Have Faith | Bible Journaling

On June 29, 2018June 29, 2018 By Jules' JewelsIn New Kits, Uncategorized2 Comments

Check out the process video for this page over at my YouTube Channel or using the link at the bottom of this post.

2 Kings 4:1-7 tells about a widow in dire straits and desperate for God’s help. Her husband has died and left her family in debt over their heads, the creditors are threatening to take her sons as slaves if she doesn’t pay the money she owes, and all the capital she has left is one jar of oil. She needs help, and so she goes to the prophet Elisha. He tells her to go and borrow as many jars as she can from all of her friends and neighbors. “Not too few,” he says, having faith that God is going to make a BIG miracle for this woman. She does exactly what Elisha tells her to do, because she also has faith that God will provide. In fact, her faith is what took her to Elisha in the first place, and her faith is rewarded.

The widow and her sons go into her home with all the jars, shut the door, just as Elisha tells her to do, and sees God’s providence and goodness unfold. As she pours the oil from her jar into another jar, it keeps pouring. It doesn’t stop! She moves on to the next jar, and the next, and the next. The oil isn’t running out! When she has run out of jars, she tells her son to give her another one. He exclaims there are no more jars to be found. At that precise moment the oil runs out. She takes the oil and sells it. With the profits she has enough to pay all the creditors, and then plenty to live comfortably afterwards. God’s blessings do not stop until they are overflowing!

Despite this story being relatively short–only seven verses–it is powerful and profound! Faith is what gets us through the tough times. We may be having money troubles, relationship issues, health concerns, job insecurities, etc. But we can have faith in the same God who made the widow’s oil overflow. He will likewise provide for you! It will likely be in His own unique way, but He will make a way!

I chose to journal this story using the new Have Faith collection from Echo Park Paper Co. I cut out a jar with flowers from one of the 12×12 papers, used a few of the stickers, and made a bunting banner out of the “F-A-I-T-H” stickers. I chose the jar because of the connection to the story. I added a tag and a circle punch to the top of the page, both cut out from the papers. This was a super easy page, and I still have SO much of the collection left that I could use for other Bible journaling, cards, and/or scrapbooking projects.

How do God’s blessings overflow in your life? Remembering the past instances of His care and provisions can help us to have faith in the future during difficult times.

Supplies:

Screen Shot 2018-06-28 at 3.54.46 PM — 1-inch Circle Punch

Flourish Like Palms | Bible Journaling

On June 16, 2018June 28, 2018 By Jules' JewelsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree

and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

13 They are planted in the house of the LORD;

they flourish in the courts of our God.

Psalm 92:12-13

I’ve always loved this Bible verse in Psalm 92 where it says that the righteous will flourish like palms and cedars because it reminds me of my children and my role as a parent. Every Christian parent wants their children to be righteous and to flourish in the Lord. To “flourish” means to grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly favorable environment. We as parents need to provide the environment for them to flourish into a righteous follower of Christ. But why does the psalmist use the imagery of a palm and a cedar tree to represent righteousness?I moved to Florida almost eight years ago. I can say in all honesty that I’ve never seen storms like I’ve seen here in Florida. This past summer we endured Hurricane Irma. I’ve come to understand one of the significant reasons why the palm is used in this psalm. During these incredible storms, with torrential winds and rain, a palm tree will blow and fold and bend, but it will rarely break. God designed the palm tree in such a way, with its spread-out roots, foldable fronds, and wiry trunk, to survive the storms of life. And not only do these beautiful palm trees just survive, but they thrive in this climate! They grow tall and stately, and historically they represent victory and celebration. Palm trees flourish in adversity!

Now, on to cedar trees. These aren’t just any cedar trees, though. The Lebanon Cedar is a magnificent and massive tree. Its wood is strong and has a pleasant odor, and is resistant to rot and insects. Many Biblical woodworkers desired this wood, including Solomon for his Temple.

If you’ve met my three teenage boys, you might understand why I’ve always said that they were like Cedars of Lebanon. They are BIG boys! They eat me out of house and home, especially my youngest. They are massive and strong like cedar trees. Plus, we used to live in Lebanon, Pennsylvania (not the same as the Mediterranean Lebanon), and two of our three boys were born there. So they are strong and big like the cedar trees of Lebanon (PA).

Perhaps this passage is saying that the righteous will flourish physically, like my boys have grown strong and healthy; but it is more likely to be saying that they will flourish spiritually. Since it uses the palm and cedar analogies, we can understand more specifically how they will flourish. They will be resilient in adversity, they will have a strong faith, they will be resistant to temptation, and they will be foundational in building God’s kingdom. In order to truly flourish like this, I need to provide the environment for my children to grow, to plant them in God’s court. That is my responsibility as their parent!For this page, I journaled in my Little Psalm Book, and I used several Sweet ‘N Sassy Stamps sets: Brotherly Love, Be a Flamingo, and Bitty Minnie Alpha. I stamped them with black ink and colored the images with Intense Blocks. The Brotherly Love set is so much fun because you can individualize the finished look. Two of my boys saw this and couldn’t believe how much it looked like them! (The other was indifferent.) I finished it off with some washi tape, a tab, a date stamp, and journaling. (Affiliate links within the hyperlinks will take you to the products I used. This week, through June 22, 20% off site-wide Sweet ‘N Sassy Stamps with code THANKS.)

What are some ways that you are helping your children flourish in a righteous environment?

Troubles Grow Us | Bible Journaling Process

Hebrews 13:21 and James 1:2-4 are on opposing pages in my Bible, yet they share the same message. Trials and troubles in our life are good for us. They grow us into promising, enduring, faithful, pleasing, and complete characters, ready to serve and glorify God. How we allow God to to grow us through these trials and troubles is up to us.

This Bible journaling process actually represents the growth process discussed in these Bible verses. A few weeks ago I spilled water all over my craft desk, and this page was MESSED up, along with many pages in my Bible. I spent an hour separating and drying the various pages. This particular one suffered bleed through from the opposite page.

So I decided to cover it with inks and stamps and all the goodies. I used Distress Oxides to blend a tri-color background. I had to press and rub and pull, but I finally got the result I was looking for. Then I planned on stamping some florals images to go along with the “growth” motif of the Bible verses. However, the stamps did not want to cooperate with me! I’m not sure if I was just having a bad day, bad luck, or if it was because the page was already so messed up, but I could not get a good stamped image for the life of me! They were all incomplete or blurry or streaky. So I decided to stamp them on to white card stock and fussy cut them out, which took a good bit of extra time and effort. But the result was worth it. I LOVE how the page turned out!

This process reminds me of the process God takes us through to grow us. We are a sinful mess: wrinkly, inky, yucky, and mucky! But God loves us, and puts the time and effort into rubbing out those wrinkles, covering up the spots, cleaning up the mess, clarifying the blurriness, and in general, beautifying the ugliness. It is through His power, and our submission, that we can grow into something pleasing to Him, complete in Him, and perfect for Him!

Check out the process video for this entry and see what I mean. Thanks for joining me today! I’d love for you to share any questions or comments, or things you’d like to see or read about in the future.

God bless!

Jules