativity towards their work. If you see an error, there was a real person behind that error. Our team are amazing, many who have been with us from the early days of Archer and Olive, and some newer faces who have allowed us to expand our designs and style over the years. We only hope going forward their work can be met with the praise it deserves.
How bad does society need to be that floods an innocent design site with trolls spewing hate! So sad. Here they are, making beautiful things, selling them, enjoying their own products, wanting to help people through journaling, and along come a flood of negative nellies who are skeptical that real, live designers have toiled hard to bring these pretty items to the public. Real, live designers whose work is not only not acknowledged positively, but denied at all!
How unkind.
You know that photo of all the men saluting Hitler in the Nazi salute and one guy rebelliously has his arms crossed?
In these days of unkindness, we can be that guy. Being kind in an unkind world will stand out. It will be a balm, a breath of fresh air, a sweet zephyr of repose for those around you.
To fellow Christians, Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32).
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. (Colossians 3:12).
Kindness is a spiritual fruit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (Galatians 5:22).
As in like manner, kindness will also stand out in a darkening world in our attitudes and behavior toward non-Christians, too.
So then, while we have opportunity, let’s do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. (Galatians 6:10).
Even to those who are enemies! We should be kind. Luke 6:35 says, But love your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil people.
It profits no one anything to be unkind. I know I have failed myself in this regard many times. I begin each day with an appeal to the Holy Spirit to help me be kind to one and all. Fading energy, irritation, illness, are some reasons why I fail to restrain the unkindness and it comes out. But to purposely troll a business with floods of unkind negativity is beyond appropriate.
Stand out by being kind, even in the face of unkindness. Paul quoted Proverbs 25:21–22 in Romans 12:20 (ESV), To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” As GotQuestions explains,
Verse 21 explains the idea of heaping burning coals on someone by saying, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Anyone can return evil for evil. But when a Christian does so, the watching world sees nothing different about our lives. It is not even clear who is right and who is wrong when we respond in kind to the one who wronged us. But, when we follow Jesus’ instruction to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43–44) and return good for evil, the contrast is stark. Our kind and gentle reaction to hatred spotlights the depravity of the one who treated us poorly and leaves the hurtful person alone in his or her hatefulness. Nothing pricks the conscience of a hateful person like a soft, forgiving spirit in the one he has wronged (Proverbs 15:1).
By Elizabeth Prata
I was asked about the spiritual realm. It is a huge subject! Angels are an interesting subject, and I am like many of you who wonder why preachers do not preach on the subject. It IS a legitimate feature of most Systematic Theology divisions, after all. It’s called Angelology.
By Elizabeth Prata
Matthew 28:19-20 famously says,
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.“
This is known as The Great Commission, where Jesus, upon the occasion of His departure from earth, told His disciples to evangelize, baptize, and raise up more disciples.
Mark 16:15 says, And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
So, we do. We share the Gospel (using words). It is our duty and our privilege.
So it seems like it would be a dereliction of duty to quit giving the Gospel to someone who rejects it. But it isn’t. If a person has been shared with and given the blessed Gospel of God, not only once but a few times, and they reject, it is OK to stop. In fact, sometimes they entrench further into their depravity and sin each time we bring it up. Rather that push the issue, stop and let the Holy Spirit do His work. If that person has been chosen and elect, they will at some point come to see as the scales fall from their eyes.
As Paul is a great model for sharing the Gospel he is also a great model of when to stop sharing the Gospel:
Acts 18:6, But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood is on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.“
If they were blaspheming, their minds were definitely not ready and that meant their heart was not accepting either. Let them go and move on to more fruitful fields. Also, if they were blaspheming, they were heaping sin upon themselves. We don’t want that for them. Just let them go and let the seed germinate if it is going to.
Here is another example-
Acts 19:9, But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people, he [Paul] withdrew from them and took the disciples away with him, and had discussions daily in the school of Tyrannus.
They were becoming hardened. Sometimes when we share the Gospel with a loved one, we can spiritually see them hardening. We feel them moving away from Jesus, not toward.
Sometimes it is OK to stop giving the Gospel if they ask you to stop. If you have shared and are satisfied with your clarity in that share, and the next time or two you’ve raised the issue and they say ‘stop’ then respect that and just love them.
This verse is kind of a brutal description, but remember, it’s advice from the All Omniscient One-
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” (Matthew 7:6).
And we remember Matthew 10:14, where Jesus instructed them,
And whoever does not receive you nor listen to your words, as you leave that house or city, shake the dust off your feet.
So, is the person you’re sharing with stomping on the Gospel, rejecting it in a blaspheming way, or just weary of the ‘Jesus-talk’? It is OK to stop. It is actually loving to keep on loving them but refrain from continuing the Gospel share so that they do not blaspheme or harden. But pray for them.
By Elizabeth Prata
It’s high summer here in the US, and where I live (in the South). It gets very hot in July. We are predicted to have a “heat dome” next week for the 4th of July, which won’t be fun for the poor marching bands participating in the parades. I am looking forward to the festivities that are planned for our country’s 250th birthday! It’s hard to think of how fast June flew by!
By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS: The passage rejects the idea that Christians receive personal “whispers” from the Holy Spirit. Criticizing popular Christian women authors, it argues that God’s revelation is complete in Scripture and that believers should seek guidance through prayer, biblical wisdom, and spiritual discipline rather than subjective impressions or inner messages.
Continue reading “Listening for God—or Listening to Ourselves?”By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS: This essay examines Beth Moore’s early role as a sorority chaplain, critiques her experiential approach to Christianity, and urges discernment regarding chaplaincy in general.
Continue reading “Beth Moore: A Young Chaplain Without Doctrine? & A Call to Discernment about Chaplaincy”By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS: I reflect on the internet’s evolution from a joyful tool for connection and faith-sharing to a platform spreading moral confusion, proposing that ordinary Christian family life has become a radical witness.
Continue reading “The Quiet Revolution of the Christian Home”
