In Times Like These

Have you ever noticed how tatters have different events that are like a wave through the community?  Let’s see, a certain thread brand, blinged shuttles, dying our own threads, embracing one motif or pattern.  We’ve all participated in at least one of these waves of popularity.  I’ve bought my Lizbeth thread, and received gifts of blinged shuttles (with pretty painting, ‘jewels’; a dressed up shuttle).  However.  .  .  .

I  missed the whole scenario of what was happening during the Month of May!   Everyone was talking about the end of the world because of a date-setter named Camping. I think I heard the news the day before it was to happen. OK You should know that date setting is not only an insult to God, it is anathema.   God has forbidden setting the time of His Son’s return for the restoration of Israel.  Acts 1: 7  “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”


Indeed, The Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, makes a stronger statement!
   Revelation 22: 18 “I (Jesus speaking) testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.  If anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
We are told to “look for His coming” to “be prepared” to live as though His coming is today.  Certainly in times like these we do need a savior and the wise person has chosen to believe God and what He says.

I am always saddened by the date setters.  Not only for those who buy into false prophets.  It is also sad that God is mocked during these times because of these people who would set dates.  There were parties for the end of the world!  It becomes fodder for jokes by late-night comedians.

The supremacy of Jesus is summarized in Hebrews Chapter 1.  “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days he has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.  
And He (Jesus) is the radiance of His (God’s) glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of  His power.  When He (Jesus) had made purification of sins, (on the cross); He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; having become much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.” 

I’ve always appreciated that phrase, “Sat Down” because it denotes a task that is finished.  Jesus did it all, He alone made it possible for sinful man to be covered with Jesus righteousness which enables us to become the children of God.     That is the crux.  God’s timetable for His Son’s return is His timetable.  It is only important to us as believers and unbelievers because at that point of His return, there will be no second chance to receive His gift of Salvation.  It will be too late for those who are partying and mocking, too late for those who paid no attention, too late for those who trusted in works or some other philosophy of the world religions.  Too late for those who scoffed.

We have the promise of His Coming.  Hebrews 9:27 “ . . .it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgement, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear. . .”
Are you ready to meet God at death or if He should come in your lifetime, when He comes?   If He asks, “Why should I allow you into my presence?”   What would your answer be to God?

LOOK! CONSIDER! SEEK!

"Behold the Lilies of the Field"

Years ago, I  sang this song which ended with the line, “. . .and today, He walks beside me, for He knows what lies ahead.”  I was twenty-something then and had no idea that my future held, among other things,  a near-death, crippling car accident; a separation; a rejection; a child lost to drugs; a parent’s early death.  It is  best that I did not know my future at that point.  However, as I sang those words I did know that I could trust the outcome of my life to Him.  Just as when I follow a tatting pattern that the end will work out as planned.

There is a difference though.  The tatting will work out as planned, if I do every stitch and join correctly!

Whereas, life is a series of connections made because of decisions; and, we don’t know the outcome of those decisions.  Life also depends upon the actions of others and how those actions and behaviors affect our lives.  Life is an intricate tapestry.  Life is a miracle in and of itself.

Spring is the season of  miracles. A good definition of a miracle is what my children learned.  A miracle is a great and good thing that only God can do! (or bring about) If you do not believe in miracles, you haven’t paid proper attention!  A child is born!  That is the miracle of life itself.  Doctors use the knowledge they have to cure diseases; is that not a miracle?  Things in life that we now take for granted would have been thought miraculous 50 years ago.  A dear friend of mine, “Grandma” Quinn, came across the West in a prairie schooner.  When she was in her late 80’s she flew in a jet across those barren deserts and alkali flats and remembered her first trip.  The heat, the walking, the need for water.  Just having water is a miracle  somewhere at this moment in time.  She told me with wonder in her eyes and voice what she saw from the window near her seat on the plane.  

Spring’s miracle is all around us, rising up through the earth are the flowers and foliage of the season.

Soon Christian’s will celebrate Easter and wee greet one another, “He is risen” and reply, “He is risen indeed.”  Not just metaphorically, not just as a Spirit but flesh and blood; fully man yet fully God.  The same God who brought all things to being.  We meet Him first in Genesis and his birth and death and resurrection are foretold in the Old as well as the New Testaments of the Bible.   

His message to us?  “. . .do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what will you put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? LOOK at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet, your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing?  CONSIDER the lilies of the field:  how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6: 25 through 28

  . . . . vs 33 “But, SEEK first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all these things will be added to you."

The questions we must ask our selves, do I have a personal relationship with the One who knows what lies ahead? Am I in the Kingdom of Man or the Kingdom of God?  Can you say with conviction,

 “He is Risen Indeed!” 

 Life is Terminal.  What Then?

Lord, give hearing ears and teachable hearts.L

NEW BEGINNINGS ~ WHITER THAN SNOW

A new year brings new challenges. Challenges in tatting (like Jane Eborall’s Tat It and See), new techniques and in the tatter’s lives.  A broken ankle for one, a broken promise to another, presumptions, jealousies. . .an endless list of everyday challenges.  
Are we ready for a New Year, a New Beginning?

I’m always intrigued by the personality that keeps a record of ‘wrongs’ or perceived wrong doings ~ for years.  How can I remember what terrible thing I did when she was 10 years old; and, how bad could the action/spoken word have been towards a beloved grandchild?  Since an accuser seldom specifies what it was done we are left ~ clueless.  This is not an uncommon phenomena; I’m guilty of digging around in the past, also.  My final conclusion was, “She  (my Mom) did the best she could with who she was.”  And I let go the grievance; I choose to remember the loving acts and moments of tenderness.  Humanity’s love is conditional, no matter what we say.  Even a parent’s love can be filled with conditions.  

God is the only source of unconditional love; He alone dispenses of our infidelities (to Him and others) , sins, and hateful phrases and acts.  He alone offers a new beginning, a slate wiped clean and our stained self washed whiter than snow; given a cloak of righteousness ~ which is his own covering, for we have no righteousness of our own.   Take hope in His promises.  Because Jesus sacrificed His all on our behalf, took our punishment upon himself ~ total forgiveness is ours.  Consider these promises that are here for you which exemplify God’s unconditional love!  


Isaiah 1:18
"Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD.  “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they be red as crimson, they shall be like wool”. 


Isaiah 43:25 “I, even I,  am He who blots out your transgressions, but for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more”.


For the other’s in our lives?  Perhaps those ’toxic’ friends and loved ones?  


Colossians 3:13 “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgives you”.

Forgiveness for us and through us comes from God.  


“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  1 John 1: 9


Truly, “You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call on you”.  
Psalms  86:5


O God, give each one ears to hear and teachable hearts.