Advent Words: G is for Gift

G is for Gift

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Ephesians 2:8-10

"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone."  Titus 3:4-8

In this season of gift giving, it's good to pause and remember the gifts God has given us. In this season we celebrate His greatest gift to us: His Son, Jesus Christ. His most amazing gift to us is His grace, given to us through His Son ~ the gift of salvation.

In the passages above, Paul paints the picture clearly that salvation is the gift of God. And this sums up nicely God's gospel of grace. Paul's words were the gift of freedom to a people who had been burdened under the heavy weight of the Law. They are a gift of freedom to us as well. We so naturally and easily tend to revert to trying to earn God's favor and our righteousness by working harder in our own power, when He calls us to rest in the work of His Son and in the power of the Spirit.

Salvation by faith is an amazing gift, but Paul also shows us so many other gifts in these passages as well: grace, faith, kindness, love, mercy, rebirth, renewal, the Holy Spirit, heirs of eternal life ~ we unwrap and receive these gifts through the gift of God's Son. 

Our response: Our lives. We are called not to do good works to earn God's favor and enter into the kingdom of heaven, but rather to respond to God's gift of salvation by sharing His gift with others through good works. Good works are our calling and response as God's people for His gift of grace in our lives. Wrap that gift up today and share it with someone for Christmas this year!

Some days art just doesn't flow well from the idea in your head onto the paper. My gold pen kept acting up and skipping as I was writing, but then it would not photograph well with the glare of the light hitting the metallic gold. Oh well, on to the next day!

Share your creative response to the Advent Words challenge in our private Facebook group  Join here:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wordschallengegroup/

If you belong to the Everyday Journal group that I co-lead with Valerie Sjodin and Bernice Hopper, Advent Words will be our theme for December.

Share on Instagram and other social media with the hashtag #adventwords2018.

Check out my Pinterest board for this challenge and see some of the wonderful and diverse creativity of Advent Words 2018 participants. https://www.pinterest.com/marynbtol/advent-words-2018-challenge/

Advent Words: B is for Believe

B is for Believe

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." John 3:16-17

"Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God." John 1:12-13

As I was reading these passages for our word today, I noticed a pattern. 
In the first passage we see:

God loved.

God gave. 

God sent.

God saved.

In the second passage we see this:

We receive.

We believe.

We become.

Our word today is an important word in the Bible, and no more so than in the Gospel of John. John uses the word believe 98 times in his gospel, that is more times that in the other gospels combined and more than double its use in any other New Testament book. At the end of the book John stated his purpose for writing it this way:

"But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." John 20:31

John's whole message in his book is about showing us the proof that Jesus is the Son of God, that He was sent to the world by the Father, and that salvation comes through Him to those who believe in Him. But why is belief in Jesus so important to John? Let's dig into the answer to this questions using our passages for today and the pattern I mentioned above.

Let's first look at what these passages tell us about God. First we see God's heart, "For God so loved the world...". Love is both God's motivation for His plan of salvation and His demonstration of it. He loved, so He gave. He gave, and in giving He showed His love. What did He give? A gift that was a great sacrifice for Him. He gave us His Son, His one and only Son. He sent His Son into the world so that we would no longer be condemned to perish, but would instead be saved by His sacrifice. When we think of gifts this Christmas, we need to remember the greatest gift ever given. The gift God so graciously and lovingly provided through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

"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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:9-10

The pattern above also shows that  we play a part in this. God gives us salvation freely by grace, but He doesn't force it on us. God is interested in covenant relationships. We enter into that covenant by receiving the gift of salvation He offers us through His Son. We receive that gift by believing in Jesus' name. Why is this so important? Because, as John will point out throughout his gospel, the name the Father has given Jesus is Son. God freely gives us the gift of His Son, but He calls on us to respond and receive that gift by believing that Jesus is who He says He is, the One who saves. In receiving and believing we then  become children of God. We are adopted into His family. The added gift is we also become sisters and brothers with those who also receive and believe!

Share your creative response to the Advent Words challenge in our private Facebook group  Join here:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wordschallengegroup/

If you belong to the Everyday Journal group that I co-lead with Valerie Sjodin and Bernice Hopper, Advent Words will be our theme for December.

Share on Instagram and other social media with the hashtag #adventwords2018.

Welcome March!

"When March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb."

I sure hope this saying is true! Three days into March and we've had a small snow storm and now snow and freezing rain. February was one of the coldest on record. I'm so ready for Spring!

We are now 2 full months into the year and the Take Me Deeper weekly faith art project in the His Kingdom Come community. That means that next Friday we'll begin a new monthly theme for our devotions. And Sunday a new set of prompts for our word was posted on the Logos365 page. The HKC foundation team launched its first collaborative class this past Saturday, Faithart 101. We each took an area of the techniques we use in faith art and provided videos and written tutorials and gave examples of our art and our process. I took on the area of Bible study techniques, teaching some inductive style study techniques and how to use online Bible study tools. I also shared some of my art process and tips AND I gave a mini tutorial on my hand-lettering (a frequent request). You can join the class anytime and you can take one of them or all of them. Here are a few sneak peeks at my class:

Pages from February's Take Me Deeper Faithart project:

February Week 3: Love Your Neighbor

My take on the study techniques from the Scripture Snippets class
by Paula Parkison on the HKC site.

February Week 4: Love Yourself

This last photo is a Scripture quote I made for a slide in my class video so I glued it onto a page in my TMD journal.

February was a busy month with deadlines for the class and future TMD devotions and my father-in-law has had health problems which have required all of us to pitch in. Last week this little one turned 2. She is the first of our God-grand children that we've know since birth. Her family has been a part of our life for almost 7 years and they are such a blessing to us. Enjoy your week!

Faithart 101 Class Launch 2.28.2015

On Saturday February 28^th,  His Kingdom Come is launching its first collaborative class prepared by the 5 members of the Foundation Team.  Faithart 101 has been developed for beginners to Faith Journaling.   The 5 classes cover basic journaling information, how to translate scripture into art, the basics of drawing people, using scrapbooking techniques and mixed media techniques.

Each of the 5 classes can be purchased individually or all 5 can be bought together with a discount.  The individual classes are $8 each but you can buy all 5 together for $35.  PayPal will sort out the currency for you if you live outside the United States.    Once you have purchased your classes and have been added to the class site you can work through the classes at your own pace.  You will have unlimited access to the classes you have purchased.

The Foundation Team consists of Bernice, Mary, Shonna, Merri and Diane and each day this week you can find out more about each of us on our personal blogs.  We will also tell you about the class we are teaching as part of Faithart 101.

Bernice at Newly Creative on Sunday 22^nd Feb.

Diane at Adore Him Creations on  Monday 23^rd Feb.

Shonna at Twisted Figures on Tuesday 24^th Feb.

Merri at Connecting Faith and Creativity on Wednesday 25^th Feb.

Mary at Me, With My Head in the Clouds on Thursday 26^th Feb.

My class is:

Let me tell you a bit about myself:

I live in Toledo, OH, have been married to Bob for 23 years, and we have two grown daughters and two step-grandsons. I have been a Christ-follower for 26 years. For the past 12 years I have worked in full time ministry at our church as the Executive Director and the Director of our outreach ministries. 

Below you will find some questions each of the blog hop participants will be answering:

How does your faith impact your creativity?  

When I got connected to art journaling it opened up a new life of creativity for me. God has used art journaling in my life as another spiritual practice. It has become another way of drawing me near to Him. Madeleine L'Engel says, "Art is incarnational." Art, whether in word or image, helps me put form to what is inside my heart and mind. When I take what I am seeing in Bible study and prayer and express it visually it is planted in my heart and mind more fully. Art becomes another tool used by God for spiritual transformation in my life.

What is your favorite technique?

 That's a hard question to answer! One of the things I love about art journaling is that it gives me opportunity to use a variety of techniques and art mediums. As far as techniques go, I think it would probably be a tie between finger-painting circles doing hand-cut letters. My favorite art medium would be collage - I love gluing paper!

Who is your favorite person in the Bible and why?

 It often changes based on what I am studying! Right now we are going through the Gospel of John at church and I really appreciate how focused the Apostle John is. He keeps the bigger picture purpose of why Jesus came as a man in mind as he writes. John is vision and mission minded (qualities I can relate to) and is always reminding his readers of God's mission and vision through the Son. And even though John is passionate about sharing truth, he is just as equally passionate about sharing God's love.

What Bible verse do you regularly rely on?

Again, this answer can change based on what I am studying. But, overall, I think one of the verses that keeps me grounded is Philippians 2:12-13: "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence - continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." I need the constant reminder in this verse that God and I each have a role to play in my spiritual growth and maturity, but even in my role I must depend fully on Him.

Where to find me: 

• Here on my blog! www.mewithmyheadintheclouds.blogspot.com ~ you can follow me by email or Google+ on the right column.
• Instagram
• My Etsy shop : {found on brighton}
• Facebook: Mary Brack
• Flickr: marynbtol

Join us on February 28th in taking Faithart101 at His Kingdom Come and learn more  about Faithjournaling.  If you are not already a member of the His Kingdom Come community then please sign up.  You can purchase the class or classes from today.