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
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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