To Know Him is to Trust Him

Those who know your name trust in you,    
 for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Psalm 9:10

When we have moments of trust-failure it's because we have a temporary lapse in remembering who God is.  When we embrace the character of God, the believer's natural response has to be trust.  Think of the words that describe His character as being completely trustworthy.  What words would you choose?  My word would be faithful.  God has proven Himself faithful to me time and time again.  In fact, He has never been unfaithful to me so why would I not trust Him?  I look back over my life and I know beyond any shadow of doubt that God has been there for me.  And I trust that He will always hold me in His hand, near to His heart.  I know my God and I know I can trust Him. 

  

Usually I design Bible pages by going from scripture to design.  This time I was sorting through my stash of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and came across the set, Seek Him.  I've used it several times before but this time as I considered it the words "know" and "trust" stood out and it didn't take much of a leap from there.  To know Him is to trust Him.  That is a powerfully true statement.  So I went on a scripture search to see if I could find something that said the same thing.  Psalm 9:10 is perfect, "Those who know your name trust in you for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you."  And, there is the faithful part in there too!  God will not forsake those who trust Him.  That truth is definitely worth some worship time and some art in my Bible!

I started with the words in the margin and added some hand-drawn birds for decoration.  The flowers here reflect those on the facing page, all from the Scribble Flowers stamp set. The flowers are stamped directly to the page and colored with watercolor paints (Kuretake-36 color set).  The words and birds were colored with Copic markers.

For the right side of the page I added some washi tape to anchor more flowers.  These were stamped on regular computer paper, and painted with the watercolor paints.  Then I cut out the flowers and adhered the centers of the flowers to the page.  The edges lift slightly to add some dimension to the page.  

The sets I used: 

 

 Seek Him by Rebecca Rios

Scribble Flowers by Korin Sutherland

Love . Love . Love

This is how God showed his love among us: 

He sent his one and only Son into the world 

that we might live through him.

 1 John 4:9

If you'd ask people to offer a definition of love, you'd get as many different answers as the number of people you asked.  Most would connect love with a feeling or a commitment one makes to another person.  Any definition of love that does not emanate from the person of God is not a real, lasting love. God IS love (1 John 4:8).  Without the presence of His love, there would be no love among us at all. Man has distorted all that is good about love, and those of us who know God grieve over the deception about love in our culture today.  I believe that's why it's so important to gain an accurate perception of what true love-- God's love for us and the believer's love for others--really is. We have to read the whole counsel of God's Word to glimpse His enormous love for His own.  Even taking snippets from scripture gives us an incomplete picture of His love.  I would challenge each of you to find a reading plan that works for you and commit to reading the Bible through this year.  It will be one of the most meaningful and most productive uses of your time!

For my SNSS design projects this week, I decided to focus on God's love and how that love is to be reflected by His children.  I also wanted to have some fun with the digital stamps offered at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.  I wanted to remind you of how versatile digital stamps can be when doing Bible journaling.  So I have a few different pages to show you today.

One of the best features of a digital stamp is its versatility.  You can easily resize, rotate and flip a digital image.  For Bible journaling this is invaluable.  Had I needed to, I could have flipped the puppy image here to have it facing inward on the opposite page in my Bible.  And I can always insure that digital images will fit my margin perfectly because they are so easy to resize.

It's sobering to consider the command Jesus gives us that we are to love one another as He loved us.  His love is incomprehensibly big!  My husband and I often laugh about our dog's love, how she loves so unconditionally, so completely and how she never tires of welcoming us when we come home, even if we are only gone for 15 minutes!  People know so much about us by the way we love others. When we see others through the eyes of God, we too can love without reservation.

For my puppy love page, I simply printed the digital stamp image, laid the paper behind my Bible page and traced it in pencil first, then outlined it and colored in with Copic markers.  I could have printed it, colored it, cut it out and affixed it to the margin as well.  I also did my hand-lettering in pencil first, then wrote over it with marker, and erased the pencil afterwards. 

I fell in love with this little birdie the minute I saw him.  One of my favorite verses of Scripture comes from 1 John 4:19, "We love because He first loved us." Without God's love in our hearts it's impossible to love others in the purest sense.  We are only capable of that kind of love it we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us.

I also printed out this digi stamp and traced it onto the margin in my Bible.  I sponged the hearts using a heart stencil, and did hand lettering (still practicing...ugh...that's the hardest part of journaling for me).  The leaves are from Words of Life: Collection 2 (stamped on) and everything in the margin is colored with Copic markers. The LOVE comes from the clear stamp set, Give Praise.

For my final December entry, I used the digital stamp, Cocoa Sends Love, and here, I reversed the image and traced.  I used PrismaColor pencil for color and sponged the clouds with ink/stencil.  The hearts are stamped (How Tweet, SNSS).

Really, isn't little Cocoa one of the sweetest images ever?  I hope you'll try out some of the digital stamps at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps because they are so perfect for Bible journaling.  Rebecca Rios has created several for that specific purpose and I'll be showcasing one of those in January, but you can check those out HERE.

Here are the digital stamps used for today's projects, but if you go to the SNSS digital page with all the digi Valentine's sets, you will definitely drool...and probably start filling your cart!! May I add here too, that another helpful feature of digital images is their affordable price.  They are very inexpensive!

God's Steadfast Love

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; 

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, 

“therefore I will hope in him.” 

(Lamentations 3:22-24, ESV)

As we look to the start of a new year, I'm so grateful for the truth of this passage. Because God's love for me does not waver, I can trust completely in His steadfast character, provision and concern. I know He is with me, that He will not disappoint, He will never fail me. 

I recently spent some time having a sweet conversation with my precious grandson, Daniel, while my husband listened in. Daniel's topic sprung spontaneously as we chatted and suddenly he dove headlong into an amazingly deep theological discussion with me. He said, "Grammie, I'm not really afraid of anything, not even dying. I'm not afraid because I know God is with me. He is with me all the time, so I don't need to worry about anything. I know He will protect me and even if I die, I will just go straight to heaven, so it's good, Grammie. It's all just good."

The hope we have as believers elicits this kind of bold assurance, while still pretty amazing for a 10 year old. We can truly trust in a God whose love is steadfast, who breathes new life into each morning. And when we understand and accept His love we know we have enough. He is our portion...He is all we need.

My Bible journaling came in stages on the project. I did the background quite some time ago, and finally decided I needed to finish it. I used acrylic paint to demonstrate a technique I rarely use, simply because I like my color to be transparent so the words of Scripture are never covered. It was a fun page to complete and provided a great way to bookmark one of my all-time favorite passages of scripture.

I used the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps set, Give Praise for all the images, Cosmo Cricket designer paper, and a lace flower (unknown source). I stamped the birds and banner on designer paper then fussy cut them out for this project.

 Give Praise

 

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!

God of Hope

Good morning! I'm back today with another post on behalf of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps showcasing my project for the Creative Worship Design Team. 

The last few weeks in my family's life have been filled with hope...the certain kind of hope that comes from trusting God no matter what.  We had a near-devastating experience with the birth of my grandson.  I believe with all my heart the enemy had another plan but the prayers of so many family and friends inclined God's ear toward us.  We definitely saw His mighty hand of intervention.  Where the enemy planned death...God prevailed in bringing life to our family.  My grandson and precious daughter-in-law are doing well and little Lukas is even flourishing!  Thank you to all who prayed on our behalf!

Of course I had to share...I'm a grandmother!!!

The very first verse I wanted to journal upon returning home was Romans 15:13, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We felt first-hand how God is in command of the hope that fills our hearts as we trust in Him.  The more we surrendered to His will in all things, the more HOPE we gained.  Hope overcame anxiety, joy overcame tears, and God overcame death.  What a sweet personal picture of our hope in the cross of Christ and His redeeming work as we approach Easter!

I chose three Sweet 'n Sassy stamps from the Creative Worship Bible Journaling section of the store to visually depict this verse. 

 Amazing God                             His Wings

Choose Faith

I love all three of these sets because they offer so much versatility.  I can't art-journal fast enough!  This page in my Bible will always have a great deal of meaning to me.  The God of hope reached down and rescued our family from despair. 

All the text content in the margin is either stamped or hand lettered.  Colors on the page are sponged with SU ink or Tim Holtz Distress ink.  You can't see it real well here, but I also highlighted some of the lettering with my Spica Glitter Pens...I LOVE those things.  They add glitter to a page without the mess of glue/regular glitter which might brush off over time.  They come in a full array of colors.

If you have a moment, I'd love for you to visit my post on the Sweet 'n Sassy's Creative Worship blog.  It's a great place to visit because the other team members post some marvelous samples of journaling and card-making.  Hope you can come by!

May the God of hope fill your heart with joy and peace this week as you trust Him in every circumstance of life.  I pray He will take my humble efforts at art in my Bible to bless others with the majesty, power and grace He offers through His Word.