Does your anchor hold?

robert said...
I see you posted the hymn "My Anchor Holds" some years ago. It caught my attention this morning because today is the 95th anniversary of the death of William Martin, the author. I trust that in your own life your anchor still firmly holds. God bless.
Sunday, August 30, 2009 8:44:00 AM

keeper said ...
Ah Robert! YES, my Anchor still holds more firmly than it did back in September 2005! When my life gets out of whack or I am feeling low, I turn to the Word of God to fill up on the Joy of the Lord. What an Anchor! As I have aged, all that satisfies is what is True and Solid. That can only be found in God and His Word...

The old hymns ring so purely in my heart's ear. Thank you for stopping by. Your simple comment has boosted my weary blog days =)

My Anchor Holds
©

sunshine & persimmon ...

The final push started with sunshine yellow and persimmon orange yarn sat in their own bins but beside each other. There in the local craft store the dots where lining up. The fact she likes purses, color, and fall is coming all made my decision easy to make yet I dragged my heels because I have no confidence in what I make especially a new concept.

I started with the loom several years ago when it made knitting easy for me to teach myself and make it a go. I made hats and scarves but this year my little bro got me a knitting book on purses. I have been in such a craze with my crocheting Amigurumi that this really cool book has been sitting in the corner of my mind marinating waiting for me to make a commitment. I love purses and bags so why not try to translate the knitting instructions to the loom. I already have some loom books and online resources that will help me come with the translation...

I decided on a wave pattern using a loom of a multiple of 12 stitches (green loom with 36 pegs). The wave was 6 rows of at least 12 stitches. I saw a white ribbon with yellow, orange, and a rose color so I was going to do the purse in orange with a stripe of yellow with the rose in the wave. When I took it off the loom, I saw a mistake and I didn't like the rose wave so much and I didn't like the excess yarn in the back so I took it apart and started again. I also made it smaller with about 40 rows. The stripe is still yellow but without the rose wave. I am not sure if I will put the rose yarn in there as an accent or if I will use the ribbon. I took a black and white checkered bandana and made a lining I will sew inside. I have yet to finish it. I am crocheting round circles for the flap. I will either crochet or loom knit a strap. I am thinking of embellishing the flap with flowers and yo-yo's. I hope to do all this tonight!

It might be wishful thinking on my part but I think it would be really cool to make a Japanese Amigurumi patterned mouse to nestle in the bottom of the purse for an extra little wow factor to the gift..... Time is running out! Or maybe I should do the Japanese Amigurumi patterned fish as it would fit the wave theme of the purse! I don't know! If I keep 'dinking' around I won't finish the purse!

Her birthday isn't until the 13th of September but we are celebrating tomorrow with Dad's birthday last week so I really want a completed project!!! Oh, remembering to take a picture would be topping on the cake! Funny, I don't care for orange but for the right kind of orange I shall make an exception!

empty or full?

There is a well in a quaint little town. Two buckets wait on the ledge of this cistern to be of service to the thirsty townsfolk. As they draw up water, one bucket comes up overflowing with good clean water saying, “I am full only to be emptied.” The other bucket goes down into the good clean water saying, “I am empty only to be filled up.”

God's Gift ...

Dear Heavenly Father,
You know I have been struggling with the lack of words. Words that might have been said to show Your Light, to be salt, to be a witness. Yesterday when she was questioning the validity of Your Word, I bubbled forth. It may have been 2 sentences but I had to say the truth.

I could not have done this without the daily intake of Your Precious Word. Thank You for Your Ever Present Help.

It is never about offending another but it is about offending You and about holding true to my love relationship with You. I want Your Face to delight over Your little girl expressing her love for You even if it is a stench to the unbeliever. It is a lovely fragrance to me and a very precious treasure.

''It is a gift for us to take.''

Just a simple sentence for You. I ask for more little steps even if I am a shy girl quaking in her little flip flops because this GIFT of SALVATION is too great to keep to myself. I want others to know YOUR PEACE...

always Yours

lacking words ...

Words can be tied up in a ball lying in the dark corner of my mind. Words sometimes just vanish in thin air like a bubble drifting away on a spring breeze. Words can shout within my 'mind cave' at a deafening pitch but I am the only one hearing as others babble on. Words can be silent until I am alone and tumble around me like 100 beach balls falling down the stairs at me who is crouching at the bottom. Words sometimes just don't mean a thing or maybe they are just so treasured that I don't want them to be diminished by careless hands like those who touch butterfly wings.

Please words - make peace with me... I won't hurt you. I am the one who is hurt... I have not forgotten you amongst my other passions and crafts. You are my first love. Please don't desert me like all the others have. Without expression, I shall wither and surely die. It is harder and harder to breathe....

get bug ...

Last month I bought 'Amigurumi Two' online because of the best deal found and the lack of local craft stores having it or allowing for discount. I also got two other packages in a week's time. I think I got bit by the online-packages-by-mail bug! When my quest to find "hana-ami flower loom' and yo-yo flower makers bottomed out, I got fed up from of making trips and having to come home frustrated.

So I thought that I would allow for a purchase this month for a Knitting Board book that only can be gotten online. Then next month I would get Snow Leopard & the 'hana-ami flower loom'. Then maybe I would stop because of the holiday season that is coming up quick and the pennies needing to stretch out a bit.

Problem - I was talking about the Chronological Bible I began reading in June to my little bro. He got excited because he wanted to try reading the Bible that way. I was going to give him the info but then I thought what a great 'just because' gift for him! However, one thing leads to another - especially when I begin to do comparative shopping between stores. I start putting in other little things in the search box like the Queensland series by Bonnie Leon. I was going to read them from the Library but what are you to do when you can get two of the books for 2.99 each?

So my list grows longer, the finds add up, and the bank empties! Ahh, one thing adds to another. I just need to reign myself in here and behave! So I bookmark for a later date and off I go to dream and scheme.... O, maybe that is the problem! Like all morning I have been thinking of a purse design for a prezzie for my niece in sunshine yellow and persimmon orange yarn. Wondering if I can pull it off and do it in a weeks time!

projection?

I am a learner by nature. Not only do I take my own personal lessons but I take what others say and even their journeys and internalize them so that I can learn w/o all the drama and pain. All good but there is something I came into this week that has me take a step back first before testing it in my life to see if there needs to be a change or not.

I have noticed that people project their paths onto me. I had one person say that I was not honest enough. I have come to realize that this is probably an issue this person has not dealt with in their own life. Why would this person leave without a reason? I call that not being man enough and honest enough to explain ones action!

Another projected her internal conversation with someone that she is having a problem with to so she can practice what she is going to say to that person. She went on and on about how it builds up the negative and when the actual conversation happens it isn't that bad. Well, my internal conversations are NOT like that. It just 'erks' me that people think and put there own stuff onto me.

Another was just talking about shy and how parents can have an influence on it in a bad way. OH Boy! Not something to say to me because I am shy and I had spent a good part of my life trying to change it. Plus, being out of sorts with my life at the moment, I began to internalize it. Then I realized that I need to step back first and figure out if people are projecting or if it is really something I need to address....

To be successful at this, I must bring the pain to Jesus. He will then become my Protector and Teacher.... not man...

what is wisdom?

Oh boy! In this day in age a believer must stay in the word at all times! One of my biggest blessings that I have been thanking God for is the ability to read and have the Bible for myself! I do not need to take someone else's word for it. Over the past few years I have really dug myself deep within the Word. I am more alive than I have ever been. At any time that I feel down and out, my first steps is to the Word. I have been more aware of God's steadfast care and love than I have ever felt before.

It is a sad thing to see a so called shepherd of the flock love Jesus Christ, the servant do-gooder, more so than God the Father who is often described as a jealous lover in the Old Testament. You cannot have one over the other. You may not fully understand one aspect of God over the others but it is a must to hold to all parts of the God-Head. All religions except for a born again believer dismiss Jesus Christ as a prophet but to dismiss God the Father blows my mind. But I am blessed with a good father. I have no problems believing in God the Father. Yet I yearn especially for the men who had bad fathers but are fathers themselves to really look at their own good father feelings they have for their children and see God the Father.

I have gotten off the path of where I was going. I don't know how to address this...

James 3:13-18 was the scripture and what really jerked my chain was the fact that it was called 'Wisdom of Jesus Christ'. I am sitting there with my Bible in hand testing what was spoken. See I firmly believe that good works is a bi-product of my faith not something I should be told to do over and over again. James is telling us what the fruit/good works looks like not telling us must do this if you are to have a saving faith. Faith must come first! God has said over and over again that a good person can do good things but it will amount to zero if there is no Salvation! James said that there is a wisdom that does not come from above but in Proverbs the opposite of wisdom is folly. You must watch what you say and you must use the whole Word not just the NT.

I love how God speaks to me through His Word. While James & Wisdom was being misrepresented, I was in Proverbs 9:10.
"The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom, & the Knowledge of the Holy One is Understanding." {{I can hardly sit still!}} There must be honor and respect that is so lacking in this age. There must be a quiet in order to hear His Whisper! But what do you find? A lot of excess NOISE and spinning. You cannot do anything unless you are filled up! Isn't this what has been said to the mothers? {{feeling the need to pace}} You cannot fill up on God when there is so much distractions. When you haven't searched God in His own Word and do not have an intimate relationship (salvation) and you go out to do your good deed, you are only vainly bringing glory to yourself.

After a family discussion and a week to mull over this wisdom - works thing, I hope to process my thoughts here and come up with questions. Questions are the way to learn.
Q1: What comes first - works or wisdom?
Q2: Is James telling us what kind of works gives us wisdom or is James describing the wise by what they do?
Q3: How do we become wise? good works or coming to feet of the Almighty God & reading , learning, & obeying Him?

Adrien Rogers put it in a nice formula:
faith that knows
+
faith that grows
+
faith that shows
='s
fruitful.

Fruitful is a bi-product of our faith. That is how others know you are rooted in God! And our fruit will bring God glory and not ourselves.


As a believer we must TEST EVERYTHING & HOLD TO WHAT IS TRUE
(I Thess 5:21).

Julie & Julia

I would give this movie an 8. I did have a higher number in mind but I just cannot make myself read the book. I have taken two peeks and have landed on parts that are not to my liking. Crazy but that is me.

What made me like this movie is because the story rings true for me. I am a decade past Julie but I have been struggling with making a go of my dreams. Julie is a girl of 30 at a depressing job and her friends are successful. Talking it over with her husband, she decides in 365 days to make 500 something recipes and blog about it each day. Her dream to write is on the inside just wanting to bust out. This true story has a happy ending of a book and a movie as a cherry on the top.

The movie is two stories intertwined yet telling one story. Both Julie & Julia wanted to find something to do. They choose cooking. And in the end found themselves! It is not just a story about these two women but a story of their relationship with their husbands. I found this side path very warm and delightful. It goes to show that not only behind good men are good women but that behind every good woman is a good man. I long for that but single girls can make their dreams blossom too, right?

I recommend one Kleenex for this movie if you find yourself with dreams wasting especially if you are a frustrated writer like me. However, most are going to find it a happy story which it is indeed. It just struck a chord with me and has been intensified to where it is deafening. I have been going around trying to figure what I can do in 365 days to transform my own life!

I was amazed at her blog journey. Of course it is a happy moment to find good and friendly commenter but does that really exist in the real world? I guess so but it not in my blog world which makes me wonder if maybe I am not a good writer after all. Then her followers started to send her food items! What? Wow! Now that must be a real boost. {{Sighs}}

I am thinking that it might be a movie for my library...

Julie & Julia

***There is one parental disclaimer. The fword is used once.

©

the Potter's wheel ...

Jeremiah, the prophet of God, was told to visit the local potter shop to observe. The pot on the wheel was marred and the potter punched it down to start over and create a pot better suited. God asked His people if He could not do as the potter? (Jeremiah 18) We are to be moldable in His Hands but how often do we find ourselves fighting God and deliberately lowering the His Royal Standard and His High Calling upon us?

God tells Jeremiah to buy a clay pot and take some elders and priests of His people out near the Potsherd Gate. This place is the place where God's people defiled their commitment to God by prostituting themselves to other gods. God had Jeremiah throw down the clay pot and as it laid there shattered in pieces, Jeremiah told of how God would smash His people just like the clay pot that cannot be repaired. (Jeremiah 19)

I have been reading Jeremiah of late. Again God is harping on the issue of idol worship. It is like He is shouting because I have come to part of the Word and day after day of reading it is about God's jealous lover's wrath upon His people. The wrath is horrid! Being a first born, lover of rules, and fearful of authority, I cringe at their stiff neck! Then I look at my place and time to figure out where my own idol worship might be. If God is shouting here and I am just like every other person where lessons are hard learned and often repeated in our lives, I better be listening and taking heed myself.

The Church also needs to take this warning to heart as well. We have dumbed down the songs and dumbed down the pastors. We would rather be like everyone else much like the Israelites who wanted to be like every other nation (I Sam 8:20). This should be a warning! Our 'Sabbath' really needs to be viewed as a wedding ceremony / marriage commitment. Our standards need to be raised high because we have a HIGH CALLING. (Phil 3:14) Much is expected from us... I want to be a pot of honor (Rom 9:21).

in His Hands

vanished ...

Interesting story about a girl who met a boy on a blind date 59 years ago. They fell in love and were engaged. The boy gave her an engagement ring and went off to the Korean War. She sent letters but the letter were opened, read, and were sent back! She figured that was the end and started a life with another man. When her husband had died, the daughter looked up her mother's old boyfriend. Amazingly the old boyfriend was found. He too was a recent widower. They started up their relationship again and got married. She goes back to her home to get her clothes and comes back to find the guy is gone. She is devastated.

I can say I understand the feeling of lost, wanting an old love back, and possibly reuniting. I know because I have had a special someone up and disappear without giving a reason.

However, I know life is a journey. There is so many steps taken without that person and so many changes in my life that how can I expect that person to be the same person if I have grown and changed myself? All I have of this person is the very limited years when we exchanged correspondence and calls. Years have gone by and I still think of looking him up. It isn't really to reconnect but to check up on him to see how he is doing with his life. I hope he would recognize me and welcome me and yes, start up the old dialogue but that is wishful thinking. {{sighs}}

All I have is the guy I once knew. All his dreams, hopes, and his life stories. So I treasure them and shower him with prayers. That is one connection that will never go away - he is a believer. We will meet one day. I had only hoped to add many more memories here on earth before we crossed to Heavenly shores. Leaving him in God's Hands daily...

Maybe this is a reminder that it takes the other person to choose you back in love's equation. Maybe there is something wrong with the other person and God knew best then as well as now this isn't a good gift for a life time but just a good gift for the moment...