I was speaking at our church a couple of weeks ago on the closing chapter of Galatians, and as part of the message I wrote a poem called ‘The awful, the wonderful cross’. I didn’t illustrate it in time but I’ll slowly get it done and put it all up here in three parts.

If you’d like to listen to the whole thing read out, you can find the preach here – the poem starts around 2:05 and it’s about 7 minutes long.

If that’s got you in a mood to be amazed by Jesus, allow me to point you to the DVD version of ‘He Was and Is and Is to Come’ which is going to be coming out hopefully Tuesday next week – pre-orders are still open through our shop, with a £1 discount until release day. It’s a stunning piece of work, and I highly recommend it – find out more here.

Hope you had a great Easter break. Whether you got time with family, friends, time off work, don’t forget why this holiday exists – God sent his son to die for us, taking our place, paying in full for our sins. He went to the cross for us, the son of God voluntarily submitting to death so that we could go free. Three days later he came back to life, the confirmation that all things, death included, are subject to him. Jesus is the king of kings, the one who has all authority in Heaven and on Earth. The one who makes sense of your life, the one who calls you into something greater than the cares of this world, the one who lives and who wants you to have life in his name.

If you’re curious, find a Bible (you can read it online for free) and start out by having a read of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Get along to a local church this coming weekend and find out more about him. He is worth your time. Honestly, he’s worth everything you’ve got to give.

We’ve just released a video about Jesus, called ‘He Was and Is and Is to Come’ – also available as a book in the shop page. Take a look at the trailer below – the full video is 15 minutes long, less than the cost of a couple of coffees, and will point you to the one who is beyond price.

 

 

I wrote this poem as part of a preach from the book of Galatians that I did over the weekend. The passage was from Galatians 3:26-4:7, and speaks of slaves, sons and heirs. How trying to live a good life outside of God is like slavery – yet through faith in Jesus we receive a perfect standing before God as our inheritance. We inherit too all the promises of God to his people – promises to bless us, to do us good, to provide for our needs and give us security, to give us his Spirit and even eternal life.

But on their own those things are not enough – if we give our lives to Jesus, then God also calls us his sons and daughters, children of God. This is nothing we could ever earn, yet it’s our identity if we’ve put our faith in Jesus. Jesus said that eternal life is not just a matter of living forever, but knowing and being known by the Father (John 17:3).

I have also put together a video of the illustrations with the poem read out over the top – take a look below. I’m wondering about writing and illustrating something that covers the whole book of Galatians, with its rich themes of grace, forgiveness, and living a truly free life, unhindered by hurtful habits and sins that rob us of joy. As a freelancer illustrator it would be a fairly significant time investment for me – if you would like to support me in bringing it to life, along with future projects through Anchor Lines, then one option would be to take a look at my Patreon page. It’s essentially a service where you can give a small amount of money each month to support an artist or artistic project that you think is worthwhile, and that might not be possible without some financial backing.

If you’d like to see more of my work, we still have plenty of copies of He Was and Is and Is to Come available to order from our online store. It’s a poem written by Stefan Liston of Revelation Church in London, and illustrated by me. You can also grab it from Amazon using the link below – although shipping ends up slightly more expensive there if you’re ordering multiple copies.

The series concludes. John 15:13 says that there is no greater love than this: to lay down your life for your friends. As a principle, that sounds reasonable to me. Every time I see that kind of sacrifice made in the headlines, on film, in a book, it’s a moving thing. The greatest expression of love a person is capable of making. It’s this very act of love that Jesus performed when he went to the cross. He loved the world, all the people of his creation, so much and so indiscriminately, that he laid down his life for them. He paid the awful price for sin, so that anyone who put their trust in him would not have to. Jesus’ love for us is the greatest love. Because he is the ultimate man, death was not the end for him – according to the Bible he rose to life three days later, and ascended to Heaven. Because of the price he paid, death need not be the end for you.

To my mind, Jesus love sets him apart as the ultimate man – no other human ever loved so much as Jesus does, no one could ever give so much for his fellow humanity as Jesus has, and no one is worth trusting, following, and worshipping anything close to the ultimate man – the son of God, the light, the word, the good shepherd, the bread of life, the saviour king: Jesus.

If you’d like to learn more about Jesus, take a look at any of the gospels in the Bible – eye witness accounts of his life. Mark is the shortest! I also recently published a book together with Stefan Liston from Revelation Church in London called He Was and Is and Is to Come. It’s a fully illustrated poem about Jesus that we hope will draw you into greater wonder and awe of this ultimate man. It’s available to order from our online store. You can also grab it from Amazon using the link below – although shipping ends up slightly more expensive there if you’re ordering multiple copies.

Okay, I might be reaching a bit on this one. The opening of John’s gospel says that ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ The teaching of the New Testament is that the son of God became fully human (whilst also remaining fully divine, but we can puzzle over that another time). There’s a good article on Jesus’ humanity over at Desiring God if you’d like to read a bit more on that.

Now if he’s fully human, he will for his time on Earth have been just as susceptible to disease and illness as we are. On the other hand, the Bible never records him getting ill (other than the ordeal of the cross). Also, almost whenever Jesus encounters ill health he prays for the patient and they are miraculously healed – the notable exceptions seeming to be those who lack faith, for instance in Nazareth in Mark 6:4-6. Would Jesus have suffered through head colds and tummy bugs to better understand and sympathise with humanity, or would he have prayed to his Father in heaven with complete faith for healing and be shot of them? I don’t know. The Bible doesn’t tell us, but for the purposes of this comic, I’m going to go ahead and say that he was a manly dude and he didn’t take a whole lot of sick leave.

We’ve a house full of sickness this week, so not much of a post for you today. Suffice to say: suffice to say, the ultimate man seems kinda like he would be a leader. An Alpha male. People followed Jesus. Over 2,000 years after his birth, people are still following him, and showing no signs of stopping.

Apparently, it’s nearly Christmas! If you’re looking for a gift for someone, may I perhaps suggest He Was and Is and Is to Come , which is available to order from our online store! You can also grab it from Amazon using the link below – although shipping ends up slightly more expensive there, especially for multiple copies.

If you’re thinking that sounds like a great idea, but you were thinking about spending more on that special someone than the absurdly modest price this book is selling for, consider this: why not get them 6 copies instead? Chew it over.

My wife and I have different approaches to sleep. This wasn’t something that we discussed in advance when we got engaged, it wasn’t something that featured in our marriage preparations, perhaps assumptions were made on either side that we would both take a similar line when it’s time for rest, but that wasn’t to be the case.

She is a light sleeper, and I am not so much. She is also a relatively quiet sleeper, and again me not so much. In defence of my sometimes inconsiderate sleeping habits, I like to think that the inability of loud noises and on occasion fire alarms to wake me displays a certain level of peace and contentedness. There is perhaps something of a caricature of rugged manliness about sleeping any old where, snoring and farting away while the cares of the world pass you by.

I don’t really like annoying my wife when she’s trying to sleep, but I do sometimes appreciate the ability to doze when the immediate circumstances are conspiring to try and stop me. All that being said, if my family and I are in genuine danger, I think I’d rather be awake. In Matthew 8:23-27, Jesus and his followers are crossing the Sea of Galilee in a fairly small boat, and a storm blows up. Some of these guys were professional fishermen before becoming his disciples – they’ve spent most of their lives on these waters, and it’s enough of a storm that they’re panicked. The wind is howling, the waves are crashing, the boat is rocking, the disciples are becoming seriously concerned that they won’t come through this one, and Jesus curled up having a nap. You’re going to need some bigger waves if you want to ruffle this guy.

They wake him up, and rather than eyes widening in understanding and alarm, he essentially rolls his eyes at the others, criticises their lack of faith, then calmly looks out over the rolling storm and tells it to hush. And like a scolded child, the wind and the water settles down and sits there very quietly so as not to get into any more trouble.

Jesus can sleep in the storm because even the elements themselves recognise who he is. The ultimate man – he was there in the beginning, when God spoke the universe into being. Hebrews 1:3 says that he upholds the universe by the word of his power – even while he’s fast asleep in the prow of a boat. You will never meet anyone else like him – but you can meet him. The Bible tells us of the God who loved us so dearly that he would send his only son to rescue us from ourselves, from the penalty for our sin. The son who died and rose again, and who will gladly make his home in your heart if you give your life to him. Here is the ultimate man – who else are you waiting for?

 

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As a reminder, He Was and Is and Is to Come is now available to order from our online store! You can also grab it from Amazon using the link below – although shipping ends up slightly more expensive there, especially for multiple copies.

Good news! He Was and Is and Is to Come is now available to order from our online store! You can also grab it from Amazon using the link below – although shipping ends up slightly more expensive there, especially for multiple copies.

I’m over the moon with how the book has come out – partly with the quality of the finished product, and partly that the mammoth process of illustrating, editing, printing and organising that’s involved in bringing a book to life is finally complete. It’s been a big job, but absolutely worth it. We’re really proud of this – I think it’s got real clarity and strength to it, both in focussing believers on their saviour, and displaying to those who don’t know Jesus just why it is we’re so crazy about him.

Thank you to all those who have supported us in getting this far – do please leave reviews on Amazon if you buy it over there, and if you like the book then tell your friends about it!

The books have arrived! I’m extremely happy to have taken delivery of some of our first printing of He Was and Is and Is to Come. It’s felt like quite a long road getting to this point, and it’s wonderful getting to see the finished product on something other than a computer screen. Preliminary test results reveal a smooth page turning action, enviable hand-feel, precision balance and a high resistance to the destructive influence of toddlers.

We’re working as fast as we can to get all of the pre-ordered copies out to everyone. As I said before, we’ll be using Amazon to ship the books as there’s a few too many to handle ourselves. We’ll hopefully be getting them over to their warehouses this week, and from there out to you guys as soon as possible. I’m sorry not to have them to you by October as we had originally planned, but the wait won’t be much longer – thank you again for all your support and encouragement.

Here are a few pictures of the finished tome:

Last but not least, some wonderful friends made me this amazing cake. It is as delicious as it is beautiful! I don’t think it’s just the sugar talking – this is a very very exciting week for me.

Today the book was on press – meaning all the separate sheets of pages are being printed off, ahead of trimming, binding and finishing next week. I’ve been working with Swallowtail Print in Norwich to get the book printed, who have been extremely helpful. Mike Dawson over there offered for me to come and have a look at the book being printed – here’s some pictures!

 

Here’s a big stack of paper for the book’s cover. We’re printing 2,000 copies, they’ll get about 3 full covers out of each sheet.

These are the aluminium book plates – this book is being printed in the standard 4-colour process – a mix of cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow and black inks are combines in various quantities to make every colour required for the book. They fit around 6 pages to a plate, and for each page there will be one plate for each of the four colours. I think this is the blue plate for some of the first pages – so some of the panels have a lot of ink (those with lots of blue in) and some have hardly any – i.e. pages that are blank, or panels that are mostly red or yellow.

This is one of the plates loaded on the press. It will slide down into the machine and fit around a big roller, which then transfers the design onto another roller before it gets applied to the page. There may be additional rollers I’ve forgotten about. Ink gets basically poured in at the top.

Plates stacked up ready for use

This is probably my wife Ali’s favourite page, because she drew part of it. I won’t tell you which bit.

This is the press – actually the smaller of the two presses they use, although it still seems pretty hefty to me. You can see several aisles along it for each of the separate colours – so in each aisle there is a set of rollers and a plate loaded. The rollers do their rolling, and the paper passes underneath picking up colour as it goes. Then it shoots out of the end, but for some reason they have it collected neatly in a pile rather than blasting out all over the floor.

This is Mike, surveying a day’s work with unfeigned satisfaction.

If you can ignore a touch of blurriness, you will see two happy Dans here. One is Dan the printer, who is doing an excellent job, and the other is Dan the illustrator (me!) who is extremely excited.

This is a video – it’s like a picture, but it moves!

Mike and Dan checking the colours to make sure it lines up with what they’re expecting it to look like. It’s one thing to see what you’ve drawn on screen, and quite another to see it on paper. It’s immensely comforting to see that it looks how I expect it to, and that my monitor hasn’t just been terribly adjusted all this time!