He Calls Us by Name...We Are His!

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 

When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze. 

For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Isaiah 43:1-3

The more unstable our world becomes, the more we need the promises of God to anchor us.  If we are redeemed believers, we will not be overcome by the wickedness of this world.  Even those who come against believers to take our lives will not be victors.  We hold the key to heaven and our eternal destiny is secure.  That enables us to live with joy for today.  

God is sufficient for any need we have, any crisis through which we walk, any heartache that threatens to break us. When we are feeling overwhelmed, overlooked or over stressed, God is with us and for us. In this life we will see trouble and tragedy, but we have a God who is greater, more powerful than our difficulties; we will not be destroyed by any power of this world. We are securely held in the hand of a God who loves us, who has called us by name, and who claims us as His very own. Rest in that truth today, precious believer.

I went back to watercolor painting for this Bible journaling page. Margin word art is created with stamps from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. I used PrismaColor pencils to color in the words and accented the water with a white Sharpie paint pen.

I love the fluid transparency and blendability of watercolor paints. The blending and color saturation is unpredictable, but that makes every creation a bit of a surprise.  And as always, I usually run to my stash of Sweet 'n Sassy stamps for my Bible Art-Journaling creations. 

 Perfect Faith                                  My Friend

God Is More Than Enough!

Recently our family celebrated the second anniversary of my grandsons' arrival from the Philippines.  They had been waiting for over a year after my son married their mother to rejoin her here in the United States.  It seemed like it took forever to complete all the complicated steps of their legal immigration paper work.  Finally the day arrived, the plane was on the way and the entire family waited with breathless anticipation for the boys and their mother to walk through the airport gate.  The boys and my son had skyped many times, so they knew each other, but this moment would be a once in a lifetime moment.  They would meet for the first time face to face.  I expected the boys, 7 and 10, to be shy and a bit reticent when the moment to meet actually arrived. Imagine our surprise and delight when they came through the gate, immediately laid eyes on my son and broke out in a full run shouting with complete abandon, "Daddy, Daddy."  They opened their arms wide and both simultaneously jumped up into his strong, waiting embrace.  As you may well imagine, there wasn't a dry eye in the terminal.

Our heavenly Father waits with strong and open arms to receive us whenever we need Him.  He will never turn us away.  Sometimes we are at a distance, communicating with Him, believing Him.  Then there are those times when we need to run to Him with complete abandon, call out His name and jump into those arms to be near His heart and feel His protective embrace around us.  He delights our in our need of Him.

God is always ready to accept our need of Him and work on our behalf.  He is always accessible and always moving in our lives for our good.  He watches over us, stands at our right hand, intimately knows us and our need.  He will neither slumber nor turn from us.  He will always have eyes to see us and arms to hold us.

Since Jesus instructed His disciples, believers have experienced trouble here on this earth.  In fact, He said the world would hate us.  Christian brothers and sisters are being tortured and killed in some parts of the world just because they are believers.  Even here in our country, we see contempt and intolerance for Christians growing.  We need not fear.  God is for us, He moves toward us to keep us in His arms, and we can trust that God is more than enough for anything we face.  He may not remove trouble from us, but we can rest assured He will hold us through it all.

For these pages I used chalks to color the background, SU inks for stamping and Copics for coloring.  I set my work with hairspray so the chalks wouldn't dust off.   I combined the following Sweet 'n Sassy stamps.  More will be released this month and you will absolutely love them for Bible journaling.

My Friend                              Perfect Faith

God Is For You

(newly released)

 

 

He Cares for You!

Life can get hard and sometimes we fall prey to lies from the enemy.  During vulnerable times, the enemy of our soul will strike our soft spots.  He will whisper to us that nobody knows or cares about what we are going through and we are facing disaster all alone.  NOTHING could be farther from the truth of God's Word! 

1 Peter 5:6-7 is a passage I often run to in times of trouble.  It's a balm to my spirit to hear again how much God loves me and to let His good promises pour over my heart and mind. 

Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God

so that at the proper time He may exalt you,

casting all your anxieties on Him

BECAUSE HE CARES FOR YOU!

What a powerful passage!  God lifts us into His arms like a loving father scoops up a child to give comfort and protection.  The minute I saw the new set, My Friend releasing from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps this month I immediately thought of the 1 Peter passage.  The image of Jesus lifting a little child is a perfect vision of His tender care for us.  We can surrender completely to Him...in fact, He requires our submission.  That's really what faith and trust are all about...SUBMISSION.  And that is not something our current culture frequently embraces.  We are seeing all out rebellion in our country at so many levels.  It should do our hearts good to be refreshed by this verse. 

Submission is the starting point of God's mighty hand of protection over us.  Without our submission to His will and ways, God will likely allow us to go our own way so we find out first hand that way doesn't work.  As we submit to Him--our lives, our hearts, our eternity--He scoops us up with a mighty hand and will hold us tenderly, keeping us safe. 

Our surrender requires a humble heart.  We have to come to terms with the fact we are not in control.  God is--always has been and always will be. 

Our surrender requires the relinquishment of everything to Him...all that we are, all that we have.  That means giving up our fears and worries--because we are trusting Him to take care of everything. 

We can leave everything with the Lord...hand it over and LEAVE it there.  This is possible and profitable because He cares for us.  His plans and purposes are for our good.  The second image in the margin is a sneak peek of a set from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps...there will be some amazing singles released soon...PERFECT for Bible art journaling because they fit in the margin of your Bible perfectly.  

I'll address the passage and SNSS image on the facing page in my next post.  But for today, I invite you to surrender again any worries or fears you may have about your future.  Leave each and every one of them with the Lord!

And while you are peeking in at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps join us all month long for the 9th birthday of operation.  Korin Sutherland, owner/designer, has some amazing specials and give aways.  Peek in each week to see what new.