Joyful ‘toons Blog

I received a notice recently from my web host that my website, joyfultoons.com, was exceeding the monthly bandwidth transfer limit of 10,000 MB. Basically what this means is that there is more data being transfered from my website than I am allowed. I suppose this is a good problem to have, as it means my collection of cartoons is growing, and the number of visitors to the website is increasing. But it also meant that I needed to find a way to reduce the amount of data being transmitted. Since most of the data on my website is in the form of jpgs, I decided to start there. And as I had two versions of each cartoon, one using the New International Version of the Bible verse, and one using the King James Version, it seemed the obvious solution to eliminate one of the versions.

A little background on why I had two versions of each cartoon: when I first launched the website back in January 2007, I used many different English Bible translations for the Bible verses. I used the Amplified, the New Living Translation, the English Standard, the New Century, etc.; but mostly I used the New International and the King James versions. Then I started to receive requests from some readers wanting to know if they could substitute the KJV for the other versions. Sometimes it was just a personal preference on their part, but often someone would tell me that their particular church did not allow the use of other versions of the Bible. This was a revelation to me. I had not been aware that there were churches that discouraged, or even forbade the use of modern English Bible translations.

Anyway, I was undecided as to how to respond to these requests to substitute the KJV for whatever version I had used. I was reticent to allow anyone permission to alter my cartoons, but I wanted these people to be able to use my cartoons in their church. About that time, I was approached by a book producer who was interested in trying to publish a book of the cartoons. For the purposes of the proposed book, she and I decided that all of the cartoons should use only one version of the Bible, and that it should be the NIV. So, I went through all of my cartoons and changed all of the Bible verses to the NIV, and I thought as long as I was doing that, I would also make separate KJV versions of each cartoon. I changed all of the cartoons on the website to the NIV, and then I made a link that brought up a separate browser window containing a KJV version of each cartoon. Even though we never found a publisher for the book (I’m still hopeful we may find one someday), I was glad that it led to a solution for the KJV only readers.

Even though the KJV cartoons are no longer displayed on the website, they are all still available to anyone who needs or wants them. Just send me an email and let me know which cartoon you would like to have, and I will email it to you. I can even send you the entire lot of KJV cartoons in a compressed file if you wish. I will be including both the NIV and KJV versions of each new cartoon that I send out in my weekly emails. I’m hopeful that I will be able to restore the KJV cartoons back to the website someday.

My cartoon “God’s Gift”, which was posted to my website back in December of 2009, was upsetting to some. I received several emails from people who did not like that I had used Santa Claus in the cartoon. One person even wrote that the cartoon was sinful.

I have to admit, I was not surprised. I expected that I might get that reaction. Santa Claus is a very distressing character to many Christians. I remember an incident years ago, in my hometown of Jacksonville, where a pastor hung Santa Claus in effigy outside his church. It caused a bit of a stir back then.

I can certainly understand why Santa is so upsetting to some Christians. The true meaning of Christmas is, of course, the birth of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. What gets Christians angry about Santa Claus is that he has pretty much replaced Jesus as the meaning of the season in a lot of people’s minds. It’s ironic, since the Santa Claus myth is based on a real person, St. Nicholas, who was a Christian priest back in the fourth century.

In spite of all that, I have to say that I don’t really consider Santa Claus to be very threatening. In my mind, he’s just a fictional character, one that has been overused in television commercials, television shows, and movies. I know some people are horrified when parents pretend to their children that Santa is coming to their house on Christmas Eve. I see it as an elaborate prank that parents get to play on their children. My parents played the Santa gag on me. I remember my Dad taking me outside on a chilly morning to show me the reindeer hoofprints in the yard. Even though I was very young and gullible, I somehow wasn’t buying it. But, I was certainly willing to accept Santa’s gifts on Christmas morning.

The idea for the cartoon came to me while I was reading Romans chapter 5. There the Apostle Paul uses the word “gift” several times in referring to God’s grace to us in sacrificing His son Jesus on the cross, to redeem us from our sins. That word “gift” made me think of that famous gift-giving character, Santa Claus. I thought I could use him to picture the gift of grace that God gave us through His son Jesus. Rather than using Santa to obscure the meaning of Christmas, as so much of our modern American society does, I thought I could use Santa to point to the true “reason for the season”.

I apologize to all who were offended at my cartoon. It was certainly not my intention to upset anyone. Incidentally, not all of the email reaction to this cartoon was negative. I actually received more positive than negative comments. One person even told me that it was my best cartoon.

My website, joyfultoons.com, was offline for a few days, from Saturday, January 2 till Tuesday, January 5. What happened was that my domain name had expired on January 1, 2010, and then also my monthly web hosting bill didn’t get paid on time. I was a little short of money, and I had some other bills that were behind as well. Thank the Lord, He provided my wife and I enough money to get caught up on all of our bills, and also get the website back online again. I very much appreciate everyone who has supported the website over the past three years, and I apologize for allowing this to happen. I’ll do my best to see to it that it doesn’t happen again.

I received an email back in October of this year (2009) from Reinhardt Burger of South Africa. In the email Mr. Burger asked me if I would send him a high resolution file of one of my cartoons, titled “Faith Cup”. He told me it was the cartoon “that started a new walk with the LORD”. A text document attached to the email gave more details. The first sentence mentioned the cartoon: “On 14 November 2007 our Father moved the spirit of one of his servants through an email he received with the cartoon as seen below to start a Grace Café in Hermanus, South Africa.” The document went on to tell how the writer was inspired to open a Christian Coffee Shop ministry in his city. He described the coffee shop as a place where people can drink coffee or tea, read Christian literature, listen to Christian music, and receive sound, Christian counseling. You can find out more about this unique minstry at www.gracecafe.co.za.

I wrote back to Mr. Burger and asked him if the idea for the Grace Café was really inspired by my cartoon. It seemed unbelievable to me. He replied, “Yes, you are right. The Grace Café concept started with your cartoon.” What an encouraging example of how the Lord can take something you’ve done and use it to bless and inspire others in ways you could not possibly imagine.

The real Grace Café in Hermanus, South Africa

I’ve added another new page to the Joyful ‘toons website: a page of some of my cartoons in Portuguese. The page is launched with 40 Portuguese cartoons, but I have many more to add in the future. Many thanks go to Jonathas Tenório from Brazil for translating the cartoons for me.

"Rescue 'copter" in Portuguese

I recently revised another of my older cartoons. The cartoon was originally titled “Endurance”. It was first published on the Joyful ‘toons website in 2007, though it is older than that, dating back to the 1990s. I remember the idea was sparked by a message given by a visiting minister at my church. One of the subjects he talked about was endurance, and afterward I thought about how a camel was a picture of endurance. A camel can survive the harsh, hot, dry environment of the desert because it has water stored in it’s hump. I thought of the water as the Word of God, which we should store in our hearts, and which will allow us to endure the hardships of life.

The original camel cartoon

Usually, the idea for a cartoon comes from my reading, hearing, and thinking about a particular passage of scripture. For this cartoon, I had the idea, but didn’t have any Bible verse in mind. I eventually used James 5:11, which talks about the perseverance of Job, but I wasn’t completely certain it was the best choice. I went ahead and published the cartoon using that verse, and then I didn’t think much about it, until recently, when I was working on a Spanish translation of the cartoon. I decided to re-do the lettering and make the camel and riders a little larger in the picture. While I was at it, I thought I would see if I could find a better verse to go with it. With the help of BibleGateway.com, I believe the Lord lead me to a verse that is a better match for the picture: Romans 15:4.

The revised camel cartoon

This verse talks about how the scriptures can teach us, and give us endurance, encouragement, and hope. It seemed to me the verse really went well with the cartoon I had drawn. I hope the cartoon will be an inspiration to those who are in the midst of their own, personal deserts. And if you’re not there, you probably will be at some point. When we find ourselves in a time of trouble, we know we can endure the trials, if we have taken the time to store the Word of God in our hearts. We can find the encouragement and hope that will get us through them, when we turn to the scriptures.

When I first published the Joyful ‘toons website back in January of 2007, I really didn’t consider the world wide reach that it would have. Of course, I knew that the “www” stood for “world wide web”, but for some reason, I was still a bit surprised when I started receiving email from people in far away places. Then I started getting requests to translate the cartoons into other languages. With the generous help of many of my readers, a number of the cartoons have been translated into many languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Arabic, Indonesian, Malayalam, and Telugu. A couple of those languages, I did not even know existed.

As the translated cartoons began to accumulate, I started to think about adding some foreign language web pages to the website. I am happy to announce that the first of these is now online: Caricaturas Alegre en Español. It is 99% complete. There are just a few finishing touches to make. There are currently 32 Spanish cartoons ready to view, and I’ll be adding more in the future.

I must thank some people for helping me with the translations. First of all, Luis Alvarez in the U.S., who got the ball rolling on translating the cartoons into Español. Secondly, Pastor Jose David in Spain, who made some very helpful suggestions. And third, Wesley Jones in Panama, who helped me finish the cartoon translations, and worked to translate the web page. I understand very little Spanish myself, so I couldn’t have done it without them.

I intend to add more foreign language pages to the website in the future. In the meantime, if you are interested in using any of the translated cartoons for your church or Christian group, please send me an email.

The Joyful ‘toons email list recently passed a significant milestone. I added my 5,000th subscriber. When I started the email list approximately two years ago, if you had told me there would eventually be over 5,000 subscribers, I might have had a difficult time believing it.

The idea of having an email list was suggested to me by two different readers. At first, I managed the list with my Mac Address Book, and sent the email using Mac Mail. As the list grew longer, I began to realize that I needed something better. Then I discovered the Dada Mail computer application. Even with my limited knowledge and experience, I was able to get it set up on my website by carefully following the instructions provided.  Now I use it to automatically add (or subtract) subscribers to the list, and to send out my weekly email. I recommend it to anyone who needs to manage a large email list.

I remember there was one time, early on, that for some reason I didn’t get a cartoon finished on time, and so I didn’t send out an email that week. I was genuinely surprised and touched at the number of people who emailed me, wondering why they hadn’t received the weekly cartoon, and asking if I was OK. I hadn’t realized how much people appreciated getting the cartoon in their inbox every week. Now I’m careful to send out a cartoon each week, even if I have to resend an old one.

The weekly deadline to finish a cartoon and get it out in an email has been a good discipline for me. It keeps me on schedule, and I have been able to maintain the pace of one new cartoon per week, rarely missing a week. So, I am thankful to those two readers who suggested the idea of an email list, sometime around two years ago.

If you would like to subscribe to the Joyful ‘toons email list, please go to the subscribe page of my website, enter your email address, and click “submit your information”. The subscription is free, and your email address will not be shared with anyone.

My cartoon for June 1, 2009 has received more than the usual response from readers. I received a nice vote of confidence from many readers, while others were not so sure. They were a bit skeptical of the cartoon, while also being thoughtful, considerate, complimentary, and in some cases, quite informative. I think that, perhaps, some of those who took issue with the cartoon didn’t quite get what I was trying to say. Hopefully, this blog post will provide some clarification.

The point I am trying to make with the cartoon is simply this: that we should try to remember that those who have a relationship with the Father through Jesus are your brothers and sisters in the Lord. The guy who is following Jesus along with you is your brother, even though he may be in a different group with a different label. The cars on the train represent the different denominations within Christianity. Though separated by their disagreements, the characters in the cars recognize that they are still united together on one train, because they are both connected to the engine (Jesus) and the coal tender (the Holy Spirit), and they are both running on the same track (the Word of God). Both of the characters are heading to the same destination. Salvation is not found in denominations, but in Jesus. Without the engine (Jesus), the cars aren’t going anywhere. The theme of the cartoon is the unity of the church in Jesus Christ.

Of course, I understand that there are those groups which are not a part of the true church. That is why I included the car that is labeled “false religion”. It may look like the other cars, but it is not connected to the engine (Jesus), it is off on the wrong track of false teaching, and it is not going anywhere. In Romans 16:17, the Apostle Paul warns us about them.

I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.

These people are not serving our Lord Christ. They lack a relationship with Him.

I have been involved in various church denominations and Christian groups in my life. One thing I hate is to hear someone in one denomination belittling or ridiculing their brothers and sisters who are in a different denomination. Certainly, there are disagreements among the brethren on various issues. I, of course, have my own views on such matters, based on my own understanding of the Bible. But we should not allow such disagreements to cause us to lose sight of the fact that we are still brothers and sisters in Jesus. The Apostle Paul wrote about this in Romans 14:1-4:

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

If we are serving Jesus, even if we disagree about some things, He is able to make us stand.

There is, however, one thing that we absolutely must agree upon: the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, this is the issue of first importance.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

I believe sound doctrine is important, but I do not believe that doctrine alone can ever unite the Body of Christ. Unity will not be achieved by a creed or a list of principles. Unity is found in a person, Jesus Christ. When we are all rightly related to Jesus, then we will begin to be rightly related to each other.  I chose 1 John 4:2-3 to go along with the cartoon because I think those verses point to the one central thing that brings us together as Christians: our relationship with Jesus. It is also the main thing that separates us from the rest of the world.

In the book of John, chapter 17, Jesus prays to the Father on behalf of the future church. Here is a portion of that prayer, from verses 21-23:

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their (the apostles’) message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

What will bring us to complete unity? Jesus in us, and we in Jesus. I believe that God is in the process of answering Jesus’ prayer.

Another cartoon of mine tries to make the same point about the unity of the church in Jesus Christ.

My cartoon for May 17, 2009, titled “Strike It Rich”, is one that I have had on my computer hard drive for a couple of years, at least. I don’t know if I still have the original sketch on paper or not. Fortunately, I had scanned it and saved it on my computer. It depicted a prospector from the American old west who is dancing with joy over a gold nugget he has found while digging in his mine.

The original "Strike It Rich" sketch

I guess I have heard several Bible teachers and preachers use the metaphor of mining to refer to Bible study. Phrases such as “digging for nuggets of truth in the Word of God” were the inspiration for the original sketch. But when I finally got around to finishing the cartoon, I looked for some verse in the Bible that used this particular metaphor, but couldn’t find one. The only passage I could find that spoke about mining was in the book of Job, chapter 28.

Even though I couldn’t find a specific verse that referred to the Word of God as a mine, I still think it is a valid illustration. The verse I did use, from Proverbs, Chapter 2, verses 4 & 5, speaks of searching for wisdom and understanding as you would look for silver or search for hidden treasure.

This idea of searching for the truth, of seeking for God, is found throughout the Bible. Deuteronomy 4:29 says But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul; Proverbs 25:2 says It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings; and Act 17:27 says God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. There are many other verses that speak about seeking the Lord.

I think it is an interesting idea that God wants us to look for Him. He is, in a way, hiding from us - not because he doesn’t want to be found, but because he wants us to seek him. One way that we can search for God is to read and study His Word, the Bible. In the finished cartoon I changed the pick into a shovel, to make it easier to write the word “study” on it. And I added the other two old west characters to provide a commentary on the prospector. I hope the cartoon will be a reminder and an inspiration to Christians to spend time reading and studying the Bible. And maybe it can be an inspiration to those who don’t know the Lord to seek Him.

The finished cartoon