We Stand IN Grace

Romans 5:1-2 is one of those brief passages that I've read many, many times but one small treasure gleamed and caught my eye on another reading.  I've just focused on other parts of the verse. But look at this..."Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

What struck me this time was the essence of grace in the life of the believer.  Grace isn't just something God dispenses as we repent.  We STAND IN GRACE.  Grace is a position we hold as a child of God.  Grace will not be withheld from the believer.  We are IN it...forever.  That is why His grace is sufficient.  His grace has covered everything necessary for our salvation.  I saw this as such a powerful part of the verse.  In grace we can stand and seize all God's treasures--life with Him forever, peace now in life and with God.  We don't have to come begging like a pauper.  We are already completely covered by His grace and that gives us the power to stand as victors!  I love it when Bible/Art journaling offers those beautiful moments when scripture comes alive all over again.

 

This is how my page started. I used my new jars of Distress Paints.  Oh, my! They are like melted butter.  LOVE them.  Then I did a little stenciling to add some texture.  Then I got out my Sweet 'n Sassy stash to see what I could find to help me share this amazing passage of scripture.

The verse is expressed in both stamped words/letters and hand-lettering.  All the stamps I used are listed below.

 I had a blast going back to some of my mixed media techiques to do this girl.  She is all from cut papers.  I didn't sketch it out...just started cutting so I'd get this totally casual artsy look to her.  Her hair is painted as is some of the light shading on her skin.  I used a Prisma pen to outline her last. The papers for her clothes are some from my stash.  Her flowers are stamped on painted paper then cut out.  The white outlining is the white sharpie paint pen also available through SNSS.

I can remember my preacher-daddy being so incredulous that people would actually resist God's grace.  My whole family soaked it up like a sponge and often needed more.  We caught a glimpse of how needy we were, how lost--were it not for grace. When we say "YES" to His amazing grace, we are at peace with God, reconciled and secure.  And that fact gives us peace in the here and now.

I hope this little nugget in scripture has given you a fresh look at grace and I hope my mixed media antics will give you some fun inspiration to try in your own art journals or Bibles.

Stamp sets from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps:

• All of Me Alpha (stand)
• Amazing God (amazing)
• Choose Faith (grace)
• He is Worthy-(yellow flowers)
• Message of Hope (forever, live in His peace, and forever. 
• Note This (say yes to, right where He wants me, ampersand) 
• Seek Him (corner designs, arrows, small hearts)

 All of Me Alpha and Amazing God

 Choose Faith

 Message of Hope, He is Worthy, and Note This

 Seek Him

( dianesdaydreamdesigns.blogspot.com )

Sing to the Lord, He is highly exalted

When Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.

When Miriam realized God had saved her and His people they started dancing and singing, praising God. I wanted to highlight this part of the message. Immediately after these events they started praising God. They didn’t take time to rest or they didn’t wait to see what trials would follow. Of course, we know there would follow a lot more trials, but that didn’t stop Miriam to praise God in this moment.

Sometimes I tend to overthink things. When there’s one problem that’s solved I already think about the next (possible) trial that could be faced. But wouldn’t it be better to live in the moment? To praise God for everything he gives right now, instead of pondering about everything that could still happen. The people of Israel didn’t know what would happen next, where they would go or where they could stay. But the Lord saved them in this moment and He deserves all praise.

I didn't use a lot of supplies for this page. I just used the stamp set 'He is Worthy', a micron pen and a couple of colored pencils. There is so much information on this page that I wanted to use the other margins for other parts of this scripture. So I didn't use the entire page, but only a little part. I will add more notes on this page later.

- Lucinde

It's All About Jesus!

Hello Creative Worship friends!  I hope you've found time this week to bask in the presence of Jesus and get into His word!  Cathy here to share a page done in my Journaling Bible and a card using a brand new stamp set just added to the Creative Worship line of stamps at the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Store.

I got to thinking about the fact that Jesus can be found in all 66 books of the Bible…it is His Story…It's All About Jesus!  The stamp set, His Name, containing many of the names of Jesus, was used to create my Journal page between the Old and New Testaments since Jesus bridges the gap between the old covenant and the new.

A credit card was used to apply acrylic paint to the page.  The names were stamped and outlined with a Sharpie Paint Pen.  The What's Up? Arrow Dies were used to cut arrows from patterned paper and the some hearts from the Bottom of my Heart stamp set were white embossed on vellum and added to the page. 

He is Worthy, a wonderful new stamp set designed by Lucinde van Ballegooijen, was just added to the SNSS Store.

The floral images from the He is Worthy stamp set were white embossed on black card stock and colored with Prismacolor pencils.  Some shimmer was added to the flowers with a clear Wink of Stella marker and some glittery Washi tape was added down the sides of the card.  The words in the set can be used to create a card greeting or scripture verses to be used in your Bible journaling.

Here are the products from the SNSS Store used for my projects today:

The chorus "All About You" was written by Israel Houghton and Cindy Cruse Ratcliffe

You are the holy one 

You are the living word 

You are the center of my focus, Jesus 

You are the son of God 

You are the the solid rock 

You are the center of my focus Jesus 

You're the lover of my soul 

And I adore You only 

Chorus: 

It's all about You 

All about You 

It's all about You Jesus 

It's all about You 

All about You 

It's all about You Jesus 

Verse 2: 

You are miraculous 

You are supernatural 

You are the center of my focus Jesus 

You are all powerful 

You are so wonderful 

You are the center of my focus Jesus 

You're the lover of my soul 

And I adore You only

Make Jesus the center of your focus…get into His Word and let His word get into you!

Thanks so much for stopping by…Have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs,

Cathy