Scripture Series: The Hour Is Come Card---It's Anything Goes/Inspirational Challenge at Word Art Wednesday

Hi there, Crafty Peeps!  I'm here once again to highlight another Scripture Word Art for our new Challenge at Word Art Wednesday (WAW).  Today's verse is so meaningful to me and to everyone whom God called to Himself through faith in what Jesus Christ has done.  It comes from John 12:23 which tells us, "And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified."

In order to understand what Jesus told His disciples in our highlighted verse, we must at least give consideration on the next few verses written after.  In John 12:24-25, Jesus continues saying, "Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life." You will notice in the New Testament how common it was for Jesus to use earthly illustrations to convey spiritual Truths (Parables).  In that time, people's spiritual knowledge of God and His ways were very limited.  They have the Natural Revelation (God's creation),  the Law (Mosaic Law/Torah) and the Prophets.  Today, aside from what they had, we have the Written Word of God (Bible), the Finished Work of Jesus Christ at the Cross accessible by faith and the presence of the Holy Spirit inside every believer.  I love how my Application Bible explained the meaning of the three verses mentioned above and like before, I would like to share it with you:  It says, "John 12:23-25 is a beautiful picture of the necessary sacrifice of Jesus.  Unless a kernel of wheat is buried in the ground, it will not become a blade of wheat producing many more seeds.  Jesus had to die to pay the penalty for our sin, but also to show His power over death.  His resurrection proves He has eternal life.  Because Jesus is God, Jesus can give this same eternal life to all who believe in Him. We must be so committed to living for Christ that we "hate" our lives by comparison.  This does not mean that we long to die or that we are careless or destructive with the life God has given, but that we are willing to die if doing so will glorify Christ.  We must disown the tyrannical rule of our own self-centeredness.  By laying aside our striving for advantage, security and pleasure, we can serve God lovingly and freely.   Releasing control of our lives and transferring control to Christ bring eternal life and genuine joy."

Wow, need I say more?  You see, I often find myself sharing to family and friends this:  "Unless we are willing to die for the cause of Christ, we will always live in the shadow; fearing for people (the world) to know our affiliation with Jesus.  Nowadays, standing for anything and everything Jesus stood for meant persecution/isolation.  For some it's ridicule and hatred from family and friends (including social media).  To others would be career, opportunities, promotion, business loss to losing everything they built and worked for.  Others have to face jail time, security (death) threats or death itself among many other things.  I gained deeper understanding of the dangers every true Christians are exposed to when I started fighting for the things that matter to God.  When I went to Pro-Life rallies to fight (be the voice) for the unborn.  When I joined Family rallies to oppose people trying to redefine the Biblical meaning of marriage. When I attended several gatherings in my city fighting for Biblical principles and common sense knowledge in the midst of perversion and ungodly ordinances being forced upon God's people.  In each one of them, we faced vicious, rebellious and ungodly oppositions/enemies who have no care for God and the Laws of this land.  Their only concern was to make everyone bow down, accept and practice their ungodly thinking and perverted lifestyle.  For every time you stand for God's principles, you don't know for sure when someone just decides to harm you.  Many  of them hated God so much and their mouths are full of profanity, their actions unhinged and their mockery of God was so profound.

Despite all of that,  I thank God for He has placed upon me a strong and firm conviction for His Truth.  I hold these Scripture verses dear to my heart and serves as an inspiration in my daily walk with the Lord.  It's found in Philippians 1:20-21 which says, "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." If we only understand the depth, the fullness---the meaning of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us through the Cross (His death, burial and resurrection) and the life that awaits us in the eternal (Eternal Life) ,  we will no longer live in bondage to fear and selfish concerns/advancement.  For the best things in this world are nothing compared to the pure beauty and radiant treasures of living in the presence of God (the Creator of all things) forever.  Though I expect that reality happening soon, I know that He placed me on this earth to fulfill His purpose.  Until my assignment is done here, His presence will continue to preserve me.   Simply put,  no one can harm me unless God allows it.  So I am determined to go forward, in all boldness---propelled by the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Hope we have in Christ. Truthfully, many tried to discourage me (mostly people from social media) by saying how I was being self-righteous, judgmental, ungodly just because I spoke God's Truth in every pressing issue.  People cursed me, insulted me and said all sorts of profanity just to move me from my position.  Yet, what they aren't aware of is that there is nothing I can do through my own efforts to gain the righteousness of God.  I simply believed/trusted in what Jesus accomplished on my behalf and He declared me righteous solely by being in Christ (Born-again, John 3:3).  If God clothed me in His righteousness, who one earth can take that righteousness away from me?  I know, I know!  They will not understand until they too embraced the Truth through faith in the Cross of Christ.  I choose not to be offended, to pray and move on and focus my efforts on them who are being saved.  To my family and friends, I am committed to the call of God in my life and need no accolades, approval nor recognition from any man.  I only live to please my Father in heaven and bring glory to the name of Jesus Christ!  If anyone of you reading this don't know Jesus personally and as to what the Cross meant for your salvation, get to know Him while there's time.  Everything is written in the Scripture.  If you have any questions, I would love to help anyone.  Let us study God's Word and find purpose for your existence both now and forever.  

For this Card, I used an image from Stampabilities called "Florals" that I bought just recently and colored it using my Touch Five markers.  I stamped some of the images a few times and fussy cut them all after coloring.  The base is white CS, cut and scored to make a 5.5 inches square card.  I embossed the main panel using a Cuttlebug folder and die-cut a lacy circle using Nestabilities.   The DP and as well as the white brads are all from Paper Studio.  Lastly, I stitched all over this card.  Yes, pretty simple design o as not to take away from the powerful Scripture for this Challenge.

 

 THE HOUR IS COME CARD

 THE HOUR IS COME CARD LAYERS

 

THE HOUR IS COME CARD INSIDE 

 

THE HOUR IS COME CARD WITH ENVELOPE-BOX

This Card is entered into the following Challenges:

Crafting by Designs---Girls/Flowers 

Crafty Creations---ATG 

Inspiration Destination---ATG 

Little Red Wagon---Easter 

Crafty Addicts---ATG/Add a Sentiment 

Perfect Time to Craft---ATG 

Create with TLC---ATG

Card Mania---April Showers Bring May Flowers 

Classic DT---ATG 

Craftaholics R Us---Easter 

Crafts Galore Encore---ATG 

Crafty Awesomeness---ATG 

Craftyhazelnut's---Patterned Paper 

Cute as a Button---Easter 

Daisy Chain---Spring is in the Air 

DL Art---ATG 

Love to Craft---ATG 

MHK Designs---Photo Inspiration 

Not Just Cards---ATG 

Sunny Day Crafting---Spring 

Your Scrapbook Place---ATG

Make sure you join us at WAW Challenge.  You can use the Scripture Word Art (download for free at the WAW site) in your creation and link it to our Challenge but is not a requirement.  As long as it's family-friendly, uplifting and inspirational, you can enter up to 5 times this week. Wonderful prizes await our winners from our lovely sponsors for this week---Newton's Nook Designs ($20 GC) and Imagine That (3 Digi Images).  So excited to see what you come up with.  I pray that you live boldly, freely and joyfully bringing glory to Jesus Christ always.