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

In the morning I will praise Him

Hello Friends! Today I am sharing a very fun rainbow page. This page was inspired by a beautiful piece of scripture from 

Lamentations 3:22-23.

 "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." 

Reading this just makes me wanna shout for joy! Our heavenly Father's love for us never ends....no matter what, and His mercy is new every morning you open your eyes! 

I wanted to create a really bright, joyful page that screamed praise Him. I started by cutting apart my 'In the morning' stamp....it gave me a little anxiety not gonna lie but, it made my one small stamp so much more versatile. I cut apart the phrases "In the morning", "when I" and "rise". I stamped them in succession down the side of my page. Next I hand lettered the word Praise and Him. I loosely drew some musical notes and a large treble clef in pencil. Now the fun part I used rainbow colored watercolor and puddled it onto the pencil lines, grabbed my straw and blew the watercolor around to create this super fun loose texture. I used a black fine liner pen and white gel pen to make the notes pop off the page a little more. To finish off the page I used a few stickers and added a little journaling to give it a little personal touch. Now every time I open my Bible and look at this page I am reminded how good my Father is and my deep desire to praise Him.

Thank you so much for taking time to read my post. Below I have linked the stamp set I used to create my title on the side of my page. I pray this post and page reminds you of the goodness of our Father causing joy and praise to bubble up inside of your heart. 

Jennifer Powell (Creativegurl85)

http://www.sweetnsassystamps.com/creative-worship-in-the-morning-clear-stamp-single/

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!

In The Morning

Hey there. 

So how many of y'all are list makers? You schedule out your days, you know what tomorrow looks like before you fall asleep tonight. It helps keep you focused. Less anxious. It helps everything get done. You are the planner queens. Is that you? 

Now how many of you just fly by the seat of your pants? You have some what of schedule, but really you just do it when you feel like it. And if you never feel like it, well you just function until it's chaos and then you do it?  Or you are just calm, and when its done, its done. Is that you? 

Maybe you are an inbetween person.  You sometimes follow a list when its super important. Or you are feeling overwhelmed. Or it's a new year. Or you have a new goal?

So what's all this list talk anyway? Maybe it's not even relevant... But here's where I am going. We make time for the things we value and are important. We just do. Whether we mentally establish a plan or we write it out. We have a game plan. And we get it done. We might wake up late or pull an all nighter. But we do it. 

So why do I so often push my time with God to the bottom of the list? Anyone else fall in this trap? With my words I will tell you God is first, but sometimes, if I'm being honest, He isn't. The schedule is what is controlling my time. 5 more minutes of social media. Or the kids need me, or the crafting is calling my name. There is always something that is pulling me a different direction.

It's about priorities. Lists or a schedule are an act of discipline to keep us in check. They dictate what and who is important. However you manage your time, guess what relationship should be worked on first? 

Jesus spent time with the Father. He got up early. Ok. Ok. I know us sleepy-and-not-so-happy morning people can't handle that. But I think there is something valid about the first part of your day. Praying to God and starting your day with Him. Whether in the shower, during your morning coffee, on your drive to work, or wherever you are in the morning. Taking time to talk with Him. Bring your heart before Him. It's that beautiful quiet space where your heart meets His.

This is such a simple concept. Yet so difficult to follow through... my prayer for myself and all of us, is that we seek Him first. Whether it's right when our feet hit the ground. Or the moment we remember. We give Him our time. We give Him priority. Amen. Amen. 

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 

Mark 1:35 ESV

Let's talk about Art

I used watercolor for the background. I did an online search for watercolor backgrounds with a sunrise. Then used those for inspiration. I started from the bottom up, starting dark to light. Moved  on while the colors were still wet and blended together. Then I dried it, and added more layers to give it a bit of dimension. 

The tree was fun. It's always scary using black. But I just went for it. Drew the trunk. Then I made tree branches all over. You can't see much of them. But I did the whole tree. Then dabbed around in a half circle to make the leaves. This honestly was more a happy accident then planned. Leaving random space in between leaves helped show the branches which gave it a natural like effect. So cool. Last I stamped the IN THE MORNING stamp set. And finished with a tab and washi. 

Thanks so much for joining me on my first blog post with Creative Worship. You can pick up this stamp set here. You can also follow me at Stir the SOUL. 

PS, if you've not heard Fernando Ortego's song, Just Give Me Jesus, go search and listen. Beautiful words and voice. 

Blessings,

Colleen

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