Praying for France

This was the best way to express my desires to God tonight. The world needs Hope, Peace and Grace. Please pray for France and all victims of violence. Here is the file: Sermon Notes

Luke 10 Resources

"Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind." Luke 10:27

I have new Sermon Notes for this Sunday's Gospel Lesson, Luke 10:25-27.

I also have a new bible journaling worksheet for the lesson.

Sermon Notes Luke 10

Bible Journaling Luke 10

Becoming a House of Prayer

Phew, 1 month of summer vacation down! And lots of outdoor projects left to finish. It has been a busy summer so far. Definitely not the relaxed, chill break I was dreaming of, praying for. But it is all good, especially since it involves a pool. Although we have been busy, we have been doing some important things in our home.

We have been using several different prayer tools during out "Jesus Time." My kids have a small check list that they kinda sorta follow every day. "Jesus Time" is part of their routine. Back at the beginning of the year, we introduced them to a specific personal prayer list for every morning. Taken from Ann Voskamp's Soulutions. We took this awesome twist on resolutions and made it a personal prayer list that hangs on each of the kids' wall.

Influenced by the Powerful Prayer sermon series at St. John's, I decided to offer my kids and myself more creative options when it comes to connecting to our Lord through prayer. We started mid June with Prayer Cards. Simple index cards with the name of a family member with doodles and drawings of prayers for that person. We learned this style of visual prayer from Sybil MacBeth's Praying in Color book. While making each card, you are saying prayers of thanksgiving and blessings for that person.

My husband and I also have a prayer area on the side of our fridge with a drawing of our town and church, prayers for our children and other events, like VBS. It's right next to our coffee maker, an essential stop to start our morning routines. The prayers for our children are from a wonderful blog and precious child of God, Connie Denninger's Vintage Grace. Here is the link Prayers for My Children

For July we have started what I like to call a Prayer Grid. It is a simple layout on an insert for our Faith Books, read more about those here. This was also influenced by Praying In Color and Connie, off a book I saw at a Visual Faith workshop. It used a sketch book to create a page to record a daily gratitude and another page to pray in color. I call it our Blessings Sheet. There is room for two weeks of writing something that is a blessing to you on the left side of the sheet and then on the right side a hexagon to pray for something or someone to be blessed by God. As you can see, they are excited and thankful for the pool that's going in.

We have also used the Prayers Sheet from the Faith Book tab. There is also a Prayer List sheet that I have been using to keep track of my prayers for others. I also developed a Prayers for People with rectangles about the size of business cards to do praying in color on if I want to spend a bit more time in pray for that person. The sheet helps to keep it all together in my Faith Book instead of having separate cards. Another sheet is called Visual Prayer. On this one I started with a 'dear God' in the middle, like Sybil Macbeth does, then I added what are affectionately known as, blobs, around it. You put your prayers for people or events in them. 

As the summer keeps flying by, I hope to introduce the other Faith Book Prayer sheets to the kids. I also want to add another personal resource called a Prayer Tin. I've seen some at gift shops, it is an empty Altoid mint tin decorated and little blank notes inside. I'd like my kids to use them to write their personal needs to God in them. I also picked up a neat address book last fall that matches the decor of our house. I want our family to fill it with the names and prayers for our family and friends. That way we can flip through it's pages and offer prayers to our Lord for those we love.

Prayer is such a precious part of our relationship with God. It is the main way we communicate with Him. A strong prayer life builds a strong connection. Which ultimately helps us to know God's grace even deeper. I pray that our home will continue to become a House of Prayer over the summer.

New Sermon Notes and a New Series - PRAYER

We are super excited at St. John's to be starting a new series on PRAYER. What an amazing and important discipline in our faith lives, every part of our lives. Communication is key for any relationship, especially the one with our Lord. Prayer is our main form of communication with God.

Over the next several weeks, we will be looking over the Old Testament readings and the prayers of the faithful and their interactions with God. The sermon notes will feature word art that relates to their prayers. After the sermon series, there will be a Sunday morning bible study for a few weeks on various prayer practices. The sermons will be available online to listen to at www.stjohnsdover.com  We also hope to make available YouTube videos of the bible study on prayer along with any materials and resources used.

The Sermon Notes for this week are now available through the Faith Book & Sermon Notes tab under Prayer Series HEAR Sunday May 29th or through the St. John's Church site.  You will also find previous sermon notes and sermons to listen to on the church site.

What is a Faith Book???

You've probably seen another new trend in personal devotion time called a Faith Planner. And most likely you've seen the Praise Book by Illustrated Faith. And most definitely you've seen Bible Journaling. And you absolutely cannot miss all the awesome coloring books for adults out there, even faith based ones! Each one of these tools are a great creative way to enhance your prayer and devotion time. We love using each style to connect with God during our "Faith Time" at our house.

So, what is a Faith Book? It is all of the above in one place!

It is a small binder that allows you to put all kinds of faith tool materials together. I started out by getting a paper planner. I use my phone A LOT. My husband and I share each others calendars so we can always see what's going on. I have a ton of notes and task lists on my phone, too. But, this all became very overwhelming to me and I needed to slow down, breathe and not dread my days. Earlier you saw that I had a shift in thinking with my kids "To Do/Love" lists. Sounds corny, I know, but really I just wanted to be happier and less stressed when it came to ordering our days. I needed a new vantage point.

I found a planner system at Michaels called Sn@p, which unfortunately was clearanced and is no longer there. (kind of like Project Life with a calendar) But, it was a good start. I had some monthly calendar layouts and weekly sheets. This is how I started praying over my days and plans. I'd also go back and write in awesome things that had happened and lessons I had learned. In each month I noticed a lesson or devotion theme and I would write, stamp, washi tape, sticker that on the back of calendar page. In the weekly/daily planning sheets I noticed space to write some prayers or bible verses. Just like I had seen online.

Pause for a sec....I had discovered faith planners through various bible journaling posts on Instagram and was immediately intrigued. Search #faithplanner. This all happened around the same time as getting more into Bible Journaling, Praying In Color and needing to give my kids some resources for their daily routines.

My planner has now evolved into a Faith Book because I noticed the Sermon Note sheets I make for Sunday fit in it perfectly! I had been taking notes inside our church service folder (or on the cover) and wasn't sure where to store them. But then sermon notes came along and voila! I have also created scripture study sheets, that can be used for bible journaling prep. (which I happen to use to plan out my sermon note sheets) I also have prayer sheets. I noticed that I needed more room for prayer than my planner offered. It has all fallen together into a nice usable system, which I am certain will continue to evolve over time.

I still have my journaling bible. I still have my Praying in Color journal. I still have scripture coloring books. Of course, I still have my phone! I use them all. Find tools and adapt them to work for you. I have all kinds of positive and inspirational stickers I have found at craft stores that I use inside my Faith Book. Stamps, too. And I have TONS of washi tape. You could even print out photos and use scrapbook supplies. This faith tool is another amazing way to connect with God, create a visual reminder of that time, and an opportunity to leave a legacy of your faith story for future generations.

If you click on the Faith Book and Sermon Notes tab above you will find more ideas and resources.
To see more completed Faith Book sheets visit Examples of Faith Book Inserts.

I hope this helps you to feel more connected to our loving God, who orders our days and cares for our souls.

New Tabs!

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You may have noticed that I have new resource tabs up above. I have recently been working on several teaching resources for Visual Faith. Visual Faith involves practices that engage our hands, eyes and spirits in connecting with God. Many of you have probably heard of the exploding movement called Bible Journaling. It comes from writing notes in the margins of bibles that evolved into creatively expressing time with God through drawings, paint, stickers, stamps, etc. Another popular visual faith exercise is called Praying In Color. A prayer practice that involves doodles and coloring when expressing your thoughts to God or just being present with Him. In the Resource tab you will find a Bible Journaling explanation sheet and worksheet for practice. There are also two Word documents that can be customized. You'll also find a Praying In Color explanation and practice worksheet.

*New is a Faith Book & Sermon Notes tab. These are personal and church resources. I explained their function in the tab.

These resources are free to use. All I ask is that you give God the glory and credit where credit is due. ENJOY!

    




Additional Resources: Praying In Color by Sybil MacBeth , Vintage Grace by Connie Denninger (who made the beautiful prayer card in the first image) , Illuminated Journaling by Jann Gray , Writing in the Margins by Lisa Nichols Hickman , www.rachelwojo.com , www.illustratedfaith.com

"Unlearn to DO, Practice to BE"

I'm starting to appreciate how God speaks to me. By using these dense, heavy topics that give me meat to chew on for days. A lesson that I must reflect on for a time before I can move to the next. And it is only fitting that the current topic has been about BEING. To be fully present.

A couple weeks ago I was trying to decide what devotion I wanted to read. It was still Lent, I wasn't ready to start something long and new. I had a small break with Stephen Ministry prep and
homework. And was still digesting over commitment. So, I grabbed my Mercy and Melons, Praying the Alphabet by Lisa Nichols Hickman and opened it up to the second letter of the alphabet, B.

She talks about how difficult it is to BE in a doing society. How slowing down can cause a sense of panic. Another excuse to add tasks to the To Do list in order to avoid being still. Talk about seamless transition from a lesson just learned about over commitment and answers to prayers to learn simplicity.

I followed her suggestion, I paused and looked around me. I took a deep breath. I listened to the birds and the cars driving past. I felt the warm sun on my arms. I saw beautiful blue sky. It felt good and it felt right. Being present right then, even for just a few seconds, was amazing. Was this how God wanted us to live? Is this what it means to enjoy your life? To pause, take it all in, appreciate the good.

Will this practice help me slow down and notice all the life happening around me? Will a sense of being make me aware of others around me? I do believe so. We are not simply passing through this life. The pain and brokenness may be temporary but this journey is still a gift. This existence is still meant to be enjoyed. He created us to have experiences of joy right now.

Even now, as I reread the devotion, I have a stronger sense of peace as I am reminded to just be. This doesn't mean you stop performing tasks or accomplishing goals and fulfilling responsibilities. Instead it is taking the obligations of life and learning to live in them not just conquer them. It is about experiencing the process.

I have now changed my To Do list into a To Be list. Lisa quotes the poet Angela O'Donnell, " I stay here to please us, Lord, both You and me, where I unlearn to do, while I practice to be." Now, the overwhelming anxiety inducing TO DO list is not so bad. I'd much rather slow down and feel immersed in life as I go about my day.

I'm still not quite sure where all this is heading but I do know that as these lessons come I'm gaining a greater sense of who I am. My pace may be more of the tortoise than the hare but I think I can get used to that if it means enjoying this gift of life more.