Tapestry of Life

Each one of us lives a life that is woven to become the tapestry that tells the story of our life. Others can look at the way we live, the way we do things, how we speak, the way we use our words, whether they be for good or wrongful use, the way we treat others in our life, and see some of the tapestry of our life. Our life's tapestry tells our story.

How do you want others to see the tapestry of your life ?

This is a question that I often ponder, because I try to live a life that is not false. I know that what truly matters is what God knows of us and what He sees in us and how He sees us. Nothing is hidden from Him. I try not to do anything that I know is wrong because I know that God is watching me in everything I do or say. Not only God is watching me but others as well. I have two children and several nieces and nephews, not to mention my extended family and friends that I want to be an example of the Lord to. I don't always set a good example but I try to. Sometimes I do fail at what I know needs to be done or I may say a wayward word or offend someone not intending to. I always pray that the Lord will forgive me for anything I may have said, thought or done that may have offended someone or caused another to stray. I am not perfect, far from it.

Everyday we each need to be aware of the people in our lives. Not only our family and friends but also anyone that we may come into contact with in the course of our day. We never know how what we do or what we say may affect someone else. We, as Christians , need to be ever mindful of this. We are supposed to be an example of Jesus Christ here on this earth. We are to try to do as He asks of us according to the guidelines He has set forth for us in the pages of His Holy Word, the Bible. As long as we try, God knows we are trying, to do the right thing, to live the right way. He knows if we truly want to serve Him and to help others come unto Him by spreading His Word to others. He knows of it all.

He knows when one is pretending and putting on a show in front of others to try to make a good impression. God knows of everyone who is false just as He knows of everyone who is true and trying to be true to Him. We need to stop and think about our motives in how we live our life. Are we living our life for the Lord or for self ? We need to examine our selves daily. It is easy to fall into the trap of serving self. But if one stops and examines their life, they can see how the story unfolds, how the picture is woven in the tapestry of their life.

Have you examined your tapestry of life lately ? It is how you have lived your life up until this very moment. More is waiting to be written into and woven upon your tapestry of life. How you live your life is what writes and weaves the tapestry of life. It reflects you, your story. It is a recorded history. Again the question, how do you want others to view your tapestry of life ?

Your children's teachers, the lady in the check out line at the store, the pharmacists, the mail clerk, the postal service deliverer, the delivery people, your housekeeper, your children, your family, your friends, your Pastor and Church family, the old man you passed by on the street, the neighbor who waved at you today, the child who smiled in innocence, the animal you saw as you drove by, all of these were and are watching you. So many more, as well, daily watch you whether you are aware of it or not. Examine your self and see if what you did in the course of your day could have reflected upon you negatively in the eyes of any of these.

I encourage you to examine your tapestry of life and see where it needs to be mended and minded. Each one of us have places within our tapestry of life that needs tending to. Thankfully the Lord Jesus has ways of making us aware of when and how we need to attend to things that are not as they should be within our tapestry of life. The Lord God is a wonderful mender. He is the Master Artist and is great when it comes to repairing the tapestry of our lives. He is the only One who can truly help us to mend and repair the wrong that has occurred in the writing and weaving of our tapestry of life.

Have you examined your tapestry of life ? How do you want others to view your tapestry of life ? Search out your tapestry and talk to the Lord , seek His face and forgiveness and He will mend your Tapestry of Life.

Wonderings

Have you ever wondered ? Just set and wondered ? Allowed your mind to just take you where it wanted to lead you ?
I have. My mind tends to wonder after God and to God. I want to learn more about the Lord. I sit and meditate, pray and commune with the Lord God/Jesus. I let my mind wonder to Him and in Him.

By allowing my mind to wonder after the Lord I can grow closer to Him. He wants each of us to have a closer walk/relationship with Him. In order to do this we each have to spend alone time with Him. We also need to find others who will help us grow in the Lord. If someone you know is hindering your growth in the Lord it is time to let them know that they are hindering you from growing as you want to grow in the Lord. God wants us to grow in Him, to flourish, to bear fruit, to and for Him. If someone is hindering you from being what you desire to be in the Lord then they are hindering you from bearing the fruit that you need to bear. You need to let them know this so they can either choose to change to help you in your growth or they can choose to turn away from you.




In our journey in our walk with the Lord we cross paths with many people. Some we learn from , some we lose things to, some we have with us for a life time, some choose to leave us and never return. But in all of this we have had the opportunity to make an impression upon each person who our path may have crossed with. Did you try to share God/Jesus with that person ? If so did they heed what you had to say or did they turn and walk away ? We have to each give account of our self unto the Lord one day. For each soul we led astray, we have to give account for it. For each soul we helped, each life we enriched, each life we harmed or hurt in some way, each smile we brought to someone's face, each tear we made someone cry ( whether in joy or sorrow, heartache or hurt, happiness and love), each laugh, each hug, each heartache, each sorrow, in what ever way we touched these peoples lives we will be accounted for. Wouldn't it be better to have done all the good and right we could have to each person instead of doing harm and wrong ?

I know I fall short, many times, of whom God wants me to be. I pray to the Lord daily to help me become the person that He wants me to be, not the person that I want to be, but whom He wants me to be. Oft times I have to ask His forgiveness because we never know, in the course of our day, how we may have offended or hurt someone by a hastily spoken word, a look taken the wrong way, an offense taken that we did not intend to give. I ask God daily to forgive me for anything that I may have done, said, or thought that may have caused harm to someone or that may have led others astray. We are not perfect. As it says in God's Word, we all sin and if we say we have no sin then we are liars.

No Longer Blinded

No longer blinded. I have been foolish for too long and have been played the fool for far too long. It has stopped. I will be played for the fool no longer.


God has strengthened me to overcome the adversary and the lies the adversary speaks and tries to speak.I listen only to the Lord and not to man. Man works in deceit and tries to claim they are without sin or they have not sinned. When one does not see the sin they have done and continues to deny any wrong doing and claims they do not and are not lying, when in fact they are lying, when one does this it shows the deceit they have deceived them self with. Lies beget more lies and the maker of the lies denies their lies, only to make it worse upon their self.

When one is caught in their lies and continues to deny they are lying, the whole while one knows they are lying, it makes that person who is lying seem more so wrong, because they fail to see them self for what they are and so that one tries to deny their lying or tries to cover up the lies with more lies.

This is not of God , for certain. Nor is one who does this of God. God does not work in deceit and lies and He holds no part with those who work in deceit and lies. God hates lying and those who lie.

Thankfully God does forgive if one humbly ask it of Him. But if one continues in the sin of lies and deceit after God has forgiven him then that one is a reprobate. One who denies his sin is also a reprobate. One who is caught in his lies yet claims he is not lying and has not lied is a reprobate.


Oh that God would open the eyes of such people so they could truly behold what they are, then maybe they would change and turn to God. My heart breaks and my spirit is grieved at all those who daily believe in their own righteousness all the while living in sin and committing and continuing in sin. If my heart breaks how much so more does God's/Jesus' heart break? How much more does He groan in His Spirit at this ? I am torn because I can not understand how someone can claim to be good, without the sin they are committing, when they are committing it. I know that the Father is more so grieved than I am. Prayer is what I can do and so pray is what I shall do. I shall make my petitions known before the Lord and He will hear me and He will answer me. For He is God the Father, Holy of Holies and I cry out to the Father God in heaven to hear my plea, hear my call and answer me, in Jesus Christ's name, Amen.

Pathway To The Gate

Lo, behold the pathway.
It is narrow .
Brambles grow and try to obscure it from sight.
Look closely and you can see the faint outline of footprints.
Whose footprints have trodden upon this lesser taken path ?
Why do the tares and brambles grow so thickly trying to hide the way ?
Why are there bits of clothing scattered among the thorns ?
Who is that man standing,beckoning me to come towards the gate ?
Why doth He hold out His hand ?
I have such a compelling urge to go to Him.
The look of love on His face,
He glows with a light that I do not understand.
I must go to Him to find out why He glows with this love.
I must know why He beckons me onward towards Him.
I fight my way through the brambles and tares.
They snag at my clothes trying to keep me from Him.
The more they grasp hold on me the harder I fight to reach Him.
I hear the tearing of my garments as I gain ground.
I feel the bite of the thorns as they nip my flesh.
But onward I go.
I reach for His outstretched hand.
I touch it and feel the warmth of His glow flow through me.
This feeling I know.
It is God's love.
I look at the hand I am holding.
I notice the nail scars.
I cry out for my Lord stands before me.
I fall down at His feet and ask Him to forgive me.
His tears fall upon me as drops of blood when He lifts me,
With His nail scarred hands.
His love flows through me,
Cleansing me and making me whole.
I am covered by His blood and made anew.
I look upon His precious face and see the love,
The acceptance and the forgiveness.
I thank Him for beckoning me to Him,
I praise Him for the forgiveness that He has graced me with.
I notice that where the thorns had torn my flesh,
All was made whole.
I asked Him how this was ?
How had I been made whole from my journey ,
Through the tares and brambles as they vexed me so?
He smiled and said unto me,with His love all aglow,
"My child, as you walked along the path to me,
The one I beckoned you from,
The tares and brambles that tore at your garments and flesh,
The ones that left you bruised and bleeding,
Those were the sins that were keeping you away from me.
Those were the people who tried to turn you from me.
They caught at you and tore you, your heart, your soul.
But I saw you struggling along.
So I reached out my hand to you.
I knew that you were in the place and time,
That you needed me the most.
So I beckoned to you and you answered my call.
When you made your way through,
The tares and the brambles of sin,
I was here waiting to forgive you ,
To take you in.
To wash you free of sin and make you whole again.
Look behind you.
The pathway to the gate is narrow.
The tares seek to overcome it.
The footprints are few and oft times faded.
But now you see where you trod,
A new set of footprints line the pathway.
This pathway to the gate will always stand.
For it is the pathway to the gate of Heaven.
The clothing left behind on the tares and brambles,
Are the reminders of what everyone,
Who has trod upon the pathway have come through,
In order to come to me when I beckon them.
It is not an easy pathway to the gate.
I call many but only a few make it all the way to me.
By your so choosing to come unto me,
You have left a trail for others to follow upon.
They too, as you did, will look upon the less trodden path,
They will wonder why the tatters of clothing line the way of a faded
path.
They will look up and see me beckoning unto them.
Some will turn away,
Some will start towards me,
Only to find the pathway to the gate too hard to travel,
Some will choose to come as you did.
When they arrive and touch my hand ,
As I before them stand,
I will wash away their sins and make them whole ,
From all the thorns that have pricked their flesh,
Their heart and their soul.
I will ease them and give them rest,
Just as I have you.
Enter ye into the Kingdom of Heaven, My Child,
As thou hast followed the pathway to the gate."

Given to me, NancyJean, by God this
2nd day of April,2005. Thank You Lord
for your blessings upon me.

Ripe For The Harvest

I was picking Blackberries, yesterday, when the Lord gave me a revelation. I had just stooped down to pick a berry that appeared to be ripe for the harvest. Yet when I pulled the branch out, that the berry was attached to into the sunlight, I saw that the berry was not fully ripe yet. It hit me then, the message from the Lord.

We are like this blackberry. To others we may appear to be ripe for the harvest. Yet God sees us as others do not see us. God sees through the shade and His light is cast upon us revealing whether or not we are ripe for the harvest.

So many people , daily, put on a false front to others. They want others to see them for how they want to be seen. Fortunately God has a way of revealing what people try to keep hidden from others. God knows everything about everyone. Just like the blackberry that appeared to be ripe while it was hidden in the shade. When pulled out into the light it's flaws were revealed. It was not ripe for the harvest. Just as we, who strive to be God's children, God brings us out into His Light and it shines upon us revealing our flaws, showing that we are not ripe for the harvest.

Thankfully the Lord makes us aware of our flaws. The convicting power of the holy Spirit of God lets us know when we have and are doing something that we should not be doing. He chastises His children when we err from the path He has put us upon. Not everyone will turn back to the Lord but those that do are preparing to become ripe for the harvest. Those who do not prepare and stay in their flawed (sinful) state will be passed over and left behind because they were not ripe for the harvest.

The Lord tells us in His Word, the Holy Bible, to prepare, to watch lest we be caught unawares.

Matthew 24:42-44
42)Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43)But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44)Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

Matthew 26:41
41) Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.


It is the same with a rose. When the rose is but a bud it is held tightly bound in itself. It takes time for that bud to open. The elements of the weather come against it. The heat, the wind, the rain, dust, bugs and more try to keep the bud from opening. So many things beset this bud trying to keep it from reaching it's full potential. That is much like we, who strive to be God's children. The forces of sin come against us. We have to daily fight against sin, the devil and all his workers to keep in the Light of the Lord. So many of the devil and the devil himself do not want us to reach our full potential for the Lord. But just as that bud, when it opens in full bloom and reveals it's glory, we too, who are God's children, will one day shine forth with God's glory when we are truly ripe for the harvest.

We all have the beauty within us but it is not truly revealed until the Lord enters into our life. The Lord sees us as no one else does and knows us as no one else ever will, unless they take the time to know us, as God does. This is a poem that God blest me with to write sometime ago. It has been published. It is entitled " The Beauty Within ".

The Beauty Within

A bud blossoms at birth,
It is given the breath of life.
It is nurtured with love,
It starts to grow.
A protective force covers the delicate bud,
Trying to shield it from the harm of the world.
Angels stand guard over it.
Wars come and go,
Trials and tribulations try to toss the soul,
Yet the bud continues in it's growth.
Milestones passed,
Evening shadows have been cast.
New day dawnings have brightened,
A world where true beauty lies hidden in slumber.
Awaiting to be awakened when mature.
Still it waits,
Silently gathering strength,
Growing in abundance of love, joy and peace.
Erupting forth into full blossom of a beautiful soul,
Exposing the beauty within.

Nancy Jean , November 8,2005

We all have that beauty within. Prepare so you will be ripe for the harvest when the time comes. Let the Lord help you to be ready for the harvest for that is the only way to truly be ripe for the harvest, is with and through Him. Let Him reveal the true beauty within.

Today

Today. What significance did today hold for you ? What did you do with your day ? Did you make certain to spend some alone time with God today ? Did you spend some alone time with your family today? Did you spend some alone time with your husband or wife today ? Did you take the time to tell your spouse or your children that you love them, today ?

How did you spend the time, that God gave you, today ? Where did you go ? What did you do ? Did you share the Lord with someone today ? Did you share the message of God's Love with another who crossed your way ? That man , who had the down cast look about him, did you smile and say hello to brighten his day as you passed by his way ? That young mother, with the small children who looked so exhausted, did you share a kind word and smile with her to ease the tension she was feeling while her children whined ? That little child, that was crying on the playground because another child had bullied it, did you stop to help out or just look and walk away ?Did you share with someone something they needed to know about their child or another family member so they could help them with a problem they have ? That store clerk who looked so tired and weary , after a long day at work, did you smile and share a kind word with them or did you just complain about how long you had to wait in line before you were checked out ? That person behind the register in the fast food restaurant you ate at today, did you give them an encouraging word or did you complain about how long it took for them to serve you ?That person in the convenience store who cussed right beside you, did you say something to them about their language being offensive to you or did you just look the other way and pretend you didn't hear what they had to say ?

Today you were given the opportunity to make a difference for the Lord. Today you were given an opportunity to share God with someone. Today you were given the opportunity to help someone. Today you were given the opportunity to make a difference in someone else's life. How did you use the opportunity God gave you of today to serve Him ? I encourage each of you, every day to use the opportunity God presents you with, a little more wisely, for and in God's service.

God's Blessings

God is awesome. His blessings are truly something to shout about. We have been in drought conditions here in Kentucky for quite some time now. Yesterday God blessed us with a nice rain, which helped us out some. Today however God blessed us more so. I am jubilant. That is the word, jubilant, that describes how I feel at this very moment. It has been a slow steady rain for over 4 hours now. I praise God for this blessing.

Sometimes we have to get to a certain point in order for God to bless us. If you search within yourself you know this to be true. Maybe we, our self, are doing something that is hindering us from being blest by the Lord? Have you ever wondered about this ?

Have you ever got to the place in your life where you wondered if you were doing the right thing ? Say if you were in a situation that kept you down trodden and beaten low ? Have you ever wondered, within yourself, if that is what God wanted for you ?

Truthfully what God wants for His children is for them to be happy. He wants us to rejoice in Him. He does not want us to be down trodden nor beaten low. He wants the best for us. God has our best interest at heart. He wants His children to prosper, to work for Him, to spread His Word and to help others in showing them the way to Him.

We are tested as God's children to see how we will react in certain situations. He strengthens us to overcome. In our time of need all we have to do is cry aloud to the Lord and He will hear us and He will help us. He told us that we would not be tempted past that which we could bear for He would provide the way out for us. This is so true. Jesus Christ/God is the way out of every trouble, trial, or situation that keeps you down trodden and beaten low. All you need is to on His name call. He knows each of His children's hearts and He knows how much each one of us can bear. When it gets to the point to where we can not take anymore, if we cry out to Him, He will help us. I know this first hand. We just have to get to the point to where we cry out, from the depths of our heart and soul, to Him for the help we need and then He rescues us and He blesses us. He does not put more upon us than we can bear. As I said, God knows how much each of us can bear.

I realized, yesterday, that I had to be at the point to where God wanted me to be. When I reached that point and cried out to Him from the depths of my heart and soul,He heard me and He strengthened me. He gave me the strength that I needed and then He blest us. I am so very thankful to Him for His wonderful blessings. I know that whatever I am faced with, down the road, God will be with me through it. He is my strength and my fortress, He is my shield and my buckler, He is my help and He is my God.

Psalms 121:1-3 1) I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

2) My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

3) He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

God is awesome.

Thank You Lord Jesus Father God in heaven for Your many wondrous blessings. Thank You for the rain , especially, and for strengthening me when I call out to You. Thank You for hearing my cry and for hearing and answering the prayers of myself and of so many others. Thank You for dying at Calvary for a wretch like me. I Love You Father God and I thank You and give You the praise, the honor, and the glory in Jesus Christ's Precious Holy Name, Amen and Amen .