Be Glad

Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14

Hi Friends!

Recently, I came across a company called DwellDifferently that picks a verse each month to memorize & makes a scripture design that includes the first letter of each word in the verse to aid in memorization. (Great idea, right??!!) One of their designs last year was based on Psalm 90:14. And with everything that has been going on in the world- Covid, shut downs, social and political unrest- this verse really got me thinking. Psalm 90 is a Psalm of Moses written when he and the Israelites were in the wilderness. The wilderness was rough! Moses knew that their responses to the hard times had angered God at times. But he also knew God, our loving and merciful Father. And, he cried this prayer out to God in the midst of his pain. So let's look at this particular verse.

"Satisfy us"- Satisfy is defined as "to make happy or contented," "to give sufficient or ample provision," "to fulfill the desires, expectations, or needs of a person," "to give full contentment to." Moses is looking to God for all this. And we should too.

"in the morning"- The NLT version says "each" morning. We should begin our days, each day, with God. Even if it is just for a few minutes, that time with Him is crucial.

"with Your unfailing love"- His love is what satisfies us. And His love is unfailing- unconditional, reliable and constant, never ending, never changing.

"that we may sing for joy"- This is the result of us being satisfied by His love- we sing for joy. Our level of joy shouldn't be based on our circumstances. His unfailing love is what we should base our joy on!

"and be glad all our days."- Along with joy, His love brings gladness, not to just some of our days, but to ALL of our days. Yes, all- even the day I lose my job or get a diagnosis or lose someone I love or when the world seems like it's falling apart around me. His love is still there. And it can still bring us joy and gladness.

There are numerous verses in the Bible that speak to joy in hard times. As I thought about this particular verse, what stood out to me was the reason I can sing for joy & be glad all my days. It's because of His unfailing love. That's all I need. It's all any of us needs. No matter what, He loves us. No matter what, we can rest in His love. No matter what, we can hope in Him. No matter what, we can sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Page details:

I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets for this page: Lollipop Alpha, Send Me, All in All, Fruits of the Spirit, Faith Wordfetti, and Healer of My Heart. I stamped the earth, then masked it with a mask I made by stamping it onto a post-it note and cutting it out. I then applied distress oxides to the page with sponge daubers. I used 2 stencils and darker distress oxides to create the sun rays and the stars. I colored the earth with Prismacolor pencils and used Gamosol to smooth out the pencil lines. I wanted the Lollipop letters to pop. So I stamped them onto sticker paper and cut them out. I stamped the rest of the wording and adhered the letter stickers to the page.

The page opposite of this page just happens to be the page I journaled when the first "shelter in place" orders were made. Good reminder to find joy and gladness through it all. 

Join me and choose joy this week! Blessings! Andrea

Heal our Land

O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat, across the wilderness

America, America, God mend thine every flaw

Confirm thy soul in self control, they liberty in law.

America the Beautiful, verse 2

Hi Friends,
America has been going through difficult times. I pray daily that we can be united rather than divided, that this nation will repent and turn to Jesus. As the song lyrics say that "God mend thine every flaw." Because all the faults of the U.S., everything that's wrong, can be answered and made right in Jesus. Simply, He is the answer. If we all lived the way He wants us to, there would be no inequality, division, or unrest. I pray that God will heal our land both spiritually and physically. We should not be fighting each other. We need to remember who the real enemy is. It's not people who don't agree with us. It's not one political party or the other. It's not people who don't look like us or live like us. We are not each other's enemy. Satan is the enemy. And he is behind all of this. This is a spiritual battle, and we need to remember that. We need to put on the armor of God and fight for Him. America can be a such beautiful nation when we're following our Lord and Savior.

Page Details: This page was inspired by one Amanda Hargrove had done. I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: God Bless America, Women of Praise, All in All, and Healer of my Heart. To make the mountain background, I used distress oxides and torn paper. I started with the red sky, then placed the torn paper on the page, and started sponging the mountains. I started from the torn paper and brushed onto the hymnal page. Diane Noble showed this technique in a video on the Creative Worship FB page. Click here to see the video. This technique is about 10 minutes into the video. I then stamped the words and highlighted them with a Uni Posca white pen.

Pray for America, my friends! Have a blessed week. Andrea

Forgive my Hidden Faults...

Hi friends,

I've been thinking a lot about the relationship between apathy, silence and complicity lately. Often these sins go unnoticed because they are hidden and not easily seen or identified within ourselves. I'm reminded of Psalm 19:12 where the psalmist prays, "But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults" and Psalm 139:24 where the psalmist asks God to "see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting."

In the times in which we find ourselves, being faced with the challenge of racial prejudice, I know it is all too easy to not see these hidden faults and offensive ways within ourselves. That's why we need to have the courage to ask God to reveal these dark corners of our hearts, and not be surprised or offended when he uses our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ to shine the light.

The willingness to open our heart to God's scrutiny requires humility and courage, because we need to acknowledge that we do not know all there is to know about ourselves, and that we may well have hidden sin that will be ugly and painful to confront. One of the ways that God reveals our hidden faults is through Scripture, whether through our personal devotional reading, or through preaching, or by listening to or reading the teaching of those who have studied Scripture and share the wisdom they have gained through books, podcasts or videos. I am grateful for how God speaks through these brothers and sisters in the faith to reveal truth about himself, as well as about me.

I used my gel plate with acrylic paints and stencils to create the background on this page. I stamped the dandelion from Blessings in Disguise over the background and stamped the text with a combination of All of Me Alpha, Let's Do This and Healer of my Heart, along with some alpha stickers. I stamped the broken heart image from Healer of my Heart and coloured with pencils. I stuck a printed Blue Morpho Butterfly in light grey onto the back so it looks partially hidden and blended into the background. Here are the sets I used:

I pray that we would all have the courage and humility to ask the Lord to search our hearts for hidden faults and to forgive us and teach us how to live our lives cleansed of these sins. Thank God that he is faithful to answer our prayer!

Be blessed...

x Amy x

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

What do you want?

Hi friends,

I recently noticed this question that Jesus asks the blind beggar who cries out from the roadside for his attention: "What do you want me to do for you?"

We might think that this is a redundant question to ask - after all, the man is obviously blind and begging! It seems obvious that this man needed to see. But Jesus doesn't just presume or assume - he asks. He responds to this man's plea for mercy by giving him the dignity of asking for what he really needed. He could have asked for money (after all, that is what he was begging every passer-by for as he sat by the roadside) but because he recognised who Jesus was, he asked for something much more: "Lord, I want to see."

Jesus responded immediately with a healing word, and the man could see.

This encounter and miracle is recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and while I journaled this page in the Luke 18 passage, when I was studying the story I noticed something interesting in the Mark 10 account. Mark places this story directly after the incident when James and John approach Jesus and say "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask." Jesus replies to them with the same question that he asks the blind man: "what do you want me to do for you?"

Their response is a self-promoting, self-interested one: they want to sit either side of Jesus in his glory (they want the best seats, the most power and glory available). Jesus' response is to point them to the true way of following him: suffering and sacrifice. I find it so interesting that Jesus asks this same question in two different scenarios, placed side-by-side. When he asks it of his disciples they respond with a self-centred demand. When he asks it of a blind beggar, he pleads for sight. One request was in line with the will of God's kingdom, the other one wasn't. This made me think about the way we approach God in prayer. As our mediator, Jesus may well be asking us: "What would you like me to do for you?" Our response demonstrates how much our hearts are in line with his kingdom. Are we asking for things based on a desire for self-promotion, wealth and ease? Or are we asking for the blind to see, for the captive to be set free, for mercy to be given to those who so desperately need it? What a challenge to our prayer life!

I created the background of this page with left-over acrylic paints from another page I did (I needed to cover some bleed-through on this page). The poinsettia from Poinsettia Greetings was stamped on watercolour card and embossed with gold, then cut out and watercoloured. I used a combination of Love Ya Like a Sister Alpha, Healer of my Heart and His Love as well as some alpha stickers to create the verse. I embossed the word Jesus in gold to tie in with the embossed poinsettia.

Let's be encouraged by Jesus' question: "what do you want me to do for you?" and let's be challenged in answering that we ask for those things that are in line with God's heart and his kingdom.

Be blessed...

x Amy x

Broken & Beautiful

Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. Psalm 31:5

Dear friends,
We are all broken in some way. After all, we live in a fallen world with disease, sin, and hurts of all kinds. But into that brokenness enters our great God. He redeems that brokenness and turns it into a thing of beauty. When I think of my brokenness, of my broken times, although I don't want to relive them, I can now see the beauty in them. Brokenness has brought me closer to my Savior. There are such sweet times with Him in my moments of need. Of course, really, every moment I have is a moment of need in regard to Him, but often I don't feel that need unless I'm going through something difficult.

David voiced his need in Psalm 31. In verse 5, he committed himself to God and spoke of his trust and God's redemption. But he was broken! Verse 9a says, "Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress." And verse 12b says, "...I have become like a broken vessel." And yet, he praises God in verse 7a, "I will rejoice and be glad in Your steadfast love, because You have seen my affliction." And verses 14 & 15a speak of his trust, "But I trust in You, O Lord; I say, 'You are my God.' My times are in Your hand."

God is with us through our brokenness. We may be damaged and scarred, but He brings beauty right in the middle of our mess.

Page details: I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: Healer of My Heart, Made New, and His Love. Made New is the February Stamp of the Month and free with a $75 purchase. Plus, you can use the code ANDREA10 to get 10% off any purchase of $10 or more!! I used sponge daubers to apply distress oxides to the page. Then spritzed water on the page. The distress oxides react to the water and give it that speckled look. I added highlights with a white pen.

Have a blessed week! Andrea

Heavy Hearted

Jesus heals the heavy heart!  Psalm 107 repeats three times, "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He rescued [saved] them from their distress."  This verse is so important, it is repeated three times within one chapter.  The people of Isreal cried out to Jesus when they were troubled and heavy-hearted, and He heard their pleas, their cries for help, their distress.  He healed them!

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I began this page by handpainting with watercolors from Dots'n Dust.  I then stamped the message, and the little words, and stamped the hearts from the Filigree Hearts set.  I loved how this page turned out! 

Healer of My Heart Stamp Set

 Thanks for stopping by!