Be A Heart Donor

Happy Saturday everyone!

I know we have all seen those church message boards that we drive past day in and day out. Sometimes they just have upcoming church events, church members and miscellaneous messages on them. The other day while driving I passed one that really jumped out at me. It said "Be a Donor, Give Your Heart to Jesus"! I thought wow, what an interesting way to think about that concept. I pondered the thought of this simple message as I drove down the road and brainstormed how I could put this fun message into my bible. And then it occurred to me, this message board did exactly what it was intended to do. A quick little statement to catch your attention away from your busy day and make you think about Jesus! Isn't that also why we share our bible journaling pages sometimes?! To share a piece of ourselves that may help someone else get closer to God!

Romans 10:9-10

"Because, if you confess with your mouth the Jesus is Lord 

and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, 

you will be saved. 

For with the heart one believes and is justified, 

and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."

Our God is amazing!! In order for us the be accepted into his kingdom, all he asks is that we accept him as our Lord and Savior and that believe that God raised him from the dead, and we will be saved!  All of us are sinners, time and time again, and yet thats all we have to do to be accepted by him. He has an endless amount of mercy and grace to pour over us. Accept his love, and give your heart to Jesus!

Creative Details

For this page I used several different stamp sets. The brand new Girl Power stamp set was a perfect and fun stamp to use to create a organ donor type card for this page. I watercolored the card and cut it out to place it on top of my page. I also mixed up a few of our alphas when stamping the statement. It always gives it a fun element to the page when you mix up the font styles. I have also linked the different stamps used below.

Have a great weekend!

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

Girl Power 

Bitty Minnie Alpha 

Classy Script Alpha

Skinny Caps Alpha

Texture Tiles 1 

Grunge Elements 2

When Life Gets Prickly...

"Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved." Psalm 55:22

Friends,

Life is full of burdens. And we can let them get the best of us. But God knows. And He is there. This verse has a wonderful promise. When we give our burdens to Him, He will sustain us. We don't have to bear them alone! We don't have to bear them in our measly power. Instead, He will bear them in His great power and sustain us. Amen! We have such a good God. It always amazes me how He cares for us.

For this page, I used the following Sweet n Sassy Stamps sets: Refresh My Soul, Bitty Minnie Alpha, Let's Do This, and Stop Drop Pray. I used watercolor crayons for the color. I colored in "PRAY" with a white sharpie.

When life gets prickly, and it will, tell Him all about it. He will sustain you!

Have a blessed week! Andrea

Streams of Living Water

To the thirsty I will give from the spring of 

the water of life without payment.

Revelation 21:6

The Bible is replete with passages that reference the living water God gives to the believer.  One of my favorite passages is, not surprisingly, the woman at the well in John 4.  She typifies those who are without Christ...parched souls, who don't even know they are spiritually withering.  It's a beautiful story on one who decides to grab the cup of living water and gain eternal life.  

Even believers experience times in their lives that take them through dry patches.  Yet, when they traverse the desert places in their journey, they will make it to the other side safely because Christ has already promised to provide living water.  He will meet every need that we have and will never forsake, and will never make us wander through those desert places alone and thirsty. 

I love the passage included on my page from John 7:38--"Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flowe rivers of living water.'"  This is a beautiful picture of those of us who remember how thirsty we were, remember the withered soul we possessed before Christ, and who are now passionate about splashing that same living water onto others.  We are in the refreshing business!  We can lead others to the living water.  We can give others the life-giving drink that is the only drink that quenches the thirsty heart. 

I could write a book in praise describing all the ways God has cleansed and refreshed me.  While not a book, I created a little booklet from tags (Bitty Minnie Alpha set), with praises from my heart.  I love creating little nooks and "secret" places in my praise book for private prayers and praises to my God.  

The tags are connected by the brad and the last tag is adhered to the page.  This allows the booklet to swing open.  What's written inside brings tears to my eyes every time I read it.  I love having it there to ponder and praise again and again!

Sets Used:

Desert Delights Printable Bundle

3 pages of colored images, scripture prompts and 

an interactive devotional for deeper study.  

The bundle also include both color and outline digital files

so you can create your own printable of just the images you want!

Bitty Minnie Alpha

 

Don't Be Prickly...!

Hi friends,

I remember when I first read and really registered Philippians 2:14 - it was rather convicting!

Do everything without complaining or arguing

As someone who is pretty argumentative by nature, I found it quite staggering to comprehend doing everything without arguing! And then I had to admit that I wasn't exactly a non-complainer either, so there was quite a way to go in living out this verse...

When I was creating this page I started meditating on this verse and two main thoughts came to mind. Firstly, complaining and arguing come from a place of selfishness and pride ultimately. It is pride that insists on having its own way, being right, winning arguments and moaning when things don't go its way. I don't know about you, but that's really not the person I want to be. I don't want to be a prickly person who is difficult to get along with! Gayle Bond gave me the idea to use 'don't be prickly' text for this verse - totally perfect for this scripture!

The second thought that I had while creating this page and meditating on this scripture was that the opposite of complaining and arguing is gratitude and humility. One of the ways I can begin to live in obedience to this scripture is to cultivate the qualities and practices of humility and gratitude in everyday life, choosing to give thanks rather than to complain, and to listen humbly to others, valuing their opinions even if I don't agree with them. That's the kind of person I want to become as I seek to follow Jesus' perfect example.

Here's a step-by-step of how I created this page:
1. Draw the top of the brick wall then paint underneath with pale grey/beige acrylic paint and above with blue acrylics (I used three shades to achieve a variety in the sky).
2. Stencil bricks on the wall using dark grey paint, then clouds in the sky using white paint. Add some shading to the top of the wall with a grey pencil.
3. Stamp the cacti from Refresh My Soul using Stazon ink so they sit on the wall, then stamp again on watercolour paper.
4. Cut out the watercolour cacti then colour with Inktense pencils and an aquabrush.
5. Stamp the words using Bitty Minnie Alpha and Refresh My Soul (I used Versamagic black ink).
6. Glue the cut and coloured cacti onto the stamped images on the page, lining them up.

Here are the stamp sets I used:

I hope you've been encouraged and/or challenged by this short but powerful verse (I know I have been!). May we all make daily choices to walk in humility and gratitude as the Holy Spirit helps us to be 'un-prickly'!

x Amy x

Real Beauty

"but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart
with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit,
which in God’s sight is very precious."  - 1 Peter 3:4

It's hard getting old, y'all.  It's hard to push back the gray hairs that peak at the crown of your precious head.  It's hard covering up the "spots" that have suddenly welcomed themselves to the tops of your cheek bones.  It's hard finding those ornate arrangements of veins on the sides of your legs, and the the spider-like connection they have to your feet.  It's really hard to switch make-up brands to the "good stuff" because that cheap stuff at the local pharmacy isn't touching the shadows under your eyes.  It's hard.

It's hard being "beautiful" in the world.  "Frumpy" is a term I'm most familiar with and ironically the most comfortable with, until I leave the house and realize I should have at least showered before hitting the grocery store!  It's hard.

You know what else?  It's hard on our loving Father in heaven to see us strain to obtain "beauty" as per our culture's demands.

The merciless standards that we impose on ourselves to have a fresh face and a shining head of Paul Mitchell, are not God's; they've never been so.  God is so much more forgiving than that.  So much more gracious!  So much more realistic and logical!  Hallelujah and amen to that!
He sets a lifestyle of beauty per His love and compassion on the weakness and frailty of women.  Even those in magazines!

With God, it's all about the issues of the heart.  The why's, what's, how's of our behavior on the outside are motivated and run by the heart - that place that God chooses to dwell.  In fact, I've not once seen a scriptural "heroine" born from wealth, success, strength, power, health, or good looks.  Jochebed, Naomi, Ruth, Esther, Tamar, Rahab... and more.  These ladies may have been attractive, but according to God, they had the heart.  They had a heart for God.  They had a heart to worship Him, and see His purposes fulfilled.

Being concerned with the "inner man," or in our case, "inner woman," is of much more significance than bothering ourselves with outward presentation.  No amount of "adornment" can equate the preciousness of the heart as God sees it.  He looks WAY down into the core of us to work us from the inside out; from the roots to the fruits!

With "Girl Power" Stamps, any mixture of facial features creates a unique "person."
Paper piecing brought these ladies off the page a bit, and will go into my
Bible journaling crafting! So much fun!

"But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance, or at the height of his stature...for God sees not as man sees; for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart."  1 Samuel 16:7

Peter, in his book, is simply re-iterating a long-standing doctrine; a piece of our theology.  If we miss this super important facet of God's character, we won't see Him or worship Him as we ought.  In fact, the sad opposite is true: we'll begin worshiping self, and being preoccupied with self.  

Because the LORD looks at the heart, the inner adornment of women is so key!  It's so vital - it's part of God's love language toward us!  He loves us regardless of what we wear, or how much jewelry dangles from our necks.  He's so much more in love with that inner person He created, and the beauty that He's made possible through it!

If you wanna chat more about it, comment below and let's get this "girl power" party started!!

MUCH love,

Deeds

**All alpha stamps used are from Sweetnsassystamps.com (Skinny Lower Case, Teeny Alpha, Classy Script Alpha)!!

IG: mrcfuldeeds2010
Youtube: mrcfuldeeds

God Did It!

Hi friends! I’m still enjoying the chronological reading through the Bible. I hope many

of you are still reading along too. Seeing it all as one big story really helps with putting all the pieces together. 

Reading through the stories of David as he establishes his kingdom is quite an adventure. 

One of my favorites here of late is found in 1 Chronicles 14. We have the scene where the Philistines come to attack David because they aren’t too happy that David has been anointed king over all of Israel. The suspense is mounting. How was David going to handle this?

If I were David I would have gathered up my troops and my armor and marched right out there and shown them who was king. But not David. He did something very important first!

He prayed and asked God if he should go. 

Imagine that! How many times do we just make decisions without consulting God first? How often do I just run feet first into the situation without stopping and pondering and praying? 

Not only did David pray, he waited for God to answer. After receiving God’s answer to go and that God would make them successful, David and his troops went out and defeated the Philistines. 

Immediately, David responded in praise: “God did it!” When I get through a tough spot and have a victory in my life, do I give God the praise? When we are on the other side of a trial, do we say “whew, we made it?” or do we say “whew, thank you, Lord?" 

David and his men were so full of joy for what God had done there they even gave the place a name giving the Lord all the glory: Baal-Perazim. Do I give God all the glory? Do I record and journal those moments...those triumphs...those victories? Do I take a picture so I can remember that moment?

What about you? Do you pray before making a decision? Do you give God praise on the other side of the situation? Do you shout it out on social media? Do you write it down so it can be a legacy of God’s faithfulness? 

Definitely a few things to ponder. 

“So David asked God, “Should I go out to fight the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?” The Lord replied, “Yes, go ahead. I will hand them over to you.” So David and his troops went up to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. “God did it!” David exclaimed. “He used me to burst through my enemies like a raging flood!” So they named that place Baal-perazim (which means “the Lord who bursts through”).”

‭‭1 Chronicles‬ ‭14:10-11‬ ‭NLT

Art behind the story:

As I was reading this passage, I immediately thought of these verses as a checklist of sorts. 

1. Pray
2. Praise
3. Document it

The new May release stamps from Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps were perfect to use. First of all, I used the words “pray” and “praise” from the Let’s Do This set. Next, I used the tag and the alphas from Bitty Minnie to make the “God did it!” tag. Lastly I used some squiggles from Itty Bitty Blossoms to provide some detailing. The cameras are fussy cuts and a sticker that I had in my stash. 

Take a look at this month’s new releases. They are all just a-MAY-zing! 

Until next time,

Gayle 

IG: patioponderings

 

My Soul Thirsts For You

"O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you."
Psalms 63:1‭-‬3 ESV

My souls thirst for God often. It's not just I want more of Him in my day. I'm talking about where you are dehydrated, struggling to survive. You need to filled with the Living Water! Anyone else get like this often?

It seems like sometimes I've tried to handle things on my own. Or I get quiet in the waiting. Or I'm just in survival mode. 

Sometimes, I know it's my effort that has me crawling for water.

Why do I let myself get to that point? Why havent I learned... I've always been stubborn.

But there is something beautiful about my gasping for water. That everything in me knows the only thing that fill this void in my heart. This ache...is the Living Water. That He alone will Restore and refresh me. And when He does... my cup overflows...

ART TALK

I used the Refresh My Soul Stamp Set with watercolor to color images in and background. 

Blessings, Colleen 

IG: Stirthesoul