Advent Day 10: Witness

Advent Words Day 10: Witness

"He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light."  John 1:7-8

In today's verses we continue to look at John the Baptist. Yesterday we saw that John was sent by God. Today we will see his purpose. The Apostle John tells us that John the Baptist's role was that of a witness. A witness is one who provides evidence and gives first hand eye-witness knowledge. As the verse says John came to "testify concerning the light". Light in Jewish tradition was one of the names of the Messiah. So John the Baptist's role as a witness was to prove Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. The goal of John's testimony concerning the light was that "through him all might believe". We come to faith through belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; we believe in Him through the witness of others.

John the Apostle makes it clear that John the Baptist was a witness to the light and not the light itself. It would appear that this was a common misconception in John's day. John the Baptist was a great man, but he continually made sure people knew about the One who is greater.

"John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” John 1:15

"He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” John 1:27

"This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " John 1:30

"He must become greater; I must become less.” John 3:30

"Believing in the Light happens through a witness to the Light...Without a witness no one believes." ~John Piper

You can read full accounts of John's witness in John 1:19-34 and John 3:22-36.

Join me in responding creatively to the Advent Words in John's prologue. You can share your creative response on Instagram using #adventwords2019 or join the Words Challenge Facebook Group and share your creative response there. 

2018 Vision Board

Over the past few years I have made a vision board for my word for the year. I used a method suggested by Ali Edwards of cutting out magazine pictures and words and adhering them to canvas. They made great visual reminders through the year of what I hoped to see happen through focusing on my word.

This year, with my focus on using an Everyday Journal, I thought I would do something different than the vision board on a canvas. I wanted to do something that would fit in my Everyday Journal. Using two pieces of cardstock I folded them in thirds and then glued them together, overlapping one of the thirds on each piece. This gave me an accordion fold journal page to insert into my journal.

My plan was to take one side and put together a vision board with pictures and words that fit my word, flow, and my goals living out this word for the year. Then on the other side I would write out my intentions. Intentions are simply goals or plans connected to my word for what I would like to see happen over the next year.

Once completed I attached the accordion fold journal to a page in my Everyday Journal. 

Side 2:

If you are a part of our Everyday Journals ~ Living Your Word of the Year group I want to encourage you to create a vision board for your word. Vision boards are a good way to visualize your word and its meaning, as well as thinking about your plans for your word. Then consider setting intentions or goals of how you would like to see your word lived out in your life in the year ahead.

You can join our conversation around our faith, Everyday Journals, and living out your word in 2018 at facebook.com/groups/everydayjournals livingyourwordoftheyear.

Art Journaling a Song

As I mentioned in my last post, I had a song stuck in my head that we had sung at church and decided to get creative with it. I made an accordion page out of watercolor paper. I buy my watercolor paper in a large 18 x 24 pad in order to have more flexibility in how I use it. So I cut a piece 8 1/4 x 24 and then scored it every 4 inches. Once folded it gave me 6 - 4 x 8 1/4 sections per side. In the previous post I showed my pages in the prep stage:

I spread the verses and the chorus out on the 4" sections on both sides.

This was a fun project. It gave me opportunities to play with my Gelli plate and to experiment with some different colors - such as the navy background behind the earth. It also was fun expressing a song through art journaling. And I enjoyed working with 4 inch panels. I now just need to work out how I will attach it into my journal.

For Take Me Deeper at His Kingdom Come this week we responded with art to Matthew 22:37..."love the Lord your God with all heart, soul and mind."

#TMD2015 Feb week 2

And I worked on some goals for January and February in conjunction with my Logos365 word for the year: Renew. I'm going slow and trying to work toward lasting change that will lead to renewal, so I'm just focusing on one area at a time. Right now it is health.

I don't scrapbook and haven't done Project Life but a friend gave me a package of these graph project life cards and I'm enjoying using them on my art journal pages. Last week I made a little gift of prayer cards out of them: I already posted a picture of them but will do so again since I'm talking about the graph cards.

It was a great way to use up scraps from, Gelli printed papers. I've ended up using one on the current page I'm working on for TMD. I'm hunkering down this weekend and staying inside as much as possible as we get a visit from the Arctic with frigid temperatures. It's a good excuse for playing with art. :) Have a good weekend!