Book Review: Daniel, Man of God: Being a Man of Character in a Babylon World by D.L. Moody

I’ve heard many great things about the great evangelist, D.L. Moody, but I had never read anything he had written. I am glad I have changed that. This is an amazing book. Written in the late 19th century, Moody writes with a fire and passion that is sorely lacking in many a pulpit today. We need people like this in the church today. Moody goes deep into this prophetic book with the heart of an evangelist. This book reads like a preaching master class. It’s phenomenal. My prayer is that I will be emboldened to preach with even more Holy Spirit anointed power having read this amazing work. I genuinely hope you read this book, but if I could give you one more incentive, Amazon has it for free! One of the best free books I have ever read.

EPIC

Yesterday, I set out on another artistic journey. As part of my Masters program, I have to have a portfolio of my creative ministry/art work. Now most of that work is work that I create directly in the context of my ministry and needless to say I am continuing to do that, but I’m also working on some pieces that are decidedly more gallery style at least in context. I envision them being part of a presentation I’ll be doing in the future, but I also want them to be able to stand alone and hang some place where people can receive inspiration apart from me being there. These will be the exact opposite of speed paintings in that they will take long periods of time to be complete. I’m excited to begin this journey.

People will sometimes ask me if I am a prophetic artist, and I am never quite sure how to answer them. In the sense that the work contains a message from the Lord, yes, absolutely, but the work is often planned and prepared so I’ve decided to let the viewer assign, and more importantly the Lord, the designation. I will say these pieces are all based in prophecy. I’ve decided to call it Apocalypsis. It’s basically literal interpretations of the prophecies of the books of Daniel and Revelation. All the pieces will represent beasts and creatures, dreams and visions. Yes I know this is apocalyptic literature and all these things represent other things, and I will touch on the actual meanings in some way, but I’ve long been fascinated by envisioning these things as they were actually, literally, written. I don’t know how this will all turn out, but it will be an epic journey.

The reason I titled this post EPIC though is more for you than for me. This is a large project. I’m estimating the piece I started yesterday, worked at in my admittedly limited spare time, will probably take at least a year to complete. The work on this particular piece, will be extremely tedious, and I am hoping for great results. It will be an epic journey in the truest sense of the word. That said, I have no doubt that I will hit a wall with it. Right now it’s constantly on my mind. It’s a lot more technical than most of my work, almost mathematical, but now most of that is done and the slogging begins. How do you keep yourself motivated in the midst of something that takes a long time? Well first of all, do what I am practicing here. Tell someone about it. You don’t have to tell the world, but tell someone who will ask you about it and how it’s progressing. This will help you to keep from putting it too much on the back burner.

Next, I think the answer is to start with the end in mind. If I keep going, and keep the quality up, I think the piece is going to end up being really cool. I can envision it helping people to understand these passages more clearly and my prayer is that these “fantasy” pop art pieces will help people to see the hand of God throughout history and maybe even come to trust in Him.

This series has been on my heart a long time. I can’t wait to see it come to fruition. I will share photos along the way. What have you been feeling led to? Maybe it’s time to launch your own epic journey.

When God is “Silent”???

This message explores the times when God is silent by looking at the two four hundred year periods of biblical history when the Bible is “silent” between Genesis and Exodus and between Malachi and Matthew to ask the question is God really silent or are we just not listening?