Throughout November and December I’ve been sharing Advent resources, gift ideas, and creative meditations for Christmas.
Yesterday I shared a meditation on the Love of Joseph, the earthly father of the Son of God, for the infant Jesus. I wanted to build on that today with a Father’s Day video created by Christian Comedian, Michael, Jr. Continue reading
ADVENTure is a self-directed prayer walk pondering the true meaning of Christmas. You can read all about it here, as well as learn how you can do this as interactive prayer walk for your church or ministry.
This Sunday, December 20th is the fourth Sunday of Advent. As we consider the true meaning of CHRISTmas we light our fourth candle of the Advent Wreath; the Candle of LOVE and we think of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, the man who raised a child that wasn’t his.
Meditation:
This passage tells us that Joseph was a righteous man. While he was probably disappointed when he first found out Mary was with child, God’s direction gave him reassurance. He walked in that reassurance and raised Jesus as his own son.
Now was Joseph simply obedient or did he grow to love Mary and her son Jesus? As a righteous man, a man of God, I believe he grew to love them both.
Matthew 13:35 tells us that Joseph was a carpenter. As Jesus’ earthly father, he would have taught his son his trade. They spent their days working side by side. Learning to build and hewn and nail.
by Jose Ortega
Thirty years later, a cross would be hewn and built from wood and nails were used to secure the hands and feet of Christ to that cross. The carpenter’s son crucified. Continue reading
Mary and Jesus
by Podi Lawrence
Today I want to direct you to a Christmas Devotional Experience from Soul Shepherding. It can be adapted and used in a variety of contexts, including personal devotions, small groups, family gatherings and worship settings.
According to Soul Shepherding:
In this Christmas devotional we take a journey to welcome Christ to be born anew in our hearts. There are Scripture meditation and prayers to help you identify with eight different characters from the story — including some surprise characters that you wouldn’t have thought of! You can pick one character for the season and keep returning to related Scripture meditations and prayers or you can pick a different one each day. What a blessing it is to companion these characters as they adore the Christ child!
ADVENTure is a self-directed prayer walk pondering the true meaning of Christmas. You can read all about it here, as well as learn how you can do this as interactive prayer walk for your church or ministry.
This Sunday, December 13th is the third Sunday of Advent. As we consider the true meaning of CHRISTmas we light our third candle of the Advent Wreath; the Candle of JOY and we consider the joy Mary must have felt at knowing she would bear the only Son of God, the Messiah, the Chosen One sent to save the people of Israel!
ADVENTure is a self-directed prayer walk pondering the true meaning of Christmas. You can read all about it here, as well as learn how you can do this as interactive prayer walk for your church or ministry.
This Sunday, December 6th is the second Sunday of Advent. As we consider the true meaning of CHRISTmas we light our second candle of the Advent Wreath; the Candle of PEACE, and we consider the shepherds who came and worshiped and wondered at Jesus’ birth.
ADVENTure is a self-directed prayer walk pondering the true meaning of Christmas. You can read all about it here, as well as learn how you can do this interactive prayer walk for your church or ministry.
This coming Sunday, November 29th, is the first Sunday of Advent. As we consider the true meaning of CHRISTmas we light our first candle of the Advent Wreath, the Candle of HOPE, and we consider the Wise Men who traveled across many miles when the star appeared in the sky in the east.
Meditation:
The Wise Men were men of knowledge and HOPE. Their knowledge gave them the information they needed to discern the coming king and where they would find Him. Their HOPE gave them the desire to seek after Him.
They followed a star – a brilliant light in the sky – and it led them directly to the “King of the Jews.” They sought hard after Him, and they found Him. They brought Him gifts and worshiped Him. Continue reading
Grace Bailey is a prophetic artist on a mission! Ministering out of her home church in Ballarat, Victoria (Australia) and at a variety of conferences, she has set herself a goal of 52 Weeks of Prophetic Art. Yes! 52 weeks of live painting during worship! What an amazing goal and ministry. I have been following her since I first found her last Spring on her Facebook page and have been deeply blessed by the artwork she is painting. You can also follow her journey here on her website.
“Valley of Dry Bones? Ha! piece of Cake!”
by Grace Bailey (C) 2015
The painting on your right is “Valley of Dry Bones? Ha! piece of Cake!”
Won’t you take a moment to consider? What are the dry bones in your life? Are they dreams and visions that seem to have died? Are they broken, wounded places in your spirit? Are they mistakes from your past that still fill you with shame? While you examine this painting, won’t you slowly and prayerfully read this prophetic prayer adapted from Ezekiel 37 with me and other fellow artists praying this prayer with us today? Continue reading
Looking to add creativity to your Advent Candle lighting in your church services?
Looking to get your worshipers more involved in the Advent Lighting instead of just watching from their pews?
Sending you over the Still Waters blog again where Pastor Theresa’s Advent Candle Lighting post has great ideas to make it more interactive and creative! She has two different ideas with 
pictures, supply lists and instructions so you can see exactly how to duplicate it for your own church or ministry event. Check it out today! Continue reading
As year-end approaches, I will begin to post ideas for Advent, as well as a few Christmas gift ideas for the creative Christian. Today’s post is an example of a gift idea! So pass this along to your spouse, mom, grandma or friend with a “hint, hint” so they get the idea! 😉
Creative Flourishing in the Desert is a six-week self-study, online retreat offered by Christine Valters Paintner of the Abbey of the Arts. Based on the wisdom of creative Benedictine Abbess St. Hildegard of Bingen, weekly themes include: Viriditas (the “greening” power of God); Body, Soul, & Senses; Incarnation; The Greening of the Virtues; Holy Wisdom; and Music and Integration.
Museum – Hildegard von Bingen
ADVENTure is a self-directed prayer walk we did several times at church on our college campus. It includes scriptures and short meditations combined with an activity at each prayer station designed to help ponder the true meaning of Christmas.
The church is set up with four candles around the outside of the room to represent a traditional Advent wreath. Another candle is positioned in the middle of the room to represent the Christ candle. These candles become the prayer stations where there are scripture meditations and supplies for an activity associated with each scripture passage. Continue reading
Today I want to connect you to a powerful article entitled The Healing Power of Art by Dr. Dianne B. Collard. She quickly admits she is not an artist but her story of healing through the arts leads her to implore believer-artists to keep creating:
“Please,” I concluded, “as a non-artist believer, I beg you: Do not stop engaging in your art. Don’t stop exercising your creative gifts. Especially don’t abandon the church—no matter how hard it might be. The world needs your gift, the church needs it, but most of all, I—a non-artist sister in Christ—desperately need it.”
On Steal Our Stuff blog you can find some great resources. I want to refer you to a specific post for an interactive prayer walk called A Walk Through the Lord’s Prayer. It was created for a youth confirmation program, and is now available as a free download for your use. A wonderful resource for your church, ministry or prayer event. Continue reading
Connecting you to an article entitled Teachers, Art and Things That Last Forever by author Michele Bledsoe, author of The Secret Kingdom, a children’s book of paintings and poetry celebrating the world of dreams. This article is short but it sure packs a punch!
If you are a teacher, especially an art teacher, never doubt for a moment that you make a difference in this world!! And if someone hasn’t told you this lately….THANK YOU!
Ira Glass is the host and producer of the documentary radio program “This American Life” broadcast on Public Radio. Today’s inspiration is a clip of him speaking on creativity. To whet your appetite, here’s a quick quote:
“The thing I would just like to say with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as what they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. It didn’t have that special thing we wanted it to have. And the thing I would say to you is that everybody goes through that…
Let’s make today a TED Talk Tuesday!
“I walked underneath it for the first time. As I watched the winds’ choreography unfold, I felt sheltered and at the same time connected to limitless sky. My life was not going to be the same.”
That picture and quote is from a very inspiring Ted Talk with Janet Echelman entitled Taking Imagination Seriously. Listen in here:
Photo by Maddy Thomae
This is an amazing video from Rachelle Chinnery about how nature informs her artistic process.
It’s 4 1/2 minutes and definitely worth the watch!!
In this article entitled Tongues, Art and St, Paul’s Rules of Order: A Few Suggestions author Amber Noel proposes that a certain aspect of the arts could be taken as glossolalia or tongues:
“Could it be that art, at its best (or at what we might call its most Spirit-led), produces a kind of visual, verbal, aural glossolalia that others may then attempt (again, by the same Spirit) to interpret well? On the other hand, if an act of artistic “speech” and its translations fall flat, or explode into total, unmanaged chaos, then could we perhaps turn to First Corinthians for clues on discernment and order?”
Today’s post is simply fun! It’s not sacred or deeply spiritual or thought-provoking. It won’t inspire you to worship. It’s just all kinds of fun!
What happens when you hand complete strangers a Sharpie marker and point them to your plain old boring white van?
I have referred you to 12 Tribes, the art ministry of Cindy Fort before (see this post here), and I want to send you there again today to a post about coloring your prayers.
Nurturing the Creative Spirit Within 