Mark Keathley is an artist whose favorite collectors are those who see his work, and want to take it home because it causes them to rest. "We are too busy these days," he says, speaking about our need to slow down, and to sit and think about life. "I want my paintings to inspire people to be still, to listen to that quiet voice, and then rise up assured that they are a part of something bigger than their schedule." The following is taken from the Nov/ Dec 2010 GraceVine newsletter:
"God kindly led me to a place where I desperately needed him by allowing me to go down the road of normal Christian service. Having been raised in a Christian home, saved at six, teaching Sunday School as a teen, youth ministry as a young adult, happily married with kids by twenty five, by the age of thirty I noticed something--I didn't have what I was 'supposed' to have as a Christian--love for God and others. Sure, I was a nice guy, and looked very loving, but I knew down deep, there was only self love. The message of most Christian teaching is 'Love God and love others'--the two most important commandments, you know! It is a message which causes you to try to prove your love for God and others by vigorous and acceptable activity. You eventually know, however, and those closest to you know, that what is coming out of you is not love, but rather 'self' confirming activity. When the true message of Jesus Christ is spoken to those who are 'weary' of this self effort, an internal hope in God and a yearning to receive from him what cannot be produced springs up in the heart.
"It is this message that I first heard in my thirties that allowed me to 'enter his rest' and receive from him the Life that I had believed in--yet never partaken of--since the age of six. In the modern Christian world, however, the fullness of the gospel is not taught. Grace is often preached for our salvation, but once saved, one must diligently 'do' Christianity--in whatever form you are told. The simple truth that Jesus joins his LIFE to your humanity and will live out his desires through you in unhindered union as he did with His Father is rarely heard. Instead, rules and disciplines are taught, and we are left feeling the burden of proof (proving our righteousness and love) rather than the freedom of receiving it as a gift.
"Like the ravens who brought food to Elijah in the desert, Steve McVey flew into my desert experience with the Great News of the gospel and the freedom which is found IN Christ. . . . Thank you, Jesus, for your LIFE shared, and Father, for your perfect, joyous plan!"
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