How to make a faux Grecian pot.

We're wrapping up our study of the Greeks and preparing to move on to Rome. 

For our final Greek art project we made faux Grecian pottery.

Supplies needed:

Terra cotta pot

Black acrylic pain

Peach crayon

Paint brush

Paper towels

Clear coat spray-on sealant

Draw your design on the pot using the peach crayon.  Press hard so lots of wax transfers to the pot.

 

When you are finished with your design, paint over the entire pot using black acrylic paint. 

 

Then buff the pot with a paper towel while it is still wet, revealing your design.

Now all your designs should be showing.

Spray with Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear Spray Coating and allow to dry.

All done!  Ours now adorn our kitchen table.
We planted rosemary and basil in them.

Gospel and Law

I've been reading some more emergent church books lately.  I enjoy Donald Miller, Rob Bell, and to some extent, Brian McLaren.  Their books make me uncomfortable though and cause me to search my faith.  Have I built my spiritual house on bedrock or is part of the wonder of God that is He is ultimately unknowable?

The emergent pastors seem to purport that what we believe about God is not really important.  What is important is that we follow Jesus into a new way of living in love and community.  They stress Jesus' call to kingdom living and sacrificial love for our brothers.

Which all sounds great. 

Except is is not the Good News.

It is not the Gospel.

When I stand before a holy God after I die,  I cannot trust in my adherence to Jesus' way of kingdom living.  My works cannot reconcile me to a perfect, just God.  That is Law.  And I cannot fulfill it.  I am inadequate to pay the monstrous debt I owe.

The apostles and early martyrs did not die because the Romans feared their lifestyle of community.  They died because they bore witness to the real Good News - that Jesus Christ, the incarnate God-made-flesh, had died for our sins and risen again in victory. 

I am so thankful for the real Gospel.  That my salvation does not rest in my works, but instead I have been ransomed back through the shed blood of Christ.  Indeed, works will follow as the Spirit of God restores my soul and conforms me to the image of His Son.  Works are evidence of true salvation.  But they are not the work of salvation itself. 

I am thankful for the solid rock of Christ.  That I don't have to build my house on the shifting sands of emergent theology that pretends to be about grace, but is really just regurgitated law.  And I can choose not to be enslaved again to law, but rejoice in the freedom His blood purchased for me.
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