I Am At Rest

Distress Oxides (walnut stain, ground espresso, and tea dye) were used to achieve the gradient)

Hello world! 
I'm so glad you're joining us on the blog.  It's been such a fun month of using my God-given creative juices to play with the December release!
I've LOVED LOVED LOVED the "Wood Backgrounds" and I cannot say enough about the "In Stitches Alpha."  I hope you've found inspiration and helps using these! 

You guys, I HAVE to talk about the Esther series AGAIN.  My home pastor preached through this glorious book for the last few weeks.  Oh. WOW.  I'm so excited about the glory of God found here.

Let me just say, that I'm certainly relieved, excited and grateful that my Savior Jesus the Christ took my place.  What do I mean?
I am a sinner.
I was born into sin.

I cherished sin and adored sin.

By God's grace, I repented.

Jesus died for my sin.

Jesus became my sin.

Jesus washed me of sin.

Jesus prepared a place I my heart wherein He could dwell.

That's sort of the skeletal structure of my salvation - of YOUR salvation, if in fact you know Jesus as the Savior of your soul as well.

You guys, in Esther there's so much talk about a "tree."  This is the horrific site of an impending execution for our pal, Mordecai (Esther's cousin).  Because of Mordecai's defiance toward Haman, Haman then constructs a tall, wicked, brutal pole that would be used to (most likely) impale said offender.  Instead of this however, we learn that Haman's plan back fires and he finds himself as the victim of his own evil scheme.  It's a timeless classic of "bad guys gets it!" 
Now, I want to be clear, Haman IS the bad guy in this story. He's the villain behind the sanctioning of an edict to kill the ENTIRE Jewish nation.  He's the deception talent behind the royal seal.  And boy, does he ever get his just "reward!"  After HIS execution on the tree HE built for Mordecai, Esther and Mordecai work quickly to restore peace to the Jewish nation, and for another lot of time, they are at rest.

We like to see the bad guy get it, don't we?  We like seeing the good guy get away and we LOVE seeing our hero ride off into the sunset with full strength having fought bravely and boldly.

My pastor later went into explaining another terrible edict; an unjust sanctioning of the death of the innocent.  I'll give you a hint:  this "sign-off" involved a tree, too.  It involved a villain and a Hero. 
Some stark contrasts.…we're the villains. 
Ouch.

The Hero actually dies by the villains, for the villains.

Wait, what?

Yes, because of our sinful nature, the love of God sent a Beloved to the cross where He would pay.  HE would pay, for MY offenses.  HE would die MY death.  HE took MY place.  HE would put MY soul at rest - FOREVER!

Oh, this beautiful Savior!  This wonderful Counselor!  This mighty King! 

I'm going to leave the link to the sermon series here, and I pray that you will visit this website yourself!  It's one of the most impactful set of messages I have ever heard!  

From the study in Esther, linked above.

Praise You, Jesus!  You took my place, and now I am at REST!

Much love,

Deeds