Word Wednesday #33

"And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation;" (2 Peter 3:15a)

This is just a verse to ponder and meditate upon: "And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation;"

Share a verse that God has given you today or copy the button if you'd like to join in Word Wednesdays with your blog!

 

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Commands for Children (Part 2) | Ephesians Study

Ephesians 6:2, Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)

After a child is to obey their parents, they are to honor them. Honor means (NT:5091 timao) "to prize, i.e. fix a valuation upon; by implication, to revere:"

Doing a further study of this Greek word, we find out a little more about honor.

Children Honoring Parents

"For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me." (Matthew 15:4-8)

"For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye." (Mark 7:10-13)

Directly linked to children honoring their parents is people dishonoring God. To say that a child should not honor his parents is clearly disagreeable to God. We cannot change the Scripture to "fit our times," but our times to fit the Scripture.

"Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Matthew 19:19)

"And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother." (Mark 10:18-19)

There is no doubt that Jesus accepted and preached honor to parents. This is an Old Testament command reiterated in the New Testament. Seeing that God saw fit to mention it so many times in His Word, who are we to use exceptions to this command?

Honoring God

"That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him." (John 5:23)

"Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me." (John 8:49)

The same word used for honoring parents is used in terms of honoring God. Jesus Christ Himself was an example of One Who honored His Father.

God's Honor

"If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour." (John 12:26)

And the same word used for honoring parents and God is used . . . for God honoring us!

Honor All Men

"Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king." (1 Peter 2:17)

This, I feel, is the ultimate conclusion of honor: children are to honor their parents, believers are to honor God, and by that practice, believers should honor all men and those in political authority over them. In this day and age, we do not see a movement of honor. Instead, there are many rebellious and proud individuals who feel they should honor and obey no one. This is clearly unscriptural.

Short Stories and Covers

I have been working on a few small projects for Christmas - namely, writing short stories for my three youngest sisters. I am very grateful for the Lord allowing me to complete them in good time to get them self-printed and ready for their gift bags! I also praise the Lord for the ideas that He gave me and also allowing me to see the completion of these projects. As I write, I realize how very much I must rely on God for the ideas, the flow of the story, the message He wants me to teach, and of course, the completion. Wow! He is so good!

Some of you may remember "Maggie's Hope Chest" from a post a few months ago. This was the hardest cover to design, for some reason and I'm very thankful for the many friends who pitched in to give me advice and ideas. As you may remember, the story idea was one that I had several years ago but it wasn't until this year that the Lord allowed me to complete it.

Front Cover:

Back Cover:

"Noelle's Gift" began with the title. Only the title. As I pondered ideas and prayed, the Lord gradually gave me a skeleton of an idea and one day, blossomed the idea to completion. For once, I yielded to the temptation of designing the book cover before I actually wrote the story. :) After the rough draft of the cover was designed (which was slightly different than the cover below), the Lord helped me to write the entire short story the same night - rare. 

Front Cover:

Back Cover:

Last but not least, my baby sister is just learning how to read. After I had decided to write stories for my two almost-youngest sisters, I prayed about the possibility of writing one that my five-year-old sister could read for herself - and hopefully learn from. Again, the Lord gave me an idea.

Front Cover:

Note: I may decide to replace the little girl on the cover if I get a picture I like better . . .

Back Cover:

 I am praying about what the Lord would have me to do with the short stories I've written for my sisters. For now, however, if you would like to read them, send me an email at withajoyfulnoise(at)gmail(dot)com and I can get you a PDF.
At this point, critiques and feedback are most welcome!

What are some Christmas projects that you've been working on?

Word Wednesday #32

"And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." (2 Peter 2:2)

Oh, we see this today. Men denying God (verse 1) and speaking evil of the truth (verse 2). We should be grounding and rooting ourselves more and more in God and His truth. "But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;" (verse 12) "Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray . . ." (verse 15)

A more serious thought for Word Wednesday today, but something that need considering - it's in God's Word!

Share a verse that God has given you today or copy the button if you'd like to join in Word Wednesdays with your blog!

 

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Make a Joyful Noise (Behind-the-Scenes)

Psalm 100 is evidently one of my favorite passages in God's Word that speaks of music. Today, I took the first verse and added it to a violin picture that I took.

I played around with some layering and thought I'd give you a little behind-the-scenes.
(Disclaimer: I don't claim to be a layer master so if you know of something I did wrong, don't hesitate to show me a simpler way)

Program: Photoshop Elements 10

First Layer: Violin
Of course, I began with the violin! :) I lightly edited the image in Photoshop Elements 3, particularly upping the contrast. So, here is the almost-original image:

Second Layer: Blue
Next, I created a blue fill layer (color: 5c687a).
{Layer > New Fill Layer > Mode: Color Burn > Color 5c687a}

I set the opacity for this layer to 50%. This is what it did to the violin image:

Layer 03: Grass
I selected another image I had taken of simple weeds.

For this layer I selected opacity 15% just to give it that hint of texture. Not much.

Layer 04: Green Difference Clouds

Then I created a new layer with difference clouds.

{Layer > New Fill Layer > Color: 858142 - with that layer: Filter > Render > Difference Clouds}

This is what I got: 

Again, I chose the opacity to be 15% (if you can't tell by now, I like just the tiniest hints of change)

Layer 05: Another Violin

This is probably not how you're supposed to work Photoshop layers, but I decided that the image was a little darker than what I wanted so instead of working out the mathematics to lighten each layer, I just overlaid another violin picture: opacity 40%.

Layer 05: Text

The final step was adding the text. I used two fonts: Cardif (for the plain text) and Allura (for the fancy text). I played around with text styles (glow, simple sharp inner bevel, drop shadow) until I came up with the look I liked (yes, I could go more into detail, but it would seriously confuse you).

If you own Photoshop and haven't played around with layers yet, I encourage you to give it a try! Don't be scared to just click buttons (just observe what buttons you click so if you come up with something fantastic, you'll know how to replicate it).

Commands for Children (Part 1) | Ephesians Study

Ephesians 6:1
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

Colossians 3:20, "Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord."

In case one doesn't fully understand the simple command, "obey" means (NT:5219 hupakouo) "to hear under (as a subordinate), i.e. to listen attentively; by implication, to heed or conform to a command or authority:" Children are to put themselves under the God-given authority of their parents. It is right (equitable, innocent, holy). It is well pleasing (fully agreeable) to the Lord.

These verses indicate more than simple obedience to parents. We are not to obey our parents because it is right in their eyes and well pleasing unto them. It is a higher standard than that: by obeying their parents, the children are obeying God. Even at a young age, children can (and should) understand that it is not merely an act of obeying parents, but much more importantly, an act of obeying (or disobeying) God.

Ephesians 6:2, Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)

After a child is to obey their parents, they are to honor them. Honor means (NT:5091 timao) "to prize, i.e. fix a valuation upon; by implication, to revere:"

Ephesians 6:3, That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

Not only do we see that God has commanded us to obey; but He has so much as given us a promise for when we do obey. God's commands are not without blessings - if we follow. Do we want things to be well with us? Well then, we must deny ourselves and humble ourselves to obey God's commands. Do we want a long life? We must again deny our "rights" and humble ourselves to God's commands. It is as simple as that. 

My Photoshoot With Julia

Yesterday, I shared the photoshoot I took with Julia as the subject. Today are the pictures that Julia took of me (shared with her permission). This was also great fun and I had a blast. I have wanted pictures with long, wavy grass for as long as I can remember. It wasn't until this week that I realize that our neighbor's property (which he kindly allows us to tramp in) has just what I envisioned!

Julia, thanks for giving me my first "solo" photoshoot! You're doing a great job in photography! Keep it up!

{To view the images larger, simply click on the first one and scroll through them}

And a couple of pictures with my sister, Rachel, on the recorder.

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"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands." (Psalms 100:1)

Julia | Photoshoot

Impromptu photo-shoots are great fun! This week, we had some friends over, one of which is a co-photographer (she uses Nikon, but we won't hold that against her ;)). After looking at some photography websites together, I was ready to get my hands on the camera! Julia was gracious to be my subject and we brought her ukelele along for a walk.

Some of the images will appear small to fit on the blog, so click on the first one to view the pictures larger.

I had so much fun taking pictures with you, Julia!

Stay tuned tomorrow and I'll share the photoshoot swap: Julia did a photoshoot of me.

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Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:" (1 Timothy 1:5)