Cursten Branden Lewis

Crossing the Canyon: The Path to Salvation

Swimming Hole Print Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins
4–5 minutes

The Canyon Crossing is an interesting phenomenon where we see five individuals who are struggling to get across a divide that has no bridge. On the other side of this crossing is the divine paradise, the infinite bliss, the eternal state of joy and happiness of consistent love the first of the five initiates his attempt to jump he exclaimed that he is able to cross he can jump across and he knows how without any support.

We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

2 Corinthians 6: 3-10

Tree of Life

Cursten Lewis's avatar by Cursten Lewis
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), The Consequences of War (1637-38), oil on canvas, 206 x 342 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy. Wikimedia Commons.

The man who has jumped, exclaimed to have earned it: he’s worked hard for everything he’s got and he believes he deserves it, but this is where he falls short. Good efforts are never enough for salvation.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:23

The first man falls to his death, but the second attempts not too long after. He explains that he has to try. He knows that he can make it and he’s lived a very moral life. He helps others all the time, but this is not enough for good morals are never enough to achieve salvation.

Patrocles Painting Jacques Louis David

There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

Proverbs 14:12

This man falls to his death after he lunges, but then a woman tries right after him and she explains that she can do it. She’s well educated, and she has a lot of life already figured out, nothing can get in her way. This is futile, for education and psychology are never enough to ascertain the righteousness of salvation. She falls to her death.

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Isaiah 64:6

Then the holy woman believes that she can make the cross as well. She jumps, explaining that she will make it because she has dedicated her life to religion, and she worships every day. She falls to her death, for religion is never enough to substantiate divine salvation of the psyche.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven…Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

Matthew 7: 21,23

What is Within the Fiery Altar?

Cursten Lewis's avatar by Cursten Lewis
Jacopo Tintoretto (c 1518-1594), Dream of Saint Mark (Pax Tibi Marce) (E&I 305) (c 1591), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy. Image by Didier Descouens, via Wikimedia Commons.

My Deific Instruction

Cursten Lewis's avatar by Cursten Lewis
Frans Francken the Younger (1581–1642), Mankind’s Eternal Dilemma – The Choice Between Virtue and Vice (1633), oil on panel, 142 x 210.8 cm, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA. Wikimedia Commons.

The War of Ancients

Cursten Lewis's avatar by Cursten Lewis
Jacopo Tintoretto (c 1518-1594), The Last Supper (E&I 310) (1592-94), media and dimensions not known, Duomo, Lucca, Italy. Image by Mongolo1984, via Wikimedia Commons.

Arte e Spiritualità: Sant’Antonio Abate

Cursten Lewis's avatar by Cursten Lewis
Frans Francken the Younger (1581–1642), Mankind’s Eternal Dilemma – The Choice Between Virtue and Vice (1633), oil on panel, 142 x 210.8 cm, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA. Wikimedia Commons.

The Wisdom of Understanding

Cursten Lewis's avatar by Cursten Lewis
Jacopo Tintoretto (c 1518-1594), The Last Supper (E&I 309) (1592-94), oil on canvas, 365 x 568 cm, Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy. Wikimedia Commons.

La Omnipotencia

Cursten Lewis's avatar by Cursten Lewis
The Paradise by the Italian Renaissance painter Tintoretto (1518-1594 CE), commissioned for the Doge’s Palace n Venice. Completed 1588 CE.

Llamamiento de Realidad

Cursten Lewis's avatar by Cursten Lewis
Hans Memling (c 1433–1494), The Last Judgment (panel from triptych) (1467-1471), oil on panel, 223 x 72 cm, Muzeum Narodowe w Gdańsku, Gdańsk. Wikimedia Commons.

The Eternal Truths: Insights from Scripture

Cursten Lewis's avatar by Cursten Lewis
Jacopo Tintoretto (c 1518-1594), The Archangel Michael in Combat with Lucifer (E&I 287) (1580s or early 1590s), oil on canvas, 318 x 220 cm, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden, Germany. Wikimedia Commons.

Then the final man contemplates jumping over, he observes that the other individuals couldn’t make it. He believes that he certainly can’t either, he reasons that he will need help from the other side. I have made a way to get to him from the other side of paradise, I have used my son to create a passage for this individual to successfully crossover into the divine paradise of eternal bliss, that is happiness through love.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

1 Peter 3:18

The last man finally makes it over the canyon, crossing successfully, and arrives in one piece. He is trusting the son of all things to have saved him and illuminated his path towards the other side. So, to walk across this divine bridge to eternal bliss, all must walk across my bridge.

Triumph of the Marine Venus Sebastiano Ricci by Sebastiano Ricci

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

John 1:12

So then, there is the understanding that the bridge separates two different sides. There is one side that envelops all of man’s way- which leads to death, and on the other is the side of wisdom that facilitates the divine way- which is life through faith in the son of all things: It is the son that bridges the gap between man and beyond. I will turn all from their attempt of trying to earn their own way to bliss, and I will give them trust in my son- who has perished for all and rose from destruction.

The Great Deceiver

Cursten Lewis's avatar by Cursten Lewis
Featured image: Peter Paul Rubens – The Fall of Phaeton, c. 1604-1605. Oil on canvas, 98.4 x 131.2 cm (38.7 x 51.6 in). The National Gallery of Art. Image via Creative Commons

Preparing to Conquest

Cursten Lewis's avatar by Cursten Lewis
Unrecorded artist, Virgin of The Rosary of Pomata, c. 1730–60, oil on canvas with gold leaf applications (Pedro y Angélica de Osma Foundation)
Cursten Lewis
, , , , , , , , , ,

Leave a comment

Instagram / TikTok / X

Designed with WordPress