High and Holy

 

"For thus says the High and Lofty One

Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

'I dwell in the high and holy place,

With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,

To revive the spirit of the humble,

And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.'" 

(Isaiah 57:15)

The Israelites had the terrible habit of disrespecting God.  They forgot who led them out of slavery, and saved them from their enemies.  They forgot who daily fed them manna for 40 years.  They forgot who the One True God was, and mixed their worship with other false gods.  Therefore, here is Isaiah, God is reminding the people of His holiness and highness.  He is reminding them of WHO HE IS.  

We can cast blame on the Israelites, and ask why they would continue to act that way.  But the truth is, we act the same way.  Despite all the blessings, provisions, and watch-care that God grants us daily, we also disrespect Him by doing our own thing and worshiping our own gods (be they social media, our self-image, Netflix, our jobs, etc.).  We do not fully ascribe to God the respect and honor due Him.  

I created this page with the Puffy Clouds stencil.  I used two colors of ink (Tumbled Glass and Kitsch Flamingo) and shifted the stencil slightly on the second color in order to get the multi-toned effect for the clouds.  

I stamped my title with three different alphabet sets:  School Days Alpha, Typewriter Blocks Alpha, and Lollipop Alpha.  Then I colored in the words "high" and "holy" with some Wilted Violet ink using an aquabrush.  Next, I added some splatters with black watercolor paint and some smooshing and splattering of the three ink colors.  

Next, I added some white detailing to the letters with a white gel pen.  For my tab cluster at the top of the page, I stamped and fussy cut three little clouds from the Count Your Rainbow stamp set (although I could have used the coordinating die).  I added the sentiment "Praise the Lord" from the Prayer Time stamp set (the "Heavenly Father" and "Amen" over by the verse also came from the Prayer Time set).  Then I added some Sparkle Glitter glue to the title and cloud tab cluster.  

I encourage you today to worship, respect, and honor God for the God that He is.  One living in a high and holy place, but One who also lives inside of each of us.  

Thanks for hanging out with me today.  God bless!

--Julie @julesk.jewels

Here's a process video so you can see how it came together:

Product Links:  (Click the picture for the link)

Run With Endurance

“I am never signing up to do this again!” I scold myself as I’m half a mile into my race. “I don’t know what I was thinking wanting to get up before dawn to come out here and run this early in the morning.” If you know me, you know that I am NOT a morning person and I am definitely not an early morning exerciser. So the mere fact that I am running a race before dawn, or just after, tells you how much I love it. But right now, the road before me is long, crowded and already my legs are feeling heavy. But somewhere just beyond the first mile mark, something changes. My steps get secure. My breathing is under control and the crowd has lessened a bit. The distance before me is still daunting, but it seems do-able.

No matter what distance you run, the first mile is always the hardest. It’s crowded from the people clamored at the start line. Your pace is hard to find because you’re surrounded by people who run different speeds. And until the air clears a bit, it’s almost hard to breathe. But somewhere around that first mile mark, the dust settles some. The challenge is still there, but instead of being overwhelming, you realize that you do have the strength within you to tackle the race ahead. It’s in those moments that follow that you really begin to learn what you are made of. All of your preparation has reached a pinnacle and it’s time to put your training to the test. There’s so much that we can learn from running a race, but there are three main points I want to look at today.

1. Find a steady, but challenging pace. 
The starting line of a race is one of the most congested, chaotic places. There are hundreds and sometimes thousands of people all standing together with the same goal: get to the finish line as fast as you can. And as soon as that buzz sounds signaling the start of the race, everyone takes off. It’s crowded and hurried and often hard to find your running speed because you are surrounded by people running different paces. Sometimes you don’t realize how fast you are running until you start fighting fatigue prematurely. The key to running well is to find a pace that is steady, yet challenging. You want to find a pace that you can hold over a long period of time, yet one that will allow you to meet your time goals. 

My favorite place to start in a race is at the back. I may be one of the last ones through the starting line, but I typically don’t feel the pressure to keep up with everyone. As the race continues, the crowd clears. People are finding their own stride and are starting to lay claim to the race – it is theirs to run. The competition lies within themselves…can I do better this time than last? What can I do differently this time that I messed up on last time? 

As we are running through this life, the best thing that we can remember is to stay in stride behind Jesus. He is the ultimate pace-setter. Hebrews 12:2 tells us to “fix our eyes on Jesus.” Don’t try to run ahead when you feel strong or go around Him when the terrain seems rough. He sees the road ahead when we don’t and He knows which way is best. Follow Him. Keep your eyes focused on Him. Speed is important in a race, but more important than that is steadiness and consistency. Following Him will be challenging at times, but His steps are always secure; He is worthy to be trusted. Other paths and other people will look tempting to follow but He said, “There is only one way to the Father and that is through me” (John 14:6, paraphrased). Surrender the desire to run your own way and your own pace and stay focused on Him. Let Him guide your steps. Learn the way that He runs and mimic it. Because I can promise you one thing: He won’t let you down. 

2. When things get tough, slow down, but don’t stop.
Races are never flat. I gave up on that wish a long time ago! Pavement is uneven. Hills come and go. Running against the wind is a fight you can’t control. But one thing is certain: for every uphill you climb, there is always a downhill, or at least a flat road! Life happens. Trials come. But Jesus told us to run with endurance the race set before us. I love the definition of endurance. It is the ability to endure a difficult situation without giving way. It is the ability of someone or something to remain active for a long period of time while gaining immunity to fatigue. We are told to run with endurance the race set before us. When we place our hope in the Lord, we are told that “we will find new strength…[we] will run and not grow weary…” Isaiah 40:31. When that road ahead seems daunting, we place our hope and our trust in the Lord and He will give us the strength to endure. We press on toward the goal that Christ has called us to (Philippians 3:14). If we are in stride behind Him, we can have absolute certainty that the direction we are running is the right direction. We can know that when we encounter difficult circumstances that we are where we are supposed to be because HE has led us there. We can find JOY in the journey because we are running in step with Christ. Is He going to give us more than we can handle? YES…Because He wants to grow our dependence on Him. We run with endurance. We endure trials and suffering and pain and heartache because He is growing us and strengthening us to become more like Him. When those hill climbs are making your muscles burn, slow your steps but keep on running. He won’t run off and leave you, He still there marking out the path in front of you. Press on. The finish line is near!

3. Have a good playlist. 
As silly as it sounds, a critical component for me to run a good race is to have a good playlist. The beat of the music helps me keep my pace and when I am focused on the empowering words of the songs, I am able to mentally press through the tough times. A couple of years ago, I made the decision to only listen to Christian music while I am running. Music has such an impact on me and seems to go straight from my ears to my soul. Because of that, I made the choice that if I am going to be using music to get through tough workouts, I want it to point me to the one who can get me through all things- Christ. And there is nothing like worshipping while you’re running J

All that to say, it is vital that we surround ourselves with things that are going to uplift and encourage us on a daily basis. We need to have good, Christian friends to challenge us to be better people. We need to listen to music and read books that have positive, Biblically centered messages. We need to be involved in ministries that put Christ and others first. In our life-race, we need a good playlist to get us through the tough times. We need to be able to pull those messages from our subconscious to get us through the dark, unsteady times. The messages that you feed your mind will filter out into the way that you run and the way that you live. Make it good <3

By the time I get to the finish line I feel strong, accomplished and ready to take on the world. All thoughts of how hard the race was are gone and it’s in those moments that follow that I sign up for another race. Because there’s nothing like being welcomed back at the finish line with a loved ones arms around you, proud of you for what you have just done J Well done, faithful friends. We made it. 

Have a great weekend!
Jennifer
IG: @lifeintherace

Crafty Details
I started this page by stenciling some diamonds with Twisted Citron distress oxide and adding some texture with Texture Tiles 1 with Broken China. I printed the digital stamp Turtley Awesome and colored him with my Prismacolor colored pencils. I stamped the words with a combination of Messy Stamped Alpha and Teeny Alpha and finished with a few strips of washi on the top and bottom. 

Mercy

"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy."

Psalm 103:8

"Mercy for others will reveal your ongoing need for mercy, driving you to the end of yourself and into the arms of your merciful Savior." - Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies

In all honesty, I had a completely different topic picked out for today's blog post. But then my devotional covered the topic of mercy, my Sunday School class was on the topic of mercy, and my pastor preached on mercy in his Sunday evening sermon. You think just *maybe* God's trying to tell me something? 

To be completely transparent with you, I have not felt very merciful these last couple weeks. Not. At. All. People have been hurtful and unkind to me and my family and my first response is to immediately give them a piece of my mind. You feel me? After all, it's wrong and they need to know it! But then I have to stop. Just stop. Think. Take a deep breath. Pray. And remember the mercy that God has given me each and every day. 

"Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation, according to they word. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word."

Psalm 119:41-42

God has a plan for me to live in freedom and liberty (read down to verse 45), and that plan includes my living in mercy so I can give mercy. If I don't have a plan for living in and giving mercy, I will live in a state of perpetual irritation - being hurt and offended by everyone and everything that slights me in any way. I don't know about you, but that is not how I want to live.

I love this excerpt from Paul David Tripp's New Morning Mercies devotional:

"We celebrate God's mercy but scream at our children when they mess up. We sing of amazing grace but punish our spouses with silence when they offend us. We praise God for his love but forsake a friendship because someone has been momentarily disloyal. We are thankful that we've been forgiven but say that a person who is suffering the result of his decisions is getting what he deserves. We bask in God's grace but throw the law at others. We're simply not that good at mercy because we tend to see ourselves as more deserving than the poor and needy."

Ouch. That hits where it hurts. God has granted me mercy and wants me to extend that same mercy to others; and when I show mercy to the people or situations that hurt or offend me, I grow (II Peter 3:18). 🎕

This week, I am praying for God's mercy to be real to me, not just for me, but so that I can share mercy with others and ultimately point them back to a loving, merciful God.

Page Details

If you know me, you know I love doing anything and everything with Distress Oxides. They are my go-to medium for all art pages! This page was especially fun because it was a beautiful mixed media disaster (kinda like me, haha). 😉 I used a 5" x 7" art journal I received as a gift at a recent retreat. Here is my step-by-step process:

1. I did put down a couple layers of Diane Wakley Clear Gesso on the page before starting my art. I used to never use gesso, but then I watched a great video by Colleen on whether or not to gesso with Distress Oxides (watch the video here) and have been gessoing ever since. I really like how the water reacts on the page when I gesso. Definitely creates more of an effect. 
2. I used a blending tool to blend two colors of Distress Oxides randomly on my page: Seedless Preserves and Peacock Feathers. I work fast when I do this! I get a bunch of ink on my blending tool and then swirl around on the page. Since this is messy page, I wasn't worried about actually blending the colors together - just about getting them down on the page. 
3. As soon as I had my base color down, I spritzed the page with my Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer. I like to get big droplets of water on the page and then tilt the page around to get runny water splotches. 
4. I used my heat dryer to dry my current progress. 
5. I then pulled out my brand, new Distress Ink Spray and sprayed some splotches on the page. This is the first time I've ever used Distress Spray and it was fun, but it's definitely going to take some practice. 😉 I did like how it reacted on my page, but since I had gessoed the page, it took a bit longer to dry. So be aware of that.
6. Dry again.
7. I smooshed the Seedless Preserves Distress Oxides down on my plastic page background, grabbed a paint brush, dipped it in water, and made my own little DIY watercolor with the smooshed oxides and splattered it all over the page. This added some purple splatters to go along with the blue splatters. 
8. Dry again.
9. I then used texture paste and stencils to created some flowers on the page corners. I smooshed down my Distress Oxides in Shaded Lilac (I wanted to add a different purple color for dimension) on my plastic page background, mixed a little bit of glitter acrylic paint that I picked up at Michael's, and texture paste to create a light purpley, glittery texture. I then very thinly spread that over my stencils where I wanted my flowers to go. 
10. Dry again. 
11. I then stamped down my images and title using the new Dragonfly Dreams, Loop da Loop, and Texture Tiles 5 stamp sets from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. I love these sets! I used Versafine Black Ink to stamp the images. I have found that this ink gives me the best images when I'm doing stamping, but be careful not to smudge the stamp when you are stamping on gesso!
12. Dry again.
13. I filled in some of the stamped hearts with my white gel pen to add a bit more dimension. 
14. Added a few small strips of coordinating color washi tape.
15. Wrote my devotional note.
16. Date stamped (always date stamp!!).
17. Made sure everything is dry again. 
18. FINISHED!

All in all, this page took almost an hour to do just because of all the layers and I was working with new mediums but, boy, was it FUN! I would highly encourage you to do something similar. This kind of messy art is therapeutic to me. In fact, how would you feel about me creating a video with this process? It won't be anything you haven't seen before with some other mixed media pros, but it could be fun to make an art mess together. What do you think? Leave me a comment if you'd like me to do a live video and journal together!! 😊

Thanks for hanging out with me today. I hope you are reminded to show mercy to the people in your life today. For further encouragement, take a moment and read Psalm 103. 💜

Much love in Christ, 

Janelle

@journalingjoy

Here are the stamp sets I used to create this page: