I just want to encourage everyone who may be going through something to remember that God sees you. He knows what’s going on in your life, He knows what you need, and in His time he will bring you through! If we keep it real, we all can recall times when we felt like this wasn’t the case…times when we felt like God had abandoned us. The Bible states in Hebrews 13:5 (which references Deuteronomy 31:6) …” for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” and that’s the truth. The bottom line is that, as Christians, we will go through things. Our Christianity doesn’t make us immune to adverse situations of this world but it does give us the tools and power to overcome them. We’ve all heard Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper…”. This verse means just that, the weapons won’t prosper, but it doesn’t say that they won’t be formed! This basically says to me that we will go through things.

Let’s take a look at how good God is! Hebrews 13:5 applies to all of us no matter what! There are times when we go through adverse situations that have nothing to do with anything we’ve done, as in the case of Job. Job is a perfect example of a person going through something when they felt they were living right, and they don’t understand it. C’mon we’ve all been there, well probably not to Job’s extent, but we’ve felt like it. Does this sound familiar? “Lord why me, I serve at my church, I pay my tithes, I’m spreading your word, I’m constantly in communion with you, why is this happening to me?” To those of you who are feeling this way right now I’d like to remind you that God sees you and He will never leave you or forsake you. Continue to serve the Lord and as with Job, in His time he will restore you and you shall come forth as pure gold! Then you will glorify God in your testimony!

Now, there are also times when we go through adverse situations that are the direct results of decisions that we’ve made, as in the case of David. David was a King and at a time when Kings were out to battle, David was at the crib chillin’… he was out of position! When he saw Bathsheba and asked his boys about her, they told him she was married but David hooked up with her anyway and got her pregnant. Then, to cover it up, he brought her husband Uriah back from battle so he could hook up with her and think the baby was his, but he didn’t, he wanted to stay loyal to his fellow troops so he wouldn’t go home to be with his wife. David even got Uriah drunk and that still didn’t work! So David sent Uriah back to war and told his boys to put him in the toughest part of battle so he would be killed. After Uriah was killed David married Bathsheba.

Now when all of his sin came out David immediately repented and God immediately forgave him, but that didn’t mean he got a pass, there were still consequences. David would have to endure the loss of a child, the embarrassment of Absalom, his son, sleeping with his (David’s) concubines in public and, oh yeah, the fact that Absalom was trying to kill him. While the things that David went through were brought on by his own sin, God, the same God we serve, forgave him and still brought him through all of this and restored him to his throne! God is good! He brings us through things that we bring on ourselves, even when we don’t deserve Him to do so, because he loves us! To David’s credit, once he repented he let it go. He didn’t continue to beat himself up over what he had done even though it nearly ruined his life. He simply got back on track in his walk with the Lord and stayed the course. David remembered that God saw him, and God did not leave him or forsake him! Finally, David glorified God in his testimony…he danced…and we can all dance like David did because we know God sees us too!

I watched this video on Facebook called “satan’s plan” and the premise is that Satan’s goal is to keep us (Christians) so busy that we have no time left for God or our families. I have to say that this hit close to home. It mentioned debt and how we work crazy hours just to stay current. It mentioned today’s society with television, computers, smart phones, etc., and how our minds are distracted with too much information. It even mentioned things like positive activities for the kids that keep us constantly running. We all want our kids to have positive extra-curricular activities, but how much is too much?  For most families, in a typical day there’s no time for them to sit down and eat dinner together. I submit to you that dinner as a family regularly is priceless. OK, back to the subject at hand, I’ve attached a link to this video at the end of this post.

The enemy has a lot of subtle tricks and we need to have a regular, constant, ongoing relationship with God in order to recognize them. Our relationship with Christ is at the core of our being. God created man to worship, praise and glorify Him. So everything that we do in life should come back to those principles which are relational. God desires a relationship with us and I guarantee that once you build your relationship with Him you will see and feel differently. The trip thing is that once you have built a relationship with Him and you happen to slack off because of the business of life, you will see and feel that difference too. It’s like there is a void that needs to be filled when our relationship with Christ is missing. God is Real!

Here are a few suggestions. We should read and study the Bible regularly, daily is great! We need to spend time in prayer, praise and worship daily, throughout the day. In most cases this will require us to get up a little earlier or go to bed a little later, but it’s worth it. Additionally, I’ve found that drive time can be essential. It’s good to turn off KJLH, WJLB, or in my case sports talk radio, and commune with God on the drive. Oh yeah, we need to do these things when life is good not just when we are in a life crisis.

I’m looking to revamp my daily schedule right now and I encourage you to do the same in order to start, build, or enhance your relationship with Christ…He is waiting!

satans plan

I’m in the process of laying out page 69 and I’ve run into a challenge. This page calls for a scene where our villain is at a night club surrounded by gold digging, scantily clad women of the world. How does “scantily clad” fit into a Christian comic?  One could argue that since these characters are only in one scene and that “scantily clad” defines these women’s character, it’s OK. I disagree. If I’m creating a Christian comic then I need to look at all of the possible pitfalls, even if my view goes against general comic book trends.

“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28, NIV)

Comics/graphic novels are generally targeted at adolescent males, hence the need, i.e., use, of women drawn with body parts that aren’t physically possible, in poses that are sexually oriented, wearing inadequate clothing. If I draw women like this then the possibility of me leading the readers into unpure sexual thoughts is very likely. While this may be great for mainstream comics/graphic novels, I believe it is counter productive for the Christian comic and irresponsible for MY Christian walk. 

In addition you have the “objectifying women” dilemma. In many folks’ eyes this may seem trivial but I’d like to share a quick story. I was designing Zoe, Silk’s love interest, so I was just sketching women from some magazines trying out different looks. When my daughter looked at my sketches she asked “Dad why are their breasts so large, and why is she standing like that?” My answer was “that’s how they draw them in comics” as if this was supposed to make it OK. I asked myself “What am I teaching my kids by drawing women this way?” I had fallen into doing the status quo and as a Christian that is dangerous. God tells us “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Romans 12:2, NIV). Well, there you have it I need to do it God’s way. 

So my challenge is to draw these women characters so that the reader knows exactly what type of women they are (gold digging, women of the world), only I can’t draw them with the general exaggerations of loose clothing, sexual poses, and overdone body parts.

Yep…it’s going to be a challenge but “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13, KJV). Holla!