Faithbooking Ministry in Planning Stage

I have been pondering this idea for it seems like years but since The Angel Company went under and left me hanging, God has really put it on my heart to work on this project and get it going. I have done several scrapbook pages that relate to a sermon, a Christian speaker or something like that but now I am working on seeing how challenging it would be to do a scrapbook page layout each week based on the sermon at church. I decided to go for the challenge since we had a new sermon series starting. I did one scrapbook page on the final sermon in the last series about Elijah and the whole concept of if your faith is wavering or if you are committed. The new series is on the book of Matthew and begun with a sermon about John the Baptist and how he paved the way for Jesus. Because of the on-line scrapbooking program called Studio J from the new company I am now a consultant for Close to My Heart, I have been able to easily get these pages done. On the way home from church is the perfect time to think about how what I just heard from the sermon applies to my life. Jesus used analagies quite often to help us understand concepts and so I am following Jesus' example and looking for analogies within my own life that speak about the concept from the sermon. It is so working out awesome! If you open your heart and starting thinking of the photos over the last year and things you have done in your life, it really is easy to come up with something that symbolizes that concept for the week. I will continue to work on this weekly sermon scrapbooking project and am jotting down ideas on what to do with the faithbooking ministry. I have considered doing it on Meetup.com since it can make a good communication tool but it has a cost to it so I am thinking more along the lines of creating a new blog for this ministry and creating an email distribution list to keep anyone that wants to participate in this ministry in the loop on what is going on. I just got an email from Faithfully Yours which is another well established faithbooking ministry that is looking for affilates so I will look into that. I would love any thoughts anyone has on this idea to help people connect the Word with their life through scrapbooking and help Christians connect with each other through scrapbooking.

Fearless is next on the Agenda of Life

I have begun a bible study called Fearless by Max Lucado. These are just some thoughts on the questions so far that are asked for chapter one. I think this is going to be the bible study of all bible studies for me. I think becoming fearless is what I want to be. Read on and let your thoughts take you to what fears are in your life and how you too can start conquering them.

What a Life without fear looks like to me. Without fear, I see and feel a confidence in myself. I can do and be all things that God wants me to be. I can go to the bus stop and not worry that I don’t seem to be meshing with any of the moms there. I can go to work and not wonder how come I don’t have that friendship connection that everyone else seems to have with someone else. I can come home after a long day at work and not be afraid of just being myself, even if it is cranky and tired. I can be the wife I want to be without all the worries that I am never doing anything right. I can be the mother to my children that isn’t afraid to let them grow up and isn’t afraid that one day there mother won’t be here anymore and what will that be like for them. Letting go of all that fear and probably more that is un-named would be complete freedom and peace. Instead of fear, there would be love and peace and trust. What am I more prone to… dread of failure, rejection or calamity? All of the above, I say. I fear failing as a wife and mother on a daily basis. I fear the rejection of other women because I can’t seem to find the connection. I fear driving off a bridge into oblivion and leaving my children behind too soon. I fear what the world is doing around me and how I can keep myself and my family out of it. I am prone to all three. Fear is eating at me and I am done with it.
Getting on board with Christ into a ship that will be caught in a storm. Hmmm. Sounds scary but in order to gain the freedom and peace of life without fear I will have to get into the boat and be willing to get wet. I will have the one and only Lord of Heaven beside me who will protect me and keep me from falling overboard and drowning in life’s storms. There is no such thing as life without storms but we are impatient people by nature, I believe, so we hope for something better and expect it now and many of us will want to believe that just by believing in Christ that suddenly those storms will never come again. We have to be patient and trust in the Lord to get us through these storms. He is growing us through these storms into something a little more worthy and pure, a little more holy and just. Like a flower caught out in a storm, it thrashes about in the wind, maybe even looses a petal or two or three but it is rooted well in Christ so it comes out of the storm and grows into more than it ever was before.
Fear corrodes our confidence not only in ourselves but in God. How could He let this or that happen? If He loved us, He would have stopped it from happening, etc, etc. You hear those questions all the time from people especially after something bad happens. But God loves us more than we can even comprehend and his goodness is far more than we could even fathom and because of this without a full trust and faith in God the fears that we will experience in our fallen world will eat away at that trust and faith and corrode our confidence in who and what the one and only God is.
The opposite of fear is courage and confidence. So, if we are letting fear creep in, we are chiseling away at our faith in God and without that faith we are feeling unloved, worthless and dejected. It’s hard to be loving and generous to others when we are so consumed by our own fears of being loved and worthy. We have to believe that the love of God is enough. If we let go of those fears and believe how much we are loved by God than we will be more able to love and give in return.
I have fear of my own self. That is my biggest fear. As I read about the story of You are Special being read to children in China and how they all cried because they live in a culture where they are from the get-go rejected because of who they are and how they were made. I cried right along with them. My biggest fear is rejection, not fitting in, that who I am isn’t good enough. I have and always will be full of ideas to do something awesome but it’s the fear of who I am that is keeping me from taking these ideas and running with them.
Don’t be afraid. He says it again and again in the bible. Jesus is trying to make a point here. We will be constantly bombarded with fears in this world that belongs to the devil because he will take any seed of fear and make it grow if he can because he knows it keeps us from growing more in Christ and therefore becoming better soldiers in the war for human souls. Jesus wants us to realize that fear will take us away from him. It’s like a brick wall is being built up between me and Jesus every time a fear of something clouds my focus on Him and who he is. The wall is getting bigger and fears are taking over. I am taking down those bricks one by one if necessary so I can clearly focus on my King and be the soldier and person he knows I can be.
Conquering fear… It takes faith and courage… Believing that you are loved beyond measure, that your value is priceless and that you are capable of all things thru Christ. I have to stop using the excuses that the devil has used to build up my wall between me and Christ. No more excuses. No more of “my personality is just so rare, it is harder to find connections”. No more I can’t think of things to say so I am not very good at this relationship stuff. No more I am getting old and my hormones are controlling me and how I react to the world and the people I love. No More! Satan be away from me!!

Wavering or Committed?

We have been studying the book of Elijah over the summer and the final sermon on it was yesterday. The phrase from a song often sung in church keeps coming back into my head, "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back". In the final story of Elijah, he is going to be taken to Heaven. Now, I don't think he actually realizes or knows for certain that literally his body and soul go up to heaven but his apprentice Elisha is confronted with this that his "Father figure" of Elijha is going to die and so 3 times he is told to leave by Elijha. Singleton says it was a test and he passed with flying colors. Literally, he got to see Elijah taken up into Heaven by a chariot of fire. Wow! Singleton brings up others in the bible whose committment to another has been tested. Ruth and Naomi. Ruth passed with flying colors too and she ended up being in the direct ancestry line of Jesus. Peter was tested three times when the cock crowed but as we know, he failed miserably. In thinking about this idea of wavering vs being committed to Jesus, I came up with three things that are an example of this concept within my own life. The first one was in plain site. When I pondered on the word committment, the first thing that came to my mind was my daughter Faith and her love for cats. She really is committed in her love for them or obessed if you want to call it that. But the fact remains, she never wavers in her love for all things cats. So a picture of her and her many cats will have to be on a faithbooking page. Another thing came to my mind, this morning as I lay in bed contemplating this concept and hearing that song in my head. The idea of wavering vs. committment is like a camera that can't get in focus. The camera operator has to manually make it focus on the object which is Jesus. So, of course, I thought of the many times I have taken a picture of a card creation of mine and it was out of focus and I had to make sure that it was in focus the second time around. The last thing that came to my mind before I figured it was time to get out of bed and get it all in writing before my memory wiped it away was how this past week the sermon from last week dwindle away to nothing until again I turned my focus back on Jesus when we watched the sermon from home yesterday because I was recovering from a stomach bug. I have this idea to faithbook each sermon for that very reason so I can keep my focus/committment not just on Sunday but everyday. I can be working on the sermon project or in the word, doing a bible study, something that gets me thinking about the Lord. Praying I do but I am talking about learning and growing and that takes active thinking which requires something from somewhere else for us to ponder on. Boy, have I been pondering since the sermon yesterday... I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.

God is calling...

I have been pondering the idea of starting a faithbooking ministry for quite some time but haven't had the kick in the behind to get me moving on it until now. With The Angel Company closing this week, I have found myself without a home business to have over me as I do my creative endevours. So, on the way to church today, I was thinking of the faithbooking ministry again and wondering if I could possibly turn it into a bible study that goes along with the sermon series bible studies my church began doing this year. It's such a great concept to take the sermon and get in groups and discuss further and dig more into it the scripture but I have been thinking of trying to take it to the hands-on creative level and utilize scrapbooking about the passage for the week. It is a challenge I am going to put myself to in this next sermon series on my own to see what scrapbook pages I come up with and how easy or difficult it is or might be for others who will hopefully join me in doing this in the future sermon series. So, I started off by as usual taking notes during the sermon. I thought of some ideas on the way home and knew I had to get them written down or they would be gone and I would be back at square one. So, I summarized the bible story in my own words and wrote some more notes on what the pastor said about this story. I figured out an analogy of the main points the pastor made about this story by using something in my own life. It started with the phrase purify my heart from one of the songs we sang today and a picture of the awesome waterfall we hiked to and saw in Glenwood Springs at Hanging Lake came to mind. I have the pictures now in mind to use in the scrapbook page and a way that it has connected to my life. Will I remember it more? I hope it will ground in me more but the good news is I will have the scrapbook page to look to and share with other and hand down to my children so they to can learn from it. So, it begins. I will be back with a picture of it and of course be back next Sunday with the next installment of Project Faithbooking.

God Really Does Take Care of Everything We Need

So, this concept of God taking care of our every need has been on my mind lately since I got the word about my one and only scrapbook customer whom I have been making 10 pages a month for is ready to do her scrapbook pages herself. Ouch, there goes $150 a month. I knew going into it that it wouldn't last forever and thankfully lasted over 2 years but now I am back to thinking how is that going to effect the budget. Thankfully, my first next thought is that God will take care of everything so I will just "deal". It has made me think of the scripture that says that if God takes care of the trees, grass and flowers how much more will he take care of you? So, I look out the kitchen window a day ago and see in the corner where I planted 3 rose bushes a few years ago and haven't touched them since. Yeah, my thumb isn't all that green and my extra time goes elsewhere so what is so darn awesome is that dispite my lack of care for these rose bushes, I am pleansantly surprised every year to see at least one of them out there with a big beautiful blossom on it. Gotta get out there and take a photo this time!!! So, what's even funnier is that I bought about $20 of annuals this year on a shopping trip with Faith and they never got planted. They all died within a day or so and we didn't get around to planting or watering them. Sad... But, I just was leaving for work yesterday and saw in one of the pots a flower growing and it is not a weed! Again, God is giving me flowers even when I can't seem to get my act together help with their care. Thank you God for the gift of the flowers and for showing me again and again how much you are caring for our every need.

Let Go and Let God Guide

That has been in my head since yesterday when I read my Daily Word for Women devotional. Why do things always seem easy but they are more challenging when you try to do them. The good news is it's a new day and I can start all over again and try to just let God guide me through my day. What does that look like to me? I think letting go of the worries, fears and wonder what will happens and also looking to God for all decisions even the small stuff but we are so use to going it alone and doing it our way that it is hard to always ever time being looking to my one and only everything for guidance. Try, try, try and keeping trying is all we can do. So, off I go to try to let God guide me through my day.

Being intentional is very very challenging

I am still struggling with how to be more intentional with bringing the Lord more into my life and making Him be the central part of my life. Dealing with issues with life, especially when it comes to your kids is time consuming and exhausting. I started to try to be more intentional by putting my bible right at my spot at the kitchen table that way I can read it as I have breakfast. I also thought I need to get my prayer cards going again. I started these by reading the bible and choosing something that just stood out and writing it down on an index card and writing a prayer that goes with that scripture. I have taken these to work to read throughout my day when my Outlook reminds me. LOL. I very much like doing those and it does help to stop for just a minute and read a prayer card and just let go of the work at hand and think about God. I am working on our family bedtime prayer at night to not be the standard stuff we pray for all the time but to add in at least one thing related to praying for someone else or our country or anything out of the norm. I have been considering what I can do for children but still am not sure on that one. I do think that I will sponsor a child through Compassion but I want to also look into other possibilities like Big Brothers Big Sisters and possibly a ministry that helps with young women faced with making the choice of life or abortion and/or helping children in divorced families. Those are two that are very close to my heart since I experienced them both. I am reading AD Cronicles by Brodie and Brock Thoene and am loving the whole idea seeing what the bigger picture is. These books are set in the time of Jesus and the stories are about his life here through the eyes of others around him. The first one is about the blind man that Jesus puts clay on his eyes and says go wash in the pool and he can see. He was blind from birth so this is super miraculous! Another one centers around Lazarus and how he ends up sick and dead and of course, the part we already know from the bible about Jesus raising him from the dead. The one I am reading now is about before Jesus' birth and it's about Mary and Joseph and their thoughts, feeling and things that happen on their journey with being chosen to be the mother and step-father to the son of God. I am really loving these books because it makes the bible seem so much more real and I am learning so much more about the culture and times of Jesus which makes understanding the bible that much easier. I have only read 4 books so far of I think a 10 book series. I guess you can say reading these is keeping the Lord in the forefront of my mind more because the stories are about and surrounding Jesus. So, I am making progress in being more intentional about my faith but I have to tell you it is and will continue to be a daily challenge. I will keep praying for the Lord to guide me. My hope is you too will let the Lord guide you.