January 2: The Spirit Empowers Witness to Christ's Gospel
♫ Music:
Day 35 - Saturday, January 2
Title: THE SPIRIT EMPOWERS WITNESSES TO CHRIST’S GOSPEL
Scripture: Psalm 68: 11; Romans 10:15 & 18; Psalm 19:4
The Lord gave the word; great was the company of the preachers. And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world.
Poetry:
Who Has Seen the Wind?
by Christina Rossetti
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
BEAUTIFUL FEET
How beautiful are the radiant faces of those who faithfully preach the Good News. OR how beautiful are the calloused hands of those who tirelessly work for God’s kingdom proclaiming through word and action the message of peace. But feet? Artists study faces and do portraits of hands, torsos—almost every part of the body except feet. Livia Gus’ bold attempt, Summer Feet is a curious work filled with both humor and mystery. But who really considers feet beautiful? In addition to being clumsy and awkward, my homely, scaly, reddened appendages are the source of continual discomfort and pain. How can the Prophet Isaiah possibly call the lowest part of human anatomy (even under the best conditions) beautiful? Beloved Bible teacher J. Vernon Mcgee once said, “Feet reveal our humanity. There’s probably no member of our body that tells quite how human we are as our feet.”
There is one however who has beautiful, comely feet. That one is the Lord Jesus Christ. His willingness to leave heaven’s splendor to sojourn among us, to take up residence in a human body and trod this earth for our salvation merits our highest praise and admiration.
Mary of Bethany who longed for nothing more than to sit at Jesus’ feet, understood the loveliness of Christ’s feet when she anointed and washed them with costly perfume. Her intuitive, highly controversial deed helps us understand that sometimes the only way to respond to extravagant beauty is to do something outrageous in return. It is also true that acts of beauty which can appear to be a frivolous waste of time and money are often just what is needed to demonstrate our feeble attempt at gratitude. Mary’s focus on Christ’s feet reflected a spirit of intensely intimate humility as she basked in the presence of her wonderful Lord.
One day (Lord come soon) “Every knee will bow” as all those who have ever lived will fall before his precious feet. Together is one unending hallelujah, we will rejoice that his feet were wounded for us and for our salvation. Hymn writer Matthew Bridges speaks of that glorious day in his majestic hymn “Crown Him with Many Crowns”:
Crown him the Lord of Peace!
Whose power a scepter sways,
From pole to pole,--that wars may cease,
Absorbed in prayer and praise:
His reign shall know no end,
And round his pierced feet
Fair flowers of paradise extend
Their fragrance ever sweet.
It’s not difficult to imagine a variety of afterlife scenarios, and one that I visualize at first meeting Christ, is falling at his feet in sustained prostration. If the angels avert their eyes at “mysteries so bright” how will we respond as we enter his presence? Starting at his feet seems most appropriate to me.
When I was growing up we used to sing a little hymn, “Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, all his wonderful passion and purity. O thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine, ‘till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.” Christians are called to be imitators of Christ or as C.S. Lewis referred to followers of Jesus, “little Christs.” These “little Christs” are the ones Isaiah and later Paul describe as having beautiful feet. “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace.” In Isaiah 52:7 and Romans 10:15, the authors aren’t referencing physical attractiveness but rather spiritual loveliness. Some scholars interpret the word beauty here to mean “acceptable” which reminds us of Romans 12:1, “present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Another hymnist, Frances Havergal penned, “Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.”
2020 has been an extremely difficult year for the vast majority of the world’s population. As if life weren’t already hard enough, the trials of the past year have taken a devastating toll on millions. During the past 12 months I would venture to say that all of us have to some extent succumbed to suspicion, fear, and paralyzing anxiety. More than ever, Christ needs beautiful feet who are willing to leave couches of comfort and GO into the trenches with the Gospel of Peace. There are abundant opportunities currently for those who’ve found his bedrock peace, to minister and proclaim these good tidings of great joy to those who are desperate for some news of hope. One of today’s pieces of music is “Beautiful Feet” by the rapper Lecrae. He says it like it is:
“Go, go, go—run with those beautiful feet.
You hold the truth that saves so run and shout it to the world.
They can't believe in something they ain't never heard.
Go, go, go and run with those beautiful feet.”
PRAYER
Holy God, as you sent beautiful feet to preach Good News to me;
make my ugly and sinful feet,
beautiful,
and send me.
Be gracious to me, oh God, and bless me;
make Your face shine upon me,
that Your way may be known to those I meet this day;
that Your saving power through Jesus Christ may be received.
May people come to praise You.
Oh God, may people come to praise
YOU.
Send me, oh God, send
ME.
Amen.
—The Heart of a Pastor
Barry Krammes
Professor Emeritus, Art Department
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork #2:
Go, Teach and Baptize
Wayne Forte
2005
Oil on canvas|
60” x 60”
The resurrected Christ’s command to His disciples to spread the gospel by preaching, teaching, and baptizing in all nations of the world has become known as “The Great Commission.” The most well-known version of the Great Commission is in Matthew 28:16–20 when right before His Ascension, while on a mountain in Galilee, Jesus calls on His followers to make disciples of and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
About the Artist #2
Wayne Forte (b. 1950) was born in Manila, Philippines, was married in Brazil in 1981, and studied at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Irvine (B.A. 1973; M.F.A. 1976). Wayne lives with his wife and four children in Laguna Niguel, CA. He has been a member of CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) for 15 years and participated in the Florence Portfolio Project in 1993. He has also taught courses at Biola University and Gordon College, Orvieto Campus, Italy. Wayne was educated to paint in the self-referential Modernist tradition, but longs for the passion of an earlier age - a passion for the spiritual and the transcendent found in the Biblical narrative paintings of Gruenwald, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Caravaggio. His goal is to create paintings with powerful messages about faith that can resonate with contemporary viewers.
http://www.wayneforte.com/
About the Artwork #1:
Summer Feet
Livia Gus
Oil on canvas
About the Artist #1:
Livia Gus is an American artist. She describes her painting: “My appreciation and concern for the natural world, and man's relationship to it, motivates the creation of most of my paintings. I see myself as an integral part of this planet and I want to express my desire to maintain and protect it.” She graduated with a MA in science and education.
Music #1:
“Beautiful Feet” from the album Rebel
Lyrics:
Carlos was born in killa Cali
Was walking down an alley and caught a
Bullet in his head that left him bleeding badly
He lost everything at that moment except his life
He lost his hearing lost his movement and he lost his sight|
He laid there in a coma
But man nobody cared
The gospel preached in his neighborhood? Nobody dared
But Los got up out the coma got and was able to hear
A missionary shared the gospel to his open ears
He got saved got trained got discipled
Back to hood
You could find em preaching the Bible
He led a homie to Christ from his same hood
Part of church plant
Come on now ain't his name good
This is blessing but I'm stressing that this is not the norm
We need leaders and believers to help carry it on
But who would minister in a sinister part of town
I pray if Jesus is calling you that you would be found
Eric used to go to Bible study as a kid
He got older and started doing what the hood did
A rival gang caught him slippin’ tried to take his life
But they jammed up so they beat him nice
He woke up in the hospital singing Bible songs
Praise God he had a place to learn the Bible from
But then he gets saved and wanna preach Christ they
Make him change his whole culture and way of life
He gotta get him a Bachelors wear a suit and tie
Go to seminary
By then all of his boys will die
Jesus came to invade culture outta Nazareth and used
A couple fisherman who people saw as hazardous
The feet are beautiful if only they'd go
If ain't nobody in hood preaching how will they know?
Eric is better used taught trues in his context
Somebody please plant a church in his projects
In Luke 4:16 on down to 21, Jesus says
He's Messiah says he's the chosen one
But more than that he quotes Isaiah
That shows our savior targets oppressed
Captive blind and the broke I'm saying
Had a heart for the poor had a heart for the low
And 1 John 2:6 is way we should go
In Deuteronomy even tho they under the law
The tithes every third year the poor got em all
I ain't sayin you wrong if you live in burbs
I'm sayin turn your attention to the hood cause we hurting
Man if you ain't burdened please pick up your word an
Tho this world is going down while we here we can serve Him
We bring this to the streets because we knew the streets
I pray that more would be burdened to have beautiful feet
You never knew the streets but truth is what you preach
I pray to God you'd be burdened for beautiful feet
Go, go, go (run with those beautiful feet)
Go, go, go
You hold the truth that saves so run and shout it to the world
They can't believe in something they ain't never heard
Go, go, go and run with those beautiful feet
Performers:
Lecrae and Dawntoya
Lecrae Devaughn Moore (b. 1979), known as Lecrae, is an American Christian hip hop recording artist, songwriter, music executive, actor, and entrepreneur. He is the president, co-owner and co-founder of the independent record label Reach Records. To date, he has released ten studio albums and three mixtapes as a solo artist, and he has released three studio albums, a remix album, one EP, and numerous singles as the leader of the hip hop group 116 Clique. His third solo album, Rebel, was released in 2008 and became the first Christian hip hop album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Gospel chart. In the social sphere, Lecrae has advocated for the preservation of responsibility and fatherhood as a value among men in the United States, and in 2013 he partnered with Dwyane Wade and Joshua DuBois in the multimedia initiative This Is Fatherhood as part of the Obama administration's Fatherhood and Mentoring Initiative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecrae
http://www.reachrecords.com/artists/lecrae/
Dawntoya Thomason is an American singer/songwriter and actress. In 2010 she starred in the movie The Grace Card, a film about the redemptive freedom of forgiveness. A singer/songwriter with theatrical experience, Dawntoya was a contestant on American Idol during the show's ninth season. Plays Dawntoya has appeared in include: Music Man, Alice in Wonderland, Dr. Dolittle, and Bridge to Terabithia. She has also appeared in local television commercials.
https://www.thegracecardmovie.com/thecast
Composers/Lyricists:
Courtney Peebles, Dawntoya Thomason, and Lecrae Moore
Courtney Orlando Peebles (b. 1979), better known as J.R., is a Christian singer and producer formerly signed to Cross Movement Records. He is also half of the So Hot Productions team along with N.A.B. His debut album was Metamorphosis, released in 2005. His second album, Life by Stereo, was released in 2007. In 2009, J.R. left Cross Movement Records and went Indie to work on a new sound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.R._(musician)
Music #2:
Messiah, HWV 56, Pt. 2: 14. The Lord Gave the Word
Lyrics:
The Lord gave the word;
great was the company of the preachers.
Music #3:
Messiah, HWV 56, Pt. 2: 15. How Beautiful Are the Feet
Lyrics:
How beautiful are the feet of them that
preach the gospel of peace,
and bring glad tidings of good things!
Music #4:
Messiah, HWV 56, Pt. 2: 16. Their Sound Is Gone Out
Lyrics:
Their sound is gone out into all lands,
and their words unto the ends of the world.
Messiah Performers/Musicians/Lyricists/Composer:
Unless otherwise noted, all Messiah performances are by Margaret Marshall, Catherine Robbin, Anthony Rolfe-Johnson, Robert Hale, Charles Brett, Saul Quirke, the English Baroque Soloists, and the Monteverdi Choir conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Biographical information for the performers and musicians can be found by clicking here.
About the Poet:
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) was a Victorian poet who is known for her simple, lyrical work. She published poems in the feminist periodicals The English Woman’s Journal and Victoria Magazine, as well as in various other anthologies. Today her poetry is regarded as some of the most beautiful and innovative of the period. Critical interest in Rossetti’s poetry was renewed in the last decades of the twentieth century, a resurgence largely generated by the emergence of feminist criticism. Her work strongly influenced the work of writers such as Ford Madox Ford, Virginia Woolf, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Elizabeth Jennings, and Philip Larkin. Critic Basil de Selincourt stated that she was "all but our greatest woman poet … incomparably our greatest craftswoman … probably in the first twelve of the masters of English verse." Rossetti's Christmas poem "In the Bleak Midwinter" became widely known after her death when set as a Christmas carol first by Gustav Holst and then by Harold Darke. Her poem "Love Came Down at Christmas" has also been widely arranged as a carol.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/christina-rossetti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossettihttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/christina-rossetti
About the Devotion Author:
Barry Krammes
Professor Emeritus, Art Department
Biola University
Artist and educator Barry Krammes (b. 1951) received his BFA in printmaking and drawing from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and his MFA in two-dimensional studies from University of Wisconsin, Madison. For thirty-five years, he was employed at Biola University in La Mirada, California, where he was the Art Chair for 15 years. Krammes is an assemblage artist whose work has been featured in both solo and group exhibitions, regionally and nationally. His work can be found in various private collections throughout the United States and Canada. He has taught assemblage seminars at Image Journal’s annual Glen Summer Workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Krammes has served as the Visual Arts Coordinator for the C.S. Lewis Summer Institute in Cambridge, England, and has been the Program Coordinator for both Biola University’s annual arts symposium and the Center for Christianity Culture and the Arts for several years. He has also been the editor of CIVA: Seen Journal for Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA), a national arts organization. For the last five years of his time at Biola, he was the planning coordinator for the CCCA. Krammes was the originator of the CCCA's Advent and Lent Projects.
https://www.barrykrammes.com/