See below 12 pictures from the book Undying Love: Illustrations of Faith and Courage from the lives of Christian Martyrs. To read more about the book Undying Love: Illustrations of Faith and Courage from the lives of Christian Martyrs and for links to purchase it click here.
Read the preface from the book by Jeffrey Hakes
Read the preface from the book by Jeffrey Hakes
Enjoy your visit! Please do not copy these images.
Afterword, from the book Undying Love: Illustrations of Faith and Courage from the lives of Christian Martyrs
In preparation for the paintings represented in this book, I spent hours reading through thousands of pages of testimonies of martyrdom. Of course, such reading had quite an impact on me; somewhere along the way, as I was painting these stories, I found myself praying:
"Oh God, please don't let me die of old age, or in any kind of accident, or waste away with some disease; let me die with purpose, like these martyrs did! Let me die a champion, with some heroic, inspiring last statement issuing from my lips! Let my death honor you and point to your worthy example, and your deserving love!"
I prayed this prayer (more or less) for the year it took to complete these twelve paintings. I don't think that it was necessarily a bad prayer. But after finishing the paintings and moving beyond them into the next things that God invited my wife and I into, I felt the Holy Spirit convict me one day regarding that prayer. In a moment of quiet reflection, He impressed on me that the grace to die well has been given and will be given to him who has learned to live well, to those whose lives are living sacrifices long before they are called to be literal sacrifices. I felt Him impress on me that the more important thing–and indeed the more difficult–might not be to die heroically for Christ on any particular day, but to live for Him, in obscurity perhaps, not only for one afternoon, but for 21,000+ afternoons. Love that survives not just the pressure of an hour of fiery trial, but throughout all the hours of a lifetime–this is truly love that never dies.
May this book invite you into a life marked with such love.
I close now with a prayer:
"Yeshua, purify our understanding of life and of death. Purify the lives we live before You, that they may give off a beautiful fragrance of the life You purchased for us with Your own. We recognize that there is no life outside of the life You have bought for us, when You took on Yourself at the cross the payment for our freedom from sin and death. Thank You for satisfying the requirements that were keeping us from Your perfect Father. Thank You for opening the door through Your sacrifice, to our having relationship with God restored. With amazement and joy, we accept and embrace Your redeeming work on our behalf and thank You for it. Now, dear Friend and Savior, strengthen our hearts, that we might truly love You, without hesitation and without shrinking back, and love each other, as You have loved us. Open the eyes of our hearts, that we may know You. By the mysterious grace of the Holy Spirit within us, awaken us to be fully alive spiritually and fully dead to the power of darkness and all sinful inclinations. Beautiful Yeshua, we call for Your desires and the administration of Your Kingdom to be manifested in and through our lives. For in response to that great love with which You love us, and washed us from our sins in Your own blood, we desire to give to You in return, without fear, a love that never dies. In Your incomparable Name, Amen."
In preparation for the paintings represented in this book, I spent hours reading through thousands of pages of testimonies of martyrdom. Of course, such reading had quite an impact on me; somewhere along the way, as I was painting these stories, I found myself praying:
"Oh God, please don't let me die of old age, or in any kind of accident, or waste away with some disease; let me die with purpose, like these martyrs did! Let me die a champion, with some heroic, inspiring last statement issuing from my lips! Let my death honor you and point to your worthy example, and your deserving love!"
I prayed this prayer (more or less) for the year it took to complete these twelve paintings. I don't think that it was necessarily a bad prayer. But after finishing the paintings and moving beyond them into the next things that God invited my wife and I into, I felt the Holy Spirit convict me one day regarding that prayer. In a moment of quiet reflection, He impressed on me that the grace to die well has been given and will be given to him who has learned to live well, to those whose lives are living sacrifices long before they are called to be literal sacrifices. I felt Him impress on me that the more important thing–and indeed the more difficult–might not be to die heroically for Christ on any particular day, but to live for Him, in obscurity perhaps, not only for one afternoon, but for 21,000+ afternoons. Love that survives not just the pressure of an hour of fiery trial, but throughout all the hours of a lifetime–this is truly love that never dies.
May this book invite you into a life marked with such love.
I close now with a prayer:
"Yeshua, purify our understanding of life and of death. Purify the lives we live before You, that they may give off a beautiful fragrance of the life You purchased for us with Your own. We recognize that there is no life outside of the life You have bought for us, when You took on Yourself at the cross the payment for our freedom from sin and death. Thank You for satisfying the requirements that were keeping us from Your perfect Father. Thank You for opening the door through Your sacrifice, to our having relationship with God restored. With amazement and joy, we accept and embrace Your redeeming work on our behalf and thank You for it. Now, dear Friend and Savior, strengthen our hearts, that we might truly love You, without hesitation and without shrinking back, and love each other, as You have loved us. Open the eyes of our hearts, that we may know You. By the mysterious grace of the Holy Spirit within us, awaken us to be fully alive spiritually and fully dead to the power of darkness and all sinful inclinations. Beautiful Yeshua, we call for Your desires and the administration of Your Kingdom to be manifested in and through our lives. For in response to that great love with which You love us, and washed us from our sins in Your own blood, we desire to give to You in return, without fear, a love that never dies. In Your incomparable Name, Amen."