That's My Boy!

three months old

two thumbs

one mouth

NO PROBLEM

Mouse Captain Design

I always start with pencil drawings - usually with a very hard HB lead pencil. The trick to sharing those pencil sketches is a little Photoshop CS2 to darken the contrast so they could be seen for this post. I finally picked up a brush pen I really like for my birthday. It's a Japanese calligraphy pen, and it is a great combination of flexibility and ink that won't soak through the paper. I really love this pen and the first thing I inked with it is the mouse captain in the lower right hand corner. Enjoy!

Something I gotta tell you…

As I read over Psalm 18:43-50 I am reminded of this commercial for Little Ceasar's pizza. A guy is standing in a full elevator with a bunch of people when he suddenly starts bragging to everyone about how well he ate the night before. He just won't stop talking about how good a deal he got on the pizza he ate last night. David is doing something similar. No. David isn't bragging about pizza. David is bragging about God and all of the things God has done for David. God has given David stewardship over all of the Children of Israel. God has put people under David’s authority whom David had not known. David’s enemies lost any desire to come up against him. God has been a place of refuge and a deliverer from trouble. Now David, like the guy in the Little Ceasar’s commercial won’t stop talking about the things God has done for him to anyone who will listen. Shouldn’t we do the same?

Have you ever noticed when people are first saved how they cannot wait to tell everyone about this great thing that has happened? Before they know anything about what is in the Bible, or have any great grasp of what God asks of us they run off on fire to share this wonderful thing called salvation. But after a while something happens. Either the emotional high goes away or we just get caught up in our lives again, and begin to forget what God’s salvation meant to us when we first believed. This morning I am praying for God to build up those fires again. Let us all be as excited to share God’s love for others as we were they day God first allowed His Holy Spirit to fall on us. Let’s put that guy in the elevator to shame, and show the world what it really means to be excited about God’s love.

A Boy and His Robot

Ink on paper bag from a couple of months ago.

God of War

Our God has many faces. In the Old Testament the God of Israel is often remembered as the warrior God of the desert. The God of Israel made Egypt (arguably the most powerful nation of the Ancient Near East at that time) look foolish when he rescued the Israelites. The God of Israel defended and provided support for Israel's people for forty years in the wilderness. The God of Israel sent Judges to lead the people in battle against their enemies, and crushed Israel's enemies again and again. Psalm 18:31-42 is David's turn to tell us how God gave David the agility and strength to over come all of David's enemies. When I look at verses like these from the Old Testament I sometimes wonder why doesn't God work that way today. The truth is God does, only the warriors are not men on a field, and the stakes are a lot higher than whether the faithful will own a given piece of land. Paul explains the war for us in Ephesians 6:12.

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

With Psalm-like imagery Paul describes how we are to fight this war in  Ephesians 6:10-20. God is absolutely a God of war, but the war is not against men. God is not stretching his hand out to fight Muslims, Taliban, Afgan rebels, child molesters, or rapists. God is in all out war against the very forces which have brought sin into this world. God is working through us the same way He worked through David. God desires to heal the brokenness with people that causes them to think taking from another for personal gain is okay. It does not matter to God if that taking DVD you did not pay for, or the personal integrity of a woman or a child at the hands of a rapist or child molester. God is working through us to share the Gospel with those who do not know and do not care who God is or worse twist God's word as an excuse to take from others both here in the U.S. or abroad in places like Afganistan and Iraq. Make no mistake. Our God is a God of War, in some ways the ultimate God of war. God has already paid the ultimate price by sending His only Son to die for us while we were still not worthy. God is all in - are you? Are you ready to leave your old sinful life behind and to take up the armor of God?

Is Anyone Good Enough?

Verses 20-30 are the reason why I wanted to delve into Psalm 18 in the first place. These verses confuse and challenge me. The text asserts God has saved David from all of his enemies because David is righteous. The reason this challenges me is because I know all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We’re all broken messed up people dealing with emotional baggage of one form or another which is a direct result of our own sinfulness. People can blame Adam and Eve all they like, but let’s not give the first couple too much credit. We mess up plenty on our own. Then we come to verses like these when David says God saved me because I am so good. Perhaps David should have read Job. This Psalm is very different from Psalms David writes after Nathan calls David out for sleeping with Bathsheba and having her husband killed. In those Psalms David seems to realize the sin we all carry. As I read this text it gives me insight into the mind of David. David started out as a righteous guerilla fighter. When you read 1st and 2nd Samuel it feels like David doesn’t pick his nose without asking God first. However, when David becomes king and sets up his kingdom in Jerusalem we see a change. David is no longer going to the Lord in person. David begins acting like other kings and relying on prophets to talk to, and receive messages from God. This Psalm seems to lie right at the beginning of that transition. David thinks very highly of himself, and perhaps this is the start of the fall of Israel as a nation.  Pride has been the death nail of so many wonderful and God given projects. It was in David’s pride he walked into sin with Bathsheba. Pride is dangerous. It can cloud our vision to the dangers around us, and we so easily walk into a ditch without ever seeing its edge. We are left wondering how did I ever end up sitting here in the mud. No one is good enough to deserve the grace God pours out on all of us. No one is worthy of salvation. That is why God’s grace and salvation are such precious gifts.

Missile Mouse Tribute

I've become a fan of Jake Parker's illustrations. I meant to have this finished in time for Jake Parker's Missile Mouse Giveaway, but life has its own priorities. Anyway. This is my take on Jake Parker's character Missile Mouse.

Daddy to the Rescue

When I read Psalm 18:6-15 I cannot help, but think of hearing my son's cries in the middle of the night. Right now Evan cries for food, but in the future the cries will be for skinned knees, bumps and bruises and eventually for broken hearts. I want to be there through all of those times; both good and bad. In these verses David is bragging about the way God came to his rescue. This account of God bowing the heavens and riding on a cherub is not in the historical account of these events found in 1-2Kings or 1-2Chronicles. However, David did have success evading Saul's army as it pursued David and fighting against Israel's enemies. God did come through for David when David was in tight spot after tight spot. This was one of the ways God taught David to trust in Him. Like a bank account, God was putting pennies into the account to teach David, God could be trusted. David was also putting money into the account by relying on God more and more, and by lifting up praises to the Lord God of Hosts, or as the message puts it "Lord God of the Angel Armies of Heaven." This idea of the relationship bank explains what I am trying to do during January. When the semester begins I have so little free time it is very important I pay into the relationship bank with my wife, and with my son. Sure, at 3 months (today) he probably won't remember this specific month, but I hope he will always have the same feeling about me that David has about God. I want my son to know in his heart I will always be there when he is in a tight spot.

God is Worthy of All Praise!

This week I'll be spending time with Psalm 18. It's a longer Psalm so I've broken it up into five sections in order to try to wrap my head around the various messages. Psalm 18:1-5 sets the stage for the rest of the Psalm. David announces his faith in the Lord and God's worthiness to be praised. There is a lot of really neat imagery. Again and again David refers to God as a "fortress", a "stronghold," a "shield," a "rock," on which David bases his faith and salvation, and a place of refuge. More than a rock, God is a deliverer from the harm caused by David's enemies. The imagery of defense and refuge is part of the reason why the Psalms are so popular with so many. The Psalms remind us God is always there when we return to God's house.

This Psalm has a war theme as it tells of a time in David's life when he was hotly pursued by King Saul. There are times in our lives when we feel hotly pursued by all of the things which pull us away from God's love. Either we are fighting with ourselves and some sin which the Tempter knows will trip us up, or we are fighting to offer an appropriate response to the pride, jealousy and sinfulness of the World. Psalm 18's imagery depicting God as a safe refuge from all the brokenness in the world and within ourselves is a tremendous comfort when we, the prodigal, wander far from home.