Lazarus Come Out

I have been painting a lot lately. I am working in mostly black and white gauche. I am getting a really cool gun metal gray tone that washes through the images. They all have the same feel- like images in a pool of mercury. I have painted spiritual leaders as well as many self portraits but mainly I make images of Jesus.



I decided to immortalize the changes going on in my life with some ink the other day. So I picked one of my paintings and took it to Jeff, my artist at Lil Bros Tattoo and Body Piercing in Council Bluffs. After a few hours, I have a big reminder that I was trapped before Jesus came and set me free.



We are pulled down on this crazy spinning rock we call earth. We can't get away from it. No matter how hard we try to escape the pull of it, gravity sucks us back down to the dirt. We live in a filthy, sin-laden world. We cannot escape it... I am no different. I am drawn back down to matter how hard I try to jump up and escape it. I leap up but I always fall back down. I am a man. I am a sinner. I am dead... walking dead by the grip of sin. On my own I cannot break free from this disease.

In many ways we are all like that dead man Lazarus. We are locked in a tomb of this world... On our own we would be rotting in the stench of our own decay... but the story isn't over there. Jesus comes along and calls to us... down into the darkworld of sin... He says, "Hey DEAD MAN! RISE AND COME OUT!" He tells us of a special way to escape that rotting, filthy hole... He says, "I am the resurrection and the way!"

He is our escape, our fix... our escape! Jesus is calling today. Don't delay. Jump up, crawl out of the grave and live for him.