April 21, 2021
“Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything He does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness.”
Ephesians 5:26-27 (MSG)
~ Today is the last Sunday of 2020, and what a year? For many, there was the loss of family members/friends, jobs, and businesses. There has been a change in the way we worship, conduct business, and simply a loss of the ways we live our lives. It has tested the very fabric of our lives and reveals how firmly we are stitched together by the hand of God.
~This reminds me of a ministry, “Prayers & Squares” that I initiated at a previous church ministry. The first hour was devoted to intercessor prayer. The second hour is committed to quilting and fellowship creating various quilt designs representative of God’s tapestry of a diverse family of patchwork – in diversity, not uniformity, which are the patterns of God’s handiwork. Approximately 50 hours of Scriptural patchwork composed the first quilt, which was presented to a resident in a nursing home.
~ Over the past year, how has your life represented the handiwork of God? Some people spin the fabric of fine linen of a righteous life, while others find their lives unraveling or becoming tangled on knots and snarls.
How resilient have you been to the snarls and tangles of the past year or
life itself? How would you classify your life? Was it:
~ tailor-made – well woven with patterns from the hand of the Master Designer.
~ stain-resistant – resisting whatever life throws refusing to be stained by sin.
~ flame-retardant – to be able to pass through the fiery trials that will come as to test and develop your faith for God’s glory, praise, and honor.
Does the fabric of your life represent the touch of the Master Designer?
RX: A STABLE ♥️ HEART
“Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.” 1 Peter 1:7 (MSG)
FATHER GOD: Thank You for being our Master Designer. Take the pieces of my life and Stitch them together according to Your will. Help us to yield to the pricks of Your needle so that Your stitches may surround us with the pattern of Your love Help us to allow You to order the squares of our lives and the way You want to pattern us by Your design So that others will know You quilted us, in the Precious, Powerful and Preeminent Name of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord, Amen