Blue Skies Ahead Scenic Encouragement Card...

It's the weekend and I hope you are having some fun.  I have a few things to do here and there and hope I can accomplish quite a bit today.  What should I say then?...With God, all things are possible.  I recently encountered many people that in order to justify their lives of sin (homosexuality, adulterers, fornicators, drunkards, lovers of themselves, haters of God, among others), they handpicked several verses in the Bible in an attempt to stop believers of Christ from sharing to them the Truth of the Gospel.  One common verse that they use is found in 1 John 4:8 which says, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."  Yes, God is love and His love is nothing like the kind of love we all know which is self-centered.  His is sacrificial, unselfish, patient and known to us as "Agape" love.  What they didn't quote is that as God is love, He is is also a "Just God." Colossians 3:25 states, "Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism."  These two qualities of God cannot be separated from each other.  You see, Genesis 2:17 told us how God warned Adam on what will happen if they eat the fruit of the forbidden tree---DEATH!  Genesis 3 gave us an account of Adam and Eve disobeying God and though their mortal bodies didn't die physically, their spiritual connection with God was what died that day.  Every man physically born carries that punishment and since no man is found without sin, God Himself had to wrap Himself in human flesh, be born of a virgin (meaning He didn't come from the contaminated seed of Adam) for the sole purpose of redeeming us from His own wrath.  Understand this, he pronounced judgment on disobedience before Adam sinned and to satisfy the punishment of His own judgement, He sent His Only Begotten Son (Jesus Christ) to free man from suffering the wrath of God which needed to be paid in full by a sinless Person.  So, whoever is using God's love as a way to condone  their selfish desires are in denial. God the Father showed us that every sin needed to be paid---He sent His Only Son as a sacrificial Lamb to die as payment for all the sin man committed unto God to bring us back to Him. His love and Just nature is inseparable. If we don't surrender our lives to our Only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we carry the weight of every sin we committed and people will be surprised to face not a God of love but a God who is a Judge in the day of reckoning.

Another of their favorite verse to quote is in John 8:7 which states, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." It is sad to see true believers of Christ back off from witnessing to unbelievers when they quote this verse.  Mainly because, as believers of Jesus Christ, none of us in our physical state is perfect.  We end up reflecting on our own lives and flashbacks of our past, struggles of the present and uncertainties of the future start to haunt us.  But you know what, if we ever think to ourselves that God declares us righteous in His sight because we are faithful in following His commandments and thought we are doing everything humanly possible  for His pleasure thus we should be in His favorites list---we seriously need to repent because we align ourselves with Pharisees and Sadducee and religions of the world that thinks they have to do something to merit God's favor.  We must take it to heart that God declared us righteous (meaning "right" before His sight) not because of anything we did, do or will do---not at all!  He declared us righteous based solely on what Jesus Christ did in the Cross in our behalf.  Our Father in Heaven looks at us and all He see is the blood of His Son that washed away all our sins.  That is why someone telling us that we cannot witness on the Truth of the Gospel because we are sinners are preying on believers that has not completely understood what the Lord has done for them.  This verse clarifies it all in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  This simply means that the life is not anymore my own, Jesus Christ uses me as His messenger to speak forth of His sacrifice for man on the Cross so that everyone shall be saved.  On times, I fell into temptations, I come to the throne of God and repent of my sins because according to 1 John 1:9, He is Just to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness and then I live my life without the guilt because I surrendered it all to Him. 

The third scripture they like to quote is in Mark 12:31 which says, "The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."  Many people who tried to justify their sins wanted people to leave them alone as a proof of loving them.  That we must turn a blind eye as they go on with their lifestyle of sin.  Their argument is that it's what makes them happy.  Let me provide an illustration---If I have a friend who invited me to a cliff seeing that the water down below was clear and would be so much fun and pleasurable to jump over to feel such a rush and  take such a risk. Yet, without his knowledge, I knew that there's huge rocks underneath the waters and have seen people died from doing exactly the same thing. Would I allow this friend to just jump without a warning so, he could have the fun he thought he's gonna have?  A true friend that loves will do everything he/she can to save that person from impending danger.  When we stop telling people of what their lifestyle of sin and rebellion against God is going to do to them based on the Word of God, then we truly have stopped caring and loving.  As a believer of Jesus Christ, we may be hated, called out many names, persecuted but we know that at the time of judgment, people that came to know Christ because we stood our ground will be very grateful and those that didn't listen, will gnash their teeth and suffer eternally for the opportunity they wasted.  Every believer of Christ should meditate on this verse in Ephesians 6:11, "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

Anyway, I would like to share a Card I made for a friend who requested that I make a card for her co-worker who lost her husband recently.  It was easy to make just a typical sympathy card yet we both agreed that we should give a card of encouragement instead.  Though it is hard to lose a love one, we know that as we continue to trust the Lord, He will comfort us and see us through.  So, that's the inspiration behind this card.  I reverse stamped/heat embossed the car image from Recollections (it was facing left and I wanted it to go on the right) and I colored it with my Prismacolor markers.  I used a pre-made A7 Kraft base card and used all my DP scraps from DCWV.  I stamped several other images---sentiments from Printwork, swirl from Heidi Grace and the zigzag stitch border from TPC Studio.  I added some die-cuts (flower and sun with cloud) from Heidi Grace , a fence border using MS Punch, some dry embossing with Cuttlebug folder, gems from Imaginisce, glitters(Stickles-Diamond) and glossy accents for the car window.  My friend loved it and so as her co-worker.  Hope you enjoy it too!

 BLUE SKIES AHEAD SCENIC ENCOURAGEMENT CARD:

 BLUE SKIES AHEAD SCENIC ENCOURAGEMENT CARD LAYERS:

BLUE SKIES AHEAD SCENIC ENCOURAGEMENT CARD INSIDE:

BLUE SKIES AHEAD SCENIC ENCOURAGEMENT CARD WITH ENVELOPE:

This Card is entered into the following Challenges:

Make it Monday---Anything Goes
Pause Dream Enjoy---Use Foam Tape
Sister Act---Anything Goes
Pin and Tack---Anything Goes
Crafting By Designs---Anything Goes/Summer Fun
Totally Papercrafts---Punches and Dies
A and T Challenge---Bling
Craft-Room---Use Your Scraps
Papertake Weekly---Anything Goes
TTCRD---Anything Goes
Creative Romance---Anything Goes
Bearly-Mine---Dies and/or Punches
Crafts and Me---Something Old (White Gems/MS Fence Border Punch)
Alota Rubber Stamps---Summer Feeling
Deep Ocean---For a Girl
Loves Rubberstamps---Anything Goes
Hobby House---Anything Goes
Rubber Buggy---Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments---Anything Goes with Sentiment
Creative Card Crew---Punches/Dies
Creative Moments---Lots of Layers
Delightful Challenges---Here Comes the Sun
HIMCR---Super Scraps Saturday
Crafty Blogger's Network---Bright and Breezy
Pink Elephant---Summertime


This is it for me today and I hope you found some inspiration/encouragement in this post.  Always keep in mind that our life here on earth is merely a blink to the life eternal which we are truly destined.  Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.  If you want to know Jesus, I can introduce you to Him.  he's the Only One who can free us from any bondage---nothing is impossible for Him.  Oh, He's truly awesome!