Higher Help

Hello friends!  Sometimes your friends, the world, the government, your spouse, and even your church do not have the answers or the help you need when your heart is overwhelmed.  Sometimes helping others can get your mind off your own troubles for just a while.  Sometimes listening to worship music can lift your spirits.  Often I can find solace in the Psalms...time and time again I read about how much God loves us, how he hears us when we cry out to him, how God alone is our salvation, and our hope is in him alone!

The hills and sky were watercolored with Neocolor 2 Crayons.  The elephant (**so cute**) from the Fly High stamp set designed by Rebecca Rios was colored with Prismacolor Pencils and the balloons were pieced with washi tape.  A white paint pen was used for the highlights.  Skinny Caps Alpha, Skinny Lowercase Alpha, Words of Life: Common Words 1, Awesome Thoughts, and Seek Him stamp sets along with some hand lettering were used to complete this page.

"Hear my cry, O God,

listen to my prayer;

from the end of the earth I call to you

when my heart is faint.

Lead me to the rock

that is higher than I,

for you have been my refuge,

a strong tower against the enemy."

(Psalm 61:1-3) ESV

These stamp sets used for the page above are available at the 

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Store:

If you are feeling overwhelmed and your heart is faint, higher help is available for you!

Cry out to Jesus!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! 

I hope you've been lifted up!

Hugs,

Cathy

Help me grow

 

 If I'm honest I don't have a lot of words to say today. A friend of us passed away this weekend and I feel a bit 'empty'. Luckily we are assured that he is saved by the blood of Jesus and that he was a man of the word of God. And today I want to let the bible speak about this message. I want to be a woman of the Word, I want to grow in the way that God wants me to grow. I want to be a seed that He can use. 

So I want to ask Him if he will help me to grow, according to His words...

 

I want to share a story from Matthew 13: 

That same day Jesus left the house and went out beside Lake Galilee, where he sat down to teach. Such large crowds gathered around him that he had to sit in a boat, while the people stood on the shore. Then he taught them many things by using stories. He said: A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field. While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the road and was eaten by birds. Other seeds fell on thin, rocky ground and quickly started growing because the soil wasn't very deep. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and dried up, because they did not have enough roots. Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked the plants. But a few seeds did fall on good ground where the plants produced a hundred or sixty or thirty times as much as was scattered. If you have ears, pay attention!

I want to listen to the voice of God and take root and grow and be productive.

I made a couple of pictures while I was working on this page. I used the stamp set 'Living Word'. Before I started my page I layed down the stamps I was going to use to see if everything fitted the page. After that I stamped them with black ink and made a background with distress inks. I colored the images with colored pencils and that's all!

- Lucinde

What Anchors Your Soul?

Because God wanted to make the 

unchanging nature of his purpose very clear 

 to the heirs of what was promised, 

he confirmed it with an oath.   

God did this so that, by two unchangeable things 

in which it is impossible for God to lie, 

we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us

 may be greatly encouraged.  

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

We can see on every turn that life seems to be getting more chaotic, out of control.  People are looking for security, for hope, for something to anchor them.  Thankfully the believer has a reliable source for these needs.  Right in the center of Hebrews 6 you can see the heading, The Certainty of God's Promise.  Not much in life is certain.  I've heard the joke that nothing is certain but death and taxes. Now I'm hearing people saying things more like "taxes will be the death of me"...so maybe those two realities are all wrapped up together! 

Joking aside, there is a serious side to be considered regarding the certainties of life.  When people are searching for an anchor it usually means they are experiencing rough waters.  Some times our life-tempests surely seem like they will overwhelm and drown us.  That's when we turn to God's Word, to His promises for hope and security.  Only God can anchor our soul. Only the Master of the Sea can still our troubled waters.

I believe this passage in Hebrews is very powerful.  We can depend on, be anchored to, God's unchanging nature.  God is not fickle, He is bent by nothing other than His own will.  Nothing will foil the plans that God has.  God's Word and the principles He sets for our eternity security are rooted in His promises.  

God is an anchor because His nature is unchanging.  And He is an anchor because He cannot lie.  Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life..." (John 14:6).  This bold declaration from Christ's own lips says far more than "I will tell the truth."  He is saying that He IS the Truth.  All truth is anchored in Christ.  And we are blessed that He chooses to reveal His truth, His nature to us so that we will always be anchored and secure in the certainty of His promised to us.

The next time your are buffeted by tumultuous waters, remember that the Master of the Sea is an anchor for your soul.  Every single one one of His purposes for you will stand. You can depend on His Word for your life because He cannot lie.  And He cannot, will not lie because His nature, His character is unchanging. 

I used Kuretake watercolor paints for the background, and the set Master of the Sea for this page.  I stamped the anchor on white cardstock, colored it with Copic markers then adhered it to the side bar.  The sets used: Master of the Sea (left) and Choose Faith (right).

Diane's Daydream Designs

My Soul's Satisfied

This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know Me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23-24

Dear Friends, please celebrate with me that our Lord and Savior is risen! I hope you had a joyful Easter resting in Him. For this page I journaled lyrics from Be Thou My Vision by Ascend The Hill. It's based on the hymn. (The lyrics are posted at the bottom of this post.)

The hymn was based on Jeremiah 9:23-24. And because of Jesus, we can know God! We can be in relationship with Him. He can be our everything and our delight! When I think of things that are physically satisfying, I think of cold lemonade on a hot summer day. Jesus is much better than cold lemonade! 😉 Jesus completes us. He satisfies our souls in a way nothing else can. He is the Living Water. Drink Him in!!

For the page, I used the following Sweet n Sassy Stamps sets: Worthy King, Sing Loud, Fill Me Up, Skinny Lowercase Alpha, Rebecca Script Alpha, Chunky Alpha.

For the lemonade glass, I masked off the top of the coffee cup and drew in the straw, ice cubes and lemon. And don't you love all those alphas??!! Alpha stamps are a great option to hand lettering! They are easy to use and many of them look like hand lettering. I love them! I highlighted the letters with a Sharpie White Extra Fine Paint Pen. I colored the page with watercolor crayons. And finished it off with some washi tape.

Be satisfied in our Lord. He loves you!

Blessings, Andrea 

Be Thou My Vision By Ascend The Hill

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, put first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

Oh, God, be my everything, be my delight
Be, Jesus, my glory My soul's satisfied
Oh, God, be my everything, be my delight
Be, Jesus, my glory My soul's satisfied

My Jesus, you satisfy
My Jesus, you satisfy

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven's joys, bright Heaven's Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Oh, God, be my everything, be my delight
Be, Jesus, my glory My soul's satisfied

Heal a Broken Heart....

{jane bosi}  Happy Saturday, Sweet Friends!  I debated on titling this post "The Veil Was Torn" because I am still reveling in our Good Friday Service.  Good Friday is my most favorite service of the whole year--it's been that way since I became a Christian many many years ago.  I am always wholly impacted by what it truly means, has meant, will mean that Jesus the Christ laid down his life for me.

I created this 3 x 3 canvas in response to a tragedy in my community that occurred in late March.  Since that time, I've prayed to become more open to the hurting of others.  The good news is, that the veil was, in fact torn--this is what we remember this weekend.  He saved the day, He tore the veil away:

The darkest day in history was over
All was lost on the cross
Beaten, battered, bruised beyond description
You gave it all, what went wrong?

This couldn't be the end of Heaven's story
'Cause You came to save, to beat the grave
Three days and now they're looking for Your body
But You were gone, and now I know

You saved the day
The day You rolled the stone away
The empty grave is there to say
You reign
You saved the day
You tore the holy veil away
You opened wide the prison gates
You saved the day

Rescued from the shackles of my failure
In the dead of night, You shined Your light
Your gift of love is hope that springs eternal
And because of You, all things are new

You saved the day
The day You rolled the stone away
The empty grave is there to say
You reign
You saved the day
You tore the holy veil away

You opened wide the prison gates
You saved the day

Oh God, You rescued me
From my iniquities

Your gift of love is hope that springs eternal
And because of You, all things are new

You saved the day
The day You rolled the stone away
The empty grave is there to say
You reign
You saved the day
You tore the holy veil away
You opened wide the prison gates
You saved the day

You saved the day
The day You rolled the stone away
The empty grave is there to say
You reign
You saved the day
You tore the holy veil away
You opened wide the prison gates
You saved the day

You could create a similar canvas or other beautiful work using any of the wonderful images and sentiments in the Sweet 'N Sassy store.  I've used My Creator and  Be Encouraged.

Be encouraged....He is the help for a broken heart....trust Him <3
Jane

Truth Compass

Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. 

Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. 

Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.

Proverbs 4:25-27

I have absolutely ZERO sense of direction. Seriously, it is horrible. I'm one of those, "Turn right at the Whataburger and a left when you see Buc-ees" type of people. (Side note: If you're ever in Texas find a Whataburger and a Buc-ees. You'll thank me later 😉) Oh, and driving somewhere new or somewhere I've only been a couple times to requires GPS. Told you, horrible. Thankfully, I can actually read a paper map (if needed) but good ole GPS is my best friend on the road. 

Here's the thing. Life is an unknown voyage. Sure, we can anticipate some things but the vast majority of life is unpredictable. Just when you start to get comfy in one area of life, God is ready to get up and go on the next adventure. It's easy to get lost in the twists and turns of life but it's not meant to be navigated alone. 

"Captain" from Hillsong United are the lyrics on my page. I doubt you will be disappointed if you take the time to give this song a listen, especially if you are in the middle of unknown territory with God. The first line is this, 

"Through waters uncharted my soul will embark

I'll follow Your voice straight into the dark"

I'm in a place where I don't really know what God is doing next. But I know this, He has gone before me and is always working even when I cannot see. Do I trust Him? Absolutely. Does my faith waiver? Yes, more than I care to admit. But, Jesus. Even if it's just me and Him there in the middle of uncharted waters, He is more than enough for all my needs.

It's easy to let life and circumstances drift you off course. The enemy knows how to ever so slightly nudge our direction away from God till we look up and realize we are way off course. All it takes is His truth to redirect our steps. Thank you, Father for making our paths straight and helping us navigate our way home to you. 

Happy Early Easter, 

Lynzee 

Stamps used:

"Master of the Sea" 

http://www.sweetnsassystamps.com/creative-worship-master-of-the-sea-clear-stamp-set/

James 3

Hello friends! Happy Monday, when I was younger, I always prided myself on being quick witted. When upset, my tongue would get me into trouble. As I have aged, the LORD has given me the ability to hold my tongue and has even refined my thought process. I have not arrived yet, but this Scripture encourages me to continually tame my tongue and focus on the purity and righteousness of the LORD.

James 3:2-9 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
³ When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ⁴ Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. ⁵ Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
⁷ All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.

On my page, I used the Creative Worship: Skinny Caps Lowercase Clear Stamp Set 

and stamped it in Turquoise ink (for the words Tame and tongue.) I then used a black pen to draw lines to add a shadow. The "your" I hand wrote using a turquoise marker. I stamped the Steering wheel from the Creative Worship: Master of the Sea Clear Stamp Set as a symbol of how the "rudder" can help steer our tongues towards evil/ or good in brown ink and colored it with some colored pencils. I stamped the waves in turquoise ink too and did some shading with Prismacolor pencils.

Thank you for stopping by! Chris Dickinson

To Know Him is to Trust Him

Those who know your name trust in you,    
 for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Psalm 9:10

When we have moments of trust-failure it's because we have a temporary lapse in remembering who God is.  When we embrace the character of God, the believer's natural response has to be trust.  Think of the words that describe His character as being completely trustworthy.  What words would you choose?  My word would be faithful.  God has proven Himself faithful to me time and time again.  In fact, He has never been unfaithful to me so why would I not trust Him?  I look back over my life and I know beyond any shadow of doubt that God has been there for me.  And I trust that He will always hold me in His hand, near to His heart.  I know my God and I know I can trust Him.

  

Usually I design Bible pages by going from scripture to design.  This time I was sorting through my stash of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and came across the set, Seek Him.  I've used it several times before but this time as I considered it the words "know" and "trust" stood out and it didn't take much of a leap from there.  To know Him is to trust Him.  That is a powerfully true statement.  So I went on a scripture search to see if I could find something that said the same thing.  Psalm 9:10 is perfect, "Those who know your name trust in you for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you."  And, there is the faithful part in there too!  God will not forsake those who trust Him.  That truth is definitely worth some worship time and some art in my Bible!

I started with the words in the margin and added some hand-drawn birds for decoration.  The flowers here reflect those on the facing page, all from the Scribble Flowers stamp set. The flowers are stamped directly to the page and colored with watercolor paints (Kuretake-36 color set).  The words and birds were colored with Copic markers.

For the right side of the page I added some washi tape to anchor more flowers.  These were stamped on regular computer paper, and painted with the watercolor paints.  Then I cut out the flowers and adhered the centers of the flowers to the page.  The edges lift slightly to add some dimension to the page.  

The sets I used: 

 

 Seek Him by Rebecca Rios

Scribble Flowers by Korin Sutherland

Daydream Designs

Thirst No More

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Psalm 42:1-2a

Dear Friends,
Physically, without water, we cannot survive. Just as our physical bodies call out for water when we thirst, our souls call out for the Living Water of Jesus to survive- to have eternal life! Remember what Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, "Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” And John 6:35 tells us, "Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty."

Only through Jesus can we truly be satisfied. We strive and strive for satisfaction through food, drink, money, jobs, material goods, etc. But really our souls long for Jesus. He fills us in a way that nothing else can.
For the page, I used the following SNSS stamps: Chunky Alpha, Living Water, As the Deer, and Worthy King. For the background, I used watercolor crayons. And I highlighted "Jesus" and the water drops with a Sharpie White Paint Pen. I also used some alphabet stickers to finish off the page.

My prayer for you, for me, is taken from the song Be Thou My Vision by Ascend The Hill:

Oh, God, be my everything,

Be my delight.

Be, Jesus, my glory,

My soul's satisfied.

Have a sweet day, friends. Andrea

I will Sing!

Ever have one of those days (weeks) where you just want to cry and then a wonderful friend does something that reminds you that you don't have to do everything alone? You just know that God has placed them in your life for a reason (even if it is just to listen or to insist you go see a movie you didn't think you were emotionally ready to see - The Shack)

After the week we'd had, my dear friend said "I really want to see this and I think we should see it together. It will be good for us." While it may not be "completely accurate", it certainly spoke to me and reminded me that God is "particularly fond of me" and He is with me during all of my times of stress (and sadness, and anger, and frustration, and happiness, and...) so how can I not see his presence in it somehow?

As I was preparing my Bible journal for today, I was feeling a little lighter than yesterday and found Psalm 59:16-17. I think it is perfect for how I am feeling!

16 But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.

I used color pencils and the Sing Loud and Chunky Alpha sets.

I hope you are having a blessed week and if you are not know that God's steadfast love is yours too! And know that someone from Georgia has you in their prayers today! Thanks from stopping by!

lyn