May I be Willing Lord...

Hello friends!  I hope you are all doing well!!

Today I'm sharing a card I made for two challenges on SCS, and this week's Word Art Wednesday, which is always anything goes.    One of the SCS challenges was  the TLC, which was to make an embedded die.  This is basically when you use the negative part of the die cut for your frame, and then piece the cut out back in.  I used this technique on the cross die cut, which was cut using the April ODBD release, Ornamental Crosses Dies. I stamped my violets image from The Lord has Risen (a past release) onto the cut out cross, colored it with Copics and inserted it back in to the cut away area.  The label it is on was cut with one of the dies from the Vintage Flourish Pattern Die set, as is the background die.  I embossed the panel with a Sizzix embossing folder, which was the other challenge, the Clean and Simple challenge.   I mounted it all on a piece of the ODBD Christian Faith Paper Collection designer paper.  For the image, I stamped the violets image with Memento ink and colored with Copics and hand cut it out. I stamped the sentiment from The Cross set, and I popped up the label on dimensionals, as I did also with the main panel.  I also used the Flourish Labels Border stamp set to stamp my border with Dusty Concord. 

One of the things I love about the new dies, including this background is that you don't need much embellishment when you can have such a beautiful focal point just by die cutting!  Since I was entering this in the CAS challenge, I did not add one embellishment, and it is totally flat for mailing.

The sentiment on this card is a thought provoking one!  What does it really mean to take up our cross and follow Him?

Luke 9:23 

And He said to them all, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

In context, I believe the above Scripture is referring to our daily need to identify with Jesus Christ as our Savior.  He later said that if anyone is ashamed of Him before men, He will be ashamed of him before the Father.  I also think one of the strongest implications is that we must deny ourselves, putting Him and His priorities first and foremost in our lives.  Denying ourselves is, lets face it, one very difficult task for us! We all have our own agendas, burdens, pains and sorrows, but they should not be what identifies us, or gives us our purpose.  Jesus and HIS agenda should.  What I love most about the sentiment is how it addresses our need to bear our cross DAILY.  I believe the Lord uses this word because he knew that this commitment is a day to day, even moment to moment surrender of our wills to His.  Are we always successful in this?  Well, I doubt it!  I know I'm not!  However, my heart's desire is to be surrendered to Him, to identify with Him as my Savior, and to not be ashamed to stand up and say so.  
 Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting with me today!  Have a blessed week!