Fellow believers ... God has given me a gift of
seeing: this gallery will be a display for the
works of beauty I have been privileged to
capture.     

Praise Him!
J
e
s
u
s
Be still and know that I am God.

Psalm 46:10










Jesus said to him, "Because you have
seen Me have you believed?  Blessed
are they who did not see, and yet
believed."

John 20:29
The face of God I recognize

The
Dark-eyed Emmanuel

I know this Face
Without seeing

Having once Glimpsed it
At the end Of the universe

A child's plaintive
Attempt to know the
Unknowable

In the gentle Doomed face
Of John Matthews ...

Lamb
White as the Overspray
Of a million
Constellations

Life blood
Coursing without Fail
Through rocks
Flesh
& the Olive tree

Hero
Of a thousand
Faces.


Rev. Sean
Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind
me a great thunderous voice: "Blessed is the
glory of the Lord from His place."

Ezekiel  3:12
"... but of the tree of knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, for
in that day that you eat of it you shall
surely die."

Genesis 2:17
relax with haiku


wet sidewalks glisten ...
a melancholy wind whispers
high overhead.



great horned owl stretches
over rain-darkened woodlands ...
eclipsing the huntress.



leaves turn gold
slipping away toward earth ...
nights are longer now.
rivers sit on foggy banks
silent and alone as old men ...
campers return to the city.



groaning combine squats
axle-deep in mud and beans ...
tractor wheel clouds roll overhead.



whitetail deer fly
over fences and backroads ...
meadows sleep like children.

Rev. Sean             
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?

I Corinthians 15:55 (from Hosea)
My son, do not forget my teaching,
but keep My commands in your
heart, for they will prolong your life
many years and bring you
prosperity.               
Proverbs 3:1-2
He has risen!  He is not here.

Mark 16:6
Farmington, New Mexico
altitude 37,000 ft.
Awake, north wind, and come, south wind!  
Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may
spread abroad.  Let my lover come into his
garden and taste its choice fruits.

Song of Solomon 4:16
One day the angels came to
present themselves before
the Lord, and Satan, also
came with them.  The Lord
said to Satan, "Where have
you come from?"

Satan answered the Lord,
"From roaming through the
earth, and going back and
forth in it."

Job 1:6 & 7
Sorg Mansion in Middletown, OH
Our Angel of the morning
New Mexico rain

I felt the cool air on my cheek, fluttering like a
Cecropia moth or a soft  open
hand                                                
Brushing sleep into a thick shadow far across the
room;                                                

She was already on the landing eating the night
air, delicious wet                                                  
Sensual buffet that it was.  She was dreaming of
long, soaking Ohio
rainstorms,                                                
And I knew it before I opened my
eyes.                                                

Has anyone ever described the smell of rain to
you?     

Let me try...                                           

It is the odor of wetness thrown down from thirty
thousand feet onto                                                
Hot as hell asphalt;  it can be detected miles
down wind from the
event.                                                
It is an ancient remnant of childhood that cannot
be fully
remembered                                                
Nor completely forgotten … it is a legend best
understood                                                
By the reptilian brain when we were not well-
acquainted with our humanity, before
Adam                                                 

When God was still experimenting with the
concept of man.
Storm clouds exploding in the west.
rest is good ... God rested.
... and indeed it was very good.   --Genesis 1:31
Creating Order  

Spend a day
In the Cool November
sun
Piling stones
Taking them Up to the
now-withered beds

Lining them up
Straight
Edges must conform
one to Another

Creating a border
Where the Line of
demarcation
Grows fainter
With each Autumn rain

Creating Order
Something we need to
Do

A natural repetition
A mindful activity

Stones side by side
End to end
Skulls of Our ancestors
Staring back
Through the Void
At an empty heritage ...

We peer into
Their endless Orbits

Deep wells of black
light, and

Close our eyes

Opening them to
darkness
The darkness of a clear
Night sky
A lantern of stars

Where constellations
Are the Skulls of our
ancestors
So far away from us that
we have Forgotten
Their faces

We cannot make out
their Features
But we know they look
Back
The way time is folded
over on itself

Like a clamshell of
Einstein's making

Peering back from Orion
the Hunter
Cygnus the Swan
The 14 eyes of the 7
Sisters

Puzzled yet at what We
do not see:

The Many faces of God
That watch from The
stars
The stars that are skulls
The skulls that Are rocks
The rocks that are
Loaves lined up

Side by side
To create order.
the Gallery
the gathering
contact me at ... revsean@gatheringspirit.org
God is sovereign ... therefore

therefore ... There is nothing outside God's control
therefore ... all outcomes are directed
therefore ... direction is intentional
therefore ... intent is specific
therefore ... specificity is non-random
therefore ... being non-random means there are no accidents
therefore ... if there are no accidents then events are intentional
therefore ... intent suggests purpose
therefore ... purpose is directed
therefore ... direction is calculated
therefore ... calculation suggests a specific outcome
therefore ... outcomes have inputs
therefore ... inputs are also calculated to produce outcomes
therefore ... the loop is closed and the outcome intentional   
therefore ... nothing is beyond His control

therefore ... God is sovereign.
... given them wings.
and in the beginning ...
This is also God's work ... what
He did to balance our natural
environment, and to bring us joy
in the small, but precious
wonders.
"And God said, Let there be light,"
and there was light.  And God saw
that it was good.                                    
    -- Genesis 1:3-4

God was right ... it was good & it is
good.  We just don't look for the good
with the same interest or passion.
... wild, wild horses couldn't
keep me away ...
-- Rolling Stones
heaven on earth
Below are the Buckeye, and the Painted
Lady butterflies.  Both are native to Ohio
and the surrounding states.  My Dad
used to take me and my brothers on
hunts with the nets he made from broom
handles, galvanized wire and cheese
cloth.  Back then you could still use
carbon tetrachloride in the killing jars, and
DDT was legal.  It didn't seem so  
environmentally unfriendly then.  That
was 40 years ago ... the blink of an eye.
Pineapple sage in the autumn:  hummingbird food.
Faith & politics

Do not mix these two in an effort to
save our nation … or any nation.  
There are only one chosen people,
and they are the Jews, the nation of
Israel.  God has made no statement
to the contrary.  Yet, we are heirs to
that promise & that blessing as
Christ followers.  That is our
provision.

Take a close look at the following
verses:

Matthew 6:24  “No one can be a
slave of two masters, since either
he will hate the one and love the
other, or be devoted to one and
despise the other.”
About money or material wealth.

Mark 12:17   Then Jesus told them,
“ Give back the Caesar the things
that are Caesar’s, and to God the
things that are God’s.”
About taxes and loyalty.

Matthew 2:6  “And you Bethlehem,
in the land of Judah, are by no
means least among the leaders of
Judah; because out of you will
come a leader who will shepherd
My people Israel.”  

(all from eSword; c.2005, Holman Translation)
About prophecy concerning Christ
from Micah.

In an effort to take nothing out of
context these need to be viewed in
light of the time and to whom they
were addressed.  Just to be sure we
do not exclude Isaiah, and his
prophecy about the “Government
being upon His shoulders,” which
is addressing the nation of Israel and
the coming of the Messiah.

This is why Christ called for
worshipping one master, separating
what we give to the state and to
God, and understanding the
distinction between God’s chosen
people, and all the rest.  Christ will
be manifest to Israel, and in that day
they will know Him.  The plan for
God's chosen people and His
kingdom will work at all times and in
all places for His Son's glory.  In that
we can trust.

Romans11:25-27  So that you will
not be conceited, brothers, I do not
want you to be unaware of this
mystery: a partial hardening has
come to Israel until the full number of
the Gentiles has come in.

And in this way all Israel will be
saved, as it is written: The Liberator
will come from Zion; He will turn
away godlessness from Jacob.

And this will be My covenant with
them, when I take away their sins.

(an excerpt from Lesson# 6, the 2008 collection)
... and he sent out a raven, and it
flew here and it flew there until the
water was dried up from the earth.

          -- Genesis 8:7
Crosses made of palm fronds from Palm Sundays of years
past.  I first learned how to do this in Frederick, Maryland  
watching a young girl weave them for her family & friends.

I keep them because they are beautiful in their simplicity, but
also because I miss the ritual that produced them.
Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass,
the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that
yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in
itself, on the earth; and it was so.
                                   --Genesis 1:11
oh, the wonder
of spring
my rose garden doing well this year
praise God for the rain
Laine ... Doug and
Marlene's little gift from
God
We are a Holy people

Leviticus 19:2   Speak unto all the congregation
of the children of Israel, and say unto them, “Ye
shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.”
(3B;pg 165 KJV)

There you are … you and I … we are worthy because
we are called holy by our God, the Great I AM.  We
are made in His image therefore we are indeed holy
as He is holy.  It is a part of us that is of God; that is
God; that is embedded deep within in us at a physical
and spiritual “sub-particle” level.  This is the stuff we
are made of:  holy stuff.

We are heirs to this covenant made full in Christ
Jesus.  We are children of light as Christ is the light of
the world.  In many ways Joni Mitchell made it clear …”
we are stardust.”

In the second chapter of Leviticus, this is what God
told Moses to tell the people; and the laws of the
Torah were established by God to keep them (and us)
holy, healthy, wealthy and wise, so to speak. Barnes
sums it up as, “They (the laws) were intended as
guards to the sanctity of the elect people, enforcing
common duties by immediate appeal to the highest
authority.”  (eSword c. 2005 Albert Barnes’ Notes on
the Bible)

Holy in this case literally means sacred or
consecrated by virtue of a ceremony or an act of
sanctification. (H6918 from H6942 -Strong’s
numbering).
We are a holy people and we are blessed
accordingly.  Just look at these cool pics.  
Need any more evidence of God?  I have
another 20,000 images, but really we only
need one:  a vision of Christ as Savior.  It all
comes down to faith after all the evidence
has been presented.
moon
As a child, I remember this piece of stained glass in the
sanctuary of the First United Church of Christ in Troy,
Ohio.  The pews above are reminiscent, but are from a
Greek Orthodox church in Middletown.  Christ's request
from His Father, and the eventual acceptance of "the
cup," was never as serene as the moment captured here
... or maybe it is the refuge of childhood.  Regardless,
while the places we inhabit undergo change and
rehabilitation, the clear vision of Christ remains as
compelling, as steadfast, and as sharp as ever.  Praise
God for a child-like belief.
from Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Middletown, OH.
God gave us cats, like deep silent pools, to reflect on ... to
consider our notion of what serenity is.
be still ...
listen
Niagara Falls & the American Falls from the
Canadian side.  This is also more than ample
evidence of the hand of God.
The Church, the Bride of Christ