Redemption Testimony

I was out on a long prayer walk this morning and had a few thoughts that I thought I would share. If I look like I am extremely sweaty, it’s because I was extremely sweaty, but I felt like I had to get it recorded right away. I pray it blesses you.

Devotional Drawing

Today I was reading Romans 9 and saw this verse. “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” Romans 9:21 (NIV)

Here’s what I came up with.

Easter Sunday Service

I know in this time almost every church is closed on Easter Sunday. I know most of us are doing something online, but if you have need of a Worship service, or you’d just like to experience one more. Here is the one I made for my church.
Jesus is risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Esther Series Part 7

I’ve been leading my church through a study on the book of Esther.
Here is the video I created for chapter 7.

Sermon of the Week

Well yesterday was Palm Sunday and we’re looking at the Songs Jesus Sang from the Hallel, Psalms 113-118. This weeks we landed on Psalm 115 and its amazing how well it fits with what was happening on Palm Sunday. Check it out.

Encouragement For Friends

My friends at Delta Lake Bible Conference had some of their speakers make encouragement videos and I asked if I could do one. A few of these graphics and part of the story made it into my sermon to this week.
I hope it encourages you too.

39: A Video on The Love of Christ

My friend Kerry Jackson asked me if I would be a part of his Stations of the Cross art exhibit. I was delighted to join in. Now since he is in Georgia and I am in Pennsylvania, I opened to do digital animation. My portion was on the flogging of Jesus. Now of course, like pretty much everything else in our world these days, the exhibition was cancelled, but I decided to share it here.

There are several views of the flogging aspect of the story as I understand it. The Israelites has a limitation of 39 lashes. The thought was that 40 lashes would be fatal and they stopped just short. The Roman view as I understand it was that the floggers would beat the person until they were two exhausted to continue. Not surprisingly many people never made it to the cross. Now in my video, I used a more traditional whip. What was because of the limitation of my skills and technology. The Romans would have used a whip with multiple straps, each one tipped with a piece of metal or bone, for the purpose of tearing the flesh. Yes it was gruesome. Yes it was a terrible way to die, so why do I share this. Because Jesus willingly took this beating for someone else, and that someone was me. It was you too. He took our punishment. Isaiah’s prophecy says The punishment that brought US (emphasis mine) peace was on Him and by His wounds we are healed. Jesus died so that we could have peace with God. He died so that we could be reconciled to the Father. Having no sin of His own, He took yours and mine upon Himself.

I call this video 39. It’s short, simple and deliberately uncomfortable. This was just part of what Jesus was willing to do for you, so that you could place your faith and trust in Him and live with Him forever. Trust Him today. If you need more information, contact me.

Still Making Art

Over the last few weeks or so, I have been spending a lot of time working on building online community and other stuff, so today I had a little bit of a break and I decided to stretch my creative muscled and do a little art. My friends at Kul Pong Klub in Croatia have their creative prompts called Marchartoon. So I decided to make a little art today.
The challenge this year was to combine an animal and a sport. These were fun and a good distraction. I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish them all, but I had a good time and they lowered my stress a bit.

You can see the rest at my Beware of Artists Page.

Sermon of the Week. Songs Jesus Sang: The Hallel, Part 1, Psalm 113

Here’s the sermon for this week. This is the first in my Easter Series, looking at a series of Psalms (113-118). These were songs that the Jewish people, like Jesus and His disciples would have sung in Passover celebrations. Placing these Psalms up against what was happening in “Holy Week” can really help us to understand even more of the Easter story. I’ve been planning to do this series for months, yet as it came into focus, given our current world situation, brought even more to light.

Focusing

I have so many ideas for so many things to do. I’d love to start podcasting. I have an idea for a game. I’m chomping at the bit to get out speaking again and I miss my church. I have a book sitting on this very computer that is nearing completion and a master’s thesis that is starting to come together. I’m thinking about doing some creative ministry meet-ups on Zoom. I’m also debating whether to start another website where I can consolidate all these creative ministry ideas into a more useful format. The ideas are flowing but of course I can’t do them all right now. I need to focus. And that’s just the professional/ministry end of life.

As I’ve said on many occasions, ideas are a blessing and too many ideas is even better, but most of the time you can’t do them and you have to focus. The best way to handle it, is to record them all and prioritize. There are a few things that have to be done. In these turbulent times, I have a church that needs and deserves strong and innovative leadership, and needless to say, that’s got to be the top professional priority. Next in line for a variety of reasons I can’t go into here, I need to get that masters finished, so that moves to number two. Does that mean all the other stuff goes away? No. The corona virus eliminated the speaking for a while, but things are coming up, so wisdom dictates that I keep working on getting that ready, some time will go to that. Beyond that I feel a calling to help the church embrace creativity. Does that go to the back burner? Hardly. I have a church in which I can devote my creative energy and share that with the world through a channel like this one. In the mean time, the other projects are on my computer, where I can add to them as ideas pop into my head.

At the end of the day, the purpose of our lives is to glorify God and do His will. We do that best when we are faithful and finish what we start. Finishing requires focus.

What’s your ministry focus today? Are you finishing what you started? Start, finish and share it with the world. In order to do this, you need to focus.