Getting nowhere mighty fast

In today's society, we spend time watching TV, watching movies, reading and replying to e-mail, going on Facebook or Twitter or MySpace, running errands, driving here or there...and, for those who attend church, we may sing in the choir, or be on the church council, or serve as an usher...

Much activity. A lot of motion. But is there spiritual progress?
Like a rocking horse, are you moving constantly, but not really making any progress, sometimes even sliding backwards? Real Christian growth is not achieved by much activity. Christian growth can be achieved when we face trials, tribulation and persecution. But spiritual growth will not happen unless we spend much time in the two basic foundations that are necessary for real Christian growth: intimate, quality time spent reading and studying God's Word; and quality time spent in sincere, heartfelt prayer to Yahweh God, through His Son, Jesus Christ. Time spent in praising God is also important, and we get our spiritual exercise by witnessing to others and telling them the good news, that they can only be saved from Hell if they surrender their lives to Jesus Christ. But the foundation is Bible reading/study and prayer.

Don't be like a rocking horse, with much activity but no real progress.
Spend time in God's Word and in prayer today.


I drew the rocking horse above in Adobe Illustrator.

(The basic idea for this article was inspired by Rocking Horse Christians)

Bargaining with God...and...'Porn Again' for God

Bargaining with God

"Little Johnnie desperately wanted a bright red wagon for Christmas.

His friends were writing letters to Santa Claus, but Johnnie decided to go one better.

"Dear Jesus," he wrote, "If I get a red wagon for Christmas, I won't fight with my brother Hank for a year." Then Johnnie thought, "Oh, no, Hank is such a brat, I could never, ever keep that promise." So Johnnie threw away the letter and started again.

"Dear Jesus, if I get a red wagon for Christmas, I will eat all my vegetables for a year." Then Johnnie thought, "Oh, no, that means spinach, broccoli and asparagus. Yuck! I could never ever keep that promise."

Suddenly, Johnnie had an idea. He went downstairs to the living room. From the mantel above the fireplace, he grabbed the family's statue of the Virgin Mary. Taking the statue to the kitchen, he wrapped it in newspapers and stuffed it into a grocery bag. He took the bag upstairs to his room, opened the closet and placed the package in the farthest, darkest corner.

He then closed the closet door, took a new sheet of paper and wrote, "Dear Jesus, if you ever want to see your mother again..."
(from: Christian Jokes)


I drew the above 'little red wagon' in Adobe Illustrator


TESTING THE FAITH
'Porn again' for kingdom of God
Ex-stripper starts Christian ministry to help people tied to sex industry
from WorldNetDaily

"A former stripper is taking off all pretense when it comes to the Word of God, as she's on a mission designed to bring porn stars, nude dancers, and people addicted to pornography closer to salvation.

"We pattern our ministry after the very ministry of Jesus by actually going to the people who need him," says Heather Veitch, who performed in Las Vegas and California. "Our desire is for people to see that Christianity is anything but boring and restrictive. In Christ, we are free to experience adventure, pleasure, forgiveness, hope and peace."

The 31-year old full-time hairdresser has created a sparkling website called JC's GirlsGirlsGirls which has had 40,000 hits in three months. The concept was launched this summer in the wake of the alcoholism death of a friend and co-worker from a strip club in Colton, Calif. So far, it has helped several nude dancers to start attending church.

A Christian for the past five years, Veitch also cares for her terminally ill husband and her two children, ages four and 13.

"As a successful Vegas stripper, I lived life to the extreme," says Veitch. "I partied with celebrities, traveled, and found pleasure in the lifestyle that stripping provided. However, deep down inside I was terrified to die. Feeling like I would eventually pay the price for the life I lived, I began 'bargaining' with God."

"The pleasure, excitement, attention and love I get from living my life in the way God planned is far better than the unfulfilling and regretful life I lived before asking Jesus into my heart," she adds.

Also part of the JC's Girls team are Lori Albee and Tanya Huerter, married teachers who grew up in Christian homes, and appear in glamour-gal shots on the website.

"They remind me of 'Charlie's Angels,' but they are for real!" says documentary filmmaker Bill Daly in an on-site testimonial. "They're fighting false glamour with real spiritual beauty."

The gals also run a blog on site, providing the public with the latest information.

An entry from Heather dated Dec. 1 reads: "Lori, Tanya, and I are learning all about porn conventions. There is so much crazy stuff that you need that we would have never thought of ... like carpet."

WorldNetDaily

The origin of the candy cane

OK, I know it's not Christmas. But sometimes at work, I have drawn things that never got published. Like back in December, I drew several toys and other Christmas-related items, and they never got published. So, I thought to myself, "What can I use them for? I mean, after all, I did spend time drawing them, so I might as well use them for something." And, since I have recently been having a hard time coming up with blog articles (when I first started this blog, I would have material lined up for months in advance, but now, it's getting harder to come up with stuff), I thought, 'Why not try to use some of the graphics I drew in some blog articles?' I remembered that, during Christmastime, there are e-mails that go around that tell the origin of the candy cane, and, since I drew a candy cane a couple months ago, I figured I would use that as a start. So, here we go. The below article is from ChristianHistory.net.

Raising Cane
The origins of the candy cane.
Elesha Coffman | posted 8/08/2008 12:33PM
from ChristianHistory.net

"Lately we've been getting a lot of e-mails inquiring about the origins of various Christmas customs. We'll take a look at some of these legends, starting with the candy cane.

From searching the Web on "candy cane story," I learned that the confection's conception is a very hot topic among Christians. On countless homepages, as well as in several gift books, every facet of the cane's construction was attributed spiritual significance.

According to most of these sources, a faithful Indiana candymaker developed the treat as a witnessing tool. The candy is hard because God's church is founded on the rock, white because of Jesus's purity (or his virgin birth), peppermint flavored as a reference to cleansing hyssop, and curved to represent a shepherd's staff and/or the letter "J" for Jesus. Accounts vary regarding the red stripes, though they all agree that red stands for Christ's blood. Depending on which story you read, three small stripes might represent the Trinity, or small stripes could mean the stripes by which we're healed, or our small sacrifices in comparison to Christ's ultimate sacrifice (represented by a large stripe). One site even suggested that the green stripe sometimes featured reminds us that Jesus is a gift from God, though why green signifies a gift I don't know.

The motivation for candy cane apologetics can be seen in a quote from one of the sites: "Doesn't it seem strange that something we often see as unimportant and insignificant can be turned into something so vibrant, so important, simply by knowing its origin?" Of course, the same site proclaims that candy canes were originally a code between English Christians in the seventeenth century, when all public religious symbols were banned. That's simply not true, and neither are most of the other stories.

So where did candy canes come from? Tradition holds that in about 1670, the choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral was frustrated by fidgety kids at the living Nativity. He had some white, sugar-candy sticks made to keep the youngsters quiet. The sticks were curved like shepherds' staffs in honor of the shepherds at the stable (score one for the apologists). The idea caught on, and candy sticks became common at living Nativities all over Europe.

In 1847, a German-Swedish immigrant named August Imgard put candy canes on his Christmas tree in Wooster, Ohio. The sweets gained popularity here, too, and around the turn of the century, they assumed their now familiar properties of red stripes and peppermint flavoring. (Though these elements might have been added for symbolic purposes, there's no evidence to confirm that theory.)

In Albany, Georgia, in the 1920s, a candymaker named Bob McCormack made canes as special treats for family and friends, but the confections were difficult to mass-produce. Then, in the 1950s, Bob's brother-in-law Gregory Keller, a Catholic priest, invented a machine to speed up the process. Other members of the McCormack family worked on new packaging to keep the canes from breaking in transit, and Bob's Candies (www.bobscandies.com) became the world's leading candy cane producer.

So yes, the candy cane's origin was Christian. But it was almost certainly not designed to be the tasty theological treatise it's now purported to be. As Barbara "the cane mutiny" Mikkelson posted on the Urban Legends Reference Pages (www.snopes2.com/holidays/xmas/cndycane.htm), "It's charming folklore at best, and though there's nothing wrong with Christians now finding (and celebrating) symbolism where there wasn't any before, there is something wrong with myths being presented as fact." For the sake of history, I have to agree with her."


I drew this candy cane in Adobe Illustrator.

Building Character

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

Although I have never experienced physical persecution, as many Christians in other countries do, I know that even the minor irritations I sometimes experience can be used by God to build character in me.

At work, my boss is the Design & Graphics Editor for the city newspaper, and I am a Contract Graphic Artist there (he and I are the only ones who do the artwork for the newspaper). He is a strict perfectionist who constantly criticizes me and my artwork.

The following are some illustrations I did in Adobe Illustrator CS2, which my boss said were not good enough to publish (or else he just didn't like them). Basically, he gave me an assignment to draw something, then, after I drew it, he said it wasn't good enough. This happens often. The bottom one is a scan of a sketch I did, which he also rejected. A few times he has said that my work was very good, and obviously, many times my artwork has been published (or else I would have been fired long ago), but very often, he says that what I drew is not going to work, or that its not good enough, or that he just doesn't like it. In the case of the illustration of the City Manager below, even though he rejected my illustration, he used a couple pieces of it in his own artwork, and he signed only his name to it. Many times he will have me draw a few items, which he will add to the artwork that he has done, but he will sign only his name to it, and take all the credit. Ah, well, he's my boss, after all, and I am getting paid to do it, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. Plus, as I said, I have already had many things published under my name. After a while, the initial rush from having your work published starts to wear off and become old, anyway. Fame is not all that its cracked up to be.

Art is a very personal thing, and having your artwork rejected, especially on a constant basis, is frustrating. Nevertheless, I am trying to keep my eyes on eternal things, and not on the things of this world. This job is only a temporary thing, after all. Less than 60 years from now (maybe far less), I will be in Heaven, and these minor frustrations will be forgotten.

Some of my rejected artwork:

In brightest day...

Click on image to enlarge


I created this in Adobe Illustrator, adding an effect in Adobe Photoshop, using a couple images I found on the Internet for reference. I made up the poem, based on Green Lantern's oath. I created it in response to my friend Russ, who suggested we form a Green Lantern Corps against Blog Trolls, after he had some blog trolls leave comments on his site. He also has a Green Lantern Blog Troll Guardian image on his sites:
The Kingpin
Satire and Theology

I will post this on the right hand side of my blog site from now on, though you will have to scroll down a little ways to see it.

He and I both enjoy superheroes, as is evidenced on another of his sites:
Comic Book covers


(image found on Internet)

Green Lantern's oath begins with, "In brightest day, in blackest night,
no evil shall escape my sight."


(image found on Internet)

The Bible says about evil:
"All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'" (Mark 7;23)

"Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." (John 3:20)

"But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." (Romans 2:8)


(image found on Internet)

Green Lantern uses the strength of his will to control his power ring. The Bible says that we must surrender our will to God and follow Him.
"I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." (Psalm 40:8)

"Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground." (Psalm 143:10)

"Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10)


God is the only One Who can create things out of nothing by the power of His will:
"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." (Revelation 4:11)

Green Lantern uses his power ring to create forms out of energy. The Christian uses his/her faith in reliance upon God, Who can accomplish even the seemingly impossible:
"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20)


(image found on Internet)

Green Lantern's oath continues with a warning to all who worship evil to beware.
"There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked." (Isaiah 57:21)


(image found on Internet)

Energy Saver Light Bulbs

A friend emailed me the link to the above video, which was ironic because, weeks previous to watching this video, I created an illustration that talked about the exact same thing and which showed the exact same steps described in the video. Below is my illustration.

I created the following in Adobe Illustrator. The bottom two images are scans of the final revision of my artwork published in the local newspaper. Click on each image to see a larger image.

John McCain

I drew this yesterday in Adobe Illustrator CS2.
I posted my drawing of Barack Obama on Wed. here.

I don't know who is going to win, but between the two of them, I would choose McCain, even though McCain was not my first choice at the start (he wasn't even my second choice). None of the candidates have been ideal, IMO. It seems that quality candidates are getting harder to come by.

Barack Obama

I drew this in Adobe Illustrator CS2 on Monday (June 9). Many are concerned and even worried that if he becomes the next President of the United States, things are going to take a huge turn for the worse. Only God knows what will happen, but I believe that the United States has been going downhill for quite some time now.

Interview with a tattoo artist

I don't like tattoos. Though I am a Graphic Artist, I personally think tattoos mar the beauty of the human body. However, both my nephews have tattoos (plus, my niece has her tongue pierced and her lower lip pierced), and a friend of mine, who is a strong Christian, has both arms covered in tattoos (though he got them before he was saved, and he regrets the tattoos now).

Leviticus 19:28 even says, "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord." However, this was a command from God, specifically to the Israelites, after they had left Egypt as former slaves. They were going to the Promised Land, which was Canaan. Canaan was currently occupied by pagans who practiced child sacrifices and other horrendous acts. God did not want His followers---His people---to disfigure their bodies after the manner of the pagans. Lacerations and disfigurement were common among pagans as signs of mourning, and to secure the attention of their deity. God wanted His people to be separate from these pagans.

Not only that, but the verse before (verse 27) says, "Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." This is a prohibition still followed by orthodox Jews today. Yet, this verse demonstrates that these commands were for a specific people. I don't know of any Christians who believe that if you cut your hair, you are sinning. In fact, when I was attending Bob Jones University, they had a rule that your hair could not touch your collar or your ears, and your bangs had to be at least an inch above your eyebrows. I was told that someone actually used the verse mentioned above (or possibly a similar verse) to try to keep from getting a haircut! However, I think they still made him get his hair cut.

Many Christians today would consider a tattoo parlor an ungodly place. Yet here is a guy who apparently uses the art of tattooing for the glory of God:

Using martial arts weapons to paint with

"The lordship of Christ should include an interest in the arts. A Christian should use these arts to the glory of God, not just as tracts, mind you, but as things of beauty to the praise of God."
(Francis Schaeffer, "Art and the Bible")

Philippine-born Rick Alonzo paints with martial art weapons: