Friday, July 29, 2011

An Ancient Tradition

We just returned from a trip to San Diego, and just as every time we travel, I am so grateful for the time we've been able to spend with friends.  In addition to the friends we stayed with, visited, and planned to see, we also went to the church in Oceanside where we used to be members, where we saw a number of friends.  Moving around a lot as we do, it is always wonderful to visit our former churches and see friends there.

Several weeks ago, my friend Rachel, who was also a member of that church at one time, but who has also since moved with the military, was visiting friends near where I live now.  She messaged me Saturday night to see where we went to church here, and we got to spend time with her that Sunday morning.

Sometimes when we are traveling, we attend a church somewhere where we don't know anyone.  We almost always feel like we are welcome and part of the family there.  I enjoy visiting with people, but I also enjoy worshipping with them.  I enjoy taking communion with them.  I always think how my parents, my grandmother, friends back home, and friends I haven't seen in years are also worshipping and communing with God and others at the same time (or maybe removed a few hours by the time difference).  In fact, around the world, our brothers and sisters in Christ are worshipping, fellowshipping, breaking bread, and listening to teaching from the Word, all within that 24-hour period, every week.  Some are in mega churches, some are in tiny country churches, and some are meeting in hiding.  The music is different, the clothes are different, and the meeting houses (or lack thereof) are different, but we all meet for the same reason - to remember and glorify Christ.  It ties us together and unifies us in a way that nothing else can.

Is it important to meet in corporate worship every Sunday?  Can't I worship just as well at home, in my own personal retreat in the woods, or in my hotel room?  To be sure, there have been times that I have not attended church on a Sunday because I was sick, one of my kids was sick, or something happened when we were traveling that prevented us from attending.  One year, we moved across country in the month of July, and since we had to move our dog with us and it was too hot to ever leave him in the car, we did not eat in restaurants, shop in stores, or attend church for several weeks.  We were relegated to getting food at drive-ins and eating at picnic tables in parks where we could find shade.  To be honest, we really missed attending church on those Sundays.  Why do we feel this draw to be with other Christians, even if we don't know them personally?

I think about the early church, in the first century.  Jesus established the Lord's Supper on the night He was betrayed, and later, His followers began the practice of meeting on the first day of the week, the day He rose from the dead.  (Many of these followers were Jews, and they probably still met at Synagogue on Saturday, the Sabbath, with other Jews; then on Sunday, they met with other Christ-followers.)  When they traveled from place to place, they sought out other believers.  In Acts 16, Luke writes about traveling with Paul to Philippi.  In verse 13, he tells us that "On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there."  They were looking for a synagogue, where they could meet with other Jews and possibly some who were believers in Christ.  While there was no synagogue in Philippi, there were believers in God who had met near the river on Saturday morning, just where Paul and the others would expect to find them.  In an age before cell phones, radios, or satellite transmitters, the believers simply met at the expected place at the expected time every week, and then they could find each other and worship together.  Acts 20:7 gives an example of the Christians meeting for communion on the first day of the week.  I Corinthians 16:1-2 talks about taking a weekly collection on the first day of the week.  While exact, detailed directions are not given (God evidently wanted to give us freedom in our worship and services), the precedent of coming together on the first day of the week was established two millennia ago.  And while not every church participates in the Lord's Supper every Sunday, many do.  I believe that this practice - meeting together to participate in "the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer" (Acts 2:42) - has probably been upheld somewhere in the world every single Sunday for the past 2,000 years.  That is quite a tradition!

If you have lived in one place most of your life and have been a member of a church, you probably know those people well and are used to the routine.  If, however, you move or travel frequently, you may have a different experience of how great it is to be part of such an awesome and ancient tradition.  To go to a new area and know that there will probably be believers with whom you can worship on a Sunday.  Old friends, family members you haven't seen in a while, or new friends whom you are meeting for the first time - all brothers and sisters in Christ.  This is a tradition worth keeping.  Being a part of the church universal is what has given us friends, family, and continuity as we move from place to place with the military.

If you have never been a part of this great family of believers - the body of Christ on earth - come break bread with us.  We'll see you Sunday morning!

One More Freebie from Sprouting Seeds Studio!

Here's a post just to let you know that Sprouting Seeds Studio released a few more freebies while I was out of town.  Check out their blog for anything you may have missed.  The following is straight from Sprouting Seeds Studio's blog, and clicking on links will take you over there where you can get the freebies!


Freebie - Celebration 400


It is time for another celebration and this time we thought we'd throw a little Pool Party - digital scrapbooking style that is! Sprouting Seeds Studio has reached 400 Fans on Facebook, so to say THANK YOU to all of our loyal Fans, Followers, Customers and Visitors, we hope you will download and enjoy our Celebration 400 Kit. We greatly appreciate each and every one of you helping to make Sprouting Seeds Studio grow on a daily basis!

The Celebration 400 Kit is filled with 5 Solid Papers, 5 Patterned Papers, an Alpha (Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers and Symbols), 1 Photo Frame, 3 Color Coordinated Photo Corners, 2 Word Art, 1 Sun, 1 Palm Tree, 1 Beach Ball, 1 Beach Towel and 1 Summer Themed Clothesline. We hope you will be inspired to create some terrific pages with all the photos we know you've been busy taking this summer, whether those photos are at the pool, beach, lake, on the ocean, or of the kids having a great time playing in the sprinklers in the backyard. You are sure to find many, many occasions to use this terrific kit. 

What's the next goal? 500 Fans on Facebook which means a Celebration 500 Freebie Kit for all of you, so be sure to stay tuned, as you never know how quickly that might just happen!!!!

You may download the Celebration 400 Kit here, which is for Personal Use. We've released several freebies on our website this week, so if you've missed any of them, be sure to take a peek over to the right under the Blog Archive to grab them while they are still available and then join us on Facebook, Google Friend Connect or Twitter, so you will always receive notice of our Freebies. Thank you once again!!!

Designed By Sprouting Seeds Studio

Free TOS Magazine - Digital Issue!

Take a look at the brand new Summer digital edition of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine. TOS is offering this digital issue of the magazine totally free with no strings attached. Enjoy this free gift from TOS—no registration or email address required to view the magazine! Take a peek here.





Read It Online Today!

"Movie Night" by Sprouting Seeds Studio

The second kit I have to show you today is "Movie Night," also by Sprouting Seeds Studio.  I can use this kit over and over again, as we have routinely hosted movie nights at our home through the years.  Here is a layout from one, which happened to also be Hannah's birthday.


Here's a preview of the full kit, which you can find at the following stores:

        Divine Digital             OR            ScrapDelicious


Here's your free Quickpage from 4shared.  PU only.


Happy Scrapping!  :)

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this kit for the purpose of making a LO and review.  No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.


"Summer'ish" by Sprouting Seeds Studio (You know I've got freebies!)

Well, I was out of town for almost a week spending time with my wonderful husband and attending a beautiful wedding.  I'm looking forward to scrapping those pictures!  For the time being, I have some catchup to do.  Sprouting Seeds Studio released "Summer'ish" a week ago, so here is my belated LO!


Here is a preview of this fantastic kit.  It has all you need to scrap a full summer vacation.  You can purchase the kit at:

             Divine Digital                OR                 ScrapDelicious



Don't forget to click on the image below to download your free QP from 4shared!  PU only.


Happy Scrapping!  :)

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this kit for the purpose of making a LO and review.  No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

"Picnic At the Park" by Sprouting Seeds Studio!

My summer is full of picnics and BBQs, so "Picnic At the Park" by Sprouting Seeds Studio is exactly what I need to scrap all those pics!


You can pick this kit up right now as a $2 Tasty Treat at ScrapDelicious!  Click on preview below:


Then hop on over to 4shared for your free QP.  Click on image below.  PU only.


Happy BBQing!  :)

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this kit for the purpose of making a LO and review.  No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

"Front Porch" Freebie at Sprouting Seeds Studio!

Sprouting Seeds Studio has a fabulous summer freebie called "Front Porch" on the blog today.  Just picture yourself in a big rocker sipping lemonade in the hot summer weather (if you are in the Northern Hemisphere!)  This kit will be great for scrapping your fond summer memories.


You can snag the free kit over at Sprouting Seeds Studio's blog.  Click preview below.


Don't forget to come back and click the image below for your free Quickpage from 4shared!  PU only.


Happy Scrapping!  :)

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this kit for the purpose of making a LO and review.  No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.

Monday, July 4, 2011

"Summer Sweet" by Sprouting Seeds Studio

Summer Sweet


We hope you are all having a terrific holiday weekend! Just wanted to let everyone know about Sprouting Seeds Studio's newest resale kit available today called Summer Sweet. Oh...the good ole' summertime has arrived, along with watermelon, ice cream and all those great summer sweet treats we love this time of year. We are sure you will have lots of summer photos to use with the Summer Sweet Kit, which works super for a variety of occasions!  Filled with 10 papers and a variety of embellishments, we hope this will become one of your favorite kits which is available for PU, S4H and S4O. The Creative Team Artists had a lot of fun with this kit creating their Ideas and Inspiration Pages, as you can see below! Sprouting Seeds Studio's resale kits are available at the following three places for your convenience - come take a look.

ScrapDelicious Shoppe                                     Misses BeeHaven Shop             
                               Divine Digital Boutique

Designed By Sprouting Seeds Studio

Designed By CT Artist Stacy Robbins

Designed By CT Artist Deb Reynolds

Designed By CT Artist Jennifer Powell
* Template by Sanko Studio "Simple Blocking V2" *

Designed By CT Artist Note-able Scraps

Designed By CT Artist Janeal Keleman

Click the image below to download your free Quickpage from 4shared!  PU only.


Happy Scrapping!  :)

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this kit for the purpose of making a LO and review.  No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

"Stars and Stripes" FREEBIE at Sprouting Seeds Studio!

Sprouting Seeds Studio has a great FREEBIE to kick off your 4th of July Weekend!


Click image below to go download your FREE kit from Sprouting Seeds Studio!


And don't forget to pick up your FREE Quickpage from 4shared!  Click image below.  PU only.


Happy 4th of July!

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this kit for the purpose of making a LO and review.  No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.

Clearance Sale at Lettering Delights!

Check out the Clearance Sale at Lettering Delights!  Many clearance items are marked down to 50 cents each, and you can save EVEN MORE with the bundles.  I just purchased 200 products (bundled) for 20 cents each!!!  Click on banner below to go check out the deals:





Happy Scrapping!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Kits by 3Scrapateers Club

The 3Scrapateers Club also sponsored RAK Scraps this month.


As a mother of 2 boys, I love Cool Boys and Their Toys. I found myself using it for some pictures of my girls, too. I love the new trend of stacking papers, so having so many patterned background papers in complimentary colors let me stack to my heart's content! The four smaller kits included in this collab work together seamlessly. The two alphas work well with all the elements and papers included. The colors are perfect for Thomas the Train pages, dinosaur pages, Go Diego Go pages, birthday pages, and just about any "little boy" theme!







The Warm Winter Wishes kit from 3Scrapateers Club is full of rich colors and fun elements for all of your winter pictures. There are two alphas and a plethora of papers, bows, snowmen, mittens, wordart, hearts, and ribbons in complimenting jeweled tones. I loved it for scrapping pictures of playing in the snow, as well as for pictures of our Christmas Choir concert. You will be able to use this huge collab over and over for all your winter pages!




Check out the 3S Club at http://3scrapateers.com/.  Happy Scrapping!  :)

Disclaimer:  I received free copies of these kits in exchange for the LOs and review.  No other compensation was given, and all opinions are my own.



Kits by Ronda's Scrap Bits

This month I had the fabulous opportunity to review several kits by Ronda's Scrap Bits, one of this month's sponsors at RAK Scraps.  My Forever is a nice-sized kit that is soft and romantic but not too sappy, if you know what I mean. The pretty pink is complemented by dark turquoise blues and creams, so that you could use it for pages about that one true love, but also pages about friendship, little girls, or that favorite dress. It's very versatile for anything that just needs a classically pretty page!




This is a great time for "Twinkling Lights" from Ronda's Scrap Bits for me. Well, I pretty much love all things Christmas any time of year, but the fact that I am still scrapping Christmas pictures (um, that's Christmas 2007 - I'm a little behind!) has me really looking forward to "Christmas in July" in ScrapWorld!! Twinkling Lights is a cute Christmas mini-kit in non-traditional, but festive, Christmas colors. The hot pinks and purples in it made it perfect for scrapping some Christmas pictures of my girls, who are always "girly-girly" no matter the season. It's not a completely girly kit, though, as the greens and yellows would be great for any festivity. The elements are whimsical and a little bit Suess-like. If the hot weather in the Northern Hemisphere has you longing for some Christmas cheer, pick up this mini-kit and do a couple of pages out of season today!




Disclaimer:  I received free copies of these kits in exchange for the LOs and review.  No other compensation was given, and all opinions are my own.