Willing to be spun...

I sat at my spinning wheel this morning and began to spin some yarn out of a prized fleece. As I spun, God began to open up to me the likeness He has to a spinner. Yes, He is a Master Weaver and we love to wear the robes He creates! But, have we ever considered the preparation that must occur in order for Him to prepare the “garment” of our lives in Him?

Wool comes from sheep ~ it is their outermost garment that keeps them warm in winter and cool in summer. It is their comfort thru rain, sleet, snow and sunshine. Most sheep do not like being sheared because it requires them to be still. Sheep are normally sheared in a seated position, which they also do not like. The process itself normally does not take very long but this depends a lot on the sheep being cooperative. You cannot explain the shearing need to the sheep, they really do not understand. They don’t like feeling naked.

The shearer gets right to “heart” of things by taking off the belly wool first. This wool is unusable and contaminated heavily with dirt, mud, urine – you get the picture. He then starts at the rear leg, coming up the hock, sides and across part of the back. Moving to the front of the sheep (sheep is still seated), the shearer works the front leg much like the rear one. Then, he carefully shears up the neck area and proceeds down the back a bit – almost done now! He can then begin at the bottom leg on the other side and continue shearing in the same manner as the first. It is a careful process all designed to keep the wool intact and in one piece. I am always amazed how the sheep always ends up on its feet as the shearing process is completed.

After the wool has been shorn, it must be skirted. All of the hay particles, dung tags and dirt saturated areas come off first and are easily stripped away. Shaking the fleece can help too, allowing for more loose stuff to fall away. There is usually some imbedded junk that has to be removed by hand. Now, the fleece has to be washed. The soapy water has to be pretty hot to get fleece clean. You can’t agitate or rub the fleece too hard or you will cause it to felt. Rinse in the same way ~ it’s very important that the water temperature remain the same. Hot washing and cold rinsing will cause the wool to shrink into an unusable mess. Clean wool must be dried ~ sunshine and a gentle breeze helps. You may have to turn the fleece over a couple of times but the sunshine and breeze alone are sufficient to complete the task.

Half-way done! Once the wool has been skirted, washed and dried it still has to be picked and carded. Clean wool still holds a lot of “junk” in it, especially tiny thorns from hay matter. You may also find hay and grain particles, which can be difficult to remove. This is the most painstaking task! You will want to break out the hand cards to open up the fleece. Be careful ~ the teeth of a hand card are sharp and direct contact to skin will cause serious injury! A pair of hand cards is used to fluff up the wool and separate the fibers. Combing the fibers in the same direction makes for some really nice roving. Once the fiber is picked apart, it can be closely inspected for deeply imbedded foreign matter. Remove anything that isn’t wool. You should now have roving – a soft, lofty piece of primed wool ready for spinning. You should note, in this present state, the refined wool is easily pulled apart and sways easily in the wind. It does not yet have the strength necessary to endure being worn in its present state.

There is a string on the spindle of the wheel that you must attach the roving to in order to spin wool into yarn. The refined string is threaded thru the eye of the needle. You must place the roving across the string and hold tightly. The wheel can be started by a touch of the hand and treadling begins here. It is important to note the wheel must only travel in ONE direction to spin yarn. As the spinning ensues, the “puff” of roving begins to twist and attach itself to the string. The two separate pieces become one and the wool puff becomes a yarn string, winding thru that small hole, called the eye of the needle.

What was once a fragile puff of wool becomes a sturdy piece of twisted yarn. You might think NOW everything is ready, but wait! Once again, comes a hot soaking to set the twist of the yarn. Without the heat, the yarn quickly becomes unraveled into a lumpy puff of its former state. Another drying process follows and the result is a piece of yarn that is strong, weatherproof, heat-resistant and will not rot. Once the yarn has been thru the refining process, it can now be woven into a wearable garment.

Now the analogy…
The wool here represents our life and what we find comfortable about ourselves. This needs to be removed. God, our Master Shearer, has to have us in a tender vulnerable place of submission to begin His work. He goes right to the worst place first – the belly wool – a place we try so hard to hide from everyone else. The dirtiest dung spot within us is where He tends to begin. At some point in our lives, we have all gotten up from our seated position before the work was through. In the end, we must return to this place “belly up”, if you will, so His work may continue.

I think it’s the nakedness that occurs after the removal of our “wool”, our comfort zones that causes God’s process of refinement in us to take so long. None of us like to be still and certainly not in a seated position, on our rump leaning back to a point where we cannot move. People rarely willingly place themselves in this position of submission so that God can begin His work. Christ set the best example for us to follow: “…and like a lamb before the shearer is silent…” Acts 8:32. He was not afraid to stand before the Shearer because He was not ashamed in His nakedness ~ He did not have a comfort zone.

There is a picking and cleansing process that must occur. For some reason, we all struggle to keep “self” intact, hanging onto to our junk as long as we can. In a sense, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to do in this zone of comfort. But then comes the stripping…the “skirting” within our hearts comes quickly and is following by His lovely washing. Christ cleanses us of all the sin dirt we have collected over the years. He may even shake us from time to time too ~ those are the outer layers of the obvious. It is those times of shaking and picking thru the bits and pieces of ourselves we are fond of that we tend to shy away from. Our Master is always there to gently rub away any trace of impurity. It is done completely and yet He has just begun His great work!

The Son-Shine allows a time for His light to go through and permeate our very being. The gentle wind of the Holy Spirit breathes life into us as we are laid open before Him. “…for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and nothing hidden that will not be known.” Matthew 10:26, NKJV. The drying time can be difficult because it is a time of waiting. No one likes waiting, especially when “you” are drying up the whole time. But there is a purpose in all of this ~ it is a time of preparation where something useful can be refined into something spectacular. Don’t get off the drying table!

God has to break out His Word, the hand cards, to do some separation and subsequent removal of anything not worthy to remain in His presence. “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12-13, NKJV.

Once God does some stripping within our lives, we all too often jump “off the table” and right into our openness, once again trying to do everything the old way. We are this roving now. We have been picked thru by God and found ready for the spinning, so why is it we try to put on our new life and do it ourselves? God has not yet completed the work and the intimate refinement is just beginning. Our foundation has to be firm, not something that will blow away with the winds of life.

The eye of the needle on a spinning wheel requires the wool to be twisted in order to pass thru it. We must become intertwined with Him in order to find the way of true life. “…narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:14, NKJV. It is God’s desire that we become one with Him. With Him at the wheel, there is no difference between the refined string and newly spun yarn. They are indistinguishable from one another. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one heart and mind.” John 10:30, The Message Remix.

Again, this provides us with another example of our own desire to “get on with it”. The moment we do something in our own strength, I sense we have dishonored Him. God continually puts us thru “the fire” (the heat of life) in order to purify us and purify our motives. This is big issue with the body of Christ today. Our motives must be pure! Do not be deceived in your own ability because it is nothing. When we allow God to twist us (getting uncomfortable) and refine us to the point where we fit thru the narrow gate, THEN He can really complete His grand design and plan for our lives. Our innermost spirit man learns to wait, without complaining, on God’s continual preparation and refinement. We must abide in Him! Jesus said the words, “…without Me you can do nothing” in John 15:5, where He illustrates that He is the Vine and we are the branches. The Vine is our source of life. The branches cannot take the place of the Vine, not ever! Dependency on our own ability leaves us stressed out, tired and worn out. Walking in need of our Lord always, within Him, provides the strength to endure anything. Obedience to Him, carried out thru Him, out of our love for Him is never exhausting.


So my prayer is this: Heavenly Father, I yield to You once again today. I have gotten up and gotten out of Your refinement process so many times ~ please forgive me! I repent from going about my own life and not laying down to you in every aspect ~ please forgive me! Thank you for being so patient with me and loving me throughout every step. I love you so much, Lord! To Your plans, I say Yes and Amen! To Your desires, I submit myself. Take me, Lord Jesus, and take me thru the refining that You must complete within me. I yield my will to Yours. Open my life and pick thru it, remove all the junk! Create Yourself within me where I can truly be in Your lovely image. Spin me, twist me and take me thru the narrow places that I must pass ~ I trust You completely. Weave my life into something that honors You and brings You along all the glory You are due. Everything I am and all that is within me is all for You. Help me, Lord, as I am nothing without You. I love you, Jesus.

Disciples vs. Followers...

“Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus has set for their reunion. The moment they saw Him, they worshiped Him. Some though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.”
Matthew 28:16-17, The Message Remix

After reading this verse thru many times, I have to wonder which of the disciples held back and for how long? It isn’t written in the scriptures so I would imagine I may not discover the answer to this question until Eternity. Did they risk everything to become a disciple or did they "hold back" and remain in a place of following from a distance?

The Lord laid the word “disciple” on my heart this week and I was wowed by the number of times it was used in the New Testament. But I also noticed the word “followers” and rarely were they used interchangeably. It seems that the differences in these words were used to describe the commitment level of those closest to Jesus during His ministry. There were many who followed Him, but fewer real disciples. I think this is an issue within the Body of Christ even today.

A “follower” is defined as “…a person who follows another person’s beliefs or teachings…”. Pretty vague, if you ask me and seriously no depth whatsoever. Unfortunately, there are many, many followers in churches today who follow a man or a woman, rather than Christ alone. I can think of a long time within my own life where I fell into this category. Sure, I liked the “get out of hell” ticket I possessed but I knew little about Jesus Christ, the Person. I knew Him as the One who saved me, YES, but I had not given Him my entire life. After all, I viewed that as “mine” and I could do with it whatever I wanted. It reminds me all too well of my Baptist upbringing in that the church I was raised in always referred to Christianity as Jesus being “Lord and Savior”. I had publicly professed Him as Lord over all and as my personal Savior, but I never once considered the requirement (yes, it does require willing surrender to die daily) of making Him Lord over the totality ofmy own life. That, I thought, was a little ambiguous, if not totally over the edge in what I was ever taught.

Disciples – those were the people in the Bible who walked with Christ on a daily basis. Webster’s defines a disciple as “…a learner, one who is able to comprehend or hold fast (in the faith)…”. Ever notice in scripture how Christ had people who followed Him, wanting to see miracles or be taught by Him? They wanted to be healed, delivered or set free themselves but once they had their need met, you never heard too much more about them. I’m not sure why additional details were not written about them but you know they had lives they lived, people they encountered daily and so on. Do you ever wonder what happened to them AFTER they had received from God? I do.

When Christ gave the Great Commission, His words were…

“Go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen”
Matthew 28:19-20, New King James Bible

Same scripture, from The Message Remix…

“…God authorized and commanded Me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and wide, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age”
Matthew 29:19-20, The Message Remix

Followers do not disciple, they are imitating their teacher. A noble thing, yes, and it is possibly even safe to say a “good” thing. We ARE to reflect Jesus in everything but we are not merely to stop there. Christian’s must, at some point, move into discipleship. When you grow in your relationship with the Lord, He reveals things to you, He leads and guides you – He is training you! Yet, His purpose is not purely for your own benefit but for the benefit of others.

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand – shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in Heaven.”
Matthew 5:14-16, The Message Remix

Why are we so happy to “sit and dine” after we have been filled? We indulge ourselves to the point of growing fat, lazy and complacent because we become comfortable at the table. It’s hard work to get into the fields, to harvest and no one seems to be as willing to labor for the Kingdom of God as they are willing to eat of Him. There is a time for both! You cannot labor without first being filled up with His goodness just as you cannot be filled up if you are only laboring. Once you are filled, however, it is time to GET UP from the table! As John 4:35 puts it, “Open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right on front of you…fields are ripe, it’s harvest time!”

Disciples are followers first but they don't stop in imitating their teacher. The danger there is the follower becomes content with the association with Jesus without committing to the sacrifice of becoming a disciple. A true disciple, one who develops a personal, devoted relationship, chooses to willingly lay down their own life for the sake of Christ, His call, His will and His desire. They literally cease to exist apart from Christ.

“Don’t look for short cuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easy going formula’s for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life – to GOD! – is vigorous and requires total attention.”
Matthew 7:13-14, The Message Remix

And as I close today, a more familiar translation speaks volumes…

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14, New King James version

The Wedding Banquet…

“…God’s kingdom,” He said, “is like a king who threw a wedding banquet for His Son. He sent out servants to call in all the invited guests. And they wouldn’t come! He sent out another round of servants, instructing them to tell the guests, ‘Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the Feast!’ They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop. The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them. The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city. Then he told his servants, ‘We have a wedding banquet all prepared but no guests. The ones I invited weren’t up to it. Go out in to the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet.’ The servants went out on the streets and rounded up everyone they laid eyes on, good and bad, regardless. And so the banquet was on – every place filled. When the King entered and looked over the scene, he spotted a man who wasn’t properly dressed. He said to him, ‘Friend, how dare you come in here looking like that!’ The man was speechless. Then the king told his servants, ‘Get him out of here – fast. Tie him up and ship him to hell. And make sure he doesn’t get back in.’ That’s what I mean when I say, ‘Many will get invited; only a few make it.’
MATTHEW 22:1-14 The Message Remix

What revelation is found in these scriptures! I look at the “church” today as the ‘invited guests’ – you know, the ones who wouldn’t come to the feast set before them. Jesus is calling to His chosen Bride, saying, “Come and Feast of Me” and how desperately we need to consume ourselves with Christ alone! His words from John 14, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to Father except through Me” continually echo within my spirit. He is calling to the Church and we have ignored His precious voice for the sake of doing our own thing. Just like in the scriptures above, we have “…shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop…” – how this must break our Savior’s heart!

The wedding banquet was entirely prepared and yet they ignored His call. So, He sends his servants into the streets, inviting ALL who would come, good or bad, regardless. Every place was then filled and the feast would begin. But right at the very moment the fest should begin, the King comes in and looks everything over. He peers through Holy Fire because nothing impure or unholy can make it into His presence. He finds one who had not come in prepared, he wasn’t dressed properly. I certainly do not believe this has anything to do with outward appearances. Clothing in the natural form is not what Jesus searches. He looks into and searches the heart in its truest form and intent. The person He found at the banquet was not worthy to eat from the king’s table because he did not know the King! He was not covered in His grace, and had tried to enter under his own strength, his own way of doing things. Sadly, this man was bound and cast into Hell, which is a very real place that no one seems to want to talk about any longer.

Who wants to hear about a place of eternal fire anyway? This place of everlasting separation from God is real and, when we leave this part out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we fail to share the ENTIRE truth of God’s Holy Word. Yes, He is a loving God, who is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance…” (2 Peter 3:9). But you should also know that God expects to be number One. The very first of the Ten Commandments is about Him:

“No other Gods, only Me.”
Exodus 20:3 The Message Remix

And He is a “most jealous God” – His words, not mine. Read verses 4-6 of Exodus 20. He does not expect or desire to be anything less than FIRST in your life. Nothing less will do either. You cannot be half committed to Christ, while still being committed to your own life and how you want to live it. For one, it isn’t yours in the first place. The Word of God says “you are not your own” and that “you have been bought with a price”, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Second, Jesus gave His whole, entire and pure life so that you can have eternal life in Him. There is only ONE way to this eternal life and that is thru Jesus Christ. He took on the sin of the world, past present and future; He was painfully tortured and crucified; He died and was buried but He rose again from the dead on the third day – glorious and victorious over sin, death, hell and the grave! All He asks of you is nothing less that what He willingly gave in the first place.

Now the tough words from the story of the wedding feast….

When the second set of messenger’s went to the invited guests and told them, ‘Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the Feast!’ They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop.” We have already established that, basically, they could have cared less about the feast, merely interested in doing their own thing, going out things like “business as usual.”

What happened to the messengers? The remaining guests, those who weren’t going off to “do” something, really had nothing else but time on their hands. So…”The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them. “ Yes, they killed them and such will happen to messengers of the King. But notice the very next line, “The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city.”

The messengers were killed but the soldiers destroyed the others – both worked for the King. Some were killed while giving the message and, in the end, the King executed his judgment on the rest and His soldier’s did the killing. “Vengeance is Mine” says the Lord, “I will repay” comes to mind here (Romans 12:19).

I suppose this writing is more of a word of warning than anything else. Just because you call yourself a believer, don’t think for a moment that God’s judgment isn’t coming. It is coming and it is coming FIRST for the House of God, the Church. The Body of Christ is the Bride of Christ and it MUST be pure and without spot or wrinkle. His Holy Fire is coming to purify so that we may be found worthy of entering into His kingdom, to dine at that Wedding Banquet.

Submit yourselves wholly unto the Lord. Let Him have His way in your life, forgetting your hopes, dreams and your own desires instead seeking after His kingdom. Yes, it is a great sacrifice but also one that comes with an eternal reward – life everlasting in His presence!