Wonderful Christmas Painting Video…

Submitted to trigger your imagination in this most blessed of seasons!

Tim Hawkins on Hand Raising Churches

As we approach our Sunday Services today, we are aware that many people worship differently. Some are very subtle some are very expressive. There is no right or wrong form of worship, what’s most important is that you are bringing your whole heart to the Lord. He deserves your worship.

In case you’re not sure where you’re at with all of this, Tim Hawkins has some great insights for you.

Bring your best worship to the Lord today…

He deserves it.

The Splat Experience-The Sacrifice

Marc Eckles has yet another approach to worship painting. He calls his work the Splat Experience and as he begins throwing the paint you’ll see why. This piece describes how Jesus took our sins on Himself in a very beautiful way. I love the use of poetry and music in the narration. Check it out.

 

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.

An Audience of One

It’s funny. When I’m preaching, it’s almost as if it’s me on display and somehow that feels wrong. What I’d like people to know is that in a sense, I’m just the worshipper facing in the wrong direction. The message and it’s preparation are my act of worship. I hope it touches heart, I hope it changes lives, etc. and often it feels like it doesn’t. As a matter of fact there have been many times where I’ve felt like turning around, facing in the same direction as everyone else and talking to the wall. When I feel this way, I know I’m out of order. I worship for an audience of One. It’s not my persuasive  words that changes hearts, it’s His Spirit. I offer my best to Him and He works on the receptive hearts. If the hearts are not responsive, the best I can do is pray for them and give my best to God.

It’s the same with all of our acts of worship. When I paint in a service, it’s really easy to let my inner critic take over and tell me it’s not good enough. That’s not my issue either. I’m called to give my best with what I have in the time I have. It’s an act of worship for an audience of the One who knows whether or not I’ve given my best. Whether the people like it is not my primary concern and its ability to touch hearts is not dependent on my ability or the beauty of my work. It’s dependent on the Spirit’s work on receptive hearts.

It’s the same with the music, and everything else we do in worship and life. It’s not about virtuoso talent, it’s about offering our best to an audience of One. The rest is up to Him.

Give God Your Best. Trust Him with the Rest

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.

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.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Stripes Part 2

The second image for the IllustrationFriday.com stripes challenge may be slightly less predictable.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Stripes Part 2

Isaiah 53:5 says: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Those stripes were wounds driven deep into the flesh of the Savior by a lead tipped Roman whip. The intense punishment that began what we now call Good Friday. You see before they would place a convicted person on a cross the Romans would beat him nearly to death. Such was the beginning of the price Jesus paid for up. It’s a conundrum. How could a day of such torture be called Good Friday? Surely not because it was a good thing to happen to Jesus. I’m sure the disciples saw that day as anything but good. No the goodness was on the cross. It was Jesus doing the greatest act of good a person can do. He laid down His life for you and me. See, those stripes, they were yours and mine, but he took them.

The word at the bottom of the illustration is Tetellestai. It’s the last recorded word Jesus spoke before dying on the cross. Your English Bible records the word as the phrase “it is finished.” Jesus finished the work of Salvation when he hung on the cross, but that word Tetellestai has another meaning as well. In the market place, in that day, when a purchase was complete the merchant would sometimes shout out Tetellestai and in this context the meaning of the word was another phrase, “PAID IN FULL.” That’s what Jesus did. He took the penalty for everything wrong that you, me and everyone else has done and will ever do and took it on Himself. If you place your trust in Him as your Lord and Savior, your sins are forgiven and your debt is paid in full.

Jesus paid it all.

If you’d like to know more about Jesus and what He did for you, leave a comment or better yet drop me an email at AMOKArts@aol.com

This note is extra meaningful to me today, two days ago my friend Curt left this world. He was a guy who had a lot of struggles in this life but in spite of it all, he came to know and love Jesus. Jesus paid Curt’s price and today as I miss my friend, I know his struggles are over and he’s just beginning to enjoy the very best God has to offer.

Praise God for the stripes that heal.

If you can’t see the image above, click this link.

AMOKArts Art Ministry Academy

Would you like to use your art gift in worship?
Are you looking for new creative ways to teach and preach the Word?
Would you like to utilize the creative talents of your congregation?
Would you like to find creative ways to reach your community?
The AMOKArts Art Ministry Academy is for you.

A live demonstration of various examples, a discussion of uses of visual art in ministry, then the real fun begins participants will spend the afternoon dissecting a passage or concept and developing their own creative arts presentation. The culmination of the event is the opportunity for participants to create and present their creation to the group and invited guests, just as they would in a live worship/teaching or outreach experience. Artists of all skill levels are welcome. Bring your favorite art media and wear clothing appropriate for working with paints, etc.

The AMOKArts Art Ministry Academy will be held Saturday, December 10 from 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. at New Creation Fellowship, 3646 Pottsville Pike, Reading, PA 19605 (Shady Lawn Barn next to Wawa on Route 61 in Muhlenberg Township) Go to www.amokarts.com/AMA for more details or contact Dave Weiss at AMOKArts@aol.com

I hope you can join us for the AMOKArts Art Ministry Academy.

The AMOKArts Art Ministry Academy Visualize your ministry

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