New Bible Study Kickoff and Title Pic Contest

Happy Wednesday, Ladies!

Thank you so much for all of your helpful input regarding which Bible study you’d like to do next. We will be doing Forgiven to Forgive¹ at a later date, but today, we’re kicking off our next study…

…..with a fun title pic contest!

What does God’s Word teach us about thinking biblically and developing Christian character? Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew starts off with a list of character traits God blesses (the Beatitudes), then fleshes out how to submit to Scripture in real life scenarios in order for the Holy Spirit to grow us in those godly character traits.

The Sermon on the Mount will be an “expositorially topical” (an expository deep dive into a short segment of Scripture) study of Matthew 5-7, similar in format to The Ten. We will examine the character traits God blesses in Christians and how God develops those traits in us as we walk with Him through the practical circumstances of life and as we develop a biblical worldview.

But before we get started studying, how about a little fun?

You’ve probably noticed that I design a title picture for each Bible study I write. Here are a few past title pics:

You can see the rest of them at the Bible Studies tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page, if you like, to get a feel for my style and the general appearance I like my title pics to portray.

Y’all have sent in some beautiful and creative entries in our past title pic contests – indeed, the title pics for The Women of Genesis, Living Stones, and Imperishable Beauty were all designed by readers – so, once again, I wanted to get some of you involved in the design process for our new study.

Do you enjoy and have a knack for photo editing? Know someone who does? If so, I’m accepting submissions for title pictures for The Sermon on the Mount study. If your submission is chosen it will be used each week of the study, and you’ll be credited (name or website) by watermark. I’d love to be able to offer a huge cash prize, but, hey, we’re small potatoes here. This is just for fun and maybe a little publicity for your site, if you have one.

Contest Guidelines

☙ You must use images that don’t require attribution. Pictures you’ve taken yourself are fine, as are images from sources such as Pixabay, Pexels, Freely, Unsplash, StockSnap, or other free stock photo web sites. Please include the image source web sites you use along with your submission. (You cannot just grab and use any old picture off the internet. Photographers own their images and usually require permission, attribution, and often a fee, for their use.)

☙ Title pics should be landscape (a horizontal rectangle) with a width of 1000-2000 pixels and proportionate height. I prefer JPG images, but PNG is fine, too, if necessary.

☙ Your title pic must contain the full title of the study: The Sermon on the Mount. (Be sure to double check your spelling). 

☙ If your submission is selected, I’ll be glad to watermark it with your website address (please submit your picture without any watermarks) if you have one, as long as your web site doesn’t conflict with my statement of faith or my beliefs outlined in the Welcome tab.

☙ Deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. Monday, January 18, 2021. 

☙ E-mail your title pic submission along with your full name, web site address (if any), and the source(s) you used for your image(s) to MichelleLesley1@yahoo.com. You are welcome to submit as many images as you like.

☙ Please don’t be offended if your submission isn’t selected. If I peruse all the submissions and I’m just not “feeling it,” I may still elect to design one of my own.

☙☙☙☙☙

Feel free to share this around with friends who have an interest in photo editing. If you want to take a whack at it for fun but don’t know where to start, play around with Be Funky, PicMonkey, or Canva and see which one works best for you.

Think about – maybe even read – the Sermon on the Mount and try to capture in your image the theme of what Jesus was teaching or what it might have looked or felt like to be in the audience Jesus preached it to.

Happy designing!

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¹For those who were hoping for the study on forgiveness, you’ll notice that the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 does touch on that topic, so we will cover it, albeit briefly, as part of this study.