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

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

Originally for Acts 15v28.
Commissioned by Scripture Union for the Wordlive site.

Tags: Scripture Union, Grace, Holiness, Repentance, Patience

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

So who hasn’t heard or been intrigued by this story?

I have been listening to this unfold for what feels like ages and ages - I meant to do something on it months back but never got round to it. In the end this was a good thing because it has really hooked into the public consciousness.

There are so many interesting angles on it that I felt a little bewildered by where to start. I asked a few friends to give their gut-level reactions and I had some helpful and interesting perspectives. This gave me enough of a feel to launch out on the cartoon.

Here are the (anonymous) responses.

Me: What is your one-line gut level Christian response or reflection on the whole phone hacking saga?

I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. Its another classic example self-righteous moral outrage that turns a blind eye to the public lust for gossip and the political lust for power/money/influence that encourages these things to happen. We all have a bit of Jacob in us and need God to change our hearts.

What made us so desperate for that kind of news that no-one cared about the source?
Symptomatic of a sinful nature. To sin and hide it cover it up. Misuse any technology.
As a Christian, remember God has no need to tap your phone to see your wrongs. If you don't want it known don't do it! X
It is sad, but there are bigger injustices out there. Why are we so upset by this, but not by other violations?
Easy to pontificate when the curtain has been pulled back, need for a distinctive voice when the world is on the side of the Murdochs.
Sin is manifested in many and various ways - only Christ has sacrificed himself for wretches like us.Gut level - a great, interesting story of crime + corruption in high places.

Numbers 32:23: “...you may be sure that your sin will find you out.” This applies to everyone. The hacked. The hackers. The writers. The readers. Their world is built on what others think of them. The hacked weep that their carefully constructed media image is blown. The hackers that they were caught. The writers that their fiction of the "public good" is revealed as calculating. Only the readers get a free ride at the moment. There is a greater judgment coming. There is an opinion on their lives that will trump all others. that should be our chief concern.

Rather than joining in the condemnation of those who have done wrong, let’s be like Jesus and live in contrast to the world around us – loving the criminals (recognising that we are among them), showing grace and mercy to those who sin against us, thereby showing that through Jesus there is an alternative way. That is not to say that phone hacking and dishonesty do not matter – far from it, they nailed Jesus to the cross! – but we have all sinned, we all need forgiveness and as God has shown us grace, we should also show grace to others.

Thanks to everyone who took part.

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Tags: Phone hacking, Conscience, Crisis, Grace, Hypocrisy, Judge, Mobile Phones, Politics, Repentance, Sin, Truth/Lies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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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.

Tags: Crisis, Hypocrisy, Isolation, Judge, Repentance, Sin, Truth/Lies, MPs expenses

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

There was a lot of prep work for this one in the sketchbook. I am including a few of the later drafts below to give a sense of some of the last changes. Initially I was inspired by something that Jensen said about the whole GAFCON/Robinson controversy recently. It got me thinking about what the Christian message requires of people and whether you can mess around with repentance or not.

Anyways - eventually my imagination conjured up this car dealer showroom and someone buying a vehicle where the reverse gear had been removed because it was condescending to suggest someone had taken a wrong direction... eventually I got to the current version which is much tighter and applies across the board.

I also really like the styling of the current piece. The gearbox imagery came to me at about 5.30am one morning and I love the combination of speech bubbles and symbols.

My lovely wife was right to point out that it excludes any non-drivers (and any non-manual/stick drivers!). Oh well.

Tags: Devil, Repentance, Sin, Truth/Lies, Driving

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

It was pretty shocking to see how open people were on TV about stealing stuff from the Napoli that wasn't theirs. It was a bit like the scenes of looting during Katrina in the sense that it was in broad daylight and there was an atmosphere of 'normal rules don't apply'.

This strip is linking two ideas - pollution from the Napoli and pollution from the human heart. The bible text epilogue is pretty straight forward about how corruption comes from within. In the time when Jesus said it, he was challenging the idea that religious external observation could make you right with God, whereas the reality is that inside you are rotten and God sees it.

People might not be openly interested in the idea of an all seeing God, but the Napoli event certainly did demonstrate something of the inner moral workings of ordinary people.

I wanted to try and link up some pollution coming from the Napoli and somehow join it to the thieving person but it didn't really work all that well. I also went through a whole load of other versions: one was about the reverse miracle of turning expensive wine barrels into expensive water butts. I liked it but no one got it...

Tags: MSC Napoli, Sin, Repentance, Holiness, Hypocrisy, Storms

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

The story in Luke is known as the 'Prodigal' or lost son. It is about family reunion after some difficult times. This is a slightly different take on that story about something which happened to me. The most helpful thing to say here is that part of the key for me to find reconciliation in the particular situation required letting go of past baggage - hence the bin.

This has very little text for good reason. I think it works well as it is.

Tags: Father, Youth/Age, Redemption, Repentance, Friendship, Crisis, Adoption