It's Been A While...

It's been so long since I posted here on my blog. I've missed it, but the time of silence has been good. I have been in a place of drought creatively and it has impacted art journaling as well as my words. My words are such a big part of my creativity. 

This creative slump has been building over much of this year. It's not as if I haven't made art, it's just that I seem to have been on something like auto-pilot. I want to make art and write blog posts and interact on social media, and in my art groups. I have the urge and the desire to be creative, but the spark is just not there. I find myself losing focus and interest soon after I begin to make art or write. I sit and stare blankly at the page. So, I pushed through my Lent Words challenge, making pages for the words, but not really feeling connected to it. And I almost made it...but in mid-April even auto-pilot stopped.

It's frustrating when creativity - art and writing - is the thing that gives you energy, yet it is the very thing that eludes you. I've done the things that usually jumpstart my creativity: I've made a journal, made a bunch of background pages, tried painting papers, even tried cleaning my studio. And now it's May. May is always busy with the end of the school year. And busy is usually the enemy of my creative energy. So as I was writing in my journal the other day I was reminded of a word I explored a number of years ago. Liminal Space. (I wrote about it back in 2013: Here)

I have this habit I do periodically called "looking back in order to move forward". It's one of the benefits I find from writing regularly in journals. I look back over a few months and try to see if there are any patterns. Is there something that keeps popping up that may be an indicator that God wants to use it to form me in a deeper way. I tend to think of the spiritual life, and God's formation of us, like an onion. The layers are peeled back and the growth and the forming goes deeper and deeper as we mature spiritually. So while I may get frustrated at first when it seems like I'm going through something I thought I got through, it helps to remember it may just be a time that this particular issue or life lesson is forming deeper within me, enabling me to grow more in Christ's likeness.

This is where liminla space comes into the picture. From my blog post back in 2013:

"Most of us have not had much training in waiting...Richard Rohr calls this waiting place "liminal space"; liminal comes from the Latin word limina, which means threshhold." (Ruth Haley Barton) Quoting Richard Rohr:

"Liminal space, the place of waiting, is a unique spiritual position where human beings hate to be but where the Biblical God is always leading them. It is when you have left the tried and true, but have not yet been able to replace it with anything else. It is when you are finally out of the way. It is when you are between your old comfort zone and any possible new answer..."

Late last month I simply decided to embrace the liminal space, knowing that this too shall pass. I won't always be in this place of silence in between the comfortable and the not knowing. Embracing it allows it to become sacred space. It is in the silence that we can best hear God's voice.

And you know, as I have released struggling against the silence over the past few weeks, I'm feeling creative again - the words are returning and finding their way back onto my art pages and this blog.

Due to this creative slump I fell behind on a few letters in our A - Z inspiration challenge in the Living Your Word group. Here are my H and I pages. Bernice, Valerie and I all chose to use the word "how" for our H word and explore how we are doing with our journey with our Word of the Year. My word this year is sacred, and the main focus for me this year is restoring health ~ eating better, losing weight, and moving more ~ seeing my body as sacred as well as my heart, mind and soul. 

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group: Living Your Word of the Year

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I facilitate a Facebook group about Living your Word of the Year. In it we share insights through blog posts and connect with other like-hearted and like-minded people who want to live out a word focus throughout the year. We offer participants a bi-weekly A-Z Inspiration to help prompt reflection and creativity. as well as other inspirational ways to connect with your word of the year. If you would like to connect with others in creative ways about living your word throughout the year, explore new ideas, record thoughts, prayers, and events, you are invited to join our Facebook group.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Please use #livingyourword2019 on social media.

Check out the other blogs:
Bernice: www.newlycreative.com
Valerie: www.valeriesjodin.com/blog

Lent Words 2019 Day 1 ~ Sacred Time

Lent Words Day 1: Wander

I love the verse from the song Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing which speaks of our natural tendency for our hearts to wander from God. Today's Scripture passage, Romans 7:14-25, captures this struggle as well.

Oh, to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be.

Let that goodness like a fetter

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love.

Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

My word for the year is sacred. I'm using the season of Lent as an opportunity  to re-connect with the practices of Sabbath on Fridays, a day each week to focus on sacred time in a season of sacred time. So I'm practicing Lent Words with reflection and creativity, and joining Shelly Miller on #sabbathforlent.

I had this idea floating around in my head to make church windows out of collage, so I gave it a try today. The method I chose was quite time consuming, so I'm going to play around with it over the net few days of Lent Words.

My "D" page for our Living Your Word group A-Z inspiration challenge. I chose the word "do".  

Participate in Lent Words 2019

• Download the March words calendar here. The April calendar will be added in a few weeks.
• Join the Words Challenge Facebook group to share your art, your experiences and join the conversation.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wordschallengegroup/ref=bookmarks
• Participate on Instagram with the hashtag #lentwords2019. You'll also find a words list there.

OR

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group: Living Your Word of the Year

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I facilitate a Facebook group about Living your Word of the Year. In it we share insights through blog posts and connect with other like-hearted and like-minded people who want to live out a word focus throughout the year. We offer participants a bi-weekly A-Z Inspiration to help prompt reflection and creativity. as well as other inspirational ways to connect with your word of the year. If you would like to connect with others in creative ways about living your word throughout the year, explore new ideas, record thoughts, prayers, and events, you are invited to join our Facebook group.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Please use #livingyourword2019 on social media.

Check out the other blogs:
Bernice: www.newlycreative.com
Valerie: www.valeriesjodin.com/blog

Lent Words Day 39: Crown ~ Guest Christina Hubbard

Today's post for Good Friday is by Christina Hubbard. I met Christina a few years ago while participating in her Advent Book Club, Come, Lord Jesus on her blog. Christina's art form is poetry. She wrote the poem below using today's Scripture passages as inspiration. Today's Scripture readings are: John 19:1-3 and Hebrews 2:9. 

Thank you Christina for contributing to our Lenten Journey!

Good Friday’s Crown: the Day the World Is Saved

By Christina Hubbard

I

Drape me in black cloth

Today as I forego food,

Push away drink.

Lash me, not Him!

Sharp rocks unflesh

Innocence.

I cry out

In hunger and thirst

Because I don’t feel a thing.

He feels it all.

His very nerves fray apart

Before my eyes.

He is my Rock,

Hunched over.

Thorns, a grisly honor-crown

Askew---

My Refuge.

II

I plod over stones,

Repurposed cross splintering

Exposed muscle.

They curse me.

I drain my life

For these whose saliva hits

Open wounds.

Spit speeds blood to clot,

But they know not what they do.

They do what they must.

I drag my death with me

But I cannot abandon this world

Though it abandons me.

I am chosen.

Lamb,

Christós,

King of the Jews.

I do not love this world less.

Even more.

Evermore.

III

Why must redemption come with a slap to the face?

How can suffering heal?

What is good about crucifixion on a Friday?

Nothing seems good about sorrow

When we’re suffocating under it.

Good Friday.

Good death.

Good dying day.

How history pivots

On this slaughter!

A man’s torture

Tearing open heaven

Makes many wonder

How our universe really works---

How can such a horrible finish

Mean grace and honor,

Celebrated world-over

As good? As holy? As joy!

Good Friday is good

Because it is where all hope is lost

Before the God-man comes back to life,

And we are all saved.

God’s good day!

When the King of glory

Ate death whole.

Tell me again.

Again.

And

again.

Amen.

Christina Hubbard is a poet who writes memoir. As an internationally published writer, speaker, and retreat leader, she inspires creatives to courage and compassion. She lives on the suburban prairie of Kansas with her husband and two creative kids. Find her at ChristinaHubbard.com.

Lent Words Day 35: Hosanna and Holy Week

Charles Erdman, in his book, Remember Jesus Christ, the start of Holy Week on Palm Sunday,

"...which calls to mind our Lord's triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, and it continues by celebrating the events of the days of His life which followed. On Monday He drove from the temple the godless traffickers. On Tuesday He defeated and disgraced His enemies who attempted to ensnare Him with crafty questions. Wednesday He spent in seclusion at Bethany. On Thursday the Master established His memorial Supper and bade farewell to His disciples. Friday was the dread day of crucifixion. On Saturday His body rested in the tomb...."

To be continued on Resurrection Sunday....


Today's Lent Word is Hosanna.

"This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

“Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.  They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.  A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” 

Matthew 21:4-11

 

 

Lent Words Day 34:Grace

" But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

Ephesians 2:4-9 ESV

Two small words in this passage hold significant impact for us and hold the very grace of God: 

BUT GOD

There are over 40 times in the whole Bible where these words are used together. Here are just a few:

"But God remembered Noah..." Genesis 8:1

"But God will be with you..." Genesis 48:21

"But God meant it for good..." Genesis 50:20

"But God did not give David into his hands..." 1 Samuel 23:14

"But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave..." Psalm 49:15

"But God raised him from the dead..." Acts 13:30

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us..." Romans 5:8

These words lead us to God's intervening grace throughout the Scriptures. 

“May I put it quite simply? If you understand those two words—‘but God’—they will save your soul. If you recall them daily and live by them, they will transform your life completely.” – James Montgomery Boice

The beginning of Ephesians chapter 2 reminds us of our state without God - "You were dead in your transgressions and sin".  Then, verse 4 opens up to remind us of the words that are at the very heart of the Gospel - But God.

Let me paraphrase the beginning of  today's passage: "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love for us, made us alive with Christ - it is by His grace we have been saved. " The Greek word order shows us that we are saved first, because of God's mercy, and second because of His great love for us. God is rich in mercy because of His great love. His mercy and His love lead Him to act in grace. In His grace He saved us, He made us alive with Christ, He raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms. This is the Resurrection Life! It is the life we live in spiritual union with Christ!

God made us alive with Christ, raised us with Him, and seated us in the heavenly realms with Him in order to show the riches of His grace seen in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. And thus,  it is by grace He has saved us; not by ourselves or by any works we could do. Our salvation is a gift of God. A gift that we receive by faith in Christ.

I just love this passage in Ephesians 2, as well as our other reading today in Romans 3:21-24. A reminder of God's mercy and love for us expressed in His grace to us through Jesus Christ is a great way to begin Holy Week. 

Lent Words Day 30: Reflection ~ Guest Christine Heister

Today our guest is Christine Hiester. I have followed Christine on her blog and through Instagram for a number of years. I finally got to meet Christine in person last year at a retreat where she led us in prayer art journaling. Christine  is a talented musician, an art journaler and a spiritual director in training. I think I am also drawn to Christine because we are both INFJ's! You can follower Christine's art on Instagram @barebranchblooming and her spiritual direction @shapingtheriver.

Thank you Christine for contributing to our Lenten Journey!

I prepare for Prayer Circle and write, “Prompts for Reflection”. I breathe deeply and search internally for what I think God wants me to ask the members of our Circle. What would He ask me this moment? What is it that I hear deep inside, in that Spirit-space that resonates with His voice? The space that resonates when I am still enough to listen, that is.

Reflection: noun, meaning “an image seen in a mirror or shiny surface.”

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know that I Am.

Be still and know.

Be still.

I know this: I can’t be that mirror when I am not still. And my internal world, like a mountain lake, or a forest stream, needs a hushed sense of reverence to be clear and still enough to offer the God of Love a true canvas on which to create. I know this, and yet I am still learning. I am ever a beginner. In the spiritual life we never arrive.

Oddly enough, the very thing that gives me this sense of hushed stillness, the practice that shows me more of God than any other, that allows me to be the mirror, is also a meaning of the word reflection.

Reflection: noun, meaning “serious thought or consideration; contemplation.”

Contemplation. A posture of quiet before God. I practice this posture of prayer in many ways, not least of which is the act of creating with color and clippings, glue and glitter. Art has always been an open and still place of the Spirit for me. A Spacious Place. Our life in Christ is a wide-open meadow of possibilities.

“He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because He delighted in me.” Psalm 18:19

So I plan the Prayer Circle this Lent, a weekly space of contemplative prayer, to remind myself. To let God lead me, and in that gently leading, guide others who have the same desire for stillness.

How do you practice stillness? I’d love to hear.

Lent Words Day 27: Anointed ~ Guest Valerie Sjodin

I'm very excited to have Valerie Sjodin as our Lent Words guest writer and artist today! I have long been an admirer and looked to Valerie early on for inspiration as I sought to combine my art journaling and my faith. I got to know Valerie through her blog and online classes. This year our friendship grows as we team up with Bernice Hopper in our Facebook group Everyday Journals ~ Living Your Word of the Year. I encourage you to visit Valerie's blog, Visual Blessings,  and check out her classes, plus her new book release, Prayerful Doodling.

Anointed

Read Acts 10:37-38; 2 Corinthians 1:20-22

When Mary asked me about to write a guest post for Lent Words 2018, I chose “Anointed” because it is one of those words that was not used much in my conservative evangelical upbringing, and I wanted to understand its meaning more. Another reason the word intrigues me is I want to learn the connection with anointing and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Here are the definitions of anointed I found at http://biblehub.com/greek/5548.htm

From the Strong’s Concordance H4886 the Hebrew word anointed is:

מָשַׁח mâshach, maw-shakh'. It’s an action, a verb; a primitive root means to rub with oil, i.e. to anoint; by implication, to consecrate; also to paint

In the Greek, the Strong’s definition (5548) is xríō – to anoint by rubbing or pouring olive oil on someone to represent the flow (empowering) of the Holy Spirit. Anointing (literally) involved rubbing olive oil on the head, etc., especially to present someone as divinely-authorized (appointed by God) to serve as prophet, priest or king, etc. 

In Acts 10:37-38 NLT Peter is explaining that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him.

When I read passages like the one in Acts 10, I used to think, “Well, Jesus is God so that’s why He had the Holy Spirit and could always do good and heal the sick and cast out demons.” I could never do anything like that, but that’s not really what the Scripture says. It says God anointed Jesus, presented him, divinely-authorized, appointed to serve as our High Priest and King. Jesus, Yeshua, is completely God, but also completely man. Paul challenges us to literally become like Christ in every way since (2 Corinthians 1:20) all of God’s promises to us are fulfilled, complete in Christ. According to Paul, it is possible to become like Christ, to grow up, becoming more like Christ all the time by being filled up with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Creator God is the one who gives us actual physical life, making humans in his image. God longs to give us a renewed, abundant spiritual life through our relationship with Jesus Christ, the presence and power of the Holy Spirit within us.

Here is what the apostle Paul says about us in 2 Corinthians 21-22 NLT:

“It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.”

Jesus, Yeshua is the Anointed One of God, our King, and God himself has anointed us, constantly strengthening us to be in unity with Christ. Jesus himself  (John 14:12 TPT) said, “The person who follows me in faith, believing in me, will do the same might miracles that I do – even greater miracles than these because I go to be with my Father!”

All this makes me yearn for more, a deeper love relationship with God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and to experience more of the presence and power of Christ living in me.

In John 15:7-8 TPT Jesus says, “if you live in life-union with me and if my words live powerfully within you – then you can ask whatever you desire and it will be done. When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are my mature disciples who glorify my Father!”

Amen! YES Lord! Let it be so.

  

If you would like to learn more about my Bible journaling process and the Hebrew word Anointed, please visit my blog post: “We are Anointed – Bible Journaling” (March 16,2018) at

https://valeriesjodin.com/2018/03/anoint-bible-journaling/

Lent Words Day 23: Peace

"You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all."

Acts 10:36

The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom, often used as a greeting, it however holds a much deeper meaning. Shalom includes all of the ways we think of peace- the absence of war, the absence of conflict, strife and animosity, but it’s much deeper meaning is that of a sense of well-being and fulfillment that comes from God and is dependent on His presence. Shalom is peace and so much more, it is  wholeness, harmony, health, prosperity, security and fullness of life that only comes as a result of a restored relationship with God. God’s desire is that we know His shalom peace and throughout the Bible we see a story of a people who are longing for that restored relationship with God. 

In the beginning of the Bible we are given a picture of what a life of shalom looks like. It is the picture of life in the Garden of Eden before sin separated man from God. In Genesis chapters 1 and 2 we see life the way God created it to be. Man was in perfect, intimate fellowship with God, all their needs were met, they experienced no guilt and shame – life was pure bliss. But sin enters the world in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve choose to live their own way and break fellowship with God and Shalom peace between men and God was lost. The rest of the Bible is the story of God’s plan to have His peace restored with man.

Peter points us to God's peace plan in his sermon recorded in the book of Acts ~ "the good news of peace through Jesus Christ". This is God's plan for redemption, for restoring those who were formerly alienated from Him. Paul puts it like this in Romans 5:1-2,

“Since we have been justified [made right with God]  through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand….”

And in Colossians 1:19-22,

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Christ), and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in Heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation -"

Jesus is our peace. He is the instrument through which God brings us back – reconciles – us to Him. Through Jesus, God restored our peace with Him ~ in this we can find reassurance and rest in it. Through Jesus we can also find peace day-to-day,

"Peace I leave you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27

Rest in Him.

"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

1 Thessalonians 5:23