Knit and Crochet Bible Study

Tag: christ

  • Stitched in Christ

    After much procrastination, prayer, hard work, editing, and more prayer, a second ‘Knit and Crochet Bible Study Devotional/Journal’ is now available in Kindle and paperback formats on Amazon.

     

    Books

     

    I have no big testimony. I live a simple life. I often wonder how God can use someone who enjoys yarn crafts and loves teddy bears. Then I found the verse in Matthew 18 about seeking Him ‘like a little child’. To me this means look for His love, mercies, and grace in the simple things.

     

    This is not intended as a deep study of Scripture. It is designed to encourage you to “be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10); to seek Him in the small things, even in the gift of knitting and crochet He has instilled in you. It is designed to encourage you to seek a deeper relationship to become ‘Stitched In Christ’.

     

     

    I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery.  Col 2:2 MSG

  • Repeating the Mistakes

    I am working on a pattern which included the instruction to complete a number of rows in stockinette stitch, then switch to a smaller size needle to begin a ribbing pattern.

    Easy enough. I finished the final purl row of the stockinette and picked up the smaller needle. I completed one row of ribbing then turned the project and continued in pattern. OOPPSS!! I forgot to pick up the 2nd smaller needle and completed 7 rows with two needles of different size. Time to frog!!!!

    I am working on socks, so of course a 2nd one had to be made. I MADE THE SAME MISTAKE AGAIN!!! Ugh.

    It would be okay if this happened only in knitting, but it doesn’t.  I decide to quit eating junk food, then find myself finishing off a bag of candy; I decide to exercise daily and realize it has been a week; I vow to stand firm in the faith and pass by an opportunity to share Christ’s love once again.

    I find myself stuck in the mire of my failures. If I focus on those failures I will definitely repeat them.  Matthew 6:21 tells us “where your treasure is,  your heart will be also.” That could apply to where your mind is as well.  If your mind is on the negative, the heart will follow.

    I must force myself to “forget what is behind, strain toward what is ahead” as Paul proclaims in Phil 3:13 or perhaps as Isaiah 43:18 declares “forget the former things, do not dwell on the past.”  If I do not, I will become depressed and withdrawn.

    Paul continues “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (vs 14).  Today I open my eyes to a new day and new opportunities. This day has not yet been written. Yesterday’s mistakes are gone.  “I will sing of your love and strength each morning (Ps  59:16)

    It is morning, a new day. Bring it on Lord!! As long as we are stitched together, there will be no frogging.

    signature

  • Sharing God Through Knitting and Crochet

     Show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom. Matthew 5:19 MSG

     

    As another year of Bible Study begins at my local church I look at myself and feel so unworthy of  speaking of God’s Word.  I fear I will fail Him.

    This led me to look over the second Knit and Crochet Bible Study Book.  It is a look at the Proverbs 31 woman.

    The class at my church, and I believe many others that host a Knit and Crochet Bible Study, is multi-generational. 

    Becoming the Proverbs 31 woman is a journey, a road traveled with twists and turns and even a few detours. It is not a journey you need to take alone.  Working alongside women of all ages helps us to grow emotionally and spiritually. Titus 2:1 tell us Your job is to speak out on the things that make for sound doctrine.   It is my prayer these studies lead you to that sound doctrine.

    Then verses 3-5 says Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness.  By looking at them the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives.

    But the older woman can also learn from the younger. Sitting side by side, many find their lives are woven together through their crafting,  through God’s love, through life experiences. With one simple shared gift, knit and crochet, they open a dialog with each other; one that may not have opened in other circumstances.

    The Proverbs 31 woman is not born the perfect woman you read about. She grows into that woman through work, friendships, prayer, experience, and learning from others.

    Perhaps in your local group you see a woman you look upon as The Proverbs 31 Woman. You admire her emotional strength, her family love, her ability to knit or crochet without even looking at her work.  Talk to her. Learn about her life and how she came to this place in her life; the struggles she endured; the losses she has experienced; how she learned to look to God in all things.  She is not now the woman she used to be.  But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me and not without results.. yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace. 1Corinthians 15:10 NLT

    Why are we doing all this? Read Titus chapter 2 verses 12 and 13 in the Message. We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears.

    You are a beautiful woman, beauty that radiates from inside.  What matters is not your outer appearance-the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes-but your inner disposition. Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in.  I Peter 3:3-4 MSG   

    With the passage of time you have grown from youthful vanity to honorable womanhood.   Use this time together in the presence of other women to learn how to be obedient to the Lord.

    Though I fear failing Him, I continue on, demonstrating God’s love as He allows. He is still working on me to become the woman He desires me to be. I am an older woman to some, who watch me from afar as a witness to demonstrate God’s command. I am also a younger woman to others as I watch them and learn how to walk pleasing to God.

    You knit me together in my mother’s womb Psalm 139.13 says. God has not put down his knitting needles yet. There are panels to complete, seaming to be done, a decorative crocheted edging to be added. He is still stitching you and me into a tapestry of life of which we are not even aware.

    So, I will continue to knit, to crochet and demonstrate God’s glorious love with those around me.  I thank the Lord every day for accepting me as His child and allowing me to speak of His greatness.

     Show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom. Matthew 5:19 MSG

  • Salvation Colors – Green

    I sit here looking at the snow, dreaming of spring. I am cuddled up in my snuggie and working on some knit and crochet projects to add to Book 2 so I can make it available for purchase soon.

    In the meantime, I am looking over the instructions for the last panel of the Salvation Colors Afghan/Lapghan.  Green in this ensemble represents our growing and maturing in Christ.

    Unlike our physical bodies, spiritual maturity comes at many ages; depending on when Christ is accepted into your life.  Many people then remain as babies, satisfied with milk and don’t grow. But Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:11. When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man I put childish ways behind me.  We must mature, grow beyond our comfort zones and step out for Christ.  The names of these patterns seemed so appropriate for the green maturity panel; Wheatear and Sweet Pea.

    How are you maturing in Christ today?

     

    To download the stitch patterns for this panel, click here

    Next month I will post the edging and seaming to complete the project.  Whether you chose to use the stitch patterns of your own or you chose to use other patterns, it is the colors and the story that matters. Are you prepared to tell your own story of accepting Jesus Christ in your life?

  • Seeking Wisdom

    I have always thought that wisdom referred to a wealth of knowledge, that a wise man meant a smart man. 

    Recent study has opened my eyes to understanding that wisdom and knowledge are two separate things.  Look at these verses as examples:

    Solomon is speaking to God in 2 Chronicles 1:10, Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people. and God replied in verse 12 wisdom and knowledge will be given to you.

    Ecclesiastes 2:26  To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness.

    So then, I asked, what is wisdom?

    Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom

    Job asks in 28:12 and 20 Where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? He considers then the worth of such and that it cannot be found in the land of the living (verse 13).  It can’t be bought, it is of such high value, it cannot be measured. He concludes in verse 29 The fear of the Lord-that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.

    These verses intrigued me. If they are one in the same, why are they listed separately by Solomon and by God? Then David and Job point out wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

    I checked out the definition of knowledge at dictionary dot com and read acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation, then I looked up wisdom and read knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action.

    Proverbs 2:10 helps differentiate the two.For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Again, two different values.

    Knowledge is information obtained by study, wisdom is knowing what is right and just. Right and just, that describes God!! Isaiah 45:21 There is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior. With God’s wisdom He who does what is right is righteous, just as he (God) is righteous.” 1 John 3:7.

    Proverbs is a book filled with wisdom, why we should embrace wisdom, and warnings against rejecting it. The book of Proverbs is 31 chapters. Why not spend the 31 days of January reading one chapter a day and finding for yourself God’s wisdom. Allow it to “enter your heart” as you begin this new year.

    I challenge you to seek to fill your heart with wisdom and grow in the knowledge and understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.