IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Stretch

Just coming out of the election season, the Illustration Friday Challenge word stretch took me here. Stretching the truth is no longer truth. The truth is pure and as Jesus said, Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Tall

Maybe it’s because school started this week but I just couldn’t get this child-like illustration of a Giraffe made out of the letters spelling the word “tall.” (Yes I know the “L’s” are backwards, call it artistic license.) I know it’s pretty elementary but it was fun to do and it got me thinking.

Did  you ever wonder why you were made the way you were made? I think we all have things in ourselves that we’d  like to change. If that’s you,  consider the giraffe. That long neck has to be a, well, a pain in the neck, but it is actually a perfect design. As a matter of fact here is a whole article about the unique anatomical characteristics designed into the giraffe just to make it work. Ultimately God created an animal capable of eating from the tops of the trees. The giraffe is perfectly designed for what it was intended  to do.

Perhaps so were you. Short or tall, God made us all.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: FREEZE!

The IllustrationFriday.com challenge was the word Freeze and maybe it’s just because I watch too much NCIS but the first thing I imagined was a police officer shouting Freeze! Sometimes I think it would be a good idea to have an image like this posted at various places, to make us stop and think before we take an action or make a decision. How many things in our lives would improve if before we did something rash our little “internal cop” would yell “Freeze!” or maybe he does and we just don’t listen???

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Bounce

The challenge for the week was the word Bounce. I thought of basket ball and hopping animals but the thing  that really stuck in my head was bouncing checks. Then an old and thoroughly inappropriate saying came to my mind from my distant blurry past. People used to say, “Don’t write a check with your mouth…”  I won’t finish it. It’s not appropriate. What usually happened was someone would be getting a little too arrogant and insulting and decided to take it out on someone who could beat them to a miserable  pulp.  The sentiment really comes down to this, “watch your mouth! What you say can and will be used against you in the form of physical  violence.”

Certainly I’m not an advocate of physical violence nor  am I a fan of arrogant and demeaning  speech. Neither is God. In  James 3:5 and 6, we read, “⁵ Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” It’s true. Your mouth can create huge problems, so be really careful what you say.

Earlier in the passage James 3:2, we get a pretty nice antidote, “If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.”

What kind of “checks” are you writing? What would happen if one bounced?

A Reminder from CREACHER

Everybody is a leader of someone. Where are you leading them?

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Lost

The challenge of the week was Lost. Lately I’ve been dabbling with pop-art and there was this piece I was already working on that pretty much sums up the ultimate reason we get lost. It all comes down to a choice a long time ago. God told his first two people they could have everything they wanted in the paradise He created for them. There was only one thing they could not have. Unfortunately the one thing they could not have became the apple of their eye and they made a choice. Reject God for the only thing he did not give them. It sounds senseless, but we do it every day, every time we choose something that God tells us not to do.

What was their prize? The tempter told them they would be like God knowing good and evil. Let’s examine that. They already knew good, they were surrounded by everything good and had daily communion with God in person so what did they really gain by their sin? They got to know evil. In the same way when we choose sin we get the privilege of dealing with the consequences not to mention sometimes unleashing those consequences on the people around us.

You may finally ask the question, why did God put that tree there in the first place? Why did He allow them to be tempted? Believe it or not, because of love. You see love is a choice. Without an alternative, would ti really be love? They got to choose whether or not they would love God and they chose wrong. Today we are surrounded by billions of harmful choices, and the way to resist them is same as it has always been. Choose to love God more. Anything less is a lost choice.

Yes we are surrounded by temptations and consequences on every side, but hope is not lost. God gave His only Son to die on a cross to pay the price for our sins. If we will put our faith in Him, He will save us and lead us through this minefield called life.

Hope is not lost. Hope is a person. His name is Jesus.

(If you’d like to purchase a print of the image above, click the image, or get it on a T-shirt here.)

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Refresh Please Read this Post and Help Refresh Someone Who Really Needs It

When I saw the IllustrationFriday.com Challenge was Refresh I had a swirl of thoughts. The first of which was the refresh button on a web browser. Then I thought that would make a great logo for a bottled water product. From there I started to think of Jesus’ offer of living water from John 4. I was originally just going to design a mock up of an ad for this product and tie it to scripture and then I opened another e-mail from World Vision act:s. It turns out they are looking for designers for skins for Miir water bottles.

So I decided to take that project on too and combine the two. If my design is selected (by your votes), the manufacturer will give a dollar for every bottle purchased to clean water charities to provide clean, safe, water for people who desperately need it.

I am going to break one of my rules and post this posting twice. I’m posting today so it makes it onto IllustrationFriday.com but I will post again on July 9, which is the day the voting opens. Please vote for this design of for than matter any other designs you may like and then when they come out, buy a bottle. Let’s help save some lives with World Vision act:s

Voting opens July 9. Click here to vote!

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Space

I’m not saying that loneliness is necessarily a Spiritual problem but simple that we serve a God who never promised never to leave now forsake us. If you’re lonely, He is with you. Seek Him.

On the other hand, I am not saying it’s never a Spiritual problem, after all sin separates us from God and you know what that means? If you’re feeling far from God, see the above promise and realize it’s not Him who moved. You can turn back to Him and He will welcome you with open arms, because He loves you with a perfect, unconditional love.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Shiny

I made this piece a little while back to be my head shot but a friend (Brenda Hendricks) suggested that it should be my entry for this week’s IllustrationFriday.com challenge of illustrating the word Shiny.

The idea behind the piece is a play on the old symbol of a lightbulb over the head as a symbol for an idea. My idea is being turned in by the scarred hand of Christ. This reminds me where my best ideas come from and where I should go when I need a new idea, to prayer and to God.

The best way for a creative to shine is to have a God-given idea and then run with it.

IllustrationFriday.com Challenge: Hurry (Featuring Creacher)

Sometimes we live life that way, don’t we? We’re always in a hurry. We’re always trying to do one more thing. We live our lives as if it all depends on us.

Today, I have good news, it doesn’t. The world will keep turning if you take a break, I promise.

The Bible reminds us, “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10 NIV) It doesn’t all depend on you, it all depends on God and He wants you to know, you can depend on Him too.

In case you need another reminder…