Clouds

"He is coming with the clouds..." - Revelation 1:7

Original Photography by David Burden

"In the Bible clouds are always connected with God. Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or providences, within or without our personal lives, which seem to dispute the rule of God. It is by those very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were no clouds, we should have no faith. 'The clouds are but the dust of our Father's feet.' The clouds are a sign that He is there. What a revelation it is to know that the sorrow and bereavement and suffering are the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near without clouds, He does not come in clear shining.....His purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until our relationship with Him is exactly that of a child....Is the relationship between myself and God getting simpler that ever it has been?"

- Oswald Chambers, My Upmost For His Highest

Gallery Night at BurdenStudio

We have an exciting annoucement about an upcoming event we are planning. On Saturday, August 28th we will have a Gallery Night at BurdenStudio in Scurry, TX! We are inviting various local artists to come share their work, and we would love to see anyone come out who is interested in seeing some beautiful art and meeting the artists. More details to come, but mark your calendars!

Also, a refreshed list of Cindy's upcoming speaking engagements is now posted under the Calendar of Events link on the sidebar!

In The News

The Kaufman Herald ran a story on our studio this week and we wanted to share it with those of you who don't live in the Kaufman area. Here is the link:

http://www.kaufmanherald.com/articles/2010/07/08/community/doc4c3494fbc0701747805691.txt

Looking Closely

"I was sitting and reading through my journal this morning. Mostly it consists of sciptures that jump out at me as I am doing my Bible reading. This entry is dated October 1, 2009 and I felt that I should share it. So here it is:

'As I look out the patio door at the glory of God's beautiful creation, I am stunned as usual at it. It's only a backyard in Burleson, TX. It's not the Grand Canyon. It's a cement patio with a

swing. There's a building in the backyard, some bushes, plants, pathway, etc. It's commonplace, but quite beautiful. The war, yellow/pink brightness of the early morning sun filters through the screen of leaves at the very back of the yard.

Then for some reason I am drawn to looking through each sqaure of our faux French patio door. There are 30 squares. Each a picture frame. I cover one eye and make a fist with a tiny hole to look through with my other hand. This way I can focus on each frame without seeing the rest of the frames. Carefully I look at each one. I'm amazed at the beauty of each one. Though only part of the picture, each one could be a stand alone painting! Such texture, such color, such stark simplicity, such contract - WOW! I continue to shift from one frame to the next, still looking only through the tiny 'hand-made' viewer.

Then I take my hand down and I am DAZZLED by the whole picture, DAZZLED! I'm excited. This is important. I know it is. God is showing me His glory. Some many times we are told to glorify the Lord. And suddenly I know this is a picture of the church, each one of us beautifully unique, wonderfully and powerfully made, with such depth, color and texture. Each so different, so unique, so individual, so beautiful on our own. We are all stand alone masterpieces of God. But when we come together and are where God has placed us in the body - oh, my goodness, the beauty of it! This what God is saying about unity, about each part of the body is important - about how people will know we are of God because of our love for one another. Amazing!

I just felt led to share this. I know it encouraged me when I read it this morning and I hope it encourages whoever reads it. Let's go out and dazzle the world with the glory of God today!"
- Cindy