by Jay Myers
Dear Friends, today I’m grateful to share with you the heart of my husband and the artist behind The Martyrs’ Cross, Jay Myers. In the Biblical calendar, this weekend marks both Shavuot and Pentecost, it’s the perfect time to ponder and seek the Father to enter our world, to become enfleshed. Our hope is that these truths wash over you and nourish you wherever this finds you today. – Raynna
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke
When God stepped out of oblivion to create, he sewed time together with space, tone with color, and form with thought. Then he created his image in the dust and blew his Spirit into the dirt, sewing infinity with the finite. Yet, even the very dust itself was made from Him; it too has sanctity, has goodness, and has longevity.
Now, because we have the eternal living within, we automagically take on holiness and sanctity. We are holy because God is holy. This is especially true when we align ourselves with His spirit-written-and-filled Torah.
Burke understood something that most of us don’t. He knew that within his being, he held eternal power to advance good in the world.
As the knot between the cosmic and the limited, we are God’s physical primordial presence in this earth. We are His manifestness, and His embodiment—not fully as Messiah was, but finitely infinite. Therefore, we have the creative power to mold this world with the knowledge of good or if we do nothing: evil.
Phenomenal cosmic powers! Itty bitty living space!
Within us is the immortal, immemorial, and immeasurable Spirit of the living God of Israel. Within us, mixed together with the dust of this earth, is God—the God. He breathed His Spirit into a pile of dust and, with His Spirit, inflated the first parent’s lungs.
Therefore the man was created alone…[to] portray the grandeur of the Holy One, blessed be He. For a person mints many coins with a single seal, and they are all alike one another. But the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, minted all human beings with that seal of his with which he made the first person, yet not one of them is like anyone else. Therefore everyone is obligated to maintain, “On my account the world was created.” (Sanhedrin 4:5 MISH-N)
The first soul: spirit-dirt. Within that, spirit-dirt is the very God who created it. His Spirit also inflates our lungs, and daily we can bask in the wind of His presence—step outside, raise your arms, float in the infinite. As the apostle Paul so aptly put it: “God is all and in all.”
In the beginning, God created ×”××“× (the adam) in his image. This image is His representation, not made from wood or stone, not made by human hands, clay in His likeness to represent his grace, kindness, and intent. This explains his vehement disgust with man-made idols. The false images lower us from being the true heirs of His imagery.
Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save. (Isaiah 46:3-4)
When we walk by His Spirit’s given wisdom—Torah—engraved in stone and on our hearts, we are following the will of God. When we follow the will of God, His Spirit advances His kingdom—through us. When we don’t, we promote the destructiveness that comes from the knowledge of bad—evil.
God’s kingdom is a kingdom of life and good. We either advance or don’t God’s kingdom by our actions.
You are stronger than you seem.
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion, Ilúvatar (which means: Father of all) creates the world and its history through the Ainur’s (angel type beings) songs. They sing to align themselves with the intent of Ilúvatar, all the while the one created with a different tune tries to sow in discordant melodies. Each time, Ilúvatar thwarts his destructive intentions by mixing the discord in to make His song even more beautiful.
The Timeless One has fused His being together with the dust of earth and lives within us. The Forever One fills the universe and our souls. If we choose to align our hearts with His, like the Ainur’s song did with Ilúvatar, then together we can recreate this world.
When we align our hearts with His Spirit-breathed Torah, we stop the evils of this world and advance the eternal kingdom. When His Word becomes enfleshed in us, we can turn the discord of this world into a beautiful song of His presence—by living it out.
We are not the limitless One, we are a part of Him. We are the part He placed in this world when He created us. Through the unity of being, His body on earth, we create what God intended in this world—community. His Spirit is present, wherever two or three are gathered in His name, because He created us, like the first adam who was one but also two, for communion with Him and each other. When we gather together, we speak to the Infinite God and to the spirit-dirt being that God so loved the world for.
We are not God. We are that piece of Him that He put here for a purpose. We are here to bring the healing and fixing to this world that only, individually, we can. Only our soul was created to mend that broken part of the world, which waits for our God-given gifts and skills.
Yes, we will still sin. We must remember that we are “but dust.” Dust mixed with the knowledge of both good and bad, and it is not always easy to remember eternity lives within.
Yes, we have faced the evils this world has to offer—but we have infinity inside. When we embrace God, we will heal the world around us. Because we are children of our Father in heaven, we can do something to spread the knowledge of good and not evil.
With the knowledge and living out of the infinite inside, the Bible becomes more than “basic instructions before leaving earth.” It becomes a chart to navigate the knowledge of good and evil. It becomes a way to know God’s mind so we can align our good actions to His good intentions. It becomes enfleshed within us and shows us why Messiah is called, דבר ,ממר, and λόγος (“the Word”). The Word is written in hearts, just as it was on tablets of stone—by the finger (Spirit) of God. This Word becomes life within and without. Birthed. Enfleshed.
What does it mean when Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done?”
This is what happens when we present ourselves to a broken, beaten, and bruised world as the image-bearing, God in us, spirit-dirt.
When we become healers as he is.
When we become creators as he is.
When we become rescuers as he is.
When we impart life as he does.
We become empowered & enfleshed, Christ in us, when we step out of our own oblivion to sew time and space. Making time, making space, becoming enfleshed.
Jay Myers is the artist and designer behind The Martyrs’ Cross pendant. Since 1999 tens of thousands of The Martyrs’ Crosses have gone to family in over 26 nations, brothers and sisters on the front lines of physical persecution for their faith in Jesus. In this symbol we hope to communicate they are not alone, not unknown, not forgotten.
The Martyrs’ Cross is a symbol as well as a family, our family and many others who have joined us. We want to be people who remember, pray for and love with action, persecuted and persecutor alike. We invite you to do the same and join us.
We began and continue with serving persecuted Christians and we have grown to understand this should include sacred life everywhere. A “martyr” is not a victim, but rather a witness. We, along with all who give their lives to the ultimate goal of Love, we witness that the way of the God of Israel is justice, mercy, compassion, and humility.
We are eager for Mercy to lead the way and bring about healing in this world. This online space is dedicated to sharing things that we are learning along the way in the real physical space of our daily lives. We aim and pray to be a resource of strength for you in yours.
The Martyrs’ Cross Prayerbook Update: Thank you to all who are following along with and praying for our progress in this project! Our goal for publication, with the help of the Lord, has moved to September, full steam ahead.