I got to Lead

This was the best day ever…Praise God.

It started with me in the Word! 1 John 3:16, Jesus laid down his life for others and we must do the same for our brothers. After I read the word and prayed about it in my life I received an email informing me that I sold two prints of my work to an awesome guy which payed for my trip to London! I was already scheduled to hang with my friend Andrew Siems after he was in California spreading the Gospel amongst the trees.

So then Bill Hogen needed me to drop him and his daughters, one of them being my best friends wife, off at the football game. So they drove down as I had breakfast with Siems at Brooklyn Street Deli. IT was the jam. The credit card machine was down so Hogan and Jump went down to us and paid 21 bucks for our breakfast. I drove them to the game and it was awesome to see them for a few minutes. I went back to my house to meet up with Andrew Siems again and we drove around Detroit exploring unseen streets and parts of town. It was awesome to talk about Siems’ time setting up high adventure ropes around the huge Californian trees. His stories were great! At 115 I received a text from Steve Gagne reminding me yet again to show up at the church to take christmas photos of him and his wife and new baby girl. I had totally forgotten. Siems was gracious enough to come with me and we arrived at the church at 129. The photo shoot was awesome! His family is so handsome! So then I left to take Siems back to his car so he could go home to see his wife. I then went to see a friend of my John Gardner who had a 20 hour layover in detroit. A bunch of my friends in Christ were hosting her so she would be taken care of. I met them at Eva’s Tamales and talked to 8 of my friends for 10 minutes with 6 of my old Free Press friends hailed me from the other corner of the room and I went over very surprised and happy to see them. We all caught up and talked about life and photography. I left them 20 minutes later and caught back up with my other friends.

My friend, the director of photography at the Detroit News, called me to remind me of the party he was throwing for the Detroit News photographers. I had totally forgotten about it and told him I would arrive at 5. We left and the girl and Micah came with me. I took them around Detroit and showed them the theater that turned into a parking garage, The Book Cadillac and the amazing Guardian Building turning layover girl into a Detroit Lover. Headed back to Amos’ house and saw my friends again. Jump then called and I left to pick them up from the Football game. Jump then took me from Hamtramck to Detroit to take get a coffee before dropping me off at the Detroit News party. It was the worst coffee I had ever had from SBUX. It was funny how bad it was. I would rather had them splash it on me than me drink it. Jump dropped me off at a huge scarry warehouse and for a second I thought the Detnews was trying to kill me in a secret location. Then my friend met me at the back door and took me up to the fourth floor and behold the coolest flat I had ever seen. Totally hand made huge floor with bookshelves and a huge fireplace, two deep fried turkies and other assorted awesomeness. Bob is my friends name. He is totally great guy and edits a lot of my personal work. I talked to a bunch of Detnewsers and met up with John, a photog that I did not really know but ran into twice in three years. We talked for awhile about my china trip and then other stuff. Eventually we sat down by the fire and talked for another hour. It was awesome! God totally used me to lead him back to being stoked about God after a two year absence. Pray for him! After we talked it was humbling to hear him say, “When you left the Free Press, I thought it was because you had faith in yourself, that you were some bigtime filmmaker. Then later I heard about your life that you live in faith. Now it is great to see that you do live that life.”It was the best part of my past month. He was soaking what I was saying about God and then saying what he knew about God and it was legit.

My heart and mind were blown that I was expecting to be gone and waited, not anxious even though I was late to my next party, but seeking the lord for what he had for me. We talked and talked and it was awesome. After that I was photographing and dropped my lens and the auto focus broke. I wasn’t worried at all! I am so willing to be used by the Lord that I know he has a bigger plan! I had no way to get to my next party, A meat and cheese drying party at Cooley’s house. But then a girl i didn’t know offered to take me. She told me her story on the way there and dropped me off. For the next four hours I ate cheese and meat and talked with my fav detroiters about detroit and photography and italy and other stuff. I told one more lady about God and how you can trust him. Best of all my friends Amos and Tom picked me up from the party and took me home. I got to rejoice with them for what God had done in my day. Then like a good gift, my friend Joel and I just said hi over the phone and he was happy to be at his parents of house. Throughout the night I showed my 1840 journal to people to show them something I appreciate.

The party ended with an architect friend coming up to me and telling me a story. Summed up; “In the class I teach students need to find someone and design what they think their dream will be. One student picked me and designed a condo. I like the art this student put on the walls in my dream condo and I asked him where did he the art idea from. ‘They are works by Stephen McGee’. You’re work is much more out there than you think. “

I was humbled again to see how God was using me in his ministry. I think everyone should know that in the Lord our work is much more impacting than we think. So go and rely on the Lord, showing his love to others.

All this for the glory of God. All this because of Christ. I gave my life to him again last night, spending time silent, imagining myself as if I just entered his room the night he was born! Falling facedown on purpose in humility and awe, I realized that God was speaking to me. He told me, “Better is coming, Prepare, Finish (what you are working on)”.

You can have all this by putting God first and not making all of this more important.

The Hub

It is hard to understand but a continental shift in faith is occurring in my life. The form of it can not be presented in well crafted words or works and revolves around the same words I have been reading in my life for as long as I have been able to read. The shift isn’t measured in locational standards or by distance of thought but by a centering of existence in and around Jesus.

When the early church was teaching about Jesus, I have just read/researched, they taught about what Jesus did more than his teaching. What he did for us by dieing on the cross.
Using the common sunday school model of a wheel spoke; the center hub being Jesus and the spokes being various parts of life, I now see that instead of being with jesus in the center, my life is lived accordingly hanging on along the outside wheel. When opportunity approached, aka a spoke, for example a film, I, with the film am outside of Jesus, looking at Jesus, looking at where Jesus is, from me and the film’s perspective. I can not say that I have changed until Jesus reveals to me that he has changed me.

Jesus Centered faith is walking with Jesus, next to Jesus, focusing on what God has done for us and not what we are doing for God. I prayed a few weeks ago that I would stop hiding Jesus in God, stop hiding my faith in Jesus by just telling those I was ministering about God in my life without mentioning Jesus.

A lifetime of recalling what one person did for God will never equal a lifetime pointing to the one thing Jesus did for us.

If you support a missionary please don’t gauge whether or not to give to them or to continue giving to them by the number of people that have been saved because of their ministry.

Photographers, Be Patient.

depend on the lord, knowing that he has huge plans, and at every step be fully aware that in God’s frame of your life, the picture is larger than the one you take.

Not sure why I’m even writing this

I am empty and I don’t know what to do. Ask Jesus to reveal himself to you and listen.  Be active in waiting for the Lord to work. He will work.

I am beginning to put together my entries for the World Press Photo competition. I think I will submit my pro life story, some type of detroit story, maybe a china story, and ukraine.

As one who seeks Jesus, I began believing that I knew that I knew what my motives were in areas such as serving others, loving, living, photographing, etc. I told myself that I was doing it for Jesus. Prompted by the spirit I had a revelation yesterday and that belief changed as I read scripture.

Obedience to God is not found in yourself, aka, your ideas. This is why the Spirit of God leads us to put to death the deeds of the rebellious flesh (Rom. 8:13, 14; Gal. 5:16,24). Sooo, I will never know what my motives are when I try and justify my actions by my own understanding.  So deep are the shallow roots of man’s attempt to follow God. A list  containing all things that separate us from God and one list of all this that God approves, if memorized and practiced still will not make us pure. . That we shouldn’t do will never be able Man’s best attempt is not enough, even if the motives seem pure.

God is the one who makes the motives pure and is the only one who knows my heart. Although at times my heart can cry out and make me feel that it’s feelings are so real, so true, so guiding that all I can do is follow it to find the fulfillment it searches for. Even up to yesterday, I knew that I was trying to serve the Lord with a clean heart, believing with a dangerous subtle notion that my motives were pure. That is still too bold, I believed that my motives didn’t need to be checked.

‘The flesh nature is hostile to God and will not subject itself to the law of God’. (Rom. 8:7).  Can I determine what is and isn’t a pure motive in my heart. What Pride! Either all is pure or all is not. The truth is found in which is leading my life; the Spirit or the Flesh. I will never know the motives of my life but I will submit myself to the knowledge of God I own, bowing all of me to let the Spirit guide.  The all that we feel we need to know, (financial questions, health questions, love, etc), we don’t need to know.

Belief in Jesus the most powerful opportunity we have. But the devil believes in Jesus too! And he is scared. In Christ, where all can stand by God’s strength, can we find true life. My prayer for you is the same as it is for me, that Jesus reveals himself and that in words, attitude, reaction and response may the fullness of Christ be the only reflection of life in mine.

I have had a few people lately say that it is so “easy” for me specifically to be a christian. I don’t know what that means. As you just referenced in your mind that I am on the outside of what you are going through then I ask you what you think the inside is and how it differs from the outside. Experience?

Know that You are awesome! And so complete in God! Now  it seems as though you are searching for more of something to fill your down time. Prayer isn’t enough, God isn’t enough. I say that is because you search and pray on your own strength. God never hides and doesn’t go anywhere in relation to where we are. You have defined your needs as more social life or more whatever. I feel the same way too when focused on myself, but my impatience is with my job and what I am doing to be a better photographer/filmmaker. I never feel what I am doing is enough. I dont think you actually want me to go on as I do, encouraging you in what I believe is the truth, but here the words are free and your time is limited.

I pray that joy and contemptuous gratitude come to you through jesus. a small story, my friend Andrew Jump always countered my selfish thoughts with scripture, and i didn’t like it. but it was because my heart was hard and in subtle rebellion, I was seeking for my own way to follow god. Then he hit me with a proverb…Притчи 1:5..Хай послухає мудрий і примножить науку, а розумний здобуде хай мудрих думок.
[12/7/09 12:50:46 AM] Stephen McGee: have a good time.

Un-according to Plan; God’s Work

Pray for this man who just emailed me and know the He who began a good works in you will complete those works. Meaning God is moving in your ministry while you believe it or not.

…I just visited your site and I am touched by your love and faith for Christ.  Recently and over a period of several years, my family and I have gone through some pretty amazing trials, two of our children had serious problems with depression and drugs, we had to have our teenage son locked up for 18 months, my wife had cancer, I had to close my business of over 20 years, and we lost our home.  All I can say is that it has only been through my faith in Christ and my surrendering continually to Him that He has sustained my family and myself, and has kept me sane as I nearly lost that too.

In 1992, while I was taking a shower I had a powerful vision of ‘who’ Jesus is that forever changed my relationship and walk with him…..

My Response

…. Nothing I have is my own. Praise the lord for your faith and testimony. Thank you for your email. If the crediting of my video leads people to the lord then place it on the site. Your email came at a great time in my life as the lord is moving and you are witness to that. You have felt great pain as life unfolded un-according to your plans. Job lost it all and praised god but that isn’t to say how strong job was but how strong god is. Later as you know job received twice as much or even more. Although you might not receive your reward for your faith in this life you will receive it in heaven. We soon shall join him at the throne. The devil has no power though there is darkness in my skin. The grace of god has freed us from the law of sin and the mosaic law through Jesus. The lord does not work in our understanding of time and saves our spirit for his kingdom while we are here. I don’t understand heaven but I believe it is there. I would be humbled to the point of death if I glimpsed at what is to come (for us who love Jesus). In my struggles I have begun praising god for those struggles I’m in. Like serving and loving our enemies I have, under the lords strength, begun to do so when considering my trials. All things can be used for the greater good for those who love Jesus. (Romans 8:28) Surrender to him like you told me about and I will do the same, encouraged by your faith. I have not been through what you have. I consider you in a place where you, like Paul, can boast in what you’ve been through because you have the ability through gods strength to claim Christ as your victory. Rescue is coming. We have already won. Don’t try and make sense of it all like there is an equation to be figured out. Christ is moving and it will look different. Again thank you for your email. I’m not sure what site you visited, my blog? All I have written you I pray for the same in my life and the lives of all the saints. Stephen

‘Good Works’ isn’t the Password

Christ is the good that is found in me, not my attempts to do right, correct what I find wrong or even correct what I think Jesus finds wrong.
Incomplete with trials in my life revolving around simply feeling inadequate to serve God, I began to study the scriptures, sometimes standing up and sometimes sitting down, to find the symbiotic relationship between Faith and Works. In doing so I became impatient by the scriptures I read and hastened my need to look for work for my faith as I felt I was not doing enough. I asked my wise friend Amos, whom God works constantly through in love and service, “What must I work in to show my faith”.

“IF you have true faith then you will have works” he replied and we discussed further about trusting God.
I thought longer about a works based faith and how it differed than faith based works. While on assignment for the Wall Street Journal I listened to a pastor ask members of his community while he handed out a turkey meal to them why they think God was going to let them into heaven.

Each person answered “because I am a good person and I believe in Jesus”. Some said I am mostly a good person, some stated I used to be worse. The pastor at Mack Ave and I discussed how we were surprised that so many people had a faith that did not declare that we were fallen and Christ was the good, which is what the bible preaches. The correct answer we both believe Jesus was preaching was that you can not be good enough to get into heaven, but believe in me and you will enter.

Jesus also clearly says that we will have to give an account of what we have done on this world when we die and come to him. It also clearly says in the bible that anything we do apart from God will fade away. Lastly the Bible clearly states that God has work for us to do. So, putting that together, the only offering we will be able to show Jesus are to see if the works he had planned for us were done by us. That to me takes a lot of pressure off of my insane drive to succeed, commonly fueled when not thinking in the Spirit by impatience and comparison, and become the best that I can become for my self.

For long now I can relate less with the fact that Jesus makes us white as snow as he separates us from our sins and more to the separation I have from God because of the natural filth and distance that comes with guilt and making everything right until you are always the reason things anything goes wrong.

I am not one for study books, however, Amos gave me a book called Gospel Transformation. It has blown my mind as it has equipped me. I was on a daily self examination for about 4 months when I left for Ukraine and did not bring the book with me. In Ukraine my fellow voyagers called me Pastor as the words and love of the Lord flowed from me by his strength. Three months later I have barely done a page but tonight I got back into it. The page was on evaluating the meanings of Flesh in key scriptures.

In this brief study I found my answer to the relationship between works and faith. In the Mosaic Law a list of what was good was constantly studied but due to mans fallen status, simply living in the flesh caused the Law not to carry the power to free a man from sin. What the Law could not do, God sent his son Jesus to be an offering so that through his death we, sinners, can have life and life, freedom, in the truest sense.

My freedom is Christ at work in me. I can not go by my personal list or conscience of what is good for me or others OR my personal list or conscience of what is good for my faith. I must rely totally on the Spirit, whom Jesus sent as a counselor, to reveal to us what God wants us to do. IT is a popular Christianese term to say something like, “Well I don’t believe that God is going to say to you each step you take and when to take it.”  In defense to our, my, fallen nature, I agree and I believe God does in the way of the Spirit guiding us which most of all of us take for granted as our own sightless barely guided “but in faith” steps. Which actually are very guided and very planned, if you are one whom God calls Righteous.

Don’t push people away because of their uninvolved life with Christ for it is most likely your impatience that fuels your disgusted, seemingly betrayed notion and feeling that you should be at a distance. Any righteousness in your life is not because of you so lower yourself and serve your out of the faith by choice friends just as much or more than your in the faith friends alike. Doing so will prove to yourself and to God that you don’t serve according to whom you favor but you serve according to whom Jesus died for; sinners. It is not you that searches but the Spirit in you.

A huge cargo ship is silently creeping down the Detroit river. It looks like a hotel just drifting by with the 5 stories of lights.

It seems Careless

You know each person searching after you. You know their steps because they are following in yours. Each person who is weary or downhearted, strengthen them. Step towards judgment, step towards peace. Insert title but see what a world can’t.

Two Masters? It is hard to narrow all that I serve to less than 9 so please Lord lessen me the 8 but with mercy and grace.

Alone I find you, my head toward heaven

looking towards others are the needs you prompt me to bare in burden.

If my voice may be heard across the world, will you carry it a message of yours alone.

Me and Kidd, again.

I walk out of my condo’s front door, with joel, kidd rock and his manager walk in, with a sales lady, and I continue with joel to his car. I have made joel 45 minutes late already, “But kidd rock is walking into my building looking for a house”.
“Joel, I have to do something”.
Joel and I walk back into my building and go up to my 7th floor condo. Kidd is on the 8th floor looking at the best condo open for the market.
I stage joel at the elevator and I go into my house to look for my last biz card. I peak out, “Has the elevator moved?” Nope.
My last biz card was found and Joel and I were at the elevator door. “What are we waiting for?’
“Like clockwork, The elevator will go up, I will click the down button, and we will be in the elevator with Kidd Rock, in my house. But we are only going to wait 5 minutes.
Four minutes later the elevator warms up and goes up one floor. My heart rate escalates, but I keep it cool.
I hear the door open up a floor above mine ,”Like Clockwork” I mention to Joel again, and proceed to click the button to go down.
The elevator stopped and opened up to my floor and there was Kidd Rock, with his agent.
Joel and I went in.
I looked across at Kidd Rock and said, “We have mutual friends”.
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, Clay Patrick McBride. (kidd rocks prime photographer/awesome dude), We taught a workshop together in NY a few years back”.
Kidd looked at me with a smile because him and Clay are good friends.
The elevator was almost to the ground when I said, ” I actually shot your wedding too”.
Kidd looked at me and said ” That was a good time”.
“Yeah, I said, it peaked for me when I was hanging at a table with you and Bob Seager”.
He reached out his hand and introduced himself as Bob.
I am Stephen McGee, nice to meet you again. I said.
We walked out to the car and I asked him if I could give him my card. He said yes. I told him “I do music videos, well not really, I do documentaries, but you probably already have someone”.
“No we always are looking for local talent.”
“Well” I ended,” thanks for being such a advocate for Detroit”.
“No, Thank you,” He ended.

we are in

The Lord knows how to rescue righteous men from their trials. So pursue righteousness asking the Holy Spirit to carry you. Do not try on your own accord but ask God to reveal impure motives even while pursuing his kingdom.
As for evangelism, don’t wait any longer, the time is now to tell the person you are praying for the good news. I was with a very amazing person today who was on drugs and living apart from God. Someone during his college career asked him if he had heard the Good news. My friend said, “What good news?” The response was Jesus is coming back.
What moment are you waiting for? Consider this the prompting from the spirit as I do not write these words on my own or by my own desire, although by God’s grace and power I can say I share the desire that you would go and tell the world of your faith. But again, not on your own accord or strength. Not sure what that means? Ask the lord, and humble yourself. Ask him to point out what is keeping you from the fullness of christ’s love.
If you have Christ’s love you will not need to wait for a ministry opportunity to minister but in love your ministry will perfect.

In Paris with Pilot

With bank accounts more than empty caused by lavish hotel rooms and equal meals to suite any price range of suite, coffee twice a day and a San Francisco bay, travel expenses ate just as well for my three week shoot to China and now in this fall chill, -zero is forecasting the unpaid bill from not yet paid recent jobs will soon eat too. Recently home, I sit on the floor near my cat’s food box, empty, ripping up bread for her to eat, along with me. Neither of us have any money to buy the other anything of editable value so we feast like beggars on the streets of Paris, on a four course meal of the handout sourdough bread from Le’Gagnavalon. The granite rose, charcoal and tan stones that make up my kitchen’s floor help the Français de l’humeur.

I realized today that it could be likely that by chance I will never have a separation between social life and what others have called my passion. And that makes life a bit easier to navigate and I think that is so because instead of dividing which parts of existence go where and more importantly to some, when, everything seems to go together as it fits together. As it fits together, planned by the Hymn.

It is 530 am and simultaneously 5 videos in full 1440×1080 hd push a little blew bar of status as they upload fresh from the export chambers that rest in the depths of a late night fcp edit session. The videos will be seen by Congress week. Mr. Z.P, Genious Esquire was beside me, making my evening as a perfect assistant would, from 8 pm to 520 am helping any way he could. The original Pink Panther film played as the night went on.
5 Videos exported in two resolutions, color toned with audio fixed, all of that done today.
6am. Time for sleep, for just a little while.

Angelic chimes ping at seemingly random only narrate the joy of the completed movie files uploading to the internet.

A week of hard work can teach you that even a cat can get full on crumbs of simplicity and bread.