Reflections from the community: 

At 12 years old, Jesus sat among the teachers in His Father’s house, listening, asking, and answering.

They had spent their lives studying the written Word.
Now the living Word sat before them.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)

I drew an earlier version of this piece some time ago, but it always felt unfinished. The new anime trailer brought me back to the idea, so I decided to redraw it properly.

Every textual element in the piece comes from Scripture. Behind Him, I placed Psalm 119, the longest hymn to God’s Word, using the Hebrew text of the Masoretic tradition (I should have used a version without niqqud for historical accuracy, but it was too difficult to revise). For the scroll across His lap, I used Leviticus 4–5. Along the left side, I added the Latin Vulgate phrase Verbum caro factum est, meaning “the Word was made flesh.”

The asymmetrical eyes and cruciform halo were inspired by the Christ Pantocrator of Sinai. Within His glowing unearthly right eye, I placed the blood-red דבר (dabar), meaning “Word,” to represent His divinity. His left eye has a softer and more boyish quality that reflects His humanity. Together, the two eyes show Christ as both fully divine and fully human.

The mole beneath His earthly left eye matches the one in an older drawing I made of the Virgin Mary. It is a quiet reference to their human bond as mother and son. I also made their eyes intentionally similar.

For the title at the bottom, I chose お父さんの家, “Dad’s house,” rather than a more formal expression. The childlike お父さん emphasizes that He is still only twelve years old. I also used the katakana イェシュア(Yeshua) instead of the conventional Japanese イエス(Iesu) to retain more of the Hebrew pronunciation of His name.

This piece is made in CSP. I used the Gpen at size 7–9 with strong anti-aliasing and soft airbrush. I rasterized the background text, warped the scroll text with mesh transform, and shaded the piece with screentone layer and duplicated coloring layers set to Multiply then clipped everything on top since I hadn't started from a grey base (rookie mistake).

I listened to Stand For You while revising this piece, and it suited the mood surprisingly well. I had it blasting at full volume, highly recommend it!

I hear summer break has started in the US! I hope everyone is enjoying some quality time with family. As for me, I will continue making my way to the office...

Anyone like my drawings?
If you can, rate them, and PLEAAASE be brutally honest

"I think one problem is that people today equate Christian faith with believing the Bible is inerrant. This is a modern view that simply seems like 'common sense,' but it only seems that way because fundamentalist views of Christianity have convinced not only fundamentalists but most everyone else in Christianity that if the Bible has any mistakes, Christianity can't be true" - Bart Ehrman

There seems to be this ongoing idea that non-believers consciously decide not to follow Jesus

Belief is not opinional

You cannot decide to believe or disbelieve anything

Your brain either accepts something or cant accept something

A Christian cannot magically switch their brain to believe in Hinduism just because they'd like to, this is not how brains work

Why do Christians still use the word "Reject"?

I dont think Christians do it maliciously, it seems like a concept theyve just never really thought about

So I have been a big fan of my favorite anime for a very long time. And since I am almost 18 I really wanted to get the joestar tattoo for my birthday! I also want my favorite bible verse tattoo'd later when I finish reading the bible to remind me that God is always there for me. But I often worry about everything I do being a sin. I am very paranoid that might be caused by my mental health. I doubt that everything I do might be a sin and I really wanted to ask if getting this tattoo'd is a sin or if I can do this. It would help a lot.

Manual drawing ink on paper A5

Hello everyone,

I recently acquired this cross and would love to learn more about its history, origin, and purpose. After doing some research, I suspect it may be connected to the Ethiopian Christian tradition, but I would prefer not to make any assumptions and would appreciate the opinion of those with more knowledge.

Here are some details:
- Height: 37.5 cm (14.8 inches)
- Weight: 580 g (20.5 oz)
- Openwork metal construction with a blue-green patina
- Hand-engraved inscriptions (possibly in Ge’ez)
- Religious figures on both sides
- A small hinged compartment at the bottom

I would greatly appreciate any help with the following:

1. What type of cross is this?
   
2. Which Christian tradition does it belong to?
   
3. Approximately how old might it be?
   
4. What was the hinged compartment used for?
   
5. Can anyone identify or translate the inscriptions?
   
6. Are there any distinctive features that could help identify its origin or period?

I’ve attached detailed photographs of the front, back, inscriptions, and the hinged compartment.

Any information, references, or insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for your time!

Many churches in the UK are failing because of high maintenance costs and Christianity becoming less popular. What should happen to them in the future?

I for one think it would cut down on the constant questions of "is it sinful to drink beer?"

"Can I eat popcorn on Sunday?"

"Is it wrong to walk your dog with your tattoo showing?"

Long ago, pretty much a Month Ago, I made a Post requesting others to Pray for Me because I described the Psychological Abuse that has happened in my Household, which was mainly driven by the belief that I *must* stop being a Trans Girl and become a Cis Boy. The Prayers were mainly to make sure my Plan to seek Help from LGBTQ+ Organizations would Succeed.

In the end, I didnt talk just to a LGBTQ+ Organizations, I also talked to a Helpline for Minors going through Abuse, which apparently is also capable of sending in my Country's Child Protection Services, which where I live are Simply called "Social Services".

Two Days ago, the Social Worker who interacts with our Family to help us with State Welfare called my Father to the Office, and yesterday he was told that this Social Worker's Colleagues would come visit our house. Besides coming out to my Childhood Friend who witnessed my Mother giving birth to me, (She also revealed to me that shes Bisexual) I talked to the Social Workers who came to our home and I can say that my Parents will officially stop all attempts at changing my Gender Identity.

This is because the Social Workers explicitly stated that if my Parents ever try to suppress my Gender Expression, force me to cut off Friends just because they Support me or are Queer, or perform a "Small Exorcism" against my Will with the Desired Outcome being Identity Change, they will get in SERIOUS Legal Trouble.

Whether I can begin the Psychological Percourse towards getting HRT (Which lasts from 6 to 12 Months) is yet unclear, but its said I will indeed begin a Psychological Percourse that does NOT involve someone whose best Advice for Gender Dysphoria is "Focus on your Hobbies and pretend the Dysphoria doesnt exist", and my Parents will also begin one with a Separate Professional.

I hope any other Fellow Trans Girl out there whos going through what I went through before Finding the Light manages to reach the same Victory as me, the Era of being free to exist as my Authentic Self has just begun.

I was watching a video of Jimothy the raccoon, and how people love him and think he’s so cute and funny. So many people have made fan art and even murals of him, but obviously he is a raccoon, he doesn’t know about any of this. Do you think they’re are people in heaven rooting for us like this? Maybe there are people doing amazing things out there that we on earth don’t know about, but in heaven they know of it and celebrate it. Or maybe there’s someone out there that watches your awkward convos and silly dancing and then you’re a viral meme in heaven, or whatever they have.

Obviously the goal in life is not to be a meme in heaven or have murals painted, but to worship our creator. But it made me curious, Jimothy has no idea he’s famous because he has no communication with us, could that be happening with us and people in heaven?

Multiple religions have appeared long before Christianity, and some still exist to this day. We can look at Hinduism, Buddhism, Hellenism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and countless others that came before. So why Christianity? Why is it that Christianity, to Christians, is the only legitimate religion? I haven’t heard or seen solid proof supporting that claim.

I'm a former Catholic Christian; I used to believe in the Christian god. But now, these thoughts have started appearing in my mind whenever I try going to church, and believe me, I've tried going against them. I just want someone to give me a plausible reason as to why I should return to the church.

I didn't see a post mentioning that he died yesterday. I grew up in an independent Baptist Church and we still sang his songs in youth group. Granted, I'm Canadian too but I know how some had an impressive reach. If you're wanting some examples:

Come, now is the time to worship

Refiner's fire

I lift my eyes up

It's a sad time for the Vineyard church and lovers of older worship music.

I believe in Jesus and have relationship with him.

Yes I like pleasing God,but the sound of living for enternaty sounds boring and not good to me.

Like to me death is blessing,if God showed mercy and said you can spend in heaven I would ask can you put me death forever.

Because for me death is beautiful part of life and I couldn't stand living forever.

My claim is pretty simple. I don't believe in god. But, if someone was like "I'll create this thing and it fails the majority of the time" I feel like we would all judge that as a failure. Yet when God does it some how he gets no blame for his creation being a majority failure? Especially when his intentions were for us to not fail (and he literally controlled everything)