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Running AMOK: Random Musings for the Creative Hands of the Body of Christ by Dave Weiss
I drive my friend and fellow cartoonist Rick Bundschuh a little crazy every time he sees me draw. You see Rick is an amazing cartoonist. His approach to inking is gorgeous and very refined. He uses a brush and India Ink and his work is beautiful.
For years out of necessity, I have taken a different approach. I ink with Sharpies. I get the brush effect by painstakingly drawing dimensional lines and then filling them in as if I were coloring a coloring book. It is a bit tedious, but I usually ink in my living room or even on planes where a bottle of india ink and a brush would be disastrous. I’ve considered using a brush pen or even brush markers but the cost has been prohibitive for the volume of work I do so I stuck with my old faithful Sharpies. I love them.
Then one day I was walking through Target and I saw my dream come true, a brush tip Sharpie! I bought one immediately, took it home and put it to work. The tip is really nice and juicy and really holds it’s shape. I can make really pretty lines in a lot less time and the ink seems to last for quite a while which was always a complaint I had with more expensive markers. This is a pretty great product I will be using a lot more frequently.
If you’re interested in trying them. Use this link to order a set from Amazon. Permanent Marker, Brush Tip, Black, Dozen If you order from this link, Amazon will give a small portion of the price to support AMOKArts.
I had another thought pertaining to the “SINK” challenge. This one pertains to the step of faith involved in creating something new. I made a video of the cartoon being created. The finished cartoon is at the bottom of the post.
If you ask most people, whether they believe it actually happened or not, they will tell you they know that Jesus walked on water. What you may not know is that Jesus was not the only one. That very night another guy took a few steps on the water His name was Peter. Here’s what happened.
Jesus has just finished feeding the five thousand. He’s tired and He needs some time alone with the Father. So Matthew tells us in chapter 14. Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
There’s a note to consider. Peter knew there was only one way He was going to be able to walk on the water and that was if Jesus called Him. It’s the same way with us. When we are facing a seemingly impossible situation, the only way we can do it is if Jesus calls.
Matthew continues
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Now here’s the thing, A lot of people want to act like Peter was a wimp here. A lot of people want to come down on him and act like he was faithless. That’s hardly the case after all, Peter was the only one that night with the courage to step out of the boat and when he did, he stood on the water just like Jesus. The problem was what happened next. It seems he looked down. It seems he took his eyes off Jesus, saw that what he was standing on, should not have been able to hold him. No one can stand on water it’s impossible, and as soon as he thought it was impossible, it stopped being about Jesus and it came down to Peter’s abilities and surface tension and displacement laws and when that happened, he started to sink. And you and I would sink too.
It takes courage to follow Jesus into a new plan, a new path, a new course, especially if it’s something you have never done before or maybe no one has done before. That’s the essence of creativity, especially Creativity for Christ. We’re following Jesus into uncharted waters. It requires stepping out of the boat. Most people won’t do it that’s what makes it special. The problem is once we get out there and find ourselves standing on the waves, that’s when it gets dicey. We start to look around us and realize the impossibility of our situation and when that happens we sink into our own depths. We look at what we are doing and start to think it’s impossible and that is the first and fatal mistake. See the Bible tells us with God all things are possible. We have to take our eyes off the impossibility of our situation, look to Jesus and take the next step. And we need to keep on stepping, walking by faith until we reach Jesus.
If you want to follow Jesus into a new thing, you need to take a step of faith, you need to step out of the boat and onto the waves. Once you’re on the waves, don’t look down keep focused on Jesus. He makes the impossible, possible because with Him all things are possible and you can do all things through Him who gives you strength. He will make you able to do what He is calling you to do because, if it’s His call, He wants you to do it.
Step out and take the next step in Him. With Him all things are possible. He won’t let you sink.
I own the Domain New Creaturez.com and I am considering what to do with it. The site has sort of gone up and down and I’d like to make it a worthwhile site for spreading the Gospel. The name comes from the King James Version of 2 Corinthians 5:17. I was considering a creature art/cartoon gallery of some kind, simple and to the point… But I am open to suggestions.
Sometimes we think of Jesus only as our gate to heaven but let us not forget He is also Lord of today. As such he cares about what happens today and He wants to help us make the most of this life as well, that we might use each day to His glory. In John 10:10, He says He came that we might have life and have it to the full. If you don’t think you’re getting all there is out of life, maybe you need to look to Jesus, the Life Giver. Get a life from Jesus.
In answering Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?”, this one doesn’t feel right to some people. Calling Him “Friend” feels too familiar, almost disrespectful. Some seem to feel that calling Him friend diminishes His deity somehow. I don’t think that’s the case. I believe that if He is deity (and He is) He should be allowed to set the terms of the relationship. The Bible tells us that friendship with God is possible. James 2:23 tells us “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. Exodus 33:11 tells us “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.” Friendship with God seems to have it’s roots in love, faith and faithful service. Friendship with God doesn’t diminish His deity, it makes us work to be the kind of faithful friend He deserves. It makes us want to be better, to live a life that pleases Him, a life somehow worthy (though none of us can ever get all the way there) of friendship with the divine.
But even that is not the greatest reason Jesus is our friend. The greatest reason Jesus is our friend has nothing to do with us. It’s something He did for us. John 15:13-15
13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.Jesus laid down His life for us, sacrifices Himself for us. That’s the greatest act of love a person can do for another. He chose the terms of friendship. He makes the Father’s will known to us and taught us the Father’s will.
Jesus died for me, therefore He’s my friend. That makes me want to be the best friend I can be. Is He your friend? He wants to be. The ball’s in your court.
Sometimes our imperfections let His light shine through. After all the Apostle Paul wrote, “9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9,10 Maybe instead of fretting over our imperfections (not our sins, those need repentance) we should ask God to use them to His glory and do things in our lives that are so big everyone who looks at them know they are too good to have been done by someone as imperfect as you or me.
What’s the first thing we know about God? Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created…” further in John 1:3 speaks of Christ when it says, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” Translation God is the Creator and Christ is the Creator. We serve the Creator of everything. This is such incredibly good news. The One who created it knows how it works. The one who wrote the story knows how it ends and all the steps along the way. If we will truly follow and acknowledge our Creator God, we will never leave the right path. The other great thing about this is when we look at the order of Creation, we will see that God made the whole of creation and presented it as a gift to His prized creation, humanity, you and me. Further we can see pretty quickly none of us is accidental. Ephesians 2:10 reminds us, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” You were created on purpose, for a purpose. This means the best thing we can do is live on purpose. Your life has meaning and purpose because of your Creator. He’s a creator who loves His creation, so praise Him.
This week’s challenge was pretty easy for me. The word was obsession. An obsession is what consumes most of your thoughts. Beyond my family, for me it would have to be painting pictures, telling people about Jesus and His love or even better painting pictures that tell people about Jesus’ love in it’s multitude of forms. If you’re reading this and you’re not sure, rest assured, Jesus loves you!
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Today’s image is found in the book of Revelation where Jesus is referred to as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. This image is practically the antithesis of the Lamb of God suffering servant image and yet they work together. Here Christ is portrayed in His true power and might. In another passage the enemy is portrayed as a roaring lion roaming the earth seeking whom He might devour. He’s not the only lion in this show though. There is one far more powerful and He runs to the defense of all who will call upon His name. I am eternally grateful that He sacrificed Himself for me, but I am also grateful for all the times when the enemy was bearing down on me when Christ rushed in to rescue and protect me.
A lot of people struggle with the Lion of Judah image, first because they are okay with a gentle lamb who dies to save them but they don’t really want a king to rune over them. But I think it’s more than that. Lions are wild and unpredictable. They’re not easy to cage, not easy to put in a box. I’m glad about that. I echo C.S. Lewis from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Speaking of Aslan (the Christ figure Lion character) he writes, “He’s not a tame lion, but He is good.” Don’t try to tame Jesus, let Him be the lion He is. Trust me, that is a big part of who we all need Him to be.
The Bible tells us “the wages of sin is death.” From the time God put the law into place, He gave us a visual reminder of this fact. There had to be a sacrifice for sin, an atoning sacrifice had to be made. We sinned, now something had to die. His selection to pay this price? One of the most beautiful, innocent things He ever created, a perfect lamb had to die because of the sins of the people. Something of value reminded them that sin had a cost, but it goes beyond that. The innocent paid the price for the guilty. Whether they knew it or not, it was a symbol of what was to come.
John the Baptist knew what was coming. When he pointed out Jesus to the surrounding crowd, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the Sin of the World.” The sacrificial system prepared us to receive out Savior—the innocent Son of God who willingly laid down His life for your sins and mine. He is the Lamb of God. Have you accepted His gift of salvation? He paid a high price for you because you were worth it to Him. Receive Him today.
