Wednesday, October 26, 2011

His kingdom and His will...

Our Father, who is in heaven
hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.

Yesterday we looked at to whom we pray, the Father, and a few things about Him.  The next section of the Lord's Prayer talks about His kingdom coming to earth and His will being done here on earth like it is done in heaven.

There are two aspects of God's kingdom that we should understand: a spiritual kingdom and a physical kingdom.  The spiritual kingdom is the kingdom of God within the human heart.  It is the Holy Spirit who dwells in you if you have believed in Jesus Christ.  The physical kingdom has yet to happen, but is found in the prophecy of the book of Daniel in which Jesus will be the king of a literal earthly kingdom. 

Your will be done...
I found the meaning of the Greek word for will (thelema) very interesting.  Some mistakenly think that by "giving in" to God's will is somehow proof of selfishness and egotism on His part.  That could be true if He were human!  Think about this definition - "not to be conceived as demand, but as an expression or inclination of pleasure towards that which is liked, that which pleases and creates joy.  When it denotes God's will, it signifies His gracious disposition toward something, used to designate what God Himself does of His own good pleasure...it does designate what occurs or what should be done by others as the object of God's good pleasure in the carrying out of the divine purpose or the accomplishment of what He would have."

on earth as it is in heaven...
Earth (Ge) - "Since earth stands in antithesis of heaven, it is associated with the idea of emptiness, weakness, sinfulness, and does not correspond with the wisdom and power of God."   Have you watched the news lately?  The words emptiness, weakness and sinfulness describe our world.  We desperately need God's will to be done on earth!  There are only two ways that will happen:  1) there needs to be a great revival where we turn away from our sin and become a people of obedience to God or 2) Jesus will return to earth and set up His kingdom.

Tomorrow:  forgiveness

Decor

I did not want to buy a pattern for a new bed skirt for our guest bed and I liked the tailored pleated bed skirt (uses less fabric, too), so I removed the old bed skirt and laid it out on the living room floor.  I used a tape measure and measured everything, recording the measurements on a sketch I made on a 3x5 card.  These are the measurements I took:

the foundation length and width (the part that goes under the mattress)
the side skirt length and width
the end skirt length and width
placement of the pleat in each skirt
pleat width
(I added 1 inch to each measurement for hems)




I purchased a flat sheet at Walmart for the foundation and chose a sheet the same color as the coverlet so it won't be as noticeable if it shows. 


I laid the flat sheet on top of the old bed skirt foundation with the bottom of the sheet at the top of the foundation.  Using a sharpie, I marked the other three sides where I would cut and sew on the skirt.  I used the tape measure to make sure the measurements were correct, then cut off the excess.  I folded each cut side 1/2 inch, ironed it flat, folded each side another 1/2 inch and ironed it again.  I then sewed each hem.




I then cut out each skirt piece and hemmed them each on three sides - one long side and the two short sides.  Using the measurements I'd taken, I folded the pleats into each skirt, pinned them in place and ironed them flat.  I then sewed them in place at the unhemmed edge of each skirt. 






I laid the new foundation on the floor, right side up, then laid each skirt piece on the foundation (the end piece first, folding up and pinning the ends so they wouldn't get caught in the side seams), right sides together, and pinned them in place.  The last step was to sew each piece on to the foundation. 



It took about four hours to cut and sew this bed skirt.  Not too bad and the bed looks beautiful!  Tomorrow I'll show you how I made the accent pillows and show you a picture of the finished bed.

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