Gethsemane

Since this challenge for SALT goes live a few days before Easter Sunday, I (Pauline) decided to reflect on the events in the garden of Gethsemane and used a reflection from Karen Rollins in my preparation which expands the theme I wanted to explore. Some of this reflection is included here.

In Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22, Jesus, along with Peter, James and John, goes to the garden of Gethsemane. He tells his disciples that he is upset "even to the point of death," asks them to wait for him as he goes on ahead and tells them to stay awake. Jesus goes on, then falls to the ground and prays to His father. He asks to be relieved from his suffering and yet makes clear that He will do what His Father demands. He returns to Peter, James and John and finds them asleep. He is disappointed that they are not able to stay awake even as he undergoes torments. This then happens another two times. Jesus declares that the "hour is near" and He has been betrayed and they start to leave.

As He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus made a plea to God to deliver him from his suffering. He knows God has the power to do all things and asks God to use that power to save Him from the trials that are coming. He is agitated because He knows that while as a human He has a choice, He is being called to obedience.

Jesus doesn’t avoid life. In the scripture readings, Jesus is facing life head on and is paying the price for it. The Jesus we find in the garden of Gethsemane isn’t a Jesus we hear much about. This Jesus is distressed, agitated and deeply grieved. This is a very human Jesus in a very uncomfortable position.

A struggling Jesus, a human Jesus, a Jesus that teaches us to face life head on and not to avoid being uncomfortable.
I wanted the SALT team to have the freedom to choose an aspect from the story that spoke to them personally. The humanness of Jesus is where my layout came from, but you will see from the contributions that there are many aspects to the story and our layouts, cards and other creations reflect that. I hope you are inspired by the team’s creations and that if you decide to participate in the challenge that you will link back to us in the comments.
The SALT team wishes you all a very Happy and blessed Easter.

Pauline

Lythan
Hazel

Kim

Julie

Stacy

Penitence

IN my tradition we follow the season of Lent - a time of reflection and preparation for Jesus death and resurrection. It lasts for 40 days (not including Sundays) to echo the time that Jesus spent in the desert preparing for his ministry. I have chosen one of the themes of Lent as our next challenge -

Penitence

Which I would put simply as "being aware of what we have done wrong and seeking God's forgiveness" or having a sense of regret for sin and wanting to make a sincere change. The focal reading for me is this one 1 John 1:8-9
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
Which comes before the prayer of confession in some orders of worship. What does it mean to be aware of our wrong doing and of the forgiveness we receive through Jesus Christ? How can we sincerely make a change in our lives? There are many ways that the word and the reading may take you.

If you feel lead to create something based on this week's topic, please leave us a comment with a link back to your blog or gallery. We'd love to share in your creation. Here is how the design team explored the challenge.

Lythan

Hazel


Kim
Tanis

Julie

Ruth

Pauline

Stacy

Renew

Renew-to make again; to start over again.

When Spring comes after a long 6 months of Winter in Alberta, Canada. I always feel rejuvinated, renewed and restored. So with Spring just over a week away renew has been a strong presence in my mind. So when i thought about my topic i feel lead to share this with you, Romans 12:2 states

“ And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

The message breaks it down for us like this

Place Your Life Before God
1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Just as the spring rains renew the earth so my soul feels refreshed by him. Take an opprotunity to place your life before GOD..................

Keep Yourself from Idols - I John 5:21

Hello all of our dear crafting friends! We're so thankful that you've taken the time to come visit the SALT blog and pray that this fortnight's challenge will not only be a blessing to you but encourage you to participate by creating a project based on this week's theme of Keep Yourself from Idols, taken from I John 5:21, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."

The idea for this week's challenge came to me by way of a short blurb from my (Kim) church's bulletin, titled "Me, Worship Idols?" The paragraph in the bulletin was from a book by Ed Welch, The Journal of Biblical Counseling in a section that deals with addictions. (I want to note that although this section from Mr. Welch's book is dealing with addictions, my goal is to focus more on how we create idols of the heart that may not be as outwardly noticeable).

"One of the most common portrayals of the human condition, and one which captures both the in-control and out-of-control experiences of addictions, is the theme of idolatry. From this perspective, the true nature of all addictions is that we have chosen to go outside the boundaries of the kingdom of God and look for blessing in the land of idols. In turning to idols, we are saying that we desire something in creation more than we desire the Creator. This sounds like strange language to Western ears, but idolatry is perhaps the most dominant image in Scripture and it abounds in potential applications. Did you ever notice how many Biblical stories could be summarized with these questions? Who will you worship? The Creator or the created thing? God or man? The Divine King or worthless idols? The basic story line of the Old Testament is about people who find idolatry irresistible. Then God, ultimately through Jesus, comes to rescue His people out of their enslaving practices."

One of the things that struck me from this writing is that I too frequently struggle with idolizing my work, keeping a schedule, or something I deem, based on my actions, as more important than Christ. When I get very busy, I have a tendency to have a "just a minute" attitude towards God. Thinking, "I'll pray and read just as soon as I finish this thing" and of course more and more things come into my day but I too often fail to make time to spend with God. And isn't that a form of idolatry? It reminds me of the text in Matthew 26:16, "for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his sown soul." At the end of the day, although God, through His providence, may bring many distractions into our lives, is anything as important as Christ?

The good, or should I say great news, is that Christ came into the world to break the power of sin, to enable us to do those things that we're unable to do on our own, if we would simply seek Him in repentance and faith.

If you feel lead to create something based on this week's topic, please leave us a comment with a link back to your blog or gallery. We'd love to share in your creation!!

And before I leave, I wanted to mention that one of our dear design team members, Mona, has decided to step down. We have been delighted to have gotten to know Mona and to see all of her beautiful creations. We'll miss you Mona!!

Lastly, I wanted to thank our participants from our last challenge on prayer, Fiona and Martha. Thank you ladies for joining us!!

Kim

Hazel

Julie

Lythan

Tanis

Pauline

Ruth



Stacy

Obedience

Apologies for the lateness of this post.

I have to confess I hadn't realised it was my turn to post until this afternoon, when it was past the deadline. Although I have been online, I haven't been checking in with the Salt girls as I ought to have. I need to overhaul my priorities. Praise God that he sends people to nudge us in the right direction.

As a family we have recently taken the step of moving back to the church we left 3 years ago. It is in our home town, and we believe God has a work for us to do there. In the weeks leading up to the transition, I have been very mindful of the Lord speaking to me gently but firmly of things that I have to lay aside in order to serve him effectively. As you can imagine, the reasons we left in the first place were not happy, so the idea of coming back to a place of hurt is not an easy one. However, the Lord can provide such healing when we seek his will, and on hearing his voice, obey. I am reminded of a chorus we sang as children.

O B E D I E N C E
Obedience is the very best way,
to show that we believe.
Doing exactly as the Lord commands,
doing it joyfully (woopee)
Action is the key, do it immeadiately, and joy you will receive.

We obey because he first loved us, and in obeying we find peace and joy in the perfect will of God, what a great place to be!

Continue in Prayer

My topic today is taken from Colossians 4:2 "Continue in prayer." I have been thinking a lot lately about prayer and it's importance in the life of God's children. As a busy wife and mother it's often difficult to find time for a meaningful conversation with anyone!! And yet, prayer is most important especially when we are busy! I remember hearing this quote from John Wesley, "I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it." When I read the morning reading from January 2 out of Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon which used this verse as it's text I was convicted to be more prayful this year. Here is an excerpt of that reading:

It is interesting to remark how large a portion of Sacred Writ is occupied with the subject of prayer, either in furnishing examples, enforcing precepts, or pronouncing promises. We scarcely open the Bible before we read, "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord;" and just as we are about to close the volume, the "Amen" of an earnest supplication meets our ear. Instances are plentiful. Here we find a wrestling Jacob—there a Daniel who prayed three times a day—and a David who with all his heart called upon his God. On the mountain we see Elias; in the dungeon Paul and Silas. We have multitudes of commands, and myriads of promises. What does this teach us, but the sacred importance and necessity of prayer? We may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in His Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives. If He has said much about prayer, it is because He knows we have much need of it. . . .If thou be a child of God, thou wilt seek thy Father's face, and live in thy Father's love. Pray that this year thou mayst be holy, humble, zealous, and patient; have closer communion with Christ, and enter oftener into the banqueting-house of His love. Pray that thou mayst be an example and a blessing unto others, and that thou mayst live more to the glory of thy Master. The motto for this year must be, "Continue in prayer."

We'd love to see what you create using this inspiration - please leave us a link to your project. Thank you for joining us today.

Julie

Hazel



Pauline

Kim

Lythan

Love is in the Air

Even in our local supermarket you can’t escape the signs that it is nearly St Valentine’s Day. The cuddly toys, cut-price boxes of chocolates and large displays of cards to choose from to help us show our love to partners, potential partners, friends, parents and perhaps even our teachers (there is a wide choice of cards to peruse!!)

Historians trace the origin of St Valentine’s Day to the Roman Empire, although a young priest called Valentine gave the day its name and clearer meaning. There are various legends about Valentine himself (I’ll leave the very interested among you to your own research!) but many believe the 14^th February to be an opportunity to celebrate love, and not just romantic love (remember those teacher cards I mentioned earlier?)

The Bible is full of passages talking about love – our love for God, God’s love for us and love that we have for one another. I’ve been reflecting on some of these passages recently because of a situation a friend has found herself in and I have to be honest and say that some of the seemingly ‘simple’ passages present us with some of the greatest challenges.

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'^a]"> This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' Matthew 22:37-39

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. . .And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Excerpts from 1 Corinthians 13:4-13

God’s love transcends all of our human definitions of love to the point that we perhaps cannot fully understand it. For me, the crucial thing is that God’s love is unconditional. It does not depend on feelings or emotions. He doesn’t change the love He has for us based on how we make Him feel or how ‘loveable’ we are. He loves us, created us to be in a relationship with Him, and sacrificed His only Son to restore that relationship. Even though we may struggle to comprehend it because of the limitations of language or understanding, the fact is that God is Love and as Christians we can rejoice in that fact, not just on one day, but 365.