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Welcome me back blog world..

Sharing what God has inspired me as I finished reading 2nd Corinthians

“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. As you test yourselves, I hope you will recognize that we have not failed the test of apostolic authority.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭13:5-6‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://www.bible.com/116/2co.13.5-6.nlt

Strong conviction from Paul to test ourselves if our faith is genuine. Is there a questionnaire that I can just tick off and the final score will tell me the level of faith I have?

No. There is no such questionnaire, only real life situations we go through, decisions and choices we make. Whatever our response and actions are, determine our faith. Do we choose to obey and honor God or we choose what is comfortable for us.

Faith is beyond believing in God. Faith is knowing and believing God and putting our lives under His control, obeying His commands and doing what pleases Him.

We can always shout out loudly that I have faith. But the innermost and deepest corners of our heart shows our genuine faith. The condition of our hearts determine our faith. It is where the battle between I, me and myself versus Jesus takes place.

Testing our faith, the conditions of our heart must be a daily or even moment by moment. We should learn to guard our hearts, our hearts which are prone to wander, and prone to please itself, so that we can always bring it back to the center of God’s will, to be Christ centered in whatever we do.

Can we just do a testing of our faith right now. What choices or actions have we done recently that shows our faith and obedience to Christ rather than gratifying or satisfying our own desires?

#scripturewriting
#faithjournalling
#wordbeforeworld

It's my birthday month

Been busy lately... maybe that is a sign of getting old... you have so wanted to accomplish and do so many things as you are reminded that you are getting old. Am not scared of getting old, am scared of the thought that I have fewer chances of leaving something that is lasting here on earth. And heavenward, my prayers are to be worthy of citizenship in heaven and to receive what every Christian awaits to receive a reward from the Master, having been a good and faithful servant.

Cratfy Friday #12: Bloom

You can hardly tell that she is only 4 years old in this photo. I picked the title Bloom which is just perfect for this little girl who will soon bloom in to a fine woman.

This is one of the few layouts I did quickly because it involves only handcutting and paper mixing and matching. The letter stickers from Prima completes the layout. Although this layout does not involve too much painting and drying, I just could not let it pass at least with the Maya road sew it chippies.

All materials are from Studio Azul's kit except for the Maya Road chipboards. The papers are from Prima, Bo Bunny and 7 Gyspies.

Crafty Friday #11: Falling in love with embossing powders

Ever since I got hold of the Frantage line of Stampendous embossing powders, I fell in love with embossing powders once again. They really give a different texture to chipboards. I may have to find other ways to use them, but right now, I enjoy using them on chipboards.

And another idea I learned is to mixed my old embossing powders with the frantage line to revive those old and outdated embossing powders, give them a new twist and catch up with the new trends in giving my projects new dimension, not to mention I get to use them and enjoy them.

Here are two layouts, mostly from my side of the family, with my father and the three grandsons and with my mother and all the girls in the family, except me.

Chipboards are embossed with Stampendous Shabby Bronze mixed with white and gold embossing powders from my stash.

Wais Wednesday #18 - Saluyot

In our household, there is never a week that green leafy saluyot is not served over lunch or dinner.

Saluyot is one of the vegetables I grew up with as my favorite. As a growing child, I cannot deny that I have gone through the stage of being a picky eater and saluyot is one that satisfies my palate.

Saluyot is just so versatile that you can mix it with any other green and leafy vegetable - dahon ng malunggay, bulaklak ng kalabasa, talbos ampalaya (yes, this is good), talbos ng sitaw. In the same way, you can mix saluyot with puso ng saging, labong (most common), sitaw and sometimes with papaya. With those variations, you can almost have saluyot for your everday meal. Each meal will cost you below PhP50.00 in Metro Manila, and it can come free in the province since saluyot can grow almost anywhere.

Am glad that my husband also eats and loves saluyot because we share the same liking for this food.

Crafty Friday #10: Alice in Wonderland and Steampunk ATC

Below are two more ATCs I made for a swap. 

The Alice in Wonderland image is from one of the Studio Azul kits I still have in my stash. It is actually black and white and I colored using watercolor pencils. I also attached an embossed image and on the side, I sprinkled Stampendous Mica Flakes.

This is my second version of a steampunk ATC. I cannot remember if I have a photo of the first one. I just love gears so when I saw there is another steampunk ATC in swap-bot, I did not have second thoughts of joining. Look at the 5 centavo coin i added to the embossed clock. I am also falling in love again with heat embossing. I have to revive my old embossing powders by mixing them to different Stampendous embossing powders (Shabby white and/or aged copper). It really gives a different texture to chipboards. I have few more projects where I used embossing powders which I will be posting in the coming weeks.