amokarts

In an article I just wrote for an arts ministry web site, I challenged my readers with Romans 12:1 Offering our bodies as living sacrifices. Our work as artists is surely included in this. The following is an excerpt from the article.

Leave it on the altar
Sacrifices, with the exception of the scapegoat, were killed and burned on
the altar. They became an aroma pleasing to God. Living sacrifices are
different. Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Life says it this way: “The problem
with living sacrifices is they have the ability to get up and crawl off the
altar.” If we want to have credibility, we also have to have integrity. As
Christians in the arts, we cannot live compartmentalized lives. We have plenty to
say about a politician who claims to be a Christian and engages in corrupt
behavior. The same applies to the artist. I’m not saying that every work you
create has to be a picture of Jesus, but I am saying that you should be
comfortable enough with the content of any work you do in the sacred or secular realm,
to show it to your pastor, if not your Sunday morning service. Our lives and
our art, which, let’s face it, is a big part of our lives, must be about
glorifying God. Once your work is on the altar, leave it there.