Remind Me

In my moments of weakness,
remind me of who I am.

Show me what is me,
and what is not me,
but is my enemy.

Remind me of my true heart;
and when my heart fails,
remind me that Your heart doesn't.

It's Your heart --not mine--
that is my rock, my strength.

Tell me in my doubts
how You are powerful.

And that I only need to choose
to resist in Your name;

And faith overcomes feeling,
spirit quiets soul,
all is made clear;
I see who I am,
and who You are.

- Ramone Romero, Aug.15 '08

Triumphed!

By Ramone - January 3, 2008

"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." - Colossians 2:15

One night as I was laying in bed I began being assailed by temptations, and as I sought God's help this picture came. He has broken their power by the cross! Sometimes I forget that, but He is stronger. They have to obey in sight of what He has done. He has broken them, He has humiliated them, He has defeated them, He has triumphed over them. And so have I in Him.

As I hold onto this truth, onto Him, I see all my darkness break apart and it's just me and Him.

Thank You, God. Thank You.

Made Whole

By Ramone - April 2, 2007

I first sketched guy --nicknamed "Stitch-Man"-- in the middle of the night back in February. He's all of us. He's what God is doing with us. And we must praise Him for it.

We think being "whole" means that you're smooth & perfect, and that being "made whole" means becoming that. But really, being made whole means He stitches you up, gives you a new heart, and you just look up and thank Him. You still see the stitches, just like He has the nail scars. And you'll get more stitches. But in each one you see His grace.

Thank You, Jesus. (^_^)

"Men of faith, rise up and sing
Of the great and glorious King
You are strong when you feel weak,
In your broken-ness, complete."

- Martin Smith, "Shout to the North"

My Victory

By Ramone - October 23, 2007

My victory is here.

The more & more I'm transformed
from Glory to Glory,
the more & more I see
that it's because of His love
in the cross!

I'm transformed
the more I behold Him
and what He has done!

It has done it for me!
He has done it!
And He has done it
for me!

Thank You!!!

The Open Window

By Ramone - June 16, 2007

Yesterday morning I woke up after a bad dream in which I had succombed to a temptation. I shook it off and rested in the Lord. Then soon after my wife came to wake me up (she's staying with the baby downstairs -- I sleep upstairs on nights when I have to work the next day). She opened the window and said that the rain had stopped for now, and that the sky was beautiful.

After she left, I stayed in bed a little longer lazing and listening to worship music which was playing on my alarm clock. While there, the enemy tried to tempt me with the memory of the bad dream, and for a moment it was strong. Then I looked outside through the open window, still laying in bed. The clouds are always so beautiful after rain, and the color of everything is brigher, more vivid, and more alive.

He showed me--or awoke in me--the understanding that life is so much bigger than the temptation! There is a whole REAL world outside! He kind of opened my eyes... my reality, my life, who I am in Him and who I love (my son & wife) is in that world, in the big REAL world. Get up and live in it! Don't let temptation tell you that you gotta stay down!

He opened my eyes and carried me out through that window, so to speak. Temptation encloses you so that all you can see is what you're being tempted to do or think about. But seeing through God's window, the life--the big and real life--outside opens your eyes past the temptation. He broke the temptation's strength, it's trap, it's box.

Thank You for doing that, God! Thank You for yesterday's "way of escape" (1 Corinthians 10:13). You're always the One who carries me out of it. And thank You for using my wife to open it and call my attention to it. Thank You, God.

Later that night I was being tempted again in a strong way, feeling I would succomb, and You reminded me of the open window! You reminded me of what You told me -- that the real life is waiting for me beyond temptation's lying box. That's when I knew I ought to make a picture of this so I would remember. Thank You for that again, Lord God.

Lifeline

By Ramone - June 8, 2007

The night before as I was walking home I was feeling like a failure ...with temptation, resisting, warfare, standing. I knew it was a time of testing, a time that He's bringing me through -- like GOLD! (Job 23:10)

But in the midst of all these feelings, I felt that He still had me, He still held onto me. And I held onto Him, onto His lifeline! It's strong! It picks me up! His hold is stronger & won't let me go, my Daddy! (^_^) He's pulling me along, and I'm securely held to Him from deep inside.

This is kind of how I saw it that night -- although for some reason I didn't draw it at night, but at daytime. Just seemed right. It felt like there was this cord in the midst of all my failures and unsteadiness, this cord that went up from me to Him, and He was pulling me off the ground!

I didn't know how to show the "attachment" of the lifeline to me, so I drew the Baby Bjorn harness that we use to carry baby Timothy around in! I thought it's beautiful and appropriate -- just as we hold Timothy in it close to us, He holds us close to Him, harnessed to Him by faith and by His faithfulness. The cord of faith is strong in Him -- He holds it!

It's Finished

By Ramone - June 3, 2007

In the morning as I was laying in bed waking up, I was tempted remembering old memories or fantasies. I seemed dead in resisting and seemed to have only have a will to wish to try to resist.

Then I saw this picture, the crosses over a sunset, focused on the middle cross. And I thought of His Sabbath love...

My works, my sins, are finished on His cross. He finished the work and He finished my sins. The Son set and He brought eternal Sabbath-rest into my life---into our lives.

My sins are finished. My old life is finished. I died with Him and am living in Him now, in the eternal Sabbath of His love, His life.

(P.S. That kind of killed the temptation and desire to sin in my heart!)
(P.P.S. He's been rocking me with the depths and finished-ness of His Sabbath-rest lately! See this post!)

Faith

By Ramone - April 2, 2007

When I was young, I remember being told that you can't touch a butterfly's wings. If you touch the wings, they won't fly anymore. When I fall or give into temptation, I feel like that, like I can never fly again.

As I felt like this, I thought of a butterfly. But what if His hand touched the butterfly? His hand who created the butterfly. Is anything impossible for God? Yes, he can fly again.

I remembered that Jesus often told people He healed, "Your faith has made you whole." Their faith in Him had healed them. They believed that He was able to do it, and they stepped forward to ask Him. Because they believed He could, that He was the one who could make them well.

Then I remembered that it is in You that I fly! I forget that so often, Lord! I get flying & then fall & break, feeling I can't do it again. But it was You who lifted me up in the first place.

"Rise up, church, with broken wings
Fill this place with songs again
Of our God who reigns on high
By His grace again we'll fly."

- Martin Smith, "Shout to the North"

Falling Forward

By Ramone - March 10, 2007

Coming home yesterday I wasn't feeling close to Him... I haven't been great at resisting the enmy lately, and have been often assailed by temptation. You fall & wonder where you can go... keep walking? Is it right to? Yes, fall foward into His grace. Go forward & just fall. Lean on Him, your resting place. This is kind of how I saw it as I walked, this water in front of me that I'm to fall into. Is it a waterfall in a city street?

Through It All - Series

Flying Through

By Ramone - January 22, 2007

At the beginning of 2007 I had a revelation that God used to help really break down the power of lust in me, which I talked about in the picture, Through It All. That was the beginning of a series of pictures, the "butterfly" pictures, which can be seen mostly in this gallery (and this later straggler) and have come to a blessed climax for me (of healing) around the time of this picture.

Anyway, that first link (Through it All) is the key to understanding what the butterflies symbolize. These are people who have been healed --reborn-- from the place of crawling under the oppression of bondage to lust. As I prayed after receiving that revelation, several pictures came which became the "series". This was the final one -- it is a promise of God, from Him, that these "released" people (released from the bondage of lust) will fly through dark places in our societies, through our city, through her streets. And as they fly they will bring grace grace, freedom, release, and much-needed healing to the people there. It is a promise of the future. Please pray for this!

Crying Together With

By Ramone - January 22, 2007

This picture is part of a series (see this link) that came as God talked to me after soaking in our Japanese bath one night. I asked Him why my struggle with lust had gone on so long, and He said it was because He would use it to help other people into freedom from lust. I cried so hard when He told me that. And we talked for awhile after that, and this was one of the pictures that came out. A picture of sharing, a picture of brokenness, a picture of what He has called us to do, of the greatest law He has called us to fulfill: "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).

The name of the picture comes from something Dutch Sheets said about "intercession" in his book Intercessory Prayer. In Romans 8:26 Paul said that the Spirit "helps" us or "intercedes" for us in our weakness. Sheets wrote about the word "helps" in Greek:

"The Greek word is sumnantilambanomai. I think you have to speak in tongues just to say this word! ...It is a compound word made up of three words. Sun means 'together with', anti means 'against', and lambano means 'to take hold of'. Putting them together, a very literal meaning of the word would be 'take hold of together with against.'" (Sheets, Intercessory Prayer, p.102)

The definition--clumsy as it is--stuck in my head, in my spirit and in my heart: "Taking hold of together with against".

I saw this picture as I was talking with God that night, when He was showing me that He would use my struggle to help others free, to help me to understand their pain, to intercede and "carry away" (Gal.6:2) their burden in Christ. The only way I could describe the picture was in the same kind of clumsy Greeky-sounding definition, "Crying together with." Crying together with one another, with Him, understanding what we've been through. Understanding and carrying it to Christ that He may carry it away.

When you've been under that struggle (or any struggle for that matter), you sometimes can't see things clearly. So He sends you a helper (sometimes it's obviously the Holy Spirit, other times it's a person through whom His Spirit is working to "help" you -- to take hold of this thing together with you, against the enemy, and carry it away from you so you can see that Christ has taken it in His finished work on the cross). This is a picture of that, of me or someone else "helping" (sumnantilambanomai!) by His Spirit, being there for someone, together with them. And in crying together, "mourning with those who mourn", somehow something is released. A captive suddenly knows he is not alone. And suddenly he starts getting released as the burden is "carried away". Just like the scapegoat carried away the sins of Israel, so Christ carried away our sins never to be seen again.

And in His love, He sends us to one another to extend His ministry of love, to intercede by helping someone who can't see the light, taking their burden with them for a moment, and when they can't give it to Christ (who has taken it away but they don't know it yet), instead you give it to Christ. You mourn with them, you carry it, too, and you give it to Christ because they don't know how. And somehow, through this love, this sharing in their grief, crying together with them, He acts. He extends His intercession. And He takes the burden away.

Thank You, God, for doing this for me! Thank You for crying together with me, for sharing my pain, my distress, my darkness, my burden, my trial. Thank You for taking it all from me. Sometimes I don't remember that You "became sin" for me, that You took it away. In those times, Lord, thank You for showing me. In other times, Lord, when my grief was louder than Your voice, thank You for sending someone to help me, to "cry together with" me and carry my burden away to You. Thank You for sending someone in Christ's love, fulfilling His law. Thank You.

Lord, in Jesus' name, I ask You to send me. Send me to do this, Lord. I'll never forget the time You had me do that for a friend at university that didn't even know it. After that I told You that if I can just do this all my life for my friends, that is all I want, that is enough, Lord. Thank You for crying in Your Spirit in me now as I write that, Lord. Thank You for that desire. Thank You for the name You gave me in Japanese though my wife one day, "someone who cries together with". Thank You for sending me. Thank You for answering my request to do this, Lord, that came from Your heart and became my heart, too. I love You. Send more of us to do this, Lord. Fill us with Your heart, Your intercessory heart, to cry together with Your people in mourning, even those who don't know You yet. In Jesus' name, thank You, and amen.

Today is Enough

By Ramone - January 20, 2007

This picture is part of a series (see this link) that came as God talked to me after soaking in our Japanese bath one night. He let me know He was holding me up in His love, grace and security--sustaining me--in my long battle against lust. And He let me know that I was going through a lot of this because He would use it to help me "cry together with" others who were going through the same thing. He would redeem what I'd been through and use it to set others free. Thank You, Lord!

Of course, the effect of this was overwhelming on me (once I surrendered to it, to Him and His ways & sovereignty!). However, as strong as I then felt, I at once began to doubt and worry about "tomorrow" -- what would happen if I "fell" tomorrow again? Should I avoid making promises now or vows? Should I avoid getting too excited to hope this was the end?

This picture was His response! He had been using butterflies to speak to me of who I am in Him (flying by faith with wings strengthened through coming out of my old body's cocoon). I saw this picture moving, actually. The butterfly hovering over my watch. I couldn't see what time it was. He was letting me know that now is enough! "Don't worry about tomorrow. Today's junk is enough. Rest in Me now. Leave tomorrow to Me."

Released Together

By Ramone - January 16, 2007

This picture is part of a series (see this link) that came as God talked to me after soaking in our Japanese bath one night. I asked Him why my struggle with lust had gone on so long, and He said it was because He would use it to help other people into freedom from lust. I cried so hard when He told me that. And we talked for awhile after that, and this was one of the pictures that came out.

The book of James says to confess your sins to one another so that you may be healed. What this looks like for us is sharing with a brother in Christ the things that you wouldn't want to share with anyone. Your dirt. Your shame. Your horrible thoughts. And as you come to Him together, He somehow uses that to set you free. He begins to show you what is "you" and what is not you -- what is the enemy trying to sound like you, and what is still "sin that lives in me" (as Paul said).

It's a hard thing to confess, sometimes. But as we pray together, and as He makes Himself known in our midst (as He promised, "where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them"), He sets us free. And we fly together in Him! We are released together in Him.

We are flying together, here! Our color is like gold because we are flying in faith -- faith in Him, faith that what He says about what He's done for us is true, and faith that what He says about us is true, that we are who we say He says we are! Raised up, healed, set free, redeemed, and we have been given a new heart and a new spirit -- one that delights in Him! As we believe Him, and as we share this with one another ("accountability"), He uses one another to show it to us more and more that it is true, and before we know it we begin to find ourselves rising with wings as eagles and soaring in Him... together with Him.

Thank You, Lord!

P.S. This picture is another part of "together" ministry.

Prisoners of Hope, Arise!

"Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope." Zechariah 9:12

Prisoners of Hope, Arise! (attributed to Charles Wesley)

Prisoners of hope, arise, and see your Lord appear;
Lo! on the wings of love He flies, and brings redemption near;
Redemption in His blood He calls you to receive:
"Look unto Me, the pardoning God. Believe," He cries, "believe!"

The reconciling word, we thankfully embrace;
Rejoice in our redeeming Lord, a blood besprinkled race.
We yield to be set free; Thy counsel we approve;
Salvation, praise, ascribe to Thee, and glory in Thy love.

Jesus, to Thee we look, till saved from sin's remains;
Reject the inbred tyrant's yoke, and cast away his chains.
Our nature shall no more over us dominion have;
By faith we apprehend the power which shall forever save.

Held Up!

By Ramone - January 14, 2007

This picture is part of a series (see this link) that came as God talked to me after soaking in our Japanese bath one night. I asked Him why my struggle with lust had gone on so long, and He said it was because He would use it to help other people into freedom from lust. I cried so hard when He told me that. And we talked for awhile after that, and this was one of the pictures that came out.

This was the first of five pictures He showed me that night. He showed me that He was holding me up. He had just showed me a few days earlier that I was a butterfly (born again through struggle against my old shell, my old, dead body), but sometimes I fell or was tempted, and yet He has been here holding me up the whole time. He is under me, and will not let me go. He is the One who makes me soar. He is the One who makes me fly, whether I can see Him or not. Thank You, Lord!

Through it all

By Ramone - January 4, 2007

On the 3rd I woke up lazily around 10am and right after my wife left the room to go downstairs, the enemy began hitting me with temptation — he likes to do that in the morning to start our days off on a negative or guilty note. It can be really frustrating 'cause you get tricked into feeling guilty just for being tempted, and then it's worse if you fall. Instead I want to wake up and to thank God, praise Him, and know His love & presence right away! But in the morning... you know. But God breaks through!

So on the morning of the 3rd temptation tried to get in, and I may have quietly asked for help to remember Him, to remember who I am in Him and whom I really love (Him and my wife), and I saw this picture of a butterfly's wing, particularly the lower-left quarter of the butterfly's wing and faintly some of its 'veins'. It was kind of yellow-orange and had gold-light coming through it, looking more transparent and glasslike than I drew it. There must've been light behind it, now that I think about it.

As I saw it I remembered what butterflies go through in order to fly, struggling hard to come out of their hard cocoons. If you try to "help" them out, their wings won't be strong enough for them to fly. They need to fight to come out, they need that hard struggle. Their wings won't be strong if they don't.

I realized that the morning temptations were just like that. God allowed them to strengthen my "wings" — my wings of faith — to strengthen my faith in Him, my seeking of Him and leaning on Him to be my strength in these times. I need this or I won't be able to fly to the next place His wind will carry me.

I'm like the butterfly, leaving the old man behind, the worm, and it requires some struggle & "hard" time, even looking dead like in a cocoon, unmoving and dark—but He will use it so I can fly free in faith in Him. (^_^)

These verses came to mind:

"Those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint."
(Isaiah 40:31)

"Now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
(1 Peter 1:6-7)

That's why the wings had that gold color and gold light coming through! The Light is shining on me, through my wings! He had me look at the veins that were strengthened by this trial, and the light that comes through these wings is the faith of gold that comes from trusting in Him and leaning on Him.

*****

Later I remembered that in my time of struggle that morning I had asked Him to help me remember who I am in Him — and He showed me! I am the butterfly! He showed me myself! I have wings! These are my wings. I can never be a worm again. I can never return again because of You, because of what You have done, thank You Jesus!

*****

The name of the picture comes from a classic Andrae Crouch song called "Through it all"...

I've had many tears and sorrows
I've had questions for tomorrow
There's been times I didn't know right from wrong
But in every situation
God gave me blessed consolation
That my trials come to only make me strong

I've been a lot of places
And I've seen millions of faces
But there were times that I felt so all alone
But in my lonely hour
Yet in those precious lonely hours
Jesus let me know that I was His own

(That's the reason I say that) Through it all
Through it all
(Oh) I've learned to trust in Jesus
I've learned to trust in God
(Let me tell you that) Through it all
Through it all
I've learned to depend upon His word

So I thank God for the mountains
And I thank Him for the valleys
And I thank Him for the storms He's brought me through
Oh, if I'd never had a problem
I'd never know that God could solve them
I'd never know what faith in His word can do

*****

Below are the first two versions of the picture. The first doesn't really look like what I saw, but I like its brightness anyway... it's me—us—soaring in Him! And the second captures the "glow" of the Light shining through the wings the best of all three.