Bible Marginalia- Fan into Flame

#10 in the Bible Marginalia Series

Guard the Deposit Entrusted to You

Paul to Timothy:

I remember you constantly

 in prayer day and night

 I know your tears

 and to see you would bring me JOY.

I know your sincere faith.

This dwelt in your grandma- Lois,

and your mom- Eunice,

and now dwells in YOU.

For this reason, 

I remind you to fan into flame

 this gift of faith from GOD.

It is in you from the laying on of my hands.

For God gave us a spirit, 

not of fear,

but of power

and love

and self-control.

2 Timothy 1:3-7

Bible Marginalia- Bless the Lord, O My Soul

#9 in the Bible Marginalia Series

Bless the Lord, O my Soul.

and all that is within me,

bless His holy name!

For we have a God that shows compassion

 and removes our transgressions.

He is merciful and gracious.

He is slow to anger.

Bless the Lord all my soul

 and forget not all His benefits.

He forgives, heals, redeems, crowns,

 and satisfies us with good.

He does not repay us with what we deserve,

but withholds anger and 

as high as the heavens are above the earth, 

so great is His steadfast love to us.

As far as the east is from the west

 He removes our sins from us.

v.21- Bless all of His ministers who do His will.

With Thanksgiving for all the Church workers

 in the Southeastern District-LCMS

May the Lord bless them in ALL Their WAYS.

75th Anniversary Banners-Southeastern District- LCMS

          Anniversary Banners
      Created by Diane J. Guelzow

ARTIST STATEMENT-

Art making is a daily exercise for me, a daily diet of mixing everyday life with sensory-rich visuals. It is the way I process life, a necessary staple, and a reflection pool for living. I mix materials, blurring paint, and paper, fabric, pen and whatever my spirit reaches for in the creative process. I am primarily a mixed-medium artist, but painting is my breath.

I love to hear life stories from individuals.  Although I work primarily as a Licensed Professional Counselor and an artist, stories fuel my work and life with passion.  Two scripture readings serve as the focus for this conference, offering three beautiful and sacred life stories: the loving relationship between the Father and his Son, the relationship between God and all people, and the relationship between people. 

In the background of each banner, the ascending Christ with arms raised toward his Father is positioned behind individuals serving God and receiving God’s love.  Within this sacred relationship, St. Paul encourages us to act as one in love and forgiveness, in lowliness and meekness, with patience and forbearance, and with an eagerness to maintain unity of the spirit within a bond of peace. 

The banners reveal a variety of ways we serve Christ.  Many more ‘callings’ could have been illustrated on these banners.  However, the diversity of ‘callings’ are secondary to the calling to live in unity of spirit.  Whether a pastor or teacher, young or old, light skinned or dark skinned, God reminds us to lead a life worthy of the calling: one body, one spirit. Gold leaf is distributed around the banner to illustrate unity of spirit with heart and mind, unity of spirit between the triune God, and unity of spirit towards all people. Believers are to be witnesses of this great love, this great relationship, this great God.

Diane J. Guelzow

Ed.D., NCC. LPC, REACE

We give thanks for the creative design and execution of these two banners to bring visual praise to the President's Conference of the Southeastern District- LCMS. These have been created as commissioned art to celebrate the gift of 75 years walking together for the sake of God's Kingdom here on earth. We rejoice in the blessing of Diane's creative gift sharing.

75th Anniversary Celebration Southeastern District- LCMS

The Processional Cross

This processional cross gifted to the 

Southeastern District of the LCMS

 is crafted in memorial of the Christian brothers

 and sisters of Iraq and Syria that died

 for their confession that Jesus Christ

 is the Son of God, 

the Lamb of God that takes away

 the sin of the world.

  The materials were donated

 by Dr. Benjamin Harrison Allen.

  The white oak, black walnut, 

and wild cherry trees grew on his property

 for just over 75 years.  

Three types of wood were used to symbolize

 the three regions of the Southeastern District: 

Northern, Central and Southern.  

When studied closely, each type of wood

 forms a distinct cross, and yet,

 when viewed from a distance, 

the three form but one cross. 

 Each region of our district serves communities

 and neighborhoods deeply influenced

 by their histories and the many cultural traditions

 that settled and are continuing to settle there.

  Yet, our mission is one:  

Proclaim the love of God that expressed itself

 most profoundly in the cross that Jesus Christ

 bore and sacrificed His holy life upon

 2000 years ago. 

      

This cross was created by Rev. Denton White,

 the pastor of  St. Paul Lutheran Church,

 Whispering Pines NC and

 St. James, Southern Pines, NC. 

He has given all of us in the Southeastern District

 the processional cross used to celebrate the 75th anniversary of our District.

 He found the trees, shaped the lumber, 

designed and made the cross. 

We give thanks to God for Denton 

and his amazing artistic ability and the way

 he as used it to give honor and glory to Jesus.

 Denton says,

  “I was almost complete with the finishing process 

when I noticed that the cherry wood

 I used on the outer edge,

 because of its irregular grain,

 almost resembled flames.

  Oh, may our God make us burn with desire

 for His cause in the lives of others 

and with sincere, child-simple love for Him.”

Part of the Celebration for the 75th Anniversary 

for the Southeastern District- Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

Praise the Lord!

Bible Marginalia- The Shema- Hear, O Israel

#8 in the Bible Marginalia Series

THE SHEMA is the central prayer in the Jewish

 prayerbook (Siddur) and is often the first section 

of Scripture that a Jewish child learns. 

During its recitation in the synagogue, 

Orthodox Jews pronounce each word very carefully

 and cover their eyes with their right hand. 

Many Jews recite the Shema at least twice daily:

 once in the morning and once in the evening.

 It is also sometimes said as a bedtime prayer

 ("the bedtime Shema").

Here is a you tube video to learn
 a bit about the call for Christians -

to take seriously this call to be 
the faith educators for their own children.

The Shema

From the time you get up, till you go to bed,
when you rise and when you lie down,
and all along the way.
Write them in your house- bind them to you.
It is God's plan for teaching.
Old Testament wisdom for 
Christian families today.

Bible Marginalia- Pay Attention

#7 Bible Marginalia Series

Warnings Against Neglecting Salvation

"Therefore, we must pay much closer attention

 to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it."

Hebrews 2:1

When we don't pay attention to something, 

we can find ourselves far away.

 Degree by degree.

We don't really know when 

we strayed off course.

 It was just a little bit at a time.

Time to pay attention.

Used an alphabet stamp set.

Printables can be found here-
Bible-marginalia-journaling
Sharpie fine point- Non-bleeding pen 
and colored Pencils

Bible Marginalia- Your personal IEP

#6 in the Bible Marginalia Series

However we may become connected
 to Bible Marginalia-

 whether it is sermon notes, a prayer, 

words that are touching your spirit,

or a visual to highlight a Bible verse-

 each journey will be different.

We all start in a different place, 

and the order will be as life unveils for each of us.

 It is like my personal IEP- Individual Education Plan.

Holy Spirit Designed and Holy Spirit Scripted.

When we returned from our pilgrimage

 to Israel in Jan 2014, 

I wanted to spend time reading in one of the Gospels.

 I chose the Gospel of John.

Then a couple of weeks later,

 I saw that Ann Voskamp was inviting all

 to join her in the memorization of specific verses

 from the Gospel of John

 over the course of the year- 2014.

I printed them up and made them into a little booklet.

Propped them on the window sill above the kitchen sink.

Then mid-summer, as I was reading the book-

Writing in the Margins,

 I thought it would also be helpful 

to actually place the graphically

 designed Bible verse right in my Bible.

I have decided that Bible Marginalia 

is not necessarily only about creating

 my own art additions.

Nothing better than the work in these small squares- 

simply print off, and back with scrapbooking paper

 and add in with washi tape.

Simple to flip up to read beneath the add-ins.

A quick glance and the words are brought to memory again.

This is my Bible that I have been using 

for over 15 years.

Enjoying the visual additions here. 

Spending time in my journaling Bible-

more on that in future posts.

Here is the site where you can sign in/subscribe
 to the Freebies section on Ann's blog
 to get the Bible verses.

Printables for the Gospel of John

 I probably will not do very many
 books of the Bible this way-
(just so I can still close my Bible)
but is has certainly been a gift in the reading of 
the Gospel of John.
My Journey. His Way.

(More about the tabs in a future post)