Illustrated Faith Stamps on Neon Acrylic Paint – Bible Art Journaling Challenge Week 32

Hello Everyone! It is week 32 of the Bible Art Journaling Challenge! So, if you’ve been following me long, you know I’m a little obsessed with neon these days. I try not to use it all the time, so I don’t bore you to tears with my enjoyment of bright. Balance is always good. 🙂 Today though, it really fit the bill. I’m talking about worship and when I think of worship, I pretty much find myself wanting to worshipfully twirl in wide open spaces with abandon, like a blissful kid of THE King of all. Bright neon red, orange, pink and yellow scraped over the surface of my page with… yes… Illustrated Faith stamps. It just fit today.

If you’ve not yet heard of Shanna Noel or her company Illustrated Faith, you are in for a real treat. She’s got a sweet etsy shop with some beautiful stamps and devotionals, just perfect for Bible art journaling. You can read more from Shanna over on my Bible Art Journaling Artists Roundup Interview from several weeks ago. As you can imagine, our worlds have naturally crossed paths more and more as time goes on. We are both pursuing life in the same space. It has been a pleasure to get to know her more over the past several months. She is a true gem.

Illustrated Faith

Anyway, recently Shanna generously sent me a free selection of stamps with devotionals, and some stickers and the Bible Mat from her Illustrated Faith Genesis Kit. Is this not the cutest package to get in the mail?!

I’ve used some of the stamps from her etsy shop in my project today, so you can see those in the supplies list and my video. Of course you can use whatever you’d like to use but I know those of you who like stamping and stickers etc., will just love this stuff like I am.

As you’ll notice, I’ve promised on my video today, to share some links with you to the Illustrated Faith Genesis Kit which Shanna Noel created for Bible art journaling. Here are some links in this collection I’ve put together of the individual kit pieces. The whole collection is here. My links below go to Amazon. If you’d rather buy from Scrapbook.com, you can click here to see the Illustrated Faith Genesis Kit pieces on Scrapbook.com as well. Shanna created some fun stuff!

Click images to view art supply details or to purchase.

If you’ve used Illustrated Faith supplies to create in your Bible, I hope you’ll put some links into the comments below so we can all enjoy seeing more examples of how to use these fun products. Shanna is not paying me to promote her stuff. She freely gave what she sent me and I love it enough to share.

Time for a challenge

Enough about all that fun though… Today I’m talking about worship and I’ve shared some interesting discoveries as I studied the Word for this challenge. Be sure to read below when you’re done. I hope what I share below will help enrich your time in the Word this week. The discoveries certainly enriched mine. Enjoy the video and then I’ll see you after that!

As I mentioned in my video at the end, you can see my Bible Art Journaling Challenge archive here and you can check out my Patreon page here, where you can help me impact lives for as little as $1 per month.

Bible art journaling

As promised, here are the supplies I featured in this weeks video which you can click on to view or purchase. I hope it helps you find anything you may want to try out.I’d like to point out that if you click on and go buy the Illustrated Faith products linked in these supplies below, I will not gain credit for those and am happy to freely encourage you to enjoy Shanna’s sweet etsy shop.

I’ve also included links to previous similar challenges which I believe will have all the tutorial you may want for todays stamping and acrylic ink scraping. I do believe that I could take plenty of time re-explaining all the various techniques I used but instead, I’ll leave you with this today which will afford me the time to share some more spiritual stuff below that I hope will be a blessing to you.

Click images to view art supply details or to purchase.

Scripture

So, the scripture for today is Psalm 96:9. This is what it says in the NIV, which the Illustrated Faith Worship Culture stamp set uses.

Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.

This is what it says in the NASB which I created in today using my NASB Note-Taker’s Bible.

Worship the LORD in holy attire; Tremble before Him, all the earth.

This is what it says in the KJV.

O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.

And finally, this is what it says in the ESV.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!

As you can see, at first glance they don’t really appear to be communicating the exact same thing and are slightly confusing next to each other. I wanted clarity, so I went hunting.

Bible Study

I started by grabbing some of my favorite Bible study tools which I was first introduced to in Bible college. I’ve put them in a collection here for you in case you’d find them helpful. I’ve had lots of questions about how I study the Bible and while I don’t yet have time to do a dedicated blog post about it, this is a good start, pointing you at great tools I use.

The Strong’s Concordance I’ve linked to here, is not the heavy concordance I have from my Bible college days. Instead it is a little handheld one which helps you navigate around the King James Version of the Bible. It is great when you’re not trying to study Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic and instead are just trying to locate verses. It lists EVERY word in the Bible. If you have a different version of the Bible, you can see a list of different exhaustive concordances over on ChristianBook.com. If you want something more digital, you can use the Strong’s Concordance iphone app or ipad app.

My Nave’s Topical Bible is an AMAZING resource when wanting to see what the Bible says about a particular topic. The Handbook to the Bible is the one I reach for MOST often. It goes through the whole Bible one section at a time, offering helpful insight along the way. It has a Rapid Factfinder directory in the back making it super helpful. The Manners & Customs of Bible Times is full of useful details about various, you guessed it… manner’s and customs of Bible times. If you read in the Bible about some sort of interesting tradition or cultural thing etc., and want to understand why on earth they did things they way they did, this is the book for the job. It has a general index and scriptural index and is full color like the Handbook to the Bible is.

Scriptural Hunting

Anyway, I firstly grabbed my Handbook to The Bible and made my way to the Psalm 96 area to study for my Bible Art Journaling Challenge. I was reminded that, Psalm 96 is part of a mini cluster of Psalms (chapters 95-100), which belong together. So, I sat down and read them together.

These are short chapters and it is good practice to read chunks of the Bible in one sitting. Consider yourself on a hunt for juicy story details and you won’t be disappointed in the least. I put on my detective hat and started trying to figure out what must have been understood “back in the day” which I could be missing… which of course would make everything make more sense.

I found what I was looking for in Psalm 95 as I started. The title of the chapter is “Let Us Sing Songs of Praise”. Look at verses 6-11 here.

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

Often in the Bible, if a place is mentioned, you can learn more about the context of a verse by searching out the place they mention. I found myself curious what God’s people had done at Meribah and Massah which was considered hardening their hearts. I knew I’d read those words in the Bible before, but couldn’t place their reference off the top of my head. So, I looked up Meribah first in my Strong’s Concordance.

In Exodus 17:7 we find it mentioned but again, we cannot understand that scripture without seeing some context. Let me show you around this section and back-story in Exodus.

Exodus 15:22-27 starts off with the Israelite’s just coming out of Egypt and across the Red Sea where they escaped Pharaoh.

22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 Then he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them. 26 And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer.” 27 Then they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters.

God provided water to the Israelite’s as their first miracle out of slavery. There is so much amazing symbolism associated to this. The refreshing of heaven and it was not bitter. But that aside, He provided water right out of Egypt. Then we find ourselves at the next verse in Exodus 16:1.

1 Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. 2 The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Can you even believe it?! They had been in Elim just 2 1/2 months earlier, where there was a miracle of provision and no sooner had they moved on, then they started dramatically declaring that they’d been brought to the wilderness to die!

Renewing our minds

Have we not all found ourselves in tough life situations at times? It is key that we don’t harden our hearts in unbelief. If we stay soft toward His provision, no matter what life may throw at us, we have the heart of belief. It is simply not okay for the Man who hung on a cross for each of us, to gift us with provision, and us to simply forget it within 8 1/2 weeks. I remind myself the Israelite’s had the law, while we have Holy Spirit living in us. But I believe a key to why they struggled with this whole thing, was because though they had been released from Egypt and were no longer slaves, their minds were still captive to the thought process of a slave – a poper. It is SO important that we keep our minds renewed, so we are able to live from a place of freedom regardless of our life situation.

On a sort of side note, look at this. A bit earlier in Exodus 13:17-18, it talks about when Pharaoh let the Israelite’s go.

17 Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near; for God said, “The people might change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.” 18 Hence God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea…

God actually could have led the people in a more direct and easy way but in order to bring them out of slavery, He directed them into the wilderness. He was concerned they might prefer slavery in Egypt (over freedom!), if they saw war in the land of the Philistines. So, they were led through through the wilderness. What if the people had allowed their minds to be renewed and were not captive to the way of slavery? Would they have felt like overcomers who were promised the land of Canaan? Would they have seen war and just trusted God to help them defeat any enemy swiftly? Much of the Old Testament could have looked different and yet God chose to deliver those whose hearts were not positioned in trust or belief of His provision. He delivered them not because of who they were but because of who He is. This story beats any choice novel in my opinion – and it is real life we can learn from.

A dear spiritual father in my life once said, “If God has provided you $1, He has now proven he can provide you with $300 (or whatever you need). There is no more excuse for doubt of His ability to provide.” What a statement. I’d encourage us all to not harden our hearts. Instead to remember the works of God in our life with total thanksgiving, praise and worship to the God who has made the impossible, possible in His unending love for us. There are few topics I love more in the Bible than searching out what God tells us to remember. So interesting and enlightening. Let us remember His provision in our lives and worship Him in abandon.

Massah and Meribah

Fairly shortly after being delivered from Egypt by the power of God, the Israelite’s need water again. This was not that long after God had provided by fixing bitter water and then leading them to plenty of good water. They had no reason to believe He wouldn’t provide again. Between that time, they’d managed to not believe He’d provide food (after the water provision), so I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. They simply lived in a mindset of doubt and unbelief. They thought like slaves who provide for their masters, instead of like the children of the King of kings they were. Children are not responsible to provide for their parents. I think we can learn a lot from their mistake here. It is God’s job to provide. It is our job to steward God’s provision and be the kids, not the parents.

Moses had been raised to think like a prince instead of a slave and he had spent time learning to trust God out of Egypt. He had a more renewed mind. Let’s get back to Exodus 17 where I found the words Massah and Meribah mentioned after seeing them in Psalm 96. Look at verses 1-7 of Exodus.

 1 Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me.” 5 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 “Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us, or not?”

Remember what the Psalmist said in Psalm 95:8-9

8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

Meribah means quarrel and strife. Massah means a querulous (complaining) testing of God.  Let us not be those who see proof of God’s goodness and not allow it to soften our hearts toward all He is capable of. Let us not complain in a difficult situation and thus test God in unbelief after He has already proven Himself faithful. Instead may it compel us to know His goodness more intimately. May it cause us to rise up with faith and trust in His ability to provide abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. (Ephesians 3:20)

Sing a new song

God is so holy and is worthy of all our worship. He is not just an amazing King we sing to, while in a corporate gathering. He is someone we aught to position our whole lives to be an act of worship to. This doesn’t mean needing to be the preacher or worship leader, though they are valuable and needed. EVERYTHING we do, should be with a heart of worship toward God. We should worship God in the splendor of His holiness.

Remember that Psalm 96 sits in a group of verses/chapters which are clustered together (chapters 95-100). We’ve read what the psalmist was saying in Psalm 95. We are essentially commanded, not to harden our hearts. Instead, to worship Him and spread the good news of Him, to the nations. After establishing what not to do, the psalmist spends the rest of the time in that cluster of chapters, talking all about worshiping God. This is a natural expression for those who have not hardened their heart toward God’s presence and provision in their lives. It’s a natural expression for those who have allowed their minds to be renewed with the reality that they are no longer slaves, but a friend and child of the King of kings.

Look what it says in verses 1-9 of Psalm 96…

I love how my New Living Translation Bible communicates Psalm 95:7c-96:1

95:7… Oh, that you would listen to his voice today! 8 The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. 9 For there your ancestors tried my patience; they courted my wrath though they had seen my many miracles. 10 For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ 11 So in my anger I made a vow: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.'” 96:1 Sing a new song to the Lord! Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!

As you join me in this weeks Bible Art Journaling Challenge, I want to challenge us all to not be those who go go astray in our hearts and those not enter God’s rest. Instead let us sing a new song to the Lord. Let our lifestyle of worship to God, be a new song to Him that brings Him great pleasure! Let our thanksgiving and praise bring us into deeper relationship with our Creator as we worship Him in His splendor!

Join in

I would love you to try any of the techniques I’ve shared in my process with you today if you’re interested in them. I also want you to feel free to gather inspiration in other places for joining me in this weekly challenge. The goal is to get in to the Word and spend time with God. I’m looking forward to seeing what you art journal in your Bible for this weeks challenge!

You can find answers to most any question you may have about the Bible Art Journaling Challenge over on my Bible Art page found in the top navigation. It also has a full archive! Be sure to head over to our Facebook group and/or Google+ Community, to chat about this weeks Bible Art Journaling Challenge and get started on your own page!

Many of you ask if it is okay to share these posts with your friends. Please do! It is a simple way you can partner with me to impact lives.

Bibles and supplies for Bible art journaling

There are always those who are new to me that find their way to various blog posts so, I’ll again mention for those who are new and interested… There are several wide-margin Bibles and supplies which I recommend for this art form. I’ve created a linked recommendations collection on my Bible Art Supplies page, to make your starter choices easier. I hope they will help you.

Thanks for joining me today. Please take a moment to share a comment below for us all, about your thoughts, tips, questions, ideas on anything we talked about today. Hope to hear from you below!

You are loved. x

 

*Scripture quotations taken from the NASB unless otherwise specified.

*When you find deals which I’ve searched for and recommended below, I get supported. This has no effect on you and makes a real difference for me. Thank you, I so appreciate your support which helps me provide these free tutorials for you! You may view my affiliate and product disclosure.

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