Ink (10/27)

In Ezekiel 36, we find a series of verses describing the future of Israel, which can illustrate for us the work that God does in the human hearts. We can find these words:
24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Those who have believed on Jesus Christ have already experienced the new birth - we have been given a new heart - His Spirit lives within us.  As 2nd Corinthians 5 tells us, the old has gone, the new has come. God is able to radically, totally change the condition of our heart, and as we pray for lost people, we can do so with a sense of expectation that the way a person is now is not necessarily the way he or she will be in the future.  We can rejoice in the new heart that He is capable of crafting!

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2nd Corinthians chapter 3 describes the life change that occurs when a person allows Christ to come into his or her life. And, the language likens God's Word to be expressed in a unique way:
2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;
3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God.
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Katherine von Drachenberg knows a little something about ink, to say the lease, and has received quite a bit of "ink" recently - she is described as a "tattoo artist." She has been featured on a TV show called, LA Ink. Well, her recent baptism and professed life change has received quite a bit of coverage.  Newsmax made this announcement:

Former tattoo artist Kat Von D has been baptized a year after making dramatic lifestyle changes that included throwing out books on witchcraft, magic and the macabre.

Taking to Instagram, Von D posted a video showing her baptism, captioning it with a cross.

"Katherine von Drachenberg, upon your profession of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in obedience to His Divine command, I baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," the pastor said before submerging her into water. Von D is seen wearing a white robe.

The article notes, "In 2020, Von D started making changes in her life. She sold her beauty brand and began covering up her tattoos, as reported by Insider."  It goes on to say:

In July last year, Von D revealed that she was throwing out items from her old life that "don't align" with her anymore.

"I've always found beauty in the macabre, but at this point, I just had to ask myself what is my relationship with this content?" she wrote on Instagram at the time. "And the truth is, I just don't want to invite any of these things into our family's lives, even if it comes disguised in beautiful covers, collecting dust on my shelves."

She is quoted as saying, "...it's never been more clear to me that there is a spiritual battle taking place, and I want to surround myself and my family with love and light."

But, not all, it seems, have been enthusiastic about Kat Von D's profession of faith.  The Christian Post reported that: "In a video posted to Instagram...tattoo artist Katherine von Drachenberg (better known as Kat Von D) discussed the responses she had received after posting a video of her baptism earlier this month.

"It was an overwhelmingly beautiful amount of just positivity and just love," she said. "Me and my husband and my son, we'd go out to go get lunch throughout the week, and people would just come out of nowhere just wanting to give me a hug and congratulate me and welcome me to the family."

"It's been pretty awesome," she added.

The celebrity, who is known for her time on the TLC reality show "LA Ink," said she was "shocked" because she was "expecting to get so much hate for it."

"I know that a majority of my fans and my followers are not Christian, and so, like, I know that it's a turn-off to a lot of people," Drachenberg said.

But, there apparently was one particular group that was not necessarily enthusiastic about her baptism. The article stated...

..."there was this other side of the response that was just so awful," she explained.

"It wasn't my atheist friends. … You would think that all the hate would be coming from people who are … against religion or against Christianity and stuff," she said.

Aside from the "typical like dumb, mean like emoji comments" from atheists, "it was really the Christians who were the worst."

"It was just really like sad to see like this critical display of judgment from … Christians," she said.

"I don't understand what would inspire that aside from … something that's more egoic because that isn't Christlike … to judge people or judge people's journey," Drachenberg asserted. 

Von D said that since her Instagram wasn't monetized, that she wasn't just trying to generate social media traffic. She related, "There was like a lot of criticisms, weirdly enough, about like the way that I dress, the way that I look or the way that my friends looked in the video, and I think it's really insane that we live in a time where people still like judge a book by its cover. Like, I feel like, I wasn't aware that there's … a uniform that you're supposed to wear once you give your heart to Jesus."

It's not about outward appearance, it's an inward change.  So she may dress weirdly - OK. Some people may think that since I were plaid shirts and khaki pants, that I'm a bit stodgy in my dress.  Just don't get into dressing inappropriately. 

Writing for The Daily Citizen from Focus on the Family, Paul Batura says:

The baptism of “Kat Von D” is a reminder that the many personalities in culture are not playing a fixed role. Transformation is not just something we pray for – but it’s a prayer that God will answer.

We know that before he was Paul the great evangelist, he was Saul the persecutor of Christians. God can take the worst and make it the best.

We join in celebrating the conversion and baptism of Katherine von Drackenberg – may the Lord give her strength and continue to surround her with strong Christians who can disciple and help her deepen her faith in Him. 

I think that the story of Kat Von D can remind us of several concepts - one is that we should always pray expectantly, and specifically, pray expectantly for the lost.  Just because someone today does not profess Christ and may be plumbing the depths of wickedness does not mean that a turnaround is not possible - God specializes in transformation.  And, this young lady's apparent redemption story is a great reminder of His ability to change people.

Now, I said, "apparent."  You never know what's really in a person's heart, and I don't have a problem rejoicing in what appears to be true. And, there is a such thing, I think, as a healthy skepticism.  From where I sit, as a purveyor of Christian-related information, I guess I am more sensitive than many to being a "fruit inspector."  You can call it being overly sensitive, and I accept that.  But, what isn't OK, as she has related that some Christians are doing, is to berate a person who professes to be a new believer just because he or she doesn't do what you want him or her to do. We should be people of truth, but, in the spirit of God's love, can also be people of grace.