Enjoy What You Create...

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****sight****
A wonderful thought for my day! 

Reflecting on the need to collect...

I mentioned before that I am a collector:  I collect stories, pretty objects that catch my eye, interesting items that seem to speak of hidden meanings, vintage ephemera,  tattered quilts...it is not just my stories, but others' that intrigue me...

I suspect that is why I like Pinterest, I can collect all sorts of things 

and they don't take up any more space than my laptop!

I collect written words that unveil eternal truths {especially those that reveal the depths of God's love, His desire to speak to us, metaphors that well describe His dealings with us, His dearly Beloved...} - an attempt to help those truths become like marrow to me!

Journals and sketchbooks become repositories of more abstract collections...thoughts, ideas,  memories...places to experiment and "try on" new directions...they are documentaries of the ethereal, the soul and spirit...personal histories of places and people...investigations of mysteries that have captured our curiosity -

Like the picture above - when I see this small fraction of the whole, not only do I wonder what it is, but who took it, what was it they were trying to capture, what were they exploring?  Do you?

I am eager to discover more!

God Leads Us to the Plains....

I am a collector of stories of how God speaks to His children... 

His stories - encouraging me that He speaks to me too, 

when the cacophony of voices in my life might draw me off course... 

This arrived in my inbox today, and I thought I would share it with you...

I have never heard a message about "the plain" before!

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How and Where God Speaks

"The hand of the Lord was upon me there, and He said to me, 'Get up and go out to the plain, 

and there I will speak to you.'" Ezekiel 3:22 

God speaks in many different ways to His children. He spoke through a bush to Moses. He spoke through a donkey to Balaam. He spoke through prophets to His kings. He speaks through other believers. He speaks directly to us through the invisible Holy Spirit. And He speaks even through circumstances. 

When God wants to speak a very important word directly to us without interruption from the noise of our busy lives, he will take us "into the plain." The plain is a place of no distractions and no other persons. It is a place of silence. It can be a place of great need as it often fails to have the normal provisions we are accustomed to. It can be a place we go to voluntarily to seek His face, or we can be moved there without choice by His supernatural ability. More often, it is the latter method that brings us into the plain. In modern times, it often means a separation from our normal activities such as jobs or families.

The plain can also be a place where we discover afresh that God's hand has been on us all the time. When we are so busy with life, we sometimes forget that God's hand is still there, gently leading our path. When our lives get so busy that we are not listening or responding to His gentle touch, He must take more aggressive measures to get our attention. Thus, the plain is one of those appointed times of one-on-one communication with our heavenly Father. No distractions, no people, no beautiful surroundings to capture our thoughts. It is a barren place designed to allow us to seek and hear clearly. When He speaks, we need to be able to listen. We hear much better in the plain. 

Do you need to hear God's voice today? Is your life such that you cannot even hear His voice? Each day God calls us to our own mini-plain in order to speak to us and for us to hear. If we neglect this time of open communication, we may be invited to His plain in order to hear without distraction. Pray that you might make time to hear.

Today God Is First (TGIF) devotional message, Copyright by Os Hillman, Marketplace Leaders. 10/25/2012

Godtube - a safer place perhaps?

Pastor Rap - Back to Church from alegator21 on GodTube.

I just found out about "GODtube"  -  I think I am going to like it!

...and we are filled with joy...

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*sigh*....I am ready for fall!  This so inspired me - I don't look to the Psalms often for "joy" verses, but this is perfect!

A Letter to My Princess....{from God}

Photo Credit - Source unknown but found on Tumblr

“Wait on me, My princess. My timing is always perfect. I know you’re anxious about many things. I see your passion for all the plans I have put in your heart. I know you long to fly, and I see your enthusiasm. However, just as a worker amongst the vineyards nurtures the vine, and waits patiently for the right moment to harvest the grapes, so too am I working tirelessly to prepare you to bear much fruit. Don’t run ahead of Me or try to fly before My plans are complete. Your strength will fail you, and your dreams will wither away. Trust Me that My dreams for you are far greater than you can dream on your own. You will run farther and soar higher if you will wait patiently for the season of My blessing. Draw close to Me now, and I promise that the season of waiting, and remaining in Me, will bring you the sweetest of rewards. 

“But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength, they will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.” - Isaiah 40:31

With love; your King and Lord of perfect timings.  I wish I had written this, but I found it on Tumblr close in time to the little ballerinas, and they just went together!

{1000 gifts} He will grant the desires of our heart...really!

Have you ever been "sent" to a store, wonderingly compelled, battling in your mind over the selfishness of the trip, the "don't really need the {item swimming in your mind}" thoughts...and continuing on anyway as if caught in an ocean tide pulling you along?  And then you arrive and there is something so perfect and at the perfect price?  And in your heart you know you have just experienced a God hug?  But who can you really tell, because it seems absurd that He would do such a thing?  I want to tell you right now that I have such a group of friends that love it when this happens, and when I start off saying , "God sent me..." they can't wait to hear what He did!  I pray you have such a blessed group around you!

This happens to me frequently, and it is usually to yard sales that I am being led...and always, always, always, I happen upon something I have been NEEDING/as well as sometimes things I have been wanting, and for well, you know, yard sale prices!   Occasionally it is to a store that I am sent, to find something of the same need/want  genre on a super clearance price - and what is that price point?  That I cannot find another way to make it/gain it for any less money.  And yes, sometimes, He tells me to wait, and an item in the need/want classification comes my way FOR FREE {think clothes in exactly my style, color, size from friends with price tags still on them!}.

I give thanks to God for these items - it just warms my heart to know He cares if I have 8 dining room chairs {found at a clearance outlet} that match to go with the table He sent me to a yard sale just down the street from me to find...

But now I am tired of the color of the chairs, and have spent some minutes thinking about how to get my breakfast area + dining area less brown...and I came across this image this weekend!  {I am sure, led to it by Him}

These are my chairs!  Now I know a nice chalky white paint is the answer to my heartwish...I wonder if I can find a can or two at Home Depot's returns shelf!


Thanking Him for {#224 - #226}:

Caring about the small things in my heart as well as my major life needs...

Always finding my parking spot at Wal-Mart right next to "cart corral"...

Friends - online and off - that I can share such things with...

Relaxing art for Sneak Peek Friday

I wonder if God knows what He is doing to me when He drops an explosion of creative ideas that has basically left me completely immobilized in moving forward in any of them! 5 new projects in various stages of beginning, plus old series waiting to be added to, and of course a small stack of UFOs...

Perhaps His real message is 

"I am stretching you, 

follow close,

don't be afraid..."

So, I grabbed a book from my shelf to use for a word filled sketchbook...and tried to find a page I hadn't devoured as the one below....

 

I drew a grid - the smaller spaces seemed to be more inviting - and just began to doodle...

text words began to jump out at me

and the result was a hybrid of "zentangle" and black out poems...

it relaxed my mind 

and 

my creative heart was at rest...

The result of my attempt to just "do something"...

Now, I can't wait to tackle that explosion!

Joining with Jennifer and other creatives at Studio JRU....

As the deer...

Photo credit  

I added the words and blurred background to this stunning photo I found -

part of what I am calling "my creative worship" time...

"To pant" is a sort of idiom used to describe the intense longing of the heart in this Psalm (Psalm 42)
...the word `arag (translated "panteth") properly means to rise; to ascend; and then, to look up toward anything; to long for (Barnes Commentary).  Gesenius's Lexicon includes the thought of "to be bent, or intent upon anything".

 One of my all time favorite praise songs is "As the Deer", written by Marty Nystrom.  With my recent inspiration leaning towards this sweet, fragile, creatures, I am reminded of the song again..

A link of Robin Marks singing "As the Deer"...

Quiet Strength...

Image source, and then I manipulated it a little more...

   

                       Who is God, but the Lord?
                                          ...The God who girds me with strength?
                                          ...He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and sets me upon my high places.

                                 You enlarge my steps under me, and my feet have not slipped.

                                                          excerpts from Psalm 18:31-36

And so, dear heart, it is time for your restoration...

Good words...a reminder seasoned with salt...(and a favorite verse ☺)

You are a poem...

 

Just wanted to leave a blessed thought with you all...

(based on the original words in Ephesians 2:10 NLT)...

I will be out of town all week and I am NOT going to have internet service!  See you this weekend!