Illustrating Amos

Oh, Amos. I can honestly say in 30 years of church going I've never heard a sermon on you. I can see why.

Case in point: Amos 1:13

Thus says the Lord, "For three transgressions of the Ammonites and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border."

Case #2: Amos 3:6 

Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it.

Case #3: Amos 2:9 

Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruits above and his roots beneath.  

All jokes aside Amos definitely isn't your warm and snuggley God of comfort and hope book. It's a: quit oppressing the poor, withholding justice, living in idolatry, hypocrisy and corruption or distruction will come. 

Which we can apply to ourselves today. When we live for ourselves, making decisions out of selfish ambition the byproducts of that are hypocrisy, decite and oppressing those weaker than you.

So after page after page of destruction, you have page after page of promises and reminders of His love. 

He who made Pleiades and Orion and turns deep darkness into morning and darkens the day to night. The Lord is his name. Amos 5:8

But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like and ever flowing stream. Amos 5:24

I love this verse so much. When I read it I knew that I chose wisely with Amos. This is my battle cry for my family, that we aren't blind followers of the masses.

But the Lord took me from following the flock. Amos 7:15

A long one but a good one. 

11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. 

This imagery came from a Scott Erickson painting that I love and immediately thought of when I read this verse. 

I will plant them on their land and they shall never again be uprooted. Amos 9:15

From being cut off and uprooted earlier in the chapter to later the promise of never being uprooted can be confusing but I think it boils down to that weeds in your life must be pulled out before anything good can grow. 

Illustrating Jude

Seven pages shy of finishing Psalms I needed a break, so I chose the teensy book Jude. When I read it in the past, I always took away from it the condemning of the church at the time for sins like: rejecting authority, immorality, grumbling, showing favoritism, ect

But that view of Jude was shattered when I came to this gem of a verse:

"Have mercy on those who doubt." 

Mercy- compassion, love, kindness & space to figure out what they believe.

Not what doubters usually face- judgement, frustration & condemnation from Christians.

As one who has gone through seasons of doubt this verse really spoke to me because I can remember being bitter towards religion & anyone who tried to press it on me only made me dig my heels in the sand further. 

Mercy was what I needed. 

Prayer was what I needed & there were people praying for me. 

Space was what I needed & got. I eventually came back to a God with open arms and a church family with open arms without smug looks.

After doing this entry in my bible & photographing it, I wrote with a pencil around the illustration the people I know who are going through seasons on doubt. They will be in my prayers that they not only receive mercy from Christians they encounter but that they find their way back to God.

Illustrating Psalms

Being that Psalms is 77 pages and I am posting the majority of them, I'm grouping these by materials used, and will type verses above as my boys allow. Not going into great detail about each one since this is a big momma jamma post and I'm a let the word speak for itself kinda gal.

Here goes:

Black gesso & Signo white gel pen. My one true love. 

Inspired by a Lisa Orth tattoo. 

The 3 1/2 year old poured black gesso on it when I wasn't looking and after a moments freak out I realized my verse went along perfect with the millions of unborn children being blotted out of society so I jotted down facts and quotes about abortion around the verse. 

Crayola Twistable Colored Pencils 

My sweet tea runneth over. SGV southern girl version

Water colors & pens

Imagery inspired by an Elizabeth St Hilaire Nelson piece. 

Random materials such as: stencils, stamps, sprays, inks, acrylic paint, washi tape, paint pens, gelatos and anything else my hands gravitate towards during sweet moments of uninterrupted creative bliss.

Gel pens only.