He is the I Am

"God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.' God also said to Moses, 'Say this to the people of Israel: The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."

Exodus 3:14-15

I read an article a few weeks ago from Phylicia Masonheimer entitled "The Millennial Gospel: Jesus Tell Me More About Me" and it convicted me to my core. I encourage you to take a few minutes to read it. 

In today's culture, we often look to the Bible and to Jesus to tell us more about us. We interact socially with other Christians we can relate to. Our "story" gets us likes, comments, and shares. We want to be real. We want to show others our struggle. We want to connect with other Christians who get us. And none of that is necessarily bad, but as Phy says,

"(The) millennial gospel spends more time talking about our weakness, our struggle, and our habits than it does about preeminence of God’s character. We know a lot about being relevant; we know a lot about discipleship and church planting and being “real” with one another. But that’s the problem. Our new, Christian “reality” revolves around… us. Jesus is there in name; yes, He’s part of our lives. But the “I Am” of our conversations is more often “I am learning…” and “I am struggling…” than an active acknowledgement of I AM THAT I AM.

It made me stop and think. Is my gospel more about me than it is about the I AM? Am I living with a focus on what I'm going through rather than living with a focus on the I AM? The bottom line is this:

We don’t need Jesus to tell us more about us. We need Jesus. Period.

My story is only effective so long as it points to the I AM. My worship is only holy as long as I am worshipping the I AM. The Lord of Lords. The King of Kings. The Holy God. I don't need Him to tell me more about me, I need to learn more about Him. 🙌

The article convicted and challenged my heart. I want my life to continually point to my God as the I Am. Don't you?

Page Details

This page actually came together over several days. I stamped the Encouraging Peonies on vellum and colored them with colored pencils. I used gelatos as the page background. Gelatos are not a medium I'm very comfortable with, so I am trying to get better! I gessoed the page with two layers of gesso, then rubbed the gelatos over the page using a baby wipe. I splattered the page with some watered down white acrylic paint. I used the Psalm 23 background stamp set to add a little depth and dimension to the background. I then fussy cut the flowers and used a clear tape runner to adhere them to the page. I used the He Is and I Am stamp sets for the page title, and last but not least, I journaled my prayer on a piece of scrap vellum. 

Here are the stamp sets used:

 

 

Much love in Christ, 

Janelle

@journalingjoy

Get Wisdom

Hey friends!  It's been such a whirlwind of a summer, has it not!?

Chunky Lower Case Alpha

Wacky that we're already to August!  Even more amazing is the release for August at SweetnSassyStamps.com!  YAY!!

I've enjoyed the variety of what has become available.  We have a sweet new alpha that I'm using today, called, "Chunky Lower Case."  It's one of my favorites - I LOVE chunky fonts!  A couple months back, Korin also released a stamp set with textures, and the set I'm using for background interest is called, "Texture Tile 2."  VERY, VERY good set!  These with the printable bundle, made by our very own Diane Noble, made the page you see up top. 

Words of Wisdom Printable Bundle

When the "Words of Wisdom" printable was created for this month's release, I was excited.  Nervous, and excited.  Why nervous?  Because whenever I ask God for Wisdom, I'm faced with the responsibility to act wisely.  Makes sense doesn't it?  When my kids ask for a drink of water and I give it to them, isn't the expectation that they will drink it?  Hmmm….

I think God does the same with His kids.  When we ask for wisdom, knowing that He will give it to us liberally and without reproach (James 1:5), we can expect He would like us to utilize it.   I know sometimes I have the correct and wisest course of action in front of me, and I can still choose to NOT follow through.  Why in the world would I want to do that?  Why would I ask God for His abundant wisdom, but not apply it? 

Maybe it's that I'm selfish and merely want my way anyway; but as much as that can be true, I think I forget too, that wisdom is a precious thing - a treasure!

The scriptures of Proverbs 8 and 9 leave an impression that wisdom is your best and closest Friend.  They seriously - and with great detail - depict wisdom as a person - of a feminine nature, no less!  Wisdom is something that possesses personality, opinion, and will!  And, it's something with whom God wants us to become very familiar. 

I think of older people - "seasoned" ladies and gents - when I think of wisdom.  There is value to having lived a substantial amount of life.  It's why God says children need to listen to their parents!  As faulty and imperfect as we are, children are supposed to look to us for wisdom in certain things.  Yikes!

But further still, I feel like wisdom is "out of reach."  Sometimes, I just feel like I don't need to seek His wisdom because I would not handle it rightly.  Listen: God doesn't give us wisdom contingent on our being able to handle it rightly; He gives it to us because it's our lifeline to making EVERY LITTLE DECISION of life!  And it's one that He hands over to the one who seeks it - even me!

Anyone at ANY time can gain this wisdom that was with God "ages ago." (v. 23)  I love how Proverbs 8 explains Wisdom's presence WITH God in the beginning.  Above all else, Wisdom handled the matter of creation alongside God.  God utilized Wisdom in all His decisions, creations and dealings with man as well.  He used Wisdom to make man, heal man, and win man!  What's more, God gives us this very notable, valuable gift of Wisdom to connect us to Himself!
"The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."  (9:10)  WOW!

This I love beyond all else.  God gives us an idea of how to become wise (living in reverential awe and worship of Him), so that He may have relationship with us!  WHAT AN AMAZING GOD!  Why?  Why would He want so badly to be in communion with us?  The answer is in the beginning - back where wisdom was with God - when the good Lord created man in His image, to bear His light and life!  He wants us for His glory. 

It seems weird to think that wisdom brings us closer to God, doesn't it?  But becoming wise, is not just about being smart or having an intellect; the act of becoming wise means that you have just entered into a full encounter with God Almighty, and He's ready to infuse you with this incredible gift!  

SO YES!  GET WISDOM!  Get Wisdom, and get close to God!  Get as close as you possibly can to God!

I want this Wisdom.  I have BFF's but THIS one, I need more than anything!  Yes, LORD!  Give me Wisdom!

Much love,

Deeds

Bind my wandering heart to you

Hello! I’m Lucinde, a new name on the blog :). I’m bible journaling for a year now and I really love to spend my time in the word of God and to get creative in my bible. I love to use stamps, I design stamp sets for Sweet ’n Sassy stamps but I’m stil hesitating to illustrate in my bible without stamps. For some reason I’m afraid that it won’t turn out the way I imagined it, and that’s a worry I can let go of when I use stamps. I think everyone over here is so right to say that this is a beautiful way of worship. I’m not the best singer, so I’m glad I can worship this way too. But, while I might not be recording my own songs, a lot of times worship music is my inspiration for a page.

That’s enough about me, let’s continue with my page and the word of God. My first page starts with a worship song, I told you it was one of my biggest resources of inspiration ;). Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of older hymns. The messages are so beautiful and especially ‘Come Thou fount of Every blessing’ really resonated with me. For this page I focused on the part ‘Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.’ I really want to give the Lord my praise but I feel like I’m still wandering a lot. That God deserves so much more praise than what I’m giving Him.

I journaled this in Psalm 119 (verse 9-16) where the writer tells about his love for the Lord and his commandments. I thought this passage was really matching the feelings I had when listening to the hymn.
‘With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.’

I prepared my page with matte medium (the bible I’m using has very thin pages, thinner than most English journaling bibles. You can see in the close up that it does add some texture to the page but I don’t really mind. When I’m not using it the stamps will be three times darker on the back of my pages than on the front side haha) and I stamped my images and messages with black ink. I colored the images with colored pencils and made the background with distress inks. I journaled some of my thoughts on the right side of the page (it tells about the writer, how he loves the commandments of the Lord and that he doesn’t look at them as something that’s holding him back in life but that he sees them as rules to make his life better).

I used the Songs of Praise stamp set for all the words, the bird and the feathers. The banner underneath the bird is from the Decorative Banner stamp set.

 

p.s. I use a Dutch journaling bible, so if you see some ‘weird margins’ or another language, it’s because of that.