"Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." (Isaiah 64:8) My mom used to make the most magnificent works of art from a big lump of clay. It looked like a big gray “blob” just sitting in front of her, before...
"continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." (Phil 2:12-13 NIV) The other day while taking out the trash, I thought about my conversion to being a Christian and...
"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." (1 Thessalonians 5:23) Sanctify is a beautiful word. It means to make holy that which was unholy. It’s...
"For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by...
We straightened our aching backs and rubbed the soil from our hands. Making the new garden was hard work and as yet, our loving imagination had to work overtime to begin to see its glorious future. It wasn’t much bigger than the proverbial pocket handkerchief but on...
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Cor 5:17 NIV) I have noticed something recently. I am not as angry as I used to be. I am not as grouchy either. I don’t complain nearly as much as I used to. I am...
One day my friend and I were installing curtains at church. She brought teeny little nails and a hammer to use. Because the wood was so hard, quite a few of those teeny nails bent over and crumpled under the pressure of the hammer. I thought that was so much like us....
New seedlings that sprang up under the White Cedar tree were destined for the mower blade. They were growing in the wrong place and their characteristics were wrong for the area. So what if I could do something to give them a new life in a new place? Taking the...
Last week, in Written on the Heart, Part 8, we came to understand that law preserves sanctity of life. If we want God's lifestyle, if we want to reflect Jesus, if we want to respond to God's light, His law must be written on our hearts. But just how does God do this?...
Last week, in Written on the Heart, Part 10, we learned that we must accept God's grace to soften our hearts and make it easier for God to write there. So what, then, if anything, is keeping God from writing on our hearts? I have said that where I grew up there was a...