All Things Beautiful and Bright: My Personal Manifesto
What do my expressions of thought regarding the various topics of my posts have in common? They are in some way or another, to me, a vibrant example of what can be perceived as beautiful and bright.
I have attempted to weave a commonality between each posting that reflects my understanding of life, my experiences, source of wisdom, identity, and above all my beliefs.
From my first submission of observation with the artwork by painter Thomas Kinkade, The Cross. The beauty of its imagery is easy to comprehend but I think that my post captures a deeper meaning and with it an understanding of what the beauty of creation really symbolizes when corresponding with one’s faith in Jesus Christ. On the other hand, when one takes note of my writings when relating to subject matter less personally pleasing, I have attempted to express an understanding of the subject with a hope that an unbias appreciation for the medium of art can be obtained regardless of personal preference or liking. Again, even in the moments of finding some form of value in the subject matter, I disliked, it presented a way of finding beauty in the midst of the mess and chaotic expression of creativity.
Blog Post: The Cross- Inspiration to Endeavor towards Eternity
https://briabareathome.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-cross-inspiration-to-endeavor.html
BELIEFS
I believe that each person and each creature created by God has immense value in His sight. That the God who knit atoms together with quarks and the glue in between would be mindful of mankind. But I found throughout my time creating this blog, that there is so much beauty around us. Even in my small existence.
What is beautiful to one who is without sight? How do we perceive it? For us who have been blessed with vision and a mind and heart to comprehend the immensity of the word, we can draw down the very small elements of existences and find incomparable beauty. But for me, because my experience of observing beauty comes from how it affects me emotionally, I tend to observe beauty from a place of deep gratitude for its very being and for the privilege of having experienced it at that moment.
My heart, my home. Indeed where all things are beautiful and bright.
Blog Post: Where You Go, I Am with You
https://briabareathome.blogspot.com/2021/02/wherever-you-go-i-am-with-you.html
This picture captures a perspective I don’t even think I can capture with the naked eye apart from the way a camera expands an image into a more structured form for the eye to perceive. Colors and shapes and the order of design for this room, in particular, speaks to my enjoyment of esthetics. It's a wonder why we don’t take more pictures of our surroundings, the everyday items that if we stop and observe them as if pieces of art, we could come to a much deeper appreciation for them.
IDENTITY is the counterpoint to my belief.
I believe that I and every other person has been uniquely made and given significance by an Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient Creator God. The evidence of God’s existence, creativity, and immense power is found in the perfect order and complexity of his creation. I believe that this world has been created to showcase the majesty of its Creator. “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20
One does not need to be shown or taught that the mountains are majestic. One only needs to be taught to be aware of what it already is. I believe that man does not and can not know everything but has an innate need to know the meaning of life. I believe that I have found the True meaning of life and that is to seek Truth and purpose in why I was created. I believe why we were created was to bring glory to the One who created us and to have a relationship with God. To understand God’s purposes in pain and sorrow and to experience life’s journey as God intended it to be experienced. That being in complete communion with Him through the One in which all things were created by, through, and for, God’s Son, Jesus Christ. “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” Colossians 1:13-16
For me, as I wrote each post, I could not separate the perspective I had for each subject matter from the identity I have in Christ Jesus. If all things were created by, for, and in Him, that I myself would be created by, for, and in Him. Therefore, my perspective is that my identity, my being is “in Him”, I could not be separated from who I am in Christ.
My Identity In Christ leads me to where my Joy is found.
My joy is found in Christ, in that I experience life and express my thoughts as one grounded in my identity in Christ.
There is a scripture that states, “For I have been crucified with Christ, therefore now I no longer live but Christ lives in me.” To some, this seems morbid or strange. Am I a zombie? To those opposed to the idea that Christ calls me to “die to self”. Then it would be very strange. But to the one who has experienced what it means to be “born again”, having been “crucified” to sin, then that former life has indeed been crucified and a new life is “born” in Christ Jesus.
My Joy is Not Dependent on the changes I experience in this life. Therefore, I can have joy even in the darkest of times. It is foundational to Who I am.
My Joy is Foundational to Who I Am
https://briabareathome.blogspot.com/2021/03/my-theme-this-is-joy.html
FOOLISHNESS
A fool says in his heart there is no God. Psalm 14:1
The result of a mind opposed to God and the wisdom that comes from reverencing him will lead to folly and a puffed-up sense of self grandeur. To have intellect and not understanding is a child having in its hands the power to harness the sun, but having no concept of the purpose or danger of it. Man without God endeavors to be great, for greatness' sake. For vanity alone. Man without God, endeavors to obtain knowledge without obtaining understanding.
Chaotic disordered perceived as introspective thought is the opposing idea of this manifesto. To the foolish, chaos and disorder is a bitter pill posing as delightful play. As seen in one of our final post assignments.
“Depravity in Video Expression” An analysis of creative dissonance through video art.
GOALS
Four decades brings many goals. But at the core is still but one- To lift up The Name That is Above All Names-Jesus
I have goals, dreams, and aspirations but my goals throughout my life have changed depending on what phase of life I have been in. Currently, my goals are to be the best mom that I can be for my children. I desire to provide them with knowledge and wisdom from the lessons I’ve learned and to prepare them for the lessons they will learn in their lives. My goal is to set a godly example for them to follow in order that they might understand the love of God through Christ Jesus. To inspire them towards their own journey to know God, receive salvation, forgiven and to understand that they have been uniquely made with gifts and talents that will bring glory to God and blessings to those around them.“So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 11:18-19
Ultimate Wisdom is To Know We are But Dust in The Sight of God, yet He is still mindful of us. To fear or a better understanding of the word “fear” would be to reverence, respect, honor, worship, and devote myself to knowing wisdom. That is the fear and reverence of God.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. Proverbs 9:10-11
WISDOM
This is the wisdom I have found….The beginning of Wisdom is the fear of The Lord. This means to reverence God by submitting to His will and direction. “Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding, but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools.” Proverbs 14:33 I have lived life opposed to God and His will in which I have attempted to know how to live without knowing the true meaning of life and my individual purpose and I have found it woefully inadequate in fulfilling the universal need for meaning. It will preoccupy oneself with self-focus and selfish pleasure-seeking, but in all the world, and through many efforts whether in richer or poorer, all efforts to understand life’s meaning inevitably fall short.
The wisdom I have come to know is that the world and all that is in it can not be explained apart from the acknowledgment that there is a God who has created all things for the purpose of bringing glory and honor to Himself. Therefore my own meaning can not be explained to my heart’s satisfaction apart from the knowledge and reality that there is a God who is my Creator. He has loved me and created me for His perfect purpose and pleasure.
But Through my selfish actions and rebelliousness called “sin” according to God’s Word, this sin has put enmity between me and God. God is Holy, blameless, perfect. Because of my sin. I am not. Therefore can sin be permitted in the presence of holiness? Can darkness dwell where there is light? This is impossible. It is the foundation of what makes for our need for justice. We demand a reckoning for wrongs committed against us. Even our loved ones. God is also our judge. But He is the Perfect Judge, Perfect Wisdom having only compassion and mercy for His own creation. That is why Perfect Wisdom knowing we have no ability to live perfectly did not leave us in our desperate state. But by His mercy for His own glory, He the Judge came down from His Judgement Seat and provided mankind with the perfect defense and through Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the penalty of sin, took my guilty verdict and placed it upon himself.
God Himself paid the payment for sin, selfishness, anger, rage, lust, jealousy, murder, fraud, adultery, pride, prejudice. Only God Himself could make me blameless before His Holy justice. And so my wisdom I convey to you who reads this is that Wisdom Itself, In Perfect Love and Justice paid in full for the wages of sin which was death, separation from Light. Christ Jesus became sin so that I might be saved. “For it is by grace that you have been saved, not by works lest you should boast.” Ephesians 2:9
To know that God created, designed, and provided His perfect will and way so that we all could be in perfect relationship with him through the gift that was Christ Jesus, this is Love. May each man and woman come to understand this profound Truth: God in His mercy provided the Way to be reconciled to Himself, a Holy God through the sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus as payment for mankind’s sin that made a chasm between man and God. Jesus is the blameless spotless fulfillment to bridge the gap between us and God.
Man’s Ultimate Dilemma? To Live or Not to Live? That is The Question.
The curtain of mystery that is the leap between this mortal life to the afterlife eternity, is a great fear. For each of us, even those who have an understanding of God’s promise that in Christ, there is eternal life, the unknown of that final step of life, is for everyone, an equaling of man with one another.
The question rather should be, To know or Not to Know? That is the question. To know Jesus. To believe in Him. The question to all questions perhaps is really, “What shall we do with this Jesus?” He has promised that He did not come into this world to condemn it but through Him the world might be saved. Saved? From death? From the fear of the unknown? He gives an answer to the questions of Hamlet, “To Be or Not to Be?”
Jesus gives Hamlet the answers to his questions- A Dialogue
Hamlet asks:
To suffer the slings and arrows of this life, or by opposing, end them, to die? To sleep?
Jesus answers:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26
Hamlet opines:
To avoid the heartaches and sorrows of life for a chance at sleep? Perhaps to dream? Ah the desired wish to consummate such a union. To die.
Jesus answers:
“I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:12-17
Hamlet asks:
“To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn, No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of?”
Jesus Answers:
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:3
My Manifesto should have presented to you my beliefs, my identity, my source of wisdom, my goals, and my advice to Hamlet and all those desiring to know the answer of whether “to be or not to be.” Find God, Believe in Jesus, and do not fear death. And while we yet live, truly experience the beauty and brilliance of this world and life that God has given us.
No comments:
Post a Comment