Creation Station: The Aye Aye and God’s Love

The latest video from my new VBS Curriculum Creation Station. This one is about God’s love. I’d love to bring Creation Station to your church in 2014. For more information contact me at AMOKArts@aol.com.

Message of the Week: Dealing with the D’s

I have a really simple message for you today, God loves you. I started looking at all the stuff that my congregation has been dealing with and all the struggles we face and felt like we needed a reminder. If you’re struggling today know this God loves you and He has not left you, come to Him through Jesus and hold on.

The text for the message is Romans 8.

God bless! The message will be preached later this morning at New Creation Fellowship. If you’re in the Reading PA area, join us.

Jesus Wants You!

It’s strange. I wrote this one post over a year ago called You Do It. It features an image Jesus in an Uncle Sam like pose saying I Want You. For some reason, it is consistently one of my most hit pages. I’m not sure why but as I began to think about it a few new thoughts came to mind, so I made a new graphic for a new post.

The original post was about how if you see something and think somebody should do something about it, chances are, somebody might be you, so “you do it.” Get the idea.

The real danger in a blog like this though is that it would become all about what you do. Needless to say there is more to a relationship, especially with God, than what we do.

First, He wants our obedience. He wants us to put Him first and follow Him even if everyone else goes in another direction. Following Him will not always be easy or popular but it is always right.

Secondly and maybe most importantly, more than anything else, Jesus wants to be in relationship with you. He wants that more than your gifts, more than your service, more than anything you can do for Him. He just wants you, all of you. He desires to spend time in your presence and He desires you to spend time in His. The bottom line is this. It’s not about what you can do for Him. He really needs nothing from you. He doesn’t need you or me at all, but don’t be upset, because while He doesn’t need you, He wants you, all of you. Obey Him, follow Him and, yes, serve Him but know this more than anything else, He wants you because He loves you!

Isn’t that cool!

AMOKArts: The Art of Story: Being Understood

I think at the core of each of us is a desire to be understood yet artists are some of the most widely misunderstood. We have this great gift to help us to make things more clear and yet we almost wear this idea of being misunderstood as a badge of honor. Like we’re so much smarter than everyone else and we’re in on something their missing. Some church folks act the same way and I don’t really like it from either group. I do what I do to share a story to bring others in to draw people into my story and to build a community. I have no desire to be elite, I want to be your friend, yes I want to challenge your world view but not from a position of supremacy but more like the way a friend talks to a friend putting ideas and concepts out there to be considered.
In my case it’s the story of Christ and what He has done for me, what He expects from His people. My belief in God makes me need to make that very clear.

Christ taught in stories and I still feel like it is probably the most effective way to get a message across.

Look at this image. it’s a collage a series of images most of which are extremely iconic.
I adhere pretty strongly to the quote attributed to a Confucian philosopher named Xunzi. What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do I understand. So adding the visual to the story makes it more memorable and more retainable and if I can get the people interacting with the story or helping with the art, so much the better because in the end I want them to not just hear the story, not just remember the story, not just to understand the story but to emprace the story, live the story and be transformed by the story.

Bible Reading Guide
An important part of following God is knowing what He wants and a great way to know what He wants is to read His Word. Follow this plan and you will finish reading the Bible in a year.
Exodus 7,8; Psalm 44
You can also download your own chart here.

Tell the Story

Maybe we Christians need to spend less time talking about what we’re against and more time talking about WHO we’re for!