Bible Illustrating and Journaling : Matthew 9:16-17

Annie’s Ink-Lings

This Week's Scripture Focus:  Matthew 9:16-17

16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.

17 Nor do they put new wine into old wine skins or else the wine skins break, the wine is spilled and the wine skins are ruined. But they put new into new wine skins, and both are preserved.”

We all understand about patching – new cloth to new cloth and old cloth to old cloth or it won’t work.  The parable in these verses is that Jesus is saying that the Pharisees and their old system is the old wine skin and that what Jesus teaches is the new wine skin.

Jesus is saying that there is no way that what He teaches can fit into the system of the Pharisees, because the message He is giving is of an internal holiness, of a real repentance, of a heart attitude that can never fit in the ritualistic system, because the Pharisaical system couldn’t contain it or hold the truth.

The Pharasees’ Judaistic, traditional, legalistic, formal, self-righteous externalism was in no way able to either mesh with the ministry of Christ nor was that system able to contain the ministry of Christ.

Based on a sermon by John MacArthur.

Isn't it wonderful that just by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, we become like a new wine skin!  And that is the only way we can be filled with His new wine.

Blessings,

Annie

Masculine Nature Card

Annie’s Ink-Lings

I'm really loving the Rooted in Nature stamp set from Stampin' Up.  This is especially a great set for making masculine cards and for nature themed cards.  I saw a card on Pinterest using this stamp set, which gave me inspiration boost.  As I was formulating an idea and looking for papers to use, I found in my stash a sheet of green card stock with embossed leaves.  Just perfect for the background!  

I used my Misti to stamp the tree trunk slice with Fresco Tuscan Earth.  Then I very lightly inked the stamp with Fresco Amaretto Truffle and overstamped the previously stamped image.  This gave a really nice dimension and texture to the image.  The three little dots in the lower right corner were made with a 1/8 inch hole hand punch.  After gluing them in place, I added a touch of Spectrum Sparkle Pen –  Crystal Clear.   

This is a quick and easy design for a birthday card or by changing the sentiment it could be a nice thank you card -- actually just about for any occasion!

Card Stock

White

Light Brown

Green Embossed Leaves Card Stock

Measurements

  White Card Base

• cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" score at 4 1/4"

Green Embossed Leaves Card Stock Panel

• cut at 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"

Bottom Panel Layers 

• Brown -  2 3/8" x 4 ¼ "
• DP 2 1/8” v 4”

Top Panel Layers

• Light Brown - cut at 3 ¾” x 3 ¼”
• White – cut at 3 ½” x 3”

Tools

Paper Trimmer

Foam Tape

Tape Runner

Glue Bottle

Poker-Picker-Upper

Metal Awl (Poking Tool)

Scissors

1/8 inch hole punch

Spectrum Sparkle Pen –  Crystal Clear or Wink of Stella

Thanks for joining me today.

Blessings,

Annie

Bible Illustrating and Journaling: Hebrews 11:6

Annie’s Ink-Lings

This Week's Scripture Focus:  Hebrews 11:6

You can never please God without faith,

without depending on Him.  Anyone who wants

to come to God must believe that there is a

God and that he rewards those who sincerely

look for him.

Faith pleases God more than anything else does.  The Christian life is dependent upon faith.  We stand on faith; we live on faith.  Faith is loved and honored by God more than any other single thing.  The bible teaches that faith is the only approach that we have to God.  No man has sins forgiven, no man goes to heaven, no man has assurance of peace and happiness,

until he has faith in Jesus Christ.  You may be saying, “God, I believe you are a great person, but I do not believe your Word; I do not believe what you say.”  Belief comes before Faith.  In order to please God, you must believe Him and have faith in Him.  Perhaps your faith is small and weak.  It does not matter how big your faith is, but rather, where your faith is.  Is it in Christ, the Son of god, who died on the cross for your sins?

Faith is the connecting power into the spiritual realm of God.  Faith makes Him become a tangible reality to our sense perceptions of a person.  Faith is the basic ingredient to begin a relationship with God.

Blessings,
Annie

Bible Illustrating and Journaling: Matthew 11:11

Annie’s Ink-Lings

This Week's Scripture Focus:  Matthew 11:11

I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist.  Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is!

My Study of John the Baptist

We are taught that God knew us even before we were born and that He had a plan for our lives.  Even as it is true today, so it was in biblical days.  John’s days were destined by the Lord.  He was born with a specific purpose and timing in history. 

            Truth – God has a specific calling and purpose for our lives today.

God knew exactly when John needed to be born and into which family John should be born to, as he was to be the forerunner of Christ at a specific time in history.  God’s timing was not late or early; it was right on time.  John was a relative to Jesus Himself.  When Mary went to visit Elizabeth to announce her own miraculous pregnancy, the Bible says, “the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Luke 1:41)  Even before his birth, John’s purpose was being aligned. God was calling.

            Truth – God’s timing in our lives is perfect.

While John was born into a priestly family, he did not take up his father’s work and serve as a priest.  It was God’s will that John lived in the wilderness until the day he was revealed to Israel.  In this way, he would not be contaminated by the corrupt religious system of his day.  Luke 1:80 says, “he grew and became strong in spirit.” Prophets were known to use the isolation of the desert places to grow spiritually over time and to focus their message on God.  He was a Nazarite from birth and was filled with the Holy Spirit while still in the womb. Although John was a prophet, he did not perform any miraculous signs.   

            Truth – God gives us the power to keep our heart and minds set on Christ, even in desert days.

John ended nearly four hundred years of prophetic silence and paved the way for the Messiah.  Isaiah prophesized of John as, “The voice of one calling in the wilderness: prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3).  John preached a message of repentance and baptism.  (To repent is to change our will in reference to sin, resolving to sin no more.)  “I baptize you with water for repentance.  But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Matthew 3:11)

            Truth – Our mission in this life is to point others to Christ.

John lived solely to point others to Christ, and he was obedient to God’s purposes.  John was brave and was willing to speak truth, even if it meant his own death.  He didn’t let anything get in his way, but kept his heart set on Christ.  He was a strong and humble leader. 

            Truth – Humility and obedience to God matters more than what others think of us.

Jesus Himself said these words of John, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matthew 11:11)

            Truth – No matter what battles we face in this world, there is always true and unending freedom through Christ.  He alone is our Hope and Deliverer

Blessings,
Annie

Woodland and Quail Birthday Card

Annie’s Ink-Lings

Just got this birthday card finished for my husband, whose birthday is October 12.  We both love watching the Quail in our yard, so I'm sure he's going to love it.  The Stampin' Up Rooted in Nature Stamp Set and Stampin' Up Woodlands Textured Embossing Folder were just perfect to create the design I had in my head.  Can hardly wait to try my next design idea.

All the images were stamped on white card stock.  The Quail, the cross-section tree trunk, and two of the leaves were stamped with the Tuscan Earth, then slightly over stamped with Amaretto Truffle, using my Misti.  Fuzzy cut the images after stamping.  I used 3-D tape to mount the cross-section tree truck.  I typed and printed the sentiment with my computer.

Supplies

Stampin' Up Rooted in Nature Stamp Set

Stampin' Up Woodlands Textured Embossing Folder

PSX Quail #2358

Fresco Ink Pads:  Tuscan Earth, Olive Green, and Amaretto Truffle

Measurements

White Card Base 9 x 6 inches

Brown Panel 6 1/8 x 4 1/4

Embossed Panel 6 x 4 inches

Blessings to you on this beautiful fall day.

Annie

Bible Illustrating and Journaling: Jeremiah 31:12

Annie’s Ink-Lings

This Week's Scripture Focus:  Jeremiah 31:12

Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.  Jeremiah 31:12

John Calvin says that God’s people would come to sing praises on the high hill of Jerusalem.  By these words, Jeremiah promises the restoration of the Temple.  If God had wanted for His people to have only quietness, wealth, and pleasure, then it would have been better for them to remain in Chaldea, which was great with fertility and pleasantness.  But their return to their own country was to be looked for chiefly that they might be separated from heathens, and might rightly worship God, and so dwell in the promised inheritance.  This is a reminder to us that we are strangers in the world, passing through until our heavenly rest – in the world but not of it.

If God’s people flowed to him in complete faith, He would grant them eternal freedom, much like what believers receive today through the Lord Jesus Christ.  If they  flowed together to the goodness of Jehovah, something better and more excellent than food and sufficiency is promised, and that is spiritual, that the people might ascend to the spiritual kingdom of Christ. 

When God said their soul shall be as a watered garden, He means that their abundance would be perpetual. God promises that the souls of the people would be as watered gardens, because they were not to be satisfied only for a short time, but were at no time to be exposed to want, or famine, or to any deficiency.

He says further, they shall again mourn no more when they are made free.  God’s blessing would be continued to them, so that the faithful would not be subject to the common miseries of men.  But God promises that he would be so favorable to his Church, that it would have a perpetual cause for rejoicing,  For whatever evils may happen to us, God shines on us by His grace, and thus all things turn out for our good, and are aids to our salvation.

* * * * *

Journaling from my study of a John Calvin commentary. 

I am so thankful for God's perpetual blessings and that my soul will be like a watered garden.  I pray that it is for you also.

Blessing,

Annie

Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

Annie’s Ink-Lings

Haunting, harrowing, heartbreaking. This book was an incredible depiction of the Second World War, told from the point of view of two characters in very different circumstances.  It’s just before the Nazi invasion and occupation of Paris. A young blind girl relies on her father for everything and she is his world as well. He spends all his time making her a miniature wooden model of the city so she can get around alone with her white cane. In neighboring Germany, a young boy, who lives with his sister in an orphanage, starts fooling around with crystal radios and becomes a crackerjack radio repairman enthralled by the voices coming over the air. Her blindness and his fascination with these invisible waves give us the main theme of the book.

For me, this was a very special story. I feel like I have been on a long gut-wrenching journey, and in a way I have, traveling with two young children, one in Berlin and one in Paris and follow them as they grow-up. There are poignant moments, downright sad moments, moments that made me smile and moments that made me so very angry. Werner in Berlin is a curious child, a child with the talent for putting things together, like radios, he and his sister Jutta live in an orphanage. Marie-Laure, a blind girl and her father live in Paris. Her father is the locksmith and keeper of the keys the natural history museum. It is the radio that will connect these two lives long before they actually meet.

Werner finds that he has been chosen to be put into a military school. This is the brutal story of his education at a military school; the military escapades of the boy as he works with a German unit identifying and killing resistance radio operators. We travel along with him as we learn that the many young men in the Nazi party were trained to be cold blooded killers.

Letters from his sister back in Germany become the boy’s conscience after he enters military service. How far would you go along with the prevailing threats and times, how would you react when confronted with an injustice? This young man pays heavily for his supposed weakness of character. How long can one pretend everything is fine, trying to keep eyes closed so one cannot see?

This is the story of the chaotic flight of Marie-Laurie and her father from occupied Paris to distant relatives in St. Malo in Brittany; the imprisonment of her father; the search for a missing jewel; the formation of a women’s resistance movement in St. Malo; a budding one-day romance between the French girl and the German boy.

This is the story of a miniature towns and houses built by Marie-Laure’s father so she can get around wherever she lives. It is keys, the French resistance, the United States Air Force bombing of St. Malo, of imprisonments, love, and moral questions.

What I loved most about this book was all the light that I did see. There is so much here that captivated me - from the beautiful writing to the strong, caring characters, to the loving relationships, and the way people touched each other's lives during the trying times of WW II. The descriptions are wonderful, very detailed as they are made for a blind girl, to enable her to envision the many things described.

I really did not want this story to end.

Blessings,

Annie