Yesterday, the pastor showed a picture of rusty tools...
When my grandfather passed away, he left a lot of old tools
When my father in law passed away, he left a lot of old tools...
When my husband passed away, he left lots of tools...
When my father passed away, he left a lot of old tools...
Some of these tools were more than a generation old, handed down from family to family...some were well used, well taken care of....some were rusty and in need of refurbishing....some we had no idea what they were....some were hand forged, some were still in their original wrappers from the retailer...tools, gotten and used for a purpose...
My sons and sons in law made me one tool box from the multitude of tools left from my husband's collection and then divided the rest or gave them away...so now I have a set of usable tools...
But, let's go back to that picture or pile of rusty tools...the pastor was speaking about our lives....do we want to be a pile of rusty tools?
Reading in Ezekiel, he was given messages to tell or act out for the exiles in Babylon. He did as the Lord spoke...not wanting to be accountable for not speaking the Lord's message...
He became a tool, not a rusty one, but useful and usable...
Each of the prophets of old spoke, wrote, did what the Lord had appointed them to do...they didn't rust away, unused and become a pile of rubble...they warned, encouraged, acted, lamented, cried, wrote, underwent sacrifices to proclaim warnings to the people to whom they had been sent....obedient most of the time...some of their lives, pictures of the judgment and love of God toward his people...
It behooves me to ask, am I a pile of rusty tools or usable, useful in the kingdom? For what purpose am I? Do I fulfill that purpose?
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.....
Deuteronomy 6:4-8
Thank YOU for the picture...I don't want to be a rusty tool, unused, unuseful, useless...I desire to be used...
But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 4:29
(Discarded tools and treasures along the path...)
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