Steve Hopkins Message to Artists and Writers - Part XII

Today we end Steve’s message with a reminder to “Be Faithful.”

If you want to read the messages from beginning to end, scroll down on the right hand side of this page and go back to the beginning in the June archives.

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(That's Steve on the right and Chris on the left)

Remember that artistic excellence is no substitute for a vital, living walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. What will it profit us if we gain the artistic world and lose our own soul? If our creative skills are more advanced than our godliness, then all our talent stands to condemn us because its source is the God whose grace we are spurning. If we have no real heart-love for Christ, everything we do is vanity.

If our craft is to have a welcome place in the church, we must cultivate godliness in ourselves and in those around us.

We have been given a tremendous responsibility and privilege with our callings. We need to never forget that all we do should be an offering, by faith, to the “Giver of all good and perfect gifts,” for His glory alone.

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Wow! Now that’s a great word. Short, but very impacting.

You know how you get a song stuck in your head and it plays over and over in your mind? This weekend I’ve been thinking of the song, “I Am A Friend of God,” by Michael Gungor and Israel Houghton. “He calls me friend.”

Isn’t that the most amazing thing? That God calls us friend? Of course, this is only if we come through His Son, Jesus Christ. But when we do, then He truly calls us friend.

I listened to a pastor on the radio this weekend. His name is Damian Kyle and he was speaking from Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa. His message absolutely wrenched my heart. He spoke of how loyal and faithful God is to us . . . the most loyal and faithful friend we could ever have.

He also spoke of how God is a great king and a great Lord and He has a right to loyal friends. God has given us a window of time that is quickly disappearing when we can demonstrate our loyalty and friendship to Him.

Wow!

Isn’t that what our art and writing and any other creativity should be about? Serving Him faithfully. What an amazing thing that He treasures the gifts we give back to Him.



And as a friend of God, I have been given a certain number of years to show my loyalty back to Him. But as Steve said, our gifts and everything we do is vanity if we have no real heart-love for Christ.

Madeline L’Engle once said that the artist’s works will stand up and speak for them, but the real truth is that Christ is the One who stands up and speaks for us. Our gifts may speak in the sense that they can show our loyalty to Christ, but if that loyalty isn’t there first, our gifts are nothing but clanging symbols making a lot of useless noise.

So, the first calling of any writer or artist or musician or human is to know God and love Him forever.

I don’t know about you, but these messages have made me want to draw nearer to the heart of God. I’ve been spending more time in the Word and coming before the Lord with all my joys and sorrows, and I have been finding Him to be completely faithful. Now, my real challenge is to demonstrate my loyalty and faithfulness to Him in the few years He has given me.

As Steve said, “we have been given a tremendous responsibility and privilege with our callings. We need to never forget that all we do should be an offering, by faith, to the ‘Giver of all good and perfect gifts,’ for His glory alone.”