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

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

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

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

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.

More... Read More...

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

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

March of the Penguins had come out and was doing very well with the christian cinema-going public. I have a number of friends who don't agree with the christian worldview and one thing I am quite keen on is trying to explain my perspective in the most effective way possible. This strip picks up on my unease with the so-called 'intelligent design' debate. Personally I think that it isn't the best way of 'selling' the christian faith because nothing gets there better than talking about Jesus. It has some value to reflect on good things in the world around us (and this is undoubtedly a strong point in the film) but to use it for some mildly political christian point is (to me) a bit of a shame.

I used the Balaam's Donkey idea of a talking animal here, and the pengui-logue reinforces it.

This is a good example of the EN editor's editorial insight. John Benton has occasionally stepped in to encourage me in one direction or another. On this strip he later commented on the need to avoid criticising christians, which is a good thing. My original 'pitch' for this strip was to do something jokey about church culture, but he came back to me with the better idea of taking a satirical view of the non-christian world - which has proven to be be a much more healthy exercise as I have been pushed to reflect on the world outside the church and how it does/does not relate to the perspective in the Bible. A good editor is a life-saver.

Tags: Film, Evangelism, Wisdom, apologetics, Evolution, atheism

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

The Christian Institute had made some responses to the discussion on a proposed 'incitement to religious hatred' law. A worrying aspect of the issue was that a law that was intended to protect religious views could end up being used to legislate against faiths like christianity. I had listened to some testimonies of people from around the world where they had been hounded and eventually thrown out of their own countries due to this kind of law being passed. I wanted to reflect on the changes implicit in this law.

A couple of my friends’ boys are mentioned in the dedication. I think it speaks for itself.

Tags: Law, Evangelism, apologetics, atheism, Wisdom, Truth/Lies, Crisis, Judge

Based on virtually all of my chats with non-christian people I can say that they find it amazing that christians have any intellectual rigour whatsoever. Most of the time there is incredulity and surprise at any suggestion that being a christian is something you can use your mind for. While evidence and argument will never 'prove' it in the way that you might work out my DNA using scientific analysis, there is a substantial and reassuring amount of evidence that accompanies the outrageous claims of Jesus Christ. The aim of this strip is to turn the tables and highlight the regular conclusion (in my experience) that prejudice and narrow mindedness often keep people from becoming convinced by christian truth.

The letter Y is a key player in this strip, and it follows a strong symmetry which I really enjoyed using. The afro character is loosely based on myself as my dad, who had a magnificent one in the 1970s.

Tags: apologetics, Evangelism, Eyewitnesses, Truth/Lies