O God Thou Art My God Alone~Psalm 63

O God, Thou art my God alone; Early to Thee my soul shall cry; 

A pilgrim in a land unknown, A thirsty land whose springs are dry. 

O that it were as it hath been! When, praying in the holy place, 

Thy power and glory I have seen, And marked the footsteps of Thy grace. 

Yet, through this rough and thorny maze, I follow hard on Thee, my God; 

Thy hand, unseen, upholds my ways; I safely tread where Thou hast trod. 

Thee, in the watches of the night, When I remember on my bed; 

Thy presence makes the darkness light, Thy guardian wings are round my head. 

Better than life itself Thy love, Dearer than all beside to me; 

For whom have I in Heav’n above, Or what on earth, compared to Thee? 

Praise with my heart, my mind, my voice, For all Thy mercy I will give; 

My soul shall still in God rejoice; My tongue shall bless Thee while I live.

Listen to the song here.

Picture from Bethany Rachel Photography

Remembering Rev. John Harper

On April 14, 1912, over 1,000 lives were lost aboard the RMS Titanic. One of those souls was a Baptist minister named John Harper. I just saw this video today and it awed me. If you have never been to the Titanic museum in Branson or Pigeon Forge, I encourage you to go. I have only been to the Branson one, but it is really good.

The Potter's Field

 Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.” And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers~ Matthew 27:2-7

During our family Bible time the other night, we were reading the story of Jesus' betrayal and arrest. As Dad read about the purchase of the Potter's Field, I thought about a parallel between the purchase of that field, and the 'field' Jesus purchased.

First, consider the purpose of each field. The Potter's Field was a place for burying the dead. When Jesus saves someone, they are to consider themselves dead to sin. (Colossians 3:5) His field is a place for us to bury our 'old man'. The Christian life is a process of becoming more like Christ by actively and daily killing our sin. We must all dig graves in Jesus' field to bury our sin.

Each field was also purchased by Jesus' blood. The priests couldn't put the thirty shekels back in the treasury because it was blood money. So they bought the Potter's Field. Maybe in their self righteousness they thought they were being charitable toward the strangers in Israel. Little did they know that the greatest act of charity would be taking place only a little while later. Jesus' spilled blood and anguish on the cross was the exact payment required to purchase the death and burial of sin.

Lastly, think about for whom the two fields were bought. The Potter's Field was a burial place for strangers; people living in Israel, but who were not of the Jews. In the same way, those whose old selves are buried in Jesus' field are strangers in this world. Jesus said His own, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." (John 17:16) 

Living the Christian life is not always easy. Killing sin is an ongoing struggle for all believers. We still have cause to be thankful in the midst of our fight. Our Savior purchased sin and death's graveyard by His blood, and He secured new life for us with the empty tomb.

Do you have a plot in the Potter's Field?

Far over the Misty Mountains cold.....

I have recently become a Lord of the Rings fan after watching the first Hobbit movie and reading both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. There are wonderful spiritual lessons to be found in those books, not to mention the fact that they are good, inspiring stories.

I also like to knit. A friend taught me how years ago, and since I have improved my skills through books, videos, and other people's help.

About a week ago, my brother Joshua informed me that Weta ( the company that makes props for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies.) was selling knitting kits to make a scarf like Bofur's (one of the 13 dwarves in The Hobbit).  I looked into it, and found out the kit cost $43.99. And that is just the yarn and instructions. Ouch. Also on closer inspection we found out that the scarf you make isn't completely accurate to the one in the movie.

So Joshua and I set out on a quest to make an accurate scarf for a reasonable price. After searching high and low for pictures of the scarf, the yarn, and blocking instructions, we settled on a design. He bought 4 skeins of Lion Brand Wool Ease yarn for under $12. After 5 days of knitting, I came out with this.

                                           

                                         

Close up of scarf.

After knitting the scarf, I soaked it in a sink of warm water with a little detergent, rinsed it, spun it out in the washer, and stretched it out on a piece of cardboard covered with towels. Then Josh and I pinned it down and let it set overnight. The next day it looked like this:

Here is what the scarf is supposed to look like:

                                               
                                                         
So that concluded our mission. Joshua is pleased with the scarf, and I enjoyed knitting it!

God Will Provide a Lamb

Michael Card is one of my favorite music artists. I found this song by him the other night from his album of the Old Testament called 'An Invitation to Awe'. I liked it so much, I wanted to share it.

New Pure in Heart

Hello Everyone!

I have created a new blog to share things that God has used to encourage me,  things He has shown me to pray about, and other miscellaneous things. Enjoy my new blog!

Katherine