Led by His Love

(From a Calendar - Artist Unknown)

On Monday I was reading Psalm 23 on E-sword, with the Strongs concordance meanings at hand, and jotted down my newly understood interpretations. It may not stand the scrutiny of Hebrew Scholars, but it offered me some new insights that I'd like to share, so here is my paraphrase:    

The uncreated God is my keeper, friend and pastor. I shall lack or want for nothing.


He grants me repose in pleasant places (pastures full of new, green sprouts). He carries me, feeds me and guides me beside peaceful waters.

He restores my vitality. He guides me in the ways of righteousness and prosperity, for His purposes and honour. When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death (absence of spiritual life & vitality), I will fear no evil, for you are alongside me. Your stick and your staff lets me breathe a sigh of comfort, security and relief. (You fend off danger, and pull me closer when I stray)

You spread out a meal before me, in front of - and in opposition to - my distress/affliction/oppression/pain/anguish. You satisfy my shakenness with rich anointing oil; my cup runs over with satisfaction. (You fully satisfy me.)


Surely, only good (things & people) and kindness/favour/mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life, and I will inhabit/abide in the dwelling of the self-Existent, uncreated, eternal God for ever.

As I opened my Max Lucado booklet, "In the footsteps of Jesus" today, I opened on these two pages, which are actually title pages for the next chapter of notes, photos and inspiration from Scripture, and have always passed  me by as such. Today these four words on the righthand page became very special:

What a wonderful Shepherd Jesus is - Lover of our souls, Carer, Protector, Guide, Friend

and our greatest Hope and Destiny!

A Small Booklet of Prayer

One of my current projects (besides painting ☺), is the making of a small booklet of prayer. That includes writing, compiling, illustrating, printing and... I want to bind it by hand, with a special, handmade cover. It has been a time-consuming, but very satisfying, project. I am more or less half-way now. It covers different themes, eg. Praise, the names of God, confession, forgiveness, the Blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God's purposes for our lives. For each theme there is a picture, a theme scripture, a short prayer, which is entirely based on relevant scriptures and a page for notes, also containing the Scripture references used.

Here is a small sneek preview of the contents of the pages I did today:

  

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

Ps 139:16

 

The Prayer:

How encouraging to know that your eternal purposes for me will stand. What a loving God you are, having good plans for me, plans to prosper me, not to harm me; plans to give me a hope and a future! I am so grateful as I ponder the fact that I am your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which you have prepared in advance for me to do. Thank you that, even though I may have many plans in my heart, it is your purposes for me that will prevail, because you work out everything in conformity with the purpose of your will.  

I pray that you direct my steps and bring divine appointments across my way. Thank you that you work in me to will and to act according to your good purpose!
 
The Scriptures used: 

Jer 29:11, Eph 2:10, Prov 19:21, Eph 1:11, Prov 20:24, Phil 2:13

The booklet will be printed in a square format, about 15 x 15 cm, and the outward beauty of it will lie in the  layout and the paper used. I intend making a few copies as gifts. (And I have other themes in mind for some follow-up booklets!) Once complete, I will post some pictures of it.

The Prayer Shawl

I received a very special item today, that I ordered a while ago: a PRAYER SHAWL, made in Israel, with the names of God on it! I am so excited about it!

I have recently resumed a little project that I started a while ago: compiling a little illustrated prayer booklet, printed on sepcial paper, and bound by hand, to give as gifts. I was busy with the pages  of praising God for all his wonderful characteristics revealed through his names in the Bible, when this lovely shawl arrived. God's timing is always PERFECT!

But the real reason why it is special, is because of the rich, wonderful symbolism hidden in it. God commanded the Israelites in Num 15:38 and Deut 22:12 to pu fringes (tsi-tsi), containing blue threads, on thei garments, to remind them to keep his commandments. This fringed garment (called a Tallit), is still used by Jews today, to cover themselves  when they pray. It serves as a sort of mini-"tent" , to separate oneself from the outside world. The two ends of the garment are called the "wings" of the garment.  (When you wear the garment, and lift up your arms, they form "wings") 

This meaning is also found in, "hide me under the shadow of your wings" (Ps 17:4), as well as in, "... and under his wings you will find refuge" in Ps 91:4). Isn't that Awonderful: God hiding us under the "wings" of his garment, shielding us from the world?  At the same time, it means that the tassels in the fringe of his garment - the everlasting laws and commandments of God - are there for our protection.  

Now, in Mal 4:2 God gave this promise: "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings."  Here, again, "wings" can refer to the wings of a garment. The woman with theissue of blood, in Matthew 9:20-22, knew this promise. She knew that the Messiah would have "healing in his wings" - that is: healing in the wings (tassels) of his garment. That is why she touched the hem of his garment!!! Jesus commended her for her faith, because her action proved that she believed that he was the Messiah promised in Mal 4:2! Aren't the wonders of God's word absolutely amazing!

This is not the end yet! Jesus was on his way to the daughter of Jairus, when the woman  touched him. He touches her and says, "Talitha Cumi!" - Little girl, rise! Even though Talitha here is a Greek word, it audibly links with the Jewish word, Tallit, referring to the fringed garment! It is also related to two Chaldeen words, Taleh, and Telah, which mean "covering" and "lamb" respectively. Here we have a covering (Tallit) again, and at the same time it reminds us that Jesus, the Lamb of Gog, brought us healing: of sin and of sickness. 

When God shows us wonders like this in his Word, I just want to join Paul in praise:

"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! . .  Who has known the mind of God? . . . for from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever, Amen!" (Rom 11:33-36)

I gleaned most of the above when John Francis gave a teaching about it on TV. He also wrote a book, which is available on several bookshops on the Web. If you Google, "Prayer Shawl John Francis", you will find several of them.

At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tallit you can read about the modern day Tallit.

A very helpful tool in Bible Study is the E-SWORD, which can be downloaded FOR FREE. It contains the complete Strong's Concordance, as well as several other tools, like commentaries, maps, etc. I urge you to go and have a look!

Your Joy is my Strength

A miraculous thing happens when you are persuaded that the God of the universe truly loves you personally, even with all your faults and failures. You see, love can bear all things, love can believe all things, love can hope in all things, and love can endure all things. This is the joy that becomes our strength.

(Tiffany Ann Lewis)

(Ps. The picture above is a web image, not one of my artworks.)

CREATE A MASTERPIECE!

"Order is what gives you the freedom to be creative. Order gives you the peace of mind you need to tune into God's supernatural frequencies and tap into divine inspiration. Without order you will be distracted with the cares and concerns of this life so that you cannot still your mind to hear God's voice.

"It is impossible to imagine and envision when you are overextended and stressed. You need to schedule time to purposefully paint the canvas of your life by investing in creative dreaming. Stop to think. Order your day so that you have the time and peace you need to create the masterpiece God has preordained for you. Make certain that you have scheduled time for praying, meditation, reading the Word of God, praise and worship. "

The above is a very short excerpt from a word by Cindy Trimm on The Elijah List (http://www.elijahlist.com/words/index.html). It is published under the heading: "Take control of your day". Cindy also writes books, which you can read more about on the above mentioned website.

Magazine Article

The Zululand Observer, an local area newspaper published twice a week, issues a free magazine, the GETit, with the newspaper once a month, in which they normally do a profile of a local personality. this time they chose me! Here are the cover page and the article:

(If you click on the article it will enlarge enough to read)

You Have Ordained Praise

I have been painting lots of animals lately, and felt I wanted to paint something more expressive, for a change. I chose to make a painting around a theme that I have been meditating on:

Ps 8:2 "...you have ordained praise.. To silence the foe and the avenger."

I knew I wanted light, darkness and flowers in it. Here it is:



Sometimes, when I make a spontaneous, intuitive painting like this, the painting starts communicating back to me, once completed. Here are some of my thoughts inspired by the words and the painting:

God ordained praise. He puts it in our hearts and we offer it back up to Him. Praise is a powerful weapon, piercing the pitchblackness of our obstacles en enemies, reaching right into the throne room of heaven, until His glory is all we see, and darkness dims in the gleam of his Glory.
Flowers glorify God, purely by virtue of being what they are - manifestations of the creative breath of God, bearing the signature of His nature & glory. Lives lived according to God’s initial intentions and purposes do the same - they become songs of praise above the noise of mediocrity and everything that is anti-God, streaks of light pointing to the glory of Truth and Grace.

Let everything that has breath, PRAISE the Lord!!