A Christmas Skit You Can Use…

I decided I needed a little something more for a Christmas program at church and I thought back to a script I wrote in 2001. At the time I was a church youth leader. Much is made of the fact that Mary the mother of Jesus was probably quite young, a teen, not much different than many of the students I was working with. Before long a strange idea hit me. If Mary and Joseph were in my youth group and told me the story of Mary being with child what would have my reaction been. What came out of that thought was one of the favorite things I have ever written. I really wanted to use it, but there was a problem. The computer I wrote that piece on has long since been recycled and I changed web hosting providers. There was a good chance the piece was lost forever, but I thought to Google it. Fortunately it came up, unfortunately it came up on a paid content site, having been uploaded by someone else. Someone else is profiting from my content.

What was my reaction? Well I thought about lodging a copyright complaint with the service, but that didn’t feel right in this case. I’d rather have it out there helping people than lost forever which it might have been. In the long run, I decided to just be grateful that people are still seeing it, and secondly, I decided to post it here for free. If this sounds like something that might bless you or your group. please feel free to use it. I call it Mary and Joe’s Counseling Session. I pray it blesses you. Click here to download your copy.

The new AMOKArts Video: Heroes

What does it take to be a hero? This video contains 16 paintings of people who would widely be regarded as heroes. You may disagree with some and you may thing of may that should have been here. Please do not be offended either way. The goal was to get people thinking about what makes a hero and what it takes to live a heroic life.

Of course at the end of the day every hero (but one) is a flawed human being who wrestles with sin has been at times less than heroic. The challenge in being heroic is sometimes to repent turn around and do better tomorrow, to rise above your struggles and live out God’s vision for our lives.

Of course the ultimate hero, the one after whom all great heroes in all great stories is modeled, is Jesus. The mighty King who lays down His life, sacrificing Himself for the sake of others is a hero we could all stand to emulate. Of course we don’t sacrifice our lives for the sins of humanity, that’s already been done and none of us is qualified for that, but when we go above and beyond, when we go out of our way to help someone else, when we leave our selfishness behind and help someone else, well, that’s the stuff heroes are made of.

Greater love has no one than this…

Distraction

I look at this video and wonder how it got 1.3 million hits and I have a hard time breaking 100. I wonder more why I am going to try to get it a few more, but here goes.

This actually happened a few miles from my home at the mall I frequent… well frequently. A young lady deeply involved in her texting becomes an involuntary celebrity when she inadvertently trips into the fountain. It really is hilarious. I could use this opportunity to say things like, “thank God she wasn’t driving…” but I’ll use a little more discretion than that.

What I want to talk about is distraction. This young lady clearly had more important things to do than texting, (like watching where she was going) but clearly she had some place she needed to be and so she decided to multitask. So she did the walking on autopilot and attended to the pressing issue at hand or in her hand as the case may be.

How many times have you done that? Oh you may not have fallen into a fountain but you have little memory of what you just did. You have a lot on your mind as you step into your car and before you realize it you’re home (unless something happened that snapped you back to reality). You were distracted.

How much of life do we miss because we’re distracted? How many mistakes have you made because you were distracted? Maybe it’s time to slow down a little and do one thing at a time. After all, hard as it may seem to believe, the world will keep on turning if you’re not running through life at breakneck speed and if you think it will, you need to slow down.

Jesus and His disciples once visited the home of two sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha at once got busy, she ran around like a lunatic trying to get everything ready to feed the disciples. (Good thing there wasn’t a fountain there…) Meanwhile Mary sat with Jesus and learned from him. Martha saw this and got ticked. She went to Jesus and ordered him to tell Mary to help her. Jesus said, “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

In our lives trying to do great stuff for God, it is really easy to fall into this pattern, but God doesn’t want us to be so distracted that we miss life, and He especially doesn’t want us to miss Him. Slow down, pick the best thing and do it.

Bible Reading Guide
An important part of following God is knowing what He wants and a great way to know what He wants is to read His Word. Follow this plan and you will finish reading the Bible in a year.
Genesis 42, Job 12-14
You can also download your own chart here.

AMOKArts’ ArtChurch: WDJD?/WWJD Part 3 Mary Did You Know

Welcome to ArtChurch. Each week we will post the message of the week as well as the accompanying art video created by Pastor Dave Weiss. The purpose of this is to encourage you to use your own gifts to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the third message in our series entitled WDJD?/WWJD: The Search for the Radical Jesus.

As we look at what Jesus did and why He faced so much opposition and in keeping with the Christmas holiday we will explore more about why Jesus came. This time looking at His mother Mary. To see the art piece that went along with this message, check out https://amokarts.wordpress.com Sunday evening December 19. Remember these messages are for believers in Christ who have a real desire to follow Him and especially for people who are interested in Jesus but who are not sure about or may have been put off by us, His followers. We’re stripping away the religion and looking at what His book says is true.

The above is the sketch painting that goes along with the message WDJD?/WWJD 3 Mary Did You Know?
And now it’s your turn:
Watch the message and the video, read the scripture and create your own art piece to express Jesus coming at Christmas. Then if you want send us a picture of what you did and we will share it in the gallery on amokarts.com

Remember, ArtChurch is not a substitute for gathering to worship. It is meant to be supplemental to your walk with Christ and to be a resource for art groups who want to study the Word of God as they create. Worship is a lifestyle and AMOKArts believes that at least part of it should be lived out in community in a local church.

A New Game for an Improved Presentation

Title page for my new game for HistoryMakerz

A few years ago I started a youth presentation called HistoryMakerz. The idea behind it is simple. We use young people from the Bible to encourage young people of today. In the presentation I tell the stories of people like David and Joseph (Genesis) and Mary to illustrate that these were not superheroes, They were ordinary people who put their lives in the hands of an extraordinary God and that if we will do the same thing God can use us to make a real difference in this world.

Well after some time I am getting the opportunity to present it again and to celebrate I am reworking some of the interactive elements of the presentation. Before each of the messages I try to have some kind of fun activity that brings people up to speed on the story. One of my favorite things to do for this are digital game shows. This is the latest, it’s called Who Said That? and it goes along with the story of David.

Go ahead and play the game and see how you do. All you need to do is click the image above. Please keep in mind this is created to be hosted like a game show so it does not keep score. If you get an answer wrong just go back and try again. Check it out and let me know what you think.

If any of you are in charge of any kind of youth group or conference contact me at amokarts@aol.com perhaps I could come and lead History Makerz at your event. It will be finished and ready to present my November 1, Lord willing. For more on HistoryMakerz go to http://radicallyreal.truepath.com/historymakerz

For those artists who read this, this is just another way to use art to teach biblical truth. How can you use your talent to tell these stories and share God’s message with the Church and the world around you?