The Beatitudes

Sadly, we say goodbye to Esther from our design team. Esther says, 'Having taken on more responsibilities since my son has started school, I don’t find myself at my craft table as much, let alone blogging. I think it is wise that I step down.' She goes on to say, 'I hope Salt continues to go on from strength to strength and it will continue to be used for the glory of God.' We already miss Esther, who was one of the founder members of the Salt team - she has encouraged and blessed us, not only with her gorgeous crafting, but with her care for our team and in sharing her spiritual journey with us. Thank you, Esther, for your love and friendship.

The Beatitudes

For this fortnight's, challenge I (Hazel) thought it would be good to look at the Beatitudes:

Matthew 5
1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. Sadly, sometimes they are mistakenly seen as a blueprint for how we are to be saved, something for us to strive to attain – but rather, as Spurgeon said, they are ‘the marks and evidences of a work of grace in the soul.’ It is only possible to truly possess the qualities Jesus commends if we experience the salvation He offers. They are the characteristics that should be evident in every Christian.

As Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones said: ‘Happiness is the great question confronting mankind. The whole world is longing for happiness and it is tragic to observe the ways in which people are seeking it.’ In the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is saying that if you really want to be happy, to be blessed, then here is the way.

The characteristics identified in the Beatitudes are not ones that come naturally to us, but are produced by grace and the work of the Holy Spirit.

I hope that you enjoy seeing the crafting response of the team - please visit their individual blogs to read what they have to say.

Our challenge: It would be lovely if you could join with us in creating something that is your response to these sayings of Jesus - or perhaps concentrate on just one of them. We would love to see any crafting that is prompted by these words of Jesus - please leave us a comment with a link to where we can come and see your creation.

Thank you to those who follow us, leave us comments and join in our challenges - we hope and pray that you are blessed by our little corner of the internet - combining our two passions of faith in Christ and crafting.

Hazel

Pauline



Stacy

Kim (to read journaling, click on photo to enlarge)


Lythan

Ruth

* * * * * * * * * *

News from our friends at Scrapbook News and Review magazine:

They are pleased to announce that they're adding a new monthly feature to their online publication - Faith Full Cards - and they're looking for submissions! The focus for these projects is 'faith-based' and they should showcase Bible verses, inspirational quotes and/or images.

Please follow these instructions for submissions:
*All projects must include a complete supply list and contact info.
*All images should be named with the contributor's name, and project title. Example: Mary Smith_Valentine's Greeting.jpg
*Image should be no larger than 550 pixels on longest edge.
*Please email submissions to ahouse@scrapbooknewsandreview.com by the 1st of every month.

WAAAAAAAAY LATE!!!!!

I(Mona) apologize that this is MANY hours late! With everything that has been going on in my life this past week, God really spoke to me today with this verse:

When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul. (Ps.94:19)

It always amazes me how God speaks to me where I am and knows exactly what I need to hear when I need to hear it. My husband and I have been hit with "bad luck" from all sides and I was at the end of my rope and felt that nothing else could go wrong. But then God reminded me that he can fill me and He is my strength when I have nothing left to go on. I felt I had no hope, no joy, only melancholy, but then I remembered my Creator, my Jehovah -Rophe (The Lord who Heals) to give me strength to get through!

Between problems with school, hacking computers, lost money, thousands of dollars in bills in the course of a week, and lost friends, my heart is broken. But God is my healer, he will take care of me when I no longer can. Thank you Father!

Daily

Happy Thursday! This is Tanis with today's challenge topic.

Before I start, I just want to say THANKS for stopping by and I hope that if you decide to study and record your learning, that you'll link your project up here!!

I was going through some old sermon notes and found one that I knew I needed to spend some time looking at again - here's a few points and Scriptures that jumped out at me. I know this is a challenge for me - busy schedules and kids running this way and that can be draining on your time with God. So it's good to rethink about DAILY spending time with God!

Being a DAILY Christian

1. Remembering God DAILY, because He is a daily God.
Psalm 68:19
Praise the Lord; praise God our savior!For each day he carries us in his arms.

2. Know that you are DAILY accepted and DAILY forgiven if you are DAILY returning to God for forgiveness.
1 John 1:9
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

3. DAILY trusting Him with our problems and concerns.
1 Peter 5:7
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

Isaiah 33:2
But Lord, be merciful to us,for we have waited for you.Be our strong arm each day and our salvation in times of trouble.

4. DAILY talking to Him.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

5. DAILY claiming his promises.
Lamentations 3:20-25
The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!”

6. DAILY praising Him in all circumstances.
Psalm 42:8
But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me,and through each night I sing his songs,praying to God who gives me life.

Psalm 96:2
Sing to the Lord; praise his name.Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.




Lythan



Stacy

Pauline

Tanis

Julie

Ruth

Hazel

Kim

Happy New Day!

How are you doing with your New Year's Resolutions?

Still on the diet? Going to the gym? Decluttering? (that is mine and the answer is "kinda"). My husband is learning poems and he is doing really well so far - I am proud of him!

But they are not that easy to stick to are they? These promises that we make to live our lives differently.

What helps me is knowing that God's time is not the same as my time

These helpful words are from Ecclesiastes 3

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil - this is the gift of God

I think it says that sometimes we have to let God be God and go with the flow and try to respond to his time and not be in a hurry to make it our time. What it also means is that the opportunity to change our lives and turn around and take the steps we need to get closer to God don't happen only once a year. Because what do New Year's Resolutions do? Sometimes they just set us up to fail, to feel bad, to be less inclined to even try next time.

The good news for us, the great news is that thanks to Jesus death and resurrection for us, every time we come to him saying sorry, every time we share the ways we know we have fallen from grace, he picks us up and hugs us and says "I forgive you.

I love the way that it is expressed in the song by Amy Grant - Brand New Start

When I think of all the things he's doing for me,

It makes me stand in wonder at what he's making me to be

Trying to walk through straight but getting turned around

Always asking the Master to take a back seat and wait around

But I praise the Lord for giving me a brand new start each day

And I praise his blessed name for guiding me all along the way

If he didn't I wouldn't even try

I'm going to try and declutter still and I will encourage Phil in his poem learning, but most of all I am going to try and be the person God made me to be, to trust in him and when I need it, to receive a fresh start once again

Faith Hope Love

1 Corinthians 13

Love

¹If I speak in the tongues^a]">[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^b]">[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. ¹²Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.


When i read these verses i think of motherhood ,marriage and life in general, but i was recently reminded more of motherhood. Biologically she is not my child but i care about her very much. She came to live with us not to long ago and she is leaving us very soon. She made some bad choices over Christmas and i am asking you to keep her in prayer our korean student..

p.s. i never got my project done i will post it later

Stacy




Kim




Hazel



Julie

Tanis

Ruth

Lythan

Mona




Pauline

If any man thirst...

I thought it fitting that on this last day of 2009 that I share a reading from Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening" from the December 31st morning section, where Spurgeon quotes John 7:37, "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." And here are Spurgeon's most excellent comments on this verse:

Patience has her perfect work in the Lord Jesus, and until the last day of the feast He pleaded with the Jews, even as on this last day of the year He pleads with us, and waits to be gracious to us. Admirable indeed is the longsuffering of the Saviour in bearing with some of us year after year, notwithstanding our provocations, rebellions, and resistance of His Holy Spirit. Wonder of wonders that we are still in the land of mercy!

Pity expressed herself most plainly, for Jesus "cried", which implies not only the loudness of His voice, but the tenderness of His tones. He entreats us to be reconciled. "We pray you," says the Apostle, as through God did beseech you by us. What earnest, pathetic terms are these! How deep must be the love which makes the Lord weep over sinners, and like a mother woo His children to His bosom! Surely at the call of such a cry our willing hearts will come.

Provision is made most plenteously; all is provided that man can need to quench his soul's thirst. To his conscience the atonement brings peace; to his understanding the gospel brings the richest instruction; to his heart the person of Jesus is the noblest object of affection; to the whole man the truth as it is in Jesus supplies the purest nutriment. Thirst is terrible, but Jesus can remove it. Though the soul were utterly famished, Jesus could restore it.

Proclamation is made most freely, that every thirsty one is welcome. No other distinction is made but that of thirst. Whether it be the thirst of avarice, ambition, pleasure, knowledge, or rest, he who suffers from it is invited. The thirst may be bad in itself, and be no sign of grace, but rather a mark of inordinate sin longing to be gratified with deeper draughts of lust; but it is not goodness in the creature which brings him the invitation, the Lord Jesus sends it freely, and without respect of persons.

Personality is declared most fully. The sinner must come to Jesus, not to works, ordinances, or doctrines, but to a personal Redeemer, who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree. The bleeding, dying, rising Saviour, is the only star of hope to a sinner. Oh for grace to come now and drink, ere the sun sets upon the year's last day!

No waiting or preparation is so much as hinted at. Drinking represents a reception for which no fitness is required. A fool, a thief, a harlot can drink; and so sinfulness of character is no bar to the invitation to believe in Jesus. We want no golden cup, no bejewelled chalice, in which to convey the water to the thirsty; the mouth of poverty is welcome to stoop down and quaff the flowing flood. Blistered, leprous, filthy lips may touch the stream of divine love; they cannot pollute it, but shall themselves be purified. Jesus is the fount of hope. Dear reader, hear the clear Redeemer's loving voice as He cries to each of us,

"If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink."

Jesus Joy!

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

We often sing these words at this time of year, I would like to take time to reflect on what this actually means. And how the reality of the joy of knowing Jesus can dramatically change the direction of your life.

It's my turn (Ruth) to set the theme this week, we're slowly getting back into a routine after the birth of our daughter Mae.

I have recently been introduced to the Christian speaker Louie Giglio. If you search for him on Youtube you will find clips. One of his talks is headed Indescribable, he goes into great detail about the Universe, our Galaxy and the size of the stars. They are inspirational messages, that have made me appreciate how great and awesome God is, indeed how indescribable he is. It has reminded me of the humility of Jesus - God's son, in taking on humanity - being human.

The even more amazing thing is, he take on 'being human' for a holiday, or for the 'experience' - he did it for a purpose. He had to become human in order to pay for the punishment we deserve for the things we do that we shouldn't, and the things we don't do that we should.

Although Christmas isn't a day we are told to celebrate in the Bible, it is a time where we as Christians can stop and ponder and be thankful to God that he came in flesh all those years ago. A time to be truly JOYFUL for JESUS.

Have a blessed and peaceful Christmas, from everyone on the Salt team.

Hazel




Stacy

Pauline

Kim

Julie

Ruth

Lythan