Doodle Challenge for August 2018

August 2018 Doodle Challenge

It’s amazing that we’re getting ready for August already! Back to school is coming up soon!  I’m sure my son is looking forward to it, because he loves school!  I thought it was fitting that our doodle challenge for August be back-to-school themed with everyone about to prepare for it.

This challenge is participated in by the members of my Facebook group, Christian Planner, Journal, and Craft Fellowship and any of you who would like to join us! You can join us in the group or join along on Instagram.

Why do we doodle? Doodling helps improve our drawing skills so we can improve our Bible art journaling pages!

Click the thumbnail image below to pull up the full-sized PDF file for printing! –>

August 2018 Doodle Challenge

 

 

I usually print these out on 28 pound white paper (or 32 pound paper is even better) and just stick them right into my planner or journal. The heavier the paper, the less chance it will tear out of your binder or planner by accident and helps resist bleeding or ghosting from your pens or markers.  It helps the page turn easier too.

If you choose to print these out on full-size (letter) sticker paper.  I use these here.  They’re priced great and you can write on them easily. They are good enough quality for my needs.  If you want a top-quality sticker paper look for these or clear ones here. (Though not all pens or markers will write well on the clear ones). If you don’t want to use sticker paper, you can print them on card stock or regular printer paper and glue them down.  Honestly, the sticker paper is the best way, however. Regardless of the type.

Going through a lot of ink printing out planner stickers?  Do like I did and enlist in the HP Instant Ink program! I’ve saved so much money on ink since I did a year and a half ago.  They have different plans, but the one I’m in (the most pages) is that I can print up to 300 pages worth of ink for just over $9.99 per month. You can choose lesser pages for a lower rate, but I do a lot of printing between coupons, planner stickers and other things.  Click on the image here to check it out! –>

HP Instant Ink

Scripture Writing Plan for August 2018

August 2018 scripture writing plan header

Please forgive me for the delay in posting this. By the grace of God, I compiled it a week early, but then a family crisis struck that really knocked me for a whollop (more on that in an upcoming “Ponderings of My Predicament” post).  Also, this just shows how the Lord has His hand on me and my writing here, and the Facebook group I admin that uses these plans every month.  The family crisis struck me with fear like I haven’t felt in – well probably EVER!  and the Lord put it on my heart to have our topic for this month’s scripture writing plan be “Fear and Confidence” before the circumstance arose that put me into such a state.  (Believe me, the knowledge of that has not been lost on me!)

 

Use these passages to write out the scriptures and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! 🙂

Click on the image below to pull up the full-sized PDF file for printing –>

 

I usually print these out on 28 pound white paper (or 32 pound paper is even better) and just stick them right into my planner or journal. The heavier the paper, the less chance it will tear out of your binder or planner by accident and helps resist bleeding or ghosting from your pens or markers.  It helps the page turn easier too.

If you choose to print these out on full-size (letter) sticker paper.  I use these here.  They’re priced great and you can write on them easily. They are good enough quality for my needs.  If you want a top-quality sticker paper look for these or clear ones here. (Though not all pens or markers will write well on the clear ones). If you don’t want to use sticker paper, you can print them on card stock or regular printer paper and glue them down.  Honestly, the sticker paper is the best way, however. Regardless of the type.

Going through a lot of ink printing out planner stickers?  Do like I did and enlist in the HP Instant Ink program! I’ve saved so much money on ink since I did a year and a half ago.  They have different plans, but the one I’m in (the most pages) is that I can print up to 300 pages worth of ink for just over $9.99 per month. You can choose lesser pages for a lower rate, but I do a lot of printing between coupons, planner stickers and other things.  Click on the image here to check it out! –>

HP Instant Ink

Mindful Monday Devotional – Practicing His Prescence

Mindful Monday Devotional Practicing His Presence

This week’s devotional is pretty long, so I’m going to just get to it 🙂  It’s a beautiful devotional that makes us yearn for more of the Father’s prescence in every area of our life no matter how small.

This is from, “Practicing the Presence of God:  Exploring an Old Habit for a New Year“, from You Version.

 

Practicing His Presence

What we discovered in Day One, was that Brother Lawrence was just a simple cook with a straightforward practice. In his own words, he believed, “We should establish ourselves in a sense of God’s presence by continually conversing with Him.” In Day Two, we saw that love must be the goal of all our spiritual practice, if any other motivation uproots love then we’ve missed the point. With this preliminary foundation poured, we’re now ready to look at the practice itself. How do we make a start in practicing the presence of God? Let’s take it in three steps:

Recognize God Is Already Present

The first step is to recognize that God is already present where we are. Remember the story of Jesus walking to Emmaus with two of his disciples? He was present among them but they didn’t recognize Him. Have we recognized Him? Have we acknowledged that He’s already with us? Brother Lawrence helps us see this when he writes:

“All we have to do is to recognize God as being intimately present within us. Then we may speak directly to Him every time we need to ask for help, to know His will in moments of uncertainty, and to do whatever He wants us to do in a way that pleases Him. We should offer our work to Him before we begin and thank Him afterward for the privilege of having done it for His sake.”

Before we begin our next work day, perhaps we could write out the following prayer, offered by Lawrence, and place it in the path of our work.

“My God, since You are with me and since, by Your will, I must occupy myself with external things, please grant me the grace to remain with You, in Your presence.”

Name Our Pots And Pans

How do we spend our days? What’s in our hands? For Brother Lawrence, he spent his time in a kitchen preparing meals and cleaning pots and pans. What are our pots and pans? What is the work that’s right in front of us, for God wants to work with us. Brother Lawrence writes:

Lord of all pots and pans and things,

since I’ve no time to be a great saint

by doing lovely things…

make me a saint by getting meals,

and washing up the plates.

Warm all the kitchen with Thy Love,

and light it with Thy peace;

forgive me all my worrying,

and make my grumbling cease.

Thou who didst love to give men food,

in room, or by the sea,

accept the service that I do,

I do it unto Thee.

Amen.

It is in the details, the nuts and bolts, the ins and outs, where God truly wants to work with us. The second step in practicing the presence of God is to claim our work for God, to acknowledge He wants to work with us, whether that’s selling cars, writing code, keeping children, or building homes. It’s in our actual work, the menial and the momentous, that God uses to shape us more and more into the image of His Son.

Speak To God Continually Throughout Your Day

The final step is simple and at the same time difficult: we have a continuous conversation with God as we move through our day. It’s simple because we’re used to making conversation, we do it everyday. It’s difficult because, on the whole, we’ve not been taught to chat with God as intimately as a friend and co-worker. Brother Lawrence writes,

“During my work, I would always continue to speak to the Lord as though He were right with me, offering Him my services and thanking Him for His assistance. Also, at the end of my work, I used to examine it carefully. If I found good in it, I thanked God. If I noticed faults, I asked His forgiveness without being discouraged, and then went on with my work, still dwelling in Him.”

To help us build this practice of a continuous conversation with God, there are a couple triggers we can use:

1. If any good thing, large or small, happens in our day we can immediately, right where we are, thank God for it. We can say it out loud, quietly under our breath, or if we’re in the middle of a conversation we can think it in our minds.

2. If any thing unpleasant happens in our day, ask God what he may be wanting to show us. Is there something in us that He wants to change or transform?

Brother Lawrence wrote so much for us to consider and implement. What we’ve explored in this plan today, is that there are three steps to begin practicing God’s presence: the first is to recognize He’s already present with us; the second is to acknowledge He wants to work with us in the actual tasks and duties we’re responsible for; and finally, we simply have a conversation with Him as we move through our day. Next, we’ll be looking at what happens when we meet resistance or make mistakes, we’ll discover how we keep one foot in front of the other as we learn to build the practice of His presence in the rhythm of our life.

Reflection

1. Are there good things that pop into your day regularly that you can thank God for? What are they?

2. Think through your full day. Are there other times that would make for good triggers for chatting with God? What would they be? What would you say?

Practice

A pulse check is one simple way of practicing His presence. We can experiment with this little discipline anywhere. Here’s how it works: Close your eyes and place your thumb on your pulse, once you find it, sit quietly for sixty seconds. Keeping your eyes closed, thank God for sustaining you, for keeping you alive, for He holds all of our lives in His hands. Then, as you feel the rhythmic pulse, imagine you’re listening to the heartbeat of Jesus. Sense His immediate presence. Feel His nearness. Imagine Him at your side. As you move beyond the sixty seconds invite Jesus to remain with you throughout your day. Teaching you how to practice His presence all day long.

 

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
Psalms 139:7 ESV

Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord . Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord .
Jeremiah 23:24 ESV

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Acts 17:26‭-‬28 ESV

 

End of the Age Prophecy Updates for 7/1/18

End of the Age Updates 7-1-18

Hi everyone!  I hope those of you in my area of the United States is staying cool and drinking lots of water!  It sure is a swelcher out there! It’s 91 here in north central Ohio (with high humidity making it feel like 97). Ugh.  Remember to keep your pets inside and check on your neighbors!

I’d been working really hard around the house preparing for some yard sales, but the past few days while under a heat advisory I haven’t been doing much physical work (which my back and knees are really thanking me for).  I’ve been working on the underside of my blogs and my fixing a few glitches on my laptop while I was at it.   I really hope the heat lets up soon though. I need to get my cleaning groove back!  When we moved in here (three years ago on Thursday!) the realtor told us it had central air.  When we moved it we discovered he had lied and there was no air. So we bought a window air conditioner for the bedroom and use a box fan to try to blow some of the cool air down into the rest of the house. The other windows are the tall crank-out type you can’t put a window unit in :/

But I’m thankful for the one we do have. If we get too hot, we just go to the bedroom.  Now on to our updates!

 

Pastor J.D. Farag:

(Pastor J.D.’s Video List Here)

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