Mighty Warrior...

Hi friends,

In Judges 6 we are introduced to the character of Gideon, who God chooses to be one of the judges to lead Israel in a time of persecution and decline. In verse 12 of chapter 6 we see the angel of the Lord appearing to Gideon and his opening words are, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."

What an amazing way to be greeting by and angel of God!! But here's the interesting thing: Gideon was anything but a mighty warrior! In fact, when the angel finds him he is hiding in a winepress treading out grain to avoid being seen by the Midianites. When God calls him 'mighty warrior' Gideon's reaction is not to bow in humble gratitude and awe but rather to argue with the angel about whether God was in fact with Israel. When God ignores his arguing, and commissions him to go and save Israel out of Midian's hand, Gideon once again protests! He goes on to list his weaknesses and insignificance, clearly unconvinced of his status as 'mighty warrior.'

I wanted to illustrate this 'unlikely hero' in my Bible using the Brotherly Love stamp set to create a character that looks pretty far removed from a mighty warrior - because that was how Gideon saw himself. But the amazing thing is that God didn't see him as weak and insignificant. God saw and declared over him his true identity as a mighty warrior. This made me pause and wonder how God might want to be declaring awesome things over us, but how we often resist and protest, choosing to believe the lies of inferiority and weakness rather than the truths of God's Word. When we feel ordinary, God declares we are extraordinary. When we feel plain or ugly, God declares that we are beautiful and unique. When we feel flawed and useless, God declares that He has a plan and a purpose for our lives. Let's choose to believe the realty of God's truth and adopt His words over us as our own!

I created the background for this page by applying ink with a dry baby wipe on the tip of my finger - it's a great way to add colour with or without a stencil or mask as you have a lot of control over where you put the ink! As well as using Brotherly Love, I also used the Wetland Grass, Love Your Neighbor, Skinny Minnie Alpha, and Mini Grunge Type Alpha sets.

 

Can I encourage you to find out what God says about you through reading, studying and meditating on His Word and choose to listen and believe His voice? After all, He sees the real us, the one He's created us to be, and the one He will help us to flourish into if we put our trust in Him.

Many blessings...

x Amy x

Teaching me to pray...

Hi friends,

Can I be honest? I find prayer difficult at times - too many times. I know I need to pray, and goodness knows there are so many needs to bring before the Lord, but when it comes down to it, sometimes I go blank... I struggle for the right words... my concentration can wane. Can anyone else identify? This is why I am SO grateful for the teaching of God's Word on prayer. Not only is there so much rich teaching on prayer, there are also amazing examples of prayers that we can pray. When I received the sweet Stop, Drop & Pray single stamp, I looked up the word prayer in my bible and made a list of references that give examples or teaching on prayer - such an amazing study to do!

I'm sharing three pages with you that I created recently as part of my study on prayer, each using the Stop, Drop & Pray stamp. This first one is on one of my favourite verses...

James 1:5 - If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.

What an awesome prayer to pray and promise to claim. Whenever I am lacking in wisdom (which is rather frequently) I can ask God and he promises to give me generous amounts!

This next page is a verse I came across that I hadn't paid much attention to before, but contains an amazing example of prayer...

Colossians 4:12 - Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

I looked this verse up in a few translations and liked the way the Message translated it. What a great prayer to pray for ourselves and others!

This last page focuses on Matthew 9:38 when Jesus tells his disciples to "pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborors into his harvest." The thing to remember when praying this one is that the Lord of the harvest may send us - and we need to be ready to say 'yes'...

I hope you've been encouraged to dig into the Bible and allow God's Word to teach you when it comes to how and what to pray. I know I have already grown through this study and look forward to creating and sharing further pages from my study on prayer.

Here are some of the sets I used for these pages:

      

Be blessed,
x Amy x

A Place for Jesus

Hello friends and fellow Bible Journalers...

As we begin a new year, I want to be sure that I make even more room for Jesus in my life.  It is so easy to allow the demands of every day life rob us of spending sweet time with our Lord!  

This page was inspired by a sermon our pastor preached at our church at the beginning of the new year.  I was convicted and challenged to "Make a Place for Jesus!"

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.  And a scribe came up and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no where to lay his head."

Matthew 8:18-20 (ESV)

I wanted to include my sermon notes, but didn't want to cover up any of the details on the page, so I created a Tip-In tag which was attached to the opposite page by a washi tape hinge.

The page was prepped with two layers of clear gesso and the scene lightly sketched with a pencil.  Intense Color Blocks were used to watercolor the background.   Archival Inks, Versafine Onyx Black Ink, and a White Paint Pen were used to add the details.  The new scene silhouettes stamp sets and several alphabet sets made it fun and easy to complete the scene.  The bushes were created using the top of the tree from the Scene Silhouettes: Trees stamp set and masking was used to get just the tops of the tall grass from the Scene Silhouettes: Tall Grass stamp set.  I was able to use the fox and the bird from the Scene Silhouettes: Woodland stamp set to perfectly illustrate the scripture verse!  I couldn't resist adding a few more animals to the scene.

Here are the stamp sets from the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Store used to create my page:

I hope you will be inspired and challenged to "Make a Place for Jesus" this year!  He wants to take up residence in our hearts.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hugs,

Cathy