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).