The Supreme Artists

Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that thinks “reply all” should require two witnesses and a background check.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

If God is the great Artist, then His masterwork is not a canvas or a symphony but a Person—His Son, Jesus Christ, the ultimate object of beauty.

In Christ, “all the fullness of the Godhead dwells.” Our beloved Lord is the radiance of the Father’s glory, the exact imprint of His exquisite being.

Every color, every note, every proportion that stirs the human heart is a faint echo of the beauty that’s in the face of Jesus Christ.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

~ 2 Corinthians 4:6

The Preacher, the Teacher, and the Writer

Consider, then, what this means for those who proclaim Him.

The one who unveils Christ in preaching, who magnifies Him in teaching, and who reveals Him through the written page is not merely transmitting information. They are handling and dispensing the supreme beauty of the universe.

Their medium is not oils or marble, but the living Christ Himself.

This makes the passionate preacher, the anointed teacher, and the gifted writer who is consumed with Christ the highest of artists.

The painter reflects a fragment of created beauty. The one who reveals Jesus communicates the uncreated Beauty from whom all fragments flow.

To make Christ visible, to render His glory in words until listeners behold and adore Him, this is the greatest artistry conceivable.

As one who writes and speaks to communicate the glorious riches and staggering beauties of Jesus, however imperfect my articulation, I’ve discovered that presenting Christ on the written page and ministering Him live through the spoken word are slightly different.

From the Perspective of the Artist

Writing a book that magnifies Christ is like building a cathedral brick by brick in silence.

Speaking at a live event to declare His riches is like stepping into the cathedral and filling it with music.

From the Perspective of the Reader and Listener

Reading a book that unveils Christ is like studying a finished painting of profound beauty up close.

Listening to Christ being revealed through the live spoken word is like watching the artist create the painting in real time.

May those who carry this calling steward it with reverence and awe, for their subject is Beauty incarnate.

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