**Smile**……..CLICK!

Hello, Creative Worshipers!  Hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall weather we have been having…and the beautiful colors of autumn.  What a masterful creator our God is!

I hope you have also had a chance to check out two of Rebecca's adorable new stamp sets, Capture This Moment and Living Water.  I just love her whimsical style and the fact that these sets can be used for card making as well as for Bible Journaling.

This card was made with some happy fall colors of distress ink, some washi tape by Illustrated Faith, and Capture This Moment, Mini Critters, and the Hearts & Stars Scallop Border Die Set.   Doesn't it just make you want to SMILE! 

The Living Water stamp set is perfect for illustrating so many verses of scripture and know that I will be reaching for this set over and over again, but the verse I chose to illustrate for today is in Exodus 14 where God parted the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to pass over on dry land in order to protect them from Pharaoh.

Sometimes, out of fear, we stay camped out in the same familiar place…afraid to move ahead.  It is very easy for me to want to remain comfortable.  As we take a step of faith and move forward, God goes with us!  

My pastor preached from this verse of scripture not long ago so a tip in was created and added to this page to remember some of his main points.

We must not allow the enemy of our soul keep us in 

~the camp of bitterness

~the camp of unforgiveness

~the camp of depression

~the camp of lethargy

~the camp of easy street!

What has God been asking you to do?

Move forward in order to reach the Promised Land, and remember…you will not be alone!

The stamp sets used to create this page include Living Water, Classy Script Alpha, All of Me Alpha, and What's Up?

Be sure to check out these stamp sets and others at the 

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Store.

Until next time…get into the word, and let the word get into you!

Have a wonderful, leaf crunching fall day!

Hugs,

Cathy

Hope Has Come

{jane bosi}  Happy Monday, Sweet Friends!

A great way to start any day or week, for that matter, is to spend some time in the Word.  Today, I'm sharing from the very beginning of the New Testament, in Matthew.

While I realize we have just started to see the leaves change and fall, I'm already thinking about the birth of our Savior and celebrating this years' holidays!

To complete my page, I started by sponging some distress ink in one corner.  The main image is from Receive the Savior--such a precious image!  It's colored with a combination of distress and spectrum aqua markers.   Finally, I used several other sets:  Seek Him, Classy Script Alphabet, and All Your Heart. 

Seek Him with All Your Heart--Jane

Brand New - Living Water!

Perhaps you've been wondering when you might see some new Creative Worship stamps. Well, wonder no more! This week we are featuring our newest Creative Worship stamp set illustrated by Rebecca Rios called Living Water. It's got Rebecca's signature whimsical feel and the versatility you love.

This set includes 3 cloud images and many various water images, as well as specific words and phrases that will be perfect when journaling about water, which is a common theme throughout the Bible so I'm certain you will grab this set again and again. It's also wonderful for cardmaking and scrapbooking. Living Water also coordinates very nicely with the following Sweet 'n Sassy stamp sets: Happy Ocean Friends, Beauty by the Sea, Wish You Were Here, Flourish Seashells and many of our other Creative Worship sets.

For this amazing page, Rebecca used Living Water and Awesome Thoughts (the thought bubble in that set makes a great cloud!) Her watercoloring is exquisite, don't you think?

For my page I also used Living Water with my own lettering, as well as our What's Up Arrow dies and All of Me Alpha.

Our Creative Worship Team will be sharing more pages with you using Living Water in the near future!

Focus on Jesus

"...He (Jesus) came to them, walking on the sea." 

Matthew 14:25 (parenthesis added by me)

"...And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus." Matthew 14:29

Happy Thursday, Sweet 'n Sassy Friends!

Can you imagine what it must have been like to see Jesus walking on water coming towards you? Scripture tells us in Matthew that the disciples were terrified. I bet that would have been my response too! Jesus immediately reassured them that it was Him and that they shouldn't be afraid. And then, Peter spoke up. Ya gotta love Peter! He wanted to walk on water too! Jesus told him to come, and he did- he walked on water...until he took his eyes off Jesus. Matthew 14:30 says, "But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" (Emphasis added by me.) While Peter was focused on Jesus, he could walk on water. When he took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink. So that's a lesson for us too!

Walking on water for us can be anything we're uncomfortable doing, anything that seems impossible, anything we've never done before. It can be a little thing or a big thing. But we can do it by focusing on Him and relying on His strength. And you know what? If we do take our eyes off Him and start to sink, He's there to keep us afloat just like He kept Peter from sinking.

The stamps primarily used for this page are being featured tomorrow! (And one of the stamps used is from a set being featured next week.) It's fun to get a sneak peek! The set is called Living Water. I love this set! There are so many verses and passages it is appropriate for. 

Focus on Him, my friends. Have a blessed week! Andrea

Forgiveness

{jane bosi}  Hello, Sweet Friends!  I've been thinking a lot about forgiveness lately.  Probably because I made a gigantic mistake that ended up bringing pain into the life of someone I love beyond measure.  The long and the short of it is--my mistake left my loved one feeling....forgotten, unloved and looked over.

Gosh, but those are feelings I know all too well.  To realize I was the cause of someone else feeling this way, really made me think. 

1.  I did seek forgiveness from the one I had wronged.  I was dismayed that the response didn't match the depth of my sadness over the event.  My apology was not instantly accepted!  I struggled to understand why the truth of my heart wasn't enough to change things.  I imagine this is often how Jesus has felt in reverse.  He is offering all that He is and, yet, so many of His beloved ignore the gift, or fail to understand how precious of a gift it is.

2.  I really had to give some thought to all of the people and situations that had left me feeling forgotten or unloved.  I KNOW my recent situation and the truth is, my mistake had nothing to do with the other person--who I love more than my own life--it had everything to do with my own selfishness, my own weakness.  How often does our own brokenness affect others?  It really made me think with more compassion about those who I've felt had wronged me.  Again, in my selfishness, I've only considered my feelings.  Bearing with one another means, I must consider their story--I don't have to know it to consider that it is powerful; to offer compassion and understanding rather than jumping to the conclusion that "they're so mean!!"

Colossians 3:12-13:  "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and , if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you forgive."  Oh, what a world it would be if only we could master this!

I'll keep trying--will you join me?

Be Awesome, Jane

I got crafty with:  Scribble Flowers and Words of Life, Collection 2

You Are More Valuable

But the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:31

Yesterday I did a page on 1 John 4:18. God reminded me that there is no fear in Him because He is love, and perfect love casts out fear. Today, he is reminding me that not only is He perfect love, but He gives His perfect love. There is not a day that goes by that He doesn't think of you. He calls you His. He knows every hair on your head. You are of precious value to Him. The life of Jesus, His Son, was the price of your worth, and His love didn't stop at the cross.

God is always thinking about you, loving you, weaving together all of His promises. He takes the time to know the hairs on your head, and He will take the time to fulfill His plans for you. We might not always see or understand what He is up to behind the scenes, but rest assured that He is taking care of you. 

Happy Thursday, valuable friend. 

Lynzee

For this post I used the upcoming "How Tweet" stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy. Be on the look our for the release of these cute birdies on October 14th! 

Thank Him

 

I already told that I like to add a couple of messages to one page. And this is another page where I wanted to do that. There are just too many beautiful things in the word of God ;). Today I highlighted a little part of 1 Corinthians 1. I can add a little bit more journaling on top and beneath the stamped image and I really like to use these borders to 'separate' the different messages on my page.

 

I stamped my images with black ink and colored with colored pencils.

I used the stamp set 'All your heart' for this page.

- Lucinde

God is Working

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Psalm 130:5-6

Hello Sweet 'n Sassy Friends!

If you asked my family, I don't think they would say patience is one of my strengths! It's hard for me to wait. But, time and time again, God's Word tells us to "wait for the Lord". And, I bet we can all think of stories in the Bible where men and women have had to wait, sometimes for a very long time... Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Zechariah and Elizabeth...just to name a few. Why should we wait and trust God's timing? Because He is faithful. Because He is good. Because He is Right. Because He will work all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). God has a purpose and a plan that is bigger than me and you, but He loves each of us personally and completely. And that's why I choose to trust in Him and His timing even though it's hard. I love the imagery of verse 6. Waiting for the Lord is like waiting for the sun to rise! We know that it will happen; and we know that it will spread light and warmth.

For the page, I used 2 Sweet 'n Sassy sets that I absolutely love! Truth Quotes 1 has 6 quotes that are great for Bible journaling. They fit perfectly in the margin! And all of them can be used to illustrate many different verses. Here are some examples of a couple of other pages I've done using this set.

The other set I use for the Psalm 130 page is Scribble Flowers. I stamped the quote and the flowers with pigment ink, then used embossing powder and a heat gun to emboss. So, yes, you can emboss in your Bible if you've never tried that before!

If you are in a time of waiting, I pray that you can trust and rest in Him. He loves you! Andrea