Scripture Series: To Them that Believe Card---Join Us for Another Uplifting Challenge at Word Art Wednesday!

Hello, everyone!  So sorry to bring this post a day later as I was pretty occupied yesterday with all the the things that are needed to get done.  Most of my day was spent at the City Council Chambers, together with many Churches here in San Antonio, with our  fight against the plan to pass a Sexual Orientation Ordinance (SOR) that was put forth by city council members here in our city.  It is supposed to be an anti-discrimination ordinance which seeks to add "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the city charter's protected class.  Like many cities who have adapted a similar ordinance (some don't include gender identity in their wordings), this is actually the most divisive, discriminatory ordinance ever put forth.  It tramples on the right of every person's free speech and freedom of belief/religion and if passed, it will prohibit believers from acting according to their conscience and prohibit the proclamation of the entire counsel of the Holy Scriptures especially those that pertains to homosexuality.  Aside from that,  commercial facilities (such as restrooms, fitting rooms, lockers and gym facilities among others will be opened for "gender identity" claims instead of what a person's "biological" make-up is and would open a can of worms for those who would like to use the ordinance as a way to cater to twisted behavior (such as pedophilia, rape, peeping toms and many others).  With "gender identity" protected, anyone can say that "I am biologically a man but my heart says, I'm a girl so, I want to use the ladies restroom." Because of the law, no one can contest it.  Also, think about the business impact from lawsuits when a Christian refuse to provide service to homosexual for matters that oppose their conscience and beliefs which already happened to many cities and countries that adapted this.  This ordinance is a direct attack to every Bible believing, God-fearing Christians in this country (they go one city after another) and as a child of God, my family as well as our Church took the challenge of standing in the gap of informing people in our city and all over the country about the true agenda of this ordinance.  Why you haven't heard of this?  That's because Media will not cover anything that is Godly in nature so, we are to spread the news one person to another. 

Many endeavors that are put forth today disguises itself under the same fight as the civil rights movement.  The civil rights fight led by Martin Luther King had it's grounds from the written word of God.  Men are created equal, irregardless of their race or color of their skin.  I am Asian and I was born in Asia and my features and skin color bears witness to it.  I cannot change that fact and so are any other person born on earth.  To discriminate against any person because of their race and color is a direct contradiction to the Word of God.  The Bible acknowledges the presence of slavery and it was a direct result of the Fall of Man in which man decided to give up the dominion that God has placed upon him to rule over His creation and gave it over to God's very enemy, Satan!  The Bible tell us in John 10:10 that "Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy."  That is what we see men doing throughout generation, enslaving others to advance himself.  When Jesus died on the Cross, buried and resurrected, he broke the yoke of slavery (from Satan) for all mankind.  Yet, only those who would put their faith and trust in what He had done on the Cross will benefit from this grace and freedom Christ offered us.  A child who is born is either born a female or a male.  Nothing in that child's features or race speaks of him as a homosexual.  The environment, home, friends and activities that child grew up with has a vast influence on what that child would grow up to be.  Being educated and exposed to people who are homosexuals or any perverted behaviors or abuse from family members, love ones, choice of friends or strangers can damage  person to the core and cause them to choose a destructive path one after another (Read Romans 1:18-32).   Romans 1:26-27  says, "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error."  This clearly tell us that homosexuality is a result of denying and disobeying God.  When people continue to sin and unbelief, God gives them over to even more wicked and depraved sin in order to show them the futility and hopelessness of life apart from God.  One Pastor from my city spoke yesterday at the City Council Chambers and told the councilmen how the ordinance would placed him in a situation where he would be against the very people he loved and would like to help.  He told us that he experienced caring for a homeless homosexual and how his family  opened their home so that he'll have a roof over his head and cared for him both physically and spiritually.  I agree completely with what the Pastor said.  Jesus died for every sinner in this world and he loves every single person but hates every sin.  In our fight, there's not a hatred for the LGBTQ people who are living that lifestyle but we would like to extend a loving and a helping hand and show them that there's a way out and the reality is, THEY ARE NOT BORN THAT WAY!  They chose to live that way.  God has a greater purpose for their lives, if only they will give Him a chance to show it to them through His Church.  I ask every Christian to be vigilant and get involved in the affairs of your city, state and country.   Do not let darkness take over without a fight.  God has placed us in this world to be "Salt and Light" (Matthew 5:13-16) which means we are like "preservatives."  To take us away (which will happen at the Rupture of the Church), will cause lawlessness and decay to consume the earth.  But the time is not yet---we have a purpose as a believer, that is to proclaim salvation through Christ to the ends of the earth.  Be strong and steadfast in the Lord!

Anyway, we have a great scripture Word Art for you (free download at our Blog) at Word Art Wednesday (WAW).  It features the scripture in John 1:12  which says, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."  Here, God does not discriminate on who can become sons of God.  There's no reference to any race, color, position, power, fame, free or slaves in this passage.  The only prerequisite is faith (trusting, believing) in Jesus (in His finished work on the Cross).  Receiving in your life the benefits of His sacrifice alone makes you a child of God.  It is not of your own doing, it is His gift (Ephesians 2:8-9).  So, we say, "Come, everyone who are tired of carrying their heavy burdens, their addictions, their struggles, Come!"  You don't need to clean up your act before coming to the Lord because on your own, that will be an impossible task.  Come as you are!  Get to know Jesus and in due time, you'll realize that He does the transformation in your life.  All we need to do is to yield to Him.  He is more than able to transform you and reveal to you the true purpose of your existence in this life and beyond.  

For this project, I used a wonderful image from Prairie Fairy Digital Stamps called "Purrrfect Friends" and colored it with my ProMarker/Prismacolor/Spectrum Noir markers.  I also added some Glossy Accents  to the image's glasses for an added dimension.  The base card is a Kraft, A7 card that comes with an envelope that I just decorated.  The DP's are from DCWV and some from my scraps.  The circles and the lacy square are cut using Nestabilities and my Cuttlebug.  The funky border stamp is from Recollections and the rose vine stamp is from Inkadinkado.  I added some wonderful gems from Hotfix and decided to skip stitching for this design.  I noticed that pennants have been popular with many other card designs so, I am giving it a try.  I am pretty happy with the results. 

 TO THEM THAT BELIEVE CARD:

 TO THEM THAT BELIEVE CARD LAYERS:

 TO THEM THAT BELIEVE CARD INSIDE:

TO THEM THAT BELIEVE CARD WITH ENVELOPE:

This Card is entered into the following Challenges:

Gem of a Challenge---Anything with a "B" (Border stamp, banners)
Amusing Challenges---ATG
Aud Sentiments---Any Sentiment
C is for Challenge---Animals
Crafting by Designs---ATG
Craftin Desert Diva's---ATG
Creative Craft Challenges---Not a Square
Crafty Sentiments---Make It Girly
Creative Inspirations Paint---ATG
Die Cuttin Divas---Just Because
Happy Campers---Use a Stamp (Rubber/Digi)
Krafty Hands---ATG
Lacy Sunshine---Girls, Girls, Girls
Paper Crafting Journey---ATG
Paper Creator's Crafts---ATG
Pile It On---Designer Paper
Rhedd and Rosie Challenge---Something for the Ladies
Scrapbook Stamp Society---ATG
Simon Says Stamp---ATG
Tammy's Scrapin Corner---ATG
Stamping Chef---Use Kraft
TTCRD---ATG
Eureka Stamps---Be Sentimental
Inky Impressions---Animals
Digistamps4Joy---ATG
Crazy 4 Challenges---Animals
Craft-room Challenges---Something New (The digi stamp is new)
Bearly Mine---Digi Days
Make It Monday---ATG

I hope you join our WAW Challenge by linking a project using the free Word Art we featured today although it's not mandatory.  You can enter up to 5 different projects as long as it's family friendly, encouraging or uplifting.  You can win some fabulous prizes from our sponsors today namely Blue Moon Scrapbooking and My Heart Pieces.  The more you link, the better your chance of winning. I want to encourage you to give  Jesus a chance in your life.  Don't count Him out because of what you thought he is or what others told you about Him.  Ask him to reveal Himself to you and I know in the very core of my heart, He will.  He did it for me, 23 years ago, and my life was never the same.