welkom........

i have a husband that i love dearly. he is just a husband, so of course he has all the standard shortcomings, but he does have one thing going - he likes to HOARD and keep things. he brought me 13 hardboard rectangles last year from work and said he was sure i could do something with it, iro my addiction. well, my previous post and my quest for new "off-page"projects for the Kareedouw ladies, made me grab one. and this is what it ended up looking like! the recipe is simple - painted the whole thing brown, added the scraps of paper with Gel medium, and coated the whole thing with Gel Medium. then i used my Heidi Swapp mask (again) and traced the letters and painted them with my Ranger Pitch Black Paint Dabber and a Nr 3 brush. added some Gold Liquid pearls to the letters and screwed the hooks in! ( i am always losing keys) took almost exactly 3 hours to finish - drying time is quite long! so it is a very patient process. i might have to think of something to keep the ladies busy with while it dries.
this whole process made me think of how we sometimes need to wait on God. and boy, that is a very HORRID process most of the time - as we mostly want things NOW!! our minister has been preaching for the past few weeks about how we are supposed to be prophets - spreading the word of God. today we had a different preacher, and he quoted from Ezekiel, where the Lord told Ezekiel that if he did NOT tell the people to turn to God so that they could be saved from Hell, He would hold it against Ezekiel. Ouch. Jeremiah was called when he was very young to warn the Israelites to turn away from sin, and he told God that he was too young and that he could not speak well. God told him that He had touched his tongue and that he would speak God's words, not his own. but where, do you ask me, does PATIENCE come in? well, we sometimes want to rush into things and not give God the chance to CHANGE us into what we are supposed to be. we wake up and reckon that today is the day, i am going to do everything perfect. then, the first phone call you get, you are snappy with the poor person on the other end of the line. then you wag a finger at the guy that ran the red robot. then you snap at your husband, and by 12pm, all your good intentions are ruined. you don't even think of spreading the Gospel - just look at what i had to put up with???? and the next morning comes, and you decide that it is not even worth trying - just see what happened yesterday, plus, people should know - aren't all people in my street saved? they sure go to church. not my problem. you know what? one day when you (hopefully) get to Heaven and stand in front of our Heavenly Father, and He asks you about your neighbour, or work colleague - are you going to say to the LORD -" But Lord, Peter/Suzie should have known. It was not my responsibility to spread the gospel to them - I thought you meant OTHER people." isn't that what we do? we give up after one try and then we reckon it is NOT our responsibility to spread the Gospel. well, i don't know about you, but i also doubted it, until i read the 4 Gospels again. JESUS gives the command, not a request ( if you want to, Mary, please will you spread the Gospel for Me?) NO, He says in Matthew 28:19: " Therefore, go and make disciples of ALL THE NATIONS". Mark 16:15 "and He told them,"Go into ALL THE WORLD and preach the Good News to EVERYONE". Luke 24:47 " with MY authority, take this message of REPENTANCE to ALL THE NATIONS.....: THERE IS FORGIVENESS OF SINS OF ALL WHO TURN TO ME" John 20:21 "As the Father has sent me, so I send YOU."
like any athlete, spreading the Gospel takes practice, patience and perseverance. you can't just not do it, because you don't feel like it, and you can't just stop because it takes too long (to dry!) or you are too tired! what if Jesus gave up on us? what if He just said one day " you know what, Cariena is just too much of an effort. every day she committs the SAME sin - I am sick and tired of forgiving her for that sin - she must just go to hell - get lost. there are better/easier people out there to forgive".
i am therefore going to endeavor this week to BE the Gospel to people and to believe that the Holy Spirit will guide me and put the right words in my mouth! what are you going to do with this week that our Father in Heaven is going to bless you with? waste it or work it? may you have a blessed week and remember to CREATE!!!!