Deep Calls to Deep

Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life. 

(Psalm 42:7-8)

 

Overwhelmed, broken, staggering with the weight of your sadness. How can heart-deep grief be this painful? In anguish you cry out to the heavens not knowing if you will hear a sound. You wait. Thunder in the background, then a roar that falls over your heart. God explodes into your spirit with His power, might, and presence. In waves His Spirit overwhelms you. The deepest glory of God, the deepest part of who He is, reaches down and grips the deepest part of your anguish. Deep calls to deep. And you know. You know His steadfast love is greater than all your pain, bigger than your doubts. Strength swells within you. The thunder changes to His soft, tender love song whispering through the dark of your night. You respond in prayer...sobbing, trusting, pouring it all out, feeling Him gently picking up your pain...and you feel Him cradle you. The God of your life has rescued you again.

Deep calls to deep...He will pour Himself into your heart.
Deep calls to deep...He sees it all, the depths of you and He wants all of it.
Deep calls to deep...prayer to the God of your life...and you find the Sovereign of the universe right beside you.
He calls. He calls to you.
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The background is all done in Kuretake watercolor paints. Letters are stamped using Chunky Alpha from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. Ink from Stampin' Up.

Glory to God

I cannot even imagine the great and glorious night of Christ's birth throughout the heavens and earth.  Everything  would be forever different because the long-awaited Messiah had arrived.  Who could truly understand God's plan to display His glory in the form of an infant born of such modest means?  Wrapped in swaddling clothes, nestled in the wonder and awe of the moment, this one baby caused the sky to fill with heavenly hosts who gathered above a simple stable to worship the new born king.  When God's shining glory broke through the night sky it simply had to be dazzling.

God's glory still breaks through the darkness of man's heart and again and again changes everything.  We give glory to God because Christ didn't stay immortalized as a baby.  Our hearts break forth in hallelujahs each time the risen Lord redeems another lost soul.

Glory belongs to the Lord not only for what He does, for miracles, for healing, for provision and protection.  He deserves glory for who He is...King of kings, Lord of lords, Immanuel--God with us.  We never have to be alone because His glory breaks through every darkness to shine the light of His love.  May this Christmas be all about His glory and the works of His Spirit in the human heart.  May each new day of the new year bring a song of hallelujahs to our lips.  May our lives bring Him glory until we circle the throne with the angels in heaven and sing in unison with them, "Glory to God in the highest."

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps: Chunky Alpha (left page), Celebrate the Savior (right page)
Color Mediums: Gelatos (background, colored directly to page then blended with baby wipe), Copic markers (to color stamped images), black fine-line marker, Memento Ink for stamps, white paint pen from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.

Take Refuge, But Don't Worry!

It's wonderful to be creating again with the Sweet 'n Sassy stamps designed specifically with Bible journaling in mind.  There were so many options in the November releases, but I'd been drawn to the focal passage below anyway, and I love to design according to my worship first and find stamps that fit the bill.

We are living in tumultuous times from several vantage points. But God's people have experienced unrest and troublesome circumstances, even devastating circumstances throughout the centuries. God's Word points us directly to Him when we are in trouble.  Again and again, God tells us to lay our worries and fears at His feet and take refuge in Him, because He is sovereign.  God shows us what fear and faith look like in His Word.  Regardless of our circumstances, God is good and the one who takes refuge in Him, His character, His promises will be blessed. 
   

For my DT submission, I used the fabulous new set, Faith Quote Blocks, the delicious Chunky Alphabet and a couple of stamps from the new Furry Friends set. They all pulled together to accurately express my heart's response to the passage of scripture in Psalm 34 and 35.  I'd been looking at these chapters anyway, and when I saw the stamp for Ps. 34:8 and C. H. Spurgeon's quote...well, they were perfect.  I love the way the passage describes "trying out" God as "taste and see."  If we only come to Him, give Him a place in our minds and hearts to work, He will take all our fear and replace it with assurance, comfort and a place of refuge.  We really do not have to worry.

Laying down worry doesn't mean we will not experience hardships or times when ungodly people come against us.  As a matter of fact, if we are following Christ, we are certain to make enemies.  It's normal to have times of fear, but we can't hang onto them.  We have to trade our fear for faith and let God work through our circumstances.  He can ALWAYS do a better job anyway.  He does a PERFECT job!

As a pastor's wife, I've encountered spiritual warfare up close.  We've seen spiritual battles in our own churches, and in those of many pastor-friends.  The enemy, through ungodly people, seek to kill, steal and destroy.  Sometimes it seems an enemy is under every rock.  King David was not being paranoid in Psalm 34 and 35.  He had real enemies because there are always enemies of God and His followers.  Our response of faith will cancel out the fear and intimidation the enemy wants to use to entangle us.

Regardless of how much our assailants try to slander, mock or deride believers, we can give thanks to our God that He is always with us and for us.  The battle is His.

Our God contends for us...He engages the resources of heaven to free us, vindicate us and seal our position in His heavenly courts.  Christ arranges all of that on the cross when He paid the debt of our sin.  Now His righteousness is our righteousness.

To create the background on the left page, I "scribbled" on gelatos in shades of blue and green then blended with a wet wipe.  The cute little worry-mousey is colored with Prismacolor pencils.

For the right page background, I used a sponge and Stampin' Up! ink pads.  The stamps are all inked with SU ink too.

Here are the Sweet 'n Sassy stamp sets I used....LOTS of other options here too!

 

Faith Quote Blocks                         Chunky Alphabet

Furry Friends

Check out more stamps that are perfect for your Bible journaling artwork in the Creative Worship section of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.  Thanks for stopping in!