Even the trees know

Ezekiel 17:24 All the trees of the forest will know that I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall.  I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.  I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.

What struck me the most when I read this verse was the last phrase: “I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.”  It reminded me of my childhood, when Mom or Daddy would say something like “I told you if you did that again you would be punished…”  and I would be punished!  They meant what they said, and they acted on their words.  In this verse I am reminded that what God has said He means and He will do it, even though what He says seems out of the ordinary.  Even when what He says He will do would take a miracle to do, He will do it.  Even if what He says He will do is the opposite of the natural order of things, He will do it.  He has spoken, out of His omniscience and His omnipotence, so He will do it, and there will be no question as to what He has done or that He is the One who did it.  Even “all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord.” (v.24, ESV)

Just a note

I received a set of die cuts and papers along with the latest volume of the British cardmaking magazine to which I have subscribed that have sweet die cuts of fairies and flowers and although I do not normally care for that kind of illustration, I found these to be more human-like in their features and the colors are very pretty, so I made this "Praying for you" card to send to a friend.  The background does not show up very well now that I see it here, but it is a pretty yellow and white flowered paper that I mounted on some soft green background, then added the yellow burlap flowers to the corner.  All in all, it turned out nicely and hopefully will bring a smile to Ruth's face when she receives it in a couple of days.

Strong talk to ministers

Ezekiel 13:5 You have not gone up to the breaches in the wall to repair it for the people of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord.

This is certainly a scathing condemnation of spiritual leaders who do not do what they could have and should have done to prepare the people under their care for facing spiritual battles.  Through the years I have observed this kind of minister over and over, in various settings, and have often thought of their spiritual negligence as particularly odorous and this verse reminded me of them.  There are those on television and/or the public eye who fall into this category but I also have seen this on the more personal, local level as Russ and I have visited various churches.  One vivid memory I have is of a minister of a liberal church near us who was visiting with us in our home after we had taken him a meal when he was ill.  After we had talked for a while about God and living the Christian life, he made this comment as he was leaving, "I feel like a Volkswagon with my message of God compared to your Cadillac."  He went on to explain that he had seen and heard from us something more powerful and meaningful spiritually than he had to offer to his congregation.  We know that those ministers who fall into this category of those who have not brought people a true message from God will have to answer to God, but in the meantime, I can only trust God’s justice and mercy to bring a true message to the people under those ministers’ care who are truly seeking to know and grow.

Kick up your heels!

When I was sorting through our photographs recently, I found some duplicates of a visit we made to the Riverbanks Zoo several years ago that I thought would make a great fun front to a card sometime so I put them in a little pile at my craft table and waited for just the "right" time to use them.

When my friend broke her toe this past week I immediately thought of this photo of one of the elephants kicking up its foot, so I put together some (for me) rather unconventional colors on this card and I thought it was really cute.

I used a bright pink card backing and outlined the picture with copper colored Dazzle sticker strips and added a glittery copper scallop on which I mounted the sentiment done with copper embossing powder.

I hope Emily gets a "kick" out of this card!

Start at home

Ezekiel 9:6 Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, the mothers and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark.  Begin at my sanctuary.

This is part of a judgment God pronounced on people who had turned away from worshipping Him to the worship of idols.  He had commanded an angel to mark the foreheads of any who were grieving over that sin.  But more than the judgment itself, when reading this verse I was struck with the fact that God ordered the judgment to begin right in the sanctuary.  In His house.  Which tells me how much more terrible it is for “religious” people, for people who name the name of Christ, to leave their faith behind for some “false” religion, or for putting other things or people before Him in their lives.  God does not want to share His glory with anyone else so my goal is to always keep Him first in my life and in doing so remain safe from wandering from Him.  In the Old Testament we see tGod’s punishment of the Israelites when they strayed, but even in the New Testament we are reminded that the sin of denying the Truth after one has tasted it is a horrible sin.  It is not a pretty "picture" but nonetheless real that God will begin His judgment of sin in His own house.

Stand up and listen

Ezekiel 2:1 He said to me, “Son of man, stand upon your feet and I will speak to you.”

Why did Ezekiel have to stand up to listen to God speak to him?  I see two reasons within the context of this verse, both of which have powerful implications of what is necessary for effective listening.  First, Ezekiel had fallen on his face in worship when he became aware of the glory of the Lord.  The awe he felt at God’s glory made him more prepared to hear and heed to the voice of the Lord to him.  It was God’s Spirit that guided his standing back up (v.2).  Then, his standing was a signal for action.  What God said to him once he stood was a call to service.  God was sending him out to the Israelites with a message and he could not obey that command lying on his face, even though it was in worship.  There comes a time when we have to stop “inactive” worship and stand up and do something for God.  When that time comes the Holy Spirit will come into us and stand us up for service.

Coming near

Lamentations 3:57-58 You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.”  You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.

I am always comforted and encouraged when I read verses like these and have occasion to think back over the many times in my life when I called on the Lord and He answered by coming near and reminding me that I had no need to fear.  Thinking of this reminds me of the time when I was about seven years old, living on Crown Avenue in Ravenna.  I was sick with strip throat and feverish.  I had a terrible nightmare (I still remember it vividly over 60 years later) and woke up screaming.  I remember Daddy running into the bedroom and comforting me.  I think of that when I read these verses because it is such a beautiful example of what God does for me when I am afraid or disturbed.  He comes near and tells me quietly not to be afraid.  That calms my spirit.

Waiting

Lamentations 3:26 It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

When I feel the need of God’s help in some situations, I usually am in a state of some level of distress of some kind, and feel anything but quietness in my spirit or in my circumstances.  One of the hardest things to do is to “wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord,” instead of trying to figure out who I should talk to, what I need to do to work things out, or how to remedy the situation in some other way.  As I look back over my life experiences, however, I find that God has always worked things out for good in the end (Romans 8:28), and those times that are the fondest in my memory are the ones where I did what this verse says is best, when I waited quietly for God to meet my special need for that situation.  They are the fondest memories and the ones that cause me to thank Him the most for His loving care.  “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.” (3:22)

Our great God

Jeremiah 51:15 He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

I must admit that I cannot really understand exactly what the meaning is to these phrases.  My logical self wants to be able to analyze the phrases in order to have more clarity or depth of their meaning, but I struggle with that.  It could be that if I knew Hebrew I could get more, but since I do not, I am left with just meditating on the greatness of God as expressed in this description of His power.  It was His power that enabled the creation of the earth.  It was His wisdom that gave Him the ability to put together the way everything works together to keep the world going, things like the evaporation of water from the ocean helping create rainfall.  I would never have thought of things like that on my own!  It was God’s understanding that created the universe and the vastness and un-knowableness of the universe tells me how great God’s understanding is and how much greater He is than anything else.  Thinking about this makes me understand a little better the phrase in a following verse (v.17) when Jeremiah says, “Every man is stupid and without knowledge…”  In comparison to our great God, how true this is!

Victory and freedom are coming!

Jeremiah 50:33b-34 All their captors hold them fast, refusing to let them go.  Yet their Redeemer is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name.  He will vigorously defend their cause so that he may bring rest to their land, but unrest to those who live in Babylon.

This verse is comforting to me when I think about the power of sins and weaknesses that I struggle against in my life.  I do not have the addictions that some people struggle with, but I see how difficult it is to break certain habits in my life, and they are like captors holding onto me.  Se when I read that my Redeemer is strong and that He is standing up for me, I am comforted.  Not only does He stand up for me, but this verse says He vigorously defends me!  The reason?  So that I can rest.  I do not have to fret and worry about my bad habits’ hold on me.  I can rest because my Redeemer is vigorously defending me, and that I will eventually have victory over those habits.

Hello friend card

I wanted to make a cute but heart-warming card for a friend who needed some encouragement so I used this cute little girl in a frame.  The dark background for the frame and the label are made of burgundy suede paper.  I think that paper makes such a beautiful statement when I remember to use it!  I used silver embossing powder on the floral pieces around the little girl and I liked the way it turned out.  Hope my friend is encouraged by this card.

Get ready for battle

Jeremiah 46:3-4 Prepare your shields, both large and small, and march out for battle!  Harness the horses, mount the steeds!  Take your positions with helmets on!  Polish your spears, put on your armor!

I love how picturesque these words are.  You feel as though you are ready to join this army preparing for battle!  As I read and thought about this verse, I was reminded almost immediately of the passage in Ephesians6:11-17 in which we are told to put on all the armor of God so we can be ready to do battle with our enemy.  Here in Jeremiah, he says to prepare our shields, in Ephesians it is our shield of faith.  Here in Jeremiah we are to prepare our shields, both large and small, and that reminds me that even if my shield of faith is small, I should prepare it for use.  Then I take my position for battle with my helmet (of salvation) on.  I cannot battle sin and evil without salvation.  That is why all our armies and governments are so unsuccessful against crime and terrorism.  Finally, I am to polish my spear.  In Ephesians that is the Word of God.  So if I am not getting all the time more acquainted with God’s Word, my spear is not getting polished and I cannot fight this battle effectively.

Purple encouragement

I have a friend who is very discouraged these days... lots of discouraging things going on in her life... so I thought I would make a card for her to try to bring a little cheer into her life this week.  She loves the color purple, and glitter, so I combined the two things and made this card using a stamp set I got from Paper Wishes and some silver embossing powder  (you can see that on the sign the little girl is holding although it doesn't glitter in the photo).

The paper behind the little girl is tiny embossed and glittery purple flowers and I used a light purple card I had in a set of various colored card bases.  You can see the little purple flowers on the inside of the card a little better:

Asking for directions

Jeremiah 42:2-4 …Pray to the Lord your God for us … that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, … Jeremiah the prophet said the them, … “I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request…”

This is a sad account for numerous reasons.  The Israelite people who have been under the control of the king of Babylon have an opportunity to see God help them be freed from that servitude but they have an idea of how to do it on their own.  One has to wonder why they even bothered to seek out Jeremiah the prophet when they already knew what they wanted to do.  Maybe they were attempting to show some semblance of reliance on the religion of their forefathers in order to ease their consciences.  Or perhaps they were trying to cover “all the bases” of religion they knew of, and they knew their religious heritage was to call on the prophet of God even though they were already following other religions.  Based on what I see in my own day and age, I suspect that both were true.  I see so many people fall back on the religion of their parents or grandparents when they need help from outside themselves, all the while they are practically ignoring God otherwise.  Anyway, it is especially telling in these three verses in chapter 42 when they ask Jeremiah to pray to his God (“pray to the Lord your God” [italics mine]).  I almost chuckled at his response to them:  “I will pray to the Lord your God” [again, the italics is mine].  It was as though Jeremiah was reminding them of the fact that their heritage as fellow Jews was one that gave them the privilege of praying to their God for help.  How sad that they did not see or understand that, and in fact, as you read further in this story, they determined even before that prayer of Jeremiah that they would do what they had already decided to do.  And again, I am so sad to see that same kind of spirit evident in people around me who have failed to walk in God’s ways but who know what they should do.  They just are not willing to make that move to actively obey God.  There are times when I want to take them by the shoulders and shake that spiritual sense into them!  But they have to decide for themselves that they will listen and obey the voice of God.  Jeremiah could not force the people to obey and neither can I.

Punishment

Jeremiah 35:17 Therefore this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Listen!  I am going to bring on Judah and on everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them.  I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.”

God is loving and kind … and fatherly, and in that capacity, He does what every loving and kind father does with wayward children.  He threatens punishment and then metes it out when the children ignore the warnings.  I almost chuckled at the picture of my mother and father doing the same thing as what is pictured here.  There were times when every child was punished because the real perpetrator did not own up, or because we had all participated in whatever wrong-doing had been perpetrated, and here God says He will punish the whole country (Judah) and the whole city (Jerusalem) because of the fact that when He spoke everyone did not listen or answer.  The only difference is that in this case all were truly guilty.

My promise, God's promise

Jeremiah 32:39-40 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me and that all will then go well for them and for their children after them.  I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.

Once again, from these verses I am reminded that I rely on God for everything.  All I do is to decide to live for God and to honor Him in my life, then God Himself takes over.  According to these verses, He gives me even my ability to have no other focus.  He gives me the inspiration I need to love, honor and obey Him above all else.  He gives me the courage to stay close to Him and never turn away from Him.  Then He adds His promises of well-being and constant care, not only for me but for those who come after me.  In modern jargon, it is a win-win situation for me!  That is why, every morning, I ask God to honor my trust in Him to help me stay focused on Him that day.

My personal card challenge

A couple of months ago I purchased a Lemonade Stand Artful Card Kit 
from my favorite on-line crafting store, Paper Wishes.  I have purchased various ones of their Artful Card Kits, but this time I decided I would get it out of my storage box and not put it away until I had used everything in the kit.  The kit included 7 sheets of papers, 74 die-cuts, and a sheet of cut-outs of messages to include in the cards such as Happy Birthday, Thinking of You, etc.

Well, it took me a while, but today I made the final, the 12th card, using the last of the papers.  I used all but one die-cut and most of the message cut-outs but not all of them... I made some of my own messages.

Here are several of the cards, all but one I used my own messages, but I was pleased at how many I was able to make.  I made birthday, thinking of you, and get well cards.  Those are the kind I use the most,  So here goes... BIRTHDAY CARDS:

GET WELL CARD:

THINKING OF YOU CARDS:

Don't cry

Jeremiah 31:16 This is what the Lord says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord.

There have been times when I have felt a great inner turmoil and frustration because of a sense of not accomplishing what I thought God wanted from me.  Sometimes that happens because I have not applied myself diligently enough, and if that is the case, my turmoil is well-founded.  But more often it is because I cannot see for myself the good results from something I have tried or am trying to do to accomplish God’s plan and purposes for me.  This verse is my encouragement to “keep on keeping on” in my efforts to serve and honor God in my life.  My work will be rewarded as long as I continue to work and not stop for weeping and tears.  Some rewards may even come only after I have left this life, but the reward will come. 

God's plan for me

Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on my and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

I have never really put the thoughts in the first verse of these three together with the next two until I read them this time, for some reason.  I had always thought of verse 11 in terms of the planning of the future of my life, in terms of my vocation, my wealth, my experiences.  But when I read that verse with the following ones I realize the plans God has for me are more intimate to me even than those “big” plans.  The plans of my prosperity that will bring me hope are God’s plans to hear my prayers and to be near to me in every situation.  When I trust Him, when I call to Him for help, when I seek Him and turn to Him, I am fulfilling His plans for me.

Like a tree

Jeremiah 17:7-8 Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

The picture of the tree by the water is one of my favorites from scripture to describe how God wants to work in my life, making it a life of productivity and faith.  That is the blessing God wants to give me in this life on earth if I will trust Him.  If I am “planted” near Him, I will have courage (“I will not fear”) and consistency (my “leaves will always be green”).  I will have peace (“no worries in a year of drought”) and productivity (“never fail to bear fruit”).  These blessings will only come in relation to how far I send out my roots to get the living water I need and if I have planted myself near  the streams of living water, I will never need to worry about growing dry.

Set apart

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

This very familiar verse is once again my reminder of God’s omniscience and purposefulness in His creation, even in my creation as a human being.  Regardless of one’s theological beliefs or understanding of predestination, the beauty of this verse lies in the reminder that God does have a purpose and a plan for me.  Of course, I can appreciate this far more when I am living close to Him than if I were a “wandering soul” intent on my own desires.  There is a depth of delight in the knowledge that I am living out God’s plan for me even if it is not exactly what I had planned for myself!  He set me apart for this life, and I find great comfort and joy in that.  It is my destiny.

Brace yourselves

Nahum 2:1 Guard the fortress, watch the road, brace yourselves, marshal all your strength!

Although this is in a passage talking about God’s anger toward the wicked city of Ninevah and His plan to punish them, I also saw in this verse a reminder of how I need to stand against the sinlessness, godlessness, and wickedness in the world around me.  As the world becomes more and more wicked as the end nears toward the coming of Christ, this verse seems to describe how I should respond in preparation for the onslaught of evil.  I have to guard against it, watch out for its attempts to penetrate my own heart and life.  It is coming, so I must brace myself and gather all my spiritual strength, recognizing that as long as I am in this world, I will have to fight against the forces trying to destroy my own soul.  Being on the alert and prepared is what will protect me.

No compromise

II Chronicles 33:16b-17 [He] … told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.  The people, however, continued to sacrifice at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

After King Manasseh’s wickedness and repentance, God brought restoration to him, and that is when he began leading the Israelites out of their spiritual wickedness.  The damage was not easily undone, as seen in this verse.  It appears that the people tried to compromise rather than make a clean break with their waywardness.  They kept the “high places” where the sacrifices to idols had been made, and used them to worship God.  Even though God had commanded them to only worship Him at the tabernacle and had commanded that all “high places” be destroyed, they continued to use them.  It is so easy for us to compromise the un-compromisable things unless we determine to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and thus protect ourselves from such compromises.  It is just too dangerous, spiritually, to do so.

The easy downward spiral

II Kings 21:9b … they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

As sad as this is, and as hard to have to acknowledge, the fact is that we are not immune to going astray from being what God intends for us to be as His children.  This verse reminds us of that.  While Hezekiah was king and led the Israelites to worship God, they did so.  But his own son Manassah, who became king when his father died, was somehow led astray and he took the majority of the Israelites with him down that road of disobedience and spiritual disloyalty.  Unfortunately, to compound matters, such straying led the Israelites into even deeper sinful ways, so much so that this verse says they became even more evil than those they had destroyed in order to conquer their land.  The downward spiral into sin is so certain and so strong that we must guard against ever getting started in it or caught up in it.  My daily prayer for myself is that I will never become less than diligent to continue to follow God because from this story of the Israelites I see how easily I could fall away from faith even though I have now been walking with God for over 60 years.

No prayer in heaven

Isaiah 65:24 Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

I have always thought of this verse in terms of prayer during my life here on earth.  In fact, that was the context in which I first learned this verse in Sunday school.  Of course, many other verses in the Bible till us that is indeed true that God hears our prayers and answers them, sometimes almost before we finish praying.  As I read this verse in its context in this chapter, however, I realized that there is another powerfully encouraging and exciting meaning to this verse as well.  This passage is actually telling us about the future in heaven, in the new heaven and new earth.  In that context this verse is my reminder that I will be “right there” in heaven with God.  No prayer will be necessary because we will be having constant, direct interaction with Him!  I guess you could say there will be no prayer in heaven!