In the Beginning, God.

A good Tuesday to you, Creative Worshipers!

I'm in love. I'm seriously in love with the sets for the August release!  Have you enjoyed them?  Which ones are your favorite!  Comment below and let's talk. :D

But for now, I want to chit chat a bit about the Person for which the stamp set, "Made in His Image," was intended: God.

What?  lol, yes we're gonna talk about God.  That's what we do here.  That's what brings us the most joy and the most honor as we create and share!  God is amazing, worthy of praise and beyond worthy of our love and affections.

I fail daily to give Him my all; but even if for a few moments of your day, I can pour into your heart and encourage you by His Holy Spirit, I say, it's been a good day!

"In the Beginning, God," is something I heard a pastor once say.  I don't remember which pastor along the stream of pastors I've heard in the couple of decades I've been a Christian, but his words impacted me in such a way, that every Bible I've marked up has those words in highlight.

"In the beginning, God."

Let that sink it.
The very start of existence - EVEN BEFORE HUMANITY - God was there.  Already.  Already positioned in glory, on His throne, looking at the outstretched canvas of what we call our universe. 
He sees vastness.  Emptiness.  Void.
He plans.  He intends.  He inhales.
He moves.  He breathes.  He makes.

In the starting and pivotal stages of what would start the human race, God.

In the place of authority, majesty, sovereignty over all creation, God.

Have you read Genesis 1?  It's fantastic. 
What an account!  What a mind-blowing thing, too! 
How can one possibly imagine a Being out there in (quite literally) "no man's land," looking into the darkness that He may fill it with light?  That's so encouraging on many levels.
1.  God is working and planning the time when all things would exist, then mankind would enter and inherit such a place!
2.  God is moving and placing, creating and positioning the human hearts to love and adore Him from a place of complete intimacy, sharing His light and love with His beloved image-bearers.
3.  God is instilling authority that only He can give into mankind to rule with Him and carry out the tasks of keeping the earth. 

There's more. 
A lot more.
Insanely more. 
More than we can think, and unfortunately, more than we can hope for until Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, returns for His people to once again place them in a perfect state.
In John, we read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God."  (v1)

Jesus Christ was in the beginning - right there by the Father - happily and joyfully creating the world for the coming inhabitants. 
Jesus Christ was in the beginning - right there with the Father - watching the plan unfold and readying Himself for His departure to live as a human.
Jesus Christ was in the beginning - right there in the Father - being filled with the Light of man, and the Light of all the world, that through Him, all the world would be saved.

In. The. Beginning.

The Tri-Unity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is amazing.  Too amazing. 
Vastly beyond our ability to understand, yet still touchable and relative.

This is my feeble attempt to encourage someone in their walk with the Lord, or to begin a walk with the Lord. 
He is, by and large, the greatest Thing you will ever encounter and the most passionately merciful God you will ever meet.
Holy.
Good.
Sovereign.
Mighty.
Gracious.
Merciful.
Compassionate.
Light.
And life.

Friends, if you choose ANYone to follow, love, and worship, choose Him.
If you choose ANYthing to study, seek and meditate, choose Him.

Much love,
Deeds
IG @mercies_journaled
Youtube: Mercies Journaled
Affiliate link for "In His Image," here.

Created in His Image

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

Genesis 1:27

That's me right there - curly hair, glasses, favorite purple shirt, covered in paint. A whole hot mess. But a hot mess created in the image of my Heavenly Father for the purpose of bringing Him glory. 🙌

This page was a lot of fun to create! I first covered my verse with washi to prevent any accidental smudging (trust me, accidents happens A LOT with me), then I did my stamping using the stamp sets below, and used watercolor paints to color in the stamps. Then came my favorite part - splattering the page with paint!! I seriously love a good paint splatter! 

I used the three new release Creative Worship stamp sets, the always versatile Girl Power stamp set to create this page. 😊😍

    

   

AWESOME NEWS!! All alpha stamp sets are on sale "Buy 2, Get 1 FREE" through the end of the day today. Take advantage of the sale and scoop up those alphas you've been eyeing up. 😉

Have a blessed week!

Much love in Christ, 

Janelle

@journalingjoy

The Word is Emmanuel

Hello, creative worship friends!

I'm glad you're in here this morning.  The "Sweet n Sassy Stamps" creative team have been working (or should I say, "playing?") hard to bring you some of the neatest samples of the June release ever! 

I've been so amazed at the different things that I've seen so far, and I'm more excited about seeing what y'all make as this month progresses.  It's awesome to see bits and pieces of God's creative hand in each of us, isn't it?  Just when you think you've seen it all, God reaches down and displays a little more of His glory through a brush, a stencil, a stamp, or just a pencil.  I love it.  I love it a lot.

It's fascinating that such a big, holy, indescribable God could think of and work through someone like you or me.  The first time man "messed up," His righteous right hand stayed in place to allow His most glorious creation to continue to exist; continue to exist, and even multiply and populate the earth with more of the same kind.

In Genesis 3:15, we find the first rendition of the sweet gospel of Grace. 
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."  

This here is something so far beyond what I can understand as far as God's sovereignty and redemption plan.  When the LORD speaks like this, He Himself is testifying of His own goodness and grace for mankind that was (and has been since) actively rebelling against Him.  Though we have an inborn illness of a wicked heart, God saw it as a good and self-glorifying thing to allow man an escape; freedom from this hardened heart, and freedom to a heart like His own.  There is a "Seed" that comes from a woman, and that "Seed" will indeed be in opposition to the state of the wickedness and rebellion set forth by our Adversary - the Satan. 
God speaks so beautifully into His plan of death versus Salvation in Jesus Christ, giving a picture wherein Jesus will be injured by the adversary - a temporary, non-lethal wound - and Jesus would deliver an eternal, completely lethal blow to said adversary!  The swap of battle wounds would render our enemy defeated, and our King on His Throne forever!

Throughout the rest of scripture we're given account after account and type after type of the Plan.
The Way.
Emmanuel.
God with us.
The Word.

True to form, God inspires another prophet to speak the name, "Emmanuel," to encourage and motivate the people to follow the one true God again.  Isaiah's words tie in what God has said before regarding a "Seed," and mingles it with another prophecy of a God-man that would come and dwell among man.  This Messiah would be the hope of the world; the Savior; the Christ that comes through a virgin and saves the people from their sins!

Again, in John 1, we see something called "the Word."  This is no ordinary word, and no ordinary saying.  It's not a psalm, it's not a proverb, it's not a prophecy.  It's THE Word of God - HIS Word that would be spoken across the spans of humanity, calling and curing all who would come.  It says,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  Then, in v.14 comes the formula for understanding this God-man in the greatest capacity possible:
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
The Word.
God with Us.
Emmanuel.
The Way.

That God sent His only Begotten to save the world, to cleanse us from our unrighteous ick, to replace ick with His beauty and purity, to be the Hope and Light in darkness and confusion, is the very Word we need to hear.  It's the very Word we need to breathe.  The same Word we need to dwell in us, changing us, prepping us for His eternal Kingdom. 
God is so kind. 
His love never ends.
His grace ever enough.
Jesus, we love you.

Much love, my friends.
Deeds

By Faith Alone...

Thanks for joining me on the blog today! 

Today I am sharing a page I recently did after a good friend of mine delivered a devotion for our women's ministry. Sometimes a message can hit you so strongly that it continues to resonate with you the rest of your day, and sometimes longer. Lately the topic of Faith has been strongly on my heart, so I created this page I am sharing with all of you today.

Genesis 15:4-6

Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, 

“So shall your offspring be.”

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. There are so many examples of true faith throughout the bible. People who couldn't physically see the promises of God, but they had confidence in their God to deliver what he promised them.

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. 

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. All these people were still living by faith when they died. By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

In all these instances: Able, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, Rahab, Gideon, Sampson, David, and there are just too many to name, each of them had faith in God and what they could not physically see! We need to remember to put out faith in God and God alone, and he will deliver the things he has promised us. 

"Faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance in what we do not see!"

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

Life in Jesus

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