EN100 A Reasonable Jump
17/01/12 19:48
Faith is not quite the leap into the dark that many people assume.
It is usually about making a reasonable jump based on trustworthy information. Buying a car or house, meeting up with some new friends from work, following a direction using satnav - all of these are expressions of faith where the ‘believer’ has listened to something and then acted on it.
A student recently asked me about proof and I answered with a diagram which eventually became this cartoon. You can only finally have proof when you have taken the step of faith. You can only be sure of your purchase once you have it in your hands, you know that you believed your friends correctly when they arrived at the place that they had promised.
Similarly, when Jesus promises new life, forgiveness, joy, hope… that he will take up residence in your life with a fresh vibrancy - all of this remains uncertain unless you 1. take in the information (which means mainly absorbing the content of the Bible) and then 2. make faith steps based on it.
My personal experience is that when we listen and then respond to the call that Jesus makes on our lives - THEN he brings proof in His own time in His own way. While I am very happy (and willing) to discuss the trustworthiness of the Bible documents I cannot prove the reality of a living God. That is an experience that is open for you to find out for yourself.
This challenge is both scary and exciting.
Thanks to Mike Tindall for suggesting the text.
You and God, God and You?
27/10/11 14:42
I recently did a series of teaching/preaching slots for an 11-14year-olds weekend away with my Church. Here are the slides that summarised a lot of what I was doing. Seasoned Youthworkers will spot that it is a fairly simple Gospel outline. I include them here because they might be of use to someone out there. Get in touch if you want to use them. Click to enlarge.
1: You and god. The lower case g is deliberate. I was asking a few questions about what our genuine thoughts are - separate from parent views etc. How do we picture the idea of a divine being?
2. God and you! I then turned the tables and posed the thought that if God is in fact real, our ideas are less important than His. What does He make of us? That is the real crucial question - a bit like John Blanchard posing ‘Does God believe in Atheists?’.
3. We then did a massive group session involving reflecting on what makes us who we are, what our current gifts and blessings are, plus how we view the future. What do we hope for?
4. I then rehearsed the amazing Gospel big storyline: firstly that God has given us everything but we have shut him out. We are a bit like insurgent rebels.
But also we are victims in some measure. We live with the ‘virus’ effects of sin and often suffer in a dark and broken world.
What does God really think of us? He knew that we wouldn’t stand a chance at the judgement and sent Jesus to gently rescue us from hostage hostilities while also dealing with our rebellious track record.
The cross of Christ is the decisive master stroke, the special move, the ultimate in rescue activity.
5. We can now begin to reconsider our vision of a life in the future with God living in us and us in Him. Through Jesus there is the most wonderful opportunity for a life of fulness and hope.
1: You and god. The lower case g is deliberate. I was asking a few questions about what our genuine thoughts are - separate from parent views etc. How do we picture the idea of a divine being?
2. God and you! I then turned the tables and posed the thought that if God is in fact real, our ideas are less important than His. What does He make of us? That is the real crucial question - a bit like John Blanchard posing ‘Does God believe in Atheists?’.
3. We then did a massive group session involving reflecting on what makes us who we are, what our current gifts and blessings are, plus how we view the future. What do we hope for?
4. I then rehearsed the amazing Gospel big storyline: firstly that God has given us everything but we have shut him out. We are a bit like insurgent rebels.
But also we are victims in some measure. We live with the ‘virus’ effects of sin and often suffer in a dark and broken world.
What does God really think of us? He knew that we wouldn’t stand a chance at the judgement and sent Jesus to gently rescue us from hostage hostilities while also dealing with our rebellious track record.
The cross of Christ is the decisive master stroke, the special move, the ultimate in rescue activity.
5. We can now begin to reconsider our vision of a life in the future with God living in us and us in Him. Through Jesus there is the most wonderful opportunity for a life of fulness and hope.
EN96 Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
03/10/11 07:48
What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
O how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
The magnificent epilogue text can be read here.
What Would Satan Do?
06/08/11 13:26
From the leaders’ blog:
When we were first planning The Plant, a very wise man suggested we ask ourselves this: “If you were Satan, what would you do to try to stop this church from flourishing?” Forewarned is forearmed as they say.Tweet
Church Growth Illustrations
13/07/11 21:04
Angel&Boy
02/01/11 14:45
I started playing around with my iPhone and doing a bit of a mashup with a few different apps until I came up with an alternative cartooning/illustration style over the holidays¹. Here is the result. Don't worry that it makes little sense - it sort of fits into the obscure wordless cartoon thing I have been into for a while now.
The story is kind of about someone finding faith when the other person shares the Gospel story with them.²
¹more details of my experi-mentalism can be found on the scrapbook site here.
²yes I used/borrowed the icons for the most recent epiloguetv cartoon about Wikileaks.
The story is kind of about someone finding faith when the other person shares the Gospel story with them.²
¹more details of my experi-mentalism can be found on the scrapbook site here.
²yes I used/borrowed the icons for the most recent epiloguetv cartoon about Wikileaks.
The Bible is a Vantage Point.
02/01/11 13:42
John 17 illustrations
26/09/10 22:42
Here are a handful of images for a series of talks on John 17. It was a pleasure to be asked and a pleasure to do it.
EN80 Heart Spill
02/06/10 14:39
The recent Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill is reportedly the worst eco-disaster in US history. The powerful image of this stuff leaking endlessly into an unsuspecting environment is disturbing to say the least. This is the kind of image that Jesus evokes in Matthew 15 when he talks about the natural condition of the human heart. Though wonderfully made in God's image, we are also capable - and regularly achieve - the most polluting of choices.
And by this, I am not necessarily talking about being some kind of Hitler figure. We often recognise that we let ourselves down in ways that seem surprising. When a person looks honestly at their life they often see that life took some darker turns because of deep-rooted selfishness that they were often powerless to prevent.
The Bible is wonderfully clear on the solution to this issue - there is a theme that develops throughout the Old Testament timeline of people being made 'new' in some special way. This culminates in Jesus Christ, who make the explicit promise to not only 'top kill' the rusty pipe of sin, but also replace the flow with something altogether different - something linked to source and giver of life: God Himself.
A Shepherd's Blood Type
31/01/10 19:46
I changed my mind on submitting this for this months' EN. Partly I was really pushed for time and I did most of it in the dark with absurbly minimal amounts of sleep, and partly I did it because I really like this style of work and want to continue pushing it in future work if at all possible.
Anyways - this is a meditation on how I want my hands to be like His hands.
Happy New Year: The Jesus Comic!
01/01/10 07:49
What a fab way to start the new year. After two years of work, this was released onto the iPhone/iTouch app store:
Some blurb from a recent e-newsletter:
Jason Ramasami is an RE teacher who wants to make the Bible memorable and accessible to students who may have little or no interest in following the Christian faith. Two years ago he embarked on the ambitious project of creating a wordless comic of the main events of Jesus' life for visual learners.
Somewhere along the line the project developed further into an iPhone/iPod Touch app that was approved in December for worldwide distribution.
The Jesus Comic (which is easily searchable in iTunes) is a 150 page comic that moves through 12 chapters and is intended as a discussion kick-starter - not a replacement for the Bible. So far feedback has been very positive -
"This comic is really inspiring; the first genuinely fresh retelling of the good news about Jesus that I have seen in ages. It manages to be faithful to the original text, yet visually creative at the same time. Required viewing!"
"It provoked discussion with my wife, our son and daughter. They spotted some stuff that I didn't and I spotted some that they didn't. This was fun!”
The accompanying website gives some further guidance on interpreting the bigger Bible narrative, but the main idea isn't to be a digital tract but an intriguing and fresh way of reflecting on the life of Jesus.
Jason is asking people to have a look and to recommend/rate it if they enjoy what they experience.
More info website:
http://www.thejesuscomic.com
App store link for the full version:
http://www.iTunes.com/apps/jesuscomic
App store link for the free sampler version:
http://www.iTunes.com/apps/jesuscomicnativity
Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Jesus-Comic/222779070030?ref=nf
Twitter feed:
http://twitter.com/theJesusComic
Some blurb from a recent e-newsletter:
Jason Ramasami is an RE teacher who wants to make the Bible memorable and accessible to students who may have little or no interest in following the Christian faith. Two years ago he embarked on the ambitious project of creating a wordless comic of the main events of Jesus' life for visual learners.
Somewhere along the line the project developed further into an iPhone/iPod Touch app that was approved in December for worldwide distribution.
The Jesus Comic (which is easily searchable in iTunes) is a 150 page comic that moves through 12 chapters and is intended as a discussion kick-starter - not a replacement for the Bible. So far feedback has been very positive -
"This comic is really inspiring; the first genuinely fresh retelling of the good news about Jesus that I have seen in ages. It manages to be faithful to the original text, yet visually creative at the same time. Required viewing!"
"It provoked discussion with my wife, our son and daughter. They spotted some stuff that I didn't and I spotted some that they didn't. This was fun!”
The accompanying website gives some further guidance on interpreting the bigger Bible narrative, but the main idea isn't to be a digital tract but an intriguing and fresh way of reflecting on the life of Jesus.
Jason is asking people to have a look and to recommend/rate it if they enjoy what they experience.
More info website:
http://www.thejesuscomic.com
App store link for the full version:
http://www.iTunes.com/apps/jesuscomic
App store link for the free sampler version:
http://www.iTunes.com/apps/jesuscomicnativity
Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Jesus-Comic/222779070030?ref=nf
Twitter feed:
http://twitter.com/theJesusComic
EN69 Redacted
09/07/09 10:14
You can find the John 3v19-21 text here.
The MP's expenses scandal has been a big thing in the media over the last month (although the Michael Jackson funeral seems to have eclipsed it somehow...). Clearly this cartoon draws it's inspiration from some of the developments in the story.
Read more
It is well known that when the Telegraph published the details of the expenses there was plenty of public anger (EN68 alludes to some of that). But then there was a really interesting development: in the face of all this exposure a redacted set of 'official' expenses were published on the web.
Here is a screengrab from Gordon Brown's expenses:
There was an understandable further wave of outrage as people went through what was and wasn't being revealed, thus showing how inconsistent a picture was being presented. It was a very interesting story to follow and one which had a huge illustration waiting in the wings. I think the cartoon speaks for itself, but it may be worth saying that the love of God - expressed in Jesus Christ to all humanity - is so compelling that the natural tendency for humans to hide their failings can finally be let go of. It is a wonderful thing to properly experience freedom, confidence and acceptance in the sight of a Holy and Almighty Being.
Here are two prior drafts:
My first tidy version had this end section which was to confusing and wordy.
I am happy with the final outcome because it isn't simply about the text and discussion - the ideas are physically part of the event.
EN67 WYSIWYG
05/05/09 20:10
The glorious news is that Jesus unlocks slavery in all sorts of ways. I have been thinking a lot recently about the kinds of twisty paths that social-networks lead to. This cartoon picks up on three tendencies and brings three texts to bear upon them: Matthew 11v28, John 10v3-5 and Matthew 13v45 (you might have scroll down to find the exact bit).
Some further comments on the background materials:
WYSIWYG is a really great term for this cartoon (admittedly a bit exclusive but if you understand what it means it makes perfect sense). Thanks to he-who-hunts-heads for the idea which rescued me from another line that was admittedly a little negative (originally I had out ‘No more 2 faced twits’).
The main idea was brewing from a number of different directions - Andy Hickford (at Maybridge) has recently made a few helpful cautionary comments about facebook double standards, and there has been tons of Twitter stuff in the media generally.
EN65 Atheism Reasons
01/03/09 13:55
The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you will need to scroll down to find the exact part).
This piece was produced under a fair amount of pressure.
I had two possibilities in my mind - the Jade Goody media story was one (something about being a daughter of the media - TV birth and TV death etc) and this was the other.
I ended up with this piece because I felt it had a wider appeal that would be more useful long-term. The idea itself comes from a recent blog post by a 'coming out' atheist. The post goes into lengthy detail about why he cannot accept the faith, documenting various conversations that were had along the way. It is a very, very long post! If you do a wordle scan it produces the following image of important terms used:
Notice that Jesus is relatively small. This is a major problem with any discussion that concludes Christianity as ultimately untrue or misguided: if it doesn't major on Jesus then it has missed the point. As wonderful as churches may be, as great a framework for morality or life-organisation Christianity may be, as sensible and ordered 'christian culture' may be - it is all open to ridicule, better arguments, reasonable discredit and redundancy if you reduce Jesus from His pre-eminent and foundation place. This might sound harsh to people within or without the Christian worldview, but Jesus really is the main (and finally the only) argument.
There are loads of good reasons to go for the Christian worldview - many of which are often neglected by christians who should know better when it comes to defending their faith - but the big BIG thing is Jesus. He is the hub.
Here is my first draft of the strip which I rejected because it was too confusing. The end panel is something valuable for a section like this: don't judge a chef without tasting his special dish. If you are going to evaluate the christian faith then please please please consider Jesus so that when someone does a wordle analysis of keywords He is bigger than the image above.
Waking up to reality
15/04/07 19:31
This is an illustration I did ages ago for CCB for a series called ‘The World We All Want’.
EN6 Responses to the Passion
01/04/04 13:49
If you look closely you can see an Xray of my shoulder complete with the staples that were holding my operation wound together. Yes, this one was drawn with no drawing, post motorbike crash.