Its a Long Road

 

In my earliest years I attended protestant churches. In the mid 1950s the church I was attending had a former government agent who performed an alter call. I answered and was baptized in the Spirit. My life has not been the same since. On the way home one day I had a voice say to me you will join the Catholic church. My reaction was surprise and tucked the thought away then I dismissed it. In the late 60's I had come home from work and was going to bed. As I lay there I had the feeling I was not alone. Someone besides my wife was in the room with me. I sat up in bed and there next to the bed was a figure, all in black, no features visible. I asked what it wanted. It said nothing but pointed at me. I laid back and closed my eyes in fear. Almost immediately I heard, saw and felt the loud words in brilliant  letters, glowing like nothing I have ever experienced, "DO YOU BELIEVE" I answered involuntarily "I BELIEVE". All this in brilliant, luminous marque like visible light. All of this never disturbed my dear wife sleeping next to me. After that, what was gibberish ran through my mind and was spoken. I was confused so I told my mother about what had happened. She gave several suppressed "Praise the Lords". Turns out she was part of the Charismatic movement and had been praying for me to be baptized. Shortly after that I joined the Catholic church. Imagine that! In the years that followed I quit a heavy smoking habit, Dropped a  borderline alcoholic habit, cleaned up a nasty explosive temper and cursing habit among other things. That does not make me perfect. Far from it! If anything it has left me vulnerable. If you think this is all made up, I assure you it isn't. There is far more to this life than most people are willing to share. This is a tiny bit of what being a Christian means. Much of it is not fun and games but some of it is praise worthy in the end. There are tears, both of joy and sorrow, loneliness, new friendships, broken friendships, persecution, sacrifices and any other experience you could name. I have been sharing the quest to know the loving God that loves and blesses me so completely, without compromise. I pray you get to know Him in a very personal way. Next week I will try to continue sharing what he has shown me and means to me.

May the good Lord bless and keep you safe. Remember to "Always Love the Details".

Card Making

The next 2 cards are both 3d. Both are blank on the inside to allow for special greeting and wishes.

 There are 5 layers to the first card. The bush and stone patio are the base. The dog, and the general room are all one layer. The coat, cane and table are another layer. 

the tray, table napkin and news paper are the fourth layer. The plate and food are the last layer. All are raised up on thin sticky dots to give that 3d effect. I used a black peel and stick border. The red side panel is stash paper that is used to cover the blank white space. Unfortunately photos do not really show the dimensional effect. Of course the back is labeled.

This card opens up and down awning style. The inside is completely blank. It can be used however it is needed.

The next card is also 3d. 

This image already had a frame around it so did not need any embellishment. The back window with the outside view was the base. The room was the first raised layer. The side table and book/magazine rack was another layer. The chair, lamp and rug are a layer. The pillows on the chair are a layer. The dog sleeping on the rug is the last layer. This is a Christmas card but the plaid of the background makes the Merry Christmas hard to see. I used gold peel and stick to border the the card and give it interest. Of course the back is signed hard to read.

I apologize for not giving more information on the process of making the card. These cards are more jigsaw puzzle than actual craft cards. 

Thank you for at least giving these cards a look. 

May the good Lord bless you and keep you safe.

Remember to "Always Love The Details".

Bible Versions

There is a dizzying number of translations for the bible. There are currently 900 English translations available ranging from word-for word to dynamic thought-for-thought versions. The number of languages it has been translated into is more than 3,500. I use 20+ versions as cross references in my studies. Why bother? The variability is interesting and provides a baseline to consider. Combine this with the experience of having attended many different churches gives a better understanding of what the beliefs of those institutions are.

This is a very short post this week. We have had many disruptions for health and other reasons. I will try to post something more in line with what this blog is all about, The Lord.

May the good Lord bless and keep you safe.

Remember to "Always Love The Details."

Card Making

 Today I am sharing two more cards. This was the second card created in this run. The lettering appears a bit tilted due to the card being slightly open.

The sentiment was stamped in blue ink . The wreath and ribbon bow were stamped and colored with Copics. The stamped image was actually a double stamped image so it gives the impression of seeing a blurred image.

The sentiment on the inside of the card was also stamped with blue ink. The corner decorations are "peal and stick" to give added interest.

The back of the card was personalized to indicate I was the creator of the card. I have done this with most of the cards created by me. Jill keeps asking me how many cards I made. 

This card is dimensional card. The background is a blue cardstock stamped with a dear and colored black with Copics. The tree trunks were fussy cut with an exacto knife. They were then attached to the background base with dimensional foam dots to give the 3d effect. The tree tops were also cut with an exacto knife and attached to the top of the tree line with the dimensional dots. The base of the card front was a problem because details were showing that should have been hidden. A second strip of the light green cardstock was cut and glued to the base and that was glued to the base to form the forest floor. The Chinses proverb was something left over from one of Jill's projects. The white die-cut pieces Were used to bracket the proverb.

The sentiment on the inside is from a sheet of clear acrylic with sentiments from an unknown source and glued inside the card.

The tag on the back.

This was not the best of the cards but I am sharing it anyway. It presented and myriad of problems to solve. I hope you like what was done.

Until next week, may the good Lord bless and keep you safe. Remember to "Always Love The Details."

Eternity

 Note: I have opened this site to anyone, blog owner or not, to be able to comment. Responsible, civil comments are accepted. I am sharing what I find to personally bring the scriptures alive and clarify my life experiences.  

In my studies there have been many surprises. I have been trying to see what the original texts say and what the words meant in that era to the people reading them. Sometimes it is a large difference from how we read the text today. One of the biggest surprises was the interpretation of words used in the original texts of scripture. [OLAM - meaning 'an age' or 'agelong'] There are other words that only appear a few times that I will not cover at this time. It turns out that the original meaning as understood by the authors was not a forever thing, eternal, but for a finite period of time. The ancients did not recognize infinity when creating the old or new testament. Instead they wrote in terms of periods of time, not always described in specific years or periods but indeterminate spans of finite time. This poses many problems such as the existence of eternal damnation. There are disagreements among different churches when it comes to this view of the scriptures. Since God created man to be subject to the imperfect world he lives in, why would he be judged as if he were immortal. Scriptures say God wants to forgive and welcome all into the family He created. The prodigal son comes to mind.(Luke 15:11-32) The father welcomed the prodigal son with tears and open arms. The son who stayed behind and did the fathers will was indignant of the father welcoming his son back home with a celebration is very much an example of the world today. If mankind is so lost why send Jesus Christ to be and example of the forgiveness of our father in heaven? The lack of eternal punishment in the old and new testament means that redemption is the way God our loving father is planning for His children to join Him. In the vision of Mary mother of Christ, when asked who will be saved she answered "Everyone." For years I have struggled with interpretations and teachings. I am now more convinced than ever that our God is a loving, forgiving father not a hateful, vengeful father bent on punishing his creation for faults that are a result of the world He created. It is apparent the suffering we go through in this world is redemptive and not a preemptive process to eternal hell fire. I welcome the troubles and tests of this life so that the next life will be with our father in heaven.

May the good Lord bless and keep you safe.

Remember to "Always Love The Details."

Card making

 Before I show any cards I would like to show my work area. It is somewhat organized but mostly a mess. There are years of collecting "stuff" to make cards within this mess. Jill has even more that she keeps adding to the piles. That said, here is the work area.

When I create cards I have no idea for the most part where everything comes from. It is a jumble of everything from images to sentiments to who knows what.

Now to the cards I want to share.

This is a step card. It does not have an inside to write a note. It folds flat and stands up like a easel when unfolded. The image is part of the jumble of images on the table. The sentiment, and side decorations are "peel and stick". The background is from our stash of unused paper.

This next card is the most recent creation.

The image was one the wife cut out but never used. The green border is a die cut made from scrap paper. The floral frame is a die cut from stash paper. It was also used on the inside to add interest. The corners outside and inside are "peel and stick". [note: these peel and sticks are no longer available. The Covid crisis helped to put these companies and many others out of business. Luckily we have a fair stock of them.]

That will do it for now. I will post more next week. I have more than sixty cards created so far. May the good Lord bless and keep you safe. Remember to "Always Love The Details."

How we understand the bible.

Love comes unseen; we only see it go.

— Henry Austin Dobson
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/henry_austin_dobson_219708

It seems of late that I am sitting at the keyboard writing this post when the well seems dry, inspiration comes in last minute form. That also seems to be the way of my life. The previous 3 posts were about God's love. There is no greater subject we need to pay attention to. The world thinks it can put aside God and His love for us because it thinks it is able to know everything there is to know. That is an impossible task to say the least. The world could build data centers to cover every last inch of space on earth and it world fall far short of what God knows. There are those that believe the meaning the words of today's vocabulary are the same today as they were in Jesus' time. They are not. In fact they are far different than they were then. Since a child I felt there were things not quite right about some of what we were being taught. The old testament and the new testament we read today as translations leave something to be desired. Much of the gospel is valid to this day but the way in which we understand it is off base. We need to step back and see it as it was seen in the days it was written, in the way Jesus and the apostles understood and taught it. It sheds a whole new light on what was taught by them and why it was done that way. The people of their day were not educated as most of us are today. That is why Jesus taught in parables that they would grasp and understand. I am still grappling with much of it in my studies but the scriptures are coming alive as more is brought to light. For me this is a time of revelation and discovery. I am by no means saying the scriptures as they are translated today are useless. They are relevant. It is important to understand the way the writers and Jesus understood the Old and New Testament, not what we think they should be. 

May the good Lord bless and keep you safe.

Remember to "Always Love The Details." 

I may do a post every so often to share some of the cards I and my wife have made. God Bless.

God is love part 3

 

Bad choices in life are abundant. Choosing Jesus is not one of them. I hear about how the Lord (YAHWEH) abhors sin and can't stand to be in the presence of sinners. That would mean than no sinner has any chance of entering heaven. That would also mean there would be no one in heaven. Hell would be a raging fire to everyone living today and that had ever lived. If that were true then why was Jesus sent to call all sinners to repent and follow Him. Jesus and our father in heaven are one. They are united and know one another completely. That means the love one has is the same as the other. Jesus was not commanded to die for us. He chose to do so out of love for God's creation to unite all of humanity to our father in heaven. There are many thoughts about God, some of which don't fit well with scripture. God is not the hateful, vengeful, permanently rejecting father some of these views propose. He is a forgiving, loving parent that will always honor and fulfill his promises no matter how we humans interpret scriptures. He is profoundly working toward His forgiveness in the same manner as the prodigal's son. (Luke 15:11-32) Does this sound like a father that condemns his children to eternal fire? Throughout the bible many covenants were made with Israel. Each one was expanded from the last until the coming of Christ. God honored every one of them regardless of the sinfulness of His people and still guided, protected and was ever present to them no matter their situation. He delivered them from complete destruction to this day. He has done the same for us in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in to this day. God speaks to us and tells us He loves us and wants us to be with him. In one of Mary's miraculous appearances she stated that God wanted everyone to be saved. That would mean no one will be left behind. GOD IS LOVE.

May the good Lord bless and keep you safe.

Remember to "Always Love The Details." 

God is love part 2

 

Love in this day and age is seen as an extreme physical and emotional desire for a relationship of sexual desires. That is not how God intended it to be  because it is fleeting and is not enduring. The desires may remain but the high they produce does not. God's love is far more complete and enduring. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. Love never comes to an end.(The New Jerusalem Bible (New York: Doubleday, 1985)

This does not fit into the vision of love based on emotion or physical desires. It is beyond all of that. True love is faithful too the end. God was faithful through the ages with His creations, US. He never gave up on us or abandoned us because of our sins. He didn't ignore our plight because the place we call home was riddled with sin that permeates all that is in it. Instead He sent His son to lift the veil placed over our eyes to reveal his graces of forgiveness. No sex involved, no emotional highs or lows, just a loving father calling his sons and daughters to Him. Read the passages of 1 Corinthians above again and know that Our father is all of these things and more. He has been with us through all of our trials and tribulations no matter what they were or are. Few of us can say that about our relationships with others, including our Father in heaven. It is why marriages end for most within the first ten years. Commitment is in the wrong place and much of the things Corinthians tells us love is about are absent in our relationships. God is a tough act to follow but His is the only example that is pure and forever. We should be living with all of the traits of our Lord ever in mind.

More next week.

May the Good Lord bless and keep you safe.

Rememkber to "Always Love The Details."

God Is Love, Part 1

 

This is something that has made itself clear over the years of study and listening to the voice that speaks in the quiet time of prayer and listening to that soft voice within.

(1 John 4:16)God is Love. (1 john 4:19-21) We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

This means our God is not one who punishes with no chance for forgiveness. It is not His wish to punish us or reject us permanently. He does honor our free will choices in this life. The human condition in this life is due to our living in a sinful world. If it were not for Christ Taking the sins of humanity on himself we would never be able to enter heaven for any reason. Christ filled all of the old testament rules for sacrificing the sin offering but took the place of the sacrificial lamb and defeated Satan in the process. When he drank the sour wine offered on the cross He declared "it is finished" and completed the last supper ceremony. The supper in the upper room was never really finished until that moment. When He left the upper room the feast was left unfinished because the final part of the festival meal was the drinking of wine. It did not happen in the upper room but did happen on the cross he was crucified on. Without that final act the Passover festival was not completed. That is why He declared "it is finished" on the cross. Think about this this week. Next week I will take these thoughts a step further.

May the good Lord bless you and keep you safe.

Remember to"Always Love The Details."