Meet The Design Team -Stacy Stone

Hello everyone, I am one of the new faces of the team and i am so excited to be here. I struggle so much as a christian. I find comfort and strength here with these ladies they are very encouraging and uplifting. I am going to tell a little story about me and i promise to be brief. I was born and raised in Alberta, Canada. I was born into a family with an extended family whom encouraged religion. I went through the motions of it. I was struggling with a divorce my parents, a remarriage both of my parents and some new siblings. My mom and dad were really not that involved in church. They were emtionally spent it was rough my dad was gone alot, my mom basically raised us but she was battling herself some. They had both divorced again some decisions they made were not good. After some really bad fights with my mom I moved out at 15. Moving back and forth and around alot. I made some really good friends who took me in made me family. I became a new born christian when i was 19 years old and i really have not looked back. Jesus Rocks as my kids would say, I have now been married to my wonderful husband almost 11 years we have 3 beautiful kids 2 boys 10 and 8 and a girl 7. There is so much more to my story but it would take pages lol Jer29:11 is my verse and i hold on to it thanks for reading

Love in christ

stacy

TheWork of the Holy Spirit

Lately, I’ve (Kim) been thinking about the Holy Spirit and how He works in the life of believers. My primary reason for thinking about this topic is my own struggle with remaining sin and how often I face these struggles, unnecessarily, on my own because I fail to ask for help from the One Jesus promised to send after He ascended into heaven – the Holy Spirit.

My Reformation Study Bible notes the following, “The work of the Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ by showing His disciples who He is (John 16:7-15) and what He means to them (Rom. 8:15-17). The Spirit enlightens (Eph. 1:17, 18), regenerates (John 3:5-8), sanctifies (Gal. 5:16-18), and transforms (2 Cor. 3:18, Gal. 5:22, 23). He gives God’s people what they need to serve Him (1 Cor. 12:4-11)."

I'm encouraged by the idea of being transformed from who I was outside of Christ. Galatians 5 tells us that the works of the flesh are well known to us; jealousy, envy, selfish ambitions, etc. However, as a Christian we have the Spirit that works within us to change us into those that are filled with joy, peace, love, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. How exciting to know that God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, not only brings about lasting and dramatic change in the life of a believer, but ultimately gives us victory over our remaining sins!

We hope you enjoy the beautiful work the design team has created for you this week. Please, if you're inspired by this week's topic, leave us a comment. And if you create something based on the topic, leave us a link back to your blog or gallery...we'd love to see your creations!

Kim


Stacy

Hazel




Pauline


Melita

Tanis


Ruth


Julie


Gina

Lythan

Meet the Design Team - Ruth Magness

Hi there everyone, thought I'd tell you a bit about myself - Ruth. I've been on the Salt team for a couple of years now, and have found the experience to be challenging and encouraging. It's been wonderful to use the creativity God has given me to make thngs that Glorify him and highlight his Word.

I was born in Nigeria as both my parents were missionaries out there. I am grateful for the experiences I had there and for Christian parents who taught me about Jesus and needing to have a personal relationship with him. Throughout my child hood it was never assumed I was a Christian because my parents were, or because I went to church. I knew I had to come to a personal faith. Praise God that happened when I was 17. I was listening to my dad preach (he was then a Pastor of a church in North London) and the passage was from Hebrews, it was talking about how the Priest in the Old Testament would have to go day after day to offer sacrifices to show their faith in God. But when Jesus Christ died on the cross he was the once for all sacrifice, never to be repeated, because he was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. The Holy Spirit spoke to me that day, and I became a Christian when I committed my life to God.

From that day I have not looked back, and although I have failed God, disobeyed him and not always followed his commands, I know that because of Jesus, I have a hope. A hope and trust in Jesus, that what he did on the cross can never be taken away. And although what I do can never repay God for the gift of his Son, I strive to Glorify God in all I do.

So, I hope from this little bit of blurb, you can see the motivation of my life and why I'm crafting for Christ!

God's Strength

It was my turn (Julie) to pick the topic for this week and I chose God's Strength based on 2 Corinthians 12:9

"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

It seems lately that I have been made aware of so many people going through so many difficult trials, serious illnesses/injuries, financial strains, marital stress, loss of loved ones, and more. It's often easy for us to begin to question God's purposes and worry or despair. In this chapter of Corinthians, we see the example of the apostle Paul, how he prayed 3 times for God to remove a "thorn in the flesh" (we are not told what it was). God's answer should be our encouragement and comfort as it was Paul's! "My grace is sufficient for you."

Matthew Henry in his commentary on this chapter states that

"Grace signifies . . . The good-will of God towards us, and this is enough to enlighten and enliven us, sufficient to strengthen and comfort us, to support our souls and cheer up our spirits, in all afflictions and distresses. . . . Christ Jesus understands our case, and knows our need, and will proportion the remedy to our malady, and not only strengthen us, but glorify himself."

Thank you for taking the time to visit. We would love to have you participate in our challenge this week and if you do, please leave us a link so we can be view your project! Don't forget also to visit the other Salt members' blogs and read their contributions for this week's theme.

Julie

Hazel Lythan
Melita
Pauline
Nikki

Kim

Mona
Ruth Esther

Gina


Tanis


Stacy

Meet the Design Team - Pauline Kerr

Hi everyone, I’m Pauline and I’m thrilled to be a new member of the SALT design team.

I’ve been married to Bryan for almost 10 years and have 2 girls of 5 and 6. We live in a small town in Scotland approx 45 minutes away from both Glasgow and Edinburgh. I’m a few weeks away from completing my post graduate qualification in teaching and in August will begin life as a full time secondary school teacher of RMPS (Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies to give it the full title!) It has been a difficult year being back at university having been a full time mum since the girls were born but I’ve been well supported by Bryan and our families, and also by our church family.

I was brought up in a Christian home and went to our village Church of Scotland with my Mum and grandparents. I became a Christian while quite young and believe that God gave me the strength to cope with several issues I encountered while growing up and also as an adult. I decided to study Theology at university because I wanted to explore things more deeply and met Bryan who was training to be a Church of Scotland minister. We married just after I graduated and are nearly at our tenth wedding anniversary. There have been some ups and some downs in my life, one of the major ones being fertility problems, but I take great strength in my faith. One verse which I have turned to for as long as I can remember is “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13. I have always felt that my strength to deal with anything I have encountered is not from me but from God. He enables me to face each challenge, big or small.

Perseverance

It's my (Hazel's) turn to choose the topic this time and my theme of 'perseverance' is based on Hebrews 12:1 'Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.'

I am so encouraged that, although we are urged to persevere, the race is 'marked out for us', so we can rest assured that the plans for our lives are in God's hands. However, we must do our part and 'throw off everything that hinders' and keep on track with Him.

When I chose the theme I didn't even think about the closeness of the date of the London Marathon that was entered by 35,000 or so people last Sunday. It was interesting that quite a few of those running to raise money for charities were in fancy dress and, of course, the fancier, the greater the hindrance, meaning that they couldn't complete the marathon as quickly as those who weren't in fancy dress. So it is for us running the race that has been marked out for us. If we are to run the race well, we need to get rid of those things in our lives that would hold us back from going God's way.

Sometimes it is hard to persevere - when circumstances are such that life is difficult - but I believe that the key to our perseverance is in the next verse of Hebrews 12, where the writer says: 'Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.'

Thank you to all those who visit our blog. We would love you to leave us a comment and if you can contribute some artwork or crafting on this theme, we would love to share in it, so please leave us a link so we can come and have a look.

And please visit the blogs of our team members to read what they have written about their contributions.

Hazel

Pauline
Nikki
Lythan
Melita
Tanis

Inside of card...

Kim

Mona

Julie

Stacy

Ruth

Esther

Getting to know the design team: Nikki Blair

Hi everyone--I'm Nikki Blair, glad to be one of SALT's new DT contributors! I'm a SAHM of two handfuls of little boy, one 4 years old, and the other almost 11 months. My husband is a chaplain in the US Navy, currently serving with the US Marine Corps. In my life "BK" (Before Kids) I attended Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Kansas, and was ordained to ministry. I served in a church in Virginia for a short time before the Navy moved us to London, England for a few years. I started scrapping in early 1996, after getting married (yes, those were the "sticker sneeze" years)--thankfully I have come a long way since then (I hope! LOL).

A scripture that has been on my mind lately is Matthew 17:20 (there is also a fabulous musical version of this text on The Welcome Table cd by Dan Zanes & Friends). I've been thinking a lot lately about "impossible" things--or those things that feel impossible. I'm looking toward a change in the life of my family that feels deeply, painfully impossible; such a big shift in our everyday life that it's hard to imagine what we will be on the other side of it. As I was thinking about this and feeling really overwhelmed by it, I remembered that not too long ago we made another "impossible" change--another time when it was hard to see what our life would become, and yet, by the very grace and goodness of God, we were (and are) surrounded by friendships richer than we could have imagined. And what seemed so very impossible has become--perhaps not easy--but a time of great love and joy.

I guess sometimes "moving mountains"--facing seemingly impossible challenges, tasks, changes, losses--requires us not only to have faith, but also to have a good memory: even when that one tiny mustard-seed of faith is hard to muster up, just remembering God's past faithfulness can be the seed. Maybe if we remember that the mountains have moved again and again, we'll eventually stop seeing the impossibility of mountains all together, and instead be able focus on the surrounding view: the loves, laughter, prayers, joy... all the many gifts of this life that surround us and nurture our seeds of faith into abundance.

Blessings,

Nikki