Combat , the spirit v the flesh

He has inspired me as well, and we share roots as hardworking blue-collar country boys.

I warned him that by starting this thread, this discussion will probably last for a long time because the Holy Spirit is one of my favorite topics to study and write about. I really think it has to do with the Spirit actually linking us to God. His life is actually dwelling with ours, and we are being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ from the inside out. Remarkable!

and you inspire some of my posts with your lovely panels lol Christian’s really can bounce spiritually off one another well

yeah magenta is creative it always leads me to some scripture for some reason

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Some technological form of that I reckon

I sure do love reading some of those things you write and always find some form of edification exhortation correction consideration or encouragement and it’s appreciated greatly just the type of thing I find value in here

did you ever read about the judges and the spirits interactions with them in Israel’s early days ?

and then hollers breed hard work and country slang if you hang out in the belly and not the mouth or head lol

My daddy said and made clear very early “ tour free to choose but you don’t work you don’t eat that day “ I went to bed hungry once then became a worker lol

Psalm103:12
I started ^ this ^ panel two days ago. I cannot recall if any particular person/post inspired it .
There was not a lot I could do with the original face/figure, after changing the colour, extending
her visible arm, replacing her eyes, etc. She started out looking like this:



I am still working on this one below, started on the 19th...


Colossians 3:17
Just doing a lot of work in high magnification, to make sure no extraneous bits remain from ephemera
that were added have stray bits I do not really want in the image .. I have realized that the more
I can alter the original face in making improvements, the happier I am overall with the final result.
She started out looking like this:



And then I added/blended in the nose and mouth of the second image above. I was just going to
try out the eyes at first, but many happy "accidents" happen during the design process, which is all
very experimental and somewhat spontaneous. The eyes were unsuitable, but I liked the rest.
Then I needed a longer neck, so I blended this in, with the lower parts of the hair also, plus an ear:



And that eye, duplicated and reversed for a matching pair. I find
it interesting how they no longer look as if they are looking up.

Then her neck looked too long with no visible clothing and we must not have that!!
So I added a necklace, and also used one of the beads from that as an earring, and
doing the same with the first panel (bead in ear to replace what was there).

Getting the colour of this one's face is tricky, partly because ambient light changes
throughout the day, and that alters how something displays. I'm very sensitive to that.
The first time I posted it in the Bingo thread, it was too dark and not red enough .
Now it is back to looking too red LOL

i had no idea there were so many layers to the process of the creation of those panels wow I would be lost for sure lol I can draw a stick man on paper , well I can’t now for my hands



I have terrible arthritis and nerve damage in them and have had eleven surgeries over the years lol they took nerves from my calf and put them in my hand in 1981 when it was still pretty experimental and for three weeks because of a wound in the military my hand was sewn literally into my chest in an attempt to regrow my right thumb , in 1973 it sounds outlandish now but it was the innovative technology then lol now uncle Arthur is a villain for sure

Amy nephew got my a slider pad thing so I c an just slide my finger to chat here because I’m not able to repeat the movements typing or I would t even be able to write

i could never create something artistic like you are able to do not because of my hands I remember reading how God gave several spiritual gifts in the law some were given an artistic spirit in order to create the artistic things that glorified God before we saw Jesus and heard of his kingdom and also they completed the work of his temple and the patterns given to Moses upon Sinai “ see Moses that you carefully make everything according to the patterns I showed you “

what I mean is I think you have an artistic spirit and you use this first in a wonderful way to glorify Gods truth in his word by the scriptures you share in the art you create it sounds like painstakingly because you care a lot about them your hearts in the gift and I think it’s wonderful and truly you sharing offers me smiles and joy and inspiration or some form of value and encouragement or reminder others like me though lol we have a spirit that is able to draw a stick man with a sort of circular head 😂

Will you do me a favor sister and say a prayer for my sister Karen Anne ? She’s really having issues with her cancer treatments and isn’t able to eat anything right now and isn’t remaining too strong really needs prayer

Thank you so much for your very kind words... I am so happy and glad that you find much worth in my efforts!
It is a painstaking process and I realize most people have no idea how much goes into them, which in and of
itself is fine, not everyone needs to know, but I do think it wise that at least some people know, and I could
probably bore you to tears with the details, were I to go into them. Suffice to say, I appreciate your appreciation

I did see your thread about your dear sister's cancer and have been praying for her. I am sorry I did not
respond to your thread... I am not much of a prayer warrior and I am always very saddened to hear stage
four knowing the outcome could have been so much different if caught earlier. My closest sister is a
cancer survivor also and I do not know what I would do if I could not just call her up at any time to chat.

Wow, that is so amazing about your hand surgery and your thumb! I am sorry to hear it has caused you
so much pain and limited what you can do because of it. Me, I am a two finger typist, so everything takes
so long for me to type out which is a small part of the reason why I keep my posts short. I also spoke
with a wide variety of non-believers over a course of eight years before landing here almost eight years
ago, and learned right away that was the best course of action for me, because people are always way
more than willing to divert from the point of a post/conversation if they are given any reason to do so.
It is so true how we each have different roles in the Body of Christ.

Oh, adding this: two things... one is about the feather in the Colossians panel. A feather on the breath
of God.I read somewhere that Hildegard von Bingen said that of herself, I think. I always liked it.

The second is just to mention that selecting the fonts can be painstaking too. I have hundreds to choose from,
many of which are unsuitable (illegible and therefore pointless) and I don't wanna use the same ones all the time.

amen thank you for the prayer I really believe prayer works and helps

ayes I notice often o think some symbolism in some of your panels I’ve always assumed it was intentional like doves corresponding to a scripture about the spirit which appeared as a dove at Jesus baptism

I always try to look closely for things d what your conveying in the image I think they are great and actually do appreciate them so just honest words and observation

yeah regarding my sister she’s a really strong believer she’ll be 70 august 8th and has lived a very honorable and conservative life sort of a narrow path person done a lot of good prayed alot of prayers and praises a lot of praises and humbly served people mostly all her life

It is sad for us when we lose a loved one who’s always been close but for them I don’t think it will end in sadness or sorrow

“Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:6, 8‬ ‭KJV‬‬

right now we believers have to believe in Jesus even though we haven’t seen him we’ve heard the gospel and believe in him he tells us if we follow him when we leave our flesh behind we will go to meet him and we shall not die or be condemned but will ever be with him

I’ve been talking with My sister she is secure and not afraid regarding her soul and actually parting and going to be with Jesus which is also her belief of what happenes when a believer dies , but I’m afraid for her that things will go badly with the cancer and she will suffer a lot I’ve had that happen to someone before and it’s just aweful to see someone you love suffer and there’s nothing you can do to help just heartbreaking

My prayers truly are focused on her peace and relief of some of the things she’s going through right now because of the tumors and also she started two types of therapy and chemo which are making it hard now for her to eat and retain anything which is the worst thing

I know I keep bringing it up here but I believe in prayer deeply and really believe God will give her peace in her last time here and take her gently when it’s time I just don’t want this to go bad I suppose my fear is working against my faith at the moment and I need help spiritually

69 not 70

Creative and beautiful work!

I've read through Judges a few times, but I didn't see a lot of the Spirit's work during that period because Israel slipped into a lot of idolatry by adopting the pagan religious practices from the nations around them.

Do you have some scriptural references from Judges that highlight the Holy Spirit's work during that era?

Yeah I was just wondering like for instance how god worked with the judge Samson notice this happened repeatedly

“And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.

Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: for, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour? And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?

And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.

And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.”
‭‭Judges‬ ‭13:1-5, 17-18, 24-25‬ ‭KJV‬‬

This one example but this was repeated after they would worship false gods they would be crushed and then repent after a lot eas taken from them he would always then hear thier cries and send them a judge annointing the judge with the spirit to deliver them from thier own making each time

“And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD delivered Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushan-rishathaim.”
‭‭Judges‬ ‭3:10‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Was just curious if you had noticed much about the operation then I see figures and patterns of Jesus

Thank you! I think I figured out why the colour of that Colossians' face was so reactive to ambient light changes...
and I have reduced the overall contrast accordingly, and hopefully not too much, and then slightly adjusted the
colour some more. I realize monitors all display differently, too, so what looks good to me may look completely
"off" to somebody else, but there is not much I can do about that. I have done this work on two different devices
and viewed them on even more as well over the last five years, and they look different in each one! Whaddya think?


Colossians 3:17
. My eyes are really starting to feel strained. I need a break from all this...

Take a break. You done good.

Thank you, Cameron. The last three nights I have stayed up way too late, we're talking past two and
closer to three or even later than that... just as I laid down after three this morning the birds started
chirping. Ah! I love that sound. The days go by fairly quickly and there are very few demands on my
time aside from work three days a week, but because of work, I do need to keep a tighter rein on my
sleep schedule. Ha. Like that's possible! You know, many nights it is getting to where I think, man,
I need to go to bed, and then I start a new panel instead. LOLOLOLOLOLOL.

In the Edge browser you can do a search of any image: when you hover over it with your cursor, there
is a little thing that appears in the upper right hand corner, and if you click it, it shows all similar or
same images. So every once in a while I check my own stuff, to see what comes up. I did that yesterday
with both panels shown here yesterday and nothing at all came up for the Colossians' panel, but for the
Psalm 103 panel it showed me some images the web thought looked similar (I had zoomed in on the face).
From there I found a whole bunch of new eyes!!! I need new eyes!!!!! Yes, I found a treasure trove of eyes. LOL

One of the eyes I found was this one, which I combined/blended into the woman's face below:



To get this panel, based on/inspired by the auto siggy of @HealthAndHappiness .


Romans 8:35-37
I did replace the pupils with some from other eyes, also .
D

You do awesome work. I used to have problems sleeping at times. But I would just start counting my blessings and I was asleep long before I finished the list. It's never not worked for me.

Lol...that makes more sense since pupils are mostly the same aren't they? Unless you get some shifty character.

I like how it's described that the Spirit of God "began to move him" and "came upon him" referring to the power God exhibited to save His people and forgive them for their sins. There is nothing I saw in Judges about the Spirit living within these leaders like He did with King David. While Samson was a man of great physical strength, he was completely weak and powerless to resist lustful temptations that ultimately cost him his life.

The last verse of Judges sums up the sad state of Israel very well during that time:


Judges 21:25

King James Version

25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

It was a sad state of affairs for Israel at that time because on the whole, they did not seek out the Lord let alone attempt to live within the awesome covenant He made with them. It's impossible for the Spirit to work when people reject God and live a life of idolatry and lust for temporary pleasures.