Turn Down the Noise

And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. 

And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 1 Kings 19:12

Hello, dear friends!

Today I'm in 1 Kings 19 with Elijah. In chapter 18, we find Elijah at a spiritual high. God came through in a big way and defeated the prophets of Baal. God was with Elijah big time! But, in chapter 19, Jezebel was pretty angry about what had happened, and vowed to kill Elijah. So he ran. 

Does that surprise you? I mean, he's ELIJAH, the great prophet, who was taken up to heaven by God in a great whirlwind. When circumstances got tough, he ran? Can you relate? I sure can. I may not physically run away when life gets hard, but I mentally run- to books or TV or social media, anything that might help me take my mind off the hard.

Elijah was feeling "done." In verse 4, he asked to die. He was exhausted. The Bible tells us he slept after praying to die. And God sent an angel who fed him. God knew Elijah needed to be physically strengthened so that he could continue the work God had for him. 

Well, Elijah went to Mt. Horeb and found a cave where he took shelter. And God had one question for him in verse 9, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" But Elijah didn't really answer God's question, instead he told God that he was the only one left standing for God, and that he had received a death threat. 

So God told him to go out of the cave, and God sent:

• a mighty wind
• an earthquake
• a fire

But God was not in those things. The loud, chaotic things that so easily get our attention because they are loud and chaotic are often not where we will find God. Instead, God came to him with a whisper, a whisper that asked the same question, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" You see God didn't want him to run away from his problems. In fact, He told Elijah to go right back in to those problems! But, God strengthened him physically and mentally. He had fed him and promised Elijah that he wasn't the only one standing for God. He promised that there would be others to come alongside Elijah in standing for God.

Our world is loud. And there are a lot of problems. So, in the midst of the hard, instead of mentally (or physically) running away from the problems, turn down the noise of the world, and sit with Him in the stillness. God will speak to you through His Word. He will strengthen you and me too.

My life has had a lot of changes lately as we moved from Kansas to Texas. There's been hard and stressful times in this move. But, I just have seen God working over and over. He cares about the details of our lives. And He is there for us. We just have to listen.

Page details: I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: Ellis Square Alpha, Marker Alpha, Bitty Minnie Alpha, I Am Loved, Texture Tiles 1, Texture Tiles 6, Texture Tiles 9, Gear Up, and Grunge Elements 3. The background was done with distress oxides: Speckled Egg, Dusty Concord, and Chipped Sapphire. I applied them to the page with blender brushes. I spritzed the page with water as the distress oxides react and give a neat effect. Then I used all the stamps. :) I wanted the background stamps to give the idea of the noisiness of life, but the blue area is calm and quiet.

Sit with Him, my friends. He's waiting! Have a blessed week. Andrea

Persevere in Praise

His praise shall continually

be in my mouth.

Psalm 34:1

...let us continually offer up a

sacrifice of praise to God...

Hebrews 15:15

My Word of the Year is PERSEVERE and I'm finding so many scriptural applications for it that I'm truly fascinating by looking at one word and seeing how it plays out in God's Word.  For the post today I traveled down one path of my word map to look more carefully at persevering in praise.  Very enlightening in that the Bible has so many examples of the faithful who persevered in praising God in spite of their hardships, during times of loss and grief, when praise was truly a painful sacrifice to a great and Holy God. 

Perseverance intertwines patience and persistence.  We are to keep on praising with a steadfastness that will not wane or waver when deep waters rise.  I collected only a few personally significant verses here in my little Travelers' Notebook, a place where I'm trapping a number of ways I'm exploring my WOY. 

We all know how much easier it is to praise when God answers our prayers, when He blesses us, when He gives us the desire of our hearts.  It's hard...it's a sacrifice offered in pain and anguish to praise Him when we are left brokenhearted and empty handed.  I've been in both places, haven't you.  Broken, shattered, so empty I wasn't sure there was breath in my lungs.  But I found breath...and I made choices to use the little air I had left to offer praise.  He breathed blessing back into me.  More praise...more filling.  God works that way!   It was a delightful surprise when the scripture from Habakkuk 3:19 was at the bottom of this page when I turned to my empty canvas.  How appropriate!

The Lord God is my strength, my personal bravery,

and my invincible army!

Is that not beautiful, powerful, encouraging, lifting....it leaves me with a nearly breathless, "WOW GOD!"  God is our strength and when we think we are too weak or drained or broken to praise, He will give strength to the willing heart.  If we desire praise over our brokenness, He will gives us eyes to see the blessings in the thorns, the beauty in the ashes, the praise in the valley.  I know what He has done for me each time I've chosen surrendered praise...He has WOWED me with who He is.  And I know He will do it again.  I know I will break again, I know I will hurt more than I can now imagine, but through the hope and strength Christ gives me, I know He will meet me there like He always has and He will bring me through the rain and give me a song as the thunder echoes the beat of His love.  He will be my strength...and I will praise Him.  He will be my personal bravery...and I will praise Him.  He will be my invincible army...and I will praise Him.  

I will praise the Lord while I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 

Psalm 146:2

Design Details: 

I created a "rainy" background by using a very dry brush and acrylic paints.  I stamped the other images in a coordinating Distress Oxide ink.  

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Sets Used:

Typewriter Block Alpha

Healer of My Heart

I Am Loved

How Tweet

Women of Praise

Praise Him

Hello friends!  How many ways can you think of to praise the Lord?  Psalm 150 lists several ways to praise the Lord, but you can probably think of more.  Praising the Lord invites His presence into our circumstances AND in His presence is fullness of joy…doubt, worries, and fear flee!  Chains and bonds are broken just as they were for Paul and Silas.  No matter what you are going through, the Lord is worthy of praise…
                               "His grace saves us,
                                        His mercy spares us,
                                               and His love pardons us!"

(from a morning and evening devotional)

I've been wanting to try using Color Burst pigment powders on a Bible Journaling page and finally decided to just do it!  I did prep the page three times with Dina Wakley Clear Gesso since the page was going to get pretty wet.  First a section of the page was masked off so the music background from the new Music to My Ears stamp set could be clear embossed in the middle.  Then the magic…sprinkle on the powders (I used yellow, tangerine, fuchsia, and crimson) and squirt with water.  A roll of paper towels helped to soak up the extra water and each color was dried before applying the next color.  There was NO bleed through!  A little sponging helped the embossing show up a little better.  Elements from the I Am Loved, Seek Him, and Note This stamp sets were added to the page along with some hand lettering and a few more notes from the Music to My Ears stamp set.

Here are the stamp sets from the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Store used for this page:

"Guard your heart from fear at night by singing praises to your King!"

Thanks so much for stopping by…

Blessings to you,

Cathy

Faith, Hope and Joy!

{jane bosi}  Happy Tuesday, Sweet Friends!  I'm always looking for ways to speak my faith in my workplace.  It can be a tricky thing in secular organizations.  Especially, when you work with kids.

Recently, I've had the opportunity to move to a new position in my organization and it's afforded me the huge privilege of having my own office.  I wanted to create a space that would be warm and inviting; where the kids would feel safe and want to come.  I wanted it to reflect my personality and feel homey. So, what better way to accomplish all that than to decorate with my own art pieces?

I completely adore this worshiping girl from I Am Loved and always think that is how my Heavenly Father sees me.  With her as my focal image, I created this 3 x 3 canvas--I love how it turned out!

I really wanted to use the sentiment from I Am Loved, "Holy Spirit, you are welcome here" but the sizing wasn't right.  As I applied layers of paint, stencil, gesso and modge podge, the answer became clear.  With faith, I have hope and because I have hope, I experience joy!  Choose Faith!

My subtle message to "my kids" who come to visit in my office is all about planting a seed.  Maybe they'll ask, maybe they'll wonder, maybe they'll hope......

Maybe, just maybe......Jane

I got crafty with:

Teach me

When I saw the little praying girl from the ‘I am Loved’ set I knew I wanted to use her in my bible. I really love to combine it with ‘His Book’ another stamp set with a combination of lovely images and words. For this page I used both sets (and ‘He is Risen’ for the little heart swirl).

This page is based on John 5:44
How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?

We have to seek the honor of God and not of men.

I added the praying girl and the bible from the stamp sets mentioned above and stamped them, the girl with grey ink and everything else with black ink. I colored the images and messages with colored pencils and made the background with distress inks. I left a little bit of white space at the top of the page to add some journaling later.

- Lucinde