Sandi Hester

December 26, 2007

From Every Tribe

And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood You purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Revelation 5:9

This painting definitely flowed from the Spirit – He inspired me – and I’m convinced He painted it. This one seemed to just run off my paint brush onto the paper. I’ll tell you a little bit of where the inspiration started. We have some friends who are missionaries in Africa – way out in the bush – and they post pictures on their blog and send us pictures by e-mail periodically. I am constantly amazed by the pictures they send us – especially during the rainy season in Africa. The grasses there during that season are amazing – they are neon green and very tall. Recently I got a picture from them that made my mouth drop, my spirit soar, and left me running for my paints. I knew immediately which scripture to put with the painting (the above scripture). Below the painting is the picture that inspired me and I have also posted the progress of this painting. For some reason I decided to take pictures as I painted and I thought I would share those with you.

What a joy it’s going to be to stand around the throne of Christ one day with EVERY tribe, language, people, and nation and praise His holy Name for His costly purchase of men. If you do not have a love for the nations or don’t understand God’s love for the nations I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and go on a mission trip. You will never be the same and you will never see your God the same. He, and those He loves, will be forever written upon your heart.

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December 21, 2007

Your 2nd Blog Christmas Card

The Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and you will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

The verse above is one of many prophecies Jesus fulfilled when He came the first time to this earth. Jesus fulfilled more than 700 prophecies when He came the first time and there are more prophecies concerning His death than any other subject. These prophecies concerning His death were very specific too. Psalm 22 is like reading a medical manual about how a person would die from crucifixion. When David wrote that Psalm he had never even heard of crucifixion – in fact, crucifixion was not even invented or used for 200 years after David wrote Psalm 22.

I recently learned what the word Advent means – it simply means ‘to come’. So we celebrate the coming of Christ during Christmas. But we are actually in between two advents – Christ’s first coming and His second coming. What a great time of year to reflect back on Christ’s first coming and look ahead to His second coming. Around our Advent wreath I have placed scriptures about Christ’s first coming and His second coming. It’s been special to reflect on both.

Here’s another little picture of the town of Bethlehem.

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December 11, 2007

Happy Birthday Hannah

Hannah is my niece and is one year old today! I made her a little Happy Birthday plate for her birthday party. It didn’t turn out the way I had hoped, but her mother liked it anyway. When I went to seal it, the sealant (is that a word???) ran under the cake and made it look funny. Oh well. Please don’t e-mail me asking me to do a plate for you 🙂 – this plate took me 9+ hours to make (and it sure doesn’t look 9 hours worth of cute!) and I will NOT be doing any more – got it :)?!

Hannah, I love you girl!

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December 6, 2007

O Little Town Of Bethlehem

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. Luke 2:4

But you, Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come from me One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Micah 5:2

I had an idea to paint my own Christmas cards this year. I knew exactly what I wanted to paint for our cards – the little town of Bethlehem with the stars shining above it. I’m not sure what compelled me to do this, because I never send out Christmas cards. I’m just not the Christmas card sending type. It falls under administrative duties and I don’t have the gift of administration. In fact administrative stuff really stress me out – I would make a horrible secretary! I painted the Christmas cards and then, because I don’t send Christmas cards, I just stashed the little paintings aside. A few of my friends were looking through my paintings and they all loved these little paintings of Bethlehem, so I thought I would share them in my blog for some holiday posts. I guess you could kind of consider this a blog Christmas card – does that count??? If it does then I can say for once I sent out Christmas cards :). Let’s consider it official – here’s my Christmas card to you: “Merry Christmas from Grady and Sandi”!

I made two pictures of the little town of Bethlehem. I’ll post one now and one later in the month. Hmmm, that means you’ll be getting TWO Christmas cards from me – wow, I’m outdoing myself this year :). Oh yea, I’m not sure if you can see it or not, but the name of Jesus is in the stars.

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December 1, 2007

Christmas Cactus

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11

Today’s the first day of December! In honor of the first day of this great month that we celebrate our Savior’s birth, here is a Christmas verse and painting. The Christmas Cactus is one of my favorite plants for several reasons. First of all, it blooms around Christmas – actually it will bloom all year round if you take good care of it (I tend to neglect it until October and then I give it tender loving care because I want to have those delicate beautiful blooms around the house during the cold months). Secondly, I love it because it reminds me of my Granny. She had a green thumb and had these around her house. I always think of her when I see them. The third reason I love these plants is because they are hardy – meaning they can withstand just about anything and they don’t get bugs – they’re just all around good plants to have.

The other day I was at Publix and they had some little Christmas Cactus on sale and I couldn’t resist buying one. I have one in my office, but placed this one in my kitchen. The one in my office is still trying to revive itself after a long summer of neglect, so it doesn’t have many blooms on it right now. After weeks of not painting I was finally inspired to paint my new little Christmas Cactus! It’s not the best painting I’ve done, but it turned out better than I thought it would after going so long without painting. Happy early Christmas!

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November 26, 2007

Pansies

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8

I was tempted not to put the scripture that goes with this painting, because by now you should have this scripture memorized if you look at my blog often 🙂 – it’s the scripture I put on all my flower paintings. I need to find some other flower scriptures – if you have any suggestions please let me know.

I haven’t posted lastly because I haven’t painted lately. This is an old painting. I haven’t had much time to paint lately and the time I have had to paint I really haven’t been inspired to paint anything. It seems the longer I don’t pick the paint brush up the harder it is to paint. I stopped going to my painting class because I wanted to take a break for the holidays, but my class kept me painting weekly. I’m going to try and find some classes on this side of town. I’m afraid if I don’t I’ll stop painting all together!

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November 10, 2007

The Harvest Is Plentiful

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field. Luke 10:2

If you have ever been on the mission field, you know the overwhelming truth of this verse – the harvest is so great and the workers so few. Jesus tells us to pray that workers would be sent out into His harvest fields. Hmmm, is this a regular one on our prayer list? It should be. For some of us we don’t pray about this because it’s the last thing on our minds. For others of us, we don’t pray for it because we’re afraid we’ll be one of the ‘called’ to go work. Neither of these are acceptable to the Lord of the harvest.

I have to remind myself often that it’s His harvest and His work – if called, I just have to be faithful in going. I always look forward to going on mission trips, but it never fails that my flesh raises it’s head every time and I get scared. I’m not sure what I get scared about – maybe the unknown. I know a large part of the fear is spiritual warfare. The enemy hates mission work, he hates the gospel being preached in the nations, and he hates people helping the poor and oppressed – so I’m never surprised when fear over going into the nations arises. Grady and I are in the process now of praying about where the Lord would have us go next year. It’s always amazing to see how the Lord works and where He’ll call us to go. After being on several mission trips now, I have more than the unknown to fear – I have an idea now of what to fear – spiritual warfare, sickness, etc. Even though these fears arise, they are not enough to keep me from going – as long as the Lord calls me to go, I will be obedient for the glory of His Name. Please pray for workers to be sent – the need is great and yes, the harvest is plentiful!

November 2, 2007

The Earth Is Full Of Your Creatures

How many are Your works, O Lord! In wisdom You made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures. Psalm 104:24

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October 29, 2007

Happy Birthday Stephen

A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. Proverbs 12:10

Happy Birthday Stephen! Stephen’s birthday was actually the 25th, but I just gave him his birthday gift on Saturday, so I couldn’t post this until now. Stephen asked me to paint a picture of his dog Jill for his birthday, so that’s what I tried to do. Below is the painting I gave him. The scripture above is what I put on his painting. Stephen, you’re the best brother and I love you very much!

October 23, 2007

The Fruit Of Our Lips

From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him. Proverbs 12:14

Do you think much about what comes out of your lips? Do you pray very much about the words of your mouth or the meditation of your heart? The Word of God is clear that what is in our heart will come out of our lips. One thing that burdens my heart as a woman, is how sinful we are as women in-regards to our mouth. We, oftentimes, take such pleasure from the sin that comes from our own mouths or the mouths of others. We delight in it – we seek it – we find pleasure in the sins of our lips. Oh ladies, may our hearts break over the sin that is birthed in our hearts and then is allowed to pour-forth from our lips. Just the other day, to be more specific – the Lords day of all days, I sinned by telling something to Grady that was shared with me in confidence. You may think that sharing something in confidence with my spouse if fine, but I know what the root of it was in my heart. My only reason in sharing it with him was to share it. I went before the Lord and confessed the sin of my heart and mouth. Forgiveness was found in Him. May I turn from my sinful ways. Oh how I want to walk in His ways and not my own. Yesterday I was also wounded from the results of the mouth – not my own this time, but another’s. Oh the power that is in the lips – how it can sting and wound. May our lips be filled with good things – with fruit that is sweet, healthy, good for others, pleasant, wholesome, and filled with the Spirit. Lord, help us in this area as women. We are desperate for Your guidance, for Your rebuke, and for Your sanctification (making us into His image). We need You – please come and do these things in my life!

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