Sing Praises

Good morning, dear friends!  Cathy here with a Bible Journal page to share with you.  Outside is dark and all is quiet as I sit and write this post, but in my heart I am praising my God and thinking back on all of his goodness!

The page in my Interleaved Bible (**love working on these full pages**) was prepped twice with clear gesso before watercoloring the background with what I call the "Acetate Smash Technique."  Scribble a little water based marker on some acetate, spritz with water, and dab, smash and smear it on the page.  Dry with a heat tool and continue layering on the colors.  The images and words were stamped using the Sing Loud, Words of Life: Common Words 1, and Rebecca Script Alpha (to add the "s" on the word praise) stamp sets from the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Store.  The images were then watercolored using the same markers used for the background.

Many times in the psalms we read how King David was being pursued by enemies, was in despair, was considering the prosperity of the wicked, and was feeling the weight of his circumstances.  His response was to begin thanking and praising God for His goodness.  As a result, even though his circumstances did not change,  he was able to find rest for his soul.

So, my friend, if you are struggling with circumstances right now, God is still good.  He loves you with an everlasting love.  Begin to praise Him and get ready for a heart change.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by!  Have a wonderful day praising the Lord!

Hugs,

Cathy

That We May Believe

There is power in God's Word.  There is life in its message. The gospel is woven throughout the pages of scripture from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.  And all of it...ALL of it is written that we may believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the way to eternal life. It is the ONE path to relationship to the one true God. 

John, the beloved disciple of Jesus,  attested to the purpose of scripture in his gospel account, John 20:31.  God inspired the hearts of ordinary people who loved their Lord to inspire the hearts of ordinary people that they might believe and follow too.  Every word of scripture is God-breathed, God-inspired, true and trustworthy.  God's Word points us to the way of life in Christ, the only real life there is.  We might exist apart from the Word, but we cannot really live without believing the message it contains. 

 My page was created with watercolor paints and an aqua brush.  I stamped the images in Staz-on ink (dark gray), heat set the ink and then watercolored.  I used Tim Holtz Distress ink in Vintage Photo to accent the edges of the page for a vintage look.  I've been practicing on my hand lettering and was more pleased with this outcome than most.  That is just not my forte!

Peaceful Peonies

May your week be blessed and may you hide your heart in the Word of God 

and be refreshed there again and again! 

Daydream Designs

Our Worthy King

Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to Him a psalm of praise. Psalm 47:6-7

So many people put their hope in this world- human leaders, money, possessions, titles, jobs, etc. I think that is why we see so much hopelessness in our country and in the world right now. But, we know there is a greater hope! Our hope is not in any worldly thing. Jesus is our God and King! Our hope is in Him. We will never be satisfied by worldly things. Human leaders will never fulfill our expectations. But HE will. He satisfies and fulfills us even more exceedingly than we can imagine! He is our worthy King who deserves our songs of praise.

I had so much fun with this page! I journaled this page in my interleaved Bible which has a blank page in between every page of Scripture. It allows me to cover the page without covering Scripture, and I love that! Psalm 47 works perfectly with the 2 new sets, Sing Loud and Worthy King, designed by Rebecca Rios. I knew I wanted to use both of them. And since the psalm speaks of God being King of all the earth, I wanted to use flowers to signify nature. So, I also used Korin Sutherland's Scribble Flowers. 

I have just invested in watercolor crayons; and I have to say I love them! It makes watercoloring so easy. What I did for this page was to color the images and background with the crayons, and then added water with a brush to achieve the watercolor effect.

Put your hope in our eternal King! And have a blessed day. Andrea

Praise Him

Let everything that breathes sing praise to the Lord!

Psalm 150:6

Praise:the expression of approval or admiration for someone; the expression of respect and gratitude as an act of worship

We will never run out of reasons to praise God. Each day brings a different form of praise. Sometimes we praise in the valleys, and other times on mountain tops. We praise through health and through sickness, through new life and in mourning, through the mundane and busiest of days. In each and every breath, God is worthy of our praise, in any and all circumstances. 

Praise the Lord! Let all that I am praise the Lord. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God till my dying breath. 

Psalm 146:1-2

Friends, I don't know where you're at in your walk with God right now. For me, I'm a teacher in the middle of testing season in desperate need of spring break. Right now my days are a whirlwind of activity. I am not always graceful and I often get stressed out, but I have God through all of it. You, dear friend, have God through every situation you face. Praise him through your season. 

Happy Friday(and spring break) Jr. 😜

Lynzee

Stamps used:

Sing Loud stamp set 

http://www.sweetnsassystamps.com/creative-worship-sing-loud-clear-stamp-set/

Praise God with Every Breath!

"Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for his acts of power; praise Him for His surpassing greatness. Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise Him with the harp and lyre, praise Him with timbrel and dancing, praise Him with the strings and pipe, praise Him with the clash of cymbals,  praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord." Psalm 150:1-6

Dear Friends,

Doesn't this Psalm just make you want to jump up and sing praises to our Lord? That's how I feel everytime I read it. It brings pure joy and delight to me. But, do I actually jump up and sing out? We are made to praise God. And, oh, how He deserves that praise!

Remember when David in 2 Samuel 6 was leaping and dancing before the Lord? He and all of Israel were celebrating "with all their might before the Lord". I have to say, I have a hard time outwardly abandoning myself to worship. I can sing worship songs in church, no problem. But, can I dare raise my hands in church? It may sound silly, but it's hard for me to do something even that small. I'm a pretty reserved person. But, I don't have any doubt that my Savior, my God deserved the abandoned praise that King David gave Him. And He deserves that same kind of praise from me. The good news for me is that it's not about what I do on the outside- it's not about whether I raise my hands or leap and dance. It's about my heart. Am I fully and completely praising my Lord with all my heart? With all my mind? With all my soul? This is the kind of praise that Psalm 150 speaks to. Let's praise Him every single day with our whole heart, whole mind, whole soul, with every breath- whatever that may look like on the outside. 😉

For my page, I painted the background with watercolors. I used 3 Sweet 'n Sassy stamp sets: Sing Loud, The Good News, and Living Water. Both Sing Loud and The Good News are newly released sets!
  
Praise Him, friends. Blessings! Andrea

Lord Help Me Grow According to You Word!

I have had today's main image colored up for a while. I have actually colored it twice because I fell in love with the first one and just couldn't cut it as was the original plan. Here is the first one... It is water colored and I am kind of wanting to frame it.

When I colored it the second time, I felt it was no longer meant for the verse I had been praying over. The more I looked at it, the more I felt that the image and the sentiment was too big for one verse - it was meant for all my verses. The prayer to help me grow according to God's Word really spoke to me, I mean this is one of the main reasons I Bible journal. I want to spend time in the Word and I want to grow in It.

Soooo I decided to put it in the front of my Bible to remind me EVERY time I open my Bible that this is no simple book, but the Word of God, and that the time I spend in it, is my time to grow closer to Him and to praise Him in doing so.

My final page ended up using one main stamp and pieces from a couple of others:

  

• Creative Worship: Living Word
• Creative Worship: The Good News Clear Set
• Stand Tall Clear Set

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you were inspired.

Lyn

Sing Praise!

 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;

I will sing praise to my God while I have being.

May my meditations be pleasing to him

For I rejoice in the Lord. 

Psalm 104: 33-34

What a delight it is to be so in love with God that we spontaneously break out in songs of praise to Him throughout the day.  I have to confess, I'm no singer, but I do indeed make a joyful noise to the Lord.  I think He loves it!  I think there are times when I sing my praise to Him that He, true to His Word, sings over me (Zehphaniah 3:17). 

The new March release stamps from Sweet 'n Sassy stamps are some of my all time favorites.  When selecting a page design for this passage of scripture I wanted it to be bold and very colorful, playful even.  But I didn't have images in mind...I just wanted color.  So I just splotched it on!  These watercolors are a little chalky, but they are transparent enough to read the scriptures through the paint.

I did a second page with the same set using some of the smaller words, splashing on a watercolor background then stenciling and stamping over that.  

And here's a third page with still the same set but different large word stamps.  And I'm still using watercolors splashed on here too.  The stars are just hand drawn.  I love this passage of scripture too.  Not only do our songs of worship bring God praise, but every mundane task we do can bring Him glory if that's our motivation.  This is an ongoing challenge for every believer...to stay focused enough on Christ that every single thing we do brings Him glory and honor.  We would think that's impossible, and it would be were it not for Christ living in us, and with Him nothing is impossible.

One set, three completely different pages.  I love that.  And there are still stamps in the set I haven't used.

 

Sing Loud

Daydream Designs