All Things are Possible...

Luke 1:37

³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

All things are possible - ALL THINGS - when you have faith in the Lord. While God can do all things, he does not promise to make all of our wishes come true. We must have faith and remember He knows what is best for us, and He has a plan for us, and to that end, nothing is impossible for Him. 

I think I need to say this to myself every morning before I start my day just as a gentle reminder that everything is in the right hands and everything is going according to plan and even when times seem bleak they are not impossible - nothing is because I have Faith in God for whom NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!

Today's journal page (I hope) conveys this verse.

I used Distress Inks for my background and flowers. I did prep my page first, but I wish I hadn't - the inks didn't want to set and it took a while to get it to look like I wanted it to. My stamps were the Creative Worship: Whimsy Bouquet Clear Stamp Set. To finish it off, I decided to try my own handwriting for the words. Maybe a little more practice is needed :) but it is good I think.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great Day!

Lyn

God Is Good

As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on his knees before Him. “Good Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone." Mark 10:17-18

Dear Friends,

No one is good except God alone. Jesus' words. Truth. So often we look at goodness from man's perspective. But what Jesus is saying is that goodness is from God alone. He was hinting at His deity as the man called Him "good Teacher". When we follow Jesus, when we read His Word, we see His goodness. It is because God is good that we have hope. No matter what circumstance we find ourselves in, God is there and He is good. Isn't that refreshing? I am so thankful for our awesome God!

For the page, I used Whimsy Bouquet from Sweet n Sassy Stamps. I colored it with watercolor crayons and added stickers.

Have a blessed week, friends! Andrea

Nuggets in the Old Testament

...let not your hands grow weak.

The Lord your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save,

He will rejoice over you with gladness;

He will quiet you by His love,

He will exult [rejoice] over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah 3:16b-17

Who would guess that one of the most beautiful and encouraging passages of scripture lies nestled in the Old Testament book of Zephaniah? God loves His children!  In the passage, the prophet Zephaniah calmed the nation Israel with the fact that they belonged to God and He would not abandon them.  They had a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11), they would remain under His loving watch throughout all their days.  Zephaniah paints a tender picture, a joyous illustration for all believers of how much God loves His own.  We can claim that same love today.  If we are His, He remains in our midst; He will save and carry us.  Much like rocking a baby and singing over them, the Lord holds us, delights in us, and will burst forth in song declaring His great love.  When the tempests in our lives rage, His song will quiet us in the night.  Therefore, don't grow weary, don't give up, don't weaken in your resolve to serve the Lord no matter what.  

I did this two-page spread to illustrate this joyous verse.  I hand drew the cup then stamped the flowers and leaves on paper, colored with Copic markers and fussy cut them.  Then I just layered them over the cup image.  I used watercolor paint and a brush to highlight the passage.  

Sweet 'n Sassy Sets Used: (Images are linked to the store so you can go right to them!)

 

Sing Loud is such a versatile set.  I've used the words from it again and again.  And I LOVE the Whimsy Bouquet set, another one by Rebecca Rios.  

I am Loved

‘so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.’ (Eph. 3:17-19)

I’m loved beyond measure. It’s still something that I struggle with. I know it’s true but for some reason this knowledge takes a long time to settle down in my heart. There are a lot of days that I don’t feel worthy of Gods love, but I may know that not my actions determine the love of God but that He loves me no matter what. That He will always welcome me into His loving arms, just like the prodigal son. This stamp set helped me to get back on the journey to find Gods love in the bible.


I prepared my bible page with clear gesso (the pages in my Dutch bible are very thin). The other side of the page left some bleeding on this page so I had to find a way to cover that up. I used my acrylic paints to make a background. I would be able to cover most of the bleeding with the paint (or incorporate it into this page) but I decided to add a piece of paper on the left side of my margin. Just to be sure that nothing would show through. I stamped the tag and some words onto white paper and cut them out. The name tag and everything on it is from the set ‘Hello My Name Is’, the words Amen and the heart are from ‘Note This'. I missed something in the background of my page so I decided to stamp a couple of leaves from the ‘Whimsy Bouquet’ stamp set with black ink. When my background was finished I adhered the stamped pieces into my bible and that’s it.

Have a blessed day!

- Lucinde

The Source of Hope!

Romans 15:13  “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit”.

I read this verse today and it just made me so happy. The idea of letting go is scary and hard, but the picture of myself filled with JOY and PEACE and overflowing with HOPE is just so awesome!

I have lots of decisions I need to make this year and am praying for answers and this verse reminds me that everything is going to be exactly how it is supposed to be and I will be OK with whatever happens...(How can I not be at PEACE :))

I think my page today reflects this verse in a happy colorful way. I used colored pencils to color it and Sweet N Sassy Stamps sets Through the Trees and Choose Faith and Scenes Silhouette Wetlands (Note: To create Peace, I used the last part of both Hope and Grace and it looks perfect!)

I hope your day is a blessed one! Thanks for stopping by!

Lyn

Teaching me to pray...

Hi friends,

Can I be honest? I find prayer difficult at times - too many times. I know I need to pray, and goodness knows there are so many needs to bring before the Lord, but when it comes down to it, sometimes I go blank... I struggle for the right words... my concentration can wane. Can anyone else identify? This is why I am SO grateful for the teaching of God's Word on prayer. Not only is there so much rich teaching on prayer, there are also amazing examples of prayers that we can pray. When I received the sweet Stop, Drop & Pray single stamp, I looked up the word prayer in my bible and made a list of references that give examples or teaching on prayer - such an amazing study to do!

I'm sharing three pages with you that I created recently as part of my study on prayer, each using the Stop, Drop & Pray stamp. This first one is on one of my favourite verses...

James 1:5 - If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.

What an awesome prayer to pray and promise to claim. Whenever I am lacking in wisdom (which is rather frequently) I can ask God and he promises to give me generous amounts!

This next page is a verse I came across that I hadn't paid much attention to before, but contains an amazing example of prayer...

Colossians 4:12 - Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

I looked this verse up in a few translations and liked the way the Message translated it. What a great prayer to pray for ourselves and others!

This last page focuses on Matthew 9:38 when Jesus tells his disciples to "pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborors into his harvest." The thing to remember when praying this one is that the Lord of the harvest may send us - and we need to be ready to say 'yes'...

I hope you've been encouraged to dig into the Bible and allow God's Word to teach you when it comes to how and what to pray. I know I have already grown through this study and look forward to creating and sharing further pages from my study on prayer.

Here are some of the sets I used for these pages:

      

Be blessed,
x Amy x

Crown of Beauty

"You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,  and a royal diadem in the hand of your God." Isaiah 62:3

Dear Friends,

Isn't Isaiah 62:3 a beautiful verse? This is a promise to Jerusalem that it will be delivered and redeemed. At the time that Isaiah wrote this, the Jews were in exile as a consequence of their sin and turning from God. This chapter speaks to their future when God will redeem them. Isaiah refers to Jerusalem as a crown of beauty in the Lord's hand, and as His bride. This complements Christ's relationship to His church. He is the Bridegroom and the church His bride. Ultimately, all believers are redeemed in Him. He brings beauty to us all!

For this page, I used the following Sweet n Sassy Stamps: Whimsy Bouquet, Classy Script, and Mini Grunge Type Alpha. I also used Micron pens and watercolor crayons.

 

Be blessed! Andrea

Endure!

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.  

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.  

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed 

throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, 

and then the end will come.

 Matthew 24:12-14 (Jesus)

This passage contains some of the final instructions and answers Christ gives to his disciples before being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Here, he sits on the Mount of Olives engaging in a very private, personal conversation with the disciples.  They have finally understood that Jesus is preparing to die, but that he will come back to them.  But they also know that there will be an end to "all things." So they ask him what signs there will be so they can anticipate those events. Jesus then explains the turmoil that must come, the persecution, wars and conflicts, natural disasters...in short, he describes how the whole earth will groan as the end approaches. Jesus never avoids the full truth about the life of one who follows him.  He has already explained that believers will still have troubles, that the world would fight against our beliefs and that ultimately for those who live in the end times, hardships will increase.  So how are we to live in the face of increasing hardship for Christians?

The Christian walk requires endurance.  Whether or not we are living in the last days, we all experience mountain top highs and deep valley lows in our journey. God calls us to keep going, to not give up, to not lose faith. Galatians 6:9 says, And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.  And James tells us in the first chapter of his book that we are even to "count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds."  I love that Jesus has given us his holy Spirit to fill us with joy, strength, wisdom, and the faith to endure.  Without the presence of Christ in our lives, these trials would be impossible to endure.  We never have to keep going under our own strength.  God always....ALWAYS provides for us.
  

Unfortunately, there are many nominal believers, those who say "Lord, Lord" but don't have a personal, heart-transforming, abiding relationship with the sovereign Savior, and Jesus says they will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7:21-23).  These are the ones who will fall away; their enthusiasm for Christ will fade and they will choose the way of the world rather than the life of a disciple.  Jesus knows we will have times of weakness, and he knows we will not be perfect.  But if the Spirit of the living God is in our hearts, he will help us endure.  We are sealed; we are HIS, and nothing can snatch us from his hand. Our security rests not in what we say we believe or how we act (there are many moral unbelievers); rather, our security rests in what Christ has done in our hearts.  I'm thanking God today that I am HIS!

 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.   

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; 

no one will snatch them out of my hand.  

 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; 

no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.

John 10:27-30

To create my page, I stamped the images first and colored them with PrismaColor pencils, layering and shading.  Then I did the background with watercolor paints, and finally did the hand lettering.  I used the new set from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps called Whimsy Bouquet, by stamp designer Rebecca Rios.  

Choices

In the first couple pages of the bible, in the very very beginning the Lord gave us the decision to make CHOICES. There's a right decision and a wrong decision...always. Eve chose to easily be swayed and made a wrong decision that changed everything. Who knows how life would have been if Eve would have made the RIGHT choice... and not the wrong choice. 

This page was fun! I used the Through the Trees set for the cute tree and grass underneath and then used neocolors to color it in. Then I used watercolors for the sky. For the lettering I used Classy Script and Chunky Alpha and then finished it with my dymo label maker! I added some washi, tab and some extra embellishments to bring the page all together plus I LOVE layers. 

A Place for Jesus

Hello friends and fellow Bible Journalers...

As we begin a new year, I want to be sure that I make even more room for Jesus in my life.  It is so easy to allow the demands of every day life rob us of spending sweet time with our Lord!  

This page was inspired by a sermon our pastor preached at our church at the beginning of the new year.  I was convicted and challenged to "Make a Place for Jesus!"

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.  And a scribe came up and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no where to lay his head."

Matthew 8:18-20 (ESV)

I wanted to include my sermon notes, but didn't want to cover up any of the details on the page, so I created a Tip-In tag which was attached to the opposite page by a washi tape hinge.

The page was prepped with two layers of clear gesso and the scene lightly sketched with a pencil.  Intense Color Blocks were used to watercolor the background.   Archival Inks, Versafine Onyx Black Ink, and a White Paint Pen were used to add the details.  The new scene silhouettes stamp sets and several alphabet sets made it fun and easy to complete the scene.  The bushes were created using the top of the tree from the Scene Silhouettes: Trees stamp set and masking was used to get just the tops of the tall grass from the Scene Silhouettes: Tall Grass stamp set.  I was able to use the fox and the bird from the Scene Silhouettes: Woodland stamp set to perfectly illustrate the scripture verse!  I couldn't resist adding a few more animals to the scene.

Here are the stamp sets from the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Store used to create my page:

I hope you will be inspired and challenged to "Make a Place for Jesus" this year!  He wants to take up residence in our hearts.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hugs,

Cathy

Hello, my name is...

I love this song and the stamp set too. The words are so recognizable. How often do we think of ourselves in judgmental ways. Bringing ourselves down with our own thoughts and feelings. At least, for me the feelings of regret and not being good enough are returning way too often. 


So today I made a sort of therapeutic page in my journal. At the top and the bottom of the page I wrote down a couple of things that I dislike about myself or that I would like to change. After that I started stamping. I stamped the name tag first and decided to use 'chosen' as the name. I stamped a couple of the other words around the tag to remind me of all the other things I am through God. Saved, beautiful, loved, free. Great things to remember. The other things are better to forget, so I added a black layer of paint on top of it. I blended the black layer out so that I could add some bright yellow in the center of the page. I used acrylic paints so they are a bit translucent (accept for the black color). That way I could still read the 'good words' and the 'bad words' wouldn't be visible anymore.

I used the stamp set 'Hello My Name Is' for this page.

- Lucinde