Good News

 

Hello and Happy Advent, friends! 

Advent means "Coming" in Latin.  We are celebrating the upcoming birth of Jesus, but not only that.  We also should be in hopeful anticipation of His second coming in to this world.

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Oh, the thrill of hope, the shepherds must have felt as they traveled to Bethlehem.  

I don't know about you, but after the year 2020 has been, we could use some hope, huh?  But the truth is, we do!!!  Jesus is coming again!   We should be living with the hopeful anticipation of our Messiah's return.  

To create this page, I used my Cricut to cut out some masks for the shepherds, their flock and the angel.  I blended distress oxides on the page to create the meadow and night sky.  I stamped some grass at the bottom of the page using Scene Silhouettes: Tall Grasses.  I stamped my title with Script Alpha and Mini Grunge Type Alpha.  I added some stars from the Way Maker set and some white paint splatters to finish off the page and to mark my verses.  

Until next time, 

Jill

 

Give Thanks

 Hello and Happy Thanksgiving, friends.

This Thanksgiving will look far different from what many of us are accustom to.  Concern and worry over spreading the virus will keep gatherings smaller and the distance between us greater.  

The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

 It says, "give thanks in ALL circumstances", not just in situations where we are happy or comfortable.  So, no matter what our meal plans end up looking like this year, we are to give thanks.  

Just pause for a moment and tell God a few things you can see around you that you are thankful for in this moment.  As I type, I can see my husband and our sons.  We are all gathered in our living room, doing our own things, but we are together and there is love in this room and for that, I am grateful.  I am thankful for our home and the warmth it is providing on this chilly evening.  I am thankful for this online community that I have met through Bible Journaling and for being apart of this creative team for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.  And to make this super relevant for 2020, I'm thankful I got my toilet paper order from Costco sitting by the door, waiting to be put away.  😂

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.  -Charles Dickens

I hope your Thanksgiving is full of just that....giving Thanks to God for His abundance, counting your blessings and at least being able to talk to your family and friends and letting them know how much you love them.  

Page details:

I wanted a simple page that reminded me of fall and harvest time, so I used watercolors to paint this field of wheat.  I stamped my title with my all time favorite alpha from Sweet 'n Sassy. (All of Me Alpha)

I hope you have a Happy & safe Thanksgiving!

Jill

 

Walk in the Light

Then Jesus said to them, "A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." 

Jesus is described as the Light of the World in John 8, and in chapter 12 He implores his disciples to walk in the Light while the Light was with them. While we don't have Jesus living bodily among us today, we do have the Holy Spirit living within us to help guide and direct us to walk in light rather than darkness. 

Gelatos are not my favorite medium, but I decided to give them a try in this "Walk in the Light" themed page. I followed a YouTube tutorial from the wonderful Deeds in which she walks through how she uses gelatos and it was actually fun! I used gelatos for the gray background and glow of the lights, and then my Tombow dual brush markers for the Chinese lanterns as I really wanted those to pop. I embossed the title in black embossing powder to make that pop as well. I love how it turned out!

Launch day is always exciting at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, but this launch day is even more exciting because November is SNSS 13th birthday month! Stay tuned for special surprises all month long! I used the Shine Your Light stamp set to create this page, and you can scoop up this stamp set in the November Early Bird Bundle through November 9th. 

  

Have a blessed week, 

Janelle

@journalingjoy

The Time is Now

 Hello, friends!  I want to talk about time today, both the passage of it, how we use it and I want to pose a question to you.  What are you waiting for?

Many people believe they will have time to "get right with the Lord" before they die, but that's not always the case.  We've all heard some version of the saying, "you are not promised tomorrow".  The Bible says it in Proverbs 27:1, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring".  Basically friends, we all have appointments to leave this world and to go on to what is next for us.  We don't know when our time here is up.  Where you go after you leave this world is all dependent upon whether you 1) know and confess that you are a sinner, 2) believe that God sent His Son, Jesus to save us and 3) that He saved us by dying on the cross, redeeming us with His blood.  

Please, if you're not saved, don't put it off another day, for we are truly not promised tomorrow.  The time is now.

Now for the saved, I pose the same question to myself and to you....what are you waiting for?

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:1-2:

Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, 

"In a favorable time, I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you."  

Behold, now is a favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

 

Paul is talking to fellow Christians and urging them to get to work for God.  David Guzik said this in a study guide, "God has an acceptable time for us to work with His grace.  God has a day of salvation that will not last forever. This is no time for Christian lives consumed with ease and comfort and self-focus.  It is time to get busy for the Lord and to be workers together with Him." 

Mmmm, that stepped on my toes and gave me a reality gut punch.  I mean, souls are at stake and what am I doing to save them???  I tend to live a life at ease and comfort and self-focus.  But here's what I've realized, you don't have to be a missionary, traveling to distance lands to save souls.  There are souls all around us, every day that need to hear the good news.  We all have family members or neighbors or co-workers that we could share the gospel with.  The time is now.

Artsy details:

I began this page by stamping the large peony from Encouraging Peonies at the bottom of my page.  I found this beautiful hour glass image online and printed it to a size that would fit nicely on my page and trace it.  I used Old Fashioned Alpha to stamp out my title.  It was beautiful with just the black and white ink detail.  I debated on coloring it, and finally decided I would watercolor the image.  I love how it turned out.

I pray you are safe and well.  Until next time, catch up with me on Instagram and Facebook @simplyjillsjourney. 

Jill

The Light of the World

"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

John 8:12

One of my favorite vacations when I was young was an epic family road trip from Michigan to Tennessee. We had one of those giant blue Econoline vans (you know, the kind with the blue velvet seats and little black and white box t.v. in the middle console and the ladder up the back of the van 😉), and spent the better part of two weeks driving through the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky. We slept in the van most of the time and went on adventure after adventure. It was honestly the best time together as a family and one of my favorite family memories.

One of our stops on the epic road trip was a cave tour in Kentucky. It was beautiful and fascinating. I will never forget following the guides into the depths of the cave. Once we were deep in the cave, our group stopped and the guides gave some details about the cave and then they told us they were going to turn out the lights. They wanted to show us how dark the cave would be in the absence of all light. Then they switched off the floodlights and the cave was plunged into darkness. This was a darkness I had never experienced before. 

I waved my hand in front of my face. I could feel it there, but I couldn't see it. I couldn't even see a shape or a shadow. 

I couldn't see my mom sitting right next to me. 

I couldn't see my dad standing a couple feet away.

I couldn't see anything. 

The darkness closed in all around me, like a dark, oppressive cloak. My mind raced. What if the lights didn't come back on? What if something happened and we were stuck in the cave in the dark forever? I started to panic. 

And then the lights came back on. 

It was only for a moment, but the darkness had consumed me. There was not even a glimmer of light in the depths of that cave - only complete and utter darkness. 

My friends, that is the perfect example of a world without Christ. Without Christ, we would live in complete and utter darkness. We would be consumed by the dark. We would stumble around life not seeing anything in front of us or beside us. Lost. 

But Jesus. 

He is the Light. He pierces through the darkness of this world and brings light to all those who follow Him. 

What a dungeon the world would be without the sun! 

So would it be without Christ by whom light came into the world! 

Matthew Henry has this to say: 

It's not enough just to see the light, we must follow it. It's the happiness of those who follow Christ that they should not walk in darkness. They shall not be left destitute of those instructions in the way of truth which are necessary to keep them from destroying error. They shall have the light of life, that knowledge and enjoyment of God which will be to them the light of spiritual life in this world and of everlasting life in the other world, where there will be no death or darkness. 

So often, we choose to walk in darkness rather than light. 

"And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil."

John 3:19

We choose to stay in the dark rather than follow the light because we are comfortable in the dark - we like our sin and our status quo. Don't shut your eyes to the Light. Let the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ push back the dark and follow in His truth today.💜

The "I AM" Statements of Jesus

Jesus' emphatic "I Am" statement in John 8:12 is one of seven such statements in the book of John. In the book of Exodus, the mighty God of the universe calls Himself I AM to His servant Moses. Jesus completes the statement given to Moses in Exodus. He is the Light of the World and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). 

This month, I'm studying all seven of the "I Am" statements:

• "I am the bread of life."
• "I am the light of the world."
• "I am the door of the sheep."
• "I am the resurrection and the life."
• "I am the good shepherd."
• "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
• "I am the true vine." 

  

I would love to encourage you to do a study on the "I Ams" as well. There is so much to be learned from these passages of Scripture and I'm looking forward to what God will teach me in these next few weeks. Connect with me on Facebook or Instagram and we can compare notes. 😉

Page Details

This page didn't turn out anything like it thought it would, to be honest. I was going for a watercolor galaxy feel, but I prepped my page with gesso so it wouldn't bleed through to the art I had on the back side of the page and the watercolors reacted differently to the page. It ended up turning into more of a mess of purple and pink colors. 🤣 Plus, the watercolors leaked under the verses I had masked off. 🤦Still, I splattered the page with some metallic and glitter paint, drew some stars, used some texture stamps and called it a win. I've been journaling for 2.5 years now and I'm still learning as I go along. It goes to show you that even though a page doesn't turn out how you thought it would, it can be a fun learning process. Spending time with the Lord is what truly matters. 💗

I used a three different stamp sets (I Am, Texture Tiles 1, and Faith Wordfetti), watercolors, and a white uni-ball gel pen for this page. 

  

Love in Christ, 

Janelle

@journalingjoy

Where Can I Run From Your Love

Read Psalm 139 here.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?  Or where shall I flee from your presence?

8 

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

Good morning
from yours truly!
I've been seriously considering just how fortunate I am that there's a platform for me to share - what a grace to be able to share openly, the love, faithfulness, and mercies of our God!  Simply amazing!

This blog post won't be like others, though it will still come from a heart that seeks the Lord and His strength, day by day.  Of that, I am certain.  I've had a somewhat miserable, and definitely difficult season these past couple of months.  I suppose it hasn't been weeded out of me, this desire to control all situations and lives in my care.  I suppose Jesus is still working on me, my heart and all the deep, underlying issues that remain.
My daily prayer is that one day soon, I will be able to face hardship without feigned faith, with unfettered hope, armed with the sword of His truth.  The most common place in which I typically find myself is in the valley, wishing for the peak.  I know I'm not the only one.  I think we all fight the urge to long for better, comfortable, and easy.  I understand fully however that until glory, we are in the thick of the earth's corruption, powers of the air, and spiritual battles for lost souls.  Which is why I'm so thankful for the comradeship of the Holy Spirit, and the companion of His Word.  I have Jesus Christ to thank for saving my soul, and Him alone to thank for the Helper He has so generously given.  I desperately need Him!

This introduction is a preface for the outstanding and timely effects of God's presence.  His movement in my heart as He guides the trajectory of my day, is too much for me to handle at times.  Even when it's hard, He's there.
Even when it hurts, He's there.
Even when it's lonesome, He's there.
When I sleep,
When I wake,
When I hide,
When I speak,
When I rise,
When I fall,
He is there.

This is why I labeled the blog "Where can I run from your love."  It's the simple question of rhetoric that follows hard on the heels of the rest of Psalm 139.  Where, indeed?
This, and Psalms like it, have an invasive glow in the darkness that surrounds both the Psalmist and me.  I'm sure this is something you've run into before as well as you've battled the schemes of the enemy to further work out your salvation:
"Lord God, it's hard.  It seems to never end.  This turmoil, this trial, it's forever.  It's devastating.  It's hurting me, my mind, my will to go forward.  I want to bury myself in heaps of comforts that can only serve their purpose as would my next breath.  I feel alone.  But...
God, I know you're here.  I know you've not gone.  I know you've never gone.  You're never caught fleeing the scene of my days, my panic-stricken mind, or ever-burdened soul.  I cannot hide my thoughts, my words, or my person from You.  You do not run for cover - You ARE my cover.  I pick up the functional, tangible savior, only to put it down again because in Your mercy, You remind me of Your faithfulness."

You cannot hide from this God.
That's a good thing.
That's a gracious thing.
That's a God thing.

His hand is on the matters of His creation, His heart tenderly working for our complete healing and sanctification.  No wonder the Psalmist says,
"How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.    I awake, and I am still with you."  (vv.17-18)
This God of all comforts never sleeps.  Always thinks.  Always considers.  Always knows.  Always sees, always seeks, always loves.
God, even when I get caught up in my mess, or lost in my thoughts, or deep in my disbelief, You are there.  Where could I possibly go that Your love will not find me?  I do not ask for an answer, but glory in Your unbending will to see me through.  God, You are so good!

I pray you have a wonderful day, friends! Below are links to the stamp sets I used as well as the link to the song that inspired this page.  I thank you for your time in reading this, and I encourage you, sweet and hopeful sister, to continue on knowing that the Lord has not lost your way; He is leading you home!  Hallelujah!

Much love,
Deeds

Early Bird Bundle!
hurry!  Ends 12/9

Vintage Love

Art Deco Alpha

Youtube video, "139" by Gateway Worship .  ENJOY!

Prayer 101

It’s great to know that when we need answers, we have a great textbook readily available to us. In the book of James, we are told if we need wisdom, all we have to do is ask. 

“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.”
‭‭James‬ ‭1:5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Learning about prayer is the same way. It’s all laid out for us in the gospels. Jesus teaches a model prayer often referred to as the Lord’s Prayer. We often want to jump straight to it, but Jesus prefaces it with some specific instructions.

He tells us in Matthew 6:6:

“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.” (MSG)

I love that He is so specific.

“Find a secluded place.”

“Just be there simply and honestly.”

Then, when our posture, position, and place is right, He tells us that “the focus will shift from you to God.”

Without the preparation, our hearts and minds will still be on #allthethings instead of where it needs to be: on Him.

With my word of the year being “abide”, I knew that prayer would be an integral part of it. Not only is the Lord teaching me to draw near and abide with Him, He is showing me clearly just how to do that.

My hope is that this will challenge you to examine your posture, position, and place as you spend time with the Lord in prayer.  

Art behind the story:

With the release of Filagree Hearts this month as the stamp of the month at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, I knew I wanted to use this set everywhere!

The background was done with a wet on wet watercolor technique, and then the additional visual texture was added with stamps from that same set, as well as another favorite Grunge Elements 2.

I stamped several Filagree Hearts on paper and fussy cut them.  I wrote the verse out on some patterned cardstock, and then added the "aged" look with the Grunge Elements 2 and pens.  

Lastly, I added the title with the Happy Alpha and finished it off with a fabric clip and some washi tape.

Hope you enjoy all the new releases this month, but mostly, I pray that using them to create for Him will be precious time well spent.

Until next time,

Gayle

Patio Ponderings