God's House

Lord, I love the house where You live, the place where Your glory dwells. 

Psalm 26:8

Hello Sweet 'n Sassy Friends!
Where do you love to hang out? David loved to hang out with God. If I'm honest, I can't say that my most favorite place to be is with God. It should be! I want to say that! But, looking at my life, I let too many things take my attention- work, family, the TV, shopping, etc. Sometimes, unfortunately, God is an afterthought. I want to be more like David! I need to put God first and focus on His presence with me through all the things I do. I need to use some of my time better. I want to get to a point where I'm glorifying God and He is my priority in all I do and say and how I live.  We are fortunate in that God now indwells believers in a way that He didn't in David's time. His glory is with us always. We just need to focus on it!

For the page, I used one of the newly released sets from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps called Home for the Holidays. I absolutely LOVE this door stamp!! But, it has a lot of great images and it's a versatile set- not just for Christmas! I also used the following sets: Love Your Neighbor, Sing Loud, and The Good News. I used watercolor crayons too, and a white pen to highlight.



There's no other place we should want to be than hanging out with God! Praying we all spend some focused time with Him this week!
Andrea

Nuggets in the Old Testament

...let not your hands grow weak.

The Lord your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save,

He will rejoice over you with gladness;

He will quiet you by His love,

He will exult [rejoice] over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah 3:16b-17

Who would guess that one of the most beautiful and encouraging passages of scripture lies nestled in the Old Testament book of Zephaniah? God loves His children!  In the passage, the prophet Zephaniah calmed the nation Israel with the fact that they belonged to God and He would not abandon them.  They had a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11), they would remain under His loving watch throughout all their days.  Zephaniah paints a tender picture, a joyous illustration for all believers of how much God loves His own.  We can claim that same love today.  If we are His, He remains in our midst; He will save and carry us.  Much like rocking a baby and singing over them, the Lord holds us, delights in us, and will burst forth in song declaring His great love.  When the tempests in our lives rage, His song will quiet us in the night.  Therefore, don't grow weary, don't give up, don't weaken in your resolve to serve the Lord no matter what.  

I did this two-page spread to illustrate this joyous verse.  I hand drew the cup then stamped the flowers and leaves on paper, colored with Copic markers and fussy cut them.  Then I just layered them over the cup image.  I used watercolor paint and a brush to highlight the passage.  

Sweet 'n Sassy Sets Used: (Images are linked to the store so you can go right to them!)

 

Sing Loud is such a versatile set.  I've used the words from it again and again.  And I LOVE the Whimsy Bouquet set, another one by Rebecca Rios.  

Songs in the Night

Hello Bible Journaling friends!   I think we can all agree that Job knew what it was like to walk through times of darkness;  however, at one time or another, we all walk through difficult times...depression, sickness, bills due, loss of a loved one, or even a crisis of faith, but I am reminded as we enter into the Christmas season of the shepherds who were out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  Angels showed up in the darkness of night to announce the most amazing good news..."For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord," and then...the song came as the angels started to praise God!
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

"Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out;
they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.
But none says, 'Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?"
(Job 36:9-11) ESV

My page was prepped with Dina Wakley Clear Gesso.   Distress inks were sponged on the upper corner to make the night sky.  A spritz of Perfect Pearls, splatters of white acrylic paint, and Texture Paste spread through a stencil were used to create the stars.  The message, created using several stamp sets from the Creative Worship line of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, was white embossed so it would pop off the night sky.  Copic Markers were used to color the bird which was fussy cut and glued to the page.  (I Googled "song bird" images and found one with this coloring which worked perfectly for my page.). My notes were hand written.

You may be walking through a dark time right now.  Do not fear!  Do not lose hope!
Paul and Silas had their chains broken in the darkness of night.
God shows up in the night with a song.
He does mighty works in the darkness of the night!

These stamp sets from the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Store were used to create this page in Job:

Thank you so much for stopping by today.
Let us not forget the reason for the season as we begin to prepare for Christmas!
Have a wonderful week!
Hugs,
Cathy

Sing Loud with Praise

 "Oh Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!" Psalm 95:1-2

The message is simple here. Worship and praise your God, and LOUD for all to hear! (or just in the shower or car...whatever suits you best) The lord hears you everywhere. 

This verse and 2 Samuel 6:22 go kind of hand and hand for me...;) 

For this page I used only 2 stamp sets...and mainly just one! 

  Skinny Uppercase Alpha & Sing Loud. For the background I used the music note and stamped on a piece of paper and then on my bible to create the watermark look so I could stamp over it, and the words still be easily seen! 

Oh, by the way did you see are GORGEOUS new logo along with a BRAND NEW website?! 

Korin has been working so hard to make our 10th birthday so incredibly special. Go check out what she's done. Click the Logo below! 

www.journalingthroughmotherhood.wordpress.com

Jesus Will Come!

Dear Friends-

The Bible tells us that Jesus will return. He will return for His church: 
"For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

And the Bible tells of Jesus' second coming where He will ultimately defeat Satan:

“Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." Matthew 24:29-30

When Jesus comes for the church, only the church will hear Him and respond to Him. (This is called the rapture.) There will be a time of tribulation for the whole world. And, when He comes at His second coming, everyone will know. He won't come secretly! There will be no question of who He is. 

As believers, we can look joyfully to the future even living in this chaotic world full of ugliness. Jesus is coming. He is our hope. Focus on Him!

When my daughters were taught about these passages at ages 4 & 5, they both said cute things in regard to how they interpreted the passages in the young-child minds. That's what I journaled on each of these pages- their quotes. And I used many alpha stamp sets. I thought this post would be a great post to highlight the alpha sets that Sweet n Sassy has. They have a great selection of alphas and some are on sale right now! For anyone who doesn't hand-letter or just wants to have a quick option to hand-lettering, alpha stamps are perfect. I use mine all the time! I used the following sets for each page: 

 My Friend, Send Me, Chunky Alpha, Rebecca Script, Sing Loud, Outline Alpha, Mini Grunge Type Alpha. On this page I also used watercolor crayons, stickers, and glitter glue.

 

These 2 alpha sets were used on each page.

Shake It Off Caps Alpha, Mini Grunge Type Alpha, Outline Alpha, Skinny Caps Alpha, All Your Heart. On this page, I also used watercolor crayons, and a white Sharpie pen.

 
Hope in Him, my friends! Have a blessed week. Andrea

Sing of His glory

Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel. - Isaiah 44:23

When I read this part I had to think of the talking trees in the Lord of the Rings and how they would be singing hymns with their deep voices. How powerful would it be if the mountains and trees would start singing, rejoicing God. That's how this page started...

I used two stamp sets (Sing Loud and As the Deer) to create this page. I have a lot of journaling space in my bible and there's a lot to journal about in this chapter so I kept this part of my drawing in one column and I highlighted the message I was working on. I prepared my page with clear gesso and made the background with Distress inks. I stamped the images with black ink after the background dried. I used watercolors for the images and the word 'glory'. Because of the stamping you can build this page really quick. I had to wait for the gesso and the ink to dry, but if you'd just stamp the images and color everything with colored pencils it's a really easy page to make. 

- Lucinde
 

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psalm 19:1

Hi Friends!

The eclipse on August 21 definitely showed us the glory of God and the work of His hands. My pastor gave a message on the first few verses of Psalm 19, and I really liked the illustration he used. Where I live, we weren't in totality. I think it was about 94%. It didn't get that dark. My pastor pointed out that the 6% of light we had overcame the darkness. He went on to say that even if we shine only a little light of Jesus to this dark world, it will still make a difference. It opened my eyes that the small day to day gestures we make to love others are just as important as the big gestures. So shine Christ, my friends! 

  I also learned from the NASA website that the sun's diameter is 400 times wider than the moon's, but it is also 400 times farther away. The result is that the sun and the moon appear to be the same size from our perspective. So, God made the sun and the moon precisely the right sizes and set them at the right distance away from each other so that we, on earth, could be amazed. Wow, God! A show just for us, because it wouldn't be seen from anywhere else.

I used the following Sweet n Sassy stamps for this page: Chunky Alpha, Mini Grunge Type Alpha, Sing Loud, Rebecca Script Alpha, and The Good News.

I painted the page with watercolor crayons, made the eclipse "shine" with a white Sharpie pen, and embossed the words. (I did this in my interleaved Bible which has blank pages in between each page of Scripture. So no Scripture was covered up.)

On another note, my heart has been heavy for Texas. I was born and raised in Texas, and while I don't live there currently, it is my home and I have many family and friends there. In events like this, it can be hard to see God in the midst of it. But He is there. I'm praying for Texas and everyone affected. Thank you to those volunteers who have helped anyway they can, and to the first responders and rescue workers.

In Christ, Andrea

Lessons in Job

Job 14 & 15

Hi Friends!

I don't know about you, but sometimes Job can be hard for me to read. Reading about Job's losses, seeing his anguish through the verses, his friends being so harsh when they were trying to be supportive...

But Job is so rich with things we can learn: information about God, His throne room and His sovereignty, how to deal with suffering, how to be (or not to be) a friend to someone suffering...

In chapters 3-31 of Job, we see a back and forth discussion between Job and three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. In chapter 14, Job was responding to Zophar. He spoke of how life is fleeting and how God is in control. Job wanted death. He was at a very low point. But even in his pain, he knew God was in complete control. And in that sadness and pain, Job said:

"You will call, and I will answer You..." Job 14:15

No matter what, Job would answer God. He knew God was with him in his despair. And he was ready to respond to God when He called. Lesson: God is with us in our sufferings and we should trust in and respond to Him through the hard times.

In chapter 15, Eliphaz responded to Job. He is pretty harsh. And this certainly isn't a lesson in how to help and support friends who are suffering. But there are nuggets of truth in what he says. I read the First5 devotions from Proverbs 31 Ministries. Their devotion spoke of lessons we can learn from chapter 15, and I based some of my journaling on that.

1. Fear God & Maintain Devotion: "Indeed, you do away with reverence and hinder meditation before God." Job 18:4
2. Be wise: "Do you hear the secret counsel of God, and limit wisdom to yourself?" Job 15:8
3. Listen to your Elders: "Both the gray-haired and aged are among us, older than your father." Job 15:10

Suffering is hard. And being a good friend to someone who is suffering is hard. But God is with us through it all. We need to lean on Him, ask for His wisdom, and trust in Him.

Now for the page... I used the following Sweet n Sassy Stamps: Awesome Thoughts, Mini Grunge Type Alpha, Sing Loud, Send Me, Classy Script Alpha.

 

I used the Sing Loud set to make the word "You" on the first page. I inked the "Y" from "glory" and the "OU" from "loud". You can do this to make different words and that makes the set more versatile. To mask the letters you don't want to ink, just place a sticky note over those letters, ink the stamp, then pull off the sticky note. I used Prismacolor pencils to color in the images, and a Micron pen to draw the phone and some lettering.

I hope you have a blessed week! Andrea