Creativity

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5 New International Version (NIV)

To love God with all that we are, with our whole self, is an enormous challenge. Our hearts and minds are easily distracted and persuaded; our souls are unfathomable, perhaps our greatest and most faithful lover of God. But to give all, consciously and subconsciously takes a continual recommitment to God's will, a constant re-examining of our relationship with our Creator and, scariest of all, a constant vulnerability to allow God to work in us.

Printing and Sizing:

This item is 105mm x 148mm and is printed on 300gsm gloss card stock. Each card is blank inside, has its title and copyright details on the back and is individually wrapped in cellophane with an envelope.

  Words: In the hope rejoicing; in the tribulation enduring; in the prayer persevering; Romans 12:12 Literal Standard Version Bible: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 NIV Background: Artist Mary Fleeson says: "Being joyful isn’t about having a permanent grin on your face or always feeling happy... when I first started to look into what it meant to be a Christian, as a teenager with the accompanying hormone roller-coaster, I found it really difficult to understand what ‘joy’ meant. I was told it was a deep-down assurance, more lasting than ‘happy’ and something I could only truly experience with God’s help. It took me a long time to realise that joy wasn’t something that was affected by mood or even circumstance. I've learnt not to underestimate the power of mind and body on spirit and I still find the balance between them difficult to achieve, but joy is sustained by hope and faith and the love beyond measure of our Creator. Patience in affliction is great advice isn’t it? There are probably few of us that could say that we’re good at being patient even when we know that it will help us to cope, giving ourselves permission to rest and step back from our usual busyness can feel like giving up or giving in but fighting against the needs of your body or mind will only delay their healing. Faithfulness in prayer is breathing for the soul, it is our constant communication with God. It isn’t something we just do on Sundays or at set times but it is in every conversation, every action and every thought. When we pray constantly, we are inviting God to be in our lives, to nurture us and guide us - what could be better? Printing and Sizing: This item is 105mm x 148mm and is printed on 300gsm gloss card stock. Each card is blank inside, has its title and copyright details on the back and is individually wrapped in cellophane with an envelope.  

Words: Matthew 11:28 (New American Standard Bible ©1995) "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Background: Artist Mary Fleeson tells us that...'Jesus offers rest to those of us who are burdened with the weights of sin, fear, worry and the absence of purpose. The loads we carry may be hardly noticeable at first but if not released into Gods waiting hand have a habit of becoming heavier until their weight affects our every movement, slowing us spiritually and eventually crippling our effectiveness as the human children of our Heavenly Father. When Jesus spoke the words it was thought that He was addressing the Jews who were burdened and trapped by the complex and numerous laws and traditions but it is an offer which He makes to everyone today. Often the things in our lives that keep us from loving God and each other completely are burdens of our own making and are tightly bound with our human tendency to sin and then to hide from the God who can reveal those sins to us so we end up carrying a burden of guilt and fear. To God our burdens are tiny and light. He wants to relieve us of them. It may take some effort and courage to recognise and release our heavy loads but it is worth it to be able to stand upright and skip onwards (metaphorically speaking) in life without constraint.' Printing and Sizing: This item is 210mm x 297mm and is printed on 300gsm card stock using our in-house printer. Each print is individually signed by Mary Fleeson and is packaged in a cellophane wrapper with a descriptive backing sheet explaining more about the piece and the Scriptorium.

A 21cm square print featuring original artwork by Francesca Ross and using wording from our Community's Evening Prayer.