Welcome back for another week of fun here at Word Art Wednesday. We're happy to have you with us - whether you are a regular here, or if you just found your way to our challenge blog. We praise God for you, and we greatly value and appreciate your participation. Thanks for sharing your wonderful art with us, and for making our challenge blog such a fun place. Your fellowship is SO precious to us, and we truly hope that the words we share will be an encouragement to you. Here is our devotional for this week. It was written by our sweet Design Team Member, Diane Noble, owner of Daydream Designs. We really hope that it will be a blessing to you.
Many years ago (a lifetime ago it seems), when I was young, impetuous, and not walking close to my Lord, I fell....hard. I grieved the Lord with my sin and I immediately felt the weight of His conviction. I knew I had broken my Savior's heart, and when His Holy Spirit confronted me with my sin, I literally fell to my knees in repentance. I wept bitterly just knowing how I had grossly disappointed the One who gave His life for me that I might walk in holiness. My unworthiness overwhelmed me. As I knelt before the perfect Lamb of God, I washed His nail-pierced feet with my sorrow, regret and tears. My love for Him ran so deep, but I had momentarily cast aside that precious love and traded it for the allures of the world. Stepping into darkness, I turned from the Light that would have kept me safely on the path that He had marked out for me.
During those long moments of grieving, as I poured out my repentance, God's Spirit drew near to me. He certainly didn't let me off easily. I had to recount the steps of my downward spiral, each choice that had taken me farther from Him, every nearly imperceptible turn that darkened my way. As I retraced my steps, my grief deepened. How could I have let down my precious Savior? The crushing weight of my shame was taking away my breath. My tear-filled eyes were closed, and were squeezing out the intense anguish that coursed down my face. I was so very very sorry, and I wanted it all to go away. I wanted to be right again, and to feel clean again.
Suddenly, a bright light exploded within my spirit, and I knew my time of discipline was over. God had reached down to me, lifted my face toward Him, and I could feel my Savior smiling on me once again. He had accepted my repentance, and was flooding me with the light of His love, grace and mercy. As that grace washed over me, I deeply breathed in His forgiveness. The weight was gone, and His loving embrace was all I felt. The feeling left me almost giddy....I laughed out loud, and immediately broke out in song and dance. Surely, had someone seen me, they would have thought me intoxicated.
As believers, we will fall. But God has promised that His indwelling Holy Spirit will confront us when we sin, and will lead us to repentance. Sin and darkness are earth-born companions. We cannot sin, and bask in God's light at the same time. God does not tolerate our sin, and He will withdraw His fellowship from us if we linger in it. Sin is uncomfortable to the true believer, and it's allure quickly changes to guilt. Praise God we don't have to wallow in either the sin or the guilt. He has made a way out from every temptation, and He provides forgiveness when we fall. God's magnificent grace covers us once for all. We can access His matchless grace at the moment of salvation, but He also extends it when we fail Him during our journey of sanctification. We are not perfect....but PRAISE GOD, we are truly forgiven. We may fall, but through His grace, we can rise again; and on our way up, He shines His light of mercy upon us all over again!
-Diane Noble
As always, you are welcome to save this week's free scripture/word art file to your computer, but are not required to use it in order to play along in our challenges. We welcome you share your art with us; remembering that Anything Goes as long as it's family-friendly, and uses an encouraging or uplifting sentiment. This includes any type of art (not just limited to cards). You may link up to 5 projects each week. The more you enter, the more you increase your odds of winning. It is our desire that God's Word will be a blessing and encouragement to you each week. If you have any questions about the rules, be sure to read the complete list of rules under our page tab for "Challenge Rules". Because our ultimate goal is to honor God, we have no other choice but to delete any entries that do not adhere to these guidelines. Let us know if you have any questions, and thanks for your understanding and participation!
Many years ago (a lifetime ago it seems), when I was young, impetuous, and not walking close to my Lord, I fell....hard. I grieved the Lord with my sin and I immediately felt the weight of His conviction. I knew I had broken my Savior's heart, and when His Holy Spirit confronted me with my sin, I literally fell to my knees in repentance. I wept bitterly just knowing how I had grossly disappointed the One who gave His life for me that I might walk in holiness. My unworthiness overwhelmed me. As I knelt before the perfect Lamb of God, I washed His nail-pierced feet with my sorrow, regret and tears. My love for Him ran so deep, but I had momentarily cast aside that precious love and traded it for the allures of the world. Stepping into darkness, I turned from the Light that would have kept me safely on the path that He had marked out for me.During those long moments of grieving, as I poured out my repentance, God's Spirit drew near to me. He certainly didn't let me off easily. I had to recount the steps of my downward spiral, each choice that had taken me farther from Him, every nearly imperceptible turn that darkened my way. As I retraced my steps, my grief deepened. How could I have let down my precious Savior? The crushing weight of my shame was taking away my breath. My tear-filled eyes were closed, and were squeezing out the intense anguish that coursed down my face. I was so very very sorry, and I wanted it all to go away. I wanted to be right again, and to feel clean again.
Suddenly, a bright light exploded within my spirit, and I knew my time of discipline was over. God had reached down to me, lifted my face toward Him, and I could feel my Savior smiling on me once again. He had accepted my repentance, and was flooding me with the light of His love, grace and mercy. As that grace washed over me, I deeply breathed in His forgiveness. The weight was gone, and His loving embrace was all I felt. The feeling left me almost giddy....I laughed out loud, and immediately broke out in song and dance. Surely, had someone seen me, they would have thought me intoxicated.
As believers, we will fall. But God has promised that His indwelling Holy Spirit will confront us when we sin, and will lead us to repentance. Sin and darkness are earth-born companions. We cannot sin, and bask in God's light at the same time. God does not tolerate our sin, and He will withdraw His fellowship from us if we linger in it. Sin is uncomfortable to the true believer, and it's allure quickly changes to guilt. Praise God we don't have to wallow in either the sin or the guilt. He has made a way out from every temptation, and He provides forgiveness when we fall. God's magnificent grace covers us once for all. We can access His matchless grace at the moment of salvation, but He also extends it when we fail Him during our journey of sanctification. We are not perfect....but PRAISE GOD, we are truly forgiven. We may fall, but through His grace, we can rise again; and on our way up, He shines His light of mercy upon us all over again!
-Diane Noble
Here's this week's beautiful scripture/word art file.
We hope that it will be a blessing to you!
We hope that it will be a blessing to you!
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Here are this week's AWESOME sponsors: |
Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps & More is a division of
"I Did It Creations", and was created and is owned by
Robyn Weinrib. They offer a wide variety of digital
stamps & digital papers for every crafter.
Robyn's Fetish is offering three (3) of theirlovely images to one lucky person!
AND
sweet new stamp set of choice to one VERY
lucky winner this week. Click here to see
ALL their beautiful stamps: Heart & Soul
And Now.......Our VERY Blessed Winners:
The lucky winner of the $40 Gift Certificate to
Pink Persimmon is.........one very blessed
Entry #69 - Jennifer
We are SO VERY BLESSED by our sponsors!
AND
The Flying Unicorn Store - home of ALL the
BIG NAMES in crafting,
is giving a $50 Gift Certificate
for their AWESOME on-line store to:
Entry #233 - Patti
We are SO VERY BLESSED by our sponsors!
We're grateful for each and every one of them, and
we pray for God's blessings on their sweet stores!
Here's a bit of inspiration from our Design Team
we pray for God's blessings on their sweet stores!
No Art This Week
Using Robyn's Fetish Image, Birdie's Nest
Using Ornate Frame from Sponsor, Robyn's Fetish
13 comments:
ah how utterly precious is this promise of God's word..
... that we shall arise when we fall and god s our light ..
...sometimes the darkness may not be sin but an oppression from circumstances over which we have no control - a deep time of trial, ill health or such - or a trial of someone dear to us..
.. then again the LORD will be our light our joy our hope in the midst of this overwhelming darkness.. Shaz in Oz.x
Gorgeous creations from DT memebers
blessed week to all
hugs Tamara
The DT members cards are beautiful with that uplifting scripture from Micah. Blessings!
Beautiful words and lovely DT creations once again. The Scripture is particularly timely and I look forward to using it. Thank you for this gift and the inspiration. :o)
Hugs and blessings,
Karen
what a beautiful devotion of such personal depth today. thank you for sharing something so close to the heart.
and thank you for choosing my card as one of the winners. it means a lot to me! I will be in touch.
have a most beautiful week! :)
Beautiful creations ladies !
Message for Karen :
"You've got mail !"
Greetings,
Monique ( niki1 )
Congrats to the winners.. Love all the DT Work!! Thanks for another fun challenge!
- Susan
{Scrap A Thousand Words}
Open-Minded Crafting Fun Challenges
Beautiful cards as always Ladies! Hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Hugs, Hazel xx
Message for Diane : see entry 83
Have a nice weekend,
Monique ( niki1 )
Thank you Diane for sharing your story of forgiveness. Karen, I'm sorry I haven't visited here in such a long time. As usual, your team's work is beautiful. I'll link up. ~ Abby
Beautiful cards by your Design Team. I cannot thank you enough for blessing me each week with your free nuggets of inspirational scriptures from the Holy Bible. Big Hugs, AntoinetteT
Such pretty creations from everyone. Thank you, as always, for the challenge and the inspiration.
DT members - you are always so inspiring and encouraging. Thank you so much.
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