Scripture Series: Everlasting to Everlasting Card---Join Us for Another Inspirational/Anything Goes Challenge at Word Art Wednesday!

Hi everyone!  Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all of you here in the Blogging world.  So sorry for another late post as this week is just crazy for me.  We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving Day in the house of Church friend and later on---with my hubby's family.  God is so good and we are totally thankful for all the blessings and even the trials that shows us how faithful He was/is to His promises to never leave us nor forsake us.  Jesus is the Source of all the blessing we enjoy and we are grateful to the Cross as the means by which we receive them.

Anyway, I want to bring to you my featured card that highlights our Scripture Word Art (you can download for free at the WAW site) for our Challenge at Word Art Wednesday (WAW) that started recently.  It comes from Psalm 103:17 which says, "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children."  Oh, the depths of the mercy of the Lord!  Before we can know or understand God, we need His mercy to see with faith;  to capture our true spiritual condition that would lead us to repentance.  If we don't believe in the God who created us, you will feel no need to repent for you would think of no one to account for.  But the Truth of the matter is, God has built upon us a "conscience" (moral compass) that will always remind us of God and His statutes.  The reason why some deny the existence of God is because they don't want to be accountable to Him so that they can follow their own worldly and lustful desires.  But just because they deny God, that doesn't mean they're not accountable to Him.  Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 says, "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." They can run and hide as much as they want but nobody is going to escape the reality of God's judgment.  Many are seeking for things that would give meaning to their lives and once they reached the pinnacle of success and can buy everything they want, they'll discover that none of them truly satisfy. And in their desperation, they still manage to harden their hearts and refuse to call on the One and Only Lord that can fill their void---Jesus Christ!

So, what is God's mercy?  Simply put, it's when God removed the punishment our Sin deserved--- the moment we placed our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ at the Cross.  For the penalty of Sin is Death and we (all human beings) are incapable of saving ourselves since all of us are born with the Sin Nature (originated with Lucifer).  The Sin of Man (happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam formed an alliance with Satan by disobeying God) cannot go unpunished and we needed Someone pure and holy (without an iota of Sin) to die in our place---a ransom to our freedom.  Only God is holy and because of God's love for mankind, He sent His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ, to bear our Sin and die at the Cross. So that by His blood and death, we'd become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus as if Sin never happened. God's mercy is boundless for everyone who placed their faith in God's victorious Son. In our good days and bad days, God sees in us the victory that Jesus accomplished at the Cross.  We should never allow our feelings and circumstances to erase this Truth in our minds and in our hearts.

Let's expand on what the other half of our featured verse meant.  What is righteousness and what does it mean to be righteous in the sight of the Lord?  I would like to quote what gotquestions.org published on this topic as it truly made a wonderful explanation.  It says, "The Bible describes the righteous person as just or right, holding to God and trusting in Him (Psalm 33:18–22). The bad news is that true and perfect righteousness is not possible for man to attain on his own; the standard is simply too high. The good news is that true righteousness is possible for mankind, but only through the cleansing of sin by Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We have no ability to achieve righteousness in and of ourselves. But Christians possess the righteousness of Christ, because “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is an amazing truth. On the cross, Jesus exchanged our sin for His perfect righteousness so that we can one day stand before God and He will see not our sin, but the holy righteousness of the Lord Jesus. This means that we are made righteous in the sight of God; that is, that we are accepted as righteous and treated as righteous by God on account of what the Lord Jesus has done. He was made sin; we are made righteousness. On the cross, Jesus was treated as if He were a sinner, though He was perfectly holy and pure, and we are treated as if we were righteous, though we are defiled and depraved. On account of what the Lord Jesus has endured on our behalf, we are treated as if we had entirely fulfilled the Law of God and had never become exposed to its penalty. We have received this precious gift of righteousness from the God of all mercy and grace. To Him be the glory!"  God is so good that He extends that righteousness from generation to generation for all of us that fear, trust and love Him."
  
For this Card, I used an embossing folder and stamp (used in the envelope) that came as a freebie from a magazine I bought several months ago.  I was pressed with time and don't have the luxury to color and fussy cut images to make my usual layered cards.  I decided to utilize my Distress Inks and sponge several colors for this Fall inspired card.  After laying the colors to my satisfaction, I ran the panel with the embossing folder through my Cuttlebug and the magic happened.  I inked another cardstock and then ran it through my printer for the Word Art.  I also used a Martha Stewart Border Punch for the lacy heart border for added dimension.  Lastly, I stitched several panels of this creation.  Simply beautiful!

EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING CARD

EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING CARD CLOSE-UP

EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING CARD INSIDE

EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING CARD WITH ENVELOPE

This Card is entered into the following Challenges:

Calling All Sistahs---CAS
LeAnn's World---ATG
Creative Crafters---ATG
Worldwide Open DT---ATG
Crafting with Friends---ATG
Creative Fingers---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 each week. Wonderful prizes await our winners from our lovely sponsors for this week---The Project Bin ($15 GC) and Imagine That (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.