There is a throne ...

-->Dear Friend
On the refrigerator door in my kitchen there is a poster with the Paschal Lamb holding a flag of victory. Underneath the picture it says:

There is a throne and it stands in heaven.

Everything else is small chairs, footstools and taborets

that the mighty men of this world make themselves more or less broad on. …

It gives a certain perspective to what is heard and seen during a day, don’t you think?

The image of the Lamb of Sacrifice is taken from the Book of Revelation, Rev. 5:12

"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and praise!"

Psalms 148 is so refreshing and gives me such joy every time I read it because the focus is on God Almighty.

When men of earthly power declare that God doesn’t exist; when man of earthly power stipulate laws that prohibit the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; when men of earthly power rise up and declare themselves to be like God and claim worship for themselves; then it is such a joy to read psalm 148 and totally agree with the song writer when he says:

Praise The Lord!

Praise the Lord from the heavens

Praise him in the heights above

Praise him all his angels

Praise him all his heavenly hosts

Praise him sun and moon

Praise him all you shining stars

Praise him you highest heavens

and you waters above the skies

Let them praise the name of the Lord

For he commanded and they were created

He set them in place for ever and ever

He gave a decree that will never pass away.

Praise the Lord from the earth

You great sea creatures and all ocean depths

Lightning and hail, snow and clouds,

Stormy winds that do his bidding

You mountains and all hills

Fruit trees and all cedars

Wild animals and all cattle

Small creatures and flying birds

Kings of the earth and all nations

You princes and all rulers on earth

Young men and maidens

Old men and children

Let them praise the name of the Lord

For his name alone is exalted

His splendor is above the earth and the heavens

He has raised up for his people a horn

The praise of all his saints

Of Israel the people close to his heart.

Praise the Lord.

Sincerely yours,

Ida

I am confident of this

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…that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Phil 1:6)

Dear Friend,

These past weeks have been hectic for the farmers in our area. As soon as the fields dried up they started their work from dusk to dawn. I have passed them mornings and nights and seen the changes and eventually they have made the final sowing and the fields lay there waiting for the seeds to grow.

As a former farmer I know how endless it seems; looking out on the field with dry, hard ploughed furrows and knowing all the works that has to be done in order to achieve the harvest in the fall. At first it is a rather bumpy ride over the field but after several rounds with the harrow the surface gets smoother and finally you have a field ready for the sowing machine. After the sowing machine you have to use a roller to make the seed stay in the ground and at the same time you flatten the ground even more to make it easier for the man handling the harvester.

And I was thinking about you and me as Christians; the fields of our hearts worked on by the Holy Spirit. What fields is he plowing, harrowing and sowing in your life? What does it look like when he ponders over the soil of your heart? Are there stones; weeds, hardened and dry land? I think you get the picture and what I like you to consider is this; don’t think for one moment that He will let any field of your heart stay unaltered and left alone. There is a sign put down in the soil of your heart where it says: “Work in progress.”

Sincerely Yours,

Ida

The Parachute

Matthew 7: 7-8
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives: he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.

Dear Friend,
I have borrowed this story from a pastor who told it in a service aired on the Internet some time ago and since it encouraged me it might do the same for you.

This pastor was driving home from a meeting and turned on the radio. It was late at night and the program called The Big Dipper was airing on the radio station. It was a program where people could call and talk about anything and everything and the program had been on the radio for the past 15 years. This night they celebrated that the radio program had been on the air for so long by sending the most memorable phone calls during the years.
Just as this pastor turned on the radio they played a phone call where a man told a story about what happened when he was a child. He had a hamster that he loved very much and he played a lot with it. But he had a vivid imagination and he and some of his friends thought the hamster would be very happy if it could fly. They made a parachute for the hamster and put the hamster in the parachute, went up on the roof of a ten storey building and let go of the hamster. On the ground was another boy waiting for the hamster so he could catch it before it landed. But the boys had not calculated that the wind was stronger on the roof top than on the ground so the parachute was taken by the wind and the hamster disappeared over the city. This, now grown up man, had often wondered what had become of the hamster and he felt really bad about what he and his friends had done.

But after that phone call; a woman called in to the station and said she knew what had happened to the hamster:
- I can tell you what happened to that hamster. I am a Christian and I believe in Jesus and I have a daughter that also believes in Jesus. When she was a little girl she prayed to Jesus:
"- Jesus, give me a hamster (because mom doesn't want to buy one)"
Even when mom said no; she kept on praying about a hamster, because she thought Jesus could do anything.

The day when the boys made their parachute experiment the woman and her daughter were on a marketplace called the Hay Square, looking for some fruit. They saw in the corner of their eyes something coming down from the sky and looked up and from the sky descended a hamster in a parachute, and landed right in the arms of the little girl. And she reacted as if it was the most natural thing in this world, to get her hamster from heaven, because it was the answer to her prayers and she had faith in Jesus, and he could do anything.

The woman talked on the program about this child's faith and how God answers prayers, and best of all; her testimony was heard all over the country. They also managed to find and interview the man who had owned the hamster as a boy, and he was quit taken by the story and said that after all there must have been a purpose in what had happened even if it had started as a boyish prank and he was glad that it all ended well. The hamster was much loved and lived its short life "happily ever after" together with the little girl.
The pastor asked: Do you still have a childish faith in God? Can he do anything for you?
…Sincerely yours,
Ida

Who wove the fabric?

John 19:23-24. When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. "Let's not tear it" they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it". This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing" So this is what the soldiers did.

I have a 35-40 minutes drive to my work place. A year ago I used this travel time to listen to a recording of the Gospel of John. One particular morning I listened to John 19: 23-24. I could have easily skipped over it to get to a more "important "part but since I know a bit about weaving, my thoughts started to wander.

Who wove the fabric? Was it a homemaker or a relative of Jesus? Or, maybe it was a tailor. Did Jesus one day enter into that home or shop as a customer asking for fabric for the undergarment? Was it like getting a celebrity into the shop -- the famous "miracle man" or was it as a common carpenter who knew about the long hours that it took to finish inch by inch of the fabric? Could he see the difference between fine linen and linen woven of less fine flax? Did the weaver seam the undergarment; Did she/he measure the height and width of Jesus by putting the measuring-tape (in those days I would guess a rope) around Jesus' tummy, while he was holding out his arms; laughing, because he was extremely ticklish!? (Oh well . . . my imagination may be flying too far away here!)

We do not know anything about this because God didn't choose to give us their names or their stories. However, it was important enough to inspire King David to write about it in Psalm 22:18 hundreds of years before it happened. Strange, isn't it? That what is one person’s every day struggle -- obscure work in other people's eyes, noticed by no one – ended up in the Bible and heard thousands of years later by me traveling on the road to an unknown town in the middle of nowhere. We don't know the effects of our every day toil, do we?

Think about the weaver day after day--sitting at the loom. Sending the fly shuttle from the right for the thousand times and moving the batten twice. Then sending the fly shuttle from the left . . . moving the batten twice—day in and day out; making the best linen possible, without knowing that one day Jesus would ask for the fabric and cherish the hard work and what had been done anonymously for so long.

Will Jesus need my every day anonymous work and am I a faithful and good servant so that my skills could be used for the Kingdom of Heaven? Does the Bible not say, "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much?” Maybe you are neither seen nor heard of and yet you work and toil for Jesus every day with what God has entrusted in your hands. Be encouraged -- you are a blessing to Him! And, the people around you are blessed because God has lent them one of His children!
... Sincerey Yours,
Ida