A Great Day

On Saturday, I participated in the Snowflake Gala at the Mulberry St. Gallery in Lancaster, PA. It was a great day. I displayed five of my paintings in the gallery, did a live painting and brief message in the “performance” area and had a vendor table to introduce AMOKArts to a wide variety of creative people. It was a wonderful event and I had a great time.

That’s not to say I was without some trepidation. The performance time slots were all either five or ten minutes. I had never done the painting I did there in under 12 minutes, always set to music and then spoke afterwards. My original intent was to cut the music and just speak while I painted, but at the last minute, I decided to add the song “Like A Lion” by David Crowder. It’s just a little over six minutes long. My wife and I prayed before I went on and by the time the song was over, I was finished with the painting and it was one of the best renderings I’ve done ofthat image to this point. I had about four minutes left to present the message and the Lord ordered my thoughts. I finished on time and really felt blessed, the feedback I received also seemed pretty favorable.

Am I sharing this to boast? No. Anyone who knows me will tell you self confidence is hardly my strong suit. No I share this to tell you I had no idea if I could finish this piece and present it well in the allotted time. I just knew I felt led to do that piece, and I gave it to God. That verse that says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me is true. So when you pray and you feel God leading you to do something. Don’t look at your limitations. Trust Him and do it. He will allow your work to accomplish precisely what He intended it to do.

My guess is if we have Christ confidence, maybe we don’t need self confidence.

Something to consider.

P.S. God answered my prayer on the weather for that day too.

What if…Life is a Canvas

I’ve seen this piece done a couple ways. In some ways it works similarly to the Six Boxes piece yesterday but it incorporates a drama element and a spoken word element which really set it off. This church, South Shore Community Church, did a really beautiful job with it. I love this.

The Key to Victory in the Church

There’s and old maxim in coaching that says, “We win when the name on the front of the jersey is more important to us than the name on the back of the jersey.”

Nowhere is this more important and true than in the church. You see there are a lot of names on the back of our jerseys. There’s our own name of course, each of us has a personal identity. There’s our congregation, our denomination, our faction within that denomination, our theological emphases and on and on and on. There are a lot of names. The problem is, we tend to get our jersey’s on backwards and let all these other names divide us. The name on the front of every Christian’s jersey should be Jesus Christ. He needs to be first and when we work together in His name, we win.

His name is called the name above every name, remember?

Is His name on the front of your jersey and does your life bear that out?

Otherwise your jersey’s on backwards!

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Vocal

Needless to say I’ve been reading the passages around the crucifixion and resurrection over the last few weeks. I came upon the passage where Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the colt of a Donkey (Palm Sunday) from Luke. The people are finally (if only momentarily) giving Jesus the praise He deserves. The pharisees hear their praise and are deeply offended. They tell Jesus to silence His disciples. Jesus’ reply is “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” I love that quote but as I started to think about it, I found myself wondering something.

Most people in our society would have a hard time saying Christians are a quiet bunch. We’ve been quite vocal about a great many issues, usually those we have come out against. I’m not saying it’s wrong to take an unpopular position, nor am I saying it’s wrong to stand on principle. What I am questioning is do we spend as much talking about WHO we’re for as we do about what we may find ourselves against (or our issues and causes)? Do people see us as loving representatives of the One who dies to set us free or judgmental jerks who alienate them from the God who loves them.

Jesus told us people would hate us because we belong to Him. As a result, we should expect to not always be popular. If we’re unpopular because of Jesus, that’s honorable, but there is no honor in being hated because you’re a jerk.

Be vocal about Jesus, and speak the truth in love.

LOVE

Reject ALL Labels

Been there? Done That? Get the T shirt!

There are a lot of labels we slap on each other in the church. I’ll admit, I’ve never considered myself a liberal. I used to think I was a conservative until a conservative told me I wasn’t one. He said instead that I was an evangelical. I thought all Christians were supposed to be evangelical (Isn’t that what the Great Commission is all about?) When I heard my denomination had started a progressive group, I was excited. I’ve spent my whole ministry trying to create new ways to share the unchanging message of the Gospel. Isn’t that what progressive means? Evidently not. Just another way to advance a political agenda and I’m not much for politics anymore. We call ourselves pacifists, but for pacifists, we sure fight a lot and the countryside is littered with our denominational splits and while I love the people in my denomination (all of them because God said I had to and Jesus prayed that I would), there’s part of me that wonders if a denomination is just another label.

I mean I remember driving with a friend talking about God and the church, and when I told him my denomination, he said, “Oh, you guys are real liberal.” I thought about my little church in the corn field in Pennsylvania and thought, “How could he say that? We make Rush Limbaugh look like a liberal (or at least a moderate.) That’s the thing about labels, one size doesn’t fit all. The Bible speaks of speaking the truth in love but when we begin to separate behind labels it becomes either or, some having a problem with truth, others having a problem with love. A label is a litmus test. It stops being about Jesus and starts being about passing your groups litmus test. If you don’t believe me look at our government and ask yourself are they making their decisions based on what’s best for the people or the party. The party is the label and their decisions are how they pass the litmus test. Our Christian “labels” do the same thing. They divide what Jesus came to unite. When He prayed that we might be one as He and the Father are one, He meant you and me. I want better than division and dispute for my life, how about you?

I decided a long time ago that I reject all labels and the only litmus test I care about is the one given by the only one who won’t reject me when I fail to pass it. He told me to love everyone, even my enemies (if I had any, which I really don’t, largely because I really try to love everybody), stop being selfish, take up my cross DAILY and follow Him. We need to throw away our labels and pick up our Bibles. We need to forget our litmus tests and start following the doctrine set up for us by the Word of God. Should we leave the church? No, the Bible FORBIDS that. Do we dump our denominations? I don’t know if that’s necessary either. There are different denominations for the same reason there are different flavors of ice cream. Different people respond to different things and are reached by different things and God wants everyone to be reached by His love and the truth of the Gospel.(Speaking the truth in love, remember?)

What we must do is come together around the Word of God and in prayer and bring the church back into obedience to God and we have to start loving each other and the people in the world around us. I don’t have to agree with you to love you. I can disagree with you vehemently and still love you and you can fail my unintentional litmus tests (none of us should have them but we all do) and I will still love you. That’s what it means to follow the One who sacrificed Himself for the people who killed Him. I have many titles that tell you who I am, husband, father, man, pastor, speaker, artist employee, etc. and I’m okay with that but I reject all labels but one…

I am a FOLLOWER OF JESUS CHRIST.

A Night AMOK

My new presentation, A Night AMOK: Pix of JC is now available for booking. This evangelistic presentation is an evening of art,music and ministry. In the program, I paint a variety of pictures live, accompanied by videos, music, story telling and the Word of God. It’s all designed to paint a picture of Jesus, a true, scriptural, real picture of His amazing love on people’s hearts and minds. Check it out.
For more information on A Night AMOK:Pix of JC, click here and if you’d like to bring me in to do A Night AMOK, you may contact me at amokarts@aol.com.

Below is a sample:

Art is the Tool

I was talking to my coach about my passion for ministry. I described art as my tool, one I feel I’ve been given to share the Gospel and see people come to Jesus and/or find their God given purpose, their ministry “tool” if you will. My passion is not the art, it’s the people and it’s Jesus and it’s introducing people to the one who redeemed my life an all that comes with it, including the art. My coach stopped me and told me it was the first time he heard me refer to art as a tool. That made me a little sad and apprehensive. This is always the way I have felt about my art, but I must not have been communicating it. The fear was that I haven’t been doing that here and if I haven’t, I’ve misled my readers.

Let me make it really clear. I love to make art. I do it nearly every day. I’d love nothing more than to use this gift for the rest of my life, but it is the means to an end and not the end in itself. My tool is art, my purpose is to use it and all my other gifts to point people to Jesus and help them find His purpose for their “tools,” whatever those tools may be. This blog is pointed toward artists of all stripes in the church, because you are my tribe. People with a common interest, but please remember, we have been given our gifts for something more than just creating, our gifts are given to bring glory to our Creator.

At least they should be…

A Thought on Christmas Wars

Christmas Cartoon by John Trever, Albuquerque Journal

Every year about this time, the stories start popping up on the news about a public nativity scene and people demanding it be torn down due to separation of church and state, political correctness, etc. And every year, Christians are up in arms about it. And every year I wonder are we doing the right thing?

Wow! Am I a turncoat? Am I turning on the faith? Hardly. I get irritated by a lot of it too. I hate hearing people refer to school Christmas parties referred to as Winter celebrations (as if there was anything but Christmas to celebrate about winter). I want to keep Christ in Christmas as much as anyone and more than most. My struggle is with our actions. Are people who say Happy Holidays really being hostile? I doubt it. They are trying as best they can to deal with a very pluralistic society and trying not to offend. But let’s take a worse case scenario and say they really are being hostile toward Christ and Christians. I sometimes wonder if we remember what Jesus said. He told us people would hate us because they hated Him first. I think He was preparing us for a time when people would reject Him and I thin we are moving more and more to that. The actions of our society against Jesus are further proof that He spoke the truth and knew what He was talking about. I’m not sure demanding our rights, protesting and “getting ugly” back is really going to do anything to advance the cause of Christ.

What should we do instead? First of all, pray! The scriptures tell us numerous times that “blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” As we become a nation that is walking away, those blessings will dry up. Year after year we vote for politicians who we think will change that and bring us blessings and by and large it has not worked. Man can’t give us the blessings of God, only God can do that and He gets to choose what and how He will bless. Our nation is in need of prayer and of Jesus. Demanding our rights is a political solution. Instead we need to take up our crosses and follow Jesus.

The answer to Christmas wars is to stop fighting in the courts and in the streets. We don’t advance the cause of Christ by being less Christ-like. We advance the cause of Christ by being more Christ-like—turning the other cheek and loving the unlovely. I know this is not easy but here’s the thing, Jesus never said it would be easy, he said a time would come when people would turn away from Him. We still need to live for Him.

What’s funny is, people don’t even have to believe Jesus is real to see that He is real in you. They don’t need to believe in Jesus to see following Him makes you live a better life, they just have to see you live a better life (no matter the circumstances) and give God the glory for the change in you. Perhaps seeing Christ in you will make them consider Him. That’s what Jesus meant when He told His disciples men would see their good deeds and praise our Father in heaven.

They might tear down the town nativity scene, but they can’t block the light coming from a heart where Jesus rules and reigns. Only you can do that. So this year as the Christmas wars start to rage, fight nice or better yet, shine. Love others, help others, serve others, give of yourself, look for the hurting heart and do something about it. Be Jesus so they can see Jesus.

I’m not sure we can win the Christmas wars, nor am I sure we should even try, but I’ve read the book and at the end (spoiler alert) Jesus wins! Advance His cause with love.

Video of the Day: Ready or Not

One of the best examples of poetry I have ever seen, this piece beautifully illustrates the relationship of Christ with His Bride, the church. You need to watch this video.

P4CM Presents Ready or Not by Featured RHETORIC Poets Ezekiel & Janette..ikz