Bold

The wicked flee when no one is pursuing them, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. Proverbs 28:1

Hi Friends!

Today I'm in Proverbs 28. Verse 1 is perfectly illustrated using the new Lion of Judah set from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. And as I was journaling the page, I was thinking about the meaning of this verse. Who are the wicked? Who are the righteous? Do I flee or am I bold? Hmmmm....

Well, we know that the wicked are people who haven't put their faith in Jesus. And the righteous are people who have put their faith in Jesus. Because the righteous aren't righteous by their own doing. Jesus gave them HIS righteousness. So, we, those of us who have put our faith in Jesus, can now claim righteousness through Him. We once were wicked, but now we are not because of Him. 

Now the question is do we flee (& thereby act like the wicked) or are we bold? I think unfortunately, we often flee. We don't rely on Jesus, on His Spirit that is ever-present within us, on His power. Instead we try to rely on ourselves and that doesn't work out so well. Instead, we should be dependent on Him and through that dependence we find our boldness. Because if we are in Him, we have nothing to fear. As Paul said, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) The woes of this world are great. But our Savior is greater. He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Let's be bold in Him.

Page details: I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps supplies: Lion of Judah, Knit Stencil, Mixed Up Stencil, Bubbles Stencil, & gel plate. I inked up my gel plate with distress oxide. I wanted to try that instead of paint, and I like the result! I just tapped the ink pad directly onto the gel plate and pressed the inked gel plate onto the Bible page. I then used stencils to add to the background. I finished the page with the images stamped in black. If you haven't tried gel plates, I'd encourage you to give them a try. You can do all sorts of cool things with them and Korin has some in the SnSS store!

Have a great week! Andrea

Set Free

 Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. 

John 8:32

Hi Friends,

I'm sure most of you have heard the phrase, "the truth will set you free." Many schools and universities use it as a motto. But Jesus was the One who said it and He wasn't talking about academia. He also wasn't talking of political freedom. That's how the Jews took what He said, but they missed His point. Jesus was talking about spiritual freedom. 

Jesus is Truth. When we know Him, we are free from sin, free from condemnation, and free from death. So friends, are you living free? For many of us, we think of freedom as personal independence- being able to do what we want when we want. But Jesus wasn't setting us free do do whatever we want. He was freeing us to fellowship with Him and the Father, and that means we live in a way that we obey Him and choose His will for our lives. As we submit to Christ, to Truth, sin has less power over us. We make choices that glorify God most of the time. We can live knowing that Jesus doesn't condemn us and that while we will experience physical death, we won't experience spiritual death. That is freedom only Christ can give us!

No matter what happens in the world, we will always be free in Christ. 

Page details: I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: Freedom in Christ and Mixed Up Stencil. I used distress oxides for the background.

Have a blessed week! Andrea