Jesus' sandal straps

John 1:26-27

John answered them, "I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."

I deduce John the Baptist a sentimental guy. It is an act of humility and servitude as well as a gesture of kindness and love to untie someone's shoes, isn't it? Yet a loving husband might choose to take off the sandals of the one he loves with delicate hands. That is the image I get anyway. So Jesus is a great King and John the Baptist knew this very well. I am jealous. I wish I knew what kind of shoes/sandals Jesus wore lol. I just printed a pair of fashionable sandals and painted it with watercolour. I don't like painting so I just smeared some black ink from a piece of carbon paper for the background. I am taking a watercolour course from Becca Courtice and this is my picture for Day 1.

Throughout the night I think of You Dear God...

Psalm 119 vs 54,55 says your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning.  AND in my head. I remember your name in the night, O LORD... 

I love listening to spiritual songs and hymns. Some of my favourites are from John Michael Talbot. I also found a song I'd been dying to hear again and I found it!

MAKE ME A VICTIM

"Father, O Abba!
I offer you my will,
I offer you my life, I surrender,(Χ2)
Righteous Father
if it is within Your Will
make me worthy
so that You may use me
fully ...(2x)
make me a victim
of Your burning desires,
do as Your Heart desires,(2x)


"Father, Beloved One,
I need You to augment
my faith, my love, my hope,
that I may glorify Your Holy Name
again,
Righteous Father
if it is within Your Will
make me worthy
so that You may use me fully...
make me a victim
of Your burning desires,
do as Your Heart desires, (2x)

AMEN.

Scripture/sketch for the Day

sketchbook entry

A reading from the Songs of Solomon 
SGS 3:1-4B

The Bride says:
On my bed at night I sought him
whom my heart loves–
I sought him but I did not find him.
I will rise then and go about the city;
in the streets and crossings I will seek
Him whom my heart loves.
I sought him but I did not find him.
The watchmen came upon me,
as they made their rounds of the city:
Have you seen him whom my heart loves?
I had hardly left them
when I found him whom my heart loves.

A Prayer to the Holy Spirit

𝄞𝄘O Light!
O Inaccessible Light thrice Holy,

♩Come! descend now♫ and come not only on those who invoke You because they have heard of You,

but come also on those who have never known You!

✨Come! O Lamp of our body!

Come and correct all those who have never understood You;

Come to all those who fear You,

Come and unveil Your hidden treasures,

these treasures kept for our times,

Come! come and reveal

the Father and the Son’s Holy Countenances;

Come and reveal Yourself, Holy Spirit!

Come my Friend,

for You are the dazzling Light of our heart,

Come from on high

and clothe us with Your power and splendour;

Come and lodge inside us

and make out of Your Dwelling,

a place of prayer,

for You are the Constant Prayer;

See how naked we are now without You?

Come and shine Your Light in this darkness;

You are The Promise, You are our Love,

You are our Light,

Yes! You are The Promise!

You are the One of whom Scriptures say:

“It will never be night again

and they will not need lamplight or sunlight,

because the Lord God will be shining on them.” (Rv 22:5)

You are our Pledge of our inheritance,

Holy be Your Name and Blessed;

You are the priceless and inestimable pearl;

You are the radiance of our soul,

You are The Banquet and our festivity,

You are the Irresistible Companion of our life,

You are the Throne of the poor in spirit,

You are the Kingdom of kingdoms, the Empire of the empires,

O Visitor of our soul,

Come and free us!

Amen.

- taken from the Messages of TLIG

Praise God!

I give thanks and praise

to the awe-inspiring Lord,

so stupendously great;

Look! the One who flashes His Rays

dazzling my eyes,

is none other but my Father!

O Brilliant Adornment of the Heavens!

The greatness of Your Name liberated me,

and by raising my ear just a little,

I received Your Word from Your Mouth;

and now: I sing for joy to God, my Father!

I shout in triumph to the Anointed One,

Jesus Christ, my Saviour!

My Promised One,(see Ephesians 1:13)

O Delight of the delights!

I love You for making me Your friend;

and now, I call out with all my heart:

“Amen! my zeal is burning me up

to announce and proclaim Your Faithful Love!

“I shall do Your Will

and I shall bring as many as possible

in union with Your Oneness,

so that they too will be filled

with the absolute fullness of Your Trinitarian Holiness.”

Amen.

Here is Your King!

from my sketchbook

St. John the Baptist's mission was to prepare the way for the Lord and make the path straight so the people may receive their King and Messiah, Jesus Christ. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord Jesus, son of God, Saviour.

– tell Me, when a king enters into a city, will there be no preparations to receive him? the whole city will be in turmoil and the king will send before him his elect and his imperial court to prepare a way for him and make his paths straight; he will send his messengers to announce his coming; he will ask them to shout with a loud voice: “here is your King, your King is coming with His Heart in His Hand to offer It to you! Mercy now leans down from heaven and from His Throne; He has taken pity on you;” this is why, before My Return,
I am sending you, before Me, the Ark of Alliance, 

I am sending you the Woman of the Apocalypse, the second Eve, who will crush the serpent’s head with her heel;
I am sending you, before Me: My Mother, to open a broad highway and level it in this desert; 
I am sending you the Queen of Heaven, the Door to Heaven, to prepare you, and to school all you who still lie in the dust, to come forward and make your peace with Me, your King, before My Great Return;
I am sending you the Queen of Peace to thresh from one corner of the earth to the other and gather you one by one;
I am sending you, before My Great Return, My servants the prophets, to remind you of My Law and to turn you back from your evil ways and live holy, and announce to you events before they take place;
I am sending you My angels to remind you of My Holiness, My Magnificence and My Splendour;
I am sending you My mouthpieces to shout and proclaim on the rooftops of your houses the Wedding of My Holy Spirit;
I will not grow weary of calling you to wed Me;
I will not get discouraged by your hostility nor by your aridity;
Read the FULL message on TLIG.ORG

We Have Seen The Lord!

The Gospel reading today comes from John 20:24-29

Where was Thomas when Jesus appeared to the other disciples for the first time?  Thomas doubted his brother's words. How typical of some of us still today. We want to see with our own eyes but believing with faith is a grace and a blessing too. More blessed are those who have not seen but believed.

His touching and seeing Jesus should have made him fall prostrate at His feet, honestly. "My Lord and my God!" sounds lame. Shouldn't he have praised Him by using the name of Jesus? lol j/k

What possessed these pigs to jump into the water?

Demons are the reason they jumped off a cliff. The gospel reading for July 1st was from Matthew 8:28-34. Jesus heals two demoniacs. The demons knew who Jesus was and tormented by the sight of him, they asked to be sent into a herd of pigs nearby.

30 Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them. 31 The demons begged him, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’ 32 And he said to them, ‘Go!’ So they came out and entered the swine; and suddenly, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and perished in the water.

As soon as Jesus commanded them to "Go!" the pigs rushed down the hill into the water and drowned. What bold proclamation they made though! Jesus is the Beloved Son of God, and he had the power to cast out demons! Praise God! It must have been horrible for that town and for those two Gadarenes living in the cave to be possessed by a Legion of demons. UGH! I can't imagine. Anyway, the pigs were another thing. Better the pigs dying then the humans I guess. IDK. I don't think the Jews should have been keeping pigs anyway. They are unclean and for them to be keeping a herd of pigs is a no-no. Idk that is what I gather from doing a little research.

I drew my pigs cute, but picture them dirtier and scarier lol. What plagues me is Jesus and his disciples got back into their boat and crossed the same waters that just swallowed up not only a herd of pigs but a legion of demons! What? I wonder if their journey was a more harrowing experience. Anyway...

Free Bible Journaling Bookmarks

I received these free bible bookmark printables from Sarah Koontz today on Day 13 in the study of Ephesians. Jana from Sweet to the Soul created them. So good.



Since my printer ink is running low I tried painting them with Microsoft paint. I did manage to print them in colour on cardstock and made real bookmarks out of them. Beautiful.

The Gift of Finest Wheat - Parable

A Parable – The Crows And The Harvest -

from the messages of TLIG

see Matthew 13
 “There once was a sower who prepared an enormous field; he chose the finest grain to sow and produce the best wheat! now, when the harvest was ready to be reaped, and what a rich harvest it was, his enemy sent out a bunch of crows to fly over his field; this field, toiled and prepared with so much love and sacrifice, a ready and rich harvest, able to feed the entire country, leaving no one hungry; but, these crows which were sent by his enemy, started to pick up here and there from the harvest, devouring and ravaging as much as possible; if it was not for the sower seeing all this and sending out his servants to chase away those crows they would have devastated the entire harvest;”

Jesus Explains it: the sower is I, the Lord, the harvest is My Word, (The Holy Bible) the enemy is Satan; the crows are those souls influenced by Satan, through many years, now and again to eat up the important elements from My Words; but, I, Jesus Christ, the Lord, will manifest Myself time and again to bring back to you those missing elements; I will embellish and repair My Church;