Testing… Testing…

A friend of mine posted this meme on Facebook.

I beg to differ.
You may think this has nothing to do with arts and ministry…
Again, I beg to differ

You see posts like this show what we’re up against as we take the Gospel to the world around us. People see absurdities like this one and want to agree. I call it an absurdity very simply because it is. Consider this:

The person quoted assumes that the only way prayer works, the only way God can be God is if he demonstrates Himself to us, as if God is our lap dog, waiting to obey our every command.

The thing is if God can only be God if he does what we say, when and exactly how we say it, He’s not really God is He? I mean if God has to do what you say to be your God, doesn’t that make you god? The only time God invites us to test him is when He asks for the tithe, and in the New Testament during Jesus’ temptation, he declares, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Now I know that the Bible talks of casting lots and Gideon (thanks Tania) put out the fleece and I know that there are times where we ask God for a sign, however, in these times it’s not about testing God, it’s about discerning His will trying to be more faithful.

There is a huge difference.

Confessions of a Reluctant Leader

My friend Sherri Coffield from VineArts in Boise, ID posted this piece about taking the reins on a major project. In this post she perfectly shows the fears, struggles and ultimate triumph of taking a step of faith into a new role. I’ve lived in this place a hundred times. It’s a place where you find yourself in over your head and discover that you have only one option, the only one any of us really has, put your faith, your skills and everything else in God’s hands and trust Him to accomplish what only He can do. Sherri writes:

The new “Rivers of living water” backdrop at church is a testimony of Gods faithfulness.  When our Arts Leader, Jessie, told our group that she was starting a new job and couldn’t put together the new backdrop, she was asking that someone in our group take the project on. The room was silent. I felt nudged to relieve some of the pressure I precieved Jessie was feeling, with starting her new job yet trying to maintain an Arts Ministry, so after some silent moments I said I would do it.  Everyone said they would help, we all prayed about the subject but in the end finances kept us from the original design and I had to make an executive decision to change our original plan. 

Suddenly the pressure was on (self inflicted) and I became full of fear that I couldn’t do it.  I was convinced that I didn’t have the skill,  the resources, the time and now I don’t want to even do this. I’m sorry I volunteered for this. It is wrong for me and I can’t do it! I don’t even know what I’m doing. I put more stress on Jessie than she had before we started because we are less than a week out and I can’t pull myself together enough to start the process, overwhelmed even by the time constraints. 

All of a sudden events happened at church that made postponing the addition of the new backdrop inevitable, which at first just added to my panic, but then calmed me when I realized that I would have another week to finish it (blessing #1), and “oatmeal” walls would be a good experience for the congregation, since they haven’t seen the naked walls for about 4  years?  I drew up a mock up, spent a lot of time with Dean being encouraged (poor guy got an ear full) (Blessing #2 Dean)  and the night before we were to begin the painting I am inspired with this: (Blessing #3) “Put the fear and stress away, let it go. This is not about you.  Do you not have faith in me?  I have met you in this place many times before.  You have preached these very words to others.  You have believed them before.  Take a step and I will show up, meet you there and everything will be ok.  Have joy in this, fun in creating and fun with others in the creating.  I have great joy when you have joy.” 

… I have great joy when you have joy.  Wow.  Can you imagine the Lord of Heaven chuckling and smiling down on us when we are living in joy?  Happy for us!  So we Vine artists met the next evening and threw paint, all colors, on wet canvas, and laughed and sang and danced on the canvas (Blessing #4).  Everyone had a great time.  The next night we met again and re-examined what we had done the night before, making new decisions on the spot (inspired by God, Blessing #5)  The following 2 nights were spent refining it, scrubbing and washing areas for effect, adding a dark color and a splash of Gold.  God showed up everyday and inspiration was quick and easy (Blessing #6).  It was like playing with the Lord.  

Every day I came with a clear mind, no agenda, no plan and He showed me what to do.  God never fails, never gives up, never leaves us.  He is true to His word.  How come I forget this under stress?  Weakness, not enough faith, fear?  I’m still learning GOD NEVER LEAVES US, HE IS ALWAYS GOOD.  And every time I learn this lesson I get to be presented with a beautiful piece of art. Not so much a literal piece, although this time it was (Blessing #7), but a look at my growing love relationship with my Creator, my Father, my Abba my All.  An ongoing language of love.   

Look at what the Lord created! He is so good.”

I think it’s kind of fitting that a story where a person who felt in over her head would be painting living water because if there was ever a place to be over your head, it would be living water. When we are with Christ, we are never in over our heads. There is nothing He can’t do and He is both the living water and the solid Rock on which we stand.

Where is fear limiting you today? Maybe it’s time to dive into the living water.

At the Crossroads

Usually when we talk about crossroads we talk about having to make a decision and go one way or another. That’s not where I’m going with this. I just got off the phone with my coach and we were talking about my gifts and my passions and the direction I should take with my life. How I should invest my time and what I should be doing.

I identified two things I am really passionate about, (both of these involve art in my life). The first was I am passionate to introduce people to Jesus and secondly I love to sow into people’s lives (especially creatives) and help them to use their gifts to serve others and make the world a better place. When it comes to career and ministry and what I do, those are the two things that really fire me up.

My coach had asked me to create a list of ideas that I could use to earn a living and support my family that work with my gifting. I had a list of 29 things. He told me to look at the list and find the things that are at the crossroads between my passions, introducing people to Jesus and helping creative people to find and use their gifts and set up shop.

I want to live and work at the crossroad of introducing people to Jesus and helping people to find and use their gifts. With God’s help that’s where I will focus and build.

What’s your crossroad? Go there and build your life.

Proof

I’ve been having a chat with an atheist who has challenged one of the cartoons from the Creacher site. Well to be specific, it’s the one where the statement was made that atheism requires too much faith. The person is clearly very well read and intelligent, scientific minded, respectful and brought forth some challenging and thought provoking questions.

The part that makes me sad is I really wish I could offer scientific proof of my faith (not that I’ve really been asked for any) it’s just my faith has become so real to me that I wish I could share it on that level. The best I can do is what I experienced tonight.

I was working in my yard, planting some flowers around the small goldfish pond. I dug that pond 8 years ago, the summer after I had a heart attack at 40. I was so scared, having reactions to my meds, panic attacks, the whole thing. It was a really dark time in my life. Part of me felt like God had let me down and part of me realized the problem wasn’t with God it was with me. I had fallen back into my workaholic tendencies, rationalizing that I was doing all this stuff for God so I would be okay. The attack was a wake up call. I needed to slow down, trust God and realize that his plan for my life did not involve me working myself into an early grave.

For me digging the pond by hand was proof that I wasn’t going to break that I would survive and that I was capable of more than I thought. It remains a constant reminder of God’s goodness. When I look at that pond, I see all the things that God has done in my life since and I praise Him.

The other proof for me is my son, Chris. He graduates from High School in just a few days. My wife and I and our older son Brandon were wanting to add another child to our family. When we found out Dawn was Pregnant we were very happy but then she miscarried. I didn’t handle it well and retreated into my work. When she miscarried the second time, I was furious at God and buried myself deep in my work. Brandon and Dawn needed me and I needed God but I was so angry all I could do was plunge deeper and deeper into my work. I was losing everything and I couldn’t even see it. When we found out Dawn was pregnant for the third time, We could scarcely bring ourselves to tell anyone. When we went for the ultrasound, where we got the bad news the two previous times, I almost couldn’t bear it to be in the room and when I heard the heart beat I wept like I hadn’t wept for a long time. When Chris was born, we were told that we should probably not try to have any more children. We lost two children so that we could have Chris. I believe I’ll meet them one day, but this much I know for sure God had shown his faithfulness once again.

These are just two of the times, there are many more. I don’t know if these stories would serve as proof for my new friend. I just know I’ve seen God come through and answer my prayers too many times to be an illusion. I know He is real, I know He is exceedingly patient and I know He loves me. He loves you too.

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.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Suspense II

This week’s challenge spurred me on to a second image. What is suspense? It’s fear of the unknown, isn’t it? We’re waiting for something to jump out from behind the next rock. You know most of the things we worry about never actually happen. The suspense is created in our own minds. What if we suspended suspense? What if we just deal with the things that are in front of us and cast our anxieties on the God who loves us and has our backs.

After all He asked us to do that in His Word when he told us to cast our cares on Him because He cares for us. (1 Peter 5:7)

Jesus also told us in Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[b]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Suspend suspense and trust God instead. He won’t let you down.

Enough?

Have you ever caught yourself saying, “Well I would do this or that or the other thing, if only I had enough of__________”? Today’s video blog challenges you to get beyond that to look at what you already have and be faithful with it. Don’t look at what you don’t have, get creative with what you do.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Contraption

The IllustrationFriday.com Challenge this week was “Contraption” so I constructed a Rube Goldberg Device. A group of seemingly unrelated parts grouped together to do a necessary function. I’m tempted to make a connection to the Body of Christ here, but I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

Here’s a live example of a really cool device.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Hibernate

C’mon you know it’s true. There are days where you just wish you could unplug for a couple months and hibernate. The pressures of life mount and we get harried and stressed. Well we’re not wired to hibernate, but each of us needs rest and take it from someone who knows, if you don’t give your body enough rest, eventually your body will make you rest. It doesn’t all depend on us. We need to do what we can, do our best and trust God with the rest. Jesus said “Come to me you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” If you find yourself envying the bears, maybe it’s time to give your stress to Jesus and take a rest. He loves you!

My New Presentation

Defeating the 20/80 Rule with Be the Body
• Does your church have enough people to get everything done?
• Does your church have a small group of people who do most of the work?
• Does your church have a large group of people on the fringes and barely connected?
When you call upon your congregation to do the kinds of service Jesus commanded do they look back at you with a look that says, “Isn’t that what we pay you for?”
There’s a rule in most human organizations including, unfortunately, the church, which states that on average about 20 percent of the people do 80% of the work. This leaves your most faithful servants doing many things for which they are neither called nor gifted and nearing burnout while the rest of the congregation is only slightly invested in the work of the Kingdom. This is not the church that God intended.
I was in danger of becoming one of those 80 percent people and then something amazing happened. I went from struggling new believer who could barely read scripture aloud with a profound fear of public speaking to ordained minister, pastor and speaker. It wasn’t all a smooth ride and it didn’t happen overnight but it happened and I can trace it all back to one event. My pastor found a Kingdom use for my unusual gift and it changed my life. I’m convinced that there are thousands (maybe millions) of people in the church of Jesus Christ who are in the same boat. They have tremendous, God-given potential to do great things—things that will tremendously expand the Kingdom and they’re just waiting for someone to find their gift, ignite their passion and show them how to be what they were created to be to the glory of God. We are all “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do!”
That’s what my new presentation “Be the Body” is all about. Through the use of my story, artistic gifts, interactive projects and preaching the Word of God, I will challenge the “many parts” in your congregation to become fully invested members of the “one body” of Christ. Topics covered include:
• What it means to be the body of Christ? 

• How to do and be your part.

• What to lay down and what to take up.

• Maintaining unity and more.


This can be anywhere from a single message, a series of revival/Spiritual renewal services even a weekend retreat. I really feel a strong leading to go out into the church and call people into their God given calling. The guiding verse of this ministry is 1 Peter 4:10, Each one should use WHATEVER GIFTS he has received to serve others. I would love to come to your church or event and share with your congregation. Contact me, Dave Weiss at AMOKArts@aol.com
God bless,
Dave Weiss

www.amokarts.com