ArcaynWays

Author: rzt

  • Fear of Man

    Today’s daily verse: “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” (Proverbs 29:25, ESV)

    Today’s picture was fun to create, and it’s getting closer to what I want from my art. I’ve used a couple sources to generate the images, then experiment with masking to make it look more unique. Today I tried to get both Gemini and ChatGPT to generate an image that was a reflection of today’s verse, and this was the best that ChatGPT came up with. But look at the tree! I changed the fill of the leafy part and the trunk to something unique, using stock images from MS PowerPoint. This is an idea that I stole from someone quite a while ago; she used this technique to create unique children’s book art. (I can’t remember if it was an online course or YouTube; my apologies to the creator.) To finally use it in my own creation is pretty exciting!

    And by the way, the message of today’s verse is spot on. I think so many of us deal with the fear of what other people think, and it holds us back from trying something new and unique. I know I do, and it’s a constant battle. Here’s to another day’s victorious battle!

  • Walk by the Spirit

    Today’s daily verse: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16, ESV)

  • For by Grace

    Today’s daily verse: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV)

  • Whoever Isolates Himself

    Verse of the day: “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” (Proverbs 18:1, ESV)

    I try to listen to a chapter from Proverbs every morning that I exercise, and since today is the 18th of the month, this came up. It reminded me of how easy it is these days to isolate ourselves, spending the whole day watching TikTok, Netflix, or YouTube. And when I go down that rabbit hole, I really do make poor decisions – staying up too late, consuming instead of producing, letting other people fill my mind with their opinions, etc. It’s a reminder to spend time with family and friends, and time in prayer with God.

  • Spirit of Truth

    Today’s daily verse: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 16:13, ESV)

  • God Shows His Love

    Today’s verse: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, ESV)

  • Do Not Swerve

    I’ve started playing around with Affinity. It seems to be one of those programs that has a ton of usefulness… if you’re willing to invest the time to learn how to use it. So. I’m going to start creating an image a day, just as an experiment. For right now, I’ll base it on the verse of the day, but I reserve the right to do something completely different, based on how the Spirit leads.

    Today’s verse: “Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.” (Proverbs 4:25-27, ESV)

    I feel like this is the thing I’ve struggled with the most in my life: choosing one thing and sticking with it. But I feel like God has been prompting me from several different sources that I need to pick a path and just walk it for a while, without getting distracted by different paths. So here’s the current path: making an image a day and sharing it with whoever happens to find it – that’s you!

  • Betrayal

    Betrayal

    This year is unique for me. Normally, I pay as little attention to holidays as possible; if I didn’t have kids, I might not do any kind of celebrating at all, aside from taking a day or two off. It’s borderline Scrooge-like behavior.

    But I’ve decided to create an EP of four to six songs in the first part of 2021, and Easter is my deadline to have it written and produced. And since Easter is my deadline, I thought, why not use that as an underlying theme for the tracks on the EP?

    Hence the uniqueness: Whereas in the past I’ve waited until the last minute to even think about Easter, this year I’ve been thinking about it since January. How did the whole week before Jesus’ death play out? Who were the key players? And who were the people involved that we rarely even think about? And how did everything that happened affect them?

    For example, we’ve all read about Peter’s betrayal of Jesus, but what about the other disciples? I’ve just been thinking about what they must have been feeling the day after the crucifixion. They had just devoted roughly three years of their lives to this person. They had seen numerous miracles that seemed to prove that this was the Christ, and after the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, it seemed certain that they were about to see Israel restored, with Jesus as the new king.

    Then, in what must have seemed like the blink of an eye, everything went sideways.

    If it was me, what would I have been feeling? Lost and unsure of my future, of course; I’d been planning on being part of something big, but now I’d have to go back to fishing / tax collecting / living at home with my parents (or whatever). I’d feel isolated. Maybe angry.

    But definitely betrayed.

    I’d just invested years into something bigger than myself, and the person I’d put my trust in was now dead. My dreams were dead. Jesus had proven that he was something special, time after time. Why had God allowed him to die?!? Or if he was truly the Son of God, why had he allowed himself to die?!? And why was I such a fool, to allow myself to believe that he could truly be the Messiah, the One that had been promised?!?

    We know the rest of the story, but pause there for a second. It’s important. Without allowing ourselves to experience the depth of that feeling of betrayal, how can we understand the feeling of the hope reborn, of the joy that the disciples and believers must have felt upon learning of the empty tomb, upon seeing the resurrected Christ?

    That’s why at least a couple of the tracks I’m creating for this EP try to capture that feeling of betrayal, of hopelessness.

    I’m looking forward to sharing it with you, and I hope that you’ll come on this journey with me.

    -Russ
    ArcaynWays

  • It’s Been A While

    So I managed to post exactly one post, way back in 2018, and then… nothing. How’s that for creating scarcity? 😊

    In truth, I haven’t been idle the whole time; I’ve been working on other projects, learning, and teaching. Oh, and also working a full time job and raising a family…

    But the real issue hasn’t been lack of time or laziness; it’s been the fear that I have nothing of value to say. This is commonly called “imposter syndrome,” and I think just about everybody has it to some degree. Why should you, dear reader, spend time reading this?

    But I know that the only way for me to find my voice is by trial and error, so it’s a good time to start “putting in the reps” and building a blog.

    I hope you’ll stick with me, and I hope that, in time, I will be able to encourage and help you to grow, as well.

  • New Song: And Then I Get to Scream

    https://youtu.be/oeUpE_Xcwxk

    My family and I finally got to visit Disneyland this Summer – something we’ve been wanting to do for a few years. This video has a couple audio snippets recorded on that trip; bonus points if you can guess which ride the first sample came from! 🙂