CCM: Creative Challenge Monday

 One of the things that has been impressed upon me is that we as creatives have a unique gift to make the complex understandable, thus helping people to understand the Gospel and come to know and follow Jesus. I want to help us to key in on that in the weeks ahead so from this day forward each Monday will be CCM: Creative Challenge Monday. I will post a word, a concept or a verse. Your challenge in that week is to create something that expresses the concept in whatever God glorifying way you choose. Write a story, create an image, make a video… The possibilities are endless.

This Monday’s challenge is a parable of Jesus:

The Light of the World

Matthew 5:14-16  14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. 

What does this concept mean to you? How would you like to express it to the world? How do people miss the point on this concept?

If you want you can share your results by posting a link to your work in the comments. If you don’t have a way to post your work, you can share them on the AMOKArts Facebook page.

Thoughts from Creacher: Light of the World

In an upcoming CREACHER comic, he explores what it means to be the light of the world and I thought it was worth looking at in connection with our creative pursuits. Here’s the comic…

In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus calls us the light of the world and he gives us a pretty clear mission. People are supposed to see the good stuff we do and praise God. How are you doing with that?

You see it’s great to be creative and it’s great to do creative stuff. I am of the opinion that we were created to create (among other things). There are a few problems with this though. The first one is we withhold our gifts. We fail to share our creations with the world because we think they’re not good enough or we’re not good enough or we’re afraid someone might steal them or whatever excuse we want to put out there. The truth is withholding your creations is like putting your lamp under the bowl instead on the stand where it belongs. When we do this, we fail to shine.

The other side though is also a problem. That’s when the creating stops being about God and becomes just about us. That also defeats the purpose. We are supposed to let our lights shine so that people see them and praise God.

I’m convinced that we really don’t have light of our own, but that what we create bears witness to the true light, the source of our light, Jesus Christ. We have to shine and it has to be about Him.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge Shades: Part II

Christians are called to be the light of the world and to let our lights shine. Now let’s be clear on this, we have no light of our own. Instead we reflect the light of Christ. That’s our ultimate job and our calling. Sometimes though we don’t do a very good job. Our actions distort the light and shade it so that the light doesn’t shine as it should and we end up not reflecting the light Jesus would have. It’s time to clean up our act, put off our SHADES and shine. That’s what this illustration represents.