Category: Men of the Bible

Remnant

I made both hat and rug out of remnants of yarn. The idea came to me after finishing a hat and having pieces of yarn that were left over but not big enough to make anything with it. I hate waste, so I started tying the left over pieces together. It did not matter what color the yarn was, just that the pieces were long enough to tie together. As I tied the yarn together, there were a few things from the Bible that kept going through my mind. Joseph’s coat of many colors for one. Then the story of Gideon and his fleece. Finally the scriptures about the remnant of Israel.

Once I had enough yarn tied together I began making hats. They were shaggy and there was no pattern in the choice of colors, and I did not cut off the ends so the hats have a shaggy look. These imperfect looking hats may not be what the average person would like or would even wear, but I like them. Especially when I thought about the wide range of colors that had been joined together. These remnants that when joined together have a purpose. Together they were first turned into hats, and then a small rug. The rug I like to use as a prayer rug to remind myself of Gideon and of how all the prayers joined together have purpose and power when in alignment of God’s love. Joined together as one, one body, functioning together even though each piece is different and came from different skeins, they create these fun, and colorful reminders of the beauty of God’s love. We are one body made of many different parts. Joined together in love.

Every hat that I have made whether it was for a buyer or for a gift has been prayed over with every stitch as I crocheted them. Probably why the idea of making them from remnants came from. Hats being a covering for the head, which made me think of the helmet of salvation. Then wanting the mind of Christ. Most important is the need for people to come to understand the need for truly being joined together in love. Not what the world considers love to be, but the love of Jesus. The love that is not just for those who love us, but to love those who even hate us. The love you have to have to lay your life down to save another. In 1 Corinthian 13 is the perfect description of love. There are a couple of things that are on my mind from this chapter; Love does not demand its’ own way and it is not easily offended. Yet as I look around the world today I see so many demanding their way and are so easily offended. So where is LOVE? Where is unity? Where is peace? There are so many topics that looking at this hat and rug that come to mind. Like Gideon I may be the least of the least, but together with Christ Jesus I have purpose and I have His love. I still have so much to learn from His love, but I will spend the rest of my time on this earth learning.

Isaiah 37:4
Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

2 Chronicles 34:9
They came to Hilkiah the high priest and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the doorkeepers, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

2 Kings 21:14
I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies;

Genesis 37:3 KJV
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. (Read chapter)

Judges 6:36-40 NKJV /The Sign of the Fleece
36 So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— 37 look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.

Should we share our dreams and visions?

There are less than a handful of people that I have trusted in sharing certain things, especially some visions and dreams. Main reasons for this is not that I was afraid of what I saw or how real they were. It is because I don’t want everyone thinking I have lost my mind. Funny because I have no problem sharing that I can audibly hear God speak to me. So now I sit here and wonder if now is the time. So I guess I will share one dream and one vision and hope you don’t think I am crazy.

When I had this vision I was sitting on my porch in front of my last apartment. I saw at as clear as seeing my hands type these words. A person in soldiers clothing stood in my little yard and spoke to me. They said ‘I know that you would die before you would deny Jesus, but would you to save your child and grandchild?’ Then my daughter was brought before me and the person holding my daughter by her hair with a sword above their head, and they asked, ‘Will you deny Him now?’ That was it. I sat there stunned. I looked up and spoke to God and said, ‘They are right, I would die before denying You, but I don’t know if I would be strong enough to watch my child or any child be tortured or killed in front of me. I pray to be able to refuse to deny You, because I know it is better to die for you than live denying You. I pray if that day comes You will strengthen me, and I will not bow to the enemy’. That isn’t a very long vison or prayer, but a few years later I went to this thing called the ‘Apocalypse Experience’, at the Capernaum a replica town here in Texas that is used as both a studio set and for hosting experiences that take you through scenes of the Bible. The ‘Apocalypse Experience’ takes people through what the tribulation would be like. You walk through and the actors interact with you. At one point soldiers come running through and capture a woman and her son right in front of us. They hold her son down in front of her just like my vision, and ordered her to deny Christ and save her son. She refused and they were both shot (not for real) and killed.

I was shocked to see this scene played out right in front of me, even though I knew they were actors, seeing my vison play out in front of my eyes got to me. I couldn’t share what was going on with the friend I was with because I knew she would not understand. Yet this was not the first time something I had a vision or dream of played out in front of my face. Somehow things that played out in my mind somehow another person who I have never met or even spoken to managed to produce and I was able to see. You see when I was in my early 20’s which is back in the 90’s I had this dream. To my surprise in 2015 the movie ‘San Andreas’ was released which I did not see until I rented it and from the comfort of my couch began to watch my dream play out on my T.V. Not the actors and the earthquake in my dream took place in Los Angeles and spread to the Antelope Valley. Every natural disaster from the earthquake to the tidal wave that filled the cities turning the city of L.A. into Venice, Italy. Yet instead of ‘The Rock’ in a boat searching for his daughter in the movie. I was the one in the boat going from building to building looking for survivors, to get them to safety. So take out the actors and leave the natural disasters in this movie and you can see my dream if you watched this movie, you have seen my dream.

Now I know both vision and dream were played out in front of me were acts and were not actually real, but it never kept me from wondering if the day would come along when it would become reality. You see I have had some things I had dream actually happen. Nothing major, like going to a house I had never been to and doing exactly what I did there in my dream. I know the ability to dream and have visions and interpret them is a gift from God, and that scriptures speak of dreams and visions in the end times ( which I am not saying it is) but I believe why Joseph and Daniel have always been people from the Bible I can relate to. Joseph more than Daniel but that is another subject. When others have shared their dreams with me I have seen them play out in front of me as if on a movie screen, and God seems to give me their meaning most times.

I don’t know if I will share my other dreams and I am sorry that I am not giving my dream or vision’s interpretation but these two seem to be self explanatory. Hope you don’t think I am too crazy for what I have shared but as much as I would have liked to continue keeping them to myself I felt led to sharing them tonight, even though my hands are screaming at me for typing this long. But obedience is better than sacrifice.

Runaway A Testimony

The first time I ran away from home I was 13 years old.  We were going to move so friend I went to school with wanted to spend one last day together having fun. So we ditched the last couple of classes. We didn’t do much, went to an arcade on Woodman Ave. Then we hung out a friend’s house. The next day we were all called into the principal’s office. I was terrified of my father and had asked to take the paddle instead of him calling my father. He called my father and I was too afraid to go home. I didn’t know where to go but I was too afraid to go home. My father was an angry man and he terrified me. I wandered around with a friend Wendy until she had to go home. Now a new fear took over where would I go? I had nowhere to go so I cried as I walked back home. It was not the home coming of the prodigal son, but I lived.

Life did not get much better after we moved. Oh we had all the physical comforts a nice home, plenty of food, but living in fear takes its toll on anyone. Never knowing when something you may do innocent or not is going to set off the volcanic anger of my father. I ran away again, and again. When I was close to turning 16 I had gotten into a fight with my father. I could not believe myself. Standing up to my father was something that you did not do. I was dragged and beaten into our home. I cussed at him for the first time in my life to his face. I tried to keep him from opening the closet where he kept a paddle He had made from a 1’x4′ and 2ft. long board that he used to spank me with. I failed. The board came out and I tried to hide behind my stepmother. He yelled at me and the board was used like a baseball bat and my head was the ball. I was down on my knees when he was about to swing again and I was literally saved by the bell. The phone rang and it stopped him. My step mother had done nothing, but what do you expect from a woman who has blamed you for all the problems of her marriage. Who said’ ‘If you didn’t exist I could be happy with your father.’ (Sorry I was a part of his life before she was.) After this incident I ran away again. This time I was not so quick to going back home. I bounced around from one friends couch to another. I even got my first job at Chuck E. Cheese, while still going to school. I managed to live like this for over a month until the school notified the authorities, No charges were brought against my father and thanks for a friend’s mother I did not have to return home for a while. Yet no matter how many times I left my father’s home and no matter the reason I kept returning.

So why I am I sharing a couple of my run away stories? They had come back to my mind and they made me think about people in the Bible who had run away and why. Hagar ran away when Sarah became jealous and hateful. David ran away when King Saul wanted to kill him. Elijah ran and hid in a cave when Jezebel was having God’s prophets killed. Jonah also tried to runaway when God had told him to go to Nineveh. All had their reasons to run. So this was one thing I had in common with these people. The other common ground I shared with them was we all returned.

Life is not easy for any of us. It is definitely harder for some than others. It can be even be terrifying. Of course life can be filled with joy and hope. I do not know what you may be running from and you may have a very good reason to do so but just like God met Hagar in the dessert and found Jonah in the sea. He can meet you where ever you are. Find hope in the One who will never hurt you, but who loves you unconditionally. Even if you run away from Him He will come to find you and He loves you unconditionally.

Look up scriptures on people who ran away in the Bible

Hagar – Genesis 16:6-9- (NKJV) So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence. 7 Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” 9 The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.”  (Read Genesis chapter 16)

David – 1 Samuel 21:10 (NKJV)   Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

1 Samuel 22:1 (NKJV)  David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him.

Read 1 Samuel chapters 21-24

Elijah –  1 Kings 19:3-4 (NKJV) 3 And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!” 5 Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel[a] touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 And the angel[b] of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” (Read  1Kings chapter 9)

Jonah –  Jonah 1:3 (NKJV) 3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. (Read the book of Jonah)

 

Questions

Can you name of others in the Bible who ran away?

 

Have you ever run away?

 

If you did, did you return to what or where you ran from?

 

Are you running away from anyone or anything?