Hello everyone. I do apologize for the length of time that I have been absent from my blog, and I must make more time to get some posts up and soon. I have a lot of projects that have been finished and are just waiting for me to share. On the first Sunday in July, we had an appreciation ceremony for our musician at the church. We had an awesome time celebrating the work that she does for the God we serve. I love this woman to pieces, and am grateful to have her in our lives. ♡

I was searching for a unique gift that I could give her that I knew would make her smile and so I hit the crafting world and came up with this beautiful mini piano. I love love love it. I made a trial version but I must say that I love this one much more. If anyone would like one made for someone special, I would be more that happy to make one, just email me and we will iron everything out. I hope you enjoy this project as much as I did.

Yours in Christ 😃
Erica J Hill

Galatians 5:16-26

      How many of us recognise that sin is a spirit that can minister to us? And if allowed to, it could minister death to our souls. Lying is a spirit, stealing is a spirit, fornication is a spirit, adultery is a spirit, homosexuality is a spirit, in essence, anything that is not not like God is the "Dead Fruit of Sin". When we go back to the beginning to when the first sin occured, we will see that Eve was ministered to by the serpent. When her mind became open to the possibility of obeying or disobeying God, she chose to disobey Him and then ministered the same idea of disobedience to Adam, and he sinned too. Thus sin and disobedience are the same.

       We all have a choice to either obey or disobey. Sin or not to sin. Think back over your life, everything bad that you did, did you think about it first? A lot of the things that I have done in my past, I can guarantee that the thought was on my mind well before the action was carried out. I plotted then executed. More times than not, we all have done this. I'm here to tell you that this is the spirit of sin. It's always there trying to minister disobedience to our minds and hearts.

    Galatians 5:19-21 gives us a list of fleshly deeds that will keeps us from going to Heaven. All of these things come from the spirit of sin. The Word tells us to bring all our thoughts under subjection to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). This means that any negative thinking needs to be cast out and replaced with thoughts that glorify the Lord. The latter part of Galatians 5 gives us the Fruit of the Spirit of God, which ministers life to us. 

    When preparing for battle, the officers in command will draw up a strategy that they believe will help defeat their enemy. They'll send out scouts to find weak spots and other information, they will look at maps of the area to determine the best point of attack. They'll get advice from their most trusted leaders, and they realise that they are only as strong as their weakest soldier. So they train them for combat, instilling discipline, courage and love for the brotherhood, and teaching them that there is strength in unity.
    We have to be the same in Spiritual Warfare. The enemy is drawing up battle plans according to the maps of our minds. He studies our weaknesses and our past failures because he knows that the way to winning this war is to subdue our minds. He'll feed thoughts of discouragment, self-hate, depression, and all manner of things to create strongholds on our minds, then sin steps in and ministers to our spirits to act on those thoughts. So, we must become proactive in this fight, not reactive. We must use prayer to communicate with God, building up a store room of protection, so that when the enemy attacks, we'll be strengthened for the battle that's being proactive. If we wait until the enemy attacks before we reach out to God, then we set ourselves up to fail.
    The Bible is our map in more ways that one. It allows us to seenwhere the enemy plans to attack, then gives us the Living Word to push him back. We should use the Holy Spirit as our Spiritual Advisor to help call scripture to our remembrance when we are under attack. Our flesh, being the weakest member of the team, should be disciplined to withstand temptation. And we must unify ourselves within the Body of Christ. Once we are able to start recognizing the attack of the enemy, we will know what to seek God for in preparation for battle.      
     I truly believe that the thoughts we feed the most will be the thoughts that win. If we feed sinful thoughts, then sin will win. Sin ministers to our spirits to keep us out of the Will of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life (Romans 6:23). Feed the positive thoughts that will give you life. Submitting our lives to Jesus , means that we receive life eternally. When we receive the Holy Spirit, the Fruit of the Spirit has been planted in our hearts, but its up to us to give sunlight and water to those seeds. So my question today is, which spirit will you feed?

 Yours in Christ

©Erica Hill
gracebuiltthis@outlook.com
gracebuiltthiscreations.blogspot.com

        I’ve been searching for the biblical meaning of the word “faint”, and I have come across scriptures that talk of “fainting”, but they also offer comfort in knowing that God is always there, if we hold on. The definition of faint is to become weak or dizzy; close to losing consciousness. It also means not clearly seen or felt. Sometimes when we lose sight of God, we feel a ‘faint’ touch, but it seems as though it’s not enough for us to know that He’s there, so we feel ‘faint’ at that time. The bible tells us in Isaiah 40:29 that “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might; He increaseth strength.” I delight in this promise because the scripture tells me that He is always there. It goes on to say in verse 31 “but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.” The keyword is shall. It doesn’t say maybe or could or probably. The promise is that we shall. That waiting on the Lord not only keeps us from fainting, but there’s a constant renewal of strength in times when we feel like giving up. In a world filled with uncertainty, it feels great to be rooted and anchored in the Lord. To know that being able to access Him through prayer and seeking His face constantly, should give us more reason to do so. I know what it feels like to be empty because I walked without God. It hurts. Then one day, I listened to a song and the singer quoted Psalm 27:13, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” And I often wondered what that meant so I set out to learn. I wanted to grow closer to God so that I wouldn’t faint. Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strength thine heart. Wait, I say on the Lord.” Another promise. Promises to keep us strengthened if we trust in the Lord. Trusting God’s plan is more important than anything else we can do. Once, I worked in a daycare and I had a conversation with my boss, Ms Fran, about God, and she told me that she trusts God because she has nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Because if she dies believing in God, and nothing happens, then nothing happens, but if she dies not believing in His Word, living His Word, and it turned out that He is real, then she would go to hell, and that’s not an option. So she lives her life trusting and believing in God’s Word. I took that with me, because I honestly believe that trusting and believing in God is far better than not having anything to live for. Galatians 6:9 “Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” This is yet more comfort in knowing that if we come out of living in the world and live for God, then our living won’t be in vain. Because if we live contrary to God’s Word, then we will lose our souls. There is no destiny, nothing to look forward to outside of God. This world is becoming more and more dark every day.
           I recognized today that the Holy Spirit is urging us to not give up when the term “faint” is used. But the first step is to acknowledge that we need God in every aspect of our lives. Building a foundation with Christ requires us to communicate with Him daily through prayer, the reading of His Word, worshipping Him, and fasting. Coming to God is not as hard as we make it seem. Sometimes we may not understand things, but it’s not for us to understand God’s ways, we just need to trust Him. So don’t give up on your dreams just because you don’t see things happening according to your schedule. Trust God. When His timing and season for your life aligns, then everything will fall into place. Now, I’ll leave you with this, Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path.”

Yours in Christ

 Erica J Hill

© gracebuiltthis@outlook.com
gracebuiltthiscreations.blogspot.com

I loved the idea of this Pinspiration. My other mother asked me to create a wedding card in a box that she had found. Being true to my own style, I found this box to be a beautiful creation. I'm excited and I hope she loves it as much as I do.

For any of you preparing to travel this holiday, I pray that the Lord our God gives you traveling grace and mercy and that all of you have a safe and blessed holiday!!

Yours in Christ 😃

© 2015 gracebuiltthis@outlook.com

The Envelope Pouch was a delight to make. I created my own variation using the tutorial found on Kimberly  Van Diepen's website. I was thinking of my wonderful husband when I created this card. I wanted to let him know that he is very appreciated. If you're reading this baby, I love you ♡♡ 😙.

As always, it's a joy and a privilege to create things for those I love. Have a blessed day!! 😄

Walking for Christ

Ephesians 5:14 “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

Have you ever noticed the routines of life? How everything is the same day after day? We get up, go throughout our daily activities, go to sleep, then do it all again the next day. Going through the motions, life seemingly has no meaning, until one day, you decide to give your life to Christ. You’ve awaken, and you realize that so much time has passed by, and you wonder “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” Life suddenly has meaning. You want to give up old habits, change up your routine some. You’re no longer just going through the motions. Your whole life has come alive, you have a purpose, a reason for living. That’s when you begin to notice that everyone around you is asleep, doing the same things you once did. I often watch the tv show on AMC called “The Walking Dead”, and it’s based on a zombie apocalypse. For some reason, zombies have taken over the world, and there’s little life left. There are a handful of survivors, and the more the show progress, the fewer they become. As I’m watching the show, I realize that until we give our lives to Christ, we are nothing more than zombies walking the earth. We may be living, but we are dead on the inside. Zombies are dead people who mindlessly walk the earth looking for people who are alive to eat. Once they bite a living person, that person becomes a zombie as well. And even is someone die of natural causes, eventually they will become a zombie too. When you think about it, that’s Satan’s job too. Satan walks the earth looking to suck the spiritual life out of us. To make us become busy with unhealthy habits, or negative influences that causes us to forget the reason we are here. The good news is, that when we give our lives to Christ, we gain life. We’re given the opportunity to live freely, we are awaken from that zombie-like state, and we are charged to wake others. That’s why the Word urges us to “Awake and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give the light.” And when we receive that light, we are called to “Let our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in Heaven” as stated by Jesus in Matthew 5:16. To live for this world is to die, to live for Christ and die to this world is to live eternally. When we make the decision to live a life that models Christ, our lives become more than about ourselves. We must become conscious about winning souls for our Lord, and we can’t straddle the fence to do it. It’s time to come out of that zombie-like state and recognize that life has so much more meaning when we live in Christ. It has purpose. So my question today is, “Are you ‘The Walking Dead’ or are you ‘Walking for Christ?’

© gracebuilthis@outlook.com 2015

So, I've decided to go back in time and pull out some oldie, but goodie tutorials that I've found on Pinterest.

This cute box in a bag can be used for all kinds of small gifts or treat bags, and it's was very easy to make.

I'm doing my first shout out on this blog, and it goes to the little blue room blog writer, Rachel. Thank you so much for this tutorial, it's really awesome!