Through the Alphabet - The Characteristics of God

I'm doing the Take Refuge study with HelloMornings for my morning devotional time, and I'm loving it.  We're going through a situation right now that on the surface looks nothing at all like Ruth's, and yet as we go through the study I am relating so strongly with the underlying message, the subtitle of the study being "Seeing Our Trustworthy God in the Story of Ruth".  I'm seeing our trustworthy God in the story, or trial, we are going through right now, so clearly, and so applicably.  

One of today's assignments in the lesson is "Consider journaling through the names and charactaristics of God.  Start with an "A" word, ("Awesome") and move through the alphabet to Z ("Zealous") "  I've done variations of this over the years, but not in such an organized manner.  It might take me awhile to finish this, but I'm in love with the concept.  (It's impossible to box God into just our english alphabet - there are so many options for each letter!  But the process is a good learning opportunity for me.)


‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

Matthew 22:32


A - Awesome
For the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth.  Psalm 47:2

Let them praise your great and awesome name— he is holy Psalm 99:3

Out of the north he comes in golden splendor; God comes in awesome majesty. Job 37:22

Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? Exodus 15:11

In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; he is more awesome than all who surround him. Psalm 89:7


B - Builder

For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Hebrews 3:4

For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Hebrews 11:10

Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. Psalm 127:1

As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you Isaiah 62:5



C - Compassionate
The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. Psalm 116:5

The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him;  Daniel 9:9

If you return to the Lord, then your fellow Israelites and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will return to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.”
2 Chronicles 30:9

D - Deliverer
He said: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; 2 Samuel 22:2

From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people. Psalm 3:8

Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, you shield my head in the day of battle. Psalm 140:7

But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; you are my God, do not delay. Psalm 40:17 & 70:5

and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. Romans 11:26


E - Eternal
Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity. Psalm 93:2

Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Psalm 119:89

according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 3:11

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal. Isaiah 26:4

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemies before you, saying, ‘Destroy them!’ Deut. 33:27

But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath. Jeremiah 10:10

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrws 13:8


F - Faithful
But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” 
2 Corinthians 1:18

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
I Corinthians 1:9

God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.  Hebrews 6:10

God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
Numbers 23:19

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. Idol Feasts and the Lord’s Supper
I Corinthians 10:13

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
Deut 7:9


G - Great
Your ways, God, are holy. What god is as great as our God?  Psalm 77:13

For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. Psalm 95:3

“The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods  2 Chronicles 2:5

“But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater than any mortal.
Job 33:12

If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything  I John 3:20


H - Holy
Let them praise your great and awesome name— he is holy Psalm 99:3

Your ways, God, are holy. What god is as great as our God? Psalm 77:3


J - Jealous
Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
Exodus 34:14

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:24


K - King
For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise. Psalm 47:7

But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath. Jeremiah 10:10


L - Love
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. I John 4:8

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  I John 4:16

M - Merciful
For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath. The Lord Is God
Deut 4:31


N - Near
What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? Deut 4:7

When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
Joshua 2:11

O - One
A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. Galatians 3:20

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. Mark 12:32

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.  Deut 6:4


P - Peace
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. I Corinthians 14:33

The God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Romans 15:33

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Phillippians 4:9

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I Thess 5:23


Q - Qualified 
(able)
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.  Ephesians 3:20 - 21


And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. II Corinthians 9:8

And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.  Romans 11:23

God is able to make all grace abound to you… having all-sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8


fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised… Romans 4:21


R - Righteous

God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day. Psalm 7:11

The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him. Daniel 9:14

For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity  Romans 1:17


S - Strength
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me. Psalm 54:4

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. I Corinthians 4:20

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalm 62:8

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  Romans 8:31

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.” Isaiah 12:2

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent people you save me. II Samuel 22:3


T - Truthful
Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. John 3:33
Truth
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
John 17:17

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free John 8:32

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. John 16:13

God is not human, that he should lie,
not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?
Numbers 23:19


U - Unequaled
No one is like you, Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.
Jeremiah 10:6

Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.”
2 Chronicles 14:11

How great you are, Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.
2 Samuel 7:22

There is no one like you, Lord, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.

I Chronicles 17:20


V - Venerable
(worthy)
I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and have been saved from my enemies.
2 Samuel 22:4

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. I Chronicles 16:25

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. Psalm 96:4

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. Psalm 145:3


W - Working
Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?  Exodus 15:11

There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work I Corinthians 12:6

In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” John 5:17

How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts! Psalm 92:5

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. Psalm 103:6

for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Phillipians 2:13


God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. Psalm 47:8


For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Hebrews 4:12

X -  Xenial
(Hospitable, especially to visiting strangers or foreigners; Of the relation between a host and guest; friendly)

“God shows love to the foreigners living among you, and gives them food and clothing. So, you too, must show love to foreigners.” Deuteronomy 10:18,19

“In Jerusalem the Lord ... will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world. It will be a delicious banquet with clear well aged wine and choice meat. There [in Jerusalem] he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears...”  Isaiah 25:6-8

“Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink – even if you have no money! Come take your choice of wine or milk its all free!”  Isaiah 55:1

Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. Romans 15:7

Y - YahWeh
(I am)
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Exodus 3:14

"You know the name Yahweh best from its shortened form Yah at the end of Hallelujah, which means “praise Yahweh.” I love to think about this when I sing. When I sing, “Hallelujah,” I love to really mean, “No! I don’t praise you Bel, or Nebo, or Molech, or Rimmon, or Dagon, or Chemosh. I turn from you with disdain to Yah! I praise Yah. Hallelu Yah!”"



Z - Zoetic
(of or pertaining to life)
I am the bread of life. John 6:48

yet you refuse to come to me to have life. John 5:40

For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
John 5:26

For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Psalm 36:9

And this is what he promised us—eternal life.  I John 2:25

In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:10

God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Acts 2:32


Ironing Water Marks Out Of A Table


For a couple of years, I tried everything to remove the water marks, which are almost constantly occurring, from this table.  I tried eggs.  Mayo.  Scrubbing it harder.

Nothing worked.

Then I saw something on tv, some kitchen show I think, where they explained that in highly waxed furniture, you have to iron out the white marks.

It worked!!! 

And it has continued to work on this table, over and over. Someday I'll need to refinish the table, but for now, every couple of months I iron out the spots and then coat it good with some Scotts Liquid Gold.

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Home Made Laundry Detergent Recipe

This is the laundry detergent I used for about 18 years.  We raised three boys, on a farm, and one was a football player.  And this got our clothes clean.  Now that the kids are grown I admit to being lazy and using Purex...  but for the last year or two that the kids were here, I had switched to a homemade powdered laundry detergent, because the recipe above can be a bit slimy, and powdered detergent was generally easier, and very cheap to make.  


The Purex crystals are purely optional!  I like the smell.  They are a "laundry booster", but I am pretty sure you can skip them and not really notice any difference in how clean your clothes are.  :-)  I like to purchase these ingredients at Dollar General on Saturdays - when there is almost always a $5 off $25 coupon.  


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And for stains - especially soda, or oil stains like salad dressing, this is literally the best.  It's usually in the aisle with the pine sol, not the laundry detergents.


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An Index Of  My Soapmaking Posts
https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/making-soap.html

Making Cheer Bows

I've been a football mom for years.  This year, I'm adding cheerleading mom to my resume.  It's been an experience.  I was a dance mom for 8 years - and still it didn't prepare me for this.  :-)

At a cheer parents meeting recently, they rattled off the costs for the competition cheer bows, and I about fell off my chair.  $25 for a bow?  That's more than we paid for the spanx.  A few weeks later I attended my first cheer competition, and saw a stand selling bows.  $15 each.  They did not look that difficult, or expensive, to me, so I went online and started researching cheer bows.  Wow.  Some moms take these really seriously.  Me?  Not so much.  I'm looking to have fun with them, but we're definitely not into beauty pageants here.  This is the simple cheer bow tutorial. I didn't sew layers of sateen to ribbon, or anything complicated.  (And to be clear, neither did the people selling the bows for $25, and $15, that I have seen around here)

Supplies:
  • Grossgrain Ribbon  You can use other types of ribbon - but this is a little hearvier and stiffer, and really works well.  It's what I saw on most of the bows sold at the competition.
  • Fancy ribbon to tie around the center
  • Wire
  • Hair ties
  • Glue (I used E600)
  • Spray Starch
How To:

Cut the ribbon into strips. (For these, I cut at 25 inches.)

Form the bow  - this takes some practice and there are lots of tutorials on youtube..  but the best way to figure this out is to pick up the ribbon and see what you come up with that you like.  The first 4 took me forever to make.  After that, it was a very quick process.

I use a clothespin to hold the ribbon roughly into the shape I want for the bow.  Then I wrap wire around the ribbon, inserting the hair tie and  removing the clothes pin, and shape a little more.  



Place on a pan (I lined mine with foil for easier clean up) and place balls of aluminum foil into the loops of the bow to fluff them up.  Spray entire bow with lots of spray starch.


Bake at 200 until thoroughly dry.

Cover the wire with pretty sparkly ribbon, glue into place.  



Using a lighter, get the edges of the tail close enough to the flame to melt them slightly, to keep them from fraying.  Be careful to not actually get the ribbon into the flame.

Add the monogram sticker.

Done.


Tips:

I recommend starting with a cheap ribbon to practice and get the right size.  We read so many different numbers..  but ended up using 25 inches as our ribbon length.  This made a bow roughly 6.5 inches across, with some "pouff".

Mini zip ties work great to hold the bows together. I used wire because I was afraid to bake the zip ties..  but at 200 degrees, they may be fine. I haven't experimented yet.  The wire does loosen on it's own, the sparkle ribbon glued around the middle really helps keep everything in place.

Always put your hair in a ponytail first - the ponytail holder on the bow is just to hold the bow to your hair, not meant to form the actual ponytail.    


Costs:

Light blue pola dot ribbon - $3.99 for 3 yds.  Makes 4 bows.  $1 a bow.
Dark Gray polka dot ribbon - $3.99 for 3 yds.  Makes 4 bows.  $1 a bow.
(I used a 40% off coupon (JoAnn app on my phone has the coupons right in the app) on the one spool - making it $2.39 a spool - 60 cents a bow)

Celebrate it sparkly ribbon (used in the center of the bows)
    $3.99 for 3 yards.  40% off (Michaels app on my phone has the coupons right in the app) - $2.39.  I'm using roughly 2.75 inches of it per a bow, meaning i can easily make 39 bows from this one spool.
  .06 cents a bow.

Hair ties - $1.99 for 30 - .06 cents a bow

Monogram letters - 99 cents a pack.  Because I won't use all the letters, this is hard to calculate exactly, but lets say 10 cents a bow.


Costs that are hard to pinpoint exactly:
Spray Starch.  $1.39 a can.  I imagine you could make 100 bows with one can, easily.  
Aluminum foil.  I'm not sure how to accurately add this into the costs - I made 8 balls of aluminum foil and used them over and over, doing 4 bows at a time.  
E600 glue.  I have this on hand, other glues would work  - another cost I can't accurately calculate, but minimal at best.
Wire - again, on hand, leftover from some project..  you can buy spools of it for $1 and it would make many, many bows.

Let's say all of the above works out to an extra $1 a bow.  It doesn't - the actual cost is much less, but lets round up.

$2.82 cents a bow.  I didn't add tax -so lets round up some more to $3.

$3 a bow.

This is shopping at local craft stores.  If I buy the ribbon online in bulk, i can save even more.

If we use the lower price ($15) charged for bows similar to these, on sale at the last competition, that is $12 a bow in profit.  And we're paying $17 & $25 for bows that I think are similar to the ones I made here.  (Being new to all of this, it is very possible I missed something that makes bows more expensive - but I don't think so.  I think the profit margin on these really is insane.)

The first 4 bows took me about 2 hours to make - not counting drying time.  I had never made one before, so it took me some time to figure out a process that worked.
The next 4 took me less than 15 minutes.  This is not especially hard, or especially time consuming.  

Our Families Favorite Netflix Binges

Any suggestions for what we should watch next?  I'd love to hear them!

"Are You Still Watching Better Off Ted?"

Why yes Netflix, I am.  Stop lecturing me! 

With some extra snowy days this year, we've enjoyed our new netflix subscription.  These have been some of our favorites:

Life
A former police officer returns to the force after having been wrongly imprisoned for years.  There's a subplot running through the season, where he tries to establish who all was responsible for framing him.

Better Off Ted
Short episodes, light and funny - we loved this show.
Description from Amazon.com - 
Sneaky, madcap, and completely addictive, Better Off Ted is a delicious lampoon of the corporate culture that puts profits over anything resembling human decency. Ted Crisp (Jay Harrington) is the breezy, confident manager of the research and development department of Veridian Dynamics--a massive multinational corporation that does everything, from growing cowless meat to weaponizing pumpkins. Crisp has already had an affair with his blissfully heartless boss, Veronica (Portia de Rossi, from the cult favorite sitcom Arrested Development), which inhibits him from having an affair with the smart, lovely, somewhat neurotic new product tester Linda (Andrea Anders, Joey), lest he be seen as a guy who sleeps around the office. He has to look after his top two research scientists, Lem and Phil (Malcolm Barrett and Jonathan Slavin), who are brilliant but socially hapless, and his precocious young daughter Rose (Isabella Acres), whose mother abandoned them to save countries in Africa. From this web of relationships are woven absurd stories about cryogenically freezing employees, motion sensors that don't detect dark skin, Medieval Fight Club, hair growth formula, and phosphorescent squirrels. Better Off Ted is that rare sitcom with a genuinely distinctive sense of humor, one that may take a few moments to catch--but once you've gotten in sync, the show is gut-bustingly funny.

The Glades
Chicago Cop falsely accused of sleeping with his captains wife, shot by his captain, receives large settlement, moves to the Glades and solves murders in an unconventional manner.
WARNING - This series ends without ending.  They end the 4th season with a Cliffhanger, then did not renew the series.  I'm still hoping another network will pick this up and finish it!



We've just started watching this one, and are not at a season where we can truly binge on tv - but we've watched an episode here and there, and I LOVE this show!  Batman's castle with a robinhood/butler sidekick, add in Catwoman and kind of a Robinhood theme with a backstory flashbacks that will remind you of Lost, all done in more of a, darker,  White Collar/Leverage style.  We did have to skip a bit in one episode, and have not watched enough to know how clean it is..  keep the remote handy, but so far this is a family favorite.


So disappointed...


LOVED season one of this show. Loved the outfits, the customs and manners, loved the characters..  and then season 2 happened.  Season 2 lost the charm, and added sex.  The show went from charming and funny to annoying soap opera with sex in every episode in just one season.  How disappointing.