My Top Ten Videos

Well today (Lord willing) is my first day at Creation East. This year I am painting in the Youth Leaders Hospitality area sponsored by my friends at Interlinc. My guess is I will not be able to post from Creation as the cell reception is not the best so I prepped a few posts in advance. Today I wanted to give you a retrospective on some of my favorite videos. I haven’t posted any new videos in a little while largely because my camera has given out. I hope you like these. They are actually listed as part of my booking page above in case you’d like to refer your friends to any of them. Remember, these videos are free to use and share. Ideas that spread, win.

One of my favorite creative pursuits is to make videos of art in process and use them to tell part of God’s story. These are some of my favorites.
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How It All Started: The Origins of AMOK

I was going through some old photos last night and I found a few pieces that were crucial to my journey to where I am now. Each of these pieces has something to do with why you are reading this blog and why I am doing art ministry today.

Believer T-Shirt
So there I was, I had just become a Christian, I was 22 or 23 and I knew three things. I was an artist, I loved rock music and I wanted to serve the Lord. There was a local magazine called the Pennsylvania Musician that I used to get. I went through their classified ads and found all the Christian bands. I contacted them and none of them worked out, but one guy connected me with his college roommate, Dave Baddorf from Believer. I did their original logo, first T-shirt and stage drop. They went on to put out a couple albums back in the day. It was a great experience for me and probably the first time I used my art to serve the Lord.

VBS Backdrops.
This was one of my many Vacation Bible School Backdrops. This represents the first time I put my gift to work in the church itself. I was a new believer, floundering in a ministry that didn’t fit me when my pastor came to me with a project I could handle, something I knew how to do and it really connected me to the church. The ramifications of this project were astounding. When I came into the church I was terrified of public speaking. Painting these backdrops, led to acting in skits, which led to teaching classes, which led to youth ministry, which led to preaching and finally to the pastorate and speaking ministry I have today.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Backdrops
The ability to paint backdrops and large paintings led to a couple freelance jobs. Probably the coolest of them was I painted backdrops for a licensee of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. While the project was extremely cool to work on this was also in some ways a huge stumbling block. The Turtles were making huge piles of money (billions) when I was doing this and the client had me convinced he was going to make me rich and famous. I sold out badly, and really fell into idolatry. This was a time of real turmoil for me. We were really broke, but God would always provide a job and a check when we needed it. God finally dealt with my idolatry or maybe he was dealing with it for a while and I finally got it. So guess you could say it was sort of the best of times and the worst of times. in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Theater Sets
Once I knew how to do backdrops another door opened to some of the most rewarding work I have ever done. I art directed the high school musicals for my alma mater for seven years. Beyond the fun of the art, this job ignited my passion for working with youth and when the youth leader position came open at church, I couldn’t wait to get started. It was out of my youth ministry that I discovered art as a teaching tool which was the genesis of AMOK as it exists today.

The Outhouse Mural
I place this one in for perspective. In some ways the Creation Festival is where my ministry started. The first thing I did in church ministry or at least the first church leadership position (since looking back almost all of it was ministry) was took a group of students from the church to Creation East. To say it was life changing is a huge understatement. One year the organizers of the festivals had a contest for people to design murals for the outhouses on the grounds. Mine was one of the designs selected and so I got to paint it. The irony is this: The festival gets about 80-100,000 people each year. After years and years of struggling to become rich and famous as an artist, the painting I’ve done that’s been seen by more people than any other is painted on a toilet. Some things just help you keep life in perspective.

Why do I post all of this? To remind you that God is always at work in your life so take the next step in faith. Zechariah 4:10 reminds us not to despise humble beginnings. You never know how God is going to use what He is doing in you, so trust Him and make the next step.

I Need Your Help… Crowd Sourcing Creation

Starting Thursday Morning, I have the awesome privilege of doing paintings at the Youth Leaders Hospitality area with my friends from Interlinc at the Creation Festival East.

Creation East holds a special place in my heart. It is where that I did my very first foray into ministry, where I baptized my son Chris and saw many people I love come to Christ. I can’t wait. I’m going to be doing some live paintings, giving away my ebook Ministering to the Creative Soul and a couple other goodies. The paintings I do (I’m hoping to do 16) will be given away as prizes and here’s where I need your help. You’ve seen my work. You know what I do.

The question is what paintings should I do to bless these hard working youthworkers? Leave your ideas in the comment section below.

I really am so looking forward to being at Creation East again and seeing my friends from Interlinc. It’s been too long on both counts. This festival often draws 80,000 plus. If you’re one of them please drop by and say, “Hi.” You won’t be able to miss me, I’ll be the one happily chained to the easel.

Also please be praying for me to have divine appointments with people I can help and people who can help me Run AMOK!

This Painting Will Blow Your Mind

When I saw this guy’s (Patrick Egarter) technique, it amazed me. This is not a political statement. I just found this piece to be utterly amazing and the finished piece incredible. I’m not sure I’d have the patience to pull off a piece like this but I admire Egarter’s abilities.
What do you think?

Here’s another…

Giving Grace: A New Painting Video from AMOKArts

Romans 5:6-8 says You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Isn’t that a beautiful image. We see God’s grace and Jesus’ sacrifice and our salvation as a demonstration of God’s love, but what put Jesus on the cross? God’s love? Of course but we also see Jesus died for the ungodly.

Jesus died for sinners. He died for you and me because we are sinners and sin separates us from God. God’s love for us put Jesus on the cross, but our sin was the reason He needed to go there. Our sin put Him on the cross just as surely as if we had held the hammer and drove the nails through His hands and feet. That’s the reality. We killed our savior and every time we choose sin it’s as if we drove the nails again. I know this might feel like a beating but I have to establish this first.

Too many Christians forget this point and when we forget it, we get proud and we forget about the grace we’ve received and when we forget we’ve received it, it makes it very difficult for us to give it.

When we forget grace, we either cheapen it or we withhold it. Let’s look at withholding it. In Matthew 6, Jesus taught his disciples to pray. We call it the Lord’s prayer, but really it should probably be called the disciples prayer, a prayer all Christ followers should take to heart. Now I could do a whole sermon on this prayer but for today I want us to lock in on verse 12. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Do you see what Jesus is doing here? It’s a little strange, but it’s as if Jesus is teaching us to pray to God, giving Him a loophole on forgiveness. Work with me on this for a second. This statement is conditional. He doesn’t just say “God forgive me.” He says “God forgive me the way I forgive others.” How are you doing with that? See this is where it gets tough. What condition would your soul be in if you were forgiven based on your forgiveness of others? Anyone else a little scared? check verses 14 and 15. 14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. All this forgiveness is really hard. I can almost hear people thinking “but Dave you don’t know what He or she did to me…” or “you don’t know what he put me through…” And before we go any further, I want to remind you, I struggle with this too and this is hard for me too, but I have to ask you this question and I ask it of myself too.

Does any of the things they did to you compare to driving nails through your hands and feet? Did any of them hang you on a cross and leave you for dead? Because that’s what you and I did to Jesus. I mean as He hung on that cross I believe He knew you and I and the things we would do that put Him there and He cried out “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing.” That’s the grace we have received and it’s the grace we are called to give. Just like in this painting. We see two bloody hands one holds the bloody nail, the other the bloody hammer. Both are guilty in the death of the Savior, and this is what it’s like when we forget grace and withhold grace and point fingers. We ignore our guilt and focus on another’s sin and that helps neither of us. When we accept God’s grace and we forgive and extend grace, we acknowledge our own guilt and we point the way to grace for others. Isn’t that what we’re called to do? You’ve received grace freely isn’t it time to give grace freely?

Artists MUST Fail!

Probably not what you wanted to hear first thing this morning but it’s true. I posted a picture a few days ago that said something to the effect of “In order to live the creative life we must lose the fear of being wrong.” Artists need to fail. We can’t help it. We create things that have not existed before. It’s like the old saying, you have to break some eggs to make an omelet. Fear of failure will cripple us creatively. Fail boldly. Give your best, create with conviction and know this, it’s not always going to work, but you will be very limited as an artist if you only do what’s safe.

Don’t be afraid to fail! Remember the Bible tells us that we were not given a spirit that makes us a slave again to fear. What we were given was a Spirit of Sonship. We are God’s children, He’s our Abba, literally our daddy. When we set out with all our hearts to please and honor Him, I have a feeling even our failures hang on Daddy’s refrigerator door.

Create with great love and fear no art.

Prayer Request and another Request

Hi everyone,
Well, it’s here. This is the week I take A Night AMOK, Pix of JC before a live audience in its entirety for the first time. I’ve done all the elements in ministry before but now’s the time to see how they work as a cohesive unit. I’m really excited, but I could also use your prayers. Please pray that people show up ready to receive Jesus. Pray that the Spirit will prompt anyone who is on the fence about coming and that God will be glorified. For those who don’t know A Night AMOK: Pix of JC is an evangelistic program that uses art, video, storytelling and more to paint a picture of the real Jesus. During the program, I will be painting six different works of art live, all of which share part of the story of Jesus ending with an invitation to receive Jesus. I’ve been preparing for this program for years and I really can’t wait. Please pray for me, this whole event and especially those who will be coming. If you’re in the vicinity of eastern PA, I’d love to have you come and check it out this saturday at 7:00p.m.

The promo video can be seen below, but first my request. I really want to take this presentation beyond the walls of my church. It’s suitable for churches, camps, conferences, youth events, evangelistic meetings and more. First, could you pray that I get opportunities to do just that. Secondly if you could envision this being a blessing for your church or event, would you consider bringing me in to do the program and lastly if you know anyone who may be able to help me get this out there, agents, event producers/promoters, etc. would you please have them contact me at amokarts@aol.com.

Thank you,
Dave Weiss
amokarts.com

Amazing Brush Technique

I was mesmerized by this artist’s brush technique. Watch how he paint’s the dragon’s body. How might you apply this technique to what you do?

Maybe the best painting video I have ever seen!

This one will inspire you. Immensely creative.

The artists name is Thijme Termaat He’s from Holland and his work is amazing!
Check him out at www.thijmetermaat.com

Don’t Babel…

I was talking to a friend about the challenges that happen to the faith of students as they enter college. This video and the corresponding message are the result…

I did this video of one of my worship paintings. It’s based on a message on the Tower of Babel from Genesis 11 and it’s a very unusual story, a story where it looks like God injected himself in history to mess up our plans. A casual reader of the story might be tempted to see God as the villain of this story. God can’t be the villain, God is always good so what really happened. Well a few chapters before in Genesis 9, Noah and his family have just left the ark and God commanded them to spread out and fill the earth. The rest of the chapter and all of chapter ten tell us how they did just that, but as we approach chapter 11 the people get a different idea.

They decide to stop spreading and gather, build themselves a city with tower that reaches the heavens to make a name for themselves. You might think, what’s wrong with that. Well first of all it’s the opposite of what God told them to do and it looks as though what they were really trying to do was build a life and a world apart from God and to try to reach heaven in their own human efforts. That’s why God put a stop to it. What did he do? He confounded their language so they could no longer understand each other, when that happened they gave up the project, spread out and filled the earth.

In our world we see the same thing. There are so many people that try to live a life apart from God. They try to explain Him away. They believe that believing in God and following Jesus is stupid or antiquated the choice of lesser IQ’s. When we fall pray to this, we start to really try to make a name for ourselves, to claim glory for our accomplishments and we try to build our own heaven here on earth. But heaven apart from God or for that matter life apart from God is not heaven. It’s the opposite. When the people in Babel tried God confused their language because he loved them and He loves us. We can’t get to heaven apart from Him. He had to stop them to save them.

In Acts 2 though God did just the opposite. Centuries an millennia have passed since Babel and God Himself has provided the only way to heaven, through His son Jesus. By now the people of the world speak many languages, but God has brought about salvation and that is too important to miss because of a language barrier. So God provided a miracle. He gave His followers a gift, that allowed them to speak in such a way that everyone no matter what his language heard the message of salvation through Jesus in his own language. Jesus is the way to heaven and church this needs to be the core of our message to the world around us. People may belittle our faith but that doesn’t make it wrong. The very people who belittle us are the ones God put us here to reach with this truth. We need to share boldly with everyone God gives us. We can’t make our own way to heaven but God in His grace has made a way, one way. He gave us HIs only son to die on the cross for your sins and mine. His name is Jesus. If you’re a believer, Don’t babel, speak it clearly. Jesus saves.