“Everything happens for a reason.”

This is a popular sentiment or belief of many whether they believe in a higher power or not.

Sometimes I find it hard to subscribe to this theory when I hear of the many atrocities of mankind. I don’t mean the random acts of nature that we all know are possible at one time or another, I mean the deliberate evils of mankind through the ages. The calculated decisions that cause so much needless death & destruction. The premeditated plans of evil jealous fools to lead the masses to their own destruction all the while pretending to be the people’s “saviors” or helpers. These are our leaders. Blind leading the blind & you know how that’s going to turn out.

I never blame God for man’s atrocities or the acts of mother nature. Man’s atrocities are all on man. All that takes for evil to exist is other men to be agreeable to said evil or complacent. Shame on anyone who knows better but is too cowardly to fight back or speak up when needed. God created everything & told us how to live on earth. Every atrocity committed, no matter the excuse given, has always been an act against what Christ told us to do & how to live. They are acts against God & life as we know it. How is this even tolerable to anyone unless they agree with it?

If man does not get a grip on his inner demons the world is doomed. We see the unbelievers destruction on steroids since the “offended” are somehow in charge of the world & can mock & remove anything that might cause their demons to be exorcised or feel threatened in any way. For this end the truth is being demonized in the false hope to prevent said exorcism & save God’s people.

I keep calling these the “end times” & I don’t think I’m wrong. Man has had over 2000 years to get it together & start following the teachings of Christ as was intended. Instead of practicing the justice & rationale of the Golden Rule that Jesus taught his disciples to teach the world, the “unbelievers” try to erase any trace of His existence. They continuously insult our intelligence spreading false doctrine & rhetoric that Christianity is “dangerous.” All the while pointing to examples of the hypocrites or “wolves in sheeps clothing” that use the name of Christ in vain, getting rich by preaching false doctrine. You don’t have to be a soothsayer to predict man’s fate at this time.

Sadly if this is the best mankind can do than maybe it is God’s will that we come to the end intended for the disobedience that cannot be corrected.

I don’t wish to be long winded or disjointed in this post but I wanted to talk about coincidences or “things happening for a reason” in my own life. A surprising number of things in my life have not turn out as they should have or as I had hoped they would. This happens at times to all of us. When it happens regularly through no fault of your own, such as a bank failing or stocks crashing, you feel this is personal somehow. I know I do. I think what are the odds that this random bank or this good, solid decision would come back to bite me in the butt? If you think that way you would be afraid to get out of bed in the morning. When I look at the big spiritual picture & who my enemy really is, it makes perfect sense & I am in good company. That being said…

I wanted to mention something that I find interesting or coincidental in regards to applying for various juried art shows in the last 20 years or so.

As someone relatively “unknown” in the art community you have to always prove yourself or even have a name to be accepted in many art shows, especially the more popular ones. There’s always a waiting list. Some artists have applied for years before being accepted. Through the years I have hung in various galleries & was accepted to some of the juried shows & art fairs. Besides having a number of ribbons tucked away, there were sometimes cash prizes involved. Just the opportunity to be chosen for any popular art show or festival was an exciting opportunity for me.

I have been honored to have had numerous Computer Graphics dedicated to the various quotations of Christ throughout the first four books of the New Testament accepted to various art shows in which the same jurors had rejected my “secular” submissions. God’s will?

Oddly enough I had no preconceived notion of creating these graphics & presenting to them to the public at the time I decided to sell my condo in Canton & purchase a home closer to my job in downtown Detroit Michigan in 2004. I have always loved the Ford Historic Home district near Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan so I looked in the area & found a cute bungalow half the price of what the much larger historic homes were selling for & only a couple blocks away. Again, God’s will?

After my move I entered various art shows & hung in some of the local galleries as well as festivals & fairs. I didn’t choose my subject matter for submission as much as I feel now more than ever “it” chose me. I was strong in the Word of God at this time. Not the backslider I am now. I created various designs around the Crucifixtion of Christ. To call this the most “important event” the world will ever know is a gross understatement. To know that I walk among those that would mock this “gift” or not understand the enormity of WHY Jesus gave His life willingly in this very brutal manner disturbs me to say the least.

Jesus is our Savior because He is the ONLY hope this world has to stay here in one piece & NO ONE can deny this truth because they can see it with their own eyes. Either we all love one another or we will perish. Keep following the “anti-Christ” behavior this world promotes through it’s various media formats & suffer the obvious consequences. “The wages of sin is death.”

Slideshow of some of my past art show submissions: