Since the spring of 2018, I have been sketching animals and people. This one had a happy accident. I realized that I created a crown out of top of his mane. At first I was disappointed that it looked wrong but then I realized that maybe it wasn't a mistake. I am not sure why I wrote those words but it made sense at the time. Maybe it is because kings have crowns. The king of the jungle has a crown and the Lion of Judah has one as well. Rule on Yahweh!
0 Comments
A friend of mine is reading a book called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team to prepare for a mission trip. At the same time I was writing about the challenging types of people that I’ve worked with. It seemed like a good time to release this article.
Conflict at Work The world of work can be challenging at times. There are different temperaments out there that seem to cause stress or misunderstanding or irritation. Here’s how I deal with the different temperaments out there. My way of dealing with people obviously would not work for everyone because we all have different strengths, motives and perspectives. I once worked with a guy who majored in drama. He tried all sorts of antics to make me laugh because his dream was to be a comedian. People laughed at him all the time but I didn’t always find him to be funny. One day he said to me, “If I can make you laugh then I can make anyone laugh. How can I make you laugh?”
I said to him, “You are just like everyone else. Everyone is trying to do their spin on Seinfeld. Apparently swearing and being perverse is the ticket but it doesn’t make you stand out. For you, you have this little boy charm. Work with that innocent side of you.” Several months later - after practicing his lines before and making me practically fall over while laughing - he went into the competition to be funniest person in Minnesota. He won. Right after that, he won a grant to travel across the United States teaching comedy in the public school system. It doesn’t take much to stand out from the crowd. It just takes finding out what God placed into you. He was going in the right direction of comedy but going in a worldly path. Once he found his sweet spot then he tapped into his true God-given gifts. Spiritual Warfare
There are three heavens that the Bible reveals. Actually, it only directly talks about the first and third heaven. Yet, the scriptures allude to the second heaven in the book of Job and Daniel. Have you noticed that in certain times or seasons you feel compelled to partner with God in different ways? Certain activities suddenly give you life and other activities have become dull.
In this season, I have daily spent time with my small sketch book. I have drawn from photos on Pinterest. Then I took the life drawings and translated them in my imagination. At the same time I have noticed the slight differences between animals such as lions, tigers, leopards, as well as deer, giraffes and horses. I have pondered their colors, patterns, and shapes. Even with people, I am more aware of the variety of face shapes and features. I have been invited into various sub-cultures and have ponders their ways. Clearly, we have a God who likes variety and is surprisingly playful. Underlying it all is purpose as well. But He certainly is lavish. Perhaps tomorrow I will consider the lilies. Some may say that I am wasting my time; that I should be evangelizing or praying for someone. They say I must be about the practical ministries that directly help people. Chop, chop! Well, that brought life in past seasons. This is a new season with new possibilities and fresh ways to relate to God. I sat in a parking ramp and watched leaves dance on a row of poplar trees for 20 minutes. God asked me if I thought their dance felt like nervousenes or excitement. That reminded me of a Graham Cooke sermon. I said that it made me feel nervous. He said, Choose to be excited! Where are you with God? Has your Bible reading become dry? Maybe you can meditate on a scripture such as: Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Or ponder an attribute of God such Creator or Jehovah Shalom. How is God showing up for you? For me He is the more in the silence than in the sound. In this season He is deepening my awareness of rest. One day I was lying on my bed and it felt like I entered eternity. It reminded me of time-elapse photography of clouds rolling over a landscape. The clouds flashed by but I stayed still on the Rock. I was steady and immovable as if in the eye of the hurricane. It reminds me of the scripture: Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. In Galatians Paul writes that he did not consult with anyone but spent time alone with God for some years. Henry Nouwen said that sometimes you need a ‘creative absence’ from community. Yes, I have connected with my inner Christian circle but I have enjoyed my sabbatical away from the herd. The religious will give me a scolding but there are Christians I have fellowshipped with at work. I have connected with Christian artists – my tribe. And I have found that time to be super creative and divine. Have you taken time to dream with God? It may be hard if you are in a crisis but not impossible. Hey, God, this is my dream; what is yours? I have gone on prayer walks. I have gone on art dates with God to Hobby Lobby of all places. And I am in a new season identifying with a new Bible character that I will not disclose. Nope, I have not mentioned him yet. Take some time out today to see if you can see God moving in a different way. These were my first sketches on my sketchbook revival challenge. This is page one of a character study of a woman.
I am a month into this process and have drawn plenty of animals and some pages of people.
Rise up to your chair
in the heavenly sphere where the air is pure and the throne appears in an atmosphere of sapphire. There are different prophets for the different gifts and levels of the prophetic gift. For example, Graham Cooke is what I call the newbie’s prophet. He’s easy to digest, lovey-dovey to the hilt, and gives a good foundation on identity in Christ. He’s never controversial. Neither does he give a strong, hard word.
Cooke is the one that non-prophets go to when they want to learn how to hear the voice of God. He’s kind of a pastoral-prophet. He leads the sheep into hearing God’s voice. Let’s just say that in the world of art, he would be like a Claude Monet. Both non-artists and artists can appreciate this style. Most of us love to consider the lilies. Most artists start with Monet and then move on to the more interesting and deeper ones. Then there’s the mainstream prophet. I think of Dutch Sheets who never says anything that is really out there. He’s pretty reliable. His presence qualifies others. He is probably the first step on the ladder that intercessors or prophetically anointed ones take when they start moving into the prophetic. He’s strong, solid, and fatherly. His church is packed with intercessors. He’s like Leonardo Da Vinci. Leo painted the last supper and that’s just how we all see it. Da Vinci is known for drawings and painting of people whose eyes follow you throughout the room. Then there’s the prophet’s prophet. There was a prophet consultant at a former church. His name was Chuck and he stopped by every other month. Not everyone knew it, but he was mainly there for the prophets. How can you tell? The rest of the gifts in the body of Christ walked out of the room during his sermons and complained. The only ones left in the room where the real prophets. That’s how they discerned if you were a prophet. There are prophetic people and then there are prophets. These we the ones who want more than fluff (feel-good) and stuff. They don’t just want the destiny words or encouragement or a prophetic word on healing. They wanted the low down. They want the truth. It’s kind of like that saying from the movie Do the Right Thing: and that’s the triple truth Ruth. These are the ones saying: What’s REALLY going on here? They are like Toto from the Wizard of Oz in that they want to know what’s behind the curtain. You could call these the red pill prophets (and I am referring to the movie The Matrix). While the rest of the church is fine with the blue pill, they swallow the red one and yes there is suffering involved. In the world of art, this would be Picasso. Not everybody likes or understands Picasso, though everyone recognizes him. The reason he is so famous is because he exhibits all the qualities that artists love such as always experimenting with new forms and styles. Pablo didn’t do just visual art. He was involved in all of the arts – just look at his bio. He always was included in the next cutting-edge movement. ALWAYS! He probably started half of them. But what makes him an artist’s artist is that he teaches artists how to do art without words. That’s what prophet’s prophets do. They live the life. Their life is the message. They don’t give a message they haven’t lived out. And not everyone can handle the raw truth. I’m not talking about speaking the truth without love. I’m talking about a maturity they goes beyond convention and into unknown worlds. These are the meat eating prophets. The Lord Asked Me: What do you see? Jeremiah 1:11
In the News Let’s look at the countries that are mentioned in the current news and how their culture has been shaped and how their destiny is being played out. The Real Scribe
Let’s reacquaint ourselves with Ezra. First of all he was a REAL scribe from the Levite tribe. This means he was also a priest. Ezra may appear religious with his by-the-book mentality but he proved he had heart when he cried during his national prayer of repentance and then he banished guilt and shame by moving his people group toward joy. That proves that he wasn’t religious. We find him on a mission to rebuild the temple but we don’t hear about his other important facets that history has documented. |