Ministering to artists ministering through the arts.
I was inspired to create this card by the new A Night AMOK presentation that is rolling around in my head for the new year called Story: Parables of Jesus…
I pray the Lord will use you to tell His Story using your gifts. We’re here to help!
God bless,
Dave Weiss
AMOKArts.com
Today my message will be on David and Bathsheba. It’s a story of grace and it’s a story of consequences. Most people equate grace with the removal of consequences and this is completely and utterly wrong. Science tells us for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I believe this could be equated with sin and it’s consequences. Sometimes we receive grace from the consequences of our actions, most of the time we don’t.
David sinned with Bathsheba, that was bad enough, but the attempt to cover his actions placed him on a slippery slope to an eventual murder. The prophet Nathan confronted David with a parable, a symbolic story to show David what he’d done. David not realizing he was hearing a parable, pronounced his own judgment declaring what should be done to a man who did such a thing. “The man deserves to die,” David said. That was in fact what David’s sin deserved at that time in history, maybe even today. Instead David, when he realized he was the man in question, confessed and received grace and was forgiven.
That being said, the consequences still came to call. Everything God said would happen to David, still happened. Consequences are not a sign that God has removed his grace, as a matter of fact it’s just the opposite. God allows us to experience the consequences of our actions by His grace. Consequences are designed to turn us back to him, to bring us to a place of repentance, because it’s in repentance that we turn to Jesus and find grace and forgiveness.
Consequences are not a sign that God has given up on you, they’re a sign that you are on the wrong track and need to turn back to God. Remember sin and God are on opposite ends of a continuum. To turn to one is to turn away from the other. Consequences are designed to turn us back to grace.
I know it’s hard to see guilt and shame as a gift but they can be used as a way of turning a person around or keeping us from going down the wrong road in the first place. Join us as we take an unusual look at John 8:1-11 the story of the woman caught in adultery.
Now just to be clear, I think Max Lucado’s book is pretty wonderful over all. I even think he did some good things in this chapter. I just struggled with the juxtaposition of these two stories. I do get where he was going. He was trying to show someone who carried the pain of undeserved guilt and shame and the freedom we can find in Christ. The problem is there are many of us who live with guilt and shame that we hold some responsibility in. Grace is wonderful and available to us all, and it comes with repentance. I wanted to show a bit more of this dichotomy.
In this series based on Max Lucado’s Book Cast of Characters: Lost and Found we explore Mark 2:1-12 and look at a story of four guys who are so determined to get their friend to Jesus they tear the roof off—literally! How determined are you?
Over the last few weeks at my church we have been doing a study based on Max Lucado’s Cast of Characters: Lost and Found: Encounters with the Living God
This particular message focusses on wrestling with God from the story of Jacob in Genesis 32. Have you ever wrestled with God? Have you ever struggled with giving him control over an area of your life? I did. At one point I joined God in an epic battle for control of my art career. He won and because He won, I won a fuller more complete life. Wrestling with God saved my life. Join me as I explore this timely topic. As always your feed back is appreciated.
When we talk about God’s grace, we often think of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and that is a very big part of it, but there is another kind of grace. It’s the grace God gives us to allow us to endure our most difficult moments. Join us as Pastor Dave Weiss shares about a time when his was at the end of his rope and maybe his ministry and the wise counsel he got from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 11 and 12.
Ephesians 2:1 says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…” This shows the horror of the human condition. Do you get that? Our lives without Christ are like a bad zombie movie. We’re walking around dead and too dumb to fall over. Or at least I was….my sin was killing me and I didn’t care. I set up this fake, arbitrary standard of goodness where as long as I could find someone I was better than, I was okay. Know anyone like that? This is what we fail to understand.
There was a picture of a church sign going around Facebook this week that said God prefers kind atheists to hateful Christians. The moral of the story according to the person who posted it was you don’t need religion to be a good moral person. I think the poster was missing the point and I think the church that posted it was way off. Should Christians be kind and loving? We should be the kindest most loving people on the planet… should be… and sometimes we’re not, but…
When I first read the sign and the subtitle, I wanted to laugh. Now don’t get me wrong I really don’t like religion either. I’d much rather have a relationship with the God of the universe than a bunch of lifeless rules, but I’m still kind of wondering where all these good moral people are, because, and I’m sorry to say this, but I’ve never met one. I mean come on, let’s just be real. Have you ever met anyone who could… forget God’s law for a second… have you ever met anyone who could even live up to their own moral code? I haven’t and that includes me. I know some wonderful people, people I really like, people I really love, people I’d do anything for and people who would do anything for me, (and incidentally they’re not all believers…yet) but I’ve still never met anyone but Jesus who hasn’t blatantly done something they know is wrong, on purpose. We don’t need religion to be good moral people, we need something much stronger than that. We need the living God. We need Jesus and we need grace.
God prefers kind atheists over hateful Christians? No, God loves kind atheists and hateful Christians and they both break His heart. Neither the atheist nor the hateful Christian can see his need for grace. One rejects His existence and the other rejects His love, both are sinners. God wants people who will turn from all of that and follow His son. Everyone needs grace.
If God prefers anyone, I think God prefers people who will love Him enough to really love Him and others and love them enough that they show through their words AND their actions, the God that can make even atheists change their minds.
From this Sunday’s message “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” NewCreationMuhlenberg.com
AMOKArts.com Worship Painting Jesus Christ Crucified "Father Forgive Them"
