Do Not Worry ... Matthew 25:25-34

I like what Corrie Ten Boone said "Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength, carrying two days at once.  It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time.  Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow it empties today of its strength."

  Good word!

That's just another way of saying  Matthew 5:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

And of course, part of the same chapter:

Do Not Worry

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

New Testament Timeline from Wayfinding Bible

Today someone asked me to create a timeline for the new testament like the Old Testament I did a while back.  Like the other one, I am getting the time line from "The Wayfinding Bible".  Each book has a timeline at the bottom of the first page.  It shows what is happening in that book in blue and any other events that happened along the timeline but not in that book are in black.  The chart below shows the dates of things that happened during the same time but aren't specifically in the Bible in the first column.  I hope that makes sense. 

Psalm 23:4... Walking Though The Valley

Man oh man!  This one was both easy and really hard to do.... how do you show a dark valley that needs a dark shadow so that you can see what needs to be seen???  To actually put light and dark it all the right places is way beyond my abilities for sure!  I have NO CLUE!  So, I just got something drawn really quickly and I may or may not go back and try and answer the problem... if I can come up with some kind of solution ????  Because I reeeeeally don't have the necessary talent!

Anyway, here it is in pencil in the mean time....

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me....."

Hummmm... now that I am looking at it I think I need to do a better job of the perspective of the words.  I didn't even thin of that when I was doing it... glad it is still pencil!

Oh heck!  I just tried adding more gray across from the shadow of death but it didn't help... bummer!  That's what I'm talking about, clueless!

Psalm 27:14 - WAIT for the Lord!

Wait for and confidently expect the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for and confidently expect the Lord.

I get an email of a scripture every day from Biblegateway and this is today's scripture.  WAIT!  Don't jump out ahead, you don't want to go ahead of the lord because you might go down the wrong path.

Before I started drawing I knew that I wanted to use a stop sign but instead of just drawing one from memory I googled "stop sign clipart"  and found this little guy:

Cute right, but a little too smiley, not as demonstrative as I wanted so I changed his expression. 

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Psalm 4:8... In Peace, In Safety

Psalm 4:8

 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. 

This is one of my favorite scriptures.  To be "in Peace and in Safety" because of the Lord.

About ten years ago I bought a large embroidery machine just so I could embroider scriptures on pillowcases.  This was one of the more perfect scriptures I used.  It is a nice little last minute reminder before you go off to sleep.

Would you believe that I made a MAJOR mistake on the above?  Of course I did!  Don't like making mistakes with a black pen!!  I put the "t" before the "e" in safety.  That's what happens when I don't have spell check to catch me!  Hence, the big black squares with white text.  Not bad, I actually like it better because it hi-lites the words.

Update:

Ya know, it always amazes me how many things I never see before, but really bother me AFTER I have a huge picture posted here!  Thing is the actual drawing is only 1.25"x 2" so it is hard to see the mistake and just fixing them with an eraser is HARD because my smallest eraser is too big, it erases too much!  Oh well... since it is so small I will just have to ignore it.... which is also really hard.

Proverbs 14:34 ... Sin Has a Gotcha

Proverbs 14:34 

Righteousness exalteth a nation: 

but sin is a reproach to any people. 

If you have been around long you know that I have done something similar to this in the past...but I wanted to put it into my Bible.  Gotta say, I see the nation getting blacker and blacker with sin... HEARTBREAKING!

I started out with colored pencils but quickly realized that there is no way to get a red as red as I wanted it with pencils... so I pulled out my acrylic paints.  I am happy to say that even though the pages are thin, there really isn't any bleed-thru.  There is a showdown because everything is so dark, but nothing that is distracting.

I used Golden paints... you will notice they are really pricy! That would normally throw the breaks on but I LOVE LOVE the reds and the transparency of them.  And too, the reds are among the more expensive, see how the black is half that price.... I think there is real gold or something in the red that makes it so expensive.  ???

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How I Index My Bible As I Study

I have spent years being frustrated because I would read something in my Bible that I wanted to remember so I would write it down in whatever notebook happened to be around... aka, lost forever!

I wanted something kinda like an index, but official indexes don't list the kinds of things I'm interested in... some topical indexes might, but I wanted something more "me".  For example, recently as I was reading, I realized that there were quiet a few major Bible characters that were born of barren mothers, like Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Joseph, Samuel, John the Baptist, etc....   Isn't that interesting?  The mothers couldn't have children but the Lord changed that, then used the child in a big way.  I want to be able to access each of those quickly and easily.

Last year I found something on pinterest that seemed like it might be "the answer".  It was a pre-printed index that you stick to the front of any Bible then add small tabs lined up with each topic... so I ordered it.  Problem was it came with words already and since it turned out to be for The Book of Mormon it was really useless to me... except I still loved the idea of it.

Sooooo, I did my own.  I printed out a grid that I can add any text as I'm reading.  I then assigned each topic a color and then I cut and colored little arrow tabs to stick to the actual page the scripture is on.

I KNOW!  MESSY RIGHT??  But oh so helpful, for me...  I'm finally gonna explain those UGLY BLACK LINES on the edge of my Bible!  This is my journal Bible so they show up on almost all my pictures.  I put the lines there so it would be easier to line up the little tabs on the edges of the pages.  They are very helpful, but oh so ugly!

Below is a picture of the index text, then the page that the scripture is on with an arrow pointing to the actual text.  At the bottom you can see the back side of the "tab arrow"... that was by design because I started out using the circle tabs, flush to the edge of the page like I was told to do with the Mormon package I bought, but, that ended up being confusing.... If both sides of the tab are the same then you can't immediately tell which side of the page the scripture is on... I also added the arrow pointing to the text later to help with that as well.

I have worked with the design for about a year now and I love it, because I can immediately tab an idea as I'm reading.  BUT, I've decided over time that there has to be an even better way.... so I worked on the new improvements yesterday, on a different Bible.

First, all the colors were unnecessary and a PAIN!  I am forever looking for the right color pen.  I have TOO MANY pens so finding the right one is always tricky.

Solution: I decided to use 4 colors... 2 may have been plenty but I went with 4... and I went ahead and colored the edge of the grid before I stuck it down on the first page of my Bible.

Second, how to avoid the ugly black lines...

Solution: You can see on these next two pictures, I hung the colored grid over the edge about 1/8". That is helpful because I colored the backside of the grid as well .... and then I added a partial grid to the last page... now I can "eyeball" it fairly easily.  And too, I now fold the tabs over so that they stick out from the page more "tab" like ... about 1/16".  WAY BETTER.

OH!  the colored edges of these pages are the actual edges of this particular Bible, I didn't add that.  It is the Wayfinding Bible that has its own ways of studying which also involves color.

Back page:

Next, I used my Silhouette to cut over 1000 arrows into a solid sheet of label paper and then used the same markers, that I used for the index, to color them.  (I know, the coloring is awful, but it makes ZERO difference to each individual arrow.)

I then stuck those to the front page, opposite from the grid, ready to use... no more looking for the right pen!

OH! And I used the grid, instead of just normal lines, because I can add tabs to the tops and/or bottoms of the pages if I run out of space on the sides.


I have a FREE DOT Grid that I shared back in March 2012 that you can use for the index if you would like. Just click this text to get to that link.







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Psalm 139:13-16 ... Before I Was Born

Psalm 139:13-16English Standard Version (ESV)

13 For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.

Proverbs 6:16-19 ... Seven Things God Hates

I am always baffled by people that only want to read the New Testament!  There is just so much that you can learn about God in the Old!  I don't know... I just really WANT TO KNOW things that God hates.  I also think it is really interesting the things that did, and did not, make the Hate List.  Hummmm.....

And, I'm thinking that if it weren't important the Lord would have only given us the New Testament, right?

Anyway, in Proverbs 6 we learn Seven things that God hates....

- Haughty Eyes ... (I'm pretty sure these are not haughty eyes but I googled it and that was no help...just pretend)

- A lying tongue ...

- Hands that shed innocent blood

- A heart that devises wicked plans

- Feet that make haste to run to evil

- A false witness who breaths out lies, and 

- One who sews discord among brothers.

Gotta say, I'm not too sure what the difference is in "a lying tongue" and "a false witness"... but, both are listed soooo....

Know Who The Real Enemy Is...

Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

I wish the picture was an original idea but the idea came from Pinterest... here specifically.  It was such a clever way of showing the idea that I really wanted to use it.

I didn't use my Osmo for this, which is easy to tell when you see the original!