Happy New Year ...Out With the Old

Happy New Year! I always love the start of the year. Even though nothing is different from yesterday to today, it just seems exciting each year to have a fresh start. We open crisp new calendars and things feel fresh again. But before I move into the start of the new I need to finish the old. Last weekend my mother was admitted to the hospital with some health issues so my past week has been spent mainly helping her and taking her to get tests done. I did manage to finish my Advent Rolodex art cards but didn't have time to post them, so today's post will be finishing up that project. In the next few days I'll start to talk about my word for 2016 and the various projects I am doing this year.

The Advent season was busy for me this year. I coordinated the authors for the daily Advent devotions for the His Kingdom Come community, writing four of the devotions myself. That activity immersed me in Advent starting back in late October. I also coordinated weekly Advent devotions, Scripture readings and Advent playlists for our church website. Amazingly, even though I was immersed in Advent for so long, I found that I enjoyed and connected with Advent at a deeper level this year. It can be hard at times when you are on staff at a church, to feel engaged in the worship service and not in "work" mode. But during Advent I found myself fully engaged in the five services. It was a wonderful season!

It's a new year! Enjoy your day. :)

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. 

Advent Week 4

This week we move into the last week of Advent culminating on Christmas Day with the birth of Jesus Christ. Yesterday we posted our last Advent devotion and playlist on our church site gracetoledo.org.

Today I am posting the devotion I wrote for the Advent devotion project at His Kingdom Come. Each day a different author has written a devotion based on an Advent or Christmas song.

Worship Video: Born That We May Have Life by Chris Tomlin 

No reputation, no stately bearing 
No palace bed for royalty 
But a star in the Heavens, a sign full of wonder 
Announcing the coming of the King of kings 

Rejoice, o world, your Savior has come 
Through the love of a virgin's womb 
Son of God, Son of man, born that we may have life 
You were born that we may have life 

A throne in a manger, the cross in a cradle 
The hidden revealing this glorious plan 
Of a Child who would suffer, a Child who would conquer 
The sin of every woman, the sin of every man 

Rejoice, o world, your Savior has come 
Through the love of a virgin's womb 
Son of God, son of man, born that we may have life 
You were born that we may have life 

Rejoice, o world, rejoice 
Rejoice, o world, 
Hallelujah, the Savior has come 
Rejoice, o world, join with the angels 
Rejoice, o world, rejoice 

Rejoice, o world, for the King of kings 
And the Lord of lords 
Rejoice, o world, a Savior is born 
Who brings us life and brings peace 

Born that we may have life 
You were born that we may have life 
You were born that we may have life 

For centuries before Jesus’ birth, the Israelites were expecting the Messiah to come as a strong, mighty, conquering King; a King who would rescue them from slavery and oppression and who would crush their enemies. But the King of kings came not as they had expected but, as this song says, with “No reputation, no stately bearing, no palace bed for royalty”. Jesus came into our world in a humble manner, as a baby born in a manger. Yet in this baby lay the hope of the world. 

The Magi saw this when they followed the star to the manger. When they saw the child they “bowed down and worshiped him”. (Matthew 2:11) 

The shepherds saw this when they were led to the manger by an angel of the Lord who declared to them, “In the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) 

Simeon saw this when the baby Jesus was taken to the temple in Jerusalem by his parents to be presented to the Lord. Simeon had been waiting for the “consolation of Israel” as promised by the Holy Spirit. He saw this promise fulfilled in that temple. Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms “and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:25-32) 

A prophetess named Anna saw this when she too saw the baby Jesus in the temple, calling him the “redemption of Jerusalem”. (Luke 2:38) 

All recognized this humble baby boy as the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Savior of the world! In this baby was God, humbling Himself to dwell with man. In this baby was the glory of the Lord! 

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) 

In this baby we have life! 

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” (John 1:4) 
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) 
“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.” (John 6:40) 
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) 
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;” (John 11:25) 
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) 
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) 

Rejoice, o world, your Savior has come 

Through the love of a virgin's womb 

Son of God, Son of man, born that we may have life 

You were born that we may have life!

Here are a few more Advent Rolodex art cards:

Advent Rolodex Art Cards Catch-up

I have fallen behind in the past week on posting my daily Advent Rolodex art cards and the other Advent projects I am participating in.

Here is the art I made for yesterday's Advent devotion I wrote for the His Kingdom Come community. You can read the devotion here if you'd like.

At our church we use some of the pre-made background slides that come with our presentation software for the song lyric projection on Sunday mornings. There is a slide that is a concrete block wall with the blocks forming a cross done in a contrasting color. That slide was the inspiration for this art page.

I am also working on an Advent project for my church website. A new devotion with a playlist for this week (week 3) and daily Advent Scripture readings can be found here.

It is a busy time of year with Christmas celebrations at school and getting ready for family celebrations. It's good to have Advent devotions and readings to help slow down the season some and focus on the real reason we celebrate Christmas - the birth of Christ the Lord!

I hope you are finding ways to slow down and participate in Advent this year. :)

Change and Advent Day 9

For the past year I have been a part of the foundation team for the His Kingdom Come faith art community. Helping to start this community has been a great experience and I have gained many wonderful friends all over the world. I discovered through coordinating the weekly devotional studies for the Take Me Deeper group that I really enjoy writing. However, in the past few months my job responsibilities in  my full time ministry job have changed and require more creative energy. One thing that I have found to be true of myself over the past few years is that, while I totally love being creative, it requires energy. Energy that I can't dig down and manufacture when I get overly tired and stressed out. So I have had to make the hard decision to step back from a few things in order to maintain that creative energy and keep myself from burnout. As you can imagine keeping up the weekly devotions and other duties I have for HKC, along with trying to maintain my own blog and Etsy shop, along with a full time job in ministry that generally will go far beyond a standard work week, has been difficult to juggle. My new responsibilities at my job will require creativity and writing as I take on keeping our church website and blog up-to-date. I have made the hard decision to step down from the HKC foundation team in order to be able to devote more time and energy on my own blog and shop and on the church blog and website. 

In all honesty, I went into the HKC foundation team with some hesitation. Only because I know from past experience that when a hobby becomes work it can be difficult to continue to enjoy the hobby. I managed a cross-stitch and quilt shop for 8 years and when I left that job to go into ministry I stopped both of those hobbies and never picked them up again. I enjoy art journaling and mixed media art too much to let this happen again. They have become more than hobbies to me and finding art journaling when I did was used by God as a tool for healing when I was dealing with issues of burnout. So it seems that spending one year helping the HKC community get started has been a good thing without it becoming something I don't want it to become. 

Today I sent off the last week of Advent devotions for the community and that ends my official responsibilities with HKC for 2015. Change is always bittersweet. There is sadness in leaving something you have put so much time and energy into. There is some melancholy in having relationships that have been daily and weekly experiences change. But there is also excitement and anticipation over the new adventures and opportunities that lay ahead. 

I have selected my word for the year for 2016 as is my tradition over the past few years. This year my word was RENEW as I felt there were areas in my life that needed renewal and restoration. In many ways that has taken place in 2015 and I will write more about that in the weeks ahead. Over the past few years as I have become more connected with the realities of being an introvert, I have partaken in activities of silence and solitude before the Lord. These are activities and practices I want to spend more time in next year. At first I thought that solitude would be my word next year, but after more thought and prayer, it seems that the word REST encompasses so much more of what I am after. And it includes solitude. I don't mean rest as in needing sleep or a break from activity. I am looking at REST more in terms of Sabbath rest, spiritual rest, being still and resting in the Lord. Again, I'll explore that more and write about it in the weeks and months ahead. 

Needless-to-say, my decision to step down from the HKC foundation team is tied up in this also. Next year I have a few art groups I will be participating in and exploring more areas of art and I will stay a participant in the HKC community. But I intend to slow things down as much is possible and explore what it means to REST - body, mind and soul. I will remain open, as always, to going after whatever opportunities that God places on my path. Life is a journey and I am enjoying the process!

My Advent Rolodex art card for day 9:

Today's Advent devotion for the HKC community can be found here

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30 Day Blogging Challenge day 21.