Saturday, December 8, 2018

Stronger faith


Romans 4:20b He grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.

 It seems so elementary in some ways, yet I still see this principle as important enough in my own life to bear repeating for my own benefit once again: My faith will grow stronger every time I use it.  In this verse the Apostle Paul was speaking about the trial of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son Isaac, and how Abraham’s exercise of blind faith was a key element in his spiritual development.  His faith became strong because of that experience and I want my faith to grow stronger.  Although I do not know what God will allow in my life in the future to accomplish that, I can see ways in which that has already happened in my life experiences, events that have been difficult but through which I continued to give glory to God and saw the result of stronger faith.  I hope and pray that I will always live out this important spiritual principle.

Friday, December 7, 2018

Faith, hope and love


I Thessalonians 1:3 Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

There were three things that encouraged Paul as he prayed for these believers in Thessalonica: their work of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope in Christ.  These encouraging aspects of their Christian walk were also the object of his prayers for them.  I was thinking about this – he was praying about things in their lives that were already manifesting themselves, so why was he praying about those same things?  These are the same three items listed in I Corinthians 13 as characteristics most important in the life of a believer: faith, hope and love.  Faith that creates works that please and honor God, hope that keeps one’s faith strong and forward-looking, and love that forms the basis of all a believer is or does.  Prayer was necessary because these three characteristics of a believer are also fragile and easily weakened or lost by a loss of vision or spiritual life.  Paul understood that principle so he prayed for them even while thanking God for those being displayed in their lives.

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Jesus was walking ahead of them


Mark 10:32 And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them.  And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.

 Once again in the life of the disciples Jesus led the way.  Even type-A personality Peter followed Jesus wherever Jesus wanted to go.  And in this scenario once again Jesus was “walking ahead of them."  It is a good reminder to me of my own personal spiritual walk.  Jesus walks ahead and I follow.  It would have been interesting to have been there to get a better sense of what amazed the disciples, but I know that for myself I have often been amazed at how God has led my steps through the years.  This verse reminds me that I can follow His steps with amazement because I am walking close behind Him, but if I fall back and follow from afar, I could be following afraid rather than amazed. That appears to have been the case for those who were not so dedicated to following except out of curiosity.  I would rather let Jesus walk ahead of me and follow as an amazed but close disciple.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Meeting the angels


Luke 12:8 And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God.

This verse has always been a bit “blurry” in my mind and understanding.  I have never been able to get a clear mental picture of just what Jesus meant even though I understood that He is talking about my commitment to follow Him in my present earthly life as a precursor to my eternal life in heaven.  However, as I read this verse today, a new mental picture popped into my head that brought a sense of excitement to me.  I pictured myself entering the gates of heaven and Jesus meeting me there, then turning to the host of greeting angels behind Him and saying to them, “This is Jo Ann.  We met when she was six years old and she has been following me ever since then.”  Then all the greeters crowd around me and shake my hand, saying, “We are so happy to have you here,” or, “We’ve been waiting to meet you and show you around.”  The whole imaginary picture gives me a sense of what Jesus will do as He acknowledges me in front of the angels of heaven.  It enhances my commitment to remain faithful now!

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

The inability of Jesus


Mark 6:5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

I think this must be one of the saddest verses in the Bible.  There is sadness in it from just about every angle from which I approach it.  Jesus, the Son of God, capable of doing anything was unable to do His mighty acts in that town because of their unbelief.  Unable to do them.  He was not able to do anything exceptional because of their unwillingness to believe that the person they had known for 30 years was anything more than an ordinary person.  And to heal the sick was a miracle but the verse implies He could have and would have done even more miraculous things except for the persistent unbelief.  One has to wonder what those unbelievers in Jesus’ hometown missed because of their unbelief.  It makes me stop and wonder if I have ever kept God from working in my own life or family because I was not open to His doing so.  I pray that will never be the case.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Whatever it takes


Matthew 10:18 And you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to be witness before them and the Gentiles.

Somehow, in all the times I have read these words of Jesus to His disciples as He sent them out, I missed what I see today as a key element in this statement in v. 18.  I have always looked at the emphasis here as being in the fact that what persecution the disciples received from authorities was because of the message they were preaching.  Today as I read this verse the last phrase stood out to me.  The persecution that brings them before the rulers is “in order to” bear witness before those rulers.  As those in authority, governors and kings are usually unapproachable by any except a very few, so how would they hear the message of Jesus unless someone is brought to them to explain why they been arrested?  It is a “logical” way for the gospel to get to such people.  This has reminded me that God will do whatever is necessary to ensure that everyone (even “unapproachable” rulers) hears the gospel.

Monday, October 15, 2018

I know a secret


Mark 4:11 To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables.

As a child of God, one who has put her faith in God and His Word, and who has placed her faith in Jesus as her Savior, I have a level of understanding for spiritual truths in Scripture that those outside of faith in Christ do not have.  This understanding is not based in my training in theology.  It is not based in my intellect.  It is based in my standing as a child of God and dedicated follower of Jesus.  The disciples of Jesus gained understanding of spiritual things because of their close relationship to Jesus.  Later in this chapter in Mark, in v. 34, we are told again of the special connection the disciples had to spiritual understanding … Jesus explained everything from the parables to His disciples privately.  As a disciple of Jesus now, all these later, I see the truth of this in my own life as I continue to learn “privately” from Jesus and grow in my understanding of spiritual things.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Why Jesus came


Luke 1:71, 74-75 … that we should be saved from our enemies … that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

In these verses that are part of Zechariah’s blessing over the birth of his son, John the Baptist, I see God’s plan of salvation in a nutshell.  God’s purpose in sending Jesus as the Messiah was in order to save us from our enemies, sin and death.  Once we are delivered form the clutches of sin and death we are able and ready for “phase two” of God’s plan.  We are ready to serve God all the rest of our lives without any fear of those enemies.  We have His holiness on our side for the battle of life and service and we walk and serve in the robe of righteousness that is our confidence and out strength for service.

Saturday, September 8, 2018

Mini album

I have not been doing very well at posting my work lately.  Don't know why except maybe laziness, and forgetting to photograph my work before I mail the card or give away the album!  In the past couple of weeks I have been working on a small (about 3 1/2 in. x 5 in.) interactive album and I actually remembered to take some photos this time!  It was fun to make, but I am a bit saddened by how tight I made the binding, so it is harder to open up than I would like.  It made it more difficult to photograph than I like, but I'll learn from this experience for the next one.  I will make a larger space between the spine and the front/back covers to allow for better opening ability.

But, that being said, here is the finished product:




There is a waterfall album on the inside of both the front and back covers and each of the 3 pages is full of interactive elements that you unfold or open up in some way.

I covered the spine with some hammered gold metallic paper which went very beautifully with the brown and yellow cover papers.

Monday, August 27, 2018

Trees and gears

I have a set of stamps that are very masculine-looking, with gears and trucks, trees and leaves, but I don't have a lot of occasions when I can use them even though I really like the look I get.  However, I found just the use for them when making a card this morning for a friend.  I used the current challenge sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  This is the sketch:

and here is my take on it:
I used copper embossing powder for the tree and one set of leaves and the word is die cut from turquoise holographic paper from Paper Wishes.  They sell it as blue fireworks paper but it looks very close to turquoise and I thought it looked really good with the copper colors.

On the inside I used the birthday greeting from the same stamp set to carry through on the gears theme:
I hope our friend enjoys his birthday card!


Friday, August 17, 2018

Dragonflies

This week the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches is a simple one, and fit perfectly for a get well card I wanted to make for a friend.  This is the sketch for the week.

Here is the card I made:
I had some paper that had dragonflies on it, then I added a dragonfly sticker.  I backed the wings with metallic mirrored blue paper,

One the inside of the card I used another piece of the same background paper and added another dragonfly prepared like the front one along with a tiny little pink-winged dragonfly to add a touch of other color.








Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Salvation and restoration


Jeremiah 30-31 “I will…”

As I read through these chapters this morning, I was struck by the multiple ways God describes His loving restoration of His people.  Making a list of those ways is a blessing as I am reminded of God’s love and willingness to restore me when I wander away from Him, and of the bountiful blessings I have in Christ as a result of my salvation.  I could not make a “Top Ten” list today … there are more than ten blessings in spiritual restoration!  Look at this list!

            1. I will restore their fortunes
            2. I will bring them back
            3. I will break the yoke off your neck
            4. I will save you from far away
            5. You will have quiet and ease
            6. None shall make you afraid
            7. I will restore health to you
            8. You will be radiant over the goodness of the Lord
            9. I will comfort them
            10. My people will be satisfied with my goodness
            11. I will satisfy the weary soul
            12. I will forgive their iniquity
            13. I will remember their sin no more

Saturday, August 11, 2018

100th birthday

Our friend Dot is having a birthday party this afternoon and it is not just any birthday ... she is turning 100 and that calls for some special celebration!  And it called for a special birthday card as well, so I made her a bouquet of flowers, in a box.  And they will not wither very quickly, either!



The box folds flat, like so...
The effect is so pleasant then you "open" the card and all the flowers pop up and dance around.  I think she will enjoy this bouquet for a long time to come!

I even decorated the envelope with her name:



Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Love Bug card

To be more accurate, I should probably call this card a masculine birthday card because that is really what I made, but I found this cute little VW bug in my stickers/Dazzles and some paper that had old cards on it so I combined them to make this card for a male friend whose birthday is coming soon.  I recently received an order I made for some neat new stamps and it fit perfectly with this card.  The pictures should explain ...

I decided to enter this card in the current week's Freshly Made Sketches


 Here is my card:


Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Heightened awareness


Isaiah 22:12-13 In that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine …

I am often reminded in Scripture that we do not see sin as God sees it, and these verses reminded me yet again.  Part of God’s condemnation of Israel was based on how they responded to God’s assessment of their sinfulness.  They took it so lightly because they did not see their sin as “all that bad.”  It is only as I grow in my relationship to God that I will grow in my understanding of sin and righteousness, learning to view both from a godlier viewpoint.  I have seen that develop in my own Christian walk through the years.  After close to 70 years as a believer and follower of Christ, my understanding of God’s holiness and my own sinfulness is much keener and more sensitive and the seriousness of the matter is heightened.  My prayer for my family is that this will become true for them also, as they grow older

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Golden anniversary

I made this card for friends who just celebrated their 50th anniversary.  What made it extra special was that I was their maid of honor!  (We were mere children at that time, of course).  I layered gold metallic paper with black and gold metallic paper then used bright yellow card stock for the top layer.  I embossed it using a design that included hearts and painted the hearts with gold Smooch.  After stamping and die cutting the banner, I embossed the words with gold embossing powder.  I thought it turned out nicely.  I left the inside blank and am going to write them a letter on the blank part to make it a little extra personal, considering our closer-than-usual connection.

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Our security and stability

As I have read through the books of Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament this time around in my chronological reading of the Bible, I decided to note the names of the kings as they took to their thrones (as you see in my sample picture) and as I have done so I have seen more than ever before the difference that following God made (and makes), even in the life of a nation.  On this page, for example, there is the name of one king for the nation of Judah, which is a nation that obeyed God's laws and worshiped Him only.  On the other hand, during the reign of that one king in Judah, in the nation of Israel there were four different kings.  For every one of those kings there is the statement that they did not walk in the ways of the Lord and did evil in the sight of the Lord.  It has been my vivid reminder that there are always consequences to our decisions to either obey and worship God or not to do so.  This is true in our personal lives but also true in a nation's life.  It reminds me to pray for our nation and its leaders as well as for our populace.  If we do not follow God's principles of living, who knows how long we can remain secure and stable? 

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

July birthdays

There is a long list of birthdays for the month of July on my list, so I've had to get working to get cards made in time to mail to them all, and I am already a bit behind, but here are three that I made from a set of birth flower papers I bought recently.



Saturday, June 30, 2018

Butterfly card

I made a birthday card today using some beautiful papers I got in a set recently.  The background is a gorgeous blue with a hint of purple and has gold metallic additions.  I really liked the papers so I used it as the basis of my card, and used the current challenge at Freshly Made Sketches as the pattern for what I did.  I kept the wings of the butterflies free so they have a 3-D effect and I love the way it turned out.

This is the FMS pattern I used:


And this is the card I made:
The butterflies are both die cut with metallic paper.  The inside of the card is plain... just the words "Happy Birthday"die cut from the same metallic paper as the butterflies on the front.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Roses

I have been very negligent about writing and posting in this online journal of sorts lately.  Maybe it's the hot weather, although I suspect is more laziness than heat!  Anyway, this week I made a card that was a challenge for me, using a new die I bought.  The die is a bunch of roses with lots of more intricate pieces, as you can see from this photo of the inside of the card:
I cut the roses out of some pink suede paper I had, then I cut the leaves from forest green suede paper and glued them on top of the leaf portions of the pink.  As you can see, the die is an outline of roses, and it has all those small parts that also get cut out.  There were so many pieces it reminded me of a jigsaw puzzle, so I thought I would use them also.
I cut the die from some gold metallic paper and glued it onto the front of the card, then I glued each piece of the pink suede paper rose petals and green suede paper leaves into the appropriate spots in the gold metallic rose outline.  Yes, it took a long time, but yes, it turned out beautifully!  I think I am going to try this out again, and maybe try it on some other dies as well.

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Be still

I keep working on my skills for making masculine cards because that seems to be one of my biggest challenges, so when I wanted to make a card for a friend of ours (a man) who is discouraged, I thought of the current challenge at Freshly Made Sketches as a perfect setting for the card I wanted to make.  The challenge looks like this:


 
This is the card I made for our friend:
I used brown ripple holographic paper from Paper Wishes as the background on the striped paper and for the shield.  I chose a shield because it reminded me of strength from God as we wait for Him to help us in our difficulties, so it went with the Bible verse on the front.  Then I carried that theme into the inside:
The Bible tells us to be still and watch God meet our need, and it also says to be strong, so I felt like this design was perfect for the message I wanted to convey to our discouraged friend.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Guard rails on the road of life


Proverbs 11:5a The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight …

I was really struck by this verse this morning.  As I grow older I find myself reflecting on the events and experiences of my life and although I have regrets of bad actions and wrong decisions, I see my life as a straight road toward God and His will.  The bumps and curves are small in comparison to the over-all straightness of my life-road.  My righteousness, created in me by God when I gave my life to Him at age six, has kept me moving straight ahead.  I picture my “road” as a highway with guard rails along both sides.  The guard rails are righteousness and my vehicle is my blamelessness in Christ.  The road signs along the say show me getting closer to my destination, the heavenly city and my mansion.  The road continues on straight ahead … 

Monday, June 4, 2018

Father's Day card

The sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches was exactly what I needed to get my thoughts in line for a Father's Day card I needed to make. 



Here is the card I am planning to submit...
And the inside ...
I am going to add a message inside but have not decided on what it will be yet.

Thursday, May 31, 2018

A job well-done


I Kings 4:7 Solomon had twelve offers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household.  Each man had to make provision for one month in the year.

When I read this verse this morning, my first thought was, so they had a job.  What is the importance of that?  They are not different than the millions of people through the years who had had responsibilities.  Granted, it was a big job.  Solomon’s household was large and his need for provisions was huge (re: v.22-26).  For one day alone, his need was for 180 bushels of flour (that is over 5400 a month!), 360 bushels of meal, 10 oxen, 20 cows, 100 sheep, plus numerous other protein sources.  Not only people in the palace needed food.  Solomon also had 4000 stalls of horses and 12,000 soldiers to feed.  In other words, the job of those twelve men was an enormous one.  And they took their job seriously.  We know that because this chapter says they provided faithfully every month.  They let nothing be lacking (v.27).  They even brought barley and straw for the horses (v.28).  I think it is also worth noting that the job they did was commendable enough for their names to be recorded for history’s sake.  
 Ben-hur, Ben-deker, Ben-hesed, Be-abinadab, Baana, Ben-geber, Ahinadab, Ahimaaz, (another) Baana, Jeshoshaphat, Shemei, Geber.   
This list has been my reminder today that if I remain faithful to whatever job I have, even if it is a mundane, ordinary job, if I take my responsibilities seriously, that is a notable and honorable memory I will leave.  Just as those twelve men, my name will be on the list of faithful workers.

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Befriend faithfulness


Psalm 37:3b … befriend faithfulness.

I do not know how I missed this phrase in the past!  It is so picturesque and eye-opening as to how I can “run after” God.  I am to befriend faithfulness … “to become friendly with,” “to act as a friend to,” faithfulness.  I do not see faithfulness of any kind displayed in the world around me very much these days, so it is not going to come naturally for the most part as a response to life in general, nor spiritually.  When I looked up the synonyms of “befriend” I saw many word pictures of my pursuit of faithfulness; for example:
*welcome: faithfulness is something I must want in order to have.

*get chummy with, take up with: faithfulness is something I have to decide to exemplify as a part of how I live.  It is my choice.

*encourage: with God’s help, I encourage faithfulness in my life.  I do what I can to develop it and keep it active.

*side with: this is another picture of the role I play in my faithfulness development.

I want to welcome faithfulness, take up with faithfulness, encourage faithfulness, and side with faithfulness… I want to befriend faithfulness.

Friday, May 25, 2018

Three flowers

I have been wanting to use a die that I've had in my supply for some time and then I saw the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches


I knew right away what I wanted to do!  And here is my card:
I chose to not put the sentiment over the pretty ends of the die.  I really like that frilly look and did not want to cover it up.  Although it is not really evident in the photo, the dark background is a glistening midnight blue and it really seems to set off the purplish-pinkish flowers.  I made the card into a square card because I did not want the bulging centers of the die cut to be too close together.  All in all, I am pleased with the result.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Using new cutting dies

It never ceases to amaze me at the creativity of people who come up with ideas.  Take for instance whoever came up with the idea of how to make a simple machine and metal dies to cut images out for paper crafting.  I recently purchased a flower die that makes a really pretty cut out, and the die is deceivingin that you can't really tell what the image will look like when cut.
See what I mean?  If you look carefully, you can see the image, but I am amazed at what you get when you put it to paper!  I made several cards this week using this die, and each card looks totally different based on the paper or style I used.  Here's what I mean:
I cut this one out of white cardstock and backed it on black.  I think it is really stunning.  And the design of this die makes it easy to cut into four parts, which is what I did for the inside of the card:
My next effort was cutting it out of dark paper and backing it with a different colot... a totally different look.

Well, that turned out so well, I decided to make a multicolored flower but I cut the die with black card stock this time and I think the result is my over-all favorite of all I made with this die.  See if you agree.

and the inside of that card:
I made one other card but for some reason it won't download.  For it, I cut the die with double-sided sticky paper then sprinkled it with gold and silver glitter flakes.  I put it on a turquoise back and it it shiny and beautiful.

I have just received several other new dies that I purchased on sale, so I'm looking forward to doing some other interesting cards in the next few weeks.

Monday, May 14, 2018

Confident prayer


Psalm 86  David’s Confident Prayer  

    His Request                                               His Reason for Confidence
Incline Your ear and answer            v.1            I am poor and needy
Preserve my life                               v.2            I am godly
Save me                                            v.2            I trust in You
Be gracious to me                             v.3            I cry to You
Answer my prayer                            v.6            I call on You
Teach me Your way                         v.11           I want to walk right
I give thanks to You                         v.12-13     Your love is great, and,
                                                                           You have delivered me

David prayed confidently expecting answers because he knew why he could ask God for these requests, proven by the reasons he included in his prayer.  In fact, at the end of the prayer, in v.17, he says he knows that those who hate him and wish him ill will see God’s answers and be put to shame.  He did not yet know how that would happen but he was confident that it would.  I want to pray as confidently as he did.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Give thanks to the Lord


(I wrote this several days ago and never posted it.)

I Chronicles 16:8-12 Oh give thanks to the Lord …

Top Ten Ways to Give Thanks to the Lord:
1. CALL upon His name (v8)
2. MAKE KNOWN His deeds (v8)
3. SING praises to Him (v9)
4. TELL of all His wondrous works (v9)
5. GLORY in His holy name (v10)
6. REJOICE in your heart (v10)
7. SEEK the Lord (v11)
8. SEEK the Lord’s strength (v11)
9. SEEK the Lord’s presence (v.11)
10. REMEMBER His wondrous works, His miracles, and His judgments (v12)

I must admit that I had never thought of some of these acts on my part as actually giving thanks to the Lord as my act of worship, but here they are!  Even when I call on Him I am showing my appreciation for who He is and what He can do.  When I look to Him for help or strength, it is an act of thankfulness.