Focus on Jesus

O our God, will You not execute judgment on them? 

For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. 

We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You. 2 Chronicles 20:12

Hi Friends!
Today we are in 2 Chronicles 20 where Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, was told that the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites had declared war on him. And he got scared. Wouldn't you too? But his response wasn't to focus on the enemy and his circumstances. No, instead he immediately went straight to God. He also asked the people of Judah to fast. So nationwide, they sought the Lord. Incredible! How amazing to have a leader that led people directly to God in difficult times.

Jehoshaphat prayed before the people. He cried out to God with all of Judah and asked God to help them. And he ended the prayer with a thought I can SO relate to, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You." Oh man, I can relate to Jehoshaphat's fear and not knowing what to do regarding big, scary things in life. I've read this chapter before, more than once. But in this reading, this sentence really stopped me. Maybe it's because of what's going on in America and the world right now. I don't know, but it so resonated with me. This reminds me to keep my focus on Him, to do what Jehoshaphat did. So, I'm adopting this sentence as a little prayer that I can send up anytime fear or worry starts to set in. I don't know what to do, Lord, but my eyes are on You. Yes and amen, y'all! Do you want to know how the story ends? They didn't even have to fight the battle! God, through Jahaziel, told them to march out against the army, but to just "stand still and watch the Lord's victory." (2 Chron 20:17) God caused the enemy armies to fight among themselves, not one of them escaped. Don't we have an awesome God? If He could do that for Jehoshaphat and Judah, just think how worthy He is to entrust with the circumstances of your life. Focus on Him, sweet friends, not your circumstances.

For the page, I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: Capture This Moment, Healer of My Heart, Girl Power, and Your Story. I painted the back ground with acrylic paint. While that dried, I stamped the camera image on some sticker paper and then again on a post-it note to make a mask. Before I cut the mask out, I drew hands and arms so the girl could hold the camera. (They're a little wonky, I know. That's why I love stamps so much so I don't have to depend on my drawing skills!) Then I cut out the mask. I use post-it notes so it will stick where I want it and not move. Once the mask was placed, I stamped the girl, removed the mask, and drew in the hands/arms to match the masked area. I drew the frame freehand. I colored the image with alcohol markers, then cut it out to place it on the Bible page. I wrote my prayer out, and finished the page with a stencil and more acrylic paint.

Our hope is in Him, and no one else. Have a blessed week! Andrea

Cleansed, NOT Consumed

 

But now, O Jacob, listen to the LORD who created you.

O Israel, the one who formed you says,

"Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.

I have called you by name; you are mine.

When you go through deep waters,

I will be with you.

When you go through rivers of difficulty,

you will not drown.

When you walk through the fire of oppression,

you will not be burned up;

the flames will not consume you.

For I am the LORD, your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Isaiah 43:1-3 NLT

Have you ever wondered why God allows the trials and burdens in our lives?  I think we all have at some point in our faith walk.   The Bible never promises us a life without struggles.  Trials are inevitable.  In Isaiah 43:2, God says "when" we go through rivers and "when" we walk through fire, it doesn't say "if".  

God allows us to face these trials and hardships to cleanse and purify our hearts and to draw us closer to Him.  Just like steel, we can be strengthened in the fire; we can learn  from our struggles.  We can learn to trust more fully in the Lord.  We can learn compassion, humility, and vulnerability.  We can learn prospective and to be more thankful for the many blessings God gives us.  

The struggles we face can strengthen our relationship with the Father, if we remember that He is with us, just as He promises in the verses above.  He instructs us, "Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you".  He is our Creator and Redeemer.  He calls us His.  He promises to be with us as we walk through the fire.    

If you are in the fire, I pray you use this season to cleanse your heart and strengthen your relationship with the Lord.  I know the struggle is hard, but do not be consumed.  God will create beauty from the ashes.   

Page Details:

I started this page by painting flames, using acrylics in the lower corner.  Then I layered the beautiful black and white florals from Consider the Wildflowers over the fire and at the top of the page.  I used the  Girl Power set to stamp out an image to represent myself.  I stamped my title using the Cold Coffee Alpha and Messy Stamped Alpha.  I finished it off by adding some star stenciling and paint splatters to the background.  The blueish purple specks on the page are actually bleed through from the entry on the reverse of this page, but I decided not to let that bother me and let it be apart of the "sparks" floating up from the fire. 

Until next time, catch up with me on Instagram and Facebook @simplyjillsjourney.

Jill

You Are the Potter

Think of the details of your life. Do you think it's just a series of events happening to you or do you believe your life is part of a greater plan?

I think we can get some clarity and comfort from Isaiah 64:8 on this question.

Yet you, Lord, are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.    

We can be comforted by the first thing this verse tells us, "Yet you, Lord, are our Father". It doesn't just say, you are our Lord...it says he is our Father. Our Creator is not an uncaring deity. He is a loving and faithful Father. He wants us to trust Him with the details of our lives. The next part of the verse, "We are the clay; you are the potter. We are all the work of your hands" tells us that God is in control. He is the potter of our lives. He is molding and shaping, refining and sometimes, even breaking us and putting us back together, in an effort to make us more Christ-like.

My prayer through my journaling, is that I would always be malleable in the hands of the potter, allowing him to shape me in a way that brings Him glory.

Have Thine own way Lord
Have Thine own way
Thou art the potter I am the clay
Mold me and make me after Thy will
While I am waiting yielded and still  

(Lyrics from Have Thine Own Way Lord by Jim reeves)

 Page details:
A couple of weeks ago, I did a page using several people from the Brotherly Love and Girl Power stamp sets. I used my Brother Scan and Cut to cut out all the images and what I was left with resembled a stencil of people. I saved it for future projects.

I used my "stencil" this week with texture paste that I colored to resemble potter's clay. I laid out a piece of wax paper and used a plastic pallet knife to smooth the texture paste in a few of the images. I purposely left them imperfect, because afterall, that's what we are. After the texture paste dried, I was able to lift it off the wax paper. I don't usually gesso my page, but knew I wanted to smoosh distress oxides on the page and they tend to bleed through badly when used with a lot of water, so I did prep my page before starting. I did several layers of smooshing, using a variety of colors to create some muddy, clay splatter areas. I inked around my texture paste people with some black ink to help them stand out from my background and glued them to my page. I used the new Messy Stamped Alpha and Cold Coffee Alpha to stamp out my title. I actually stamped it twice, with a grey and brown ink and off set my stamping each time to create a shadow on the letters.

 Until next time, catch up with me on Instagram @simplyjillsjourney. xoxo,

Jill

Love Each Other

We are just a few days away from Valentine's Day, so I thought it was a perfect time to talk about "LOVE". 

Love is defined in the Oxford dictionary as "1.  An intense feeling of deep affection. 2. A great interest and pleasure in something."  It is a word I use often.  I love my family and friends. I love chocolate, I love to have crafting time and I love the beach.  But what I want to look at, is the Biblical meaning of love. 

There are 4 types of love in the Bible:

Storge - Empathy Bond
Philios - Friend Bond
Eros - Romantic Love
Agape - Unconditional "God" love

My challenge to you and myself this Valentine's Day is to love everyone with Agape love, as God loves us.

The Bible actually calls for us to love others, like God loves us. Mmm...that can be more than a little difficult, am I right? Am I supposed to love a co-worker who tried to sabotage my career, or a rude cashier, or a driver that made a not-so-nice hand gesture to me because I was turning in the parking lot too slowly for their liking?  YES!!!  Because that's how God loves us.

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Romans 5:8 NIV

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

 1 John 4:7-11 NIV

 1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

 1 John 3:1 NIV

16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

1 John 4:16 NIV 

10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 54:10 NIV

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:4-5 NIV 

 26 Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.

Psalm 136:26 NIV 

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 NIV 

The love we have been shown through the sacrifice of Jesus is a love like no other!  So this Valentine's Day and everyday, let us not only love those we find easy to love....let us love EVERYONE, so that we can glorify God!

Page Details:
I created this page by stamping out several people, with the Brotherly Love & Girl Power stamp sets.  I had fun making each one unique, just as God made us.  I colored them in with watercolors and cut them out with my Brother Scan & Cut (my Christmas present from my hubby).  I used the people to create at tip-in at the bottom of the page, so I could still read the scripture underneath.  I traced and colored a large heart in the center, to represent God's love for us.  I used the hearts from the Women of Praise set to create a background. My title is a combination of the new Loop da Loop Alpha and Bitty Mini Alpha. 

Here's a short video clip, showing how the tip-in works:

These are the sets I used to create my page:

Until next time, catch up with me on Instagram @simplyjillsjourney.  I hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Jill Norris

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

I Know the World Needs Jesus

Hey friends and family!

I'm so in love with Jesus.  Can I just say, without the Lord I would be absolutely sunk!  There's so much that comes by being in the family of Christ; so much worked into being linked to Jesus, and there's not enough paper to write it on, according to John the disciple.  :)

Jesus is the hope of the world.
The Word of God in human flesh and form.
The reason for joy; the meaning of love.

Last Sunday, I was able to attend the church service.  Does this sound odd?  Well, in the phase in which I find myself presently (baby, sick kids and fatigue), I find that getting to the church house for fellowship and feeding, ministry and service comes as quite the challenge.  When I get to go, I'm thrilled, refreshed and reconnected with friends I have - SERIOUSLY - not seen in months. 

There's something sweet about the encountering of Jesus in all of the ways mentioned above.  When we fellowship with people of the family of God, we share Christ, unity, bonding, and much more.  When we are fed from the pulpit or classes, we hear Jesus, and our faith is strengthened.  When we minister, we are sharing Jesus' love and hope with others, whether it's a hug of understanding, a warm smile of encouragement, or tears shed for the sake of weeping with those who weep.  Service, of course, shows Jesus' life and light in ways that we don't understand because outside our physical realms lies the heavenly one, wherein angels are entertained, and God omni-present! 

The reflections of Jesus to others (inside or outside the body of Christ) can have such an eternal affect on those around us.  Wherever we are; whatever we are.

As a mom, in particular and especially, I forget what ways I'm impacting my children.  They are my "world."  They are the viewers of my life; the spectators of my day-in-day-out activities and reactions. 
God reminded me of this again last Sunday...

The worship music started.
There was unity in song.
There was blessedness in community.

At one point, I simply stood in silence and listened as those around me as they lifted the name of Jesus.  Sometimes there was 3-part harmony, but I wasn't noting that as much as the squeeze I felt at my side.

My daughter. 

My only daughter.

My child.

She'd stayed with me and stood by me for songs and announcements.  It was just the two of us there at the time as hubster elected to stay with the sicklies of the house, giving me a worship service.  

Very different, yet strangely wonderful. 
As we sang, the phrase, "I know the world needs Jesus," entered the worship hall.  Have you heard this song?
The chorus goes like this: 

"I know the world needs Jesus.
I know the world needs freedom.
So give us eyes to see the hurting and the broken.

Let our lives align with every word You say."

It's beautiful.  Following the chorus, it weighed heavily on me - almost to sorrow - what God was saying by the seemingly random side hug from my baby girl.  "Your children need Jesus, Deirdre.  All five of them.  They all need Me, and you need to show Me to them." 

I cried. 

For the first time in my life as a mom, I realized that the person of Jesus - the Healer, Restorer, Savior, Redeemer, and King - was not the subject of conversation on a regular basis.  My children - my "world" - did not know Jesus, and further still, did not know their need for Him. 

Oh, the shame and pain. 
Oh, the guilt of having hidden the Light under a basket.

That day changed me.  The Spirit opened me up to humbling and recovery.  I need to do things differently at my home.  I even changed the lyrics of the song above in order to better relate to my calling.

"I know my kids need Jesus.

I know my kids need freedom.
So give me eyes to see their hurting and their breaking.
Let my life align with every word You say."

So...I slipped this entry into Proverbs 22:6 which says, "Train up a child in the way he should go.  And when he is old he will not depart from it."  I believe with my whole heart that being the Light in my "world" is a good portion of what it means to train my children in the understanding of God.  My reflecting Jesus, sharing His Word, and being His hands and feet to them can impact them for life in the way they should go!

I encourage you, friends, wherever you are and whatever you are: seek to be Jesus to your "world."  If God has not called you to a full-time ministry as pastor's wife, missionary, bible translator, bible professor, don't worry.  He's called you to full-time ministry as mom, wife, Wendy's employee, amusement park vendor, garbage man, you name it!  In your "world," there are people who need Jesus.  In your "world," there are those who need to taste and see that He is good; they NEED freedom from the chains of sin, death and hell that can only be granted by faith in Jesus the Christ.

I love God the Holy Spirit.  I love His biddings.  Yes, sometimes they are difficult to swallow and digest, but they are timely mercies.  They are gracious urges to do that which is of utmost importance!

In God's mercies and much love,

Deeds

Happy Alpha, Girl Power, Brotherly Love, Sunshine Girl Alpha

Redeemed

"And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day.” (Ruth 4:9-10)

The story of Ruth and Boaz is one of my favorite stories in the Bible.  Ruth was a widow, living in a foreign land.  Boaz, a relative of her dead husband, purchases the land that once belonged to her (also dead) father-in-law.  But he doesn't do it for his own gain--he engages in this business transaction in an effort to redeem the land for his relative, Ruth and her destitute mother-in-law, Naomi.  In so doing, they now have the means to provide for themselves.  However, there's even more to this transaction.  By purchasing the land, he also purchases Ruth, and agrees to take her on as his own wife.  

My inner feminist screams that this is disgusting!  Women aren't to be purchased like property!  However, I must consider the cultural context of the story, and the patriarchal society in which Ruth and Boaz existed.  Unmarried, and especially widowed, women had little to no means to provide for themselves, and no opportunity to acquire any.  But when Boaz legally redeemed Ruth, he made her his own wife--and as the rest of the story shows--he indeed loved her and cherished her and provided for her.  

This story is a picture of what Christ has done for us.  We are destitute sinners, with absolutely no means to provide for our salvation.  However, Christ purchased us with His blood at the Cross, and took us as His own.  He loves and cherishes and cares for us.  And even more importantly, His act of redemption provides a way of salvation for us!  

What a beautiful story!  I decided to journal this in my Bible with a few different stamp sets.  I wanted to go all pink, because it's my favorite color, and I wanted to emphasize the personal fact that I AM REDEEMED!  For the background, I used the houndstooth-style texture stamp from Texture Tiles 4, which is the Stamp of the Month for October.  I used Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide Ink, and stamped the background continuously.  I also stamped this same pattern in black on some pink cardstock, to cut out a tab and to use for a shirt for my girl, which was the next step. 

I used the Girl Power set to create a tag with the top-bun girl.  I stamped her with pink glasses to carry the pink theme, and colored her with watercolor pencils.  I affixed the tag onto pink cardstock, and tied it off with black checked ribbon.  I used double-sided foam tape to give the tag some dimension. 

Finally, I used the Hello, My Name Is stamp set to stamp "Redeemed" as my title, and then the following into wordfetti strips:  100%, beyond measure, once & for all, no matter what.  I marked off my verses, and then added some journaling, some pink and black paint splatter, and the date.  

I love the pink-ness of this page, but I love the reminder even more of how Jesus has 100% redeemed me!  He's redeemed you too, friend!  

Thanks for hanging out with me today...

Julie

Girl Power

Hello, My Name Is...

Texture Tiles 4