Renewed to Honor

This could be my first ever critique of art that I have ever written and that is because it is only recently art has captured my interest as much as this work. This write up is made both in English and German as I want to practice my German.  'The Nativity' by Gari Melchers.  I am not an art expert and my critique is from a layman's point of view, but bear with me. I have tried reading some information about the art and the culture behind it and I have my two favourite blog posts about the same work and yes,  I have shamelessly copied some of their thoughts. Woebegone but Hopeful and other is by Lisa VO . Julius Garibaldi Melchers (August 11, 1860 – November 30, 1932) was an American artist. He was one of the leading American proponents of naturalism. He won a 1932 Gold medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.[1] - Wikipedia The Nativity is painted during the peak of realism movement - in a gritty and less idealised ma...

Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD's; it is holy to the LORD.  (Leviticus 27:30, ESV) Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.  (Malachi 3:10, ESV) I have heard the about tithing from the above two portion a lot. Pastors especially in pentecostal churches bring it up before an offering is collected. There are times when a pastor may repeat it, especially during Christmas and New year services when the need is a lot and income is less. I have been to prosperity churches where they misuse these verses a lot, even in some cases where they make it like a ponzi scheme where you gain 10 dollars / pounds / euros or rupees for every 1 you give away and then there are accompanied testimonials from the riche...

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash 1 Corinthians 7:13-14  For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. (NASB)  This verse alone brings a number of questions about holiness, and sometimes we face these questions and situations when we wonder what this means and how does this apply to the household of a believer. One like mine, where both my wife and I are Christians and we strive to raise our 1 and 3quatar year old child in the faith we have known, learned and experience daily. The few questions we ask ourselves when faced by this verse are How does a couple make each other holy; especially in the case where a believing wife makes an unbeliever holy or vice-versa? Is it not the Lord who sanctifies a believer? Are children born holy?  There may be other portions of the Bible that say yes to these questions...