Burning Garments

And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. Isaiah 9:5 (NASB)

And we end the year on a happy note! Now this is where context in scripture is very important. When I first saw this verse I did not see the context and thought, “Ugh, another yucky passage. Another sad thing to write about. Sigh.” Then I read around it, and the New Living Translation account of this verse.

“Never again will uniforms be bloodstained by war. All such equipment will be burned.” Ahhhh. Peace. The reason I got to this passage at all was the Dec. 31^st reading in Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. It took me to verse 9:6 about Jesus being the Prince of Peace, and the reflection was on God pouring His peace into our needy lives. (I must admit that a lot of times the passages she takes me to end up taking me to the verses or chapters that have cloth in them. I automatically look for garment and cloth passages everywhere in scripture now!)

No more bloodstained garments. No more war. Death will be destroyed, as well as every sign of it. This is not a fire built to keep one warm. Nope. It is the fire of ultimate destruction of evil and of cleansing. Fire was used after wars because everything was so contaminated by blood, dead bodies, and all sorts of destruction. The wild animals would come and eat and threaten anything living. They didn't really dig graves...people were entombed in caves, etc. So mass death would result in a bonfire, of sorts. The contaminated and contaminating would be burned to keep the animals, birds, and germs at bay.

And the time will come when all traces of death and destruction will come.

I never saw that the very next verses were the “For unto us a child is born” passages. The establishment of His government and OF PEACE. There would be justice and righteousness. There would be good and the banishment of all evil. The Christ, the Everlasting Father, the Wonderful Counselor, would be forever the Master of the Universe. There will be great light for those who walked in darkness. There would be rejoicing and gladness like the farmer pulling in an abundant harvest. There will be the hope and joy of the baby born, the future established to bring all of this to pass.

It's GOOD NEWS for a change! And the sign of the burning garment shows that it is all wrapped up and done. No more fights and arguments, wars and death. No more corrupt leaders and money-grubbing politicians. No more wondering if the enemy was going to attack in the night, because there will be no more enemies! Satan will be defeated, the enemies of God consumed, and only peace, love, and right will be left.

It is the Christmas story in the birth of the child, the hope of Israel come to pass. And now, because of that, the hope we have is for the rest of this passage to come to pass. He came to serve on His first Advent, and He will come to reign at His second one! It says He will rule with a rod of iron. I always thought that was a bit harsh, but on second thought, it is rather comforting. He will not allow any evil, any damage, any harm to come to the body or psyche of His beloved. There is no tolerance for the intolerable! And that is a good thing. Kids are free to play when they know that an adult will come in and intervene when another child wants to cause problems. The rod of iron, the zero-tolerance of harming someone else is a GOOD thing, and every child is aware of it. Everyone is at ease, free to frolic and have a good time, to enjoy the toys and environment, when they know that no one their age or older will be allowed to take things away, hit or push them, or threaten them into giving up what they have. He will rule with that rod so everyone can enjoy the fruits of their God. There is no more gloom, it says. Having been bullied myself in my young years, I lived in fear. Now I do not so much. And I refuse to let kids be bullied because of it. I understand now that there is a God in heaven who fights for me against those who would come and take my peace. And in that there is great peace.

So if you have to get rid of stained clothes any time soon, rejoice that someday, sooner than we think, maybe, all signs of death and destruction, spoil and rot, will be done away with. No more suffering. No more pain. Peace. And yet we can have Peace in the here-and-now as well. By living with the Prince of Peace, having Him fill our hearts with the fruit...it is #3, Love, Joy, Peace... Gal 5. Love for God, Joy in Our Salvation, and Peace in our hearts since we are His.

Peace to you this coming year!

Preparing Beforehand

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Eph. 2:10

I could make this the longest blog in the world...this passage is SOOOO rich. The fact that God has prepared our works beforehand is what keeps me sane. My daughter is moving several states away, and the communication of what to do with her stuff failed. We each thought the other wanted something to happen and the resulting frustration on all of our parts was mind-boggling. But BECAUSE of it, the church is getting a bed, her friend is getting a table and chairs, and the other things will end up in homes of certain people. The result would not have been this way if communication had succeeded. Nerves may not have been frazzled, but the result is needs are being met for certain folks. So we accept this and move on.

The fact that God prepares things beforehand means He has a result in mind. We prepare our fabrics beforehand. We choose fabric, pattern, thread, batting, scissors or cutters, with a goal of making a particular thing. Ninety nine percent of the time, we get the result we set out to get. If we cut out a dress, we get a dress. If a quilt, we get a quilt. There are times they don't look exactly like we thought they would, or we might not enjoy the process, but the end product is there. There are times when the pieces go from being a dress to being cut into quilt pieces because we can tell that the original idea is not going to work out, but if we cut out a quilt, we are not going to end up with a dress. We have to know where we are going with this stuff in order to get the result. So if we spend life studying social sciences, we will not get a nursing degree. We haven't prepared for the goal and cannot achieve it in this case. But God knows what He wants us to do ultimately, which good works He wants us to achieve for His glory, and there is much comfort in that.

And we are created IN CHRIST JESUS. Being IN CHRIST is a privileged position. It's kind of like being accepted into a prestigious college. You can't be an alumnus of a college you don't attend and graduate from. You can't study there or claim their name. You can wear their tee-shirt, you can identify with their curriculum goals, like their campus, and root for their football team, but you are not ONE OF THEM no matter how much you want to be. Only God can put us in Christ, and we are accepted there by His plan and for His purposes. And it is a gift. We don't put in an application and hope we are good enough. My scores will never get me into Harvard. They will not accept me. But God reaches down in love and mercy, knowing that we are not good enough. He calls the weak things of this world because they are the ones who know their limits and are willing to let His work through us instead of us telling Him how it's going to be!

I don't know that my fabric thinks that being a part of my stash is a privilege. It would be a privilege to be in Jinny Beyer's stash or some other famous quilter...but being a part of the stash does not equate to being used. When it is incorporated into one of their quilts, hung and admired, that is when the fabric has fulfilled its purpose. And the glory doesn't go to the fabric. Jinny gets the credit. Her design, her USE of the fabric, her workmanship, get the praise. A few people will recognize the fabric itself, getting close enough to see the detail and know the source, but the point is not the individual fabric, but the overall end product – a thing of warmth and beauty with artistic attributes that show the mind of the maker. If you study quilts or dresses or fabric lines, often you can tell just by looking who the maker is. Jinny has a style, William Morris has a style, and Kaffe Fassett has a style. You can't mistake one for the other. And that is how it is with God. His fingerprints are all over us...we are made in His style and bear similarities to one another because we have the same designer. And it is good.

There have been a few times in life where I was directed in my spirit to do something that really made no particular sense. Cook 4 meats today, I was told in my heart. OK. Hmmmm. And a large family of friends showed up on our doorstep that afternoon. I was able to offer to feed them a dinner and save them going out again that day while on their journey home. I have made quilts that I had no goals for. I have purchased fabric I had no plans for. Each time it seems that there was a goal I did not know about at the time that God wanted to fulfill with it. Some things were started by me and finished by someone else, but even the preparation of it led someone else to be able to bless others with it later. God knows what we need, what we want, and what He wants to accomplish through every step of the process, even when we do not know where any of this is leading.

With the new year coming, just one day away at this writing, we do not have any idea what the days ahead will bring, but God knows. He is preparing our lives for it whether we see it, understand it, or like it. He has us IN CHRIST, so it has to be good for eternity, whether it seems good in the here and now. And if you are not IN CHRIST? He is calling you right now to understand that you AREN'T good enough, but that you are exactly what He wants! Tell Him you want to accept that gift, join that college and start learning His ways. You can't flunk out, even if you fail. Then pick up His Word and start reading...John is a good place to start...and you will begin to be shaped into the product He wants you do become and has YOU specifically designed for. I can't wait to see just how beautiful you will be when He is done transforming you from fabric to finished product!

Be warmed and filled

If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them,”Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? James 2:15-16

It is the season of giving...we give to the poor and needy, give to those who have plenty, and give to the Goodwill or Salvation Army money or things that were just replaced by the newer things we just received. I struggled this year to come up with gifts to give, especially to family. Two of my children are married and live in small spaces, and the other 2 are moving into apartments with multiple other people. There are few needs that are tangible. Money seems to be the real need, for things like gas and bills, rent and moving expenses. There were a few small items we did buy, and the stockings were stuffed, but the gifts I would have loved to buy them would have been a burden and not a blessing. We need desperately to clean our place out of the multiple things we have here...especially since work will commence on the house...a bathroom that hasn't functioned for about 15 years will be gutted and made to work, and the lights that have been shorted for about 8 years will finally be replaced and lamps will not have to grace the living room. And all the stuff will need to go SOMEWHERE while this all happens. Thus the dilemma of stuff.

A devotion I read this morning said it all about gifts...”rebirth into eternal life. This everlasting gift was the sole purpose of My entering your sin-stained world.” Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, Dec. 24

Pondering this thought, I grieve at how people reject help, salvation, and gifts, especially this one. Why would this be?

I love to quilt...it is just in my blood. If I stay away from it for a while, I think, “Why do I do this? It seems irrational to slowly make blankets for people. Why don't I just get a job, buy cheap blankets and donate them to the causes, and be done with it? More people would be warmed. More people could get help. My house wouldn't be filled with fabric, machines, yarns and needles, if I would just buy the stuff. And it would be cheaper...”

Then I sit at the machine or with a quilt basted on my lap. I look through the books of patterns and colors, and I smile. Some of this is for me as well as for them. I couldn't buy enough blankets to cover a fraction of the needy in the world...sure a few more than I can make, but there is not the love in a standard-issue blanket that is in a hand-made quilt, and everybody knows it, including the recipient. A kid handed a blanket may cover themselves in a hospital bed, but they already have a blanket issued by the hospital. But the home-made one warms the soul...it is the one they snuggle up with, not the one that came on the bed. The knit chemo hat, warm, soft and fuzzy, will cover a bald head with love.

What does this have to do with the everlasting gift above? Jesus came into the world to save us sinners. We are like Him when we take blankets, food, and love to third-world countries, do missions work, and give of ourselves. He could have sent the gift without sending Himself, but He put Himself into the gift...He WAS the gift. And like those who go to help, there are those who would fight against them, not trusting that their gifts were good or their intentions honorable. How many have been martyred for the cause of love and giving? Jesus was. He came to give, and to give His best – life with Him in heaven for all of eternity...a way out of eternal damnation, for heaven's sake. What greater gift can you give your enemy but to bring him to your side and treat him as a son with all the rights and privileges thereof? And instead of taking the gift with gratitude and humility, knowing in their heart of hearts they need it, they insist on thinking that it is a trap, a guise, an evil. When we see those shooting down planes of food and clothing because they do not love or trust, we are grieved. We sorrow over what they could have had and how they would choose to destroy the gift and the giver. But it is a reflection of Christ. He was despised and rejected by most, but gave life to many. He would have given to all if all would have received. He didn't save everyone, and I can't either. But He gave in love to all who would receive, and I will try to, too. He was suspected of having ulterior motives by those who didn't like the fact He was winning over the hearts and minds of the poor and oppressed, and I will be suspected, too. It is ok. If I can be like Him, even in these ways, I will take it.

But the real question is whether YOU have received the Gift, or shunned the Giver. You know you need to be saved from yourself, and He is the answer to the sin-problem in your life just as He is in mine. We are human, so we need Him. End of story. Take the Gift...confess your need for The Savior...He only has your best at heart. It's the gift that doesn't take up more room in your home...but it will fill that empty space in your heart.

Dirty Rags, a New Year's contemplation

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment (rag in the NIV). Isaiah 64: 6

This is the end of the year...a time to reflect on the past year's activities, goals, and events...planned and unplanned, joyous and tearful. There are a couple of things that I can reflect on as I get older.

1. How much I have changed over time...usually for the better (pity the people who knew me when I was younger...sigh). This is because God has opened my eyes and heart to things that I used to defend that really needed to be changed...usually by seeing those things in the lives of others and being offended by them myself...and going,” Is that how people see me? Forgive me, Lord! Help me to change! That doesn't glorify you or edify others!”
2. How much God loves me and puts up with me, my family, the world in general...and how gracious He is to point me to the people and resources we need to learn what He wants us to learn.
3. How little what I do counts for the kingdom.

And #3 is where this verse hits home. Being unclean back in the days of Isaiah wasn't just coming home from a long day in the fields hot and sweaty. It was being in the condition of not being able to go to the temple to worship. There were all sorts of provisions that could keep you away from church, and not many were things you could do much about. But suffice it to say that you were not acceptable at that time and could not come into the presence of God. The verses before these tell the tale of the whole of Israel sinning to the point where God was just angry with them...they did not confess and repent, but continued in the sin. They were unworthy to come to His temple and offer the sacrifices that were required. Well, you say, if they were required and the people showed up with them anyway, wasn't God happy that they at least did it? And the answer is NO! The whole book of Isaiah starts with God telling them to stay home...keep your cattle and livestock offerings because they are not going to make any difference because you have no intention of living for Me, in Me, or with Me. The whole thing stinks like your work clothes, like your cleaning rag or menstral cloth...yuck-o.

So what's a Christian to do? In all of the watching of Ebenezer Scrooge this time of year, are we to have a change of heart? To start doing good to those around us because the ghosts are haunting us, showing us who we have been, who we are, and who we might become? Well, sort of, but not quite. There are plenty of ghosts in my life. I look back and see, like Ebenezer, how selfish, greedy, unkind, and rude I have been not only in the way back past, but even yesterday. I reflect on what I have done, what I have given, and see how little it has really accomplished. We all reach the point as we grow older where we realize that life is not all we thought it would be, that we have not achieved the goals we had, that at the great judgment day to come that a lot of life will be the wood, hay, and stubble and precious little of it will be the gold, silver, and precious stones as in 1 Corinthians 3. Isaiah 64: 11 says that all of our precious things will become ruin. We work so hard for them...and as they say, it's all going to burn.

So, every righteous thing I do is like rags...great. Why bother? Because His righteousness is worth it. He is the one who cleans us up...who makes us worthy to walk with Him and work for Him. We were created FOR GOOD WORKS which HE PREPARED for us to do. Ephesians 2:10. We are HIS WORKMANSHIP, saved by faith that didn't even come from us...but through HIM as a gift to us, plucking us out of our sinful state for His usage. I think I have in the past compared this to picking a few bolts off the shelves at the store...out of all the fabrics there, we don't take all of them to make our masterpiece...but we select a few that are willing and able to be used with the pattern that He has chosen. Big, bold prints will not work in some patterns because chopping them up will change their appearance. Grayed, muted tones often will not work with brights unless they are cut very small. We were gifted to be used, to create something warm and beautiful, useful and a reflection of the creator. We as the fabric (in this passage we are called clay, but you get my drift) do not get to pick the pattern or any other part of the process. We have the unnecessary parts cut and are sliced into pieces that are strategically dispersed throughout the top. We are joined with other pieces, often through the painful process of being pricked, layered with the part that holds in the warmth, and backed with the support that holds all of this together. Then we are pricked through again and again to hold all of this together. Maybe more trimming is necessary, and then the edges are bound to hold the whole of life together and keep it from wearing away. Then the whole is useful and fulfilling to the Maker. The fabric was part of the design and ended up where it belonged, but had no idea what the Maker was going to do with it. It was chosen, shaped, used, and loved at the end.

This is the story of our lives. We don't know what we shall become in the new year...happier, sadder, wiser, grumpier, healthier or weaker...but I trust the Designer knows what He is doing and will cut, pierce, trim, and join me to others in accordance to His will. Maybe a part of me will end up a dust cloth and discarded, but I trust that the parts He puts into the quilt will bring Him pleasure and someone warmth. And in that, the year can start with HOPE. My hope is not in me, but in the designer, maker, and quilter of my soul...and in that truth I can rest my fretting mind as well. Happy New Year!

Wrapped as a sign and a gift

She gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger...This will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Luke 2:7 & 12

This is now 2 days before Christmas here in Iowa...there is about 7 inches of snow on the ground, which is a lot for here, especially this time of year, and it is -2 degrees, also much colder than usual for this time of year, but it does put one into the whole Northern Hemisphere Christmas spirit. Was watching Hillsong celebration of Christmas (they are in Australia) and it is a much different picture. We think of Christmas being a winter thing, but it is more likely that Christ was born in the spring, according to things I have heard. But whatever the season it was, the baby needed to be covered. And He was covered in cloths. Swaddling clothes, we call them. The baby was papoosed up, wrapped tightly with cloths, snuggled to keep warm and secure. We don't consider this unusual since we have heard this story since we were children. Baby born, wrapped up in whatever they could find, and laid in a bed of straw in a feeding trough. Humble beginnings. One pastor yesterday pondered that coming poor, no one would believe that the Christ did not come for them, that He was too good for them, too rich, powerful, or out of grasp for them. He was one of the people, and that was more of a problem for the rich and powerful than it was for the common man. The common man loved Him. The rich and powerful resented Him.

But the cloths were more than just a covering for a newborn...they were a sign to the shepherds. Angels told them just a few things...

1. Don't be afraid of us
2. We bring good news for everybody
3. Today the Savior is born in Bethlehem, fulfilling scriptures
4. He will be wrapped in cloths
5. He will be lying in a manger (not being held in His mother's arms at that moment) (giving them an idea not to knock on hotel doors or houses, but to look in cattle stalls)

The first thing they know about the Savior of the world is how he is dressed! And He is dressed like a poor, unassuming baby. Nothing fancy...no fine linen or purple or scarlet marking Him as priestly or royalty. Just normal, poor, and humble. This is how they would have wrapped their own children in their own homes. He was just like them. Poor, rejected, lowly. And lying in a cattle feeder...Mary and Joseph taking a nap, perhaps, after a long night and the strains of childbirth. This was the Savior who identified with them, and they with He. They could come into His presence straight away...no making appointments at the palace or ceremonial cleansing in the temple, both of which would have been closed down at those hours, anyway. Those cloths represented more to those shepherds than they could have imagined...they made Him “him” with a little “h”, normal, human, and one of them. But they knew at the same time that He wasn't just one of them, because they knew that from those humble beginnings their salvation had come. There had been angels shining in the glory of the Lord, but there was no shining in the stable. The glory of the Lord made know His arrival, but the finding of the Christ child was done in the darkness of the night. Maybe it was morning by the time they got to town, or they had lamps lit going from stall to stall. The star was a sign to the Magi, not the Shepherds...who were led to a house, not a stable...so once those angels left and the light that came with them, we are talking darkness. That is how we find the Lord ourselves, like the shepherds...the Spirit of the Lord comes to us in our darkness, shines a light and tells us that the Savior is there for us if we will just go and find us where He directs, and we stumble through the night to that place, and find Him, humble and accessible. He is like us, but not at all...He is so much more than He appears. He had been stripped of His true Godliness and glory at His birth and was wrapped up in cloths, and at His death He was stripped of this earthly life and was again wrapped in cloths at His death. But the unwrapping proved His true self. He didn't stay wrapped...He grew in life, and He reigned in death. And it was all to bring God down to us so that we could someday join Him in the eternal life He brings.

There is no other God like this, people. No other God comes to us. No other God becomes human, lives to teach us about God, dies to bring us to God, and rises to raise us from death to eternal life.

And that is what Christmas is all about. I don't worry about taking Christ out of Christmas...it is taking the gift of Christ and rejecting it...not believing, not receiving, and putting Him equal with the other
gods the world has to offer. The world does not offer Jesus to you. The only God who will share His glory with no one else but His Son and His Spirit offers Him. To celebrate His birth and death as something common and not realize the implications for your eternal destiny is the real tragedy, not the commercializing of the holidays. Take His word into your lap this holiday season and ponder the coming of the King and what it means to you. Hold the baby wrapped in cloth to your bosom and see if you don't fall in love with the Newborn King.

Clothed in blood - the defeat of evil

Revelation 19:11&13

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is scalled Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war...He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God.

This chapter of Revelation is chock full of clothing imagery, begun in the last posting. Here we transfer from the bride being presented to the groom, to the groom going out to wage the final battle against the beast and the kings of the earth. If you thought politicians (kings) were corrupt, well, here you go. They have set themselves and their countries against all things godly and true. The earth has reached the point of no return. Jesus is getting the armies of heaven together to wipe out evil once and for all.

And He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood. Thankfully, there are those who have researched this, and again the continuity of scripture makes my heart sing! Isaiah 63:2-3 describes this whole thing in the Old Testament! Wow...

Jesus comes, having found no man righteous to help Him defeat evil, so He does it Himself, trampling Babylon as the grapes of wrath and staining His clothes with their blood. Next He will take on Satan, not bothering to change into clean clothes since they, too, will become stained with the blood of the nations. Powerful stuff.

So, as cloth lovers and women (most likely those who are reading this are women), how do we look at such gore? If you are like me, when the battle scenes in movies start up, I turn away. Seeing the slaughter, even of the evil, is more than I can stomach. When I do catch snatches, the images stay with me for days, haunting me in their gastliness. And yet we know wars must be waged. If we had not sent men to fight in WWII, Hitler and Stalin would have taken over the world, killing more innocent people than live in our own country. When we do not quench evil, it grows, slowly, cunningly, until it overwhelms us. If you would have told the Germans where Hitler was going when he first starting rising to power, they would have called him a madman and never gotten sucked in to his trap. But lures are cunning substitutes for the truth. We see them looking like good food, and when we take the bait, we are trapped. If we had realized it was a lure and not the real thing, we would not have found it appealing.

So blood-soaked garments indicated in that day victory over the enemy. You are still standing, and they are not. They have been taken out. It was a prize to be won, in a sense. In the next passage He does enlist the help of the armies of heaven, but He had to conquer first without them. Then the Word of His mouth will strike down the nations who refused to live by it.

This is symbolic of His victory over sin in our lives. No one else could wage that war, and He did it with His own blood. He let Satan defeat Him, in a sense, but at the same time, that defeat led Him to victory. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:22. The sacrifice had to be made, and it had to be the perfect sacrifice. He was it. Then, rising from the dead, He defeated death. Then He recruits heavenly hosts to wipe out the enemies of God that persist in not accepting the salvation He offers. We are saved, evil is vanquished, and He becomes our eternal light, glowing radiantly in heaven so there is no need of another sun. But until that day comes, He still shines victorious in the robe of blood. He is prepared to go to war for my soul and yours. He is the King leading the righteous armies to war. Generals are not seen as evil for warring against an evil enemy...they are seen as leaders in a cause. The cause of Jesus is to ransom captives from the prison camps of sin and have them join Him in wiping out those who would imprison others. To sit in the prison camp when you are offered freedom would be foolish and insane. Let the blood of Jesus ransom you, and then join the fight in freeing others. It is a fight worth fighting. The victory is guaranteed. Wouldn't you want to win a battle you knew you couldn't lose? Wouldn't you want to bring others to a place of warmth, nourishment, and purpose instead of leaving them to languish, half-starved and tortured in body and soul? Jesus didn't see it as an option for me, and so I will storm the gates to free you by giving you His Word. Let's break free and fight the good fight.

Here Comes the Bride - Revelation 19

Revelation 19: 7-8

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Revelation 19 is full of clothe imagery, and it starts with the bride, the church, meeting with her bridegroom, dressed in white. This is probably where the western tradition of wearing white for weddings came from. It is not this way in many foreign, non-Judeo-Christian cultures. (No judgment here, just observation!) Many of our “traditions” have Biblical roots that have long been forgotten. But I digress...

So here are the saints, and they are preparing for the wedding day. I don't know about you married gals, but we almost all went out and found the dress that was “Us.” We picked the style, the plainness or the miles of lace and ruffles, beads and sequins, that we thought would make us beautiful in the eyes of everyone, but especially our husbands-to-be. This will not be the case when we enter into eternity...we will be given the best of the best, the whitest of white, and the dress that we earned, to a point...we do not earn our salvation...Christ bought that for us, but we will wear our righteous acts as a thing of beauty, covering any shame, shining brightly for the GLORY OF GOD. We look at the bride as the centerpiece of the wedding. We talk of HER dress, not his tux. What HE wears seems insignificant in comparison to the dress and head-covering (or lack thereof) of the bride. Being a woman and seeing other women at weddings, we all wait to see what she picked to adorn herself. She is the star of the show. Her glow, her tears, her dress...

But not so in heaven...we WILL be gorgeous, but the focus will be on HIM, not us. We are presented to Him as a spotless, valuable treasure, bought with His blood and saved by His grace. The righteous acts, those done to glorify Him on earth and not ourselves, will cover us...therefore the scriptures about the beauty of holiness in Psalm 29:2, 1 Chronicles 16:29, and 2 Chronicles 20:21. All of these can also be translated “in holy attire.” When we praise Him, we are to do it dressed in holiness, in the clothing He gives us to wear. He makes us worthy to come into Him presence and praise Him and give Him the glory that He deserves. He knows the best dress, the right fit, the level of adornment that will make us the most beautiful in His sight for His good pleasure. We don't have to worry that He won't like what He sees as we approach the altar for the wedding, because He provided it for us!

I have a feeling that some will be wearing white, but the adornment level will be pretty low. If there was no concern on behalf of the Christian on earth to act in righteousness for God's glory and not self-gratification, attention from fellow believers, or to make a good impression on the non-believing world for self-aggrandizement, they will be shocked when they compare their attire to one who has lived for God's glory and pleasure instead of their own. If we desire God's pleasure...like Eric Liddell who ran because he “felt God's pleasure” when he did it...and in doing so testified of his willingness to forego the glory of man by not running on Sunday in the Olympics, and instead won a race he didn't train for on another day...He was gifted to run for God's glory and will wear that righteous deed, along with many others on the day of the wedding. For that one act, simple as it was, testified to a God much greater than the talent of Eric. No one thought that his form was good...no trainer of today would take him on because his way of running the race was totally different...head back, arms flailing about, and the fact that he could still out-run the fastest men in the world testified to a Greater God. His insistence that God wanted him to do it, gave him the ability, the love for it, and the place and time to do it in, all testified to God's working in his life...he was different...and he was different because he did all he did, from preaching and missions work, with which we expect people to gain reward in heaven, to running, not just into the history books and later an Academy Award winning movie, to everyday activity and sport. He did it all for God, not for the name of Eric Liddell. Whether we quilt or sew, donate tied blankets or scrap quilts, when we give a cup of water in Jesus name, we are glorifying God in heaven somehow. The angels look on in wonder, our friends and family who have preceded us cheer us on in heavenly arenas (Hebrews 11), and more importantly, our wedding dress gets another piece of adornment so that when we are presented to Christ at the wedding, He is glorified with angels standing around gawking in amazement that those frail, ugly earthly creatures have become treasures in the storehouse of the God they have been in the presence of since they were created. They will marvel. Admit it, people, when you look around, not many of us look like movie stars. Some of us are quite unattractive, even when we try to doll ourselves up. But on the wedding day of the Lamb, we will be stunning, made that way for God's glory. I wonder if those destined for hell will get to see the grand procession of adorned brides and see what it was we were sacrificing for here on earth, those that condemned us for our “conservatism,” political talk for our holiness, those who saw evidence of holiness, separatedness to God in word and deed and thought we were crazy lunatics in the process and condemned us for it. I think they just might ponder the beauty that could have been theirs as well, had their hearts only submitted to the one who would call them to be beautiful brides as well. But we will shine in ways we could never imagine, bringing delight to our Husband. Are you getting your dress ready? Will it be a plain-Jane, or a piece of work worthy of the Great Garment Maker? He is willing to work His fingers to the bone sewing on jewel after jewel if we will just provide them for Him to put on!

Washing by water and fire

You shall purify for yourselves every garment...and you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may enter the camp. Numbers 31:20 & 24

The laundry is in the machine as I type this. There is one thing about clothing...it gets dirty. It is amazing how body oils and dead skin contaminate clothing, as well as dust, rubbing against things, and dropped food and stains can make clothes that were clean in the morning in need of a good washing by the end of the day. We have explored washing in a previous blog. God calls us to clean our clothes. He doesn't like dirt. He constantly tells His people to wash their clothes, their hands, their feet, and more importantly, their hearts.

This context in Numbers has us cleaning for a different reason, and there is more than one cleaning agent being used in the whole of the passage.

They have just taken their revenge on the Midianites and are coming back from war. Now we all know that war back then was not pretty. It was a bloody, ghastly scene. The clothes that they were talking about here were those worn by those who killed anyone, or had physical contact with any of the slain. And it wasn't just the clothes that were to be cleaned, but everything they had brought back from the war, including the spoils like gold and silver, tin and bronze. Whatever came back from the battle, including the men themselves, were to be purified by one of 2 means – water and fire. If it could pass through the fire to be cleansed, then it was passed through the fire, and then washed. If, like a garment, it could not pass through the fire, then water alone was used. Nothing that had not been made clean in this way could come back into the camp, their living quarters. No impure thing could come in to contaminate the women, children, and homes of the Israelites. A massive clean up operation was to take place outside the camp for 6 days, and on the seventh day they could come back home.

If you have traveled anywhere in the world, you will realize that cleanliness is not held in high regard in some cultures, and diseases spread easily, killing many needlessly. In areas where the Judao-Christian culture has set down roots, there is far less disease spread. God is a God of order and commands things for the good of the people. They didn't understand germs, but God did. They washed because they were told to, not because they understood the purpose of it. That is how a lot of God's word works...if we would just obey it, knowing it comes from the hand of a Loving Father instead of questioning it, we would find that His commands saved us from a LOT of misery...a lot of unnecessary harm.

But there were 2 methods of cleansing. The water we understand. The fire is the other. Scriptures say that our God is a consuming fire, and Revelations describes Jesus as having eyes of fire and His feet glowed like metal in a furnace. Our works are tried by fire in 1 Corinthians 3. God consumes all of the evil and impurity and sends it all to hell to be destroyed forever. If we do not choose to let the fire of His cleansing and testing purify us here, we will suffer it eternally in the world to come. The eyes of God see everything, and nothing is hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:13). All things are judged, and the impurities are brought out. But the hope of all this is that when the furnace rages and the impurities rise to the top, they will be dredged off by the Savior and we will be purified, like gold. (Job 23:10) The more the furnace rages, the more the impurities are separated from the true metal. They are burnt off, scraped into the scrap heap, leaving pure, costly gold worthy of great price.

But even when the gold is purified, once cooled, it is washed, polished, and used. Washing of the Water of the Word (Ephesians 5: 25) done by Christ Himself brings us to Him pure and unspotted. When we come out of the battlefield of this world, we will be cleansed from all of its pollutants, all remnants of the impurities that we were exposed to just by being in contact with the defilement of this world. The blood of the war, the oils and soils of the daily grind, and the rubbing elbows with those not of the True Camp of God's people will be washed away so that we can be presented acceptable into God's presence without bringing our contamination into the Holy Place.

So if the heat is on, the battle raging, remember that if we endure the process, we will be more purified, washed clean, and presented before the throne without spot or blemish, with nothing to hide! The fellowship with God will be sweet and pure and holy. Only He can clean us by the fire and the water to make us acceptable in His sight. And that is a good thing, for there may come out of my laundry tub an unseen, untreated stain that may defile the cloth and make it unacceptable. He never washes and leaves a stain behind...

Who is on display?

There were hangings of fine white and violet linen held by cords of fine purple linen on rings of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement...according to the king's bounty...Esther 1: 6-7

It's almost that time of the year here in the US...the holidays are upon us. I looked on this passage and thought about the banners streaming in towns across the fruited plain. Iowa City has banners placed along Dubuque Street and Park for people to see as they come into town. They celebrate all sorts of occasions throughout the year, announcing events, holidays, and celebrating people of the area. And now it will be too cold and wet for them. The banners will go away until spring, I assume. The weather would just be too hard on them over the winter...but wait! Christmas decorations will be going up... the lights, the ornaments, the spectacle that has become the holidays will be upon us, and they still do the same thing. They are displayed according to the city's bounty. What they do in Rockefeller Center in NYC is far more extravagant than what we can even dream of here in a town of less than 3000. But it puts their bounty on display.

Cloth can celebrate all kinds of events...there are the banners for birthdays and weddings and special events, there are napkins folded like Christmas trees. There are table runners and candle mats to remind us of the seasons or holidays. There is abundance flowing out of cloth cornucopias, and pumpkins and corn and grapes and apples for Thanksgiving. There are stockings on mantles for Christmas. There is celebration in cloth where ever we look.

And some of it is good, and some misses the mark.

Mind you, I have made all of the family Christmas stockings...cross stitched or embroidered, they are there for the filling every year. There is the cloth Nativity, and the cross stitched Praying Santa. Some hit the mark, and some miss it. The teddy bear theme runs through the kid's stockings. They have no real significance to the real meaning of Christmas, and that is the miss. The Nativity and the Praying Santa have everything to do with it. The lights and the tree can mean something if you know what to think about...the concept of Christ bringing eternal life and being the Light of the World can strike the bullseye dead center or miss it completely.

And do you know the Scripture's word for missing the mark? It is called SIN. Wow.

I will not even go on my diatribe about a world that wants Christmas only so it can sell stuff while denying us the “privilege” of saying the WORD Christmas because it might offend someone. We want all the trappings without any of the meaning. We celebrate sales figures instead of the God who gives us the strength to work, the resources to use, and the time to live here on his good earth.

That is what Xerxes did...he celebrated himself for 180 days...he “displayed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor of his great majesty.” He sinned. He missed the mark. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His majesty...that is what many of the Psalms and Prophets tell us to do. Look on His gloriousness. Look at His bountiful provision with gratitude, not arrogance. Look at the gift of His Son as the reason to give on the Day of His first appearing on the earth. That is hitting the bullseye.

I won't be a party pooper and tell the world not to decorate, but I will still cringe at St. Nicholas being turned into a cartoon character and used as a means to get kids to behave for a couple of months. I will enjoy the colorful lights, the choosing of gifts for loved ones because we love and appreciate them, and the stuffing of stockings because the little things like giving your future son-in-law a filled stocking when he didn't expect it creates a memory. This time of year is the season of giving if we want it to be, or the season of running around fretting, working, and driving ourselves into hating the holidays. If we keep the love of God in our hearts, we can display signs of His coming to earth to save us with pure hearts and great joy. We can watch the Charlie Brown Christmas and remember that we are not the only ones who forget why we are doing this all in the first place. We can look back on the year with gratitude for the good times, and gratefulness for being held in God's hand through the rough times.

As we enter into the holiday season, let's caution our hearts against being like Xerxes and Chevy Chase and Tim Allen, putting ourselves on display. Let us seek to put Christ on display this year, and as long as we live on this earth. Then there will be peace in our hearts whether or not there is peace on earth. The one who deserve the praise will receive it and our hearts will rejoice more and more in His splendor.

Short beds and narrow quilts

The bed is too short on which to stretch out, and the blanket is too small (narrow) to wrap oneself in. Isaiah 28:20

Well, I must admit that I have never seen this scripture before, and the context is amazing...

I am a quilter, for those of you who don't know this tidbit of info. I spend a great deal of time making quilts for customers to fit their beds. There are beds of all shapes and sizes. There are cribs, twin, full, queen, king, super king, California king, camper, cot, extended twin, and nappers. The frames that hold them make as much difference in the size desired as the measurements of the mattress. Do they want it to drop to the floor or just cover the mattress to reveal the dust ruffle? Is it a water bed or have solid-sided frames? The bed is meant to fit the person sleeping in it, and the bedding is sized to cover the bed, and thus, the person. I picture the Dr. Suess character in one of his books (One Fish, Two Fish? It has been a few years since reading these to my children) with his head sticking out one end and his feet the other. We just cannot rest in a bed that is too short or too narrow. We have a hard time sleeping when we have nothing to cover ourselves with. Even with the cloth over the top of us, if the sides are not covered, we still get chilly and can't rest. There is no sleep, and we are miserable.

So why is the bed too short and the blanket too narrow?

Judah is ruled by a bunch of drunks and they set up their own systems of rule while not being able to think straight. Having never been drunk myself, I have had times when my brain was so foggy from illness that I could not have made a decent decision, let alone rule over someone. These guys (yes, they were guys!) made a deal with death instead of living in the Life of God. They thought that nothing could possibly go wrong, lying to themselves and everyone else about the results of living the way they thought were wise. God then sets out the Cornerstone passage...the foundation of Jesus in the new testament...on which people can live stable, secure lives. He compares their foundation with His and comes up with their bed being short-sheeted! Who knew? God knows that anything man-made will not cover us, warm us, and give us rest and a good night's sleep. We will drink to dull the pain, not build the bed long enough or weave the blanket wide enough...we will always be left wanting for something, though we have no idea what...we wonder how our measurements were that far off, but what true reasoning has a drunk? Things become clearer when we drink of God's wisdom, sober up, and see the lies for what they really are. We get the plans from the Lord for the size of bed we need, the pattern for the quilting and bedding that will best suit and cover that bed, and using those measurements we will be satisfied. We don't have to stumble around looking for the answers that are already there. We can sleep secure in confidence that He is watching over us in love and not judgment. He says those who believe will not be disturbed in heart and soul. We won't be packing to run away from the coming danger, for He will not send it our way. He will cover us in the midst of the day of destruction and invite us to sit on the high ground while the waters wash away the sinful in the valley below, kind of like Noah, but we will be able to see the destruction that comes to those who believe the lie. Noah was spared that...he found the carcasses of the dead, but didn't see them get washed away.

This may sound harsh, but the verses before this say that He will give them His Word in the simplest of terms...Word for Word, Line on Line. Not complicated, and not indecipherable. He will make His will so known that a child can understand it, but the drunken, deceived mind cannot take it in. They will get what they have chosen, though God pleads with them to sober up, clean off the vomit, and come to their senses. Not a pretty picture...but like those who minister on skid row, pleading with the drunks to come in where it is clean and warm and safe and loving, many laugh at them and continue in their squaller. They have no perspective or reasoning to see the deplorable condition they are in. The ministers see the potential all people have, even those in the alleys, and yearn to help, and some do respond, but most do not because they cannot believe that real life is available to them. They stick with the deception that this is how life has to be for them. And we weep for them, but cannot change their minds. We see, and they don't, just as God sees us and what we can be, and we cannot. We find it hard to imagine a life better, peaceful in the midst of the storm, but He keeps appealing to us to see the reality of it. He offers us a quilt made with love on a bed that is plenty big enough, firm and stable, on which to rest our weary bones in comfort and safety.

And Lord knows, right now, just how good that would feel for my aging, aching bones. I'm coming to rest and hope you will join me...nighty night.

More than food and clothing

For life is more than food and the body more than clothing...Luke 12:23

Well, the wedding is over, the senior recital is played and done, and the relatives have come and gone. In all of life's events we seem to have 2 questions...what shall we wear and what will there be to eat? The senior recital was played in a floor length dress (though the professor pointed out that he could not get her to wear shoes under it...yes, she played barefoot!). The sash had to be picked up on the way so that the beading around the waistline would not scratch the euphonium she was playing, holding it up to her body while standing. There was cheesecake and fruit and some little cookie things, punch, and other things, though one cheesecake was a fatality when grandma missed the curb and face-planted in the parking lot at the apartment where we went to pick them up...nothing else was broken...

The wedding required the white dress, the bridemaids' dresses, the matching ties, a suit for dad and grey pants for the groomsmen. Everyone else dressed for the occasion...there were trips to the store to get mother-of-the-bride and mother-of-the-groom attire, and the groom's dad said he never paid more for that coral tie! There were invitations and RSVPs for what people wanted to eat at the reception...beef, chicken, salmon, or vegetarian fare. There were, of course, photographers, sound systems, a pastor, and other issues, but food and clothes were the 2 main ones, and everything else seemed to accompany those two. Pictures were of the cake and the people, the dresses and the rings. The reception venue caterered the food and drink.

So we have our focus...

But the day was really about so much more.

It was about joining 2 people together as a family unit, and it was about praising God who would make that happen. It could have happened without a white dress...it could have happened without food or cake, but they do set the tone for the event.

Several times it seemed that the focus veered off course a little. The ring bearer drew attention away from the bride decending down the ramp to the wedding site...I saw her because I knew she was coming...but some other people didn't see her until she hit the end of the aisle.

Herky the Hawk came to the reception and walked in during the first dance and dance of groom and mother...I don't think he meant to draw the attention away from the main event, but he did.

And this is how life is...we get our focus on the things that are secondary to the main event.

So if life isn't food and drink, what is it?

It is the kingdom of God. Seek the kingdom of God and all these other necessities and niceties will be added to us. It is knowing who God is, that He loves us and wants a personal relationship with us, and living to bring Him the glory through life on this earth. It is tending the needs of others, but doing it with the kindness and love of the Father who provides us the provision to give to them. It is calling people into relationship with Him as an ambassador from His kingdom to ours. 2^nd Corinthians 5:20 states this clearly...”Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf; so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (Christ).”

So life is about being an ambassador for Christ. It is calling those who are estranged due to sin (that is ALL of us!) to turn back to God. Since Adam and Eve we have hidden ourselves from God. We are ashamed of our sinfulness and know that He is wholely other than what we are...I know that is a mouthful, but it is the truth...He is holy and we are not and we know it and we know He knows it and that without Him saying a word we stand guilty in His presence. God did not point their sin out to them...they left His presence because of their own guilt. And He called them back to Him. So those of us who have heard the call and come back with all our guilt and baggage and let Him clean us with the blood of Jesus have the pleasant, yet urgent, job of calling people back to God. It is a sacred calling. It is a humbling task. And it is our job as ambassadors to tell people that this kingdom is wonderful and opens its borders to all who would live under the reign of the merciful King. All we need do is present ourselves in our guiltiness and ask for mercy from Christ who died in our place. Did you really read the 2 Corinthians passage? God is appealing to you to COME...Revelations 22...the end of scripture has this same plea...COME! And we BEG you to be reconciled to Christ. No one wants to see their friends, family, and people they know go into a Christless eternity, to stand guilty before God without the merciful blood of Jesus over them.

Yes, life is about death...the death of Christ...to make our life one of uniting us as people into God's family...we are the bride of Christ, dressed in beautiful array for His pleasure. The wedding feast will be a greater spread than even my daughter's wedding. We will eat and drink without limit from the table of the groom...and that day will never end.

COME!

Resaying Yes to the Dress

Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten Me days without number. Jeremiah 2:32

This is not where I wanted to go today...but here we are. You wrestle with the passages God gives.

It has been hard around here lately for the reason of the verse above. It is being lived out in the life of a family member, and has been true in the lives of a lot of family and friends over the years. They have “committed” themselves in marriage only to forsake or be forsaken by their spouse, what those clothes represented, forgetting the things they promised, the person they claimed to love til death parts them, and the commitment they made to look not elsewhere for the love and companionship. It is so hard to watch. And it is hard for the “forgeter” to explain away. I am sure that when gals look at their dresses after a period of time, they have one of two responses...joy and gratefulness, or a shudder of “what did I get myself into.” They forget, or choose to forget, the joy of that day of commitment, the hope of a bright future together. No one stands there thinking that anything could go wrong, that any trial will separate them, that any other person could know them and love them the way the one they are marrying could. Expectations are high that together they can conquer anything. And then reality hits. That person you thought you knew well, you find you don't know at all. The goals you thought you had with the other you find were more dreams than true plans. Things aren't what you thought they would be, though you really don't know what it is you did expect. It is the adjustment to the real person you married AND learning about yourself and your own responses to unrealized expectations that makes the first years, and sometimes subsequent years challenging at times.

But this is God we are talking about. He is the perfect husband. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what we need, how we need to grow, and how to comfort, direct, correct, and protect us. And yet we question His love for us and sometimes even rue the day we “married” Him. We want to forget the commitment to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We want to walk away for a while at least and do our own thing, seek our own good and glory, and try things on our own. We forsake the very one who loved and wooed us. And the longer we choose to stay away, the more we forget the one who loved us and still stands waiting for us to come home. He warns of how the wandering bride will fall into shame and not have a better life with the others they think will offer them such a thing. True contentment will only be found by returning to the one who never stopped loving them, but they just can't seem to humble themselves and admit their sin and straying and come home. Few find the path back. And there is great sorrow all the way around. Even the land suffers and moans with the consequences of such a violation of God's love. We tend to think of violating God's law, and we forget that when we wander from God and His presence, we are violating more than just a set of rules. The rules are to warn us that we are wandering in our hearts. They sometimes stun us into wondering what we are doing. When I think about stealing or cheating, I surprise myself with my own selfishness and sinfulness. The commandments not to do these things let me know that those tendencies in my heart are not having the mind of God. And that if I act on them, I am far from the heart of God. I have left God's presence, thinking that He does not see or does not care. I convince myself that He is too strict or stingy or or demanding instead of seeing that I am too self-serving, greedy, and demanding things that God has chosen not to give me at this point and time FOR MY OWN GOOD. He always has my good in mind, and when Satan deceives me into thinking that he has more to offer than God does, I fall for the lie. When I fall for the lie about God's love for me, it is no wonder I fall for the lie that my husband does not love me. When I think God doesn't understand me, I can't expect to think that my husband does. Satan makes anything else look more appealing, more fulfilling, and more profitable than the true love and faithness of our husbands, spiritual or earthly. HE IS A DIRTY, ROTTEN LIAR bent on our destruction by giving us what we think we need instead of allowing us to be content and joyful with the beauty of what we have.

It doesn't start with our husbands, it starts with a lie about God, about the purpose of marriage, and the enticement that we are missing something better. We forget the dress, the white, the love that will fulfill if we trusted that God brought us there. We have to set our minds on things above, and not just on the earthly things. We need to give God our expectations and live each day grateful for the grace He gives us to make it through this earthly journey, and being willing to not call this place our home and set our hopes on the world to come. There will be no disappointment there. People will let us down, will disappoint, will act in their own interests and not always treat us the way we want to be treated. But they will also play the role of loving us in ways we need, to treat us better at times than we deserve to be treated. Two are better than one, it says in Proverbs and Ecclesiates. God knew He was so much different than us that He gave us other people, and people of the opposite sex to make us a whole, dependent on one another, but not whole without fellowship with Him. Life is not what we hope, but it is good. Not until we are never tempted to sin or have to put up with the sins of ourselves and others will those deep holes in our souls be totally filled. Until then, dear Beloved of the Lord, hang in there! Be the bride you are supposed to be (or the groom, if you are a dude) and work together to draw each other closer to the image of Christ. Don't forget the wedding dress, the commitment and promise of the Groom, and be like Sarah and do not fear. God's plan is always for our good. Don't believe the lie. Say yes to the dress.

Moth-eaten Garments - Corporate greed

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. James 5:1-2

Corporate greed...everyone is talking about it. Those who work for anyone seem to think that their bosses owe them more than they are getting. Anyone who makes more than them or gets promoted instead of them must be doing something illicit to have gotten there. There is a lot of scepticism in the world about those in a higher station than we are.

But God knows the heart. Not all people with money are evil, cheating, or treating their workers badly. On the contrary! God says He will bless people with riches, though not all riches are monetary. And for those who see injustice throughout the world, and in their own neighborhood, be assured that God sees and will act.

The moths will eat their garments. They don't tend to eat polyester and cotton, but wool, the fabric of choice for the rich. They will not be able wear that which they have spent their money on. They will not be able to walk around looking successful...for God will send the moth to show what is really in their hearts...holes. Their riches rot...their grains, spices, and foods that they have stored up for themselves, they will have to be thrown out because they are worthless. Their gold and silver will be corroded and rusty. I didn't know that they could rust...or maybe it is the gook that makes them no longer be shiny...that corrosion that shows up on my silver flute while it sits out, the corrosion that makes you have to polish the silverware before you use it. The gold that looks pale and unvaluable instead of invaluable...that ugliness of storing it up instead of paying people for the work they have done, that will eat their flesh, here or in the life to come.

So we sit back and say, “Good, they will get what they deserve, the ________s” Well, people, we are setting the standard for our own judgment. Whatever measure we use for others will be used for us. Be aware of your own bitterness, your own anger. Yes, we should stand up against injustice...when people are promised something for work, they should get what they earn. To renege on a promise is not ok. But it is a dangerous place to be to wish harm on anyone according to what they “deserve.” If we get what we deserve, we are in serious trouble. We deserve death, condemnation. We receive mercy, grace, and forgiveness. We are to extend those things to our fellow humans who are caught up in sin. That old saying, “There but for the grace of God go I,” is more true than we know. It is not to excuse their behavior, but to try to guide them out of the mindset and habits that have led them to think of no one but themselves. It is one thing to force their hand to comply, and another to change their hearts to not only comply, but to better benefit those they come in contact with in business and life. If we show what love and mercy look like, there is no doubt that some will see it and come to an understanding of the God who gives. People like John Newton, former slave trader, change their minds, their actions, and their impact on the world. And some people will never change, but God defends the rights of the needy. To encourage people who are down and out, to redirect them to more trustworthy bosses, to meet their needs in the meantime...that is what we can do.

Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that also will he reap.

The real warning is that when you are given the role of leader, provider, employer, and gain wealth, to make sure you are just in your dealings, following through on your promises to others, and paying them whatever you owe them. It is easy to get lax when it comes to appreciating what people do for us.

Keeping our garments from being moth-eaten, that is our goal. God will keep the worm away and let us wear His majesty to show his glory, and not try to display our own meager loveliness.

Clothing and debtors

On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar. Amos:2:6

Once again we look at the misuse of justice written in scripture concerning cloth. Whether this was the cloak or the regular clothing of the people who owed them something, we do not know, but God is not happy with them...to the point that He refuses to NOT take action against them. To take one's clothes in that day and age was to take their life. For many this was all they owned. Nakedness is spoken of and apparently was truly a condition of the desperate. To remove their clothing and leave them in a loin cloth or less would be a grievous act, not only of lack of mercy for their plight, but also lack of mercy for their reputation. The total humiliation of it for the person defrocked, for their families, for God's reputation as a giving and forgiving God was more than He was willing to put up with.

Not only did they lack mercy, they then went to church, perverted the whole worship into an orgy, and used the clothes that they had stolen as theirs, or as picnic blankets. They drank wine confiscated also from the poor, and had no unclear conscience about the whole matter. They felt justified, satisfied, and proud of their position as boss. They had no humility before their own boss, God, and showed no mercy. God was going to do them the same favor and show them no mercy, as well. With the same measure we use, God will measure out to us...in mercy, favor, wrath, and love. Those who give, to more will be given, and to those who take, all will be taken from them.

God owes us nothing, but He loves us anyway. He acted on our behalf to draw us to Him. He blessed us when we didn't deserve it, and pours out mercy when He could pour out wrath. But this doesn't last forever...He will some day repay those who scorn His goodness and do not reproduce it in their lives toward others.

And then to play church when we are filled with hatred toward our fellow workmen, well, He sees that as unforgivable. The verses before these speak of them first rejecting the law of the Lord, not keeping it, and lying about it to themselves and others. They exchanged truth for error first, and then started treating their fellow man with the same scorn. It all starts with one's attitude toward God. When we see who we are in His eyes, His holiness and our sinfulness, we have compassion on our fellow sinners. We see that no matter how hard we may try to love, to be patient or kind, we fail miserably. We hurt others intentionally or unintentionally, and we have to humble ourselves and apologize for not being what others need us to be. But when we take God's Word and see Him as less than He is, and us as more than we are, then we get an attitude. We are owed something, so we take. We want justice, so we mete it out however we see fit, even if it destroys our neighbor.

In this world of people hurting one another, we look for answers. World peace...when we can't live in peace with our spouse, community unity...when we can't even be consistent in keeping our homes together. We wish people could just get along, but there is always selfishness. We want others to be unselfish while we get what we want. And the answers we look for always require the others to change what THEY are doing, thinking, and being.

The only answer is to bow before the throne of God and be humble before Him, and taking that humility to those around us. Demanding what we want solves nothing, even when it is something good. Imitating the God of mercy and giving is the answer to a world in pain. If we all give to others grace and mercy, we all receive grace and mercy. When we give mercy, God grants us His mercy, whether people do or not. When we forgive the debts of others and don't make them “pay up,” God forgives us our debts. When we let go of anger and offense toward people who hurt us, God fills us with a peace that will make us wonder why we decided to fill ourselves with rage. The payback that we get is far more satisfying than anything we can take from another, be it in clothes or be it in emotional turmoil or anything else we subject people to to get even. God doesn't get even...He forgives...and pays the debt owed...and pulls the offending party to Himself if only they will come humbly.

And that, my friends, is too wonderful for us to fathom. And nearly impossible for us to imitate, but His Spirit lives in His people and if we heed it, peace can happen in small and large ways in a world bent on seeking peace through demanding it instead of living it.

Girded with rejoicing

The pastures of the wilderness drip;

And the hills gird themselves with rejoicing.

The meadows are clothed with flocks

And the valleys are covered (mantled NIV) with grain. Psalm 65:12-13 NASB

Ah, the blessings of the Lord...clothing the hillsides with sheep...the picture I see here in Iowa would be cattle grazing the in picked corn fields...the multiplying of the livestock...life abounding. The amber waves of grain cresting all over the land...we look to this time of year and see that God has blessed us with an abundant harvest. The pear and apple trees are putting out their abundance this year due to the late frosts of the past 2 years...all that pent up energy and desire to bear fruit that trees have, have managed to try to make up for the past to the point that the branches are breaking under the weight of the fruit that is overabundant. The hills are rejoicing with the site of all of the blessings of another year.

But this came after repentance and God forgiving their transgressions. There was a drawing near to God that happened to allow God to serve up these blessings.

Like the years of frost, there was little fruit, little harvest. There was damage done at just the wrong time. God had been unable to bless because iniquity and sin (conscious and unconscious error and wrongdoing) had abounded instead. But “You choose and bring near to you.” God forgave and drew near those who had ignored or rebelled against Him. He is a God that wants to bless, but so often we prevent Him from doing so. Be may experience drought of the soul, of life, of hope. But then we ask for forgiveness and He is so happy we come that He draws us near and throws a party of blessing. He clothes us with the fruit of His goodness. He dresses the fields, the hills, and the valleys – the high points and the low, with good things. Sometimes we see those blessings as things we deserve...sad creatures that we are...instead of as the result of God's desire to give us good things to reflect His generosity. And when He wants to show us that it is Him, His power, that He fills our branches or fishing nets to the point of breaking and tearing (see John!). The theme of feast or famine holds fairly true in our lives because that is how God gets our attention on both ends. The famine brings us to God in humility, and the blessing brings us to that point as well, knowing full well we do not deserve His blessing. “Normal” is where we are comfortable...where we feel like we have worked for what we have and think little of the God who provided both the blessing and the ability to work to earn it. The extremes of parched lands and souls and breaking branches of super-abundance both make our hearts yearn to know the God who is able to withhold or give freely. The unexpected causes us to fall to our knees in worship.

Deuteronomy 8:18 comes to mind. “But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”

I went through an entire month of not being able to use my right hand. For those of you who are right-handed, you understand that this would be more than just a little inconvenient. The fearful part was this: everything I do to earn money, or even serve my family, requires my right hand. I cut with rotary cutter and ruler, requiring 2 hands, sew, hold a book, wash dishes, cook, and work at the local quilt shop or retail store. Without 2 hands, I was worth very little. I could get some things done, essentials like getting a dinner cooked, laundry sorted and washed, but I couldn't cut bolts of fabric or use a box cutter and stock shelves. And I wasn't sure I would ever be able to again. That is a frightening place to be. But it was God who would give the power to make wealth. It was up to Him to determine what I would be able to do. I had to trust Him that if my quilting career was over that He had something else He wanted for my life to focus its time and attention on. Typing this would be possible, but to be truthful, I probably would not take the time to type one-handed, and therefore would not be doing this study in cloth. I consider it a blessing to have my hand back and to do the things I do. My stash has grown to the point of overabundance. He blesses my shopping with sales that enable me to bless others, as well as letting those pretty things bless my heart in the process. He puts people in my life to do the parts of the process better than I could so that I can fulfill the promise to get things made.

But most of all, He reminds me over and over that He is my abundance and provision forever. Nothing on earth can compare with Him. Feast or famine, He is my portion, my food and drink, my very survival. And when the sheep are on the hills, He shows us His generosity and love.

The many garments of Joseph...it wasn't all the Coat of Many Colors

The dichotomy of the cloak of favor – the story of Joseph and the technicolor dreamcoat.

 I really hate the musical...any dream will do is not the moral of the story...the dream isn't even the focus of the story...but I digress.

God's favor is a mysterious thing. Joseph had it from God and from his parents. It was expressed in a multicolored tunic made for him especially by his father Israel (Jacob), and from God by the dream that someday he would indeed rule over his family. One would think that both of these were good things. To have the favor of God and man would seem to us to be a happily-ever-after story. All would be well and go well for Joseph, right? WRONG! That garment caused his brothers to solidify their contempt for him, and the dream foretold the result, but not the process, of what God was going to do in his life. So favor does not equal ease, peace, and comfort. It is often the hard path to the top. Jesus had the favor of God and man, and that story also led to great suffering before the work of God was accomplished.

So Joseph has the garment of favor...and he is stripped of it by those who are jealous of him. He is thrown in the pit and sold into slavery, and the garment was dipped in blood and presented to his father as a symbol of his death. He was not really dead, but it was thought he was. The symbol of favor became the symbol of death in his father's eyes. Jacob jumped to conclusions, but he saw his son as dead. It was in reality a symbol of the hatred of the brothers...they wanted to kill him, but their greed got in the way of his actually dying. But like all of us, the blood of the death of a substitute needed to take place for the scriptures to be fulfilled. The death of something in Joseph's place, and in our place, needed to happen for the eventual cleansing of the sinners here on earth.

Jacob exchanged his garments for sackcloth, and the garment of favor became a curse in his heart.

The next garment Joseph had was given to him by his master in Egypt, and that one, too, was stripped away from him, this time by a woman of ill-repute, his boss's wife. He left that one in her hand as he fled temptation and ill-repute himself, only to have it also become an unjust witness against him. God would not let him keep the position of a slave. But was the position of a prisoner better? The downward spiral of Joseph's life must have left his head reeling! How could God's favor take him so low?

On to the jail, wearing jail-bird clothes. This was the first time it says he changed his own clothes, and that was so he could appear before Pharaoh himself! This was a small upgrade. He shaved and put on clothes that did not smell of jail. Once he told Pharaoh what God had in mind for the next 7 years, Pharaoh clothed him in fine garments and gold jewelry! Well, that was more like it, right? Joseph was ruler over Egypt under Pharaoh! But these were the work clothes to fulfill the promise of God's favor that continually followed him. Because once God put him there, all powerful and mighty as Joseph was, his heart had to sink when the brothers showed up in town looking for food. He used their cloth sacks to work repentance in their lives, to bring Benjamin to his presence, and to cause them to tear their own clothes in grief and mourning. And that is when the dream came true, when the favor of God allowed him to spread that favor to his brothers in the form of new garments to replace their garments of mourning and repentance, and bestow on Benjamin more garments of favor without them getting jealous this time of a brother better loved. They had stripped him, but he turned around and clothed them, showing them their brotherhood was eternal and their favor unmerited.

This story in cloth foreshadows the work of Christ in our lives. God shows us His favor, strips us of any pretension that we have earned it, takes us through a purging of our status, strength, power, and reputation, but He never takes that presence or favor away. Others can see it, and some respond to it rightly, some wrongly, and some are enticed by it the wrong way and we have to run. Once the purging is done, He continues with the plan of building us up, and seldom the way we think. He thought the cup bearer would get him out of jail, but that hope was dashed. It took God planting something in Pharaoh's life that would not only get Joseph out of jail, but make him useful in God's hands for bringing the rest of the chosen back into a right relationship with him and with God.

If you are in the process of being stripped, don't lose heart. God's favor has not been lifted. His plan is mysteriously different than ours. What appears to us to be for our harm is often for not only our good, but for the good of those we love the most as well. Waiting for God to show us the end of the story, that is our job...to be faithful, useful, and hopeful in the face of searing pain and loss, while God still shapes our destiny. Accepting that is often hard, but cooperating with it will bring blessing in the end. Be the one God is stripping and not the strippers of jealousy, wrath, and anger, or lust and evil desires. Let God humble you so that He can raise you up. Joseph couldn't crawl out of the pit, free himself from slavery, or break out of the jail cell. God had to release him from each of those situations, and each seemed worse than the one before. But God never left Joseph, and Joseph never fought the Spirit of God, but worked faithfully to become one who could end up saving not only himself, but millions. Take heart and accept whatever garment He has you in today, for tomorrow's garments will change, and all garments He dresses you in and strips you of fulfill the role you play in the great story of God's work in the lives of those on whom His favor rests.

Tight belts

No one is weary or stumbles, None slumbers or sleeps; Nor is the belt at its waist undone, Nor its sandal strap broken. Isaiah 5:26

This looks like a blessing, right? This is a case of Don't Take Scripture Out Of Context!

Who will not be weary or undo their belt? The enemy that God sends to destroy the wicked. And the wicked were His own people. They were those who taunted God, wondering if He had any power or might, any justice or goodness.

And above all, those who “Call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the rights of those who are in the right! (vs. 20-23)

I was a niave child. I believed everything and everyone. But there were a few things I had a hard time with...like thinking that anyone could possibly believe that bad things were good. I remember thinking even in my adult life that there was no way a civilization like ours could call good evil and evil good. Unfortunately, I have lived to see that day. Abortion is good and those who oppose it are evil. Homosexuality is good and those who think it perverted are evil. Marriage in many ways is considered evil and living together is good. Church people are evil and narrow-minded, and those who give out condoms and bad psychological advise like follow your own heart are good. We try to have it both ways...we want to do our own will and then panic as a culture when the consequences of it come home to roost, like kids living in poverty because their birth parents are irresponsible, unmarried, and committed only to their own happiness, which they will never find because they don't realize that it is found in God, His design for the family, and in hard work and self-sacrifice.

The belt of the tormentor will not be loosed. The sandal straps will always be tightly tied. It is amazing that Satan tempts us into this sort of sin, and then runs after us, tormenting us with its consequences and guilt. He never quits chasing us, stabbing us, running us from town to town with no refuge to be found. It is a sad, endless deal we have here on the earth, especially when we choose to live this way instead of bowing to God, accepting the beauty, tho in a fallen state here, of His design. We will never have it perfect here on earth, but we will have God's favor and presence, and that will make life worth the living. We won't be chased by the enemy when God is our shield. He will defend us when we hide in Him, and not from Him.

So this is not a pretty scene...we see over and over the imagery of the enemy chasing us to and fro, shooting arrows and making war against us because of our sin...and God letting this happen. Is there no hope for the human race? Is there no peace to be had? There is no mistake that chapter 5 is one of the most dismal of all of scripture.

But then there is Chapter 6! One of my favorites. We will study it further soon, but suffice it to say, Isaiah is chased right into the throne room of God Himself! And he confesses his own sin and the sin of his people, and God took away his iniquity and forgave his sin. If Satan can chase us, let it be to the throne of God, where forgiveness and mercy are available now to those who come to him seeing their sin for what it is, and their mouths confess God's holiness and their own desperate condition. For now, that is what the throne of God offers to those who approach it (Hebrews 4), but some day, those will be brought to it who refused to come in repentance. They will not find mercy, but judgment. Satan himself will stand there condemned, and those who followed him here, or are chased by him here, will follow him into the pit. There will never be an end to the consequences of his evil or theirs. Those who follow him willingly on earth will follow him unwillingly to hell. It's a hard pill to swallow, for we all want to see forgiveness and mercy doled out to the sinner. Be not deceived...God wants that, too. Satan has people convinced that God will change His mind later about the whole judgment thing and keeps them from repenting now and turning to God for His mercy WHILE IT MAY BE FOUND, which is TODAY! Hebrews speaks of people refusing to enter HIS REST. We enter the fortress where the enemy can no longer harass us. Satan chases us all around, trying to block the site of that safe place for our souls, keeping people from seeing the One who will cleanse and forgive and show us how to have rest, clean conscience, and hope.

People, if you are being chased, run to the One who will show you mercy instead of chasing you relentlessly, who will clean your sin and shelter you instead of running from one sin to another to try to find a way out of your misery.

Turn to Jesus. Enter the throne room and let Him do the cleaning that we cannot do on our own.

Shopping for replacement clothes!

Shopping

We love it here in America...shopping! It has become a spectator sport. One does not shop alone...one takes a buddy and you look together, try on pieces and ensembles, and walk the runway of the dressing room for evaluation by said buddy as to the fit, style, and appropriateness for the occasion. It is not that we have nothing else to wear, but we have to change out our clothes once in a while. We assess our wardrobe and determine that certain things have worn out and are no longer appropriate for general use.

Of old You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. But You are the same, and your years will not come to an end. Psalm 102:25-27

New heaven and new earth...that is what is needed. The old earth, we understand, needs to be traded out for a new one. We see the mold, mildew, rot and decay. We see death, dying (which can be worse than death sometimes), lying, cheating, and stealing. We understand that this is not how life was meant to be lived. God sees that and promises that He will again create a new earth that will reflect His glory eternally. Satan will never set foot (or scale) there to lead us to question God's goodness and protection in our lives. He will never let Satan set foot (or wing) in heaven to challenge God's favor for people on earth (like Job). It will be perfect.

Now, you may wonder why He can't or won't just clean up the heaven and earth that are there now. Can't He just wave a magic wand and make these places better? Let me ask you...don't garments wear out to the point that they cannot serve their purpose? Why do we replace them and what do we replace them with? Do we not look for something better, newer, more stylish, more fitting to our constantly changing figures? My shape is not what it was 20 years ago, let alone 4000 years ago, like the earth. There will be no more sea in heaven...for some reason the only water we read of is the river of life flowing from under the throne. Things will be different because the need for them is over. Jesus fulfilled the prophecies and symbolism has been used. I do not wear my wedding dress any more. I am married and to wear it again is really not acceptable. People would think I was crazy. It was designed for a specific occasion for a specific purpose. Once it was fulfilled, it became something to see in pictures, and to look at with fond memories (and marvel that I was once that small). But it is no longer necessary. It could be thrown out and not really matter. But it has been changed for clothing that was needed as the result of that occasion, like maternity clothes, which again, serve their purpose for a short time. There are times when the clothes just wear out. They are worn to death, to the point where the stresses of life take their toll. They are replaced with something that will allow us to continue to do the stuff of life.

So why settle for the things of this earth and of the heavens above when God knows that even though they were VERY GOOD, they were not all that there could be, and He knew that from the beginning. He refers to the coming heaven and earth from the beginning! He knew the wear and tear we would place on this world and that it would forever mar the glory it was supposed to reflect. I have seen over the past few weeks that places where tragic things happen are destroyed. They tore down the house in Cleveland where the man held girls captive for years and years, schools where children were killed are being replaced with new schools. The twin towers area have become a memorial, not new buildings. We have terrible memories associated with the old thing, and the sin is so vile that we cannot let it exist. On this earth Christ was murdered, death took hold of almost every human, and tragedy takes place daily in lives across the globe. If we really looked at the horror of it, we would want it replaced. There are indeed some gorgeous places here on planet earth, but even they are touched by death and sin. So lets rejoice that we will not have terrible memories in heaven. We will not accidentally run across the place where we failed a test, fought with a spouse or child, or visited the funeral home or death bed. Those things will be totally and completely gone.

But God will never change. He never needs to be replaced with a new God. And when we try to, we suffer for it. He is, and He will always be. He knows what we are, what we need, and what we will enjoy forever...His presence, His love, His mercy, and His redemption. We are adopted, moved into the new home that will be the new earth as His children. We don't want to stay in the orphanage when the palace awaits! So bring on the replacements! And we don't even have to try them on for size and seek the approval of others. It will be a perfect fit and always appropriate for the occasion.