Scripture Series: Seek the Lord Center Step Card---Be Inspired with our Anything Goes Challenge at Word Art Wednesday!

It's Wednesday once again and time for another wonderful and inspiring Challenge from Word Art Wednesday (WAW).  Making a project each week that highlights the Word of God is more than just making people/recipients/viewers happy.  The Bible declares in John 6:63, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you--they are full of the Spirit and life."  God's Word has the power to transcend racial, cultural and traditional boundaries and give birth to faith when we continue to expose ourselves to God's instructions.  Hebrews 4:12 declares, "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."  So, when I give a Scripture Card to a family or friend, I know I am giving so much more than love and friendship.  I am conveying and sharing the kind of love and hope that can only be found in God's Word.  I take it as being a co-worker of the Lord planting the seed of God's Truth to a human spirit.  Sometimes, I would be allowed to water, tend and witness the growth but other times, the Lord just instructs me to plant the seed and let others do the watering and the harvest.  Any which way, we are privileged to be used by the Lord to proclaim what Jesus Christ has done.  To be counted worthy and righteous by our Creator to work His plan on earth towards the salvation of souls.   I will be dishonest if I tell everybody that it's easy for me to do this all the time but I know that in my weakness, God is strong!  I tell you friends, I'm running on Jesus' fuel daily.  The Holy Spirit sustains me when my desire to obey is lacking.  God's Word speaks into my life and gets me through the day.   I realized I've been part of WAW Challenge Team for nearly 3 years now and each week had to make Scripture cards that declares the glory of the Lord.  In those years, I only took about 6 weeks break.  Oh wow---I thank the Lord for He is always faithful.  I may not see the growth of people who had been touched through what they have seen and read in this Blog but I am grateful that the Lord has allowed me to be a part of His great commission.  Through His divine guidance, I will continue to obey!

Today's Scripture Word Art (you can download for free at WAW) comes from Acts 17:27 which says, "That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him , though he be not far from every one of us."  God's original intent for creating mankind is for us to have a love based relationship with Him.  Being our Maker, we ought to be grateful, respectful and give due reverence to the One Who gave us life and every good thing.  We are to serve Him wholeheartedly through unselfish love and obedience.  But sadly, we knew how the story went in the Garden---as man betrayed God and gave his God given authority to the enemy.  They've deserted their post and went into the enemy's camp and united with Satan, aided the killing, stealing and destruction of human race and all of God's creation.  It's a crime of high-treason and is punishable by death!  We are scattered  in the four corners of the earth with predetermined existence and boundaries.  We are here for a limited  time yet with all of God's creation sustaining us, we should have longed for and realized what we had been missing all along---our need to fellowship with our Creator!  In our searching and discovering of things, we should have stumbled upon the questions, "Who made all these great and wonderful things we see?  Who spread the heavens and placed every heavenly body in it's place and determined their precise movement?  Who made me with every organ functioning harmoniously inside my body to sustain life?  In our sinful state, God gave us such a longing for Him that if we look outside (His marvelous creation) and inside of us (what our conscience tells us), we could have seen Him for He is imprinted in all His creation.  Though we were separated from Him, He was never far away from us!  He was waiting for us to call unto Him---believe that He exist and has a great plan for our lives.  We know that because even before the Law of Moses came to be, God was in the business of making people righteous by faith as we've seen with His relationship with Abraham (Galatians 3:6).  But such was not the case instead,  man looked at the created and gave their worship and allegiance to them (Idolatry) instead of the Creator.  Though mankind abandoned God, He didn't do the same thing to us.   His Word declared in Romans 5:6-8, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, we can be reconciled to our Father and enjoy the same fellowship with Him as if the Fall never happened.  He has guaranteed for us a mansion in His Kingdom and an eternal life in His presence.  And that starts by seeking the Lord through repentance and faith in what Jesus has done (His death, burial and resurrection) on the Cross.  He is never far away from us---He's as close to us as a prayer!  I have taken Him for His Word and He gave me life, peace and joy beyond understanding.  Sharing with you these Bible verses today:

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."  (1 John 4:10)

"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.  Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."  (Romans 8:32-34)

"Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children  and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."  (Ephesians 5:1-2)

For this Card, I used an image I got for free a while back from Sheri Baldy called "Lolita" which I colored with my ProMarker/Prismacolor/Sharpie markers.  The base is a white CS, cut and scored to make a 5.5 inches center step design.  The DP's are from Paper Studio and die-cuts were produced using Cuttlebug and Nestabilities.  I layered several Prima flowers and added a Recollections embellishment at the center, punched a border using Fiskars, added some glitters to the image using Stickles-Crystal and finally, regular and fancy stitching all over this project.  I love how the colors popped from a neutral background.  Mission accomplished!

SEEK THE LORD CENTER STEP CARD:

SEEK THE LORD CENTER STEP CARD LAYERS:

SEEK THE LORD CENTER STEP CARD SIDE VIEW:

SEEK THE LORD CENTER STEP CARD INSIDE:

SEEK THE LORD CENTER STEP CARD WITH ENVELOPE-BOX:

This Card is entered into the following Challenges:

Crafting by Designs---Shaped Cards
Crafty Creations---Seeing Spots
Creative Moments---Spring/Easter
Inspiration Destination---ATG
Moo-Mania---Feelings of Spring
Penny's Paper Crafty---One for the Girls
Whimsy Stamps---Color an Image
Wonderful Wednesday---ATG
City Crafter---Case a Card
Crafty Sentiments---ATG
Inky Chicks---Stitching
Papertake Weekly---Words, Words, Words
Party Time Tuesday---ATG
PINspirational---ATG
TTCRD---ATG
Artistic Inspirations---ATG with a Twist: Spring
Aurora Wings---ATG
Card Mania---Flowers
Crafting from the Heart---ATG
Craft Your Passion---ATG
Love to Scrap---Dots/Stripes
Melonheadz Friends---2 or More Patterned Papers
Mema's Crafts---ATG with a Twist: Use a Die and/or Punch
Not Just Cards---ATG
OLLCB---At least 5 Layers
Scrapbook Stamp Society---ATG with Optional: Mother's Day
Creating in FHL---Scripture
Stamp and Create---ATG
Crazy Challenge---Springtime
Paper Nest Dolls---ATG
Use Your Stuff---Spring is Sprung
Whoopsi Daisy---Flowers

Make sure you download the free Word Art at WAW Blog.  We would love for you to create something with it and link it up to our Challenge.  Another way to join us is by linking up to 5 projects per Challenge that features a family friendly and uplifting sentiments and you may win some fabulous prizes from our sponsors this week---Flying Unicorn ($25 GC) and Fred She Said (Digi Images). So get some Crafting juice flowing and remember to call on the Lord for inspiration.  Have a wonderful week, everyone!