Part of the *Whole Cloth* for your consideration.

And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

I can't explain the math so I am linking to a short article that does a much better job than I ever could of explaining mathamatically how we actually have really good indicators of when Jesus was actually concieved & born & having those indicators how much more amazing & wonderful & holy & all of a piece with Scripture Jesus birth actually is & why Christmas has so diminished the wonder & the glory that it actually is.  

Symbolically this makes much better sense to me than anything the church has come up with.  I can hear the Spirit of God in this thinking because this is how I experience God also: symbolically consistent from beginning to end.  If you study Passover you see exactly the same symbolic consistency.  I can't think of a festival where this is not so.

It is beautiful in deeply meaningful ways & it is like a many faceted diamond.  No matter which way you look at it the light magnifies & glories God.  And that, my friends, is the Spirit's job; to turn us & keep turning us towards Christ!

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein. ~ Jeremiah 6:16

It began a long time ago, so long ago I was not much more than a child, & it began because my innermost spirit rejects compartmentalisation.  Life is a whole cloth or it is a tattered rag & it will never make sense.  If I think that about life how much more do I believe it about God's word & how I have struggled with all the various theories & doctrines that want to shred it & divide it up as the soldiers did with Christ's belongings under the cross.  It is not possible without irreparable damage & it creates falsity.
 
The problem with thinking things through for yourself is that you may very possibly end up at the point at which you began but you will not be the same person.  The problem with thinking things through for yourself is that most people don't like it because we all have our own little pet theories or a doctrine we cling too that prevents light from shinning into our dark corners.  The hardest thing is to remain balanced, poised in such away that one is open to the new without falling headlong into heresy.
 
The problem with thinking things though for yourself, especially if you think out loud in a public domain like a blog, is that you are open to misunderstanding.  How do you account for the leading of the Holy Spirit to someone who's starting point is that all the charismatic gifts ended at Pentecost?  That is not my personal experience.  Nor do I believe that is what scripture teaches.  How do you convey the inaudible voice of God to someone who has not heard it & doubts your testimony.  This was my starting point.  If you are real, God, prove it to me.  It sounds rude, even blasphemeous, but I'm hardly the first to demand proof.  The thing with asking proof from the Living God is that having made me He knows exactly where my weak points are, just where to point the finger, exactly how I think & He deals with that.  There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.    I am an open book before God.
 
And what God has been at great pains to impress upon me is that scripture is indeed a whole cloth, absolutely consistent from beginning to end.  That I understand this better symbolically than logically is simply a quirk of my nature.  There is no division between Old Testament & New.  There is fulfilment ~ but it is not what the church seems to have been teaching.
 
I think in pictures.  When Paul speaks of the root supporting the gentiles [Romans11] I absolutely have that picture.  I garden.  I know about grafting.  You can graft anything you like onto your rootstock but the root remains the same & if you lose your grafts the plant reverts to it's original nature.  If you allow it to shoot from below the graft you have an original shoot.  Where the plant draws its nourishment is from the root, from the original plant.
 
Now this is an important picture for several reasons.  Much of what God wishes to convey to His people He conveys symbolically & if we don't understand we miss the point He wishes to make.  The New Testament does not, cannot, replace what was revealed in the Old Testament "for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable".  God does not change.  The God of Abraham, Jacob & Isaac is  Jesus' God & our God. 
 
This has important implications for our understanding of scripture because one way or another it has been westernized until it bears little resemblence to the original.  I have reached no definite conclusions but here are some things I am thinking on.
 
The Law is important.  The Hebraic "Torah" means teaching ~ which carries completly different connotations.  The teaching is about how to live in accordance with God's will.  I can hear people screaming Grace already. Two passages ~ for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. [Philippians 2:13]
 
And
 
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the LORD; I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: [Jeremiah31:33]
 
What is it that is God's good pleasure?  That we obey Him ~ & where we find the teaching on how to please & obey Him is in scripture ~ all of it!  Grace, through the power of the Holy Spirit, enables us to obey it because the Holy Spirit resides within us & works in us to do that which is not naturally in us to do.  And as grafted roots these scriptures are applicable to us also.  There is no division in the grafted plant once the graft has taken.




Now I am very clear: there is no salvation through works alone.  None at all. The Old alone cannot save. But my desire is to be pleasing to God & my example is Christ.  Pause for thought.  I've said it before, I'll say it again:  Christ was an orthodox, practising Jew.  If Christ, God's only begotten son, God on earth, a prophet & the saviour of the world considered it important enough to obey the Torah, surely I should give it pause for thought.  At the very least.


It is Christ who said:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.   Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.   For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew5:17~20]




The problem is not God's Law; it is what man has added to it creating an impossible burden.  God never gives us more than we can bear ~ & He always gives us a way to deal with things.


It is fascinating to observe that all down the ages the call has gone out: Stand in the paths, seek the good way & you shall find rest...but they would not.  What a shattering observation.


The more I walk in the *Old Paths* the more of Scripture makes sense to me.  I have a greater sense of the flow & continuity of God's purposes from beginning to end.  I can see the whole picture ~ & I'm a whole picture thinker.  And absolutely everything slots into its alloted place, seamlessly, without crease or crinkle.  And what it creates in me is a great sense of awe & amazement.  God had all this in mind, all symbolically unified, a single woven cloth at the very moment He created the heavens & the Earth & declared it, Very Good.  Pretty much a wow moment, don't you think?

Walking into the New Year.

And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get ~ Matthew 6:16

Since September Dino & I have been discussing doing a longer fast together.  Together because we can strengthen & support each other.  Dino will be working so wants to do a partial fast.  Not sure how this will work as I know virtually nothing about the Daniel Fast though I have found a really good blog on the subject ~ only because it's about food I got bored really fast.

I want to do a water & juice fast. Well, actually, I don't want to do it.  Not really but the Holy Spirit is being pretty insistent.  I want the blessing; I don't want to have to work for it. *sigh*

Anyway, I've been going round & round in my head coming up with all the reasons a longer fast is so not a good idea ~ & all the reasons why it is a really, really good idea because I know the first 24 hours are going to be horrible as the caffeine in my system dwindles to nothing but there are things in my life I want to break & there are promises I want to claim. 

We've never done New Year resolutions.  Superstitious nonsence & I know perfectly well every single resolution will get broken sooner rather than later, so why bother beginning?  But this year I want something different.  This year I want to position myself so I can accept the fulness of what God has for me.  I want to begin my year by dedicating myself more fully to the one who died to claim me.  I can sense a growing movement of the Spirit & the massing of oppossing armies in the spiritual realms & I want to be ready.

Very reluctantly I have been trying to psyche myself up for this.  Just thinking about it makes me feel tired. I haven't even begun & I want to quit.

So there I was, the days dwindling away, the hours counting down & yummy food still in my cupboards.  Somebody should hurry up & eat it!  Anyway, I have had an epiphany: The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.  It is the flesh that has to die.  Not such a great epiphany.  No except for one thing; I have been made very aware that my flesh is one thing; my spirit is something else entirely.

I have been dreaming ~ not unusual for me.  I dream vividly in technicolour big screen splendour.  Always have.  Dearest has always complained because of the intensity & realism of my dream life.  He's got the blame for a lot of stuff that he knows nothing about while I reel in the aftershock of my dreams.  However this time the dreaming is different.  It does not have that dream~like quality & what I am dreaming about is the proposed fasting.  And here is where it gets interesting because fleshly little me is still squirming looking for the loop~hole that will get me out of this but my spirit is rejoicing.  Exaulting.  Thrilled to bits.  Anticipitatory.  Excited.  Dancing a little spiritual jig inside me.  *sigh*

I didn't have to say anything & no~one would ever know whether I did it or not but if I keep quiet I don't have to be accountable.  This way I am accountable. Water.  Juice.  Broth. I have no idea how I will go because I've never gone quite so long before & I know my weak points will be as I have to get dinner for the rest of my household & I'm tired, grumpy & low on energy.  If you can spare them I covet your prayers.  Yes indeedy. 

Oh, & in case you're wondering, this after months of virtual silence from the Lord so I'm listening up as hard as I can.  The best way I know to sharpen my spiritual hearing is to discipline myself through fasting.  I am such a sloth.  I can really enjoy puddling in the murky spiritual backwaters rather than working out my salvation with fear & trembling.  So donning the armour, girding the loins.  I think I need to mention to the Lord I'm a pacifist ~ only I guess He knows that & has other plans! Oh well.

Direct Hit.

It was the noise Of ancient trees falling while all was still Before the storm, in the long interval Between the gathering clouds and that light breeze Which Germans call the Wind's bride. ~ Charles Godfrey Leland

Our weather has been odd: cold, cold, cold broken by spells of hot mugginess.  Today was hot & muggy.  By lunch time I'd had enough & went to bed.  All the hot Mediterranean countries have it right: the only thing to do on a hot afternoon is go to bed & sleep.  Which I did.

I woke to the pricking storm. My feet hit the floor in alarm because if there is one thing that freaks Kirby out more than anything else it is a Queensland storm.  I was too late.  As I shot down the stairs slamming windows on my way the wind bent the trees over & the rain scythed horizontally  across the bare paddocks in a screaming rage.  Once the storm is under way no amount of calling will bring that terrified cat so I made a coffee & resigned myself to waiting.

 Twenty minutes later an inch of rain had fallen & my yard was a mess.  We kept as many of the big trees as we could but after years of drought the trees are shedding their sails in any sort of a breeze ~ & shed they did.  One took out the minature rose bush that has sheltered the bathroom door for 20 odd years.  Flat as a pancake.  No idea if it can be resurrected.

Most of a tree landed on the moriah under the kitchen window.

 Another branch tried to flatten the Peach tree.  Half of it is still tangled in there.  No idea how I am going to get it out.

Gran lost her big grevillia.  The temperature plummeted from 31C to 19C in a matter of minutes ~ & we were the lucky ones.  Further down the road the branches down are bigger & better ~ whole trees even.  A good part of the island lost its eletricity & several now have flat cars under rather large trees.

For a while there I was worried about Dino but he just beat the storm in & Kirby came slinking home just before the next front came through bringing thunder & lightening & more rain. 

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?

Checking the Pots: a pictorial review for Liddy.

Huge tides just now.  Still flooding so it probably came up over the lip of the pool.

 Though the regulars still prefer jumping off the jetty roof. Shark bait.

Star looking cool & professional ~ until she actually has to do something. lol Her mother's daughter!

Absolutely beautiful.  A bit rough in the open water.  All my pics from there blurred but warm enough I didn't need a jacket even though I got pretty wet.

 Mending the pots.  Between the sharks & our usual friend there were quite a few holes.

 Baiting up.  Been a few days since some of these were done so pretty stinky.

 Star in her usual perch.  She rides like Jacky up there.  Dino was complaing about the amount of weight in the boat.  Silly him for inviting us all!

 In & out of the mangroves.  Spotted the wake & splash of a small shark.  Had a Sea Eagle riding the thermals overhead.

 Put the pots in close along the passage.  Pretty choppy.

Recognize this?

Exciting times trying to untangle this chappie.

Plenty of boaties around.  Can't think they had a comfortable berth at all but at least the sun is now out.  He didn't get a lot.  Lots of small ones but he'll go out again later.

Enjoy your trip up north.  Have a nice break & get plenty of rest before you're back into everything.

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly.

Only in grammar can you be more than perfect. ~ William Safire

We are not, as some suppose, celebrating the O.T festivals as such.  Rather we are using them as the springboard for the N.T revelations that they are in fact are.  So no, not accurate if you know about Hannukah.  Not a lot of things.  However I had always planned to wind up on Christmas Evening as it is Dearest's birthday Boxing Day & in my mind the last 2 covenants belong together because when Christ returns we see all fulfillment!

And now I can look back at what we did & evaluate it in the light of experience.  Did it work?  Was it what we wanted? Was it worth it?  Will we do it again?  And here is where it gets interesting because I was just following what I felt was a nudge from the Holy Spirit & as we discussed, I am so not the doing sort.  The spirit is willing but the flesh is very weak & by yesterday I'd had enough.  We were all pretty tired because we were on the first boat off the island to get to church at all & as is always the way, if you know about these things, we have been under spiritual attack all week.  The cats were psychotic over having being deserted for the morning & it blew 30~35 knots here yesterday so the water was as rough as. 

By now my big thick candles were starting to look more than a little strange & we have wax everywhere because the yellow candle never did want to stay alight & I had decided not to bother but, undiscussed, Dino went hunting a lighter.  And he did the most amazing thing.  He lit the servant candle first ~ as I have done each evening & began to light the candles from right to left ~ as you are suppossed to.  And as he lit each candle he put them in order & named the covenant they represented.  I was so blown away.  And I am so pleased he lit the candles because it created the most amazing sacred space.  Everyone calmed.  Yep, even the cats.

The candle light created the quiet, meditative space I so love & for the fist time all the candles were shining in the dark, their rainbow colours glowing with the reminder of God's promises.  It was so lovely.  And as we talked of the things of God & how there was so much more that we hadn't covered because a vessel can only hold so much at a time & we had already covered so much Dino pointed out that this was something that would translate well to church ~ as it does because I've done it for home church.  Something else I love about God's festivals because they start with the family & transmute easily & naturally into church & community.

What I now know is I need to be far, far better organised ~ & well in advance so that each day flows smoothly.  This can be as big & over the top or as quiet & laid back as you like.  Star would like more hoop~la & pizzaz.  She's like that.  I need to think far more carefully & prayerfully about ways to give other than material gifts.  Dino has given me several ideas here.  Fried foods [because of the oil symbolism] are traditional & though we did pretty well at having something fried most nights, again I need to plan ahead better.  I think I need some clear plastic folders so I can pull my book apart, put each festival with the relevant games, food, ideas & menus into it & work from there.  This could be a life's work!

We also found certain difficulties arose from being out of step with the surrounding culture.  Dino, of course, was still working & we had to accomodate his schedule.  We still had to battle the shops just for our regular food supplies.  We had to hold our tongues a lot as we got plenty of raised eyebrows when we got caught having to explain we'd already done our presents ~ & I was so trying not to have to explain to outsiders what we were doing.  It can so quickly & easily be miunderstood.

What has happened however, is that while it wasn't perfect & while it felt a little strange at times, as Dino ponted out there was so much more meaning to everything!  Dearest was delighted in the end.  He definitely wants to do it this way again ~ as does Dino.  A little more pizzaz & I think even Star will be happy.  She does so love a good fuss!

What is most important to me though is how the Holy Spirit took even such a poor offering & worked with what we could do, anointing & blessing it with the unction of His spirit.  I might have missed it except for a niece of mine who promptly posted what Santa had left for her under the tree Christmas morning.  We were so not there & I am so grateful to be able to help my children celebrate in a way that will bless them in unknown ways for years to come.  It is the sort of legacy that no amount of money can buy, the pearl of great price for which a man sells everything he has.  So, yes, worth every moment.

Days 7 & 8

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6

Colour: violet

Considering: The first of the promises yet to be fulfilled

                      : The covenant of Peace; the New Jerusalem

                     : The Kingdom of Light

Colour: White                 

Considering: the marriage covenant of the lamb.

                     : God, the light of heaven.

                     : The fulfillment of all things.

Dreamer of Dreams.

"But within me the unicorn still remains, a formless shadow in the spaces of my mind." ~ Josephine Bradley

The visionaries in my family marry practical sorts. The practical sorts confuddle me but they have a knack of making dreams a reality.

In my family I am the dreamer.  I am not much interested in reality ~ which is messy & not nearly so pliable as a good imagination.  Which is why I sometimes wonder just what I'm doing in this particular family.

I said to Dearest [to Dearest said I], "I am thinking of doing things a little differently this year & not having Christmas as such..."  because Dearest has never liked Christmas, as you tend not to when your birthday falls on Boxing Day & the world is so over the whole shennanigans nobody is interested in your own particular special day.

And Dearest said, or words to this effect, "Whatever rocks your boat, m'dear." 

I ran it past Dino & got a similar unhelpful response.  What do you do with, "Whatever."?  Star at least had decided opinions but got outvoted.

By inclination & training I am a teacher.  I'm a writer.  I'm a Dreamer.  I am so not detail oriented I can forget important details as irrelevant.  Making something actually happen is not my forte.  I will talk about it till the cows come home.  I will dream about it ad infinitum. I can speculate with the best of them but ask me to actually do something & I get all...well, confuddled.  How does one actually make something happen?

Makes you wonder how I got this far through life, doesn't it.

So changing anything round here entails angst. Lots & lots of angst.  So it has been with our celebrations this year.  My inclination is to teach about~ rather than to do.  The doing comes hard.  Getting my act together to prepare things night after night is almost more than I can manage, not because it is difficult or stressful; it is not, but simply because I have to, well, do something!  Honestly, what a circus.

I seriously wish the practical sorts would run with my dreams & make it all happen ~ but, No.  Even me putting things together so it looks like the men are leading some of the time does not get the men in my life up & moving because in this house I am known as the *Walking Encyclopedia.*  Want to know something no~one ever looks it up.  They ask me first.  And night after night my family has sat round like stuffed fish while we run through the shorter than short program until I thankfully let the conversation roam where it will & I have been thinking what an enormous flop the whole thing has been & wish that I could crawl into my imaginary world & reinvent myself yet again.

One never knows what goes on in another's mind.  Having screwed day 4 right royally I was about ready to pack the whole thing in when Dino turned to me & said, "Well, it will be better next year, now we know what we're doing & we have a whole year to think about it.  It will just continue to grow."  He wants to do this again!

And Dino, my Dino, has had the best insight yet because Day 4, he thought blessing someone else meant the prayer you would pray for them for the following year & he had lovely blessings!  Such a good idea.  I wish I'd thought of it first.  See what I mean?  *sigh*

Then last night, we had a break because Star & I had to spend the day on the mainland to do our regular fruit & veg shop with the milling hordes of Christmas shoppers & I let Star drive....& Dino couldn't be home last night because of work commitments so we will do 2 tonight because he didn't want to be left out....So Dearest turns to me & says how lovely it's been this year & he likes how our special times have been spread out over the week.  He likes how we have had scripture every evening & a time to chat together  ~ not that talking is unusual in this house but getting us all together is not always easy.  He likes the way the emphasis has shifted to focus so much more on Christ.  Well.  I guess I'm gob~smacked.

The jury is still out so far as Star is concerned but being Star she won't say & so long as she gets her Christmas pancakes Christmas Day morning she won't care too much.

Me, I have so much in my head I can't hold it all.  Starting with the fact that when God teaches us He feeds us with something to look at [candles ~ Christ the light of the World], something to eat [fried foods are traditional; oil reminds us of the mirical in the temple, the oil of the Spirit, Christ with us]; something to hear [Scripture ~ & I guess we could do music if I'm better organised next year.] & something to do! 

And I am blessed by my family who are always willing to travel my dreams with me.

Day 6

Still ours the dance, the feast, the glorious Psalm, The mystic lights of emblem, and the Word. ~ Emma Lazarus

Colour: Indigo

Considering: the covenant of redemption

                  :the meaning of the passover cup & bread

                  :  Jesus, the light of the world, to whom all scriptures point & for whom & by whom the Holy Spirit is given that we might be led into all truth.

Day 5

A candle is a small thing.

But one candle can light another.

And see how its own light increases,

as a candle gives its flame to the other.

You are such a light. ~

Moshe Davis and Victor Ratner

Colour: Blue


Considering: The covenant with David


                  : the Star of David


                  : A man after God's own heart & the perfect man. 


                  :God's word as a lamp for my feet & a light to my path