Knit and Crochet Bible Study

Category: Encouragement

  • Through My Headset–Kingdom Woman

    I recently started trying to do some light workouts. To encourage me I turn on my audiobooks. During last month I  struggled through these workouts to the sound of Tony Evans and his daughter, Chrystal Evans Hurst, reading “Kingdom Woman”.

    I enjoyed this book very much. Each chapter was a story and application to any woman’s life. This part is read by Tony Evans. This is followed by a personal story by his daughter. She becomes very open and real during “Chrystal’s Chronicles”.

    It is difficult being a woman, and in today’s world the demands on her are enormous. Does God care she is exhausted from getting the kids up, fed and off to school or daycare, then off to work where she is completing her job responsibilities as well as planning kids transportation to evening activities, dinner arrangements, and then when home also help with homework and cleaning up the kitchen? Yes, he does.

    If you are a woman, no matter what stage of life, I recommend this uplifting and encouraging book. Read or listen, you will be blessed.

    “You are much more valuable than you may even realize. You are a child of the King; you are uniquely called and positioned to live devoted to God as one of His primary agents for advancing His purposes on earth. That is a high calling, and He will enable you to live it well. Never forget your value. Never settle for less than who you truly are.” —Kingdom Woman

  • Felted in Jesus

    Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. Hebrews 10:36

    (download a copy of the lesson FELTED here)

    Project Suggestion: knit or crochet a square with wool and felt it, then cut out a shape to use as a reminder you are felted.

    Wool felts with water and agitation which causes the scales on the wool to swell, rub against each other and bind together. This process creates a denser, shrunken fabric. Felting is the name of the process that give us the finished product.

    Have you ever noticed in Bible stories that a person is often put in situations that can be described as felted, often rubbing against someone or something? In the end, they become stronger in the Lord.

    Think about King David. Before he slew Goliath, before he became king he was a shepherd boy. How did David know he could take down Goliath? By the many years he spent protecting the sheep from wolves, bears, and other torments. He had been in danger, in agitating situations, many times and had learned how to handle himself. (see 1 Samuel 17:12-30)

    What about Shadrach, Meshach and Abendnego? Imagine the agitation they felt standing in a fiery furnace. (see Daniel 3)

    Ruth went through the loss of her husband, leaving her family and hometown. She cared for her mother-in-law and moved to a country where she was an unwanted foreigner. She went on to be a part of the lineage of Jesus Christ. (Read the biblical book of Ruth for the full story)

    Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. He gained the confidence of the Pharoah and was promoted to being second in command. He was imprisoned when Pharoah’s wife falsely accused him of rape and still, years later, he was back in a position of authority again. Talk about being agitated.

    What other Bible persons can you name? How about persons in your life you have witnessed experience this felting in their life? Do you remember Martin and Gracia Burnham? They were missionaries from Kansas who serves as missionaries in the Phillippines. They were captured and held hostage for over a year by a militant group of Muslims in 2001. Martin was killed during their rescue. (You can read the story in Gracia’s book In the Presence of My Enemies. You can also read more about this on her website GraciaBurnham.org .) They endured because they were felted with the Lord.

    How have you been felted? Have people around you created the hot water and agitation in your life? God doesn’t give you the people you want, He gives you the people you NEED – To help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you and to make you into the person you were meant to be.

    Can these discouraging periods of our times remove us from God? Read Romans 8:35-39.

    Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written: For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    Once a piece is felted it cannot be torn. It can be cut and shaped as desired. Once you are felted with God, nothing can rip you away from Him.

    Are you felted into Jesus?

  • BROKEN AND SEPARATED

    Is there a relationship in your life that has been severed? You used to be so close but something came between you and now you no longer speak? A boundary was broken whether in word or deed, that could not be repaired. It could be a family member, a loved one, a friend.

    I am sure there was great pain when the break came in your relationship no matter what the reason. You regretted the cause and cried over the loss of someone you care about so dearly. And along with that person, there is also a separation with those near that person.

    God experienced such a break.

    He had gently, carefully and with His hands formed man and woman. He created a beautiful place to share with them. Yet they crossed the one boundary set before them. In Genesis 2:16-17 God tells Adam,

    “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

    We learn in the next chapter that one day they did eat of that tree. And because of this they were banned from the garden, but more importantly, they had caused a great rift between them and God. The relationship they had before was now destroyed.

    God wants that relationship back. But it can’t be like before. Once the barrier was built a way needed to be made to break it down.

    Have you tried to devise ways to break the barriers built by rejections in your life? If you did break them, did it come at a price? Even if you moved forward in the relationship without mentioning the “situation” you still always feel the pulling of that weight. You cannot “unbreak” a vase once it is shattered. So it goes with relationships as well.

    “You iniquities have separated you from your God” Isaiah 59:2

    There was only one way to repair the relationship between God and man: a sacrifice. He made the first sacrifice when He found Adam and Eve hiding in fear because they were naked. He made them clothes of animal skin. He sacrificed an animal so they could be dressed.

    God prepared, from the beginning, the sacrifice that would be required to restore that relationship: Jesus Christ.

    He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. Isaiah 59:16

    How would we know when this salvation came? The Old Testament is filled with hundreds of descriptions of this Savior. Many prophecies are detailed by God so there would be no question of His coming.

    Professor Peter Stoner served as Chairman of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College until 1953 and Chairman of the Science Division of Westmont College from 1953 to 1957. He is best known for his teaching in evidences of Bible prophecies. He calculated the probability of one man fulfilling only a handful of the prophecies made in the Old Testament was 10 to the 17th power. The probability of fulfilling only 48 of these prophecies are 10 to the 157th power.

    Jesus fulfilled every single prophecy. Why such explicit detail in the foretelling of this Savior? So the true salvation would be clearly visible to all who look for Him.

    God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. Acts 17:27

    We are separated from God by our sin, but we have a way back to him. That way is Jesus Christ.

    Just like your relationship with your family, your best friend, your spouse, your bible study group, a relationship must be nurtured. You must spend time, talk with each other, open up, love and trust. You must participate for a relationship to be complete. So goes your relationship with Christ.

    What does a relationship with Christ look like?

    How do you know if you have that relationship?

    What do you do to maintain that relationship?

    What will you do to draw closer to him?

  • Anger’s Foothold

    And “don’t sin by letting anger control you”……for anger gives a foothold to the devil. Eph 4:26-27NLT

    When this verse came across my daily reading today it hit a nerve.

    Struggling with chronic pain, I have come to realize that anger sets in most when I lose control of the pain.

    It is a daily struggle to keep my focus off the pain, but some days it seems impossible.

    During these times I have to fall to my knees and cry out to God. Where I have no control, He is in control. My focus goes off the anger, off the pain, and onto Him. If I don’t, anger can set off a series of sins through harsh words, broken promises, and incomplete responsibilities.  Others are hurt by my anger response.

    The verse does not say ‘anger is a sin’, it says ‘do not sin by letting anger control you’.

    I must step away from anger when it seeks to lead me into sin. In stepping away from the anger, I must step toward something – that something must be God for me to feel peace.

    I have told you these things, so that in my you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. – John 16:33

    Giving in to the anger is a choice. Realizing and accepting the anger is a choice I must make.

    It’s a daily choice, sometimes even a minute-by-minute choice. I choose God’s peace.

    Lord, I cannot do this alone. Thank you for those around me who hold me accountable. Thank you for loving and accepting me even in my sinful nature. Forgive me for my sin and help me to continue, daily, to choose you and your peace. Amen.

  • My One Word for 2017

    I first got the idea after reading the book “One Perfect Word” by Debbie Macomber. For several years I chose one word which would be my word for the year.  When I did this, that word resonated throughout the year and helped me to focus.

    Last year I didn’t choose one and as I look back at 2016 it feels undefined.

    So I am choosing a word for 2017.  The word is ‘committed’.  I am committed to stepping out; I am committed to moving forward; I am committed to following the path God has laid before me; I am committed to believing I am not walking alone; I am committed to me; I am committed to action.

    So many thoughts, ideas, and desires have flooded my mind and my heart.  It is time to get them out of my head, off the paper, and into action.  I may fail, yes. But I may succeed.  Either result is frightening. But I have committed to facing the results, no matter what it may be.

    Do you celebrate a word for the year? What word did you choose?

  • Through My Headset–Crash the Chatterbox

    “..and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5

    Recently my small group did a 6 week study that so impacted my life I have to share it.

    After we completed the study I plugged in the headphones to hear the book, read by the author.  I particularly liked that what the stories the author used in the video were not the same as in the book, so I am not just rehashing what we had covered.

    Pastor Steven Furtick really shed light on that chatterbox we listen to in our heads.  The best visual I could think of to describe the chatterbox and its constant badgering in my head is the old video game Break Out (is that what it’s called?). A  ball goes from one side of the screen to the other, breaking down bricks of the wall, smashing against them and moving in another direction. 

    In my head the ball bounces back and forth, breaking my concentration, my confidence, my self worth. Each brick it smashed created dozens of shards that attacked me, telling me I a failure, I cannot do anything right, no one wants to listen to me, I am nothing.

    In the video series, Pastor Furtick interviews “The Chatterbox” and brings this imaginary attacker to life. By seeing the chatterbox as someone I could face, I could challenge, it gave me strength to say “shut up, I am not listening to you”.

    CTCH-02

    I have heard and read many articles telling me to just trust God and everything would be okay. But I found that voice in my head was louder than God’s voice. God was speaking, but in the loud chatter of all the lies, I wasn’t hearing His truth.

    Now I tune in to God’s voice, like a dial on the radio. I am actively practicing shutting out that chatterbox that tells me I am nothing. That chatterbox that is filled with lies and deceit.

    It has to be a conscious effort. It doesn’t happen naturally, yet. But like everything else, I must continue to daily do this, it must become as natural to me as breathing. I must choose to listen to the truth of God’s Word, just as I choose to listen to my husband, child, or friend as we sit in a crowded coffee shop. I tune out the noise of the coffee shop to hear the one I am with; so I must tune out the chatterbox to hear the God of my life.grandma_ghetto_blaster_lg_clr

    If you have a chatterbox in your head, I highly recommend “Crash the Chatterbox” book and study.  In fact, you can go to You Tube and watch as Pastor Furtick delivers this message in a 6 part series while you are working on your latest knit/crochet project.

    Tune out the world, tune in to God.

    “..and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5

  • I Am A W.I.P

    Romans 12:2  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.

    If  you have been working knit or crochet projects for any time at all, you are familiar with the term WIP. It stands for “Work In Progress”.   In my home I have several closets which have become hide-aways for various WIP projects.

    I place this projects in these hide-away places when I find an error in my work that I do not wish to address; or I have become bored with the direction the pattern is going. Sometimes I do so because I have found a project that I think is more interesting. In other words, I am not satisfied with the project.

    It’s not only the projects that get hidden away.  I am learning that I, too, tend to hide. It could be because I feel I have been wronged, or that I have done wrong. It could be that I don’t feel worthy or that I want something different. I want what someone else has, whether it is a physical object or a perceived emotional state; either way I am comparing myself to others. I am not satisfied with who I am. I am hiding because, in my mind, I am incomplete.

    The truth is, I am incomplete.  I am a work in progress. Hiding away doesn’t change that. Staying out in the open doesn’t change it either. I am God’s Masterpiece, unfinished, stitched more each day (Ephesians 2:10)!

    I may try hiding, yet unlike the projects I toss in the closet and forget they are there, God knows where I am and continues to work on me.  He reminds me not to seek the approval of those around me or to conform to others. I will never be satisfied because there will always be someone who will find a fault or disagreement with me.  He is stitching me with a fresh newness so that I may be satisfied in Him.

    God continues to work on the project that is me. He hasn’t given up on me and tossed me aside.  Even with what I consider flaws in my pattern, He sees them as design enhancements. He continues to weave Himself through the stitches each day with a fresh newness.

    It’s time to step into the light, unfinished, yet in progress, until completion.  My satisfaction is in Him.

  • My First Knit Crochet Bible Study Groups

    My First Knit Crochet Bible Study Groups
    I thought I’d use this month to share how I started my first groups. You could call it ‘the foundation row’. (for the story of how the Knit and Crochet Bible Studies started check out the about page on my website CLICK HERE)

    After compiling several ‘lessons’ I approached the Women’s Director of my church. She read the stories and really liked the idea. The church leaders agreed to try a semester to see if and how it would go over.
    We met in our church coffee shop where the ladies were allowed to sit in comfy chairs and on sofas instead of at a table like most other classes. This allowed for a very relaxed atmosphere.
    At our first meeting there were about 6 ladies and myself.  I gave a brief description of what the next few weeks would be like then launched into a knitting lesson. (The ladies had all been instructed to bring in a skein of yarn and set of needles.)  By the end of the evening, everyone had cast on and was working on the knit stitch. Over time, the purl stitch, increase, decrease, casting off and more were added as well as some crochet techniques.

    The routine after the first session was to have everyone working on their projects while I read the short lesson and then led a discussion.  During the first weeks there was a not a lot of discussion as many find it hard to knit/crochet and talk at the same time while in the early stages of learning. However, it wasn’t long before everyone could move their hands to the stitch and add their thoughts to the conversation without losing their place. Yes, we did learn to frog (rip it) during these episodes as well 🙂 
    By the next semester, getting started was a bit less hectic in my teaching of the craft as I now had some experienced knitters and crocheters. Instead of standing in the midst of several and trying to teach everyone, I could stand in the middle, demonstrate, and each new person would be alongside an experienced person who would help them one-on-one with what I was saying.

    Not all participants wanted to knit or crochet. We had one join our group who brought along a rug she was hooking and others brought in embroidery work.
    As in all groups, some excelled quickly into the craft; some had difficulty and lagged behind. The same applies to Bible Study and our individual relationship with Jesus Christ. We are all at various levels, no matter how long we have been involved.

    Have you hosted a Knit Crochet Bible Study?  What techniques worked for you? What didn’t?  I’d love to hear your stories.

  • Through My Headset – Precious In His Sight

    I recently ran across an audio series by Theresa Ingram, wife of Pastor Chip Ingram of Living on the Edge.  I downloaded the MP3 and PDF files and thoroughly enjoyed the “Precious In His Sight” series and teachings of Theresa.  I related so well to her words.

    The first part is titled “Mirror, Mirror On the Wall” and looks at  what God says is true about my appearance; I am Beautiful in Jesus’ Eyes.  I was created in God’s image. I am beautiful because He designed me, knows me intimately, and loves me. Though man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart.

    Part 2 is titled “From Cinderella to a Princess”, noting we are righteous in Jesus’ eyes. There is a difference in our lives before and after Christ.

    In part 3 you are “Born to be a Winner”. Theresa discusses how to experience in you what is true of you. What untruths do you tell yourself? What is true of you? I loved her question “what is tatooed on your mind?’   Your self-talk could be your biggest weapon satan will use against you.

    Finally, in part 4, appropriately titled “Wings” you are reminded how uniquely gifted and enabled by God to make a significant impact with your life. Yes, are can make an impact. She discusses the 4 road blocks we set up that hinder God from using us.

    I was very touched by this series. I heard myself in her stories.

    Once I finished I learned that there is an audiobook titled “Precious in His Sight” which is unabridged. The MP3 files are available through Amazon and the Living on the Edge website.

    I highly recommend this to every woman who has even the slightest bit of self-doubt.  Yes, God can use you and wants to use you. He can and wants to use me.

    This website, my desire to become a life coach and to begin public speak, along with my Knit and Crochet Bibles Studies, and my teddy bears are just the tip of the story He is unfolding in my life.

    What story is He unfolding in your life?

  • God’s Pattern

    Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me – a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. – 2 Timothy 1:13 (NLT)

     

    My name is BearyAnn and I am pattern hoarder. There, I said it.

    I have pattern books, flyers, pages and leaflets. My craft room has book shelves filled with them.  I have thousands of digital patterns saved. because ‘one day’ I will want to make it.

    I love patterns!  They are inspiring, they get me into a creative frame of mind and they build up because I don’t follow through. If I never obtained another pattern and crafted only from what I have, I would not live long enough to complete a small fraction of them.

    Having a pattern no more creates the item than paying for a gym membership gets me into shape without attending.  Or maybe like ‘sitting in a church doesn’t make me a Christian’.

    No matter how you look at it, these patterns are of no value until I apply them to yarn and hook or needle.

    Scripture tells us to ‘hold on to the pattern’ learned about our faith. But like my multitude of knit/crochet patterns, it must be applied.  That is what he means by ‘hold on to’; he is telling us to make this teaching a part of your life. The pattern offered up is shaped by ‘the faith and love that  you have in Christ Jesus.’

    How does that pattern show up in your life? Are the stitches in order? How is the tension of your stitched pattern? Does it reflect the faith and love you have of Christ ? What will you do to complete and display that pattern?