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.

Tags: Faith, Evangelism, Father, Grace, Jesus, Joy, Listening, Prayer, Redemption, Repentance, Crisis, Thankyou

From Ephesians 2v11-22.
Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site.

Tags: Repentance, Faith, Friendship, Jesus

From Genesis 14.
Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site.

Tags: Faith, OT, Redemption, Crisis, Scripture Union

From the Long Walk Home blog: Life has been pretty hard around these parts recently, hope has been something to be fought for, clung to and I’ve had to remind myself not to despair or give in. That’s not an easy thing to do when you are just clenching your teeth grimly wish hoping that things will be ok. Thankfully that’s not the kind of hope I’ve been clinging to. Psalm 114 points us in a very simple way to the bigness of the God who defines Hope and whose character we Hope in.

Tags: thelongwalkhomeblog, Crisis, Faith, Wisdom, Storms, Prayer, Joy, Holiness

Lamentations 3v19-24: I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

Tags: Crisis, Storms, Repentance, Sin, Devil, Discipleship, Faith, Father, Holiness, Isolation, Friendship, Law, Listening, Prayer, Redemption, Truth/Lies, idols

From Joshua 2.
Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site.

Tags: Scripture Union, Death, Evangelism, Faith, Friendship, Grace, Listening, Mission, Crisis, Wide/Narrow

Originally from Mark 10v35-45.
Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site.

Tags: Heaven, Jesus, Grace, Faith, Scripture Union

Originally from Acts 27.
Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site.

Tags: Crisis, Storms, Faith, Scripture Union

Originally from Psalm 109.
Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site.

Tags: Sin, Crisis, Storms, Faith, Scripture Union

Originally for Acts 18v18.
Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site.

Tags: Scripture Union, Holiness, Faith, Fasting

From the Long Walk Home blog:

“There is big lovely truth to be gleaned from this Psalm.  Read it through again. This Psalm tells us what a good life really is- it’s life as it’s meant to be lived, a life that starts with fearing God, delighting in his commands. Life with God should lead us to this kind of life. It might be worth looking at what that life looks like. It’s a life of compassion, graciousness, generosity, a life of righteousness and justice.…The weird thing about all this is that we read this Psalm and almost write it off as unattainable or fanciful that we could live in such ways. However, we follow a man who did walk such ways here on earth, and we walk in his footsteps. I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to suddenly become like this overnight but I am sure that these are the kind of characteristics I want to ooze out of me as I live this life. I want to live this kind of good life.”

Tags: thelongwalkhomeblog, Jesus, Grace, Crisis, Heaven, Faith

From the Long Walk Home blog:
“This is one of those Psalms that takes us from our tiny little where we are today life, grabs us by the hand and keeps on pulling us out and out and out to see the big picture. “

Tags: thelongwalkhomeblog, Listening, Prayer, Faith, Truth/Lies, idols, Materialism

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.

Tags: Crisis, Death, Faith, Jesus, Friendship, Heaven, Isolation, Prayer, Thankyou

Before this post fills with pungent bitterness I will just get it out of my system and move on: we paid a lot of money to take our child to see the ‘Mr Men Live’ roadshow and were utterly disappointed. It was mainly a very-thinly arranged set of miss-aimed karaoke numbers with little to make up for the promise of seeing those people of Hargreaves’ creation. He would be ashamed of it, I am sure.

Now I have vented - and if you are still reading - I will add that those expensively disappointing seats provided me with the inspiration for how to frame this personal tale of frustrated hopelessness. While I have experienced/shared a number of serious lows, I am confident that in Jesus there is always hope which is well qualified and can draw relief from the gloomiest of depths.

Are you facing anything similar? Is the path you are on unendingly grim?
Put yourself in the hands of the most qualified One. Trust me when I say that he can be found through trust and a simple prayer. When life is so very tough, what can you stand to lose in turning to King Jesus?

The wonderful epilogue text can be found at the end of the passage here.

Tags: Crisis, Devil, Evangelism, Faith, Jesus, Grace, Isolation, Joy, Redemption, Storms, Thankyou

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.
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Tags: Devil, Faith, The Plant, Crisis

Come back for more - this is a twelve part series.

Many thanks to Martin Saunders at Youthwork Magazine for commissioning this series.

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Tags: Youthwork Magazine, Jesus, Wisdom, Friendship, Isolation, Redemption, Repentance, Technology, Holiness, Grace, Faith, Evangelism, Crisis, Bible

An image about the division being stirred up in Antioch found in Acts 14v1-7.

Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site.

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Tags: Sin, Evangelism, Discrimination, Faith, Politics, Religion, Storms, Scripture Union

From the leaders’ blog:
This summer seems the right time to enter the next phase of that original vision and say goodbye to a few of those ‘things we’ve always done’.
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Tags: The Plant, Faith, Jesus, Listening, Mission

Taken from the introduction of Peter Lewis' excellent book on The Lord's Prayer.

Here are a few of my notes:

Peter Lewis Intro Lords Prayer
- Prayer: what do we get out of it?
- Blind kid with a kite - can't see it but enjoys the pull. We often associate prayer with push.
Why pray?
1. God commands it.
2. God is glorified in it.
3. People need our prayers.
- the self contained life knows little of love, but love opens us up to share others burdens and minister to others needs.
4. We change as we pray.
5. Things change as we pray.
- ArchWillTemple: prayer coincidences etc.

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Tags: Faith, Prayer, Wide/Narrow, Peter Lewis

I think that Barnabas Fund does a good job of explaining the context.

Here he is, speaking for himself.



May the tragically sown seeds of this event be drawn into abundant life wherever this event is broadcast.

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Tags: Crisis, Death, Faith, Grace, Islam, Jesus, Mission, Prayer, Wide/Narrow, Wisdom

For the Long Walk Home blog.

Been crazy busy with my day job (and will continue to be for the next week or so) so had to really squeeze these ones in.

In order: a first image related to a discussion on contentment, followed by two mooring/anchoring images that came to mind.

Tags: Patience, Faith, Jesus, Prayer, Materialism, Storms, thelongwalkhomeblog

From the Long Walk Home blog:

"Are we prepared to put our pride to one side, look up and cry for help? Are we prepared to admit we are wrong, put our stubbornness to one side and accept the wonder of a God who wants to help us?"

Tags: Crisis, Faith, Friendship, Grace, Joy, Listening, Repentance, Sin, Wisdom, thelongwalkhomeblog

From the Long Walk Home blog:

"Deep down I know that I am the same person as a few days ago and any number of fresh starts won’t produce in me the faithfulness I long for."

Tags: Faith, thelongwalkhomeblog

This is a short moving image version of the illustrations I produced for this post last year.

"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
Colossians 1v13-14

Tags: Jesus, Evangelism, Faith, Holiness, Judge, Law, Bible, Sin, thelongwalkhomeblog

So here we go - another experi-mental cartoon using my iPhone apps (for more see this site).

This one is more considered and probably(!) clearer. I wanted to convey the sense of someone who has been redeemed by Jesus and who is now on their way through the door to the other side. It is very simple but in my own mind extremely profound.

Interested in commissioning a similar styled piece? Get in touch.

Tags: Heaven, 3D, Jesus, Faith, Father, Grace, Holiness, Joy, Redemption

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.

Tags: Jesus, Evangelism, Crisis, Faith, Friendship, Heaven, Bible, 3D

Romans 4v18-25 has to be one of my favourite Bible passages.
From a recent series of commissions by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site.

Tags: Faith, Scripture Union

An image for a review of Inception posted at The Plant website:



From the review:

"the popular ‘existentialism’ that most 21st century Brits believe... is the idea that reality revolves around each one of us – we determine what is meaningful, right, wrong, true, false etc. – and if we come up with different versions of reality that doesn’t matter: it’s ‘my reality’ and it’s ‘true for me’.

But according to the Bible, if we see the world this way, we’re the ones living in a dream world! As Paul wrote, ‘...the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God’ (2 Corinthians 4:4)."

Tags: Faith, Film, Jesus, Devil, Death, Truth/Lies, The Plant

Okay so I cheated a little and borrowed from my work on Kath's blog. I did have this other idea which I may yet use but in the end when the time pressure got too much I just did the necessary thing. I really like this one.

Here is 1 Peter 1.

Tags: Faith, Truth/Lies, Crisis, Patience, Father, Death

From the Long Walk Home blog:

Kath: "I wonder how many of us secretly live with the reverse of this God, a God who is uncaring, who is mean, who remembers all our wrong doing, who is quick to anger, quick to be disappointed us, who treats us as we deserve, who holds onto our sin, who hates his children and expects the world from them. Sometimes I am ashamed to admit that is the mean nasty god I avoid worshipping. I have lost the wonder, the wow, the reality that God is really good."





For the sharp-eyed among you, yes I redid them. Much better now.

Tags: Faith, Truth/Lies, Crisis, Patience, Father, Death, thelongwalkhomeblog

Latest images for the Long Walk Home blog.



Kath: "Think for a moment about all the things that are really long lasting in your life. Think about the things of permanence, things that do not rust, decay, spoil or fade. Think about how long even the most long lasting of those things is. In a world which cynically designs products so they won’t last, in a world of updates every year, in a world that throws away, consumes and has an increasing thirst for more God steps in like an ancient anachronism. "

Tags: Faith, Truth/Lies, Crisis, Patience, Father, Death, thelongwalkhomeblog

Here are a couple of images for the LWH blog piece on Psalm 101.



Kath: "This type of Psalm has a habit of making me squirm."

Tags: Crisis, Faith, Law, Listening, Repentance, Sin, idols, thelongwalkhomeblog

Here is the latest batch of images for The Long Walk Home blog. This one is a rather dark reflection on Psalm 100.

Tags: Crisis, Faith, Prayer, Jesus, Father, thelongwalkhomeblog

Psalm 36:8,9, Romans 11:33 and 1Peter 2:2.

There is a ton of stuff you can digest online - much of it is pretty interesting. You can explore what experts in a variety of fields are thinking and doing minute by minute. The trouble for this Christian was that he ended up listening more to what editors,writers and other artists were saying and less to what his Saviour has said.

In the end, enough is enough. You have to acknowledge that while grazing the surface has some value, the treasures that God has freely given us should be mined regularly - there are abundant riches that will surprise, astonish and ultimately nurture/nourish.

Thanks for the textual assistance: JT, DF, RL, TW.

Tags: Faith, Grace, Holiness, Jesus, Listening, NT, OT, Patience, Prayer, Redemption, Repentance, Sin, Thankyou, Truth/Lies, Wisdom

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.

Tags: Evangelism, Faith, Jesus, Repentance, Sin, Truth/Lies

Deuteronomy 33v27: The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. (HT: JT)

Once again a parent-inspired cartoon.

Tags: Father, Faith, Jesus

Wisdom can take different forms depending on whether it has it's sights set on this world or the next.

Here is the text for the epilogue.

Tags: Death, Evangelism, Faith, Friendship, Grace, Heaven, Jesus, Patience, Thankyou, Truth/Lies, Wide/Narrow

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.

Tags: Jesus, Crisis, Faith, Father, Repentance, Sin

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

Tags: NT, Redemption, Jesus, Evangelism, Faith, Christmas, Art, thejesuscomic

Based heavily on some recent personal experiences, I have been reflecting on how a parent might bring comfort to a child who is having nightmares. From this I began to move further outwards and think what basis is there for any of us being comforted in the face of the ultimate nightmare of mortality and suffering.

Tags: Jesus, Adoption, Crisis, Devil, Faith, Redemption, Sunshine, Truth/Lies

My friends Kev and Kath are getting married in about three weeks. It is a massive chapter change for them and wonderfully they have included us in the celebrations. After stumbling upon a new personal style of adorning text, Kath asked me to do some more and this was the result.

It is an extended meditation on the Christian worldview narrative - from the Creation, to the Fall, to Jesus' Cross-work and finally the consummation.





May God richly bless this couple as they step out in awe of the truly BIG day. All the rest will fall into place.

Tags: Adoption, Art, Crisis, Devil, Doxology, Evangelism, Faith, Heaven, Jesus, Judge, NT, OT, Prayer, Repentance, Wedding, Sin

The background to this idea was something Peter Woodcock said during the Contagious 09 conference. I was standing with him and Jon Drane on a field looking at stars and he made a comment about the link between suburban light pollution and our inability to comprehend the glory of the vastness of space.

You can take this cartoon in a number of ways but my personal intention was to say that everyday life has immediate distractions that appear to be good while keeping us from comprehending the big thing of Jesus stepping into history and redeeming our broken dark planet.

Tags: Faith, Jesus, Listening, OT, NT, Science, Truth/Lies, Wisdom, apologetics

Fantastic!

I have been asked to revisit a few older EpilogueTV cartoons and reformat them for Sorted magazine. I took one of my first ever pieces (found originally here) and redrew it, making a few changes to the text, composition and pacing. The newer version is much much better and hopefully reflects some personal improvements over the five years I have been pushing these little babies out.

Tags: Jesus, Redemption, Faith, Crisis

Two illustrations to come out of a message preached by Andy Hickford earlier today on Psalm 27.

Tags: Jesus, Consumerism, Crisis, Faith, Father, Holiness, Prayer, Truth/Lies, Wisdom

The Psalm 1 text can be found here.

Tags: Truth/Lies, Crisis, Death, Faith, Jesus, Listening, OT, Prayer, Sin, Wide/Narrow, Wisdom