Weavings: Threads of the Master in the Heart of an Ordinary Girl

By Terrie Olsson

God is a Weaver. The tapestry of a person's life is His design. The threads of experience and the colors of truth are His alone to choose. He moves every individual shuttle in and out to create the lives that are mine and yours. We see only the underside of His masterwork, while He alone sees the beauty of its design from above. The closer we stay to the Weaver, the more beautiful the shades and patterns appear to us. There are knots and patches in every tapestry, yet in His grace, He works through those rough spots and faithfully continues the process until we are with Him and can see it complete.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098088255

Book preview

Gospel Threads

John 20:31

But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.

—John 20:31

God has granted me the deep desire to share the gospel, the truth of His saving grace, and the love of His Son, with all who will come. He has also given me a heart of discernment. His grace is so great, so beautiful, so full, and so ever-present that words are truly not enough to express it. Yet words are what He has given me to reach and share His good news.

He has also allowed me to be an observer of the times and seasons. My heart is oftentimes overwhelmingly burdened by what I see in the world and the brevity of time given to each of us to come to the knowledge of sins forgiven.

These beginning pages are an expression of the weight God has laid on my heart in the years since my salvation was secured by Jesus. Many are a somber and urgent call. Many are a sweet and pleading entreaty to those I love and those He has brought into my life. May you find in them the desire to reach your family and friends with the love of Christ before our time here on earth is done, and we are heaven bound!

Blessings in Christ.

Love Story of a Lonely Girl

I was born the fifth child in a family of eight, so there was not much one-on-one time with my parents. Spontaneous hugs and tickles and lap sitting or soft lullabies were not part of my growing up. At least nothing I recall as I look back on those years. My parents worked a lot just trying to put food on the table and pay the bills. I never knew it, but we were poor back then, something I did not understand until much later.

We were what I call Palm Sunday Christians. As I recall my childhood, that was about the only Sunday out of the year when I visited a church. However, I do remember attending confirmation classes as a twelve-year-old. To this day, I have no idea what they were for. I had to memorize some Bible passages and pass a test before the elders, I guess, but the purpose still eludes me. Some say one is accepted as a member of the church when you pass the final exam. Everyone passed that test as far as I know. But that is as far as my religious life went. I believed in God, and I believed Jesus lived. I believed He died on a cross. Everyone I knew at the time believed these things too. John 3:16 and Psalm 23 were the extent of my biblical knowledge. I was told that if I believed these things I was going to heaven when I died. But somewhere deep inside me, a voice said, There has to be more to it than this. I remember that first whisper as clearly today as it was fifty years ago. That small voice was the beginning, but it was buried under the rubble of misunderstanding. And that was where I stayed for years.

Being in the sibling position I was in, that fifth child between brothers, I spent a lot of my time alone. Brothers do not know about paper dolls and playing house. So I was on my own. As I grew, the lack of attention grew into a misunderstanding of what it meant to be loved. That is dangerous when one is a teenager. And that misconception led me into pregnancy and early marriage to a man whose heart was hardened toward God. Sadly, he remains hard and bitter to this day.

I left that marriage, still lonely for what true love was. I showered all my love on my beautiful son, determined he would know spontaneous hugs and tickles and an outpouring of never-ending love.

I met my husband Rick a few years later. He was a born-again Christian in love with Jesus. He began to show me the rest of the story where my limited knowledge of Jesus and the cross had lain dormant for so long, how God loved me—oh, how He loved me—and how He loved His Son, Jesus. I could relate to that kind of love, and the still small voice that I heard all those years began to grow in truth. I learned that God’s love for me was so great, so all-consuming that sacrificing His Son was His way of showing me its depths, that getting to heaven was indeed in believing Jesus lived but also in understanding why He lived, for what purpose His sacrifice was made. My sin had to be judged, and the ransom paid, the fine paid, the debt paid to cleanse me. Jesus, His beloved Son, paid it. He took the writ of judgment and paid it with His life. It was believing in Him, not just about Him.

It was on February 28, 1977, that I found real and permanent love. The voice of the Holy Spirit opened my understanding, and I was born again.

I have learned a lot since that day. I have learned that men in places of authority who say they know God do not always. I have learned that just because some men have been in the Word much longer than I have does not mean I should accept all they preach as truth. Sadly, I spent many long years in the desert because I trusted men to know more than me. Then I came to understand the truth about having a Berean attitude toward teaching. I study and trust only what the Word says and weigh all I hear from men against Scripture.

It has been quite a journey. That still small voice is still there whispering There’s got to be more to this. And there is. Every day I see new truth in His Word. It is written, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He never changes, but I do. I fall deeper in love every day.

The Jesus who loved me enough to pay my debt will pay yours too. Come to Him. He is waiting. He will be the beginning and the end of a beautiful love story for you as well.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. (Acts 16:31)

He that hath the Son hath life. (1 John 5:12)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. (Romans 6:23)

What will the answer to There’s got to be more to this be for you?

Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:13)

What Do You Have to Gain?

What do you have to gain in this world by accepting the gift of salvation through the finished work of the cross? When I came to Christ, when I understood the filthiness of who I was as one separated from God living a life for myself, when I understood that a loving God was also a righteous God, and I was justifiably going to eternal damnation for my sins, when my will agreed with God, I realized that the gift of salvation through the blood of Christ shed on Calvary was of incalculable worth. What I gained was peace, joy, freedom, comfort, truth, release, and everlasting life in Him.

Believing there is a God does not save you from hell. Satan believes in God. Believing Jesus lived and walked this earth does not save you. I believed those things before I was born-again. It is the belief that Christ’s blood shed on Calvary was for you. It is a change in your heart that agrees with His sacrifice in your place. It is personal.

God wants you just the way you are today, this moment, this instant. Can you sense it? Can you close your eyes and hear that what your heart is telling you is true about who you are and who He is? If there is the smallest spark that shimmers deep inside that says this might all be true, do not turn away. It is your spirit agreeing with God who is calling you. Listen to Him. Is He bringing before you what you are and what He did for you? No love is greater than what He has to give. He came for us, sinners. He will wash you clean. No matter what you have done, He will forgive.

That is what you have to gain. There is nothing, absolutely nothing to compare with the sense of peace, the overwhelming sense of something unbelievable happening inside when you come to Christ, when you are saved, born again, when you believe that He had you on His mind when He was tortured and cruelly crucified, that you matter so much. He loves you so much that He chose that death so you could be His.

Choose life, dear friend. I would love to walk the streets of gold with you someday!

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:36)

Run to Him

When one considers our place in this world and whether there is anyone out there who understands us or cares about us, try turning your face toward heaven. He will run to you with open arms. Christ was a real man, not a myth, not a fable, not a fairy tale. He lived and died…a terrible, agonizing death…so you might find salvation, rest, and peace through the blood He shed to redeem you to himself.

But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:31)

Pay Heed

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and that all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. and all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. (1 Corinthians 10:1–11)

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. We should not commit sexual immorality as some of them did—and in one day, twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

Christ, in His mercy, is the only haven from the destruction that is coming. If you claim to be a Christian, take heed you do not willfully fall back into sin such as the Israelites did. God sees it all, and He will not be mocked. They walked in the desert forty years, thinking God was allowing their sin just because they were His chosen people. They soon faced the just reward for their sin. You will be judged as were they. His love is just.

He gave us all the way of salvation. There will be no more opportunity other than through His Son. But you must choose Him while you are alive for there is no sin in heaven; therefore, you cannot enter heaven filled with sin and then believe. Jesus came to earth as a man so we could identify with His sacrifice while we yet live. Therefore, we must claim Him as Savior before death. You must decide for yourself. You must agree with God.

There is healing and grace in Christ. He will set you free. He will bind the wounds of your heart. He will provide for all your needs. He will give you strength. He will give you peace that passes all your understanding. He and all His power—supernatural power—will come to live in you. He will give you the power to live for Him, bear fruit for Him, find joy in Him. Open the door of your heart. Come and taste the Living Water of Christ and all His fullness. Come while there is still time.

But God said to him, You, fool! This night your soul is required of you. (Luke 12:20)

Gambling for a Garment

Are you gambling for a garment? The picture of the soldiers gambling at the foot of the cross for Jesus’s clothing (cloak and covering) is so relevant for the world today. One man won the garment, but they all lost the prize! All any of them wanted was something to cover themselves. They did not care that it was covered in blood from the stripes on His back. They just wanted a temporary feeling of comfort and protection.

So many people are gamblers like these men. They sit within earshot every Sunday morning but continue to believe the lie in the garden. Genesis 3:5 says, And you will be like God, knowing good and evil, wanting to continue to live for what they feel is good for themselves, rather than living for what God says is right. They gamble on their good deeds, good life, and profession to get them to heaven, never fully accepting all the gospel, all the truth.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9–10)

People who learn about Jesus and say as the centurion, Surely, this was the Son of God, yet turn and walk back into their old lives have only a cloak. They assent to Jesus, yet don’t live within Him. Here is truth:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

We are no longer bound by the powers of the temptations of our old lives. We have a new foundation to stand on. When temptations come, as they will do, we have new power within our new creation to flee from it.

Being a new creation is not temporary, nor a whitewashed life. It is a totally new life—mind, body, and spirit—given over to Christ. The new building begins in the heart but is evident to all by a change in actions, speech, and conscious decisions. It is a light in the darkness, a lamp for others to see and be guided to the Savior.

In these dark days, we need to know Jesus, not just know of Him. One cannot know Him fully, keep building on the foundation He has laid within us without knowing His truth and what His promises are for us. It is not enough to sit in a pew and let a man tell us what the Bible says. When we stand before God, will you say I was taught by a man, or will you say I was taught by Your revealed Word to me as Your Spirit led me to read and meditate on it? Yes, we have preachers and teachers and pastors and ministers to help us, but that doesn’t absolve us of our personal responsibility and call to write them on your heart.

Many in these last days as well will be trying to align their own truth with Scripture. They will be trying to pick and choose individual