The two phrases listed above sound virtually identical, but there is a world of difference between the two. It turns out the order of the words and the addition of the word “of” makes a boat load of difference. I am all in favor of a theology of creativity. I believe part of being created in the image of God includes the fact that we are creative beings, that God has instilled some level of creativity in all of us and He has from the first time He trotted an elephant in front of Adam and said “What shall we call it?” I’m not saying everyone is an artist, though I probably would if you asked me, but that is a different story for a different day. I’m saying everyone is creative and everyone has an imagination. Remember creativity it not just art, it’s problem solving. If you’ve ever used a tool for other than it’s intended purpose, you were creative. If you’ve ever made up a story or even an excuse, there was an element of creativity involved. Further I believe as children of the Creator, instilled with creativity, there is an implied calling to use that creativity to help people, solve problems and make the world a better place to the glory of God. That is a very limited discussion of my theology of creativity. 

The other side of the versus sign is creative theology. To my mind creative theology has been around since the first time the enemy of our souls took Eve aside and contradicted the Word of God. The “soul” of creative theology is that very thing, contradicting the Word of God and it is diabolical. It’s the attempt to make the word of God fit the culture. On the surface, that sounds so much easier than doing what we’re supposed to do, which is working with the Holy Spirit to help the culture to conform to the Word. I say is seems much easier, because it is usually easier, to make try to ourselves the authority than it is to come under anyone’s authority, even if that “anyone” is God. It may seem easier, but what you end up with if you go this direction is to try to change a standard that God has not changed. Creative theology is picking and choosing the parts of Scripture we want to emphasize, as well as the parts we want to omit, rather than taking the full counsel of Scripture into account. It’s a lie from the pit of hell and it will not stand. 

Hebrews 4:12 reminds us “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” We have too many people who have decided to follow their hearts and to try to make the Scripture line up with what seems right to our hearts. The problem is we are forgetting what Jeremiah told us. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  We are not supposed to change the Word, the Word is supposed to change us. We need to take the counsel of Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world…” but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” and if we will do that there is a promise that goes along with it, “that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” To know and follow the will of God is not to attempt to bend His will to ours, it is to seek His will even if everyone else is going a different direction. Creative theology will never get us to where God wants us to be. Rather it will leave us deluded and outside the will of God.

A theology of creativity understands what can change and what cannot. It can be a vital tool in take the unchanging message of the Gospel to an ever changing world. There is tremendous freedom in methods. If you don’t believe me ,watch true churches around the world as they worship the Lord in truth. What cannot be changed is the message of the Word of God and thank God for that. In a world that seems to change with virtually every whim of culture, the Word of God is an unchanging, solid rock on which to build a life. Stand on the Rock.   

Lately I’ve have seen a lot of people who want to strip way from the Holy Scriptures. One was a video of an atheist who was begging Christians to let her go to Hell, basically because she doesn’t believe in Hell and she didn’t want Christians to share their faith with her after which she posted all the reasons why she thinks the Bible was not reliable. Now I get that to a point, after all some of us Christians have managed to speak the truth while forgetting about the admonition to do it with love. What I do not get is why this person went on to say she had advanced degrees in theology, in effect studying a book she does not believe in. That I will never understand. She had very wordy arguments to support her position. Still it sounds like she spent her life studying the Words of life and still seems to desire hell. If you run into these people as a Christian, love them and pray for them. 

On the other hand, I saw a post where the author, ostensibly a Christian, called the Apostle Paul a false teacher. I find that to be very problematic, since Paul wrote over half the New Testament. When I quoted the passage (admittedly from Paul) that says, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) this person came back with Scripture simply means writings and all writings are not reliable. Respectfully that’s not what I was talking about. I’m talking about the Bible, God’s Word. At that point I could have gone one of two ways, I could have kept going, but I decided instead to appeal to another writing of Paul (2 Timothy 2:23) and pulled my comment. Here’s the thing. I believe my God is big enough to protect His Word. I do not believe any of it is false, especially not the teachings of one who wrote so much strong doctrine. I also believe that if you start stripping away parts of the Scriptures, you’re left in a dangerous place where if it’s not all true, is any of it? Which parts can I disregard? Which are God’s Word? If we can only rely on the Gospels for example, what do we do with all the things Jesus spoke of from other passages? And speaking of that, I’m also done with “Jesus never spoke about…” as a reason to dismiss sin. Further, what do we do with all the passages that point to Jesus and tell us who He is. Yes discrediting the Scriptures is a pretty slippery slope.  

Let me just state it this way, I look at the Scriptures, The Bible, from a position of faith. If I find a part with which I struggle or even disagree, I ask myself a question, “Who is smarter, me of God?” This is an easy answer for me because I accept and believe that God is omniscient, all knowing, and I am not. He is the creator of the universe and I struggle to make a proper painting of His creations. He has all wisdom, and let’s just say, I do not. So when it comes to the point where I find myself at odds with God and His Word, I come to the inescapable conclusion that I am wrong. God does not have to make sense to me. He is under no obligation to do things the way I think He should. He is God and I am not. So I trust Him. I continue to dig in, to learn and to grow, and if any of the knowledge I acquire contradicts what I read in God’s Word, I disregard it. That writer didn’t lay down his life to save me. That writer didn’t take me from death to life. No, Jesus did that, so I will trust in Him. Some might say my view is simplistic. I take no offense to that at all. After all, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” I choose to rely on the Simple Truth. 

Someone posted to Facebook, as has been posted from time to time, asking what their readers wanted to be when they grew up. Whenever I see that I get a sense of gratitude. You see from my earliest memories, there were two things I knew I wanted to do, make art and tell stories and after all those years, I find myself in a position where I am doing both. So my response to the post was “Making art and telling stories,’ says Dave for the win.”

It’s true, now to be clear, if you had told me in those years that those things would come together with me being a preacher and pastor, I would have run away screaming, but God knew. I was an artist and a storyteller a long time before I became a believer, and by the time I came to know Jesus, I didn’t really see how what I did was useful to the Kingdom, but God knew that too. And that’s the thing, God made you and me, and He knew us long before we knew Him. 

Now before I go any further, you might wonder, am I saying that our childhood dreams are always what we should be doing in the Kingdom? No, but our gifts and talents and even our godly desires, even from the earliest years, might just be a clue to how God has wired us. 

Looking back over my life, I tried to be virtually every part of the arts. I thought about being a visual artist, graphic designer, puppeteer, ventriloquist, actor, writer, even a rock musician and when my musical talent came up lacking, I was even a mobile DJ for a while. I tried virtually everyone to get close to the dream, I had some successes, and had a fair amount of fun at times. At other times, I was depressed and defeated and did a lot of dumb things that probably held me back or even moved me backwards. Here’s the thing though. All of that stuff, in one way or another prepared me. Some showed me what I wanted to do. Some showed me what I didn’t want to do. Some showed me my gifts and talents and abilities. Some showed me my need for Jesus, and through it all God was with me and never gave up on me, and through it all, He brought me to where I am today, praise His name. 

Why do I share this? You were created by a loving God. You were created on purpose for a purpose, and all along the way, God has been showing you things, a dream here, a vision there, bringing out this gift ,that talent, providing positive and negative experiences, and if we will seek God throughout the journey, trusting Him faithfully, and moving forward in Christ, He can and will take you to where you belong. 

King David in Psalm 139 reminds us, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”  This was not just King David. It’s also you and me. God made you as part of His plan for the universe. Seek Him, follow Him and let His Holy Spirit lead you into all truth and into His plan and purpose and when you do that, eventually, you win!   

As I write this, I find myself in a bit of a tough spot. I occasionally write book reviews for a Christian publisher, and right now I am reading a very political book and wondering how I will be able to review it with out coming out sounding very partisan. At about the same time some friends of mine, people I value very highly have posted some political posts on social media that just make me want to dive into the fray and challenge their point of view. Yes, the truth is I can be very opinionated and very political, and I hold these views because I believe them to be right. That being said, I am working very hard to practice restraint. Before I go any further, I want to confess that there have been very many times when I have failed at that miserably, and anyone who has followed me on social media will know it. 

So why do I need to restrain myself and by extension, why should you? Because as creatives, we need to realize we are in the “business” of communication. We are here to put forth messages into the world, and as Christians who are creatives, we need to make sure we are putting forth the right messages. Christians are in this world, first and foremost, to represent Christ. Now if you are a Christian and you feel you are called to politics, then God bless you, do it, but be careful, because you are also here to represent Christ and that means Christ is more important than your party and if your party fails to follow Christ, you need to part ways with your party. 

You see, as Christians, our message matters. So what is your message? It’s pretty simple, you don’t have one of your own, and if you do, it’s irrelevant compared to the message of Christ. No politician has ever saved a soul, only Jesus can do that. No political party has ever saved a soul, only Jesus can do that. No political party has ever completely towed the Jesus line on every issue. For that matter, neither has any church. The reason for that is simple. Churches and parties are made up of people and sometimes people sin, and that includes this author. The best politics and elections will ever give you is the opportunity to pick the lesser of two evils and the problem with that is the lesser of two evil is still evil. Perfection is found in Christ alone. There was the time when we had the opportunity to be ruled by a perfect King who always loves us, was always perfectly honest, totally trustworthy, always knew the right thing to do and always had the best interests of everyone at heart. From an earthly point of view, we killed Him. That’s the condition of our society because it is the condition of our unredeemed hearts. We need Jesus, all day, every day, all the time.

So when we are putting forth a message, maybe the best question to ask is whose message are we putting forth, the perfect message of our perfect Lord, or our own? What does our work say? What are we putting forth? What are we telling the world? You see, you and I are flawed and a lot of times when we decide to jump into the fray with our own thoughts and our own opinions, we are just adding to the noise and we don’t end up representing Christ very well. I don’t think, as Christians, we are here to fix the world. I think we are here to point people to the only One who can fix the world. People say to follow your heart, but the Bible tells us the human heart is deceptive in all things. What we need is a change of heart, and that is something only Jesus can do. What’s your message? Now as a follow up question, will that message draw people to the Lord? Because if not, maybe it’s time to change your message.   

I was on vacation. We stayed in a nice rented condo with a balcony that overlooked a nice pond with a large fountain in the middle. Around the middle of the week I received a 3:30 a.m. “wake-up call” from the Lord. I snuck out onto the balcony and spent some time with my Creator. It was a real blessing. As the cascading waters fell into the pond, I began to see all the things that have felt like they were on my heart to do. I’ve been struggling for months, maybe even years with a kind of “creative ADD” where these things would keep me up at night and feeling distracted, and a bit frustrated because I was having a hard time getting any of them done. In this early morning prayer time, it started to all line up.

The Lord showed me that there are things for now and things for later, and how to prioritize these things. He reminded me that it doesn’t all depend on me, and I believe He showed me some things He is going to do through this work to which He has called me and some others. He reminded me of the importance of what I am already doing, and He gave me a vision that seems huge but will be a blessing to me, my family and hopefully a whole bunch of others. I feel He has laid on my heart to begin to work toward it. What is it? At this point I feel like I need to keep it in. It would sound like madness were I do share it, because the only way it can happen is if I have faith and God almost literally moves mountains.

In the midst of this I made a gesture. I purchased something small that will one day be used as this vision comes to fruition. In the mean time I have positioned it some place where it will remind me to stay on task, keep praying, trusting and moving forward. Will it come to pass? I believe it will, or I would not be sharing this. At this point the vision is strong in my heart, but many details remain to be seen. Indeed I don’t have anywhere near what it will take to make it happen, at least as I can see it in the physical, but it’s time to practice what I preach, i.e. taking what is in my hand and putting it to use as faithfully as I can, and trusting God to be faithful. I look forward to seeing God move on behalf of me, my family and everyone else God will use what I am envisioning to bless. 

In the mean time, the question is, what vision has God laid on your heart, and what can you do today, with what you have to move toward it?   

I love that old hymn, I Love to Tell the Story. You know: 

I Love to Tell the Story

Twill be my theme in glory; 

to tell the old, old story 

of Jesus and His love.  

Think about it. It’s more than song we sing. Telling the story is our calling as Christians and especially Christian Creatives. It’s about communicating the Gospel; a message of love and hope. It’s good news for all who will hear it and receive it. It’s a rescue story, a love story and so much more. The gifts and talents we have been given are tools to communicate the story. His story is our glory. The question is, we say we love to tell the story, but do we tell it, and if not, why? 

One of the things that I think prevents many from living out our calling to tell the story is we think we lack the knowledge to do it right. Now to a point that is legitimate, after all, we want to tell the story properly and truthfully, but the thing is, that should not hold us back. First of all, the solution to not knowing something is to study it. Get into the Word, study it alone and with others. Look up what you don’t understand. Pray and ask God to give you wisdom, trust Him and share what you know. 

Also there is a great place to start. As with every other creative pursuit, we can allow ourselves to be held back by what we don’t have, or we can move forward in obedience and faithfulness with what we do have, trusting God to bring the increase. In this case, if you are a Christian, you have a story that no one else can properly share. It’s the story of what Jesus has done for you. As with everything else, start with what you have. Share your rescue story. Express the love you have for Him with what you do. Love others and serve them and then tell them why. 1 Peter 3:15 reminds us, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect… Tell people what you know and if they ask a question they cannot answer, “I don’t know” is a fine answer. It’s much better than making something up. An even better answer is, “I don’t know, but let me go and ask someone and I will get back to you.”It’s not deep theology, though there may be a time for that, but hopefully you have people in your life who can help you with the hard questions, like hopefully your church and your pastor, and if you don’t have one of those, a word of advice, get one. Find a strong Bible believing church and get involved. 

As a side note: Ignore every voice on social media, as well as culture in general, whether inside or outside the church who say you don’t need to go to church. It may be true that church attendance will not get you into heaven, nor is it mandatory to get into heaven, but it’s not that you have to go, it’s that you get to go. You have the freedom to assemble with other believers, and you have the opportunity to learn and grow among a family of believers.

The fact of the matter is few people are argued into the Kingdom. Most people are loved in, so use what you have and share the love of Jesus. Start now, today. Tell people what you know, share the hope and the love that you have found. Will everyone want to hear it? No. But all around you are people who are looking for the hope you have, and when you find one of them and they hear the story, and they receive what you have founding Christ, you will have been used by Almighty God to make a difference in their lives that will last into eternity. That is the end result of Christians who walk out their calling. They do something that matters forever. 

Tell the story.