Thankfulness

Hey guys!

It's Deeds, just LOVING the support I've seen in the Creative Worship Facebook page!  I have been amazed at the community of loving believers in this place, and I am so thankful to be a part of it!  Aren't you?? :D

It's the week of Thankfulness!  It's Turkey time!  It's gather and chatter 'bout whatever may matter time!  I just made that up ;D  What do YOU have planned for the holiday?  Family coming in to town?  Are YOU the family coming into town?  Are you a student going to a host family?  Are you the family that goes out to eat at a restaurant rather than cookin' the good ol' turkey and fillin's?

Wherever you are, whatever you do, whoever you find yourself with, thankfulness is not overrated. 

I'm learning a lot about it, and let me tell you, I need to fill my heart with that above the overabundance of a turkey dinner!

Today, I'm working out of Esther.  My home church has been studying through this book for the last few weeks, under the leadership of Pastor Kyle.  There's SO much (of course) that I did NOT realize about this book, and there's one thing that causes it to stand out as unique to all other books of the Bible: no mention of God - AT ALL. 

Stamps used inlcude Texture Tile 2, Just Say Jesus, Women of Praise, Sunshine Girl Alpha, and Outline Script Alpha

We come to know that though He be "absent," He is COMPLETELY and UTTERLY present!  Though His name is not mentioned, His attributes are clear.  Though His people the Jews neglect Him, His blessings are weighty.  Though He be ignored, He is ever working!

I LOVE this book!  I think it may be my favorite at this time.  The Holy Spirit has opened my eyes (and my heart) to just how divinely orchestrated the series of events truly are!  It's so amazing!  I'll share the link to the sermon series below so you will be sure to check it out!  WOAH!!

Week 5, we're leaning in on chapter 5 of Esther.  There's crazy talk all over the place.  I think it's interesting the relatable history in this whole story of Mordecai, Esther and Haman.  Haman gets the spotlight - a really dingy, horrible, no good spotlight.  He is TOTALLY human.  Totally insane.  Totally insecure. 
What you see in my entry is the phrase, "Thankful people understand grace."  Thankful people know their identity is not in their money, clothes, position, passion, or possessions.  Thankful people know that God is the giver of all things.  Thankful people know passionate humility, not insecure entitlement. 

This hit home.  I've found myself countless times on the end of entitlement - AAAHHHH, I HATE that word.  And to think that day after day, in some way or another I forget.  I forget to whom I owe my identity, my worship, my allegiance, my everything.  I forget to be thankful and in doing so, I forget about grace. 
The amazing grace of God. 
The grace that saved a wretch like me.
The grace that found me in my sin and shame and brought me into light and life!

Grace, grace.  God's grace.  Thank you God for grace.  Help me, Lord, to only be thankful!  To see myself rightly as a pauper that brings nothing to the table.  To see Jesus as the substance of my being. 
In His name, I pray,  Amen.

Much love,

Deeds

PS - don't forget that this month is a special month full of discounts and deals on the Sweet 'n' Sassy website.  Below are the November releases and the link to the shop!  Happy Thankful November!

http://www.sweetnsassystamps.com

Praise Him Always

Psalm 34:1-3

"I will bless the Lord at all times;

his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;

let the humble hear and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me, 

and let us exalt his name together!"

So this was a really fun page to create! I am still resonating on the topic of Praise that we soaked up while on our Creative Worship Retreat a few weeks ago. An amazing time spent in the word with wonderful ladies will stick with you for a while! One of the verses we referenced was the one above, Psalm 34:1-3. We are called to Praise Him Always! Sure, it's easy to praise him when life is going good and everything falls into place just perfectly. But it's in those more difficult times in life that we may find it harder to praise him. Our God is good, so good. There is ALWAYS something to be thankful for and to praise him. Sometimes, it may seem as simple as praising him for waking up in the morning, and being able to get out of bed! But if life is really hard at that moment, sometimes that may be all that you can find to praise him for...... and that's ok, but it is worth praising!! 

This page just makes me smile and feel good! I was so relaxed and care free at the moments I was working on it. I wasn't overthinking how I was going to do it exactly. I just resonated on the scripture and played with my materials. This page features a couple of our new items this month. We have a new printable set called Starry Sanctuary which is where I pulled the beautiful blues and yellows from for my background. I used my distress oxides to create a watercolor-like background and embossed some gold "stars" using my Falling Leaves Stamp! A fun new way to jazz up one of our older stamp sets! This page also features our new Women of Praise stamp set which we created for our recent retreat. So much of God's word and colorful goodness packed into this page and I just love how it turned out!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

Starry Sanctuary Printable Bundle 

Women of Praise

Falling Leaves

Bitty Minnie Alpha 

Chunky Lowercase Alpha 

Praise God in His Starry Sanctuary!

Praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty heavens. 

Praise him for his acts of power;
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.

 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

Psalm 150: 1-2, 6 

How can we not praise the Lord?  All of creation testifies to the greatness of our God.  Psalm 19:1 and Psalm 66:4 verify this declaration...

   

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 

All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name. Selah 

A current and popular song by Hillsong, So Will I, certainly inspires the praises of many.  I love the lyrics from the song that speak the the grandeur of creation as it declares by its nature the praise of God. 

If the stars were made to worship so will I
If the mountains bow in reverence so will I
If the oceans roar Your greatness so will I
For if everything exists to lift You high so will I 

So Will I, Hillsong United 

When I created the printable, Starry Sanctuary, it was with all these inspirations in mind.  There have been so many times in my life, I find my most meaningful worship time with God at night.  I speak to that in the devotion contained in the printable.  There is something about a starry night, the sanctuary God provides with His night sky, that elicits my praises.  Looking at the stars absolutely shows the power and majesty of God.  I think about all God has done in my life...and I'm immensely grateful for all of it.  And I praise Him for it.  But I would praise Him anyway...because of who He is.  

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Design Details:  

This may be one of my favorite printables so far.  I love the colors and the theme of it all.  It was a worship experience in putting it together and thinking of ways to depict praising God day and night.

 

I used cut outs from the printable for all the images.  But these would be amazing on clear sticker paper too.   The background is just an easy acrylic scraping, with a few black splatters for texture.   

Don't forget that the printable bundles at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps include digital images as well, making our printable unique and so versatile.