Posted on Friday, August 14, 2015

Illustrated Faith: Practice These Things, And the God of Peace will Be With You

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
– Philippians 4:4-9.

I did a journal on this passage last year and today I read this passage again, I learned more things from God. Yes, He can speak again to me, teach me His truth and reveal who He is to me from the very same passage. I learn today that do not skip the portion you have read because God might wanna teach you something new of Him & His commands for us to live.

On the page, I used Gelatos sticks to highlight the verses and added some water for watercolor effect. Oh please be careful with adding water on Bible pages, do not too much coz it will wrinkle your page, I dubbed the extra water off the page using paper towel. Using Gelato for the first time got me nervous to add it on my page but after seeing the result, I love Gelato! 🙂

On a piece of watercolor paper and using watercolor paint, I wrote the title of journal. I love using Aqua brushes, they are so easy to use. And then I added some of the Pearl Watercolor paints all over the page and on the title to give some glittery looking. When it’s completely dry, I wrote the journal using Fine Tip Sharpie.

Then last step I added the watercolor journaling card on the page using washi tape at the top of the journaling card so that I can still read the verses.

Thankful for the Illustrated Faith 2: Faith and Strength class and the instructor at Big Picture Classes. It’s a blessing for me to learn and dig deeper in this way.

Posted on Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Love Him Is To Love Others

Since we came back from our trip, my heart longs for something. Something that refresh me. Something that stir my heart to love God. Something that will keep the fire burning my heart on the trip and still burning me to serve Him.

This one phrase came into my mind: God is love.

I opened my Bible, search for the verses about God and love. John wrote in his letters, 1 John 3 and 4 are full of truth of God and instructions to love like He has loved us. I learned so much about God and his unconditional love for us and others this last couple of days.

In these two chapters God teach us to love Him is to love one another. Pure and real love only come from God alone. He gives us the ability to love because He is love. He is the one who lives in us and we are in Him, then our love will grow perfectly.

His love we saw in Indonesia. His love is for the people is real. We want to love these people. We want them to know God’s love for them that much. We want them to know that He changes lives, that He has better plan for them, that He sent His only begotten Son to redeem them back from the death, too.

God is the only one who fill our hearts with His love and plans. He calls us to go because of love.

Before I came to know Jesus and His perfect love for me and the world, I lived in angry and hatred. I was angry because I was born as Chinese – Indonesian, looked different that the locals. I hated them because they called me names when I was in High School just because I was different and not Muslim. I told myself that I could be nice to them, but never ever to love them.

To be able love them now it is only because God has changed my heart, gave me new heart and new life only in Christ Jesus. He is the only reason. But if we say we love God and do not love our brothers and sisters, then we lie to ourselves and to others.

We only can love others genuinely it is because God give us His unconditional love.

It is because God is love. I learn that to know Him is simply open your Bible, read, meditate and He’ll speak personally to you.

Posted on Monday, August 3, 2015

Illustrated Faith: God Speaks To Us Because Of Love

We got back from our 2 months trip to Indonesia last week. Just in case you were wondering why I did not blog regularly in the last 2 months 🙂

Originally plan was only to attend my youngest sister’s wedding and spend time with my parents and my family so that our daughters get to know them in real life not only through Skype callings.

But God has different plan for us this time.

For 8 weeks we spent in Indonesia, we learned God’s desire to see every tribe and every people to stand before His throne worshipping Him in every language they speak.

We took our daughters who are 6 years old and 2 years old on this trip. This was a tough trip for them but we prayed and we asked lots of people to pray for us and the girls, asking God for what He wanted to teach and show us this time.

He spoke us through the situations, people we met, and even places we visited. He opened our eyes to see the needs of His word in their lives, He showed us why they need Him, and He put the desire even more in our hearts as family to serve Him there.

As Jesus gave His command to His disciples, this command is also for us, His church, in Matthew 28:18-20. This commands is also known as the Great Commandment.

Supplies: My Mind’s Eye Decorative Tapes, Freckled Fawn wood veneers, Elle’s Studio tags, Stickos Alpa stickers, Target tags & alpha stickers, Faber Castell PITT Artist Pens and Big Brush, Martha Stewart Glue Pen

Maybe you think this command is only for those certain people who called themselves “missionary.” But this command is given to each of Jesus’ follower, to each of us, to you and me. We all are called to go and make disciple, to teach them the truth, to baptize them and to teach them to obey God’s commands. That means, you and I are missionaries, the messengers of God’s message to this world where we live.

When we visited a city, we found out churches in that city are scared to step out of their comfort zone to reach out to the local people who are 100% non-believers and this people group is one of the Unengaged, Unreached People Group.

The question is: Why they are scared?

My heart is broken. I keep praying for this people group and for those believers who live among this unreached people group that they will have courage to go out and reach out to them, to go sharing the Good News to them.

Supplies: Abigail’s Handdrawing heart, Faber Castell PITT Artist Pen, My Mind’s Eye Decorative Tape, SU Journaling Card

God’s love endures forever. He is patient enough waiting for each of us to repent and come to Him. His love never ends. His love never fails. His love for the people in Indonesia is the same love he has for us who live in the States or anywhere else.

There are at least 400 languages groups (people groups) who have been waiting to know God’s unfailing love to them, waiting to hear He speaks to them in the languages that they understand best in their mind and hearts.

For this reason we went. For this reason we wanna go back to serve there alongside with national translators and national churches to accelerate the proces of translations of God’s word into those 400++ languages!

Supplies: Field Notes pocket notebook, Pilot Gel pens.

This is the truth. The center of the Bible is the Gospel. And the center of theGospel is Jesus Christ. That concludes that the center of the whole Bible is Jesus Christ.

We attended a church with our friend, the preacher said something that reminds us that wherever we are sent to go, we share the Good News, we share Jesus. When we preach, we preach Jesus.

Few times I was asked why we wanna take our family to go and live in Indonesia, where we could get everything and living comfortably in States. The only answer to that question is because we love Him. To love Him is to obey Him and His commandments. Our prayer is to love Him with all our hearts, souls, minds & all of our strength.

Serving Him is an act of love. Because without love it is impossible for us to serve full heart. For only God who gives you and I the power and desire to serve Him (Phillippians 2:13).

Supplies: Alpha Die Cut by The Cut Shoppe, Silhouette Cameo, CTMH White Daisy Cardstock, CTMH Cork button, CTMH studs, CTMH heart enamel, CTMH Mini Stapler, Prima Marketing Chalk Edgers, Elle’s Studio tag, Faber Castell PITT Artist Pens.

It is only one reason. That is because God is so loved the world. He sent Jesus not to judge and condemn. He sent Jesus, His only Son to save and redeem us back to be His.

He calls and sends you and I to go to our “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and The End of The Earth” – to our families, neighbors, friends, and those who we do not know – is to share who He is and why He loves them that much.

Would you go to where God send you?

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Link up at:

The Cut Shoppe – Cut It Out August Challenge

Inspire Me Monday – Week 187

Silhouette Challenges #28

Posted on Friday, January 23, 2015

HelloMornings Week 2 and National Handwriting Day

Do you know that today is National Handwriting Day here in the States? I found out from social media today. I am encouraged and inspired by a lot of people I follow on Instagram.

And I wouls like to share with you one of my simple handwriting. This is my take away of this week 2 study with HelloMornings challenge.

I am loving this new way of journaling God’s word. On a Facebook group, Journaling Bible Comunnity, I am thankful for a lot crafty friends who inspire me to learn more and illustrate our faith creatively. My oldest daughter is learning to do the same with her own journal, too 🙂

If you are on Instagram, search for hashtag #nationalhandwritingday and you’ll find a lot of creative handwring.

Do you write journal?

Posted on Friday, January 9, 2015

Faith Is A Journey

In October 5th, 2002 was the first day I made the decision that changed my life forever. Buy then I realized that I could not be able to walk this journey by my self.

Without faith, I cannot. That I know. But do I live in faith? Do I walk by faith? These questions lead me to this verse again and again:

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (‭Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭6‬ NLT)

I came to know Him. I became a follower. I became a believer. But what is a believer without faith?

God. I need him. He is the faith giver. He is the hope giver. He is the only one who gives me the desire and power I need every moment to walk and to do what pleases Him (Philippians 2:13). And that power and desire is the Holy Spirit who lives in every believer of Him. Yes, God’s Holy Spirit lives in each of us, you and me.

We also need accountabilities and encouragements from fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

My first accountability and encouragement God has out in my life is my husband. He uses my husband for His glory and purposes. Through his life, God blesses me and our daughters with love, grace, and encouragement that we need to grow as family.

And God also put brothers and sisters in Christ in our lives. You have them also in your lives. For me, God has given me a lot since the day I was adopted into His Kingly Family.

All of You are my brothers and sisters in Christ.

God use His church to encourage each other in your own church community. But also, there are small groups He provides for us.

For me, I found this HelloMornings group in 2013. This group has been a great blessing in my spiritual life. There are wonderful sisters I have met since then. They encourage me in ways I even cannot image. They are my accountabilities to walk with God every day. Together we grow in knowledge of who God is.

If you are looking for accountabilities and encouragements to walk with Him like I do, you still have time to join any HelloMornings groups that fits to your needs. Go HERE to join us. The next study will start on Monday, 01/12/2015.

And I wanna do something different this challenge. Studying & journaling every word He speaks to me.