Churchtoons, cartoons from Church

Showing posts with label christian living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christian living. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Be Afraid, be very afraid


 Many Christians deem certain actions or beliefs as necessary and then use fear to scare others into obeying those actions. When Christ appears to His disciples, He tells them NOT to be afraid (John 20:19-31). He even reassures the group by offering to let them touch His wounds. How do you dispel fear from those you encounter? Do you show them a God who reassures them?

Sunday, March 31, 2024

Where did you say Jesus was?


 Mark 16:1-8 relates the story of three women who tried to attend to the body of Jesus, but were surprised to find He was not in the tomb where they last saw him. Jesus had risen from the dead and had left the tomb. Like the people of His day, we often assume that we know where Jesus is, but He never seems to be where we expect Him to be. Where do you think Jesus is right now? Could you be wrong?

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Jesus is Coming! What Does that mean to you?

 


Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem was met with great joy and with great fear. The religious leaders of the day understood that Jesus was dangerous to their power structures and might bring unwanted attention from the Roman government (John 12:12-16). How do you comfort others, when your great joy and triumph comes at their expense? 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

BigGuy gets 'snaked'


Numbers 21 relates the story of God's people being plagued with a snake infestation that resulted in many sicknesses and deaths. The remedy was to simply look at a replica of the problem, a snake. Looking at the bronze image brought immediate relief and healing. Maybe the Church needs to look at Jesus and what He taught so that healing can come. How can you look to Jesus for the love that you need to give today?

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Lose Your Life by...What Now?


Peter argued with Jesus over His upcoming death. This lead to the well known verse that states anyone who wants to save their life must give it up (Mark 8:35). Oddly, modern Christians seem to have taken this to mean that they should give their lives to gaining and exercising power instead of sacrificing for the good the others. In what ways do you sacrifice in order to give to others?

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Meanwhile, life without Jesus got harder...

The wonder of Christ's transfiguration is quickly confronted by the hard reality of those disciples left behind (Mark 9). To make matters worse, the disciples who had witnessed transfiguration were forbidden to talk about it. Do you join those living the hard reality of life while doing the work of Christ or do you find yourselves trying to relive an exciting mountain top experience?

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Big Umbrella


 Often Christians seek to limit access to Christ by rejecting others. Paul seemed to do just the opposite, in1 Co 9:16-23 Paul declares that he is 'all things to all people'. Paul's willingness to open the door of the church to all who would come caused discomfort and clashes between devout followers of both the Hebrew God and the pagan deities. Who would you exclude in order to be more comfortable?

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Who are you calling weak?


 The term 'weaker brother' is describes a Christian who is offended by certain behaviors (1 Co 8). While the passage is often used to bolster our opinions of our own spirituality or worse, to condemn others who exhibit behaviors we dislike, the point of the passage seems to be the need to demonstrate love. Paul is willing to limit his freedoms in order to show love to his brothers. How do you show love to the Church? 

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Fishers of Men


 Jesus promises to make His disciples 'Fishers of Men (Mark 1).'  We might be tempted to use this phrase as an excuse to treat our relationships as a sport or as a means to an end. Christ's relationships encourage a change of perspective. Asking Christ to save us should change our orientation from selfishness to honest concern and care for others. How have you changed your perspective to others.

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Using Paul to clobber others


 Christians are infamous for using Paul's writings to condemn any behavior that they feel is not acceptable. One example is 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. Some translations chose words that specifically condemn the LGTBQ community, instead of accepting that anyone who refuses to give up power and pleasure taken by force should repent. Have you ever reinterpreted the Bible for your own purposes? 

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

What time is it?


 Galatians 4:4 describes the birth of Christ as being in the Fullness of Time. The phrase not only reminds us that God works on His own timetable, but also that the time was transformative. being the 'fullness' of time points us to the changes that Christ's presence brought. We now understand that Jesus would preach a transformative message that changes us from the inside out. Have you experienced this transformation?

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

How do you make room?

The famous story of how Christ was born in a manager (Luke 2) is often used to illustrate how we don't make room for God and His word in our lives. But, we might also be reminded of the Old Testament stories of hospitality. If the family knew that Mary was about to give birth to the King of Kings, it seems they would have provided better accommodations. How do you accommodate others in order to make room for Jesus? 


 

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Isolating together

 

Luke 1 describes two miraculous pregnancies that unite two very different women, Elizabeth, an older woman with a highly-regarded social status and her young cousin, Mary, an obvious target for the social elite's dismissal and disdain. The two women isolate themselves during this time, but still find joy and strength in their connection. What connections do you have that bring you joy?

Monday, December 4, 2023

God makes the religious leader voiceless


After 400 years of silence, Israel was promised a prophet of God would be coming through the priest Zacharias. When Zacharias asked for a sign that this would happen, he became silent until the naming of his son, the prophet, John (Luke 1). God made the religious/social leaders voiceless and promised to hear those who had been voiceless. Who do you think our current religious and social leaders make voiceless?

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Kings gonna King


 God makes it clear that Solomon's unrepentant idolatry led to the transfer of power from Solomon's family line to another. The transfer of power would also cause the nation to divide into two kingdoms weakening both. The promise to Israel was this was not forever, and that one day David's heir would govern a united Israel again. (1 Kings 11)What judgements do you look forward to ending?

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Personal Echo Chamber


Breaking with old testament law and the religious norms of the day, gentiles with no ties to Jewish tradition were invited into the most holy spaces of worship that the Church could provide (Eph 2:14). Both Jewish and non-Jewish were given authority and a voice in the way churches operated. What can we learn from the early Church's radical acceptance and willingness to engage with those around them?

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Who do you use?


 While King David's life is full of good and heroic moments, like all lives, it is also marred by sin and selfishness. Adonijah's struggle with Solomon for the throne illustrates one of the key failures of David's character as it seems to affect his family. Every player in the story views Abishag, a poor Shunamite woman, as a pawn that can be used to further an agenda, rather than as a person worthy of love and care. 1 Kings 2.

Sunday, November 5, 2023

A Place in the Church

The apostle Paul urged the early church to receive both Jewish and non-Jewish believers (Rom 15:7), excluding neither group. Today the Church seems to exclude others based on cultural norms and political ideology. Who do you find yourself excluding from the life of the church?

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Send in the Clowns - literally


 2 Corinthians 9:6-9, encourages us to give cheerfully. We may give out of guilt, fear of God's wrath, or in hopes of gaining more material blessings from God, or from some other motive that fails to truly be 'cheerful.' Perhaps cheerful giving is rooted in understanding that no matter who we give to or what we give is less important than the God who lets us connect with others through giving.

Monday, October 23, 2023

Rizpah's Care


 To keep Saul's heirs from recreating their father's legacy of genocidal acts, the Gibeonites convinced David to send all of Saul's heirs to the Gibeonites who would then kill them. By spotlighting one of Saul's wives, the story highlights the utter despair that comes from embracing war and retribution. Rizpah's selfless act demonstrates the care and respect lacking in the Gibeonites and in David. How can you care for others?

Welcome


Each of the cartoons on this site is an expression of a sermon I heard in church. As a cartoonist, my method of understanding complex theological topics is to boil them down to simple images.

These images will never do justice to the sermons from which they are derived, but hopefully, they convey at least one aspect of those sermons to you, the reader.

I hope that you gain some benefit from the cartoons and will reuse them in ways that honor Christ.