Nov 01.99: Light For The Day - "Shaping"

"Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.
So be earnest, and repent."
-- Revelation 3:19 (NIV)

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I have a friend who during the depression lost
his job, a fortune, a wife, and a home. But he 
tenaciously held to his faith -- the only thing he
had left. 

One day he stopped to watch some men doing
stonework on a huge church. One of them was
chiseling a triangular piece of stone. "What are
you going to do with that?" asked my friend. 
The workman said, "See that little opening away
up there near the spire? Well, I'm shaping this
down here, so it will fit in up there." 

Tears filled the eyes of my friend as he walked
away, for it seemed that God has spoken through
the workman to explain his ordeal through which
he was passing, "I'm shaping you down here,
so you'll fit in up there."

-- Billy Graham

Prayer:
Thank You, LORD, for all the "shaping" in my life, 
which brings me closer to You.

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"My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline
and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD
disciplines those he loves, as a father the son
he delight in."
-- Proverbs 3:11,12 (NIV)