By Brent Wittmeier, edmontonjournal.com January 25, 2012

Wow! Brent did a great job with the article. It is exciting to be part of it.To read the article just click on Brent's name or the article title.

As I have been thinking on this for a few years I have found others pursuing the same and similar ideas and themes. God speaking to us through the creative arts and we in turn speak to him through the creative arts. I do it with painting, but Michael Card does in through his music. And we in turn can hear God through the mediums of each other. 

I will be leading three sessions on Painting Prayers. I want to give people the chance to experience it, so I will not speak long before we just dive right in to listening to scripture and music and painting what we are hearing and feeling and being moved toward through the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:14-17

14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

The Holy Spirit communicates with our spirit – deep inside us, our inner consciousness.

Gordon Smith, gave me words to describe what I was experiencing. In his book, The Voice of Jesus, he wrote this about our inner consciousness, "We affirm that the Spirit of God communicates inwardly to the consciousness of those who are prepared to listen."

I love this description that singer/ song writer, Michael Card, in Scribbling inthe Sand, wrote "Being the Creator-Artist that he is, the great Romancer, the perfectly loving Father, God calls out to us, sings to us, paints images in our minds through the prophet's visions. These sounds and songs, these visions, stand at the door of our imaginations and knock. Through them God opens the door of his own inner life to us. He paints pictures of His hopes for our future as well as his worst nightmares of what is waiting for us if we choose to go on living without him. He pleads with us to open the eyes of our hearts, to hear with our ears, to really understand....I believe human imagination is the door at which Jesus says he stands and knocks in Rev 3:20 – a door that we have the freedom to leave closed or to open up to him. ...Only a few verses later, as John's awesome vision begins in Rev 4:1, his comment is especially meaningful, "After this I looked and there before me was a door standing open."

I pray that as I head into the weekend, the Holy Spirit will move through the room where we are, touching hearts and lives in a way only He can. I pray for each person who participates that he or she will listen with their heart and open the door of their imagination and let God speak with them and they with Him.

Empty Nest, Winter of my Soul
Changes. 
New things come, old things pass. 
It is hard to let go.
It is hard to say good-bye to what was,
Treasured moments; the good, the bad
Yet
letting  go is part of living.
It is part of loving.
There will be new beginnings;
New memories;
New changes.
Such is the circle or spiral we live in.
We cannot hold on to the present.
It must fly
Away.
And the empty nest
is the memory we have left.

Our son, Thaddeus is coming home in a couple of weeks, having been away at Capernwray Bible School in England since September. He is only staying a couple of weeks before taking off again. Our second son, Nathaniel, is graduating from high school and looking into a Mount Carmel Bible School for next fall. Our daughter, Talia, is graduating from grade 9 and will be starting high school in the fall. Reena, our youngest, not wanting to feel left out, decided a change of bedrooms was for her, thus initiating a changing of rooms in our home that involved nearly every room. With this much change, I feel this painting and poem fit this month.

What changes are you feeling these days?

Fall schedule for classes and workshops and shows will be up on my website in a few weeks. You can see the newest paintings on my website. www.shedrewit.com/portfolio.php

Have a good June!