From the Abundance

Every now and then, an artist needs a blank canvas.  Sometimes that blank canvas comes out of a fresh package, other times it's made by hand, and even still there are times when a blank canvas is created by sanding and painting over an old canvas with Gesso.  Well... this is where I am right now.. God is sanding me and has begun painting over the old painting to create something new. There are times in life when everything around us seems to come crashing down around us and everything we knew to be true is ashes.  The good thing about that is God already said He would give us beauty for our ashes (Isaiah 61:3) . The process of reworking a canvas amazes me but also expresses exactly where I am right now.  Imagine this... you're a canvas that's had a picture drawn on it and as you've walked through life that drawing has been filled with color and texture... brush strokes, flicks of the artists brush, scrapes of a painter's knife, and even some thinn

                    Lately I've been having dreams about prison and jail but I know for sure that they have nothing to do with a natural jail or prison.  The thing about spiritual bondage is the fact that it can have so many faces, facets and sources.  Think of those pretty winding topiary bushes that form animals, zig zag shapes, words, or even people.  On the surface they look like one big bush or tree, but in reality they can have several sets of roots that end up growing together to create the fullness of the bush.  The same thing happens with spiritual bondage.  I can't say that all bondage is of the devil and all imprisonment is ungodly because Paul declared himself a bond-servant of Christ. First let's look at what bondage means: 1.  slavery   or   involuntary   servitude;   serfdom. 2. the   state   of   being   bound   by   or   subjected   to   some   external  power   or   control . 3. the   state   or   practice   of   being   physically   restrained,