“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
If not for today. Would the world even know what a cross is? #goodfriday
Jesus Loves You.
That’s it. That’s all that matters.
#divinecrosses #Jesuslovesyou #woodcrosses #woodcross #jesussaves
It was right there all long..
I’m cutting out the last of the Magnolia wood for the scripture blocks next Sunday. Right at the end of this first piece it lined up to leave the very end of one that Brandi tested burning on. Since we we first got these out of a garage almost 4 years ago we have racked our brains on what to use them for.
It didn’t hit me at first when I cut it off today either. I was too concentrated on what I was doing in cutting to really see what God was showing me.
She simply burned the word Love and a little Flower in it.
Then it hit me.. WOW… God had a plan for these four years ago, for exactly at this time. Everyone of those Strength of Heart Magnolia Blocks has had a message of His love through scripture, with a heart on them! It was foretold to us four years ago what they’d have on them.
I did not realize that until now. 🙏
I’m kind of sad we probably won’t ever have Magnolia in here to work on together again.
But, I am so grateful now that we had any at all, to work on together in His name for this little moment in time.
What’s the message here?
He has a plan for every “little” thing he brings into your life for the right time.
It may not last long and it may be only for just a moment.
Open your heart and please let Him in.
He has so many “little” things to show you everyday that he put into your life for this day, many years ago.
Perspective
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Corinthians 4:18
This picture was taken Jan 2014 at Shiloh, Tenn.
When taking this picture I could not see the blue sky with my own eyes the way it was reflected in this creek. It made me change my perspective when taking this picture to capture that beautiful blue color among all the brown and gold.
This verse reminds us to do just that. (Change our perspective.)
That day, I knew the blue sky existed and is there.
Just as I know Heaven is.
He has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
When I was a child I was always fascinated by how my Mom’s Camellia Bush would bloom in fall. I can remember saying to her, “But, it’s not time for spring!”
That Camellia became a huge tree by the time we left the old house.
As I got older I appreciated how it was the only thing that did bloom in fall. When we moved Brandi and I couldn’t see not having one in the yard somewhere. This year our little Camellia bush has bloomed more than it ever has. Even with as rough of a year it was with all the heat and the drought.
With God, who says you can’t make it through the worst year ever and still bloom in Autumn? 🙂
8 years ago tonight. It was a Skatepark!
When the cross orders came pouring in I was pretty ok still working in the old shop where we used to live. The almost an hour drive back and forth didn’t bother me. The 14 hour days didn’t bother me.
What did bother me, is that I was used to having my boys with me.
At the old place next to the house they could come into the shop anytime they wanted to.
Missing them motivated me.
I started working through the nights at the old shop and napping occasionally on the old work table.
I was working as hard as I could to be able to take any day off to get this Cross making Barn up.
This is the night I broke down and cried in the yard as I watched them and thanked God for this gift of getting to see them again.
A Divine Window
Why I made the Divine Windows.
There is something very emotional within me that occurs when I see old abandoned church structures and they’ve always impacted me. Sometimes what wells up inside of me is a kind of sadness and a wondering of why it was no longer used.
I’ve seen a lot of these abandoned church buildings in my life. I know many of the smaller ones like we have here in rural Florida were built well away from city centers because they were not accepted dominations by the masses in cities at that time.
They built them to worship God in their way without any outside influence or persecution.
Most of these church buildings for many known and unknown reasons are now and have been abandoned.
They are mainly abandoned because the sprawl of those cities they avoided, came to them.
Lately though I have noticed an overwhelming amount of Church buildings for sale that are directly in the city’s centers. These are huge structures that housed very large congregations who worshipped there and were accepted by the city they were in.
They are not being sold to be church buildings any longer either, but rather to be used as large residential homes.
Some of these churches have stood in these city centers since those cities were founded two hundred years ago.
Once again, that sadness wells up inside of me seeing this. It can even give you a hopeless feeling.
Why am I sad to see these vacated buildings when I have not walked into a Sunday church service in over 8 years?
Because, just maybe, I knew that I could walk into one whenever I felt I needed to.
I understand that lock downs really affected that option 3 years ago for many people. And for many, it has now eliminated the option to walk in there on and Sunday morning.
For us, the last 8 years our church has been our home and especially in the barn where we make crosses.
We have said to anyone that enters here that this is a safe haven where we don’t let the outside world influence how we worship God and we don’t tell others how they should worship him either. We are just glad they are here with us to talk about God and witness to us.
I had a nice gentleman in our barn a couple of years ago that told me after I said this to him that I needed to get me and my family to church. And, that we needed to specifically go to his church.
I asked him to tell me why. Not to be combative…but to help me understand where he’s coming from.
I was quiet for a bit without saying a word to allow him to talk and share with me what his church meant to him. Because like I said to him when he entered. Our Barn is a safe haven for this.
Listening to him I sure enjoyed the story he told me of where he was coming from. Then, how he found God again among others in that church after a family tragedy. They really helped lift him up through that tough time.
When he was done I smiled at him. I told him that I was in the Barn currently working for the Lord 6 days a week and sometimes on Sundays too. Once again I wasn’t being combative. But, I asked him if it was better for me to worship and work for the Lord 6 days a week in here or just on Sunday and work for others the rest of the week?
He paused.
I then told him that my wife was a NICU nurse and that those babies won’t make it if no one is working there on Sundays. Someone has to be there and she has always stepped up to do her calling.
After we conversed back and forth for a bit we found a great understanding about where we both were coming from.
I ended that conversation with this verse written in Jesus’s own words.
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”Matt.18:20
I looked at him with a smile and said that I sure enjoyed having church with you today.
He shook my hand and said he did too. :)
What I’m getting at is that
Church was never solely in those now abandoned buildings. It’s just a place or a location where we are together with others in God’s name.
I made these windows for an important reminder. Whether that place you gather is at your home every night or in your work office every day.
It’s just a reminder that Church can be wherever you are with others, every day of the week.
Not just on Sunday’s.
