"In the Morning" Hymnal Journaling

 

In the morning when I rise / In the morning when I rise

In the morning when I rise / Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus / Give me Jesus

You can have all this world / But give me Jesus

And when I am alone / Oh, when I am alone

And when I am alone / Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus / Give me Jesus

You can have all this world / But give me Jesus

And when I come to die / Oh, when I come to die

And when I come to die / Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus / Give me Jesus

You can have all this world / But give me Jesus

Isn't that a beautiful hymn?  Give me Jesus! Yes! The first printing of this song dates back to 1845 in a Methodist hymnal. However, the 1867 compilation Slave Songs of the United States includes this spiritual as a favorite among former slaves in South Carolina. I can easily understand the powerful words to this song strengthening and encouraging anyone going through a difficult time. When we seek Jesus first, in the morning, we'll be victorious over anything and everything we encounter throughout the rest of the day.

I knew I wanted to journal this hymnal page, but my first attempt was a FAIL!  Well, nothing created in heartfelt worship is really a fail, but I was definitely not happy with the results. I didn't like how the lightly stamped words didn't stand out enough against the watercolor background. Nor did I like the placement of the words and image. So I set it aside for a day, and came back to it the next evening. Here's a photo of the first attempt.

First Page Attempt

I pulled out some white, yellow, orange, and red acrylic paint, because I knew that medium was heavy enough to cover up what I had previously done, but light enough to allow me to still see the score of the music.  

Second Attempt

 

I created an ombre effect with the colors, and then, using the Good Morning stamp set, I stamped the words and images over the background.  I added some paint to the sunrise image, and used a white gel pen to highlight the words and the sun's rays.  I added white, orange, and red splatters, which made me think of droplets of sunlight. I added a tab made from washi tape and the phrase "Not today Satan" from the Faith Wordfetti stamp set.  I finished it off with the some black and white washi (to help balance out all the color) and an orange puffy clip, which reminds me of the sun. 

 

I am much happier with the second attempt. I love its brightness and image placement, and the splashes of sunlight! Which is your preference?  

Faith Wordfetti Stamp Set

Good Morning Stamp Set

Thanks for stopping by.  You can follow me on Instagram @julesk.jewels

 or my YouTube channel Jules Jewels 

In The Morning

"In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus!"

Hello, sweet blogger friends!  ✋

Deeds here, ready to lay it on us!  Ready to bring it; gonna bring the Word!
As I sit here giggling at my feeble attempts to be funny, I just want to say that although the Word of God is a serious matter, I am still thankful that God gave us humor and the ability to laugh.
This has nothing to do with the topic for today, but I did want to let you know: this gal likes a good hearty laugh, and a good hearty laugh often!  It's good for the soul, amen?

Ok!  This is a bit different of a post as it brings something too close to home; close enough that I debated with God about even writing/sharing it. 
I'm not thrilled at my lack of discipline when it comes to three basic necessities of the Christian faith: prayer, study, and meditation.  But declaring a weakness - confessing sins to my siblings in Christ - is part of healing and repentance. 
I'm talking about spending time in the Word.
Spending time with God.

Spending time being with God in prayer.
Spending time - sacrificing time - to give your first and early moments of the day to God.

I used to sing that song, "Give Me Jesus," a lot.  I used to play it loudly from my car as I painfully navigated my divorce.  I used to cry the lyrics to the Lord in hopes that He would indeed meet me in that safe and sacred place, wherein I could behold my first Love and allow His embrace to erase my depression.
However, I didn't realize that the phrase, "in the morning, when I rise," was so key. 

Tip in created in my process video with the "'reverse smooshing technique." :D
(Neo-color crayons and "In the Morning," stamp)

Now, please don't misunderstand; ANY time in the Word of God and ANY time spent with Him is wonderful.  It's all good.  All fruitful.  All a blessing. 
But recently, I have been burdened by my humanity, understanding that if I DO NOT GET THOSE FIRST MOMENTS OF MY DAY WITH THE LORD, I cannot guarantee a good day.  I cannot be sure that I will perform well.  Goodness me, I cannot promise that I will look/sound/act like a Jesus lover. 
In fact, I can almost 100 percent count on a misplaced trajectory, and an unsaturated heart for the Lord.

Bookmark created with wet on wet technique (neocolor crayons & "In the Morning" stamp).

My hope is that by writing this very personal (and somewhat embarrassing) piece of blog, I will be held accountable, for one.  But also, that this will encourage you to do what I have tried to establish as a course of action every single day: in the morning, when I rise, be with Jesus. 
There's such a difference in all around behavior.
There's such a contrast between when I do and when I don't, it's unreal.
There's such a blessing for others around me when I've elected to sit down first thing and be with Jesus.

There are plenty of scriptures to help inspire us to praise and petition in the morning:

"Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you." Psalm 33:22
"They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord;" 1 Sam. 1:19

"O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch." Psalm 5:3
"But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress." Psalm 59:16

There's more of this on my Youtube process video!

Sing!
Rejoice!

Praise!
Pursue!

Get Jesus, and get Him in the morning!

Much love,

Deeds

"In the Morning" stamp available at the Sweet n Sassy Shop!
affiliate link: http://www.sweetnsassystamps.com?aff=7

Give me, give me, give me...

Hi friends, Elizabeth here! I am delighted to be one of the newest members of the creative worship team and to share my 1st blog post with you. I'm pretty much over the moon excited to be here! One of the 1st things you will learn about me is that I don't do mornings!!! Truth be told, I loathe mornings. I enjoy the freshness of the air and the stillness in my heart but man, that crawling out of my snuggly warm bed just isn't fun for this dedicated night owl. My mornings are not as productive as some would suggest however when I take a step back and look at what a normal "morning" around my place looks like, I see a different view. When I look at it I see that's it's not about how much I can get done, but that the time spent with my Daddy God IS indeed fruitful. You see, it's not about what time you wake up but what you do with that first bit of time that matters.

Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. Psalm 143:8 NLT

Yes, I want to hear His voice each & every morning & yes, I want to be reminded of His great love for me- who doesn't? It's that last part of the verse that speaks to me the most. He's gonna show me where to go IF I give myself to Him first. 

The Bible talks of bringing your "first fruits" to the Lord in Exodus 34. Verse 26 shares how as you begin your work harvesting your crops, bring the very best of the first part of it to God. I believe we can apply this to our lives. We give Him our very best and the first parts of our day.  May I suggest our time spent with Him in the morning as our 'first fruits' offering? I think of my morning times with Jesus as me giving Him my offering of worship. Since we are often at our best in the morning we can give God our "first fruits' by making His time a priority before we start with all of our tasks and to do lists.

We live in a society and generation that has a problem of the "give me's". Anyone know what I mean? Everyone wants something. "Give me a ride", "Give me some money honey", "Give me a break"... etc. Well, the Lord has some "give Me's" too. He says "Give Me your time, give Me your talents, Give Me your resources" but above that He says "Give Me your heart". 

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. Matthew 22:37

What I got to say about that is "just give me JESUS". I want Him to give me more of Himself everyday and that looks a whole lot like me giving my 'first fruits' to Him each day in worship, prayer, & Bible study. Will you join me and committing to offer your 'first fruits' offering to Him each morning when you rise?

Art: For the background I used a large flat brush & 3 shades of yellow/orange acrylic paint blending and working quickly while the paint was still wet. I used the masking technique to stamp the sun  & clouds from the Love Your Neighbor set then masking/stamping each portion of the phrase for Give me Jesus set. For the chicken I selected a google image, uploaded it to Cricut Design Studio, and cut out a stencil. Using the stencil & the highly sophisticated ;) baby wipe finger technique I "painted" in the chicken. Added washi, a cute tab, and finished off with black splatters - my fave. 

Give me Jesus!

 Elizabeth - @icolorinmybible

If you are like me and have to have these stamp sets then you can snag In the Morning for yourself here or Love Your Neighbor set here. Check out Instagram & Facebook too for lots more inspiration on these new releases. Can't wait to see what you create!

When I Rise Give Me Jesus.... and Java!

 Hey everyone! I'm Stephanie Gammon, a new member of the Creative Worship Creative Team and I am so excited to be here with you guys!! I'll be completely honest with you all, this is my first EVER blog post... period... so hang in there with me as I figure this all out 😊.

Psalm 63:1 

"You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. " 

I'm going to be completely honest with you guys again. Before I discovered bible journaling, hardly ever did I open my bible. Sad, I know. I carried it to church when we would go, but the time in between those visits.....it sat on my nightstand.....collecting dust 😔. But I am so happy and proud to say that after discovering bible journaling I have a renewed "thirst" for the Lord and scripture. I long to be in his word in some form every single day! And that is a blessing! Now, I don't have time to journal every single day, let's be real, I have two small kids at home! But what I have started doing is setting my alarm to wake up in the morning before my kids, and I start my day with God's word and a cup of coffee! That one small change has made a drastic difference in my life! I find I have a renewed attitude and disposition than if I was to just jump out of bed and hit the ground running when my kids wake me up. If I go a few days sleeping in, pushing my reading or journaling off till later because I'm "just too busy today" I find it's just as Psalm 63:1 says, "...I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you...". If you make that time for Him, each day, you will see the difference it makes when you give a part of your morning to the Lord, start it with Him, and base it around Him! 

For this page I used the newly released In The Morning stamp. This stamp is so versatile you can use it in so many ways! But for me, I actually have a teal mug with this exact phrase on it! I hand drew the books and the mug, used my awesome stamp, and then colored everything in with Prismacolor pencils. I also used left over coffee to create some coffee rings and splatters to "stain" the page. What kind of fun things can you come up with for this stamp?! Be sure to share it with us on the Creative Worship Bible Journaling Facebook Page!!

Thanks for taking to time to stop by the blog and read my first post!! I hope you all have an amazing day!

xoxo,

Stephanie