Rejoicing with You at Easter - Word Art Wednesday

Hello Delightful Friends and Family!

Hoping this is finding you all well and having a blessed week!  We are celebrating "Resurrection Sunday" this weekend!  The world wants to promote bunnies and chocolate eggs but when you think of Easter I hope that you will remember not only the great sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf but also that the tomb where they laid His body is empty, HE IS RISEN!! The hope of eternal life is ours because of what He has done! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

Can you believe it's already mid April? Today is a special day, it's my mom's 79th birthday.  

Happy Birthday Mom! 

It's also hard to believe that it's already time to share a card for our challenge at Word Art Wednesday!  Here is my card for this weeks Anything Goes - Family friendly challenge:

Here are the ingredients:

Stamps - Taylored Expressions Calla Lily Bouquet and Easter Joy

Card Stock: Desert Storm, gold (my stash, I can only assume its Bazzill) and bright white (Neenah)

I colored the calla Lily with Copics and the green background was done by using a blending tool and Distress Oxide Peeled Paint on a diecut (Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle) piece of Neenah Desert Storm. It's hard to see the effects of the technique but I started at one end and blended the ink on about 3/4 of the card stock, the lighter end is behind the calla lily. I also spritzed some water on the panel to cause it to activate and lift color. It just adds a look of texture to it (it looks better in person), then I stamped the sentiment "Rejoicing with you this Easter" in Archival Jet Black ink.

The Word Art is John 12:23 and printed on Vellum.  I fussy cut out the vase and calla lilies and popped them up with dimensional adhesive.  I added a few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh (sweet pea mix)  

Please join us at Word Art Wednesday, we have some great sponsors each challenge and you can link up 5 new projects and share your talent with all of us!!

Resurrection Sunday is the epitome of hope and the strong message that truth will always triumph over the evil. In our scripture art today it says: Jesus answered them saying "The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified." (John 12:23).  

The hour is come - many times it is recorded that Jesus said His time was not yet come.  But finally it was time, perfectly on time according to all the prophecies concerning Him. He was the perfect Lamb of God willingly laying down His life for us. Oh my goodness all the types and shadows in the Word that point to Jesus and the redemptive work He would do, it's all spelled out if we are willing to believe. I encourage you to read the Bible with eyes and a heart filled with believing that Jesus was and is exactly who He said He was: the Savior of the world, God in the flesh, Emmanuel (God with us). 

 "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2: 9-11

Have a blessed week!! Thanks for visiting.

Rejoicing & Praying - Word Art Wednesday and Taylored Expressions!

Hello Delightful Friends and Family!
So excited to share with you my card featuring stamps from one of our sponsor for Word Art Wednesday this week:  Taylored Expressions! Yay!
Taylored Expressions was the first online stamp company I ever ordered from and I just loved their sketch challenges and their Key Ingredient monthly kit (way back when!). Their products are fabulous and the design team is one of the best in the craft industry, if not the best! Such a creative group.  Thanks Taylor for being our sponsor and thank you for so much inspiration that you've shared with all of us crafters!  Wouldn't you love to win the prize for this challenge?? Go visit the Word Art Wednesday Challenge blog for challenge #272 and #273. And make sure you visit the Taylored Expressions Blog for more inspiration!

This stamp is from the set Light of the World which includes another stained glass image and four sentiments. Check out this link HERE.  I've used my Zig Clean Color markers to color and stamped the image with Jet Black Archival ink, using my MISTI for placement. I've stamped on 140lb cold press watercolor paper (Strathmore) cut to 4" x 5.25" and layered it on black card stock and adhered to a Neenah 80lb  white card stock base. The Scripture was printed on Vellum.
Here is a peek at the inside where I've used another T.E. stamp set called Easter Joy (retired).

I chose the stamp image with the stained glass cross to coordinate with the 1 Thessalonian verse. It was a reminder to rejoice in the fact that Jesus is no longer on the cross and the grave could not hold Him so that I could pray and have fellowship with Him without ceasing!  Isn't that great to know?  Sometimes it's hard to be thankful and rejoice when we are facing tough battles in this life, but the Bible tells us that He will never leave us nor forsake us and that we also can come boldly to the throne of grace in our time of need.  It seems lately that I've been spending much more time at the foot of His throne but I also know that He intercedes for me and knows the desires of my heart.  Remembering that helps me to be filled with joy and thanksgiving. I know that Jesus gives me the strength to do that with the help of His Holy Spirit and know with assurance that God is still at work even in the unknown! So run this race of faith with endurance and don't give up! God is faithful don't stop trusting, don't stop praying. Be encouraged!

Thanks so much for visiting today and please visit Word Art Wednesday and join us for this 2 week Anything Goes - family friendly challenge. You can link up 5 new projects!

I will be posting another card I made using two more stamp sets from Taylored Expressions for the 30 Day Coloring Challenge later today at the Daily Marker Blog!!

He Willingly Lays His Life Down - John 10:18-21

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Happy Resurrection Weekend to my delightful friends and family!

I thought I'd share an excerpt from a Bible study I wrote last year from the Gospel of John. 

 John 10:17-19
"Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. "No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."

No one takes it from Me but I lay it down of Myself
Jesus being "God with us" had a wonderful plan and it included His life in exchange for ours.

 John 15:13 " Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends."

Colossians 2:9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
John 5:26 "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,"

There is perfect harmony between the Father and the Son and the plan from the foundation of the world will be executed perfectly according the Scriptures. There is no way that the creation/mere man can change or manipulated the pre-ordained plans of our Creator. Some things are just set or written in Stone, the Living Stone!

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

1 Peter 1:20-21 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

I want to share a few verses that show that Jesus and the disciples wrote concerning how that Scriptures (Law, Prophets and Psalms) must be fulfilled. It was God’s plan, hidden in a sense until the appointed time. (Read Galatians 4:2-4) We do not have to worry about Him being a helpless pawn, it was His plan to go to the cross all along for our good to bridge that gap between God and man.

Matthew 26: 53-56 "Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? "How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?" In that hour Jesus said to the multitudes, "Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me? I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not seize Me. "But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.

Mark: 14-49 "I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled."

Romans 1:1-4 PAUL, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

Acts 3:18 "But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.

Acts 10:43 "To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins."

Luke 24:32 And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"

Luke 24:44-48 Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.

Revelation 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

In laying down His life for us, Jesus became that Door through which we enter into His fold and because He rose again (in fulfillment of the Scriptures!) He remains our Faithful, Loving, Good Shepherd watching over His flock! Does that make you just want to sing His praises. Well, go ahead I certainly will not object to that!! To tell you the truth I’m right there with you! “Worthy is the - Lamb who was slain, Holy, Holy is He!” (I love that song: Revelation Song written by Jennie Lee Riddle)

 

I pray that this will be a time of reflection and rejoicing in the Risen Lord, what a joy it is to serve Him.  We can be confident in putting our hope and faith in Jesus.  He is always there, Jesus promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us! 

 With affection,

Natalie