Wisdom of the craft room
1. Pattern
Many craft projects require a pattern.
My parchment craft usually has a border around it made of embossed dots or holes pierced and cut. To achieve this I have to follow the pattern very carefully.
The most frustrating thing is when you have spent hours on a project only to find that the border does not join up together.
My old craft group used to joke that this was butterflies were invented as we would make a butterfly out of parchment and place it over the mistake. This also meant that if we made a project that included butterflies we would explain that these butterflies were meant to be there.
God created so many patterns.
God made night to follow day.
The pattern is in place. For some reason our bodies function best when we follow that pattern, of being awake during the day and rest or sleep at night. When people have to work shifts it throws their bodies completely out of whack as they are no longer following the established pattern.
One of the best patterns from God is the pattern of prayer.
Matthew 6:9-13
9 ‘This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
Notice that he didn’t say, "This is what you should pray." He said, "This is how you should pray."
This is a model prayer because it gives us a guideline for prayer.
Almost everybody in this room has memorized this prayer. Right? I won’t embarrass you by asking you if you know it or not, but almost everybody could repeat this prayer if we prayed it together.
Therefore, in your mind you already have an outline for a prayer that is guaranteed to please God.
Jesus said, "This is the way I want you to pray."
The pattern is not for long winded or flowery prayers but a simple prayer that prises God, asks him to supply our needs, forgive us, reminds us to forgive others and to keep us safe.
You would think this would be an easy pattern to follow and yet for many people it is not.
God’s Word gives us pattern for life which we must adhere to if we would see life. That is, if we would see the best life here and now and the life in the next.
Let us trust God enough to follow the pattern He has established for His people.
2. Scissors
Most dressmakers have a pair of dressmaking scissors that are for cutting out material only. There is big trouble should a spouse use these scissors for anything else.
I have a pair of scissors that are small with very sharp pointy ends. These are only used to cut parchment paper that I make my cards out of. I have a separate pair of scissors to cut tape and card etc.
So our craft scissors are special.
They are often designed for only one thing. To cut or trim something.
We need to trim our piece of craft work so that it fits in place correctly.
So that it accomplishes what we want to achieve with it.
Max Lucado says that God accepts us just the way we are but loves us too much to leave us that way.
Hebrews 12:10-11
10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
God is trimming us into shape, just like a sculptor shapes a lump of rock,
John 15:1-8
‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
So how does God prune us? We know that His Word prunes us.
Hebrews 4:12
The Word of God is "alive, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Through His Word, God shows us where we have missed it, so that we can begin to live in a way that truly pleases Him.
His Word gives us the power to live a life that produces fruit. In conversion, He removes from us our guilt and condemnation.
In time, He cuts away the habits that bind us.
God prunes away the old to invigorate, freshen, revive, and renew our.
God also cuts away from us some things that hurt at times.
By keeping His Word, we are pruned, groomed, corrected and encouraged to be like Him
Let us give God the freedom to shape us into the people He planned.
3. Seams
Many craft projects have seams, where two pieces of material, knitting or crochet are sewn together.
Genesis 2:24
Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
When a couple get married, they have become joined, just like they have been sewn together.
Marriage is supposed to be for life, but many people are unable to achieve this and the marriage comes apart and they separate.
We recently attended a wedding of a lady who has two teenage sons, one who has gotten into trouble with the police a lot. She was telling us how great her new husband was taking on the whole family, not just the wife. Because now there was no out. Now they were married they were definitely committed to each other. They were both thinking that the family was now one new entity, joined together, believing that God would support them through their new life.
Nehemiah 4:6
6 So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
Nehemiah was wanting to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem to protect the city.
As he joined the gaps in the wall the enemies of Jerusalem became threatened.
The seams of the wall were being rebuilt.
Nehemiah 6:15-16
So the wall was completed in 52 days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realised that this work had been done with the help of our God.
God can restore the seams of our life and that will be a threat to the enemy as it is stopping his access into our lives.
Sometimes the seams on our trousers split and need resewing.
Take time today to check the stitching on the seams of your life and to ensure the seam is strong.
If not, then call out to God for guidance on how to repair that seam.
4. Glue
So many types of glue available to the crafter, pritt stick, clag, gem glue, spray adhesive, all sorts of tapes too.
What does glue do? Sticks things together.
For my parchment craft I tend to use brads to hold the parched paper to card and then stick that piece of card to another using double sided tape.
1 Cor.6:17
He who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit
When we are glued to God
we are one.
At salvation you were fastened firmly to Him.
Rev.3:20
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
John.1:12
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
At that point you received His Spirit and were made one with Him in Spirit.
We have security in that relationship, that we are glued together with Christ.
Heb.13:5
"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
Phil.1:6
“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
John.10:28
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”
You’re super-glued firmly in His hand.
Rom.8:38-39
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This super-glue never comes undone.
The progressive aspect in your walk with God - your day to day fellowship with God is that Jesus desires unity with us
John.17:21
“Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
James 4:8
“Come near to God and he will come near to you
The challenge:
1 Cor.6:17
“He who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.”
Unite yourself with Him by:
Being committed to fellowship with other believers.
Trusting Him in every area of your life.
Developing convictions about living a life that glorifies Christ, through His power.
Following His plan for your life.
Putting Him in charge in every area of your life; surrendering to Him.
Continually drawing near to Him.
Living in intimacy with Him.
We need to realise that having made a commitment to Christ, we are glued together, we are united.
5. Embellishments
Embellishments are what we add to our craft project to make it look good. How we would finish it off. It might be that we add stickers, gems, bows or glitter.
Satan will try and tempt us with things, and we can be dazzled by what is offered to us. We are sucked in by the embellishments on offer, rather that what they are embellishing.
Young girls craft group – made boxes out of beautiful paper, but some were so dazzled by all the embellishments we had that they covered the box completely and you could not see the beautiful paper anymore as it was covered with diamantes, flowers and glitter.
Yet all that glitters is not gold.
While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, something dreadfully wrong was happening below among Aaron and the Israelites.
They had fashioned a golden calf to be an object of worship.
If it was not for the intercession of Moses, God would have destroyed every last one of them.
From this account, God desires to teach us that He and He alone is worthy of worship.
Moses was in the presence of the One true God.
God was in the process of revealing His divine plan for His people for the ages.
What could be more important than waiting until they heard from God?
Yet the people told Aaron to make them “gods which shall go before us.”
After all the mighty works they had seen God do, they still had not learned the lesson, that it was God leading them and not Moses.
Just look at what they saw God do:
a. Crossing the Red Sea
b. Bitter waters made sweet
c. Manna supplied
d. Quail supplied
e. Water from the rock
f. Defeat of Amalek
They gave their gold earrings to Aaron to make the calf idol.
If there was an offering to give, it should have been given to the true God.
Yet, up until this point God had not required an offering from them.
Sadly, they were willing to give to a false god, but wouldn’t give the offering of obedience to the One True God.
How often do God’s people today give of their time, effort, loyalty, and substance to the things of pleasure and interest to us, only to have nothing left for God?
After Aaron made the idol, he declared “these be your gods”.
How sad that after all God had done for them that they gave the false god of gold the glory for bringing them up out of Egypt.
That golden calf is not the sort of embellishment we need.
This is the sort of embellishment we need.
Ezekiel 36:26
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
God offers us so many embellishments through the giftings he gives us
1 Corinthians 12:4-11
4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
Other embellishments are the fruits of the spirit
Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.
Don’t be dazzled by fake gods and leaders but look for the true glory of Christ, this will be true beauty.
6. Mess
Sometimes your craft room can get really messy.
You leave half finished projects out and you can never find what you need.
This is what our life is like when we don’t know Jesus.
Our world is a collection of bits and pieces.
Disorder and disharmony.
We need the craft master, God,
who has provided the pattern
to shape us with his Holy scissors
to sew all our seams in the right place
to glue us to Him through the Holy Spirit
and to decorate us with his Embellishments of the gifts and fruits of the spirit
And to clean up our mess when we come to Him in repentance.
Amen
Lets pray
