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

(Ha! I made a mistake - the text is actually Matthew 7v6}.

This is another take on the phone hacking issue. In recent weeks I have been utterly engrossed by the Leveson enquiry. Hearing so many people recount stories of personal abuse at the hands of the sales/ratings-hungry media has been a bit of a shock. So shameful.

The passage in the sermon on the mount is a good warning against this kind of thing.

Tags: Crisis, Phone hacking, Sin, Hypocrisy, Truth/Lies, Jesus, Wisdom

I had written this lengthy post but in the end I guess the picture should speak for itself.

Jeremiah 31:33-34: “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Tags: Steve Jobs, Crisis, Jesus, Redemption, Sin, Storms, Wisdom, Truth/Lies, idols

Romans 12: For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.

I recently preached on this at church. Be generous in your criticism...

Tags: Discipleship, Wisdom, Jesus, Gifts

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

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

Originally based around Acts13v16,23-25.
Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site.

Tags: Bible, Evangelism, Jesus, Law, OT, Scripture Union

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

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

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

Some general illustrations to illustrate some strategic thoughts on church growth.





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Tags: Jesus, Bible, The Plant, Friendship, Evangelism, illustration

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

This one came off the back of some work I have been doing in Proverbs. Truth is wrongly characterised as being private, personal, malleable. If something is true it is True regardless of whether you accept it. Christians are no different from anyone else in this - we are all prone towards ignoring things that don't suit us.

The epilogue text is the famous Mars Hill message by Paul where he speaks directly into a situation of self-delusion with the Truth of the Resurrection.

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Tags: Truth/Lies, Wisdom, Evangelism, Jesus, Listening, Repentance, Sin

Delightfully, while this cartoon is a tad messy it paved the way to a wonderful year of working with Youthwork magazine and a whole new format. Modern Parables!

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Tags: Crisis, Facebook, Twitter, Jesus, Thankyou, Wisdom

From the Long Walk Home blog:

"I fear being overlooked and I worry why more people don’t appreciate the profoundness of my ideas. How Jesus managed to resist the temptation of pride I do not know. I think it’s got something to do with the voice of his Father declaring his love over him."

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Tags: thelongwalkhomeblog, Jesus

From the Long Walk Home blog:

"Sit for a moment with Jesus in the desert. Sit and feel the strength of the temptation he was under and see how similar that temptation is to the ones we face each day. To grasp the power for ourselves or to submit to someone greater.
Thank him that he knows what it’s like to face that. Thank him for not giving in and be in awe of the Son with whom God is well pleased."

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Tags: thelongwalkhomeblog, Jesus

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

"the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves."

Read Luke 22v24-38 here.
Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site. Thanks Eddie.

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Tags: Jesus, thejesuscomic

"...the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’"

Read Luke 20v9-19 here.
Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site. Thanks Eddie.

Tags: Jesus, Thankyou, 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

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

So the wikileaks event shook up a lot of people didn't it? So much controversy - on the one hand it feels wrong that private conversations should be exposed in such a provocative manner and on the other it seems like a good thing to have secretive behaviour called to account. Clearly there is much more to this event than meets the media eye, but it is definitely food for thought.

There is a powerful parallel spoken of in the Bible - how God has exposed hidden workings by His Spirit.

In Jesus Christ there is now a fresh means of approaching God - created by God Himself and now revealled (or leaked) into the public sphere. Much like the wikileaks scandal, this is scandalous on the multinational stage because God means business! No more can religious authorities keep the door closed on that most precious of secrets - the pin code to God's throne room is now out there.

Here is a link to the Ephesians 3 text.

HT to Tony Waghorn for feedback and the final line(s).

Tags: Wikileaks, Jesus, NT, OT, Truth/Lies, Wisdom, incarnation

One of my very best friends* took up a senior post at this church in Manchester a year ago and it appears to be going really well. The problem is that it needs to be financially self-sustaining if they want to continue teaching the Gospel.

This inevitably means more people joining, so that more people can give and shoulder the burden. These guys are doing a fab job, so if you remember them, please pray that the Lord will add stable givers who can help carry the burden.

Anyways - here is an illustration for the site's leaders blog, conveying the idea of a church bursting at the seams, but with genuine treasure within.



*did I mention that he was one of my best friends? Actually he also led me to the Lord and was/is responsible for much of my discipleship. I hestitated to mention that at the start because I wanted to give a positive impression...

Tags: Jesus, The Plant

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

From the Long Walk Home blog. This one hits on various themes to do with consumerism, the new covenant being spoken in Jeremiah and the glorious birth of the King of Kings.


For those who are watching closely, yes these recycle/refine earlier ideas.

Tags: Jesus, 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

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.

Tags: Jesus, Father, Sin, Grace

My mate Kath is kicking off her new blog this week! It is called The Long Walk Home and is starting with a meditation on Psalm 99 entitled "How Big Is Your God?". Here is the linked cartoon. It is about idolatry.




Notes:
Yes, it is a revamp of this cartoon.

Update:
I changed it from the version posted yesterday - this one works much better.

Tags: idols, Jesus, Sin, thelongwalkhomeblog

A wonderful project I have been working on for the last few weeks with AWM is a retelling of the story of Adam and Eve
for Arabic-speakers.



iOS apps...
The story has been designed to be read on the iPhone/iTouch/iPad platform. If you have one of those devices you can download a slightly adapted english translation now! The Arabic version is still awaiting approval from Apple but looks potentially very exciting as a means for communicating the message of grace and hope to seekers in predominantly Islamic culture. Please pray for it's effective use and helpfulness.



Powerpoint for all
A lovely result of this project is that I am free to release a powerpoint version of the english translation to churches/clubs/youthwork groups etc as a tool for communication. Here are the panels:



Please download and use the slideshow if it seems useful to your situation. If you want to print it please get in touch first and if you think it is really useful then please consider a paypal donation. Details are contained on the first and last slide of the presentation.

The download contains both Keynote (Mac) and Powerpoint formats for those who are so inclined.

Tags: thejesuscomic, Judge, Grace, Law, Father, Jesus, Death, Devil

A recent memory verse.

Click for a larger view.

Tags: Sin, Hypocrisy, Jesus, Prayer, Truth/Lies, Wide/Narrow

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

If you live in the UK, this one may resonate.

Tags: Jesus, Death, Discrimination, Hypocrisy, Isolation, NT, Sin

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

Showing some interest in God is often confused with actually being accepted by Him. Fortunately, He is kind enough to fill us in on the heart realities.

Tags: Jesus, Sin, Grace, Repentance

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 top half of this cartoon is far too common to be comfortable. The second half is something we all need to experience more.

Tags: Jesus, Judge, Listening, NT, Repentance, Sin, Truth/Lies, Wide/Narrow, Wisdom

This piece has a whole host of problems. It started as something to do with the BNP claiming Jesus' point of view for their racist agenda and then became something more to do with being possessively small-minded with the Gospel growing. There are also problems with my application of scripture. Sigh.

But I really like the artwork.

Tags: Evangelism, Heaven, Jesus, Prayer, Repentance, Sin, Truth/Lies

Mark Meynell has a really worthwhile blog that manages to get the right balance between the lighthearted and personal/serious/critical. He recently wrote this post quoting Tim Keller at length. The end quote from the cartoon above is taken from that post. I have changed the word 'Pharisee' for 'religious people'.

Before I spoil things, it is worth reading Mark's webpage to get a clearer view on what this section is about.

The epilogue text can be read here. It is a story where Jesus makes the important distinction that our external reputation/deeds cannot disguise inner pollution.

Tags: Hypocrisy, Jesus, Law, Religion, Sin

This has to be one of my favourite passages in the Bible. I have a lot of very positive associations with it from my time at Cornerstone Church during those innocent (!) student days in Nottingham between 1990-93. It reminds me of the epic yet intimate upward Gospel spiral.

Tags: Doxology, Jesus

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

Although the 2 Corinthians 4 text is quoted at length within the cartoon it helps to see the whole thing here.

Although it took a while to draw*, this piece came fairly quickly to me when I heard someone at our local church talking about signing up to become 'flu-friends' and assist collecting Tamiflu in the local community when people are incapacitated.

From a Christian point of view this leads directly into parallels with what Jesus did in coming to this world with a cure for our greatest ailment. The text in 2 Corinthians 4 is great as well because it combines the rescue mission of Jesus with our own weary efforts at making a difference.

In particular my heart goes out to Akik, Mike, Andy and the Stovell gang. I hope that this is a useful piece for your efforts.

*and also it is worth noting that this is the first cartoon for many years that I have produced virtually 1:1 ratio. I used a 0.05 pen to ink it initially.

Tags: Swine flu, Redemption, Jesus, Friendship, Evangelism, Death

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 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.

Tags: Facebook, Twitter, Jesus, Truth/Lies

The Psalm 1 text can be found here.

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

A huge thing in Christian thought is the idea of being set free from slavery by Jesus’ Cross-work.

Steve Farrar wrote a really great book called ‘Finishing Strong’ a few years ago. It is about being a solid Christian man (I am making no claims here...). I actually remembered this quote through something that Peter Lewis had published online.

Tags: Sin, Redemption, Jesus, OT, NT, Devil, Truth/Lies, Steve Farrar, Peter Lewis

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.

Tags: atheism, apologetics, Jesus, Truth/Lies

There isn't a text for this particular piece because it is something that is written across the whole Bible.

This was really difficult to do because the story was horrible. I think that one of the unnerving aspects to the news was that the events had happened so long ago, and that there are probably kids going through some similar evil right now. I guess that the sense of powerlessness in the face of such cruelty is the big idea here.

The cartoon is really about the letter 'P'. The use of the letter is in itself interesting because it means that the child is impersonal to the wider public. In the news reporting at the time, the word 'punchbag' was used many times to describe some of the cruelty that he went through.

The cartoon aims at a few things:
1. The contrast between the word Punchbag and Precious - that the storyline of the Bible is all about God expressing our worth in the highest most glorious terms.
2. That the suffering and loneliness of the child was something that Jesus entered into willingly.
3. That the christian worldview holds great hope for this child - who knows? maybe in the darkest hour Jesus comforted him, and now after such a short and miserable life there is something better beyond the grave.

I deliberately placed the panels in this order to reflect the idea that Jesus was aware of what would be coming when he suffered. I also repeated the same punching torturer in both panels to give a sense of the same experience being delivered to both.

The amazing thing about the Bible story is that God has entered such a bleak landscape with such incredible passion and depth.

Tags: Sin, Redemption, Jesus, Judge

The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you will need to scroll down to find the exact part).

Okay, so this one might not be about anything in particular, but it came out of some meditation I was doing on the text in question (Hebrew 6v13-20) and the film Broken Flowers (with Bill Murray).

It struck me that perhaps the most wonderful thing about being a Christian is the unseen stuff - that Jesus has provided believers with an eternal by-faith anchor to keep them safe during the storms (and finally the storm).

The film in question presents a man within a worldview that has pretty much no mooring. Nothing quite adds up to anything deliberately. The director (Jim Jarmusch) made something brilliant, but it certainly clashes with the joined-up-purposes of the christian view.

It is also worth saying that a. I like the film very much and that b. when things don't add up christians shouldn't be surprised because God never promises to explain stuff in this world. In fact the main thing that he does explain clearly is Christ's cross-work, which is great because it provides a foundation and context for the rest of the mystery of life.

Lord - we will trust you to do good.

Tags: Jesus, Storms, Crisis, Credit Crunch, Consumerism

The Bible epilogue text can be found here.

This is an interview I recently put together with an ex-student who has become a really good mate. It is really exciting that he won the Best British Doc at the London Independent Film Festival at the NFT a few weeks ago. I did a skype call to explore some of the making ideas.



Anyway - it got me thinking about Luke's Gospel which has so much in common with a well-produced and researched documentary.

Tags: apologetics, Jesus, Eyewitnesses

The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).

This one was based on the naming of the Sudanese Teddy.

Tags: Jesus, Sin, Sudan, Islam, Truth/Lies, Wisdom

The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).

We went to the Tate Modern over the half term break and visited Doris Salcedo's sculpture. I was quite worried about grafting a christian message on to something that is meant to be vague, but surely the cross of Christ is all about this kind of thing? The Ephesians text in chapter 2 talks about how the gospel brings down ancient barriers between political and social differences as cultures are finally reconciled to God through Christ's death.

I played about with a more painterly feel, but couldn't get the cross to look like blood. I also bust a gut that week doing two big commissions and decided to cut my losses and go for simple shading.

There is an allusion here to the chap who does sculptures using blood transfusions, and I also wanted to have some fun with the extremely jargonistic 'WWJD' bracelets which lots of teenager christians wear. Personally I think you should be known by how you live and not this weird trinket-culture, but there you go...

Tags: Art, Tate Modern, Jesus, Redemption

The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).

Danny Boyle has made a few really decent films. His latest movie is the basis for this one. I am aware that loads of people wont have seen it, so the strip needs to work without the audience being able to make the connection, which I think it does... anyway, the film is a tremendous meditation on the experience of flying into the sun, and the subsequent dangers. For sci-fi freaks out there (like myself) this is a treat of the highest order, and for those non-plussed with flying about in zero-gravity, this is still a very deep piece of work.



From a christian point of view it echoes lots of themes that are writ large across the Bible. God's holiness is a terrible and dangerous aspect to His being and one would do well to wear protection! The strip points at the only protection that will do - the shade that God has provided.

This is my first serious use of tradition ink dipping pens. I have been really struggling to find something decent and worth swapping with the existing stuff that I use, but I made the discovery a few days back. There is a big romance with using black ink and old-style nibs on crisp white paper. It is more scary, but feels so authentic.

Below are a few of my sketchbook developments. Email me if you see the film. I suspect that, like The Matrix, loads of Bible talks are going to based on his film in the coming months.

Tags: Danny Boyle, Sunshine, Jesus, Redemption, Holiness, Sin, Death, Wisdom, Film, Judge

The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).

Identity theft is becoming a really big deal recently. I bought a shredder at the behest of my wife and found myself in a queue at sainsbury's reading the packaging (as you do).

It struck me that there are all sorts of links between the role of this little machine and the christian worldview - for example - the Bible talks a lot about how we try to hide our identity before God and how we are basically bankrupt because of our instinctive anti-God attitudes.

Once again we have the simple stick men with some shading and really simple physical expressions. I think I am moving towards this style more because it just seems to work somehow. This is really probably a throwback to my affection for Chris Ware and his quimby mouse stuff.

My mate the Erudite Frog also commented on this being an (unintentional) sideways swipe at online consumerist christians. I have no idea who he means by such a comment.

Tags: identity theft, Consumerism, Credit Crunch, Sin, Jesus

The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).

The christian worldview is something that can be pretty offensive if you understand it correctly. It challenges pretty much everything you think is right and then goes further to bring you into an amazing dependent relationship with the Almighty through His son Jesus.

This is partly why christians can get singled out occasionally, and the recent NUS/British Airways debates were examples of this. There are always other reasons combined - not least issues of maintaining a sense of equality in the public arena. I have no problem with respecting the free will of my neighbour, but these examples went too far in terms of clipping the conscience of thinking christians.

I drew this one during an art mock exam cover lesson at school. I drew it on very rough paper that had none of the tidiness of the regular bristol board that I use for finals. The two figures are based (visually) on a couple of the students who were there.

I meant to dedicate this to Pardeep Bhogal but didn't get around to it.

Tags: NUS, British Airways, Discrimination, Jesus, Work

The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).

This one was related to the whole Madonna/celebrity adoption fiasco that hit the headlines. Can a celebrity bypass correct protocols and take a child from africa? Isn't it in fact a compassionate move to share their lives with those less fortunate? Is it right to remove a child from his/her home situation and place them in the ultra-consumerist setting of a celebrity home?

The debates are many, but I wanted to use this situation to look at how Jesus' mission is rather like this: he snatched us from slavery to the devil and brought freedom and blessed adoption. The really great bit is that he didn't bypass any of the necessary protocols - death on the cross and a mighty resurrection put paid to any arguments about the legitimacy of the move.

I enjoyed imagining the angelic celebrations...

Scott McCloud refers to how cartoonists should try to develop the interaction of text and image in their compositions. I tried to do this with this piece after really getting a kick out the Stockholm Syndrome piece two months previously. The three panel layout is something I am really pleased with on this, and I deliberately kept to a simple stick person-type display. This is how I tend to do stuff at school when I am using my white board to teach stuff, and I think that it probably makes a good impact in my strips.

The dedication is for one of our then-newly-joined friends at church. The great thing with a real christian church is that it goes way beyond the idea of pews and formality - it becomes a family in an organic and vibrant way that people often don't see.

Tags: Adoption, Jesus, Redemption, Sin, Death, Devil, Eyewitnesses, Crisis, Holiness, Wisdom

The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).

Probably one of the most chilling stories ever had come to light. I mused on the idea of 'Stockholm Syndrome' (a condition that I had heard of before) and thought that this is exactly what happens when people are faced with the amazing truth of Christ's rescue plan. The attachment to the slavery of this world really gets in the way of someone openly coming to faith in Christ, and it takes an amazing work of God's grace to bring them beyond themselves.

This is probably my favourite strip of the EN series. The title text is fundamentally part of the composition and the panels develop in a way that I personally get a buzz out of.

The dedication is for the three new workers in our church. I wanted to say 'thankyou' for their immense hard work and brilliant contribution to the family. I had better stop now before this gets into an Oscar speech.

Tags: Redemption, Jesus, Sin, Sunshine, Truth/Lies

The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).

I really like this one. The Muslim cartoon protests were hitting the headlines big time. One of the things about doing this strip is that there are sometimes easy targets and then less obvious ones. The end example is something I am pleased with because it doesn't do the obvious thing of criticising Muslims - it goes one better (in my view) and asks the question what is sacred to the secularists?

Fundamental to the whole event is the attitude of the secular press toward sacred beliefs, and I wanted to turn the tables.

My favourite bit is the caps lock gag. Thanks to the editorial assistance from John Batchelor who was a good mate to us at the time. Man can he laugh.

Tags: apologetics, Truth/Lies, Jesus, atheism, Redemption, Holiness

The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).

7/7, as it is referred to, was yet another defining moment in our shifting culture. I reflected on the parallel steps of the bomber and Jesus, how they both involved death, both were puzzling, and yet had such dramatically different consequences for anyone connected.

Flippancy is something to be avoided with this material, and I think it manages to do that. A lot of the time these strips require you to compare parallel compositions or scan repetitive elements. This one uses that device.

Tags: Terrorism, Jesus, Redemption, Holiness, Crisis, Sin

The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).

Hebrews 12 (see Bible text) is big on linking the idea of perseverance and the olympics. I'm not entirely sure if this is all that clear, it's probably a little too dense, verbally.

Tags: Olympics, Patience, Jesus, Wisdom, Sin, Wide/Narrow, Truth/Lies, Prayer

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.

Tags: Mel Gibson/The Passion, Film, Jesus, apologetics, Evangelism, Redemption