I CHOOSE FAITH

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7

Faith is choosing to believe in something that we cannot see.  We can't see the world spinning on its axis, but we believe it to be true.  We can't even feel it happening around us, although the world is spinning at the breakneck speed of roughly 1000 mph!  We simply have faith in gravity that we won't be catapulted into outerspace.  

Likewise, we cannot see the person of God, but we have faith that He is real.  We may not feel His presence, but we can choose to believe that He is with us.  Often, we can base this faith on what we see God doing, or what He has done for us in the past.  However, there are times when we may struggle because we can't see any evidence of God at work.  That is when we have to CHOOSE TO HAVE FAITH!

I created this colorful, interactive page in my 100 Days of Bible Promises Devotional.  I wanted to graphically demonstrate the spinning world, so I made a stamped and colored world that spins on a paper-fastener-axis.  I used the Send Me stamp set for the world and the arrows.  I then wanted to create a texure-full background of outerspace, so I used all three Texture Tiles sets to randomly stamp the fabric and fiber of the cosmos, and colored them with Jane Davenport Watercolors.  I embossed the word "faith" from the Life in Jesus set, and fashioned a tiny tag with "I choose" stamped inside.  I finished on the page with a tag, washi tape, a date flag, and bow.  

You can see how the whole page came together in the process video on my YouTube channel or using the link below.  

Have faith, my friends!  And when you don't, then choose to have faith anyway!

SEND ME

TEXTURE TILES 3

LIFE IN JESUS

TEXTURE TILES 2

TEXTURE TILES 1

He Will Keep You Steady

Psalm 55:22

"Give your burdens to the Lord and he will take care of you.

He will not permit the godly to slip and fall."

Life is CRAZY! Am I right?! I mean, especially in today's age, we are always multitasking and juggling so many things at once. Today's world has so many demands, appointments, to-dos and so on. Some days we can feel like we are powerful and can conquer the world, and then the next day we could feel like the world and all its demands are completely crushing us under it's weight! But when we feel that way, like we just couldn't possibly take on anymore, or like we are failing at life itself, God is there to help us! He is always there to help us!

Many of us are guilty of trying to take control of our lives, manage every bit and piece of it to fit our specific plan of what and how we think we should be living. But that is so far from the truth. God has a plan for us and our lives and we must follow that plan. And his plan is never more than we can handle. It is when things get really hard and we feel like we are being crushed and can't possibly juggle anymore, that we need to remember we can rely and call on God to keep us steady. He is our rock, he cannot be moved, and he will keep us strong. Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength." That is one of my favorite bible verses. I repeat it to myself anytime I'm struggling and need a little boast in moral. We can do anything with the Lord in our corner. 

Psalm 55:22 "Give your burdens to the Lord and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall." God's promises are gold! We can hold strong to his word when we feel we are weak and can't do it on our own. One more verse for you to hold on to today. 2 Corinthians 12:9 " My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." There are so many places in the bible where we learn that we can trust in the Lord and his power when we feel we are weak. When we feel like that tower we are trying so hard to keep standing is about to come crashing down, he is there for us to tell us, "It's ok! I got this!"

Have a great week everyone!

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

Teacup Roses

Itty Bitty Alpha

Just Say Jesus

Script Outline Alpha

Itty Bitty Blossoms 

Make an Impact

The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Exodus 1:17

Dear Friends,

Many of us know this story in Exodus 1. Pharaoh ordered the Israelite baby boys to be killed upon birth because he felt threatened by the Israelites. Two midwives are remembered in God's Word, Shiphrah and Puah, because they chose God over Pharaoh. Verse 17 tells us that they "feared" God. That doesn't mean they were scared of God. It means that they had such reverence, respect and awe for Him that it impacted how they lived their lives. They obeyed Him and worshiped Him through their actions of saving those baby boys. We are called to do the same. Live in a way that shows our reverence, our respect, our awe of God. We are called to be God-fearing too. What does that look like for me? For you? For me, it means that I try to live my life in the way Jesus would. I'm constantly asking myself "How would Jesus respond to this situation?" And to be honest, sometimes I'm not sure! We live in a much different world than the world of biblical times. And there's a lot of gray areas. So, I pray. I go to His Word. And I try to live in a way that will make an impact and draw others to Him. I'm not always successful, of course. But, I want to be like Shiphrah and Puah.

Page details! I used the following Sweet n Sassy Stamps sets: Sunshine Girl Alpha, Script Outline Alpha, Girl Power, and Texture Tiles 1.

This page is in my interleaved Bible which has blank pages between every page of Scripture. I had journaled on the back side of this page. So, I used acrylic paints to cover this side of the page. The acrylic paints cover any bleed through/shadowing from the other side and act as a barrier for any bleed through/shadowing from this side. I painted the page with acrylic paints and stamped once it was good and dry. If you're using acrylic paint, make sure to let it dry well before stamping as the stamps can actually pull the paint up off the page if it's not dry enough- even when it's dry to the touch. When stamping on acrylic paint, I use Archival ink made by Ranger because the ink remains crisp on the paint (pigment inks tend to bleed and blur on acrylic paint). I colored in the script alpha with a black brush pen, and highlighted the letters with a white Sharpie pen.

 Have a good week, my friends! Andrea

Does God Act for You?

"From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him."

Isaiah 64:4 

Waiting is hard.  Our human nature, the way our minds often work, presupposes that waiting means inactivity.  When we are waiting, something is not being done.  And most of the time waiting means our inability to control what we want to happen.  We think waiting means the situation isn't going to be fixed in the way we think it should...and certainly not in the time frame we desire.  Waiting is hard.  

God has something powerful in his word about waiting.  In this verse, we see two things about God:  1)  nothing, absolutely nothing comes close to the power God wields; 2) God acts with that power on behalf of those who wait upon him. 

"From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him."

Isaiah 64:4 

We cannot even conceive or imagine the power God possesses, but He has promised to harness all than power and bring it to bear upon people of faith who in trust wait upon him to act for them.  So for the fervent believer, waiting is far from inactivity.  It is trusting, it is surrender, it is freedom from worry, it is confidence in a the power of God.  Waiting can be a time of deep worship, ground-shaking prayer, a time of remember how God has acted on our behalf in the past.  Waiting upon God to act is FAR from inactivity.  It is in itself one of the engaging activities in our spiritual developing.  When we wait, we are growing, deepening our faith, and we are releasing the limitations of our human frailties and opening wide the door for God's power.  We cannot conceive or imagine what God is about to do in our circumstances.  When we wait, we wait for God's perfect timing and we wait for his miracles to occur.  

While we wait, God is building a highway before us, he is clearing obstacles in our path.  If we run headlong before him, taking matters in our own hands to fix our situation, we will trip and stumble over the stones he would have removed for us in his timing. 

The world repeats humanistic messages.... "You are strong, you can do it,"  "Take care of yourself first,"  "No one else will do it, if you don't"  "Strength and competence lies within you,"  "You are the master of your destiny."  "Create your own life, you deserve it."  On and on we are told in numerous ways every day...YOU are in control.  Nothing could be farther from the truth and if we are all honest with ourselves it only takes ONE day in our lives to prove that we are simply not in control.  We are not in control because the Master of the Universe, the REAL master of our destiny will never relinquish his control.  He will let rebellious people go their own way toward destruction if they are literally hell-bent to be master of their destiny.  The abyss of the absence of God is their destiny if they live apart from the God to whom no one compares.  

God acts for those who wait upon him, who surrender to his will and his power, who trust in his ability to bring about the perfect outcome.  His perfect outcome may not seem perfect.  But in the end, if we turn it over to him he will bring all things together for our good--. ^"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose," Romans 8:28. 

Do you need something to happen?  Pray, trust, wait.  God will act for you if you wait upon him.  

-----

Design Details:  The background is a simple watercolor wash.  I used stamps and stencils for lettering and texture and the July printable, Go God's Way, for the images.  

Sets used:

Go God's Way Printable

Rebecca Script

Bitty Minnie Alpha

Going not Knowing....

Hi friends,

I think one of the most challenging things about living a life of faith are those times when God calls us to do something but He doesn't give us all the details (anyone else been there??). We know there is a step that needs to be taken, but the outcome at the end is fuzzy, or even completely blank!

Abraham is recorded in the 'Hall of Faith' found in Hebrews 11, as a man who went out in obedience to God, not knowing where he was going. God told him to leave his family, his home and his country, and to travel to a land that God would show him. The problem was, he had to leave first, then find out the destination later! This takes faith.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). When we respond to God's leading, even when we don't know the outcome, this  is a demonstration of faith in the character and faithfulness of God, and it is a testimony to the world around us, who want to live by sight, rather than by faith. I have found myself in this situation in the past year, where I felt God leading me to leave a job that I had wanted for a long time, and really enjoyed, in order to study. The thing is, I don't know what's at the end of the study journey. I have some ideas, some possibilities perhaps, but at the end of the day I don't know. This has been a major challenge to my 'need-to-have-it-all-figured-out' personality and there are moments where I stress out, thinking about the 'what ifs'. But God is reassuring me through this journey that as I walk with him by faith, my faith and trust in Him grows, and I am able to rest in quiet confidence that the One who calls me is faithful, and He will make things come to pass (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

 Now I know that Abraham didn't travel in a yellow beetle, but how cute is that Go God's Way printable?? And there's also a new stamp set this month to match - so many possibilities! I used the fab new Sunshine Girl Alpha along with the 'faith' word from Life in Jesus to create the verse.

I created the background of this page using a stencil and some inks, sponging the inks onto the page with a dry baby wipe (great for managing exactly where you want the ink to go, as you wrap the baby wipe around your finger and have a high level of control in the application of the ink). Here's a pic of my supplies:

Can I encourage you to take a step (or leap!) of faith if God is calling you to do that in some area, even if you don't know the outcome? God is faithful to His Word and His promises.

Every blessing...

x Amy x

Come, Lord!

Hey guys, it's Deeds! 
I'm glad that you're here, and I hope when you come to the Creative Worship Blog, you leave blessed and encouraged!!

This month's series of stamps released were absolutely AMAZING!  For this entry, I did a simple card swipe technique with acrylic paints.  I'm a sucker for a sweet background, and I'm a firm believer in the Texture Tile sets, of which there are 3!!  It's incredible what they can do to enhance the page! 

I'm using Tile set#3 for this entry, but I've used Texture Tiles since they first came out, and because I'm not great with making my own textures and variations, this fits the bill.  I hope you've been able to get some for yourself!

The July Release includes a sweet little alpha set called "Sunshine Girl," which contains the caps and lower case - IT'S SO FUN and INCREDIBLY VERSATILE!

Also featured is the stamp set called "Love Your Neighbor."  This came out a few months back, but I found it to be a perfect addition to the journaling. :D

In my usual studies through the She Reads Truth Bible, I'm sent to different scripture that align in their theme, truths, attributes of God, etc.  I was sent to Job the other day, as part of the assigned reading, and was hit in my soul…hard.

"For I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last He will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  My heart faints within me."  Job 19:25-27

Packed.  Loaded.  Fraught with dumbfounding truths. 
"I know... I know my Redeemer lives."  Who?  My Redeemer.  Jesus Christ.  But wait, was Job alive in the time of Christ?  Of course not!  But He knows that God is who He says He is, that He is who He claims to be, and throughout God's Word lies the ever-stumping revelation of a Savior that is to come.  Job has incurred much loss; loss of homestead, loss of family, loss of health, loss of quality of life as he understood only days prior to saying this! Yet he testifies of the presence of the All-powerful and Faithful God; his Redeemer.

The following statements are provided as tidbits of insight into the core of Job's beliefs.
His understanding of the afterlife amazes me, and he speaks of his flesh withering away, and yet it is his FLESH that will see God in the end.  WHAT?!  God is so nice.  He's so neat.  He's so precise as He explains through Job's testimonial that one day, THE DAY, he will see God face-to-face and be in full bodily dwelling.  Same as me!  Same as you if you're a believer!  

This is the struggle of Christians today.  We live lives of trials, tests, troubles and toils with the hopes of a life yet to come.  A life of perfection, beauty, completion and glory!

While the battle between reality and anticipation rages on, I'm pretty sure this is something that goes through our heads, much like it did Job's: "My heart faints within me!" 
 

But this understanding between now and the future is a healthy understanding to have as a believer in navigation of life.  WE'RE NOT MEANT FOR HERE, SO WE DESIRE THE HEREAFTER!

Job knew it, and we feel it now.  God has placed eternity into our hearts, Ecclesiastes says, and we have a yearning that will not stop until we have reached the "other side." 
Believer, we live to bring Jesus into the communities that surround us, and the spheres of influence in which the Lord has placed us.  We live to "hasten the day," which means bringing the gospel to light in areas where darkness dominates and evil persists.  We live to struggle with evil all around us and within us, hoping for the day that Jesus comes and TAKES US HOME!

To this, I say, "Amen," and to this, I say, "Come Lord Jesus, Come!" 
He wants to come take us to heaven - that place where resurrected bodies will behold God's glory!  And we WILL see Jesus as our King and timely Redeemer!  But for now, we must wait.  And wait we will.  Striving to bring lost and hopeless souls to a similar understanding of what Life truly is.  Life in Jesus, is life indeed.  Our hearts faint within us, but soon and very soon, we will go and see the king!
Come, Lord & Take Me Home!!

Much love,

Deeds

Just Passing Through

I'm tired of the news. The hard things. The sinfulness of this world. The hate. The neglect. The hurt. My heart breaks listening to all of it.

I could turn off the news. Shut off facebook. I could live in a bubble and pretend these things dont exist. But does that really change anything?

I long for heaven. For holiness. For Godliness. For love.

My final destination is not here. This world, my earthly life here is not where it ends for me. This EARTH is not my home, I am just PASSING THROUGH. 

"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands." 

2 Corinthians 5:1 NLT

ART TALK
I used the Camper and Bug car from Go Gods Way Stamp set. Then used Distress Oxides to create the background. Use the Sunshine Girl Stamp Set for all the words. And colored in the camper and car with a waterbrush and distress oxides.

Blessings,
Colleen 

THE FORGIVENESS CIRCLE | Faith Art Journaling with Julie

Colossians 3:13 "Remember, the Lord forgave you so you must forgive others."

I'm journaling in my 100 Days of Bible Promises Devotional, and the promise for day 69 is about God's forgiveness.  God promises that He has forgiven us already.  Notice that it is in the past tense.  He forgave us when Jesus took all of our past, present and future sins upon Himself and nailed them to the Cross.  It's been done!  Already! Complete!  However, He doesn't leave it there, does He?  There's more to the verse.

The rest of the verse says, "...so you must forgive others." Just as God has forgiven us, we are to forgive others when they wrong us.  Bitterness and anger are toxic to our souls, and when we harbor them in our hearts, they fester into relationship-barriers.  Unforgiveness can prevent us from having a right relationship not only with other people, but with God also.  Said the opposite way, forgiveness can foster a right relationship with others and with God.  That's because when we forgive others, freely and fully, we can more easily accept God's forgiveness.  But when we hold bitterness in our hearts and refuse to choose to forgive someone who has wronged us, then it translates into us not being able to experience the full grace of God's love towards us.

What about if they don't admit to being wrong?  What if they don't say they're sorry? What if they don't even know they've hurt me?  Guess what?! Forgive!  God forgave us before we even asked for forgiveness.  "Remember...to forgive others," He says, because it is something we need to be reminded of.  And more often than not, it's a matter of choosing to forgive.  Our emotions will probably not FEEL like forgiving.  Did Jesus feel like He wanted to die on the Cross?  NO!  We can see that in the Garden of Gethsemane; but He chose to do it anyway.  Choose to forgive, and the feelings will eventually follow. 

I created this page with the "Send Me" and "Let's Do This" stamp sets.  I wanted to emphasize the cyclical process of forgiveness--we experience God's forgiveness, which helps us to forgive others, which then helps us to appreciate and experience God's forgiveness, etc.  I began by coloring concentric circles on my page with my watercolor crayons, starting at the center, and alternating the colors.  Then I blended those colors with an aquabrush, adding my color where I felt I needed it.  I chose my palette to match the colors on the devotional page, a golden ochre and burnt sienna.

Then I stamped my words using Versafine Onyx Black Ink.  These words are a mix and match of the two sets.  I handlettered the "s" to the first "forgive" to make the subject and verb agree (I'm an English teacher).  Don't be afraid to make your stamps fit your needs!  Then, to highlight the circular pattern I added the arrows, and colored them, again, with the watercolor crayons.   I finished with a texture stamp from Texture Tiles 3, washi tape, a tab and bow. 

There was still too much blank space between the arrows and the words, so I added the stamped heart.  I dipped the burnt sienna crayon into water, dabbed it off slightly onto a paper towel, and then stamped directly onto the page.  I outlined it with the same journaling pen that I used to write down my prayer-thoughts. 

Thanks for stopping by. You can visit me anytime at  Jules' Jewels YouTube Channel and my blog Jules' Jewels, and see other projects on Instagram at @julesk.jewels.

Let's Do This

SEND ME

TEXTURE TILES 3

Refresh

When’s the last time you needed refreshing? Last year? Last month? Yesterday? If you’re like most people, it was perhaps even today.

We are such a go go go society, that we are often just worn out and exhausted, running on empty most of the time. We don’t know how to say the word “no”, or at the very least know how to pace ourselves.

Last week I had the sweet privilege of hosting a friend from out of town for a few days. We also had a couple of my local girlfriends join us for much of the week. We even face timed for a couple hours with another out of town friend.

My goal was to spend time with them, craft together, learn from each other, fellowship around the Word, talk about the Lord, and just overall encourage them.

We had the best time. We made #allthethings. We taught one another how to create felt flowers, work with watercolors, put napkins in our Bibles, make lots of clips and much more. We shared Bible verses. We prayed together. We poured our hearts out to one another. We did lots of listening...lots of talking...lots of giggling.

The end result? We all agreed we need another Patio Ponderings retreat soon! Time...quality time...with girlfriends is contagious. And filling. And rewarding.

Most of all, it’s refreshing. My cup is overflowing and my heart is full. My hope was to encourage and refresh my friends, instead, I was the one reaping all the benefits. Thank you, Lord!!

Take time out from the busyness of life and invest some quality time in others. You will certainly be glad you did.

“The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭11:25 ‭NLT‬‬




Art behind the story:

One of our projects last week was to start our own boxes of repurposed rolodex cards. They are a quick way to be creative, use up bits of paper pieces, and fun to make as gifts for happy mail.  Look up the hashtags #rolodexbiblecards, #memorydex, and #rolodexart on Instagram to see some great ideas.  

The Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps set Fill Me Up was a popular set last week among all my coffee drinking girlfriends! I stamped the large cup several times onto patterned journaling cards, fussy cut all the pieces apart, and paper pieced them all back together to get the various patterns. I stamped the words on the bottom right directly on to the card. This card was cut the normal rolodex size of 4” x 2.5”. On the back, I wrote the Proverbs 11:25 verse, a little note to each friend, and then signed and dated it. These cards will be sweet to remember our time together. 

Until next time,

Gayle
Patio Ponderings