Messed Up Pictures

     For a hundred years or so we have had abstract art from such famous names as Picasso, Pollock, and Kandinsky. Instead of the beauty of nature, structure, form & order we see bizarre designs that challenge all the above. But not just in the “field” of art do we find “messed up pictures”.
-- Trinidad, Colorado where a brilliant surgeon with medical credentials & serious initials after his          name, altercates a willing man’s genitals into womanhood for a large quantity of money.
-- A delusional loner goes into a movie theater dressed like Bat Man & murders a dozen people with        assault weapon. Then the U.S. court system spends millions $ on the case & takes years to                  decide if he is guilty.
-- Suicide airline pilots who take hundreds of innocent folks with them when they die for Allah.
-- How about that movement of murderous radical Muslims who believe in a recent (570 -632 A.D.)        “prophet” rather than the ancient revelations of God which predate Mohammed by thousands of       years.
-- Then we have a modern politically correct religion where liberal is good, and blending all Eastern        concepts of God is better. Job 1 is to welcome all faiths except the one that’s most reliable &            established – Biblical Christianity. See “New Age”, link 56.
-- The last M.U.P. may be the most cock-eyed. Americans ashamed of their heritage after 250              years of improving the world with order, food production, schools, hospitals, AND saving the              world from Nazis, Imperial Japanese, and aggressive Communism. 
     The above “pictures” point to a “fly in the ointment” of modern life and thought.  I believe that fly appeared early – even in the garden. That contradiction of God by our adversary “Did God say . . .” Genesis 3:1-5, appears to be the ROOT of all “messed up pictures”. Since that 1st lie, instead of seeking Biblical beauty, structure, form, and order such as truth & justice, honesty & productivity, our race falls into sin, chaos, & worthless pursuits. Maybe the most insane case of M.U.P. was the execution by man of God in the flesh which we see graphically in the final chapters of each gospel – Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John. No wonder the “pictures” of this fallen world can be so “messed up”.
-- Better Pictures –-
-- Psalm 37:4 “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
-- Proverbs 13:21 “Misfortune pursues sinners, but prosperity rewards the righteous.”
-- Isaiah 40:31 KJV “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up          with wings as eagles . . .”
-- John 14:23 “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will              come to him and make our home with him.” (J.C.)
-- 1 Corinthians 2:9 KJV “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
-- 1 Peter 3:12 “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer.”
     Please allow me to conclude with one final “messed up picture”. A man put bags of money in his  attic so he could grab the “dough” on his way up at the time of his demise. But just to be safe, he also put a small Walmart air conditioner in his basement so he could grab it on the way down – he had heard it would be hot in hell, Luke 16:24. Well sadly he died without the salvation of Jesus, and went down with the AC – but to his dismay he couldn’t find anywhere to plug it in. (my dry sense of humor there) Choose Jesus, He is Alive. And promote beauty, structure, form & order in your life’s “picture”. See also “The Blessing and the Curse” link 66.

Many other Titles:  www.gospelnotes.org                                                                 * * F. J. Stone * *
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