Scripture Series: That We Receive a Full Reward/Nuts 'n Bolts 'Bout You Note Cards---Join our Inspirational/Anything Goes Challenge at Word Art Wednesday!

Hi everybody!  So sorry for the delay in posting this project I made for our previous Challenge at Word Art Wednesday (WAW).  The new Challenge is coming out today and you can surely join the fun and possibly win a prize in a couple of weeks.  I have to skip this new Challenge but I am bringing this very late posting of what could have been published two weeks ago highlighting the Scripture from 2 John 1:8 which says, “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.”
 

The book of 2 John emphasizes on remaining in Christ's truth and love, obedience to God's Word/teachings and to warn us against false teachers.  From the time of Adam to this day, the serpent otherwise known as Satan had used a powerful technique to capture mankind by way of deception!  If there is any created being that knows the Word of God, it's no other than the devil himself. In order to deceive, he uses a measure of God's truth and cunningly pervert it with lies to achieve his evil purpose.  He takes advantage of man's weaknesses (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life) to stir up their emotions/curiosities to convince them that their selfish actions are justified.  Luke 4:1-13 showed us the audacity of the devil to come after  the Savior, Jesus Christ, thinking he could manipulate Him to turn against God's truth.  What did Jesus used to defeat Satan?  It's the authority that comes from the pure truth of God's Word.  

I believe that Jesus' encounter with the enemy in the wilderness at the start of his earthly ministry was written for all believers (Born-again, John 3:3) as an example on how we can keep our minds pure from the winds of deceitful doctrines that devours many people these days.  More than anything, we have to be certain WHO is the source of our faith, the subject of our attention, the treasure of our hearts.   Any other answer besides JESUS makes the person vulnerable. Deuteronomy 6 revealed the greatest commandment God gave humanity.  Verse 5 says, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."  The very similar message was recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Every believer is commissioned by God to represent Him and speak of His Truth to this fallen world.  For we were once a part of the darkness and are now translated to God's kingdom of light simply by placing our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ at the Cross.  We have an important work to do and that is to declare in words and in deeds the truth of God's Word! We are to testify of God's love for the lost and the importance of obedience to stay wise as to avoid the enemy's deceptive trap.

 

The trouble with some so called ministers today is that they have exchanged the glory of the One True God with fame, status, riches, connections and many other temporal things.  They became people pleasers, self centered individuals who uses the Church (Ekklesia, Body of Christ) as their platform to gain popularity and increased their members.  But the sad thing is when they are asked tough questions in their stance with Homosexuality, Abortion, Hell, Salvation and many other Church thinning topics, they sounded uneducated, confused and undecipherable in the Word of God.  I was sad and frustrated to see a well-renowned minister (whom I respected for many years) struggled to answer in an interview recently.  I don't believe he doesn't know what God's Word says but he was refusing to offend many.  In an attempt to sound moderate and pleasing to people, questions answerable by a simple yes or no weren't clearly conveyed.  In fairness, the interviewer seemed to be in an attack mode but if we are true to the Word of God, we are going to tell the truth no matter what it takes. By all means, we are to speak truth in love but without compromise.  As a matter of fact, truth will always be offensive to the unrepentant.  Let's face it, everyone that hates the truth would hate God and everyone that follows God.  Matthew 16:24-26  tells us, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"  I love what Gotquestions.org shared regarding this passage and would loved to share it. It says, "When Jesus carried His cross up Golgotha to be crucified, no one was thinking of the cross as symbolic of a burden to carry. To a person in the first-century, the cross meant one thing and one thing only: death by the most painful and humiliating means human beings could develop. Two thousand years later, Christians view the cross as a cherished symbol of atonement, forgiveness, grace, and love. But in Jesus’ day, the cross represented nothing but torturous death. Because the Romans forced convicted criminals to carry their own crosses to the place of crucifixion, bearing a cross meant carrying their own execution device while facing ridicule along the way to death. Therefore, “Take up your cross and follow Me” means being willing to die in order to follow Jesus. This is called “dying to self.” It’s a call to absolute surrender. After each time Jesus commanded cross bearing, He said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:24-25). Although the call is tough, the reward is matchless."  

 

So, I will end this post by saying that do not get your "truth" from just anyone else.  Nothing wrong with listening to ministers of the Word but nobody should just take their word for it.  Everyone should subject their teachings to the magnifying glass of the Word of God to make sure we are not being deceived.  My Life Application Bible wrote a nice comment related to our highlighted verse in this post.  It says, "The term translated "deceivers' can also be translated as "impostors"; it carries the idea of leading another astray. The great danger of deceitful leaders is that they seem so sincere and believable.  They are not easy to spot in the crowd.  Usually they are winsome and attractive; otherwise, how they would gather people to themselves?  We do not want to become paranoid and suspicious about everyone we meet, but we do need to be wise in evaluating the character and conduct of those who would seek to influence people.  The way your teachers live shows a lot about what they believe about Christ.  So to be "rewarded fully" in 2 John 1:8 refers not to salvation but to the rewards of loyal service. All who value the truth and persistently hold to it will win their full reward.  Those who live for themselves and justify their self-centeredness by teaching false doctrines will lose that reward (Matthew 7:21-23).

For this note cards, I used an image from Stampendous Mini Clear Stamp Sets and colored the image with my Prismacolor markers.  The base is white CS, cut and scored to make a 4-inch square card.  I fuzzy-cut the images, added some Washi Tapes from Tape Works and Recollections, printed the Scripture Word Art sentiment on one of the cards. The other sentiment I used on the other card is from the stamp set where the robot came from.  I made some envelopes and stamped a sentiment from one of the images in another set.  I think they came out so cute.

 

 

RECEIVE A FULL REWARD/NUTS 'N BOLTS  'BOUT YOU CARDS

 

RECEIVE A FULL REWARD NOTE CARD

 

 NUTS 'N BOLTS 'BOUT YOU NOTE CARD

 

RECEIVE A FULL REWARD/NUTS 'N BOLTS 'BOUT YOU CARDS

WITH ENVELOPES

 

This Card is entered into the following Challenges: 

 

Digi Choosday---ATG 

TTCRD---ATG

A Place to Start---ATG/Balloons/Flowers

Crafting Happiness---ATG

Cutie Pie---Little Cuties

Jan's Digi---ATG

PIP---ATG

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends---ATG

Corrosive---ATG

We Love Stamping---Anything Stamped/Hot Sunny Colors

Gem of a Challenge---ATG

Taylormade Cards---ATG/Holidays in July

Fairy and the Unicorn---Anything Fantasy

Colour Crazy---ATG

Creative Fingers---ATG

Pattie's Creations---ATG

Aud Sentiments---ATG

Critter Crazy---ATG with Featured Critter

2 Sisters---ATG

A Perfect Time---ATG

Bastel-Traum---ATG

Ching-Chou Kuik---ATG

Classic Design---ATG

Crafts Galore Encore---ATG

Crafty Animals---Anything with Animals

Creatalicious---ATG/Christmas in July

LeAnns World---ATG

Let's Craft and Create---ATG/Fun in the Sun

Love to Craft---ATG

Love to Scrap---ATG

MIUCB---ATG/CAS

Morgan's Artworld---ATG

Pearly Sparkles---CAS

QKR---ATG

Rabisco---ATG/Tag

Sognando---ATG

Creative Crafters---ATG

Worldwide Open DT---ATG

YSP---ATG

 

Make sure you join us at WAW Challenge.  You can use the free Word Art 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.  A great prize will be awarded to one winner by our awesome sponsor---My Favorite Things.  So excited to see what you come up with. For the meantime, serve the Lord with gladness knowing that our labor in Him is not in vain.

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