White for the harvest John 4

Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. John 4:35

What does this have to say about cloth, you may be asking.

Well, it was the situation they were in. They were looking at a town in Samaria. It was the site of people dressed in white coming from the town to see this Jesus that the woman at the well had told them about. This woman who avoided people was running through town telling people that the Messiah had come and talked to her, of all people. People dressed in white, as that is how they dressed. People who were going to be washed white themselves. They listened to Jesus and begged him to stay for days. Unlike those in the towns where Jesus came from, who sent him away. Like Jerusalem, which he cried over more than once.

So we might be dressed in white, wanting to be clean on the outside, but knowing we are not white on the inside. The woman at the well was not described as far as her apparel. Was she dressed in white? Was she differently dressed because she was an inner-outsider? Everyone knew who she was. After 6 men, I'm sure she was the talk of the town. Had she played the harlot and gotten thrown out of these households? Was she ugly and would take whoever would take her in? Did men reject her time and time again? She didn't seem to have a problem finding another fellow to take her in. It sounded like she was in an affair unmarried at this point, which would have pointed to her being the cause of her own immorality. Jesus didn't sugar-coat her sin. He didn't avoid talking about it. And that avoidance of talking about her sin lead her to talk justifiably about herself. She worshiped as a daughter of Jacob, and she knew that Jesus, a Jew, would reject her for worshiping away from Jerusalem, so she let him judge her on that account. At least it wouldn't hurt as much as being judged for being an adulteress. But this avoidance led Jesus to the opportunity to deal with the heart issue, not just the outward evidence of the sin within.

Jesus was good at seeing the inner person and taking the issue there. And when the heart is dealt with, freedom ensues. So much freedom that a person who would come to the well at times to avoid people would run down the streets telling people that someone pointed out her sin and must be the Messiah! Now that is transformation! That is salvation, and redemption!

How about you and me? Do we go around telling people how Jesus pointed out our sin and saved us? If you can't do that, I ask you to look at your salvation. If you haven't let Jesus deal with your sin, I would ask you if He has given you the living water. If you can't even admit you are a sinner, or were living in a lifestyle of sin before you were saved (yes, you still sin, but it is not your common way any longer), then I ask you to talk to God about that. Those who will not confess their sins will not be saved. Not a long litany of sins. This isn't the confessional in a Catholic church. Good grief, if I was only saved from the sins I could confess outright, I'd be so piled in them I couldn't move. I sin in ways I don't even realize. It is the confess that I am a sinner...a person with inclination to sin, who practices sin, and has no life in me. I am dead in my sin, Paul says in Romans 4,5, and 6. Jesus gives life. Dead seeds stay dead until water permeates them. Water brings life. Jesus offers the living water, and applies it to the seed as needed to make it not only alive, but grow. This life changes everything, including our response to life. We are not ashamed any more. We rejoice that Jesus chose to speak to us, the outcast. And then others dressed in white can overflow the hillsides coming to Him. They can experience Him and be purged of their sins as well.

So look up and see the results of a sinner being saved. It is a curious thing, and a site to behold.

The harvest fields were white, and here Jesus draws the comparison. They were ready to be harvested, brought into the kingdom. Are you dressed in white? Are you ready to be harvested? If you haven't been, I ask you to come to Jesus, talk to Him through reading His Words to you, and see that He is who I, a harvested soul, say He is.  

Pallet talk John 5

2895. krabattos -- a camp bed 
... 2895 -- a small bed used by the poor; "" () a rude pallet made of thick padded quilt
or mat" (M. Vincent); "a Macedonian word (Lat ) for a bed, pallet, or ... 
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/2895.html

Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. John 5:8

This is a well-known story of Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda. For 38 years the man hanged out at the pool hoping to be healed. That's a LONG time. He wasn't able to get into the pool by himself. I imagine he had people take him there and they probably stayed a few days, but then were off to make their livings and take care of their other burdens of life. Him life, however, consisted of laying there, begging for food and help. How did he go to the bathroom? How did he do anything? They must have had a nursing staff or the place would have been a complete stenchy mess. Maybe it was. But Jesus sees a guy laying on a padded quilt of some sort and asks him if he wants to be healed. Dumb question, right? Maybe not. Maybe we get to the rut of life and are afraid to climb out. We can't imagine life any other way. But Jesus gives him only 3 instructions.

1) Get up. Well, he thinks, if I could do that I wouldn't be laying here. He had to have the faith to stand up, believing that the strength would be there if he would just do it. His legs would have no strength. His back would have no support. His feet and ankles hadn't born weight for at least 38 years. Was Jesus out of his mind?
2) Take up your pallet. That meant bending over and bearing weight. That meant balance, arms strength, and a strong back.
3) Walk. With weight, with balance, with strength. Do something he hadn't done for years.

All 3 of these things would require faith. Faith that Jesus knew what He was asking. Faith that he wasn't going to struggle to rise up, look the fool when he fell down, or stagger like a drunk under the weight of his burden. Realistically, he would at best look a fool. He could really hurt himself. But the alternative was to lie there for the rest of his life. He didn't even know this was Jesus! He knew nothing but that he wanted to believe this man that offered him the thing he had wanted all his life. Healing.

We may not have physical infermities. We may be held down by the sickness of soul, the weakness of lack of faith, and knowledge of our limitations. Jesus comes to us and asks if we want to get over it. He tells us to get up. To accept his healing and strength and to stand. Prepare for the next thing. Take up our pallet. Get off our backsides and move on. We aren't going back down except to rest. We are moving on. And walk. Get going. Get on with life. Take the pallet and take it home and put it away. We don't need to lay out in public showing our weakness any more, but walk in the strength, power, balance, and under the direction of the Lord. When we do, Jesus comes and tells us who He is! And when people tell us we aren't supposed to be doing this, we tell them that Jesus told us to! We tell them that Jesus said to walk in his strength and power every day of our lives. That we are to follow His directions and not man-made rules that limit God's power. We have a new life.

There was a wonderful testimony of a Muslim convert to Christianity. He spent his years trying to figure out how to properly worship Allah. When he converted, he had the same concerns. How do you properly worship God? And God's answer was to walk in freedom. There were not chains of ritual and format, hours of the day to bow in worship or certain Sabbath rules to keep. Jesus sends the Spirit so that we can worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. That is every day in every way, with the worship coming from the heart and obedience in heart and not format. He was liberated and rejoicing that his worship was so much more than before! May we get up, no longer depend on the sickbed, and walk in the Spirit as He has commanded so that He may reveal Himself to us in new and glorious ways.

Repairer of the Seams Ezekiel 27

Ezekiel 27:26-27

Your rowers have brought you into great waters; the east wind has broken you in the heart of the seas. Your wealth, your wares, your merchandise, your sailors and your pilots, your repairer of seams, your dealers in merchandise and all your men of war who are in you, with all your company that is in your midst, will fall into the heart of the sea.

There is the reference to the repairer of seams in the NASB version. Other versions refer to shiprights and builders. But we will go with the repairer of seams. Also mentioned in 27: 9, the old men and the wise were repairing the seams in the boat or the sails, knowing that if the weak spots were not repaired, the whole thing was going down. And we all know that the same thing can happen with cloth.

There are 3 types of seam failures. I just finished repairing 2 antique quilts for a lady. They showed each types of failure. One form is where the stitching thread breaks. This is actually the easiest to repair. The thing holding the 2 pieces of cloth together breaks, but the fabric itself is not damaged. The line is usually obvious where the repair can be made. We just need another thread that will hold things together. These failures usually come because of stress on the seam when the quality of the thread is bad. Like our lives, we can have stresses that pull on the fabric of our lives. That which is not of God is weak and the strain makes us snap. The seam slowly begins opening up, and without repair, will continue to enlarge a hole in our lives. Sometimes other seams may have to be opened up to lay flat the one that needs to be repaired, and then the opened seam can be sewn shut and if done well, no one will ever see that there was ever a problem. God is like that. He can take the place of the old, brittle beliefs and notions of our lives and replace them with His strength when the things of the world cannot hold up. He can handle it. He might have to do some unsewing to fix the problem, but He can repair all of our holes.

Then there is the shallow seam. The thread was sewn too closely to the edge of the fabric and the stress placed on it causes the edge of the seam to unravel. This is a much more serious problem. That thread which is to hold things together is right and true, but misplaced. That quarter or 5/8 inch seam was not sewn correctly and leaves a weak spot which eventually can be breached. Sewing on the original line again will accomplish nothing.The solution here can be more tricky. If the seam was supposed to be deep, taking the regular seam around the weakness can solve the problem. But if the seam was narrow to start with, placing the original seam can be just as hazardous as it has just become a narrow seam like the one that unraveled. Whole pieces may have to be picked out and replaced, and then requilted. This process is far more time consuming, and unless you have kept pieces of the original fabric, it will be hard to make the piece look right. The patches may be obvious, but at least the quilt is still useful. We can be like this. We are inconsistent. We run life out of alignment and a little too close to the edge. And we fray and unravel. If this is an occasional problem, the repairs are sometimes easy and sometimes obvious, but we can be fixed and used. If the seam was consistently shallow, there is nothing that can be done to strengthen the seams. Some fabric may be able to be salvaged and used in another quilt, but this piece is only good for sitting around. Any stress will pull it apart. Repairs are futile.

And then there is the worst failure. That of rot. These quilts were from close to the turn of the century, and there is a characteristic of most quilts from that era. The black fabric disintegrates. It rots away. There are parts of it there, or there are shapes that show that there was fabric there once, but it is gone now. The batting is exposed, the fabrics around it make it obvious that something was supposed to be there, was once there, and has not held up over time. If there was little of the offending fabric in the overall quilt, new patches can be appliqued into place. Sometimes old fabric can be salvaged from another quilt or fabric collection, but more often than not we don't have that available. Reproductions or close matches can be put into the holes. But if enough of the quilt was made with fabrics that were inherently flawed, like the chemicals used to dye fabric black back then, the quilt will become worthless and unrepairable. It might be set aside sadly, folded as a memory, but it will not be able to be used for its intended purpose. But if there were only a few pieces used, the holes can be filled with time and different fabric and a lot of patience.

These quilts were examples of that. One's edges had been used and abused to the point that I had to cut a whole row of blocks off and rebind it. The center of the quilt, away from the edges, was in quite good shape. The other seams and patches that had worn down were patched. Seams were repaired. Useable fabric from the cut off portion was salvaged from the cut off edge and used to replace rotted or abused spots in the quilt. With the new binding, that quilt became useable again. The second one had more of a disintegration problem. There was need for far more patching, more applique over rotting pieces. The edges had to be rebound as well, but the quality and age of the fabric showed that it was not original to the quilt. There were far more narrow seams where the patches frayed. It was a work that I wanted to save, but the more I patched, the more I realized just how fragile this work was. It was returned to the owner with a note that this piece had to be handled with care not not hung up or used. It was just for show and memories. There were seams that couldn't be patched, but were not serious enough to deal with or were so tenuous that working on them would probably cause more harm. I really began wondering if it was worth my time and her money to have taken this second piece on. And that is how it is with some broken lives. We question God for investing in them when it seems He will get no real reward for all of His trouble.

But that is our God. He looks fondly on we old quilts and though the world puts no earthly value into us (when you look for value of quilts of that era, they are worth little to nothing on today's market), He sees us as precious, as worth it. He paid for us with the blood of His Son, washed us up, patched our fragile, worn and torn seams and patches, and either uses us or puts us on display as examples of His extreme mercy. And for that, we well up in extreme gratefulness. We will be damaged by this life, but God is our good repairer of the seams, wise in His dealing with us, knowing where we need reseamed, patched, places covered over, or parts cut off to stop the bleeding. He then knows where to put us to display His glory. It may be on the bed, on the wall, or in a case or closet, but we are His precious treasure. And we need to love each other, repairs and all, as fellow possessions of the King. We need not judge each other's frailties...we have enough of our own. Some of our repairs don't show up to those who see us, but we know that we are just as likely to come to need for repair because of what we were originally made of, who sewed us together in the first place, and how closely we were quilted. The workmanship we received was not of our own doing. Pride is foolish as we did not make ourselves. But our Master Repairer mends us all when the use and abuse of life takes its toll.

Rewarded with Purple Clothes Daniel 5

Daniel 5:7 The king called aloud to bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans and the diviners. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon: Any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me shall be clothed with purple and have a necklace of gold around his neck, and have authority as third ruler in the kingdom.”

The handwriting on the wall. This is the story of where that phrase came from.

Belshazzar's feast is interuptted by this hand...he had taken the cups from the temple of the Lord and decided to use them in his drunken partying. And God did not take that lightly. There is the hand and the writing that he could not read. He knew it was important and needed to be read, but he had no way of knowing what it was. So he issued this reward for its interpretation. Purple, royal clothes. Third in line for power. Unfortunately for him, that person might be second that very evening, for he did not live through the night. But his wife remembered the story of Daniel interpreting for his father the king, so Daniel was blessed with the opportunity to have another shot at revealing his God to these heathen kings. God was ready to speak, but even the kings knew that someone else more in touch with God had to intercede for them as they did not know this God.

This was not the first time God had his people bear bad news to kings. Joseph had to tell of famine, and Daniel had to tell Belshazzar that God would require his live as he was not worthy to be king because he had seen God's dealings with his father, Nebuchadnezzer. He had gone from powerful to eating grass as an animal, and allowed to return to power, humbled before the God of Daniel. But Belshazzar ignored God's dealings and profaned the temple and the instruments that were holy unto the Lord.

So in a way, he gave away the kingly clothes almost prophetically, for he would not longer be wearing them. Someone more worthy would have them. And that person would be Daniel. Daniel did not seek the glory or privilege, just to speak for God when asked by the king to do so. This is what is now called “speaking truth to power.” You tell powerful people what they don't want to hear. It's the hardest thing for a person to do. He knew that if he told this king what God said it could mean his head, or another trip to the lion's den. But he did not fear to tell Belshazzar the words of God. And God protected him again. Those who stand for the Lord don't always walk away unscathed. Many have spoken truth to power and were killed, imprisoned, or thrown down wells like Jeremiah. But for now God used the instrument of Daniel to make His point to the nation. Often we think we deserve the rewards that come with standing on the Lord's side...but when called to speak for the Lord, we need not worry about the rewards or consequences of that speech. We will be rewarded. The consequences cannot be eternal ones, but just temporary. We, like Abraham, should sometimes refuse the world's rewards so they don't believe that they have provided for us, but God alone.

Sometimes we are rewarded, sometimes we pay dearly, for our stand for the Lord. Like Peter, we ask Jesus when he tells us what we have to pay, what will happen to the other guy. (John 20) And He lovingly tells us to mind our own business. Follow Him. Let Him decide if you will wear royal robes or graveclothes. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. We are just to obey, to speak, to reveal the mind of God to those who call upon us to read His writing to them. We can't be afraid to tell them the truth...that they are sinners if we need to...and warn them or comfort them or whatever we are called to speak. Just make sure it is God's Word in God's time. And if your favorite color isn't purple, that's ok. The robes in heaven aren't, for God will not be sharing His kingdom with anyone, for no one will inform Him of anything He doesn't already know. He won't be seeking wise men, but be surrounded by all those made wise by Him.

It's our place...at His feet. And a joyous place that will be.

Drunken Nakedness Habakkuk 2

Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, Who mix in your venom even to make them drink so as to look on their nakedness. You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and exposed your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will come upon your glory. Habakkuk 2:15-16

Sounds like the bar scene, doesn't it? How many guys urge gals to have another drink, and then slip them a mickey? It happened to a gal I knew in college, and probably to someone you know who went off with someone they did not know and drank with them. It is a sad story for many gals, but all too common. Even a cell phone company is using this scenario as a commercial, the gal waking up in bed to the sounds of an electric toothbrush, grabbing the contract in the bed next to her, and finding out she had signed it. You could tell she barely remembered the night before due to a drink or two.

But it is the ones who use these drinks to take advantage of others that Habakkuk was speaking to. There is nothing new under the sun, people. Wicked folks were using strong drink to take sexual advantage of others since the beginning of time. There are prurient interests in seeing people naked all over. Even the prime-time tv shows are showing more and more skin, pushing the limits of soft-core porn. Colleges are publishing magazines with it. Newsstands carry Cosmo and other things more revealing for wandering eyes.

So those who entice people to shed the covering get one of two responses. The editors of Playboy get accollades and are called artists, while those who post encounters on Facebook get blasted. But both those who take advantage, whether by paying someone to strip down or by force or deception, both will be exposed for what they are sooner or later. Both are lechers, and God will make them drink of the cup that they force on others. They will be put to shame.

Never has that been more sadly true than in the media right now. A Christian family, good, God-fearing people, had a son use women long ago. But the cup has come around to this son. He has been exposed and disgraced. Unfortunately, it has taken the testimony of the whole family down with him. That is how it works. Sadly, the scripture, “Be sure your sin will find you out,” has come to pass. I do not condemn them. Every family has their skeletons in the closet to some degree. We have influence, but not control, over members of our family. We have our own. Drunkenness, abuse, adultery, divorce, debt, suicide, mental illness, illegitimacy...they hang on limbs of our family tree. And I'll bet they hang on most of yours. If not, be eternally grateful! Some of God's closest relationships here on earth were with people who exhibited many of those traits. Noah drank himself naked, David took someone's wife, abused her, and committed adultery. Elijah was suicidal after being chased by Jezebel. Lot committed incest...you get the point. It doesn't mean that there were not consequences. Certainly just reading these things makes your opinions of them diminish...tarnish coats the knights in shining armor. It in no way excuses their behavior. IN NO WAY! But God has the ultimate perspective. He knows we are but dust, and in case you don't know it, there is no good use for dust. We throw it out. It is dirty and destructive and can ultimately lead to damage to the surfaces or crevices to which it attaches itself. The very computer you are reading can be brought to an abrupt end by dust in the works. But the question is, are we grieving with this family or relishing the scandal? Are we glad that this son renounced these things years ago and that they were dealt with, or are we feeling pious that no such thing has happened in our home? Are we getting all comfortable with the idea that they didn't bring this to light so they deserve this horror? What if everything that has gone wrong in your family was exposed to the world? How embarrassed would you be if the times you screwed up were put on public display? Every call from the principal? Every scream? Every thought? Every relative? The good news is that repentant people are forgiven even these vices. Jesus took the penalty. But it cost Him plenty.

There will be consequences. There were in Habakkuk's day, and there still are in ours. But God doesn't leave us there. For those who cling to the Lord, He will be their strength and salvation. He will secure their footings once again. Those who continue to sin and not repent, those will be thoroughly destroyed. So we have a choice. Will we be humbled and repent or will we continue to be blind-drunk, placing ourselves in the hands of those who would only use and abuse us? Will we use and abuse others, tricking them into doing things they would not do if they were in control of themselves? Are there sins we need to repent of and renounce before we are humbled publicly?

The cup God hands you, that of destruction and humbling, or of rejoicing, will depend on it.

Bonds of love Hosea 11:4

I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; And I bent down and fed them. Hosea 11:4 NASB
I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them. Hosea 11:4 NIV

There are words in each of these translations that I like, so I give you both versions to chew upon.

How we hate to be bound, restrained, in any way. I think of a horse when I read this passage. I am not sure that that is how it is meant to be read. I don't know what cords we are really talking about here, but the idea is the same. We are tethered to a greater force, to a leader who has a place for us to go. We aren't going alone in our own direction. We are being led and the leader is taking us there. He is going with us. I picture a man walking a horse, standing next to his neck. Up close and personal. There is a relationship here. A unity like horse and rider. A connection. We are looking at lifting the yoke off. The work is done. We are being taken to the stable to be fed and combed and petted and put to rest for the night. Our duties of the day have been fulfilled, and the tender owner praises his beast for its daily work. This is a leading to rest. How often in scripture God tells us to rest! He wants to be tender with us, refreshing us, feeding us, leading us to green pasture. More often He refers to us as sheep. The shepherd would have to bend down to hand-feed the sheep something other than pasture grass. In any case, he has us on a rope, but it is for our good and benefit. We usually don't go the way the master desires unless we are pulled along or given the restraining boundaries of a lead rope.

Yep, that's us. Even as Christians we tug hard against the ropes of God's mercy. We want to wander around. We may not know where we are going, but we are going there anyway. We resist the call to come in for the night and get our needs met and have the stresses of the day melt into a gentle grooming and a bite to eat. To take the yoke off and quit striving so hard. To let the Master make the decisions of when it is time to work and when it is time to quit. To let Him decide if pasture grass is enough for the day, or if we need an oat bag or a handful of treats (chocolate or a nice mocha latte) to calm our nerves or give relief to our weary muscles. Yet we tug against the ropes like a stubborn donkey, digging in our heals and telling God we want to go another direction. We don't realize that the direction He is pulling us in is for our good. But we have other ideas. We just know we are tied, refusing to see that we are tied with bonds of love. We just know that they are bonds, and we want to be free.

There have been several articles I have read lately that have talked about the slave, the bond-servant, the under-rower that we are called to be in Christ. This is a slave with no rights of his own. He is owned, given a task or tasks, and serves the master who owns him. That is our position in Christ before God. We were purchased and They are our owners. They are our bosses. They have defined the limits of our lives. But we recoil against such a thought. We don't want to be owned. We are Americans and are slaves to no one! But this is the kind of ownership that God has for us...one of tender relationship. He gives us a job in accord with, or exceeding, our abilities. He equips the called and gives them large important tasks to do. He calls us to be workers in His field, plowing, planting, and watering, and weeding, all the while marveling while the crop grows around us. Then the harvest comes, and we rejoice in the fruit of our labors. Parties are held, and feasts are eaten as we rejoice that all that work paid off! That work may be in raising children, leading a Sunday school class or working Vacation Bible School. It may be in working for the Lord in a factory, a quilt shop, or an insurance company. We are led into schools, coffee shops, and playgrounds to meet other sheep whose shepherds have abandoned them to the wolves around them. We may not know why God led us to where He has us (Lord knows that Iowa is the LAST place I thought I would live!), but we can trust His heart that He has led us there for our good and mostly for His glory. He is a caring master. He does not beat us and abuse us, but breaks us like a bucking bronco so that we can be of value to Him and to ourselves and others. How we hate that, but oh, the delight of having purpose in life! Oh, the tender relationship between animals and their caretakers.

This chapter is actually one of hope and mourning. God tells Israel how He wants to provide them with the shelter that they need, and how He doesn't want to be angry with them. He lures them in with thoughts of shelter, safety against their enemies, food, and home. He mourns that they resist Him so. His heart aches for them to come to Him so He can be good to them. Instead they wander in the deserts, food themselves for the beasts who do nothing but attack and destroy. He beckons, speaking softly with food held out in His hand, to draw them in and win their trust. The food of the Word can be feasted upon, satisfying our deepest needs and giving us the nourishment and knowledge of the nature of this shepherd. We should have known Him all along, but in our youthful rebellion and desire to run free, we ran away and lived wild. He sees us out there, lassos us, and gently pulls us home, knowing that if we continue in our wildness we will eventually come to destruction. He calls us to be broken, to be tamed, and to come under His protection and rest from our foraging and hiding from every specter that throws a shadow on our paths. We can trust, we can rest, we can be fed until we are satisfied for the first time in our lives for some of us! We can fellowship with others like us, protected from the enemies that prowl the land around us.

These are the bonds of love. So why do we fight the one who longs to love us. Rest.

Divine Design Ezekiel 43

If they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the house, its structure, its exits, its entrances, all its designs, all is statutes, and all its laws. And write it in their sight, so that they may observe its whole design and all its statutes and do them. Ezekiel 43:11

Divine design.

There has been talk in the world of Christian women about God's design for us. There is a book with this subtitle. God has placed an order for how the world is supposed to work, and unfortunately for most of us, we refuse to read the directions and build appropriately.

There are a few types of fabric work that throw out the rule book when it comes to making things. There are artists who brag about breaking the rules. But many of these works end up looking like a mishmash of stuff. There is no pattern, no crispness, no order. Often these are “art pieces” that hang on a wall and may draw us to wonder, but serve no other real purpose. They are mere curiosities. Personally, when there is an amazing structure to a piece, it draws me in. Compared to a more free-form work, there is an admiration for the designer, vs. perceiving a sense of laziness or rebellion in the other artist. I was going to type the word creator, but the thought of creation conjures up a plan and construct. Purposefulness. Artist in this day and age almost has come to mean one who does their own thing in resistance to the “norm” and this rebellious spirit is rejoiced over. Instead of creating a higher beauty, it dissolves into meaningless lack of form and definition. It can be unsettling, confusing, and ugly.

When it comes to God, He had a plan. He knew how he wanted His house to look. He had the plans, picked out the curtains (literally), and had the rooms planned and furnished. There was no second-guessing about it.He had had one house built, but their sin led to the destruction of their temple and their nation. God wanted to reestablish His presence among His people, but only when they were ready. When was that? When they repented. When they acknowledged their sin before Him and were begging for the place to return that they could take their sacrifices to and be forgiven. God had no intention of letting non-repentant sinners know what He had on His mind. They could not build something that God could accept, let alone live in, in their state. And they would have rejected the design, anyway. They wouldn't have sacrificed their materials to have it made. Their hands were dirty, and you cannot build something pure when the materials and workman are contaminated.

And in that time, they had to come and offer sacrifices for their sin before they could enter and hear the Word of the Lord.

So confession was their secret code. When confession, true, heart-felt spilling out of their sins before God, took place, the blueprints could be handed over. It is the prayer of Psalm 51 that cleanses our hearts before God. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Jesus reminds us. The truth and beauty of God's plan are handed over and seen for the amazing grace that they contain. Not only are the plans for how to worship God appropriately given, but also the mind of God is handed to them in His laws and statutes. As we can see in modern culture, handing people God's Word without a repentant spirit guiding them leads only to mocking God's ways. Why marriage? Why abstinence? Why honor your parents, take a day off each week, or not steal or otherwise take things from your neighbor? Why not look at what your neighbor has and covet it, or take his wife while he's out of town? We ask a lot of whys in this day and age, questioning if God has any say over life in America or the rest of the world. We call it culture. God calls it Righteousness, the way we ought to live regardless of all other factors. He laid out good and evil, right and wrong, truth and error. He set boundaries for our good, whether we call it good or not. Isn't it good to have sex? Yes, within boundaries. Isn't it good to have stuff? Yes, within boundaries. Isn't it good to worship a higher power? Yes, if it is THE Higher Power and no other one.

When it comes down to it, we get bent out of shape when sports teams, politicians, or the person who cuts in line ahead of us don't follow the rules. The rules are the rules! They can't get away with that! We were robbed! They cheated! But when it comes to God's rules, we question their validity, let alone their benefit. And it has reached the place where sin and disorder has gotten so out of hand that we get rid of the law because we can't rein in the lawless. So unless the mind is repentant and submissive, making more rules only leads to more lawlessness, and the situation become more intolerable.

Do you long to know God's design? Do you long to have a heart that doesn't want to resist His Word when it makes you uncomfortable and your mind tells you to question Him? Do you want to know how to build the temple of your heart, furnished with the throne for Him to sit on? Be ashamed of your sin. That is how the Prophet Ezekiel was told to identify the righteous and a rebuilding can begin. And then the pattern can be laid out, the fabric cut to measure, and the construction can begin. I think you will like the end result. In fact, I guarantee it (even more than Men's Warehouse).

Ezekiel 18:4-9 Clothing the naked

The soul who sins will die. “But if a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness, and does not eat at the mountain shrines or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor's wife or approach a woman during her menstrual period- if a man does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, does not commit robbery but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing, if he does not lend money on interest or take increase, if he keeps his hand from iniquity and executes true justice and My ordinances so as to deal faithfully- he is righteousness and shall surely live,” declares the Lord God. Ezekiel 18:4b-9

This is one long sentence, but it is one thought, so I will not take our clothing verse out of its context.

It is hard to define righteousness, but here Ezekiel defines it for us in light of our care for the needy hand-in-hand with religious purity. The verses before this talk of God no longer cursing the sons for the sins of the fathers. This would be in context of whole tribes and nations being doomed, as well as Jewish children suffering the fate of their idol-worshiping parents. Over and over we look at the lives of the kings. Some followed God, but their children did not, and vice versa. But the point is, where the hearts of the people go in regard to Whom they will worship, so went the culture. Here we see that those who refused to “look up” to idols followed God in other ways as well, from sexual purity to taking care of the needs of those around them.

In this day and age, we speak of looking up to people...movie stars, politicians, religious leaders (both true and false teachers), teachers, community leaders, and philanthropists. Some of these are good to look up to, and some are not. But the truth remains that those we look up to sway our thoughts, and therefore, our behavior. Those who look up to those who promote non-Christian thought are dragging away a generation or two because they are not comparing those thoughts with the thoughts of God. We do well not to look up to anyone but God because people will let us down. Even the most godly among us will say and do things that will make us scratch our heads in wonder. But God is in His Holy temple...let all the earth keep silent before Him.

So when we look only to the Lord as our source and sustainer, we will act graciously to those around us. There will be no taking advantage of women, no coveting things and wives of people close to us. We will not look to take advantage of another's misfortune, but see to it that they are restored when they need to borrow for a while. We will not look to take, but to give and see people have their daily needs met. And that includes seeing that they are clothed. They don't need to be humiliated before their fellow man. They don't need to be cold. They are to be fed, and given justice. If their employer doesn't pay them, they should be defended and cared for until right prevails. If they need a personal loan, don't make it a benefit to yourself...give the loan and accept repayment without charging them. This proves that you did it to meet their need and not to benefit for yourself, taking advantage of the situation. God says He hates that. It makes it all the harder for the poor man to get out of his poverty. It makes him shamed, indebted to his fellow man...a slave of sorts...to those who should be helping out of a sense of brotherhood and love, not greed and disdain.

He keeps himself from iniquity. That is grossly unfair behavior toward another. He is fair in his dealings with a brother and with God. God states over and over how much He hates iniquity. That is usually the one trait of God that most of us have in common with Him. We hate unfairness in its many forms. And we despise those who would take advantage of someone else for their own greedy gain. Unfortunately we confuse proper profit for hard work and ownership for unjust gain. People will march against a company because they make a profit, often assuming that the people that work for them are being treated badly. We need to know who is being greedy sometimes...and it isn't always the employer. But God knows the heart. Jesus talked of an employer who paid people what they needed to live even though their brother worked longer hours. Those who worked declared it unfair. But Jesus called the generous act good. So we need to do our job and not keep accounts on someone else's life. Others will have more or less than I, but that is not my concern. Am I dealing justly with those around me? Am I meeting the needs of those who do not have the things they need for life and comfort of heart and soul? Am I giving without concern of what I will receive back in return, even if it is nothing of advantage to me? God sees and says that if I am that sort of person...a godly person, for this is how God gives to us (what can I EVER pay back to God?) that I will live. Live for His glory. Live for the joy of being a friend of God and man. And that's a great life.

Not Rending Their Garments Jeremiah 36

Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments. Jeremiah 36:24

This passage is a sad commentary on people and the scriptures and prophets. Here is the set up to this incident.

God came to Jeremiah and told him to warn the people of Israel of the destruction He had planned for them. His hope was that if people heard, they would turn from their evil ways, have their iniquities and sins forgiven. (vs 3) So Jeremiah has Baruch come and write his dictation. Jeremiah isn't allowed in the house of God, so he sends Baruch. He reads the scroll and the people panic. They say, “We need to tell the king about this!” Another fellow takes it to the king's court and they agree that God means business and the king needs to hear this! So they take it into the king.

Now mind you that up to this point people are fearing the word of the Lord. They are not looking at this as mere words written by Jeremiah...they know God is trying to warn them that they are on a destructive path. Now if you just read the verse above, you would think that they just ignored the scroll and God's word. Nope. If only. As the scroll was being read, the king used it as firewood. He cut it off as it was being read and through it in the fire! No fear, no repentance, no honor of God. A few servants begged him to stop doing that. Word got back to Jeremiah of what had happened and God had him rewrite the message and add curses to the king's lineage.

Politicians and priests...there seems to be a battle between the two sects for time immemorial. The priests tell what God wants or thinks, and the politicians push them aside for their own personal power and gain. The history of Europe is riddled with politicians giving religious posts to those who would endorse their ill-behavior or at least look the other way. And prophets? Well, they tend to catch it from both sides. Poor Jeremiah was not looked at as the mouth-piece of God appealing to His people to turn from evil and avoid terrors to come, but as a political enemy out to harm his country. And not much has changed. Sad to say, the prayer breakfast yesterday was full of people proclaiming God's word, and met with one very powerful “king” who said we need to question whether God talks to Christians at all! We are to doubt that God's Word to the world is the only word for the world. Aren't all religions a way to God? Isn't there more than one way? Isn't it arrogant to think God only talks to us?

Well, he might as well have been taking the knife to every Christian speech there and throwing it into the fire. Men of God were ignored for political expediency, and I am afraid that this marks the same end for us as for Israel. You see, the king of then and the politician of now aren't the only ones to blame. They are the figureheads. I used to look at scripture and get a little upset with God for condemning a whole nation for the actions of a few. But God wrote those words through Jeremiah to the PEOPLE of Israel, not the king alone. The whole country had defied God through their actions and behaviors. They may have called themselves Jews, but they were not living it. They may have offered sacrifices and done the whole Passover deal, but their hearts were elsewhere. The actions of the king reflected the hearts of the people. A few were repentant and fearful, but none rend their garments. Fear was there, but the acts of repentance were not. Had they gone out in the streets with rent garments appealing to the masses to repent, maybe the results would have been different. But they took the issue to the king, to the politicians, and it got them nowhere.

We have this same mentality today. We look to political parties and powerful people to change the spiritual problems in our country. God appeals to us to appeal to our brethren, and we get them panicked instead of repentant. God doesn't just want us to fear His judgment. He wants us to fear HIM. He wants our attention, our love, our adoration. He blesses those who draw near to Him with peace and comfort. He withholds judgment if the people respond to His Word. He is gracious enough to send us prophets, even today, who hold up God's Word, often proclaiming to us this things that the church universal refuses to deal with for fear of driving people out of the church. We fear man, and not God. We fear offending man instead of offending God. Beware of who you are seeking God's wisdom from, but when you find one who rightfully divides His Word, take heed. Learn all you can, study for yourself, and don't poo-poo those who appeal to our spiritual side and look at even political issues as matters of God's concern. Our future could ride on your response.

Sheep's clothing Matthew 7:15

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Matthew 7:15

This saying is not a new one, but few people today heed this warning. There are MANY people, religions, televangelists, and others who look so good and innocent on the outside, but their motives are anything but innocent. Innocents get taken, eaten alive by this brood of vipers, as Jesus called them. The admission of sin into personal private lives is subtle. It all looks so innocent. Satan does lure some by appealing to their anger and rage, making ugly look desirable. Then there is the bait...the thing that looks like it will satisfy our hunger for fun, for love, for attention. It looks like the real thing, and the next thing we know, we are dangling on the hook and being filleted, and have no idea what just happened! Ravenous wolves will kill and eat, leaving the carcass for others to feed on in their wake.

It happens to the best of us. Solomon in all his wisdom was taken in by his wives. What is one idol set up for his wife from wherever going to hurt? Or ten? Or a hundred? This guy knew what God said about worship of any other gods. So they were for his wives and not himself. What could that hurt? It cost him God's approval, and the kingdom after him was split apart, eventually leading to civil war and total destruction. God doesn't allow us to toy in sin because we do not see the hidden danger. Eve looked at the fruit and saw that it was good. It was pleasing to the eye. But there was the hidden danger that God had warned about. She heard what the consequences would be, but the outward appearance deceived her into thinking it was safe. And we know the consequences of that decision.

This passage continues to describe the fruit that comes is directly related to the tree it comes from. You don't get grapes from an apple tree. If the tree is sinful, the fruit will be sinful. We can't expect to get goodness from something evil. This is not to say that God can't turn your life around after sin. He is in that business. But the temptation to run with that idea and not heed warnings to avoid sin, to not eat of it, is a trick of Satan in our lives as well. This one drink with the people from work won't hurt anything, we may think. This one desire for the attention of that guy...what will that hurt. Then our appetites change, the desires intensify whether met or unmet, and we start down a road that we never dreamed we would take. I am appalled at some thoughts that run through my head some days. I am amazed at how naive I have been about people and their motives. I see the pain of some who were caught in the net and wonder how they were even swimming in that ocean when they got snagged. We are a sorry lot.

In the study Follow Me by David Platt, we find him contemplating the following verses of Jesus sending people away who thought they were doing right by God and Jesus says He never knew. They were practitioners of lawlessness. They put on a godly show, but they were not followers of the testaments, old or new. They had no desire to know God's law, but wanted to be leaders, prophets, miracle workers. Their lives were ravenous for everything but God. He is talking about false prophets. Many of those guys you see on Christian tv stations will be standing in this judgment, I fear. Some are caught and just keep going, and a few repent and are forgiven. It is a good barometer of a man's commitment to God to see what he does when caught in sin. Does he mourn over his sin or justify it? Does he resign or step aside, make himself accountable to others in authority over him? Or does he leave the ministry with that woman he's having an affair with? What appetite was he feeding? Was he danging the bait, or was he caught on the lure? Repentance is actually a beautiful thing. Getting worn down by sin and sick of the consequences and crawling back for some consolation is not. Mourning how your sin has besmirched the name of God and harmed others is repentance. Whining about how it took away your happiness is not. Truly coming to God with a broken heart and broken will, that he will not despise.

Are you a wolf, or do you at least smell something funny when that over-sized sheep comes in your direction? We need to be wary of evil. It lurks in the most unexpected places. When something doesn't seem right, but we can't put our finger on it, it is a warning from God. Accept the warning, put up a guard against Satan's deceiving ways, and expect a battle for your heart to follow. If we see the storm clouds brewing, take in the lawn furniture and hunker down instead of going on a hike in an open field. Follow Jesus back into the fold for the duration and He will let us out when it is safe to venture out again. Don't think you can weather it. You are a sheep and you are no match for a tornado. Or for a wolf.

Drawing close...getting into the Word

I sat down this morning to study and write, and then wondered if I had done the passage already. I have a list started of the scriptures I have written on, but it sorely needed updating. Very sorely!

I have a list so long and so unorganized that I am going to put it into Excel in Bible chapter order. I don't want to rehash the same verses, although some passages, especially the gospels of Matthew-John, do mention things over and over. God has always given me more to say about those passages. His Word is never exhausted of its glory. We covered Psalm 23 in Wednesday night prayer meeting, and the meat was still there after years and years of study, sermons, and whole Bible studies on that passage. New insight is given to us based on our experiences, our time in life, and other wisdom imparted from godly men and women. I will never look at goodness and mercy trailing behind me the same way again.

And I never imagined when I started writing this blog that there would be sooooo many verses in scripture about clothing. Some are very positive, some are hauntingly negative, and all give us an entrance into the mind of God.

So as I spend some time organizing my list and marking my Bible, I would ask that you do your own study of God's Word. I am no Bible scholar. At times I struggle with scripture, look up other people's notes for insight, and I am sure get a few things wrong. Don't ever take my word for God's Word. I am reading through Jesus Calling by Sarah Young for the second time in 3 years. I have to remind myself that she is not Jesus, but it is uncanny how most days I need to hear what Jesus spoke to her years ago. I think we all long to hear the voice of God, and we turn to other sources listening for it. God has met me over and over these past few weeks while I have struggled with purpose and direction. He has used His Word and writings from several other people to do it. But, I plead with you, don't read others without a solid base in the scriptures yourself. If you have to choose, choose picking up your own Bible. Get a version that you can read. I STRUGGLE with the old King James, not to hate it in this day when versions that are highly readable are available. Don't take offense if you love it. I remember as a teen sitting in a bus trying to read Joel and not understanding a single archaic word it said. I was reduced to tears. When Good News for Modern Man version came out, I fell in love. It may not be the best version out there, but it spoke to the teen that I was. Any lack of understanding then came from lack of knowledge of God, not lack of knowledge of 1800s English.

In any case, you get my point. Read the scriptures. Contemplate what God is presenting to you that day, in your life, in the lives of others, your country, and world events. Some passages are personal, but some are national, or written to believers or unbelievers. Look at context. Compare thoughts and passages with other passages. No verse is an island. An island may keep us out of deep water, but it doesn't connect us to the mainland. We need all of scripture to make any of scripture totally true.

Enough preaching for one day! It is sad how Biblically illiterate we have become. If you are not getting into God's Word, why not? He wants to talk to you! Start the conversation. If you can't understand Him, ask Him to make Himself understood. He is a personal God who will meet you at the point of your need. Ask and it shall be given isn't about this world's stuff, it's about God giving you more of Himself. His mind, His heart, His wisdom. He is willing to explain Himself to a 3 year old, so He is willing to explain Himself to you! He is more than we can ever know, but He brings Himself to our level. He sent Jesus, who preached and touched children and adults alike. He met people in their pain, their questions, their turning points. He was not harsh, but he was pointed. He doesn't spare feelings when people ask to follow, but He does have compassion on those who don't know just how lost they are. He begs for people to come under His wing, but He does not force it. Draw close and listen, draw warmth from being close on these cold, cold winter days. He will be the protector of those who desire to be near. Now go get your Bible, sit down, and snuggle up.

Work amounting to nothing...Isaiah 41:24

Behold, you are of no account and your work amounts to nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination. Isaiah 41:24

I was just turned down for a job. The interview went extremely well, I thought. My hopes were raised, though I was scared as everything about actually getting it. It is in my field of study, somewhat. It matched my skill set, somewhat. It got me thinking and dreaming, developing thoughts and activities, studies and programs, to make the performance of the job wonderful. And it is now a memory and those plans just aren't going to happen. Ever, probably. So now what? I keep doing what I am doing. That is good in some ways and not so good in others.

This verse does not summarize my life right now, though Satan would love to use it against me. I am following the Lord, doing what He calls me to do where He is calling me to do it. I have free time to give. I have a flexibility in my schedule that not many others have. But this is where the rubber meets the road.

God is speaking here to those who work, who build, who create against His will. They were crafting idols and seeking guidance from them. You are the idol-makers, and He is the idol. They did a bang-up job (play on words for the hammering of the metal they were smelting in the early part of the chapter) making these things. They crafted and worked hard to make these things. But it was all for nothing. Or worse than nothing. It turned God's back on them. He pleads with them to turn, and knowing they wouldn't, He was going to send an army, a leader from another country, to send them into repentance mode. It seemed that that is what it always took...a real beating from God, to turn their heads back in the right direction. Even later on in verse 29, God repeats Himself. You did all this work for nothing. They were as empty as wind, emptiness, and confusion, depending on your translation.

There are few people on earth who don't want their work to account for something. Anything. People will stand on assembly lines day after day to get a paycheck, but at least they know that the part they play is a necessary one. That screw needs tightened, or the car won't hold together. The burrs need polished off, the paint applied, the tubing connected. It is all for a purpose - to make something that will make someone else happy, get them somewhere, or make their life easier. People paint pictures to arouse emotions. We make hats and blankets and clothes to provide for a need. Those who go crazy or lose hope are like those in the concentration camps who were forced to move wheelbarrows of dirt back and forth across the grounds. There was no purpose in it. It was forced "work" and torturously mean. This work may have kept the body strong, or forced it into weakness from malnutrition, but if the people doing it didn't assign it some purpose in their minds, it drove them to anger, resentment, and hopelessness. God said that if we make our own gods, our own task-list, we will be empty, our works will be futile, and we will have wasted our lives and angered Him.

So right now I sit and wonder what to do next. This must be that empty-nest syndrome they talk about. No one here to care for (hubby, yes, and I do), but the daily work that had meaning in the days of a full house now seem empty and mundane. And I HAVE TO remind myself that God has numbered my days and given them purpose beyond the doing of life. If I am where He wants me, doing and being what He wants, then my works are not empty. But I have to look at them as God's assignments. My last is in year 3 of college, and many of the assignments she has may not seem to serve the purpose of achieving the goal she has set for her life, but they are still a part of the process of getting there. How sitting here with sewing machines, fabric, and being still and alone will get me closer to being like Christ I have yet to see. I have the time to do Bible studies, pray, listen to sermons and hymns and be still with God. I have to keep my longings here and learn to focus on Him and have that not only be enough, but to be everything. Love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness. I need to be filled. You cannot drive the car and fill it with gas at the same time. Not that my goal is to stay at the pump and do nothing. It's not to sit in the driveway full. But like my car, it gets sent out when there is something to be accomplished. God is the driver, not me. He will drive me when He wants, as often as He wants, and as far as He wants. I need to just be at His service. So for now I sit in anticipation of His use of me, steering me in the direction He wants me to go. The car does not make that choice. And I have to be ok with that. I am learning to be ok with not being the doer, but the vehicle. I always have been, but it takes us so long to relinquish control for us humans.

Do you feel like me today? Do you want your works to be more than wind and emptiness? Let all things be done by Him through you. Don't make something else your god, forging it in the fires of hard work, only to find out we were serving the work instead of the great Creator. God just calls us in these verses to look to Him and not fear, to be His and not give ourselves to another. "I am thine, O Lord, and I heard thy voice..." says the old hymn. And I am still listening.

Answers in white linen Daniel 10

I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a certain man dressed in linen, whose waist was girded with a belt of pure gold of Uphaz. Daniel 10:5

Daniel...my youngest daughter was named after him...Courtney Danielle...and it means God is my Judge. We think of him being bold and courageous. We see him given power after meeting the test of his faith and after being jealously lied about. He was like Joseph...second in command and highly favored. But the sight of a man in linen brought him to his knees.

Actually, he had been on his knees already at this point. He was a man of troubled soul. God revealed to him many things about the future of his countrymen. He was told of the future troubles that would overtake the Jews in particular, and the whole world eventually. These were going to be troubling times, and Daniel was overwhelmed at the thought. He was a man of prayer. He asked God questions, pleaded for his people's faith, and mourned over the sins of his people. He had been mourning and praying, fasting and weak, sick of soul. The thought of the sufferings to come had overwhelmed him. Now granted, this was God talking to him about the future, which means it's all good, right? Obviously not. And we take that outlook ourselves. Our church is starting the series “Follow Me” by David Platt. And the question set before us is do we trust God enough to follow...to accept where He is taking us...knowing that the end is the cross and sufferings, but ultimately, a joy irrepressible. The idea of having to go through the bad to get to the good is hard to swallow. And Daniel was having a hard time dealing with all of this.

And God met him at the point of his need. The fight was on in the heavenlies, and the messenger was delayed in coming. Daniel suffered alone. He fought on his knees. And the answer came in bright white clothes and a loud roaring sound. This dazzling figure was more than he could take. Now not only was he overwhelmed with grief, he was overwhelmed with fear. Poor guy. But a gentle touch, words of encouragement and comfort, and a hand up greeted him. God heard his pleas to understand, to accept the thoughts of God, and He responded.

There have been many nights where I have been burdened greatly for my family, my church, my community, and my country. I would toss and turn, seeing prophecies fulfilled and yet questioning where all this would lead. It is a great comfort and a great humbling process to see God answer my prayers for understanding of these things. It doesn't all come in a blazing light. Sometimes it comes in a rainbow, a caught baseball, and change in tone in someone's voice, or an unexpected video clip. It can come out of the mouth of the most vile actors or the most saintly servants. But God reminds us that He is there, that He sees our concerns, and that He has the answers all planned out. We just have to remember who is God in this process and that we do not need to see and understand it all. Why we think we can understand the mind of God is a mystery and a folly, really. Even when He answers, it tends to put more questions in our mind. This happens to me just as it happened to Daniel...”OK, God, now that You have shown me this much, what about that?” And He just says, “Trust Me. That's all you get to know for now.” And still the human heart churns to know all the ways of God. We still remain troubled to an extent, but there is still the gentle touch and comforting words to help us carry on, to trust to the extent that a human can trust. I love Daniel. I can relate to Daniel. His past experience with God drew him close to God, and his heart for his people longed for them to have that same relationship. His walk with God was personal and trusting, but he was still human in his longings for God's mind and heart and ways.

And sometimes those longings present themselves in people that fascinate us who shed light on God's will and ways. David Platt is taking me there right now. He is not dressed in shiny white robes. In fact, he is dressed downright casually, sitting with a Bible and an I-Pad and preaching the Words of God which both comfort and disturb the human mind. But God is answering some of the questions that I have been asking through him. And it is always a blessing when God speaks to the point of our need. Let Him speak to you. Open the Book, listen to wise preaching, and ask God to talk to the questions you have. The answers may not come all at once, for we could not handle it if it did. But He will renew your mind, give the grace to accept all of God's ways as Good, and draw us closer than we have ever been to His loving side.

Habitually Dressed in Purple Luke 16

Now, there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. Luke 16:19

This is not going to be a rant against the rich. I can't tell you how many people do rant against the rich, but it is just about everyone. Not because they are upset that that person is rich, but more because they envy the rich. They wish THEY were rich, and because they are not, they mumble. These same people admire tv celebrities and sports figures. It seems that if they know where the money is coming from an approve of it, it is ok if THOSE people are rich...so you catch my drift.

And Jesus was not putting down every rich person. Solomon was rich, Abraham, David, and multiple others had far more than they needed. It said that the Lord blessed them, and if the Lord chooses to bless someone, who are we to envy, slander, or look down on them?

You only have to look up a few verses on the page...Now the Pharisees, who were LOVERS OF MONEY, were listening to all these things are scoffing at Him. vs. 14. This is on the heals of, “You cannot love God and wealth.” vs 13. These are the people who flaunt their wealth, who take it at the cost of others, and want people to admire them for it. Can you say “tv preachers” and “politicians”? Now I am not talking about the David Jeremiah's of the world...they work hard, stick to the Word, and don't live for the noteriety of the job, but to actually spread the gospel. We all know the fakes when we see them...or do we? These guys wouldn't still be out there if people weren't supporting their false ministries. Discernment is a lost art. And it is not that the true ministers are sinless. But we can usually tell when someone is on an ego trip. They change. They morph into something they didn't used to be. The messages soften so as not to offend the givers. They become people's cheerleaders for people's comforts and successes instead of their purifiers and true encouragers to fight the fight of faith. They have come to love the joyous life of wealth, and forget that the fame and fortune they have come into was supposed to go toward ministries and not toward their own personal gain.

The biggest clue here was that the Pharisees could no longer discern good from evil, truth from error. Here stands Jesus, and they scoff at Him and His teachings. They look at this itinerate preacher from Nazareth who owns nothing, dresses in common clothes, and preaches against pride, and they swell with more pride. They are better than this guy. They know the law, and see how God has benefitted them! They deserve the respect of the people for their position! But Jesus tells them that He and God both see their hearts, and that all the trappings that they are wearing are a cover for the ugliness that is inside. Maybe that is why they are called trappings...they trap us into thinking we are better than we really are. They trap other people's minds into thinking they should treat these well-dressed people differently just because they are well-dressed. They even had this problem addressed in the early church. We tend to think and act differently around people of wealth and reputation. Somehow we feel like they should be treated with more respect, with more care of what they think, than the other people in town. “Don't you know who that is? You can't talk to them like that!” There is fear that we will not get from people like that. The point is, they probably aren't there to give to you, but to get from you...so why do you care? There are wonderful exemptions to this rule. There are the rich who are the givers...and give freely, not just to get their name on a building or something. It is almost hilarious the way people in the town I live in treat and talk about the people in town with money. The expectations, the attitudes, the hopes and fears that go along with a relationship with these folks is a spectacle to watch. Some of them feed these fears, and some just mind their own business and get on with their lives, being stewards as God has called them to be.

There is also being Lazarus, having nothing, and receiving nothing from him who had so much. When the rich are so busy living the good life that they fail to see the people at their own gate, that is when God calls them into judgment. God placed Lazarus before this man's eyes, and he refused to see. The Pharisees did the same thing. When Jesus healed right in front of their very noses, instead of rejoicing with the healed person, they resented Jesus taking their limelight. They couldn't heal these people, but they could have fed them or given them a place to sleep at night. They could have hired them to wash these rich robes and make a living. It is the ignoring of the mission God gave them that angered God so.

What kind of heart do you have, rich woman? Do you see the needs God has placed under your nose, or are you so busy living the good life that you forget to praise God and use His gifts for His glory? Let us have a proper attitude toward money and earthly wealth, knowing that our faith should never be in it. We must love God, use wealth to honor Him, and keep an eye out for the ministries He gave it to us to participate in. Reading this chapter will give you God's counsel on what you have, how you got it, and how to use it. He is good to tell us His mind, and to give us His mind, as well.

Worshiping the Works of Our Hands Jeremiah 1

My judgments on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken Me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. Now, gird up your loins and arise, and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, or I will dismay you before them. Jeremiah 1:16b-17

Just a few days ago I was posting about our creativity being a stumbling block at times, and here is another verse to confirm that tendency in our lives. We like to worship that which we can see and feel. Why else would people make little idols and bow down before them? How can a piece of wood or stone hear our prayers, sense our needs, or act on our behalf? Yet I see these idols all around me. Symbols of the horoscopes, where people place their hopes in star patterns in the sky. Buddhas sitting there looking wise and peaceful and fat and happy, with people praying to them so that they can themselves be those things. Other ugly gods like the Aztec or Inca, where people acted violently because they had images of a violent, blood-thirsty god. If people believe their god to be good, the image may be beautiful, if angry, then fierce-looking. Their perception of god dictates their image of him/her/it. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it is true. The image of God you have in your mind helps form your opinion of that which is acceptable, truthful, and worthy. Most of the little gods I have seen in museums are not pretty, and some are so rudimentary that it is hard to believe that people could wrap their lives around them. But it happens with too much ease. There has to be a lot of guilt in the human soul to think that he/she has to give sacrifices to cooking pots or statues or poles. We look for something to take our guilt, our sin, our pain, our dysfunction and make us feel good about ourselves. And all the while, there is the true God who defines Himself as all we need through His many names: the God Who hears, the God Who sees, the God who heals, the God Almighty...etc. We can't make an image of Him because He refuses to show all of Himself to us at once. And He tells us to walk by faith and not by sight. We can see the works of His hands, and a study of those things, geez, I think we call that science, all point toward a God Who made all things work together for good. There is balance, there is rhythm, there is color, there is unity, and if any one thing was not in that order, there is no chance that any of it would hold together. And what we do to manipulate that can only work within that order. As we try to use the creation around us, be either reflect God's beauty or seek to create for ourselves something “other.” And there is discomfort in our souls when we see that. Graffiti is one method. Some of it can be decorative, but most is destructive. There are laws of physics that won't allow a house to hang in suspension no matter how hard we try. Some things appear to “break the rules,” but when it comes down to it, they have to follow the rules to stand for any period of time. Houses built on the sand will eventually fall unless their foundations run deep, therefore having to follow the rules when no one sees the pylons plunged deep into the rock below. We know certain things will not hold for the long haul. Like the Jenga game, eventually things will reach the tipping point and fall. We can choose to push the limits of God's patience and live tottering on the edge, living in fear and imbalance, or we can choose to live in God's will and build firmly and confidently, having an inner peace and security that comes with having Him as our foundation.

So we are also asked here to gird up our loins...a phrase repeated over and over throughout scripture. We are told to speak what God has commanded. There is no need to fear when truth is spoken. The only reason people get upset when truth is told is because they believe a lie. We like to think we know what we are doing, so when someone plants a doubt in our mind, we get upset. Are they crazy, or am I wrong about something? Did God really say that? Do these people think they have a corner on the truth market? God tells us to be confident in His Word and not be dismayed that others do not listen. If we don't have confidence in His Word, we will ourselves call into question everything we believe to be true. There are times when I wonder how what God says can be true, if He will indeed act on our behalf in any situation. We are commanded to speak what He says, so I have to pray, open the Bible, and see what He says and repeat it to myself...convince my own heart that God means what He says. Of course, the Holy Spirit makes that happen. Without The Spirit, God's Word is just words. If you don't understand it...the simple parts of salvation and God's will, after reading the New Testament and studying it...if it is all just words, then come to Christ and tell Him that you don't know Him yet. When He gives you His Spirit, you will know His mind. You will not be dismayed any more. Beg for wisdom, and cry out for understanding, Proverbs says. Ask God to show Himself, Jesus Christ, and yourself for who you all are, and ask Him how to fix that relationship. Then put your nose back into the Word and await the answer. He says He will come to any who truly cry out to Him. He will open His Word like a flower in bloom when you are His, slowly and gently in some cases, and more like a prison break in others! He meets you where you are. So do not dismay. And someday soon you will be able to speak to others the Word He has commanded you.

Ad"dressing" the future Daniel 12

And one said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be until the end of these wonders? I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right and and his left toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time; and as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed. Daniel 12:6-7

We are human. And we as human, or at least I as human, ask God often what will be. I know it is an exercise in futility, for we do not know what today holds, let alone years in the future. We have the scriptures that tell us many things about the future, and Daniel even gets visions of some of these things, but we do not have every piece to the puzzle, and so we have questions. What is going to happen...He told Adam some things, Abraham some things, Daniel some, and David some. And all that really did was to put more questions in our minds. If it is any comfort, scriptures say that even angels and prophets want to look into the things of God, to see the results of this play that He has scripted. They were given the job of telling humans many things, not themselves knowing any more than what God told them to say.

“Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things” (I Peter 1:10-12).

So Daniel, having been told many things that troubled his mind, asked when. This was not unusual, and God is patient with us when we ask questions of which He is not volunteering the answers. Daniel had just been told about the end of the world, and how was he not supposed to wonder when such things would take place. I am sure he thought it would be imminent, within a generation. We tend to think of things happening in our lifetimes. The man did tell Daniel that he would not live to see those days, but would rise again to receive his allotted portion at the end of days. He could live out his days in peace without looking for these things to be fulfilled.
And that is how God works. He told Abraham, David, and multiple others of things that would happen far in the future, beyond their days. We are given reassurances that God holds the future and has the whole of the time of the world planned out for His people. He predicted the Exodus, the multiplications of Israel, the destruction of the temple...every last detail of the coming of Christ, the appearance of the anti-Christ. We see it all from afar. We see signs of fulfillment at times, but 99% of the time, we have hindsight instead of a whole lot of foresight. And we wonder, fret, stew, and beg for answers, only to realize that when we get the answers, we still will not understand very much of them. We want to see face to face, but we get a dim ancient mirror instead.
The man in linen gave Daniel the answer to his question, and what did Daniel do? Realized he still didn't understand, and asked another question. From when, to what will be the results. He was confused and thought that if this much had been revealed to him, surely he should understand that revelation. And he was told to get on with his life and that not everything would be told him. He was told that people would not change...good would be purged, purified, and refined, but that wicked people would remain wicked. He was given a little more information when of his first question, but reassured that he would not be around to experience it.

We are glad that Daniel asked these questions, for they tell us things that we can look at now and see the results of...the destruction of the temple after the coming of Christ, for one. But the comforting thing for us is that we know all God wants us to know. The additional information God gives us may answer our questions to a point, but those answers will not change anything that God has planned. We are told to go on our way, live our lives, and prepare to rest in death and rise to the reward of the godly ones at the end of it all. Life may be hard, but we will rest from all of its' woes. Be willing to be purified, though the process may be hard for the holy people, and await the reward from the Holy God. Ultimately it is not for us to know any more than God is in control and it is to our benefit that He is.

Swallowing the veil Isaiah 25

On this mountain He will swallow up the (face of the) covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched (woven) over all the nations. He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 25:7-8

I must admit that bad news has overwhelmed this first week of January. It is easy to get bummed, even in the face of knowing that God has a plan for all suffering...and that is to draw us back to Himself. And though it is the first week of resolutions and desires for new beginnings, I still love to eat and do too much of it. And here I see that God loves to eat, too. But what He eats doesn't sound all that appetizing to me.

God swallows. And in this passage He swallows 2 things...the covering or veil that is over mankind, the veil of sin that has separated us from Him since the first bites of Adam and Eve. It separated them from God before they even knew what had happened. They suddenly wanted to hide from God. Their original covering was gone, showing their nakedness. It would be evident to God that they had done something wrong, and somehow they tried to cover themselves like God had, and it didn't work. It didn't work so well that God made them coverings, killing animals for their skins to represent the life of His Son that would have to be taken later in history to truly cover the sin that they had brought into the world. Then God removed them from the perfection He had made and removed His Spirit from the earth except on special occasions. He appeared to Cain when he was contemplating what to do about his picture-perfect brother. He talked to Noah, and to Abraham, and made a few other appearances, but the veil separated Him from the majority of mankind. The Spirit now dwells in the earth in His believers, those who have been forgiven through the blood of Christ and in indwells them as Jesus promised before He died. All peoples, all nations, are separated from Him, and the world reflects that. There have been periods of revival throughout history that have brought man closer into alignment with who God is and what He requires, but there is still lack of true communion with God. And God will swallow the veil. He will chew it up into a mass that take it into Himself where no man can bring it out again. No more separation!

And He will swallow death. He will take that on as well. No more will man need to die to come to Him. It will never be found again. Chewed up, and swallowed. Not spit out so we can see the pile of slime...swallowed. It will be consumed, digested. Turned into something that will empower God to be still mightier than the power of death. The food we take in serves the purpose of making us stronger, giving us energy. Imagine the invigorating power of death being turned into life! Into glory and majesty. The power that the veil and death had over people will be changed, transformed into something God will use for good.

The verses before this tell us that God will prepare a lavish banquet of all the best stuff...the best wine, meat, and other fruits for the people on this mountain, His people. He will prepare for them all they can eat, and what they will swallow will be good...the best. He lets us swallow His prepared goodness while He swallows up everything that was wrong between Him and us. THAT, my friends, is a merciful, loving God. The banquet will even be filled with the songs of His praises, sung by the feasters. We will sing of how long we have waited for this glorious day...how we have longed for this fellowship, how the spirit within us as sought him diligently We will not be disappointed in the wait. What we have desired will come true. And the joy of it will overwhelm us. We will have that perfect peace that all human hearts long for, but few are willing to come to God for in repentance and humility. Most shake their fists at God and blame Him for the veil, blame Him for the sin and death, little seeing their own roll in contributing to it in this world.

I laugh and cry at the fools that blame “the man” for the trouble in this world, when they are mocking God and living destructively, and then when the consequences come, they don't see their role. I got a response to a Facebook post about those killed for making those vulgar cartoons about Islam. The fellow blamed me for being ignorant and not seeing how this paper promoted free speech, but he could not see how being vulgar and unloving fueled the fires of hatred in already hateful people. Considering his naked picture, I see he himself is fighting against God's authority in his life, and simultaneously laugh and cry at his ignorance of God, proper authority, and use of media. Some day that, too, will be swallowed. Death is swallowed up in victory, says Paul in Corinthians. And that victory is Jesus.

And to that I say, “Let's eat!”

His Train fills the temple Isaiah 6

In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. Isaiah 6:1

Uzziah is an interesting read...a king who started well by worshiping the Holy God of Israel. He was a good king, and God prospered him. But getting God's approval can do funny things to a person. He decided he didn't just want to be king, but also priest. He decided that he was going to present the holy fire in the temple and the priests tried to stop him. But you know how powerful men are. He took the offering in, and God struck him with leprosy. He ran from the temple in shame and despair, and he became a ruler only behind the scenes. His son Jotham took over the public rule of the country. Pride does go before a fall.

When most of us look at this passage, we rush past those first 6 words and into the exciting part of his wonderful passage of scripture. But I think those words are there for our benefit. It not only sets up the time period of this happening in Isaiah's life, but the context for what was probably on Isaiah's mind.

Every time there was a new king in those days, there was the question of which type of king would take their place. Even though there was usually family succession, the kingdoms varied greatly. Some kings would follow God, tear down altars and idols, and God would bless. Others would set up idols and lead the people into great sin. I can imagine Isaiah sitting there, pondering the future of his country, much like I do today. Congress was sworn in yesterday and I wonder what kind of people we have elected and if God will be able to bless, or if we will be plunged into more sin, more walking away from the ways of God.

Well, God is great. He answers Isaiah's question with Himself. Who is on the throne? God. Not Jotham. Not any man. God. And this was not some puny throne and a robe and crown. This God was on a throne lofty and exalted...placed high up where all of heaven could see Him. He is sitting in the temple...now this is a vision, so if it is the temple of worship on earth or heaven we are not told, but you can still imagine that it has to be pretty big because the heavenly hosts are flying about, and the burning coal is taken from the altar. Was this the altar that Uzziah had tried to use, with its burning coals? Again, who knows but God. But in this space, God is clothed with a robe whose train length covered every inch of the floor of the place. He is clothed in majesty. He is taking up every space in His Holy Place. There is no room in this place for the feet of man nor angel. God's robe took all of that space. The angels flew to do His bidding, including the purifying work of purging sin. That train was just a part of God's message to Isaiah. He was ultimately the King of both worlds. He knew the beginning from the end. He was in control of the means and ends of His people. When they would worship He would rule in love. When they would not listen to His counsel, they would be punished so that they would return a purified people later.

Isaiah I can relate to. His job was to tell people God's warning, and God tells him that they will not listen. Some of us have kids who will not hear us. (Hi, kids! Love you!) Now I must confess that I was one, as well. For some dumb reason we refuse to hear our authorities that are in the Lord, thinking we are so much wiser, better, whatever. Then God grows us up and gives us the same assignment...and we see our own hard hearts. Repentance and tears, pain and heartbreak ensue. We are not alone in this. Most parents have their kids question their every move. Some bosses or supervisors never get the benefit of the doubt or the ear of those who could learn from their knowledge.

But there is the train. It is not the sceptor, the rod of iron. It is the beauty of God, the regalness. It is the splendor and majesty of a robe that cannot be equaled. If we tried to wear a robe that big, it would weigh so much that we wouldn't be able to move. It would weigh us down. We would be stuck sitting there. But God is not limited at all by his train. It is just an extension of who He is. It covers the unsacred parts of our being. There is no floor to His love, no dirt in His presence. There would be no feet or shoes there...in His presence, all is Holy Ground. There is no need to question our future, for He is in control, and nothing is in our power, as much as that unsettles us.

Like Isaiah, we should offer ourselves as His ministers here on earth, and leave the consequences to Him. Some will hear, and but most will not. And yet it is ok. We can be in His Holiness, and hope in Him, regardless. Admire the robe, and let it fill the temple of your heart.