Sewing Peek, Book Reviews and Bible Post

Alright, so after saying I was going to do my Bible post like 4 posts ago, I am finally getting around to it, not that many people really read it. 

But first, I have been working on 2 different dresses this past week and this week. 

This is a 1940's pattern that I've seen pop up all over the internet.  My pattern I got came with the vintage fabric though, so that's pretty awesome.  I really like the feel of it and the look.  At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to like the lace on it, but I love the way it turned out.  Full pictures will come sometime later.

And, I finally got my second shipment of the red and cream striped fabric in, from the pattern that I royally screwed up laying out.  Yay!  And boy is it heavy.  Full pictures will also come later

Book Reviews
Not too many books these past 2 weeks. 

City of Ashes, by Cassandra Clare:  This is the second book in The Mortal Instruments Series, and it is definitely an improvement from the first book.  There is hardly a dull moment in this book, you meet a few more characters, most notably Isabelle and Alec's parents.  Jace's snarky sarcasm literally makes me laugh out loud. There is a lot of conflict, inner turmoil and forbidden romance. A

City of Glass, by Cassandra Clare:  This is the third and latest book published in The Mortal Instruments series, but it is not the last.  A new one comes out in April I think, and the spin off series set in Victorian England came out a few weeks ago.  This is the epic end of the Valentine saga part of the series.  There is some tragedy, some betrayals, and some long awaited reunions.  It leaves alot of questions unanswered, but also ties up alot of loose ends, and I am definitely excited for the continuation of the series and the new spin off.  Books like this one, I like to savor and take my good old time reading so I can enjoy every moment I have with it.  Jace is definitely one of my favorite boys from YA books.   Here's a preview of the gorgeous cover.  Don't you wish all books had awesome kick butt covers like these? A+

The last book I read is called Undressed: The Naked Truth About Love, Sex, and Dating by Jason Illian.  It was pretty good, not the best relationship book I have ever read, not the worst.  Everything he wrote about in terms of dating was all Biblically based, not just his personal thoughts and beliefs, which was nice to read.  But a lot of times, reading books like these, it feels as if he is writing towards teens and not adults.  Christian adults need books to read about things like this too.  Oh well.  It was entertaining.  B

Bible Readings: Numbers 8:15-Joshua 6
My more profound things to say will come with the next Bible post, but here are my thoughts on what I have read last week and this week. 
Numbers 25

"While the Israelites were camped at Acacia Grove some of the men defiled themselves by havings sexual relations with local Moabite women.2 These women invited them to attend sacrifices to their gods, so the Israelites feasted with them and worshiped the gods of Moab (...) The Lord issued the following command to Moses: Seize all the ringleaders and execute them before the Lord in broad daylight, so his fierce anger will turn away from the people of Israel...So Moses ordered Israel's judges, "Each of you must put to death the men under your authority who have joined in worshiping Baal of Peor."

This isn't the first time something like this has happened in terms of Israel turning against God, as I wrote about before, and it certainly isn't the last, but what I have begun to realize is that there is not much room for forgiveness in the Old Testament.   I feel like for the most part, my church, as with probably most churches, focuses on the New Testament and we talk a lot about forgiveness through Christ.  Christ's shedding his blood on the cross is the price for the forgiveness for our sins.  Well, Christ obviously hasn't made a presence yet where I am in my reading, so judgment was swift and unforgiving.   I'm not saying the punishment and outcome isn't justified, for turning against God, but it does seem astonishing, when all we have known is absolute forgiveness if we ask for it.

Joshua 2:1-5 abbrv.

"1 Then Joshua secretly sent out two spies from the Israelite camp. He instructed them, "Scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River." So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there that night. 2 But someone told the king of Jericho, "Some Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land."3 So the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab: "Bring out the men who have come into your house, for they have come here to spy out the whole land." 4 Rahab had hidden the two men, but she replied, "Yes, the men were here earlier, but (...) 5 They left the town at dusk. I don't know where they went"

This is just a quick note, but Rahab I have always known was a prostitute, but in a note in my bible it says prostitute -or- inn keeper.  err?  Inn Keeper is quite a bit different than prostitute, I'm just saying.  This is my short opinion on this.  Women are not mentioned without purpose in the Bible.  It just wasn't the way of the culture, so you know if a section or an entire chapter is devoted to tell a story about a women, she is going to be pretty important.  Her strength and courage is absolutely undeniable, which she is rewarded for by being saved from the massacre.  My question though, is why did she decide to hide the men in the first place? When they are foreigners, people she should probably be scared of, people that are trying to destroy her city.  What led her to lie for them and risk her life for them? 

Judges 2:10-12

"After those people had died, their children grew up and did not know the Lord or what he had done for Israel.11 So they did what the Lord said was wrong, and they worshiped the Baal idols.12 They quit following the Lord, the God of their ancestors who had brought them out of Egypt. They began to worship the gods of the people who lived around them, and that made the Lord angry."

So, another generation of Israelites died, and their children basically turned away from God, if I am reading this correctly.  This just reminds me of nowadays where the parents and people my own parent's age seem to be strong Christians and faithful to attending church, etc, but their kids and people my age think they know better and don't need all that stuff, blah blah blah, so they fall away from the church.  I think it is heartbreaking that this is such a common pattern in today's society, especially with half the media seeming to mock Christianity.  That probably makes even more people turn away.  Am I wrong in saying this?  I feel like I just had a conversation not to long ago with someone about this, so it was funny that I happened to read that passage when I did.

That's it for now.  I missed a few days in my reading so I have like 60 chapters to catch up on.  I'm not really freaking out about not being on target though, because I'd rather go slow and actually comprehend and meditate on what I am reading than rushing through and be no better off in knowledge and understanding than I was before.  Now I'm off to tear off two sleeves off a shirt that I put on the wrong side.  Man I love it when I do that.