Attention To Detail

"The devil is in the details." This phrase is often used when we've planned but have overlooked a minute factor that can cause our plans to fail. Because our plans fail, hence the phrase.
Human nature tends to be big picture – we don't want to think of the minutiae, as it's too mind-boggling.

So it is always amazing to me that God cares about everything in our lives - from the trivial to the grand. When God told Moses how to build the Tabernacle and its accouterments He provided minuscule detail. God was the first architect and he provided a clear blueprint as to how the Tabernacle should be built.

In Exodus 24:18, Moses went up to Mount Sinai and communed with God for forty days and nights. At this time, God provided Moses with instructions for the building of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was a place where God's people would worship him. Every physical detail listed in the book of Exodus has some spiritual correlation, but I am in awe when I observe how God spells out the physical aspect.

In stark detail, God conveyed to Moses the following:

The Tabernacle and its building materials. The Lord specified that gold, silver, bronze, blue and purple linen, oil and precious stones be used to build the Tabernacle. These would come as an offering from the Israelites (Exodus 25:3-7).
Accouterments for the Tabernacle - The Ark of the Covenant – The Ark was to contain the tables of the law and was to be kept in the holiest place: The Holy of Holies. God provided the measurements, the materials and the design (Exodus 25:10-22).
The Table of Showbread – a table to constantly display bread. This table symbolizes how God nourishes us all the time. Again, God provided Moses with measurements, materials and design (Exodus 25:23-30).
The Golden Lamp stand – provided constant light for the Tabernacle and was resplendent. The Lamp stand is a type of Christ. It was to have 6 branches, 3 on each side and one stand in the middle. God specified that it be made with a talent of pure gold, and provided Moses with the specifications for the shape of the lamp stand (Exodus 25:31-40).
Curtains of Linen – The curtains were to be hung throughout the Tabernacle in three colors – blue, purple and scarlet. The linen curtains symbolize Christ's righteousness. God told Moses the length, how they should be folded, where the selvedge should be located (did you know God was a seamstress?), the loops, and the clasps for the curtains (Exodus 26:1-9).
Other items are also specified for the Tabernacle and are laid out in astonishing detail. There are: the Curtain of Goats Hair, the Covering of Rams Skin, the Boards & Sockets, the Inner Veil, the Outer Veil, the Gate of the Court and Oil for the Lamp (Exodus 26).
Since God leaves nothing to chance, He then delineated the priestly garments: (breastplate, robe, ephod, embroidered coat, miter and a girdle), how the priests should be consecrated, the types of sacrifices, food for the priests and finally who may worship (Exodus 28,29).

Once God provided Moses with the layout of the Tabernacle, God recognized that he would need knowledgeable people to build the Tabernacle. Moses didn't have to scratch his head for too long because God then provided spirit filled craftsmen, contractors who were good at their work. They had a talent for working with their hands that God used and blessed. He provided Bezalel and Oholiab who had knowledge in all manner of workmanship (Exodus 31:1-6). According to all that the Lord commanded, they did (Exodus 31:11).

Ultimately, the Tabernacle was a place of worship and adoration to God Himself. It was also a place for mercy and atonement.

In the same way, God provided an exact blueprint for the Tabernacle, He has a blueprint for each of our lives, right down to what we would consider inconsequential.

The next time you have a quandary in your life, commune with God. Set aside a time to talk and listen to what He has to say. God is detail oriented as evidenced throughout His Word, but in particular in providing the specifications for the Tabernacle. God leaves nothing to chance; He is aware of every situation. He cares about every aspect of your life. Listen, and He will provide all the necessary details for your life. He will even send the right people along to assist you, individuals who have exactly what you need, when you need it, blessed by God.

Your plans won't fail if God is in the details.

Do you invite God into every aspect of your life?

P.S. I wrote this many years ago, but only decided to share it again today.

You Are Not Your Mistakes

Source

Have you ever kicked yourself for doing something so dumb? "How could you?" you say over and over again. You deal with it, you talk it out, and you do your best to learn from it and you move on. I've done some dumb things in my life - haven't we all? But that's no excuse because when I should have known better, I didn't do better and as a result I was humiliated. I'd venture to say that if I wasn't humiliated I might have continued not doing better.

I remember that humiliation.  Isn't it funny that no matter the passage of time, sometimes that mistake just rears its ugly head and all of a sudden it's hitting you square between the eyes.

What do you do?

At this point, I've learned to remember that I am not my mistake. The feelings may come to make me doubt where I am now, but I'm not that mistake - I'm not the person I was when I made that mistake. All of these thoughts take root in our minds and if we ruminate on them they can grow and produce undesirable fruit that is rotten.

Source
Is this how you feel?

Instead, take every thought captive. When you capture something, you surround it and muffle it so that it is stifled and has no room to grow. Do that with your thoughts. Then replace the mistake with your growth from that point on. Don't marinate in the mistake, marinate on the growth.

While we may always wrestle with things that caused us pain, we don't have to let our minds stay there. We can remember that we have overcome and we are now better for having made that mistake.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 6-7

Guard your heart above all else,

for it determines the course of your life. Proverbs 4:23

If this is your struggle, remember you can overcome and you are not your mistakes.

Walk In My Shoes

Source

We all need to try to do it, but it's not something that we can do successfully for we are all different. I think the initial impetus for the statement was to prevent anyone from being so quick to pass judgement (in a negative way). There's that word judgement. Because apparently if you walk a mile in some one's shoes and you come to a different conclusion other than the one they came to, you are judging.

I don't always need to walk a mile in some one's shoes to understand their predicament. I don't need to do drugs to know that they're bad, I don't need to touch a hot stove to know I will be burned, and I don't need to steal bread to know it's wrong, even if I'm hungry. Walking in some one's shoes comes in to play when you analyze the events leading up to a situation.

And this is where I say, "There but for the grace of God......" I've been angry and I've had thoughts I shouldn't have; I might have done things out of sheer desperation. But something stopped me. I didn't do it.

It doesn't make me better than you, it makes me human and it makes me empathetic.

I can sympathize with a lot of things. We live in a flawed world and the more I talk and interact with people, practically nothing surprises me in terms of what people will do. But that does not always mean actions are justified - if that were the case, our prisons would be empty.

No it means, there is a standard. There is a right and there's a wrong and regardless of if I walked in your shoes or not, there was a choice to be made in how to proceed.

We commend people when they do the unexpected, and we condemn them for being the base humans they are.

Walking in someone shoes can be helpful but it does not provide the arbiter of how to deal with a situation. It only provides a window in to how they were thinking and what they were feeling at the time. And then. you being you, get to decide differently.  You may speak about it or write about it, but everyone won't be on your side and that's fine.

I'm not discouraging trying to understand others by walking in their shoes, but if they come to a different outcome, put the shoe on the other foot and walk in their shoes. Please walk in my shoes, if you can. I'll understand if you don't or can't. Honestly, just listen, try to understand and acknowledge regardless of if you've walked in my shoes or not. We all need grace.

You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. Luke 6:36 (NLT)

Do you walk in other's shoes? 

Experience and Expertise

My husband and I are having the most interesting conversations of late, which I really enjoy.

So Sunday, at church the pastor made a comment that when a young man is courting a woman he should also court her mother.  He then said, "I'm no expert but I have experience."

This led to a number of back and forth questions (in church).

Eventually after church, I asked, "Can you have expertise without experience?"

Before I tell you my final conclusions, I'd love to hear what you think.

Can you have expertise without experience? If yes, how? Isn't that just knowledge if there's no experience? Is one better than the other? Is this true for certain areas and not others? Do you think this relates to your Christian walk? Can you be an expert at being a Christian? Or can you be an experienced Christian? Or can you be both?