Beautiful in His time

Hey there! How's it going? Summer has flown by and already we are starting August! This month new release stamps are so versatile and fun...you can check them out HERE. I am using two of my favorites from this new release, In His Image and Faith Wordfetti.

I began my page by stamping the title on the side filling in the words 'beautiful' and 'time' with colorful alpha stickers. Next using a waterproof ink like StazOn I stamped the paintbrushes, paint pallet, and tube of paint. I colored these in using my watercolors. To add a splashes of paint I used my Faber Castell Big Brush markers to ink up the splooshes in coordinating colors and added them randomly around the page. I used the wordfetti stamp on white card stock and fussy cut around the phrases adding them to the page. These phrases are such a perfect finishing touch to add to the page and to help remind us all of His promises. To finish off I added a few bits and bobs...stickers, a tag, and some washi.

"He has made everything beautiful in His time..." Ecclesiastes 3:11

This verse fills me with such hope! In His time are the key words, not my time...ugh that's the tough part. No matter the situation in life we are navigating we need to remember we have a heavenly Father that sees us, is watching over us, and in His time will work all things to His glory bringing about beauty.

Father, grant me patience as I wait in time for you to reveal the masterpiece that will be my life and legacy. Thank you for always keeping your word! You make all things beautiful! Amen!

Thanks all for joining me today! I hope you are all leaving feeling encouraged and filled with hope.

Love and Prayers,
Jenn @creativegurl85

Gifts From Above

James 1:17

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights, 

who does not change like shifting shadows."

Click HERE 

to see the PROCESS VIDEO for this page, and how I created a full page tip-in! 

For this entry I used Dots and Dust watercolors, Prismacolor pencils, 

Versifine Ink, and the following Sweet n' Sassy Stamps!

How Tweet

Sunshine Girl Alpha

Script Outline Alpha 

Thrill of Hope

Do you remember being small - elementary age - and counting down the days until holiday vacations from school?  

Clear as day in my brain, I remember being 7, in Mrs. Henry's class, looking toward the chalk board (yes, I'm that old), and seeing her 4 foot calendar marked with numbers and pictures.  Each one, of course, resembled days, special events, seasons, etc.  Very bright, very colorful, very exciting!!

Each day, Mrs. Henry would remind her class which day of the week it was, so to help us understand time a bit better, ESPECIALLY when it came to the next vacation from school! 

I would look ahead and do my best to formulate the days left until Thanksgiving; Christmas; Spring break; Summer, and everything in between! With each approaching "day off" came that much thrill and anticipation of something to come!  

It's interesting how looking forward to something to come brings us hope, excitement and thrill!  Our entire being longs for this type of hopefulness! 

"Galaxy" tutorials can be found on Youtube everywhere!

I use watered down, white acrylic paint to achieve the "stars."  I feel that
this technique worked better to give me the brightness I was looking for.

As we live day-to-day, though we may not realize it, we really do pine.  We yearn.  We are exceedingly hopeful for more; better; brighter; happier.  Something to fulfill our desires, satisfactorily, completely, perfectly. 

This goes for all humanity. 
Even for Christians - those who have given themselves to the mercies and grace of God - there's an aching in the soul for a glorified, sinless, painless state.

The Bible uses language like the following verses to help qualify the need we feel. 

"For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

"Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies." Romans 8:22-23

Let me break it down a bit more…

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Everything He created, He saw as very good.  Not one blemish; not one problem.  Humanity's beginning enjoyed perfect union with God!  OH HOW HEAVENLY!  Then…

Man sinned. 
A union severed.

The world corrupted.

Since then, said world has been deteriorating; since then, each born human is subject to a darkened nature.  Bad replaces good.  Dark replaces light.  Lost replaces belonging. 
As the aging world falls further into desperation, humanity falls further into depravity.

BUT GOD…

See, we are still sinful.  We're still dark.  The world is still groaning.  However, Jesus entered this gloom and doom, and as our Redeemer, bought back what sin stole:

Light.

Belonging.

Hope.

Our souls!

The "Thrill of Hope" stamp collection can be found on the Sweet 'n' Sassy
website as part of the October release!

 
With His entrance into humanity, the "thrill of hope" was born.  And the weary world rejoiced!
Jesus!

Our Savior.

The Messiah.

Our Friend.

THE Hope.

Now, we wait.  We wait in anticipation!  We wait with eagerness!  We wait with hopefulness!  Our Christ is coming again, and so we wait!

Friend, if you're sitting on the fence of whether or not to enter into community with God's Son, please wait no longer; He IS coming. 
If you're struggling with God, or questioning His goodness, struggle no longer; He IS coming!

If you're wondering whether or not your life means something to the Lord; wonder no longer; He IS coming!

My prayer is that you will look at the gospel of Jesus - the good news of grace! - and turn to this Loving Father!  He has sent Him who is without sin to be sin for you and me, taking all sins to the cross for the glory of His throne.

Jesus is King - our Thrill of Hope - and He IS coming again!

Much love,

Deeds

New releases can be found here.  Hurry!  It's almost Christmas!

I CHOOSE FAITH

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7

Faith is choosing to believe in something that we cannot see.  We can't see the world spinning on its axis, but we believe it to be true.  We can't even feel it happening around us, although the world is spinning at the breakneck speed of roughly 1000 mph!  We simply have faith in gravity that we won't be catapulted into outerspace.  

Likewise, we cannot see the person of God, but we have faith that He is real.  We may not feel His presence, but we can choose to believe that He is with us.  Often, we can base this faith on what we see God doing, or what He has done for us in the past.  However, there are times when we may struggle because we can't see any evidence of God at work.  That is when we have to CHOOSE TO HAVE FAITH!

I created this colorful, interactive page in my 100 Days of Bible Promises Devotional.  I wanted to graphically demonstrate the spinning world, so I made a stamped and colored world that spins on a paper-fastener-axis.  I used the Send Me stamp set for the world and the arrows.  I then wanted to create a texure-full background of outerspace, so I used all three Texture Tiles sets to randomly stamp the fabric and fiber of the cosmos, and colored them with Jane Davenport Watercolors.  I embossed the word "faith" from the Life in Jesus set, and fashioned a tiny tag with "I choose" stamped inside.  I finished on the page with a tag, washi tape, a date flag, and bow.  

You can see how the whole page came together in the process video on my YouTube channel or using the link below.  

Have faith, my friends!  And when you don't, then choose to have faith anyway!

SEND ME

TEXTURE TILES 3

LIFE IN JESUS

TEXTURE TILES 2

TEXTURE TILES 1

How's My Heart?

Moses’ face is still radiant with the glory of the Lord when he shares with the people of Israel what the Lord has commanded regarding offerings for the tabernacle.

Exodus 35:5 states “Take a sacred offering for the Lord. Let those with generous hearts present the following gifts to the Lord:”


That stopped me in my tracks and I read it again.  “Let those with generous hearts.” Hmmm.

It didn’t say everyone present gifts. It said all those who had “generous hearts”. I began to ponder. Would I have been in that number of those whose hearts were generous?

As I read further in chapter 35, Moses tells the people all the types of gifts they were to bring. Gold, silver, bronze. He included olive oil and spices. He went on to instruct those who were gifted craftsmen as to what they were to construct.

In verse 20, it says 'the whole community of Israel left Moses and returned to their tents." Scripture goes on to tell us that all whose hearts were stirred and those who were of a willing heart brought contributions for the tabernacle.

Again, I began to ponder. Was my heart stirred? Was it willing? Where is my heart when it comes to things of the Lord?

In fact, in the next chapter we learn that the people have given so much for the tabernacle they had to be told to stop giving because they had “more than enough”!

Am I of a generous heart that is stirred when there is a need and generous enough that I would give to the point of excess?

Father may my heart be generous, open to being stirred, and willing to give above and beyond. 



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Art behind the story:

The background on these pages is done with watercolor, and then layers added by using Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps Grunge Elements 2 and some stencils that I made on my die cut machine. The words are stamped with Mini Grunge Type Alpha.

Pray The Word

Hi friends... I want to share something POWERFUL with you today.

"Pray the Word"... you're asking me, Elizabeth, what exactly does that mean? Before I tell you, lets all agree on 2 things.
1) The Word of God is alive and active - Hebrews 4:12
2) There is power in our words - Proverbs 18:21

Think with me for a moment, what would happen in the spiritual realm if we combine these two truths? If you take an alive, active, and powerful Word of God (Scripture) and you pray it back to God using your powerful words (mouth)... something supernatural happens and God begins to act on your behalf. His Word is not going to return void nor is it going to fall on deaf ears. God LOVES to hear His Word prayed back to Him.

The KEY to answered prayer is to pray according to the will of God and in accordance to His Word.
The way to have a supernatural prayer life is simple... pray the Word of God directly. When we do this we seek to align our words with God's will more fully. Praying in this way is in alignment with God, in the name of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit agrees with you too. I don't know about you but I want all of them on my side when I'm believing for something and need the Lord to work on my behalf. Are you excited yet?

I know you have all been there like I have and had times in you life when you were at a point where you didn't know what to pray or how to pray and the words just wouldn't come. Any time you find your self there remember you can always pray God's Word.

If you have never prayed the Scriptures before it is really easy and rest assured, there are no special skills needed. Praise the Lord for that!! All you need to do is locate a passage that fits your need/desire (google search or ask God to give you one you may already know) and then substitute the pronouns (he or she) with the name of the person you are praying for. You may do this for anyone - yes, that means you too. Use the correct pronoun that represents that person throughout the verse or passage. It's that easy!

For today's post I am praying for my teenage daughter. I am praying for her continued growth in the Lord and that she would flourish as a daughter of the Most High God. I want her to not be swayed by peer pressure, not to succumb to temptation, to be strong and rooted in her faith, and that she would blossom into the woman of God that she is created to be.

I remembered 2 Peter 3:18. "But grow in the grace and knowledge our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
I'm going to use my daughter Zoe's name and illustrate how I prayed this verse over.

Lord Jesus, I pray that my beautiful daughter Zoe would grow in the grace and knowledge of You. I pray that she would flourish as she grows into the godly woman You have called her to be. I also pray that you lead her in all things and that as she acknowledges You, You will guard her heart. Keep her mind pure and alert to the schemes of the enemy. Keep her from temptation and let no evil come to her. And you continue.... You can add more scriptures if you want or pray however your heart leads you.

It's SO powerful ladies!!! God is in agreement with YOUR prayers and He is faithful to His Word to perform it. You should be filled with excitement now!!

So, who is it that the Lord has placed on your heart to pray for? I encourage you to look up scriptures to help you pray for that person and their situation.

Psalm 91 is a passage that you can easily pray and is a great place to begin practicing your new skills. Try it! I promise you will feel empowered as a pray-er (is that even a word?). And just by adding this simple technique to your prayer time you will discover a depth to your prayer life that you never experienced before.

Artist Talk:
I used the simple watercolor 'stomping' technique my friend Colleen showed us and then stamped the tiny word 'grace' randomly all over the page using the same watercolors. You need to make sure that when applying the color to the stamp that it is dry wet and not wet wet like you would use for regular watercoloring. You want more pigment and less water for coloring stamps- especially tiny ones like this. Added some white spatters and then my page elements & finished with the journaling.
I love the watercolor look and used it for the "grow in grace" words as well.

Happy Saturday and may you too "grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus your Lord"!
Elizabeth 💕

Follow me on IG @ icolorinmybible

Check out the Garden of Grace devotional & printable bundle HERE. There are 4 pages of ephemera, washi strips, tabs, a devotional and more. I only used a fraction of the images on my page. Grab it for yourself and play along. 

Find the versatile stamps I used HERE

I'd love to hear your comments or see how you put this prayer technique into practice. Leave me a note or post a picture of your page.