Along the road of praise, as I told you. Yes! I will indeed help your unbelief, and in answer to your prayers grant you so great a faith, such an increasingly great faith, that each day you may look back, from the place of your larger vision, and see the faith of the day before as almost unbelief.

   The Beauty of My Kingdom is its growth. In that Kingdom there is always progress, a going on from strength to strength, from glory to glory. He in My Kingdom, and of My Kingdom, and there can be no stagnation. Eternal Life, abundant Life is promised to all in it, and of it.

   No mis-spent time over failures and shortcomings. Count the lessons learned from them but as rungs in the ladder. Step up, and then cast away all thought of the manner of the making of the rung. Fashioned of joy or sorrow, of failure or success, of wounds or healing balm, what matter, My children, so long as it served its purpose?

   Learn another lesson. The Sculptor who finds a faulty marble casts it aside. Because it has no fashioning, it may regard itself as perfect; and it may look with scorn upon the marble the Sculptor is cutting and shaping into perfection. From this, My children, learn a lesson for your lives.


><//>--------------------Prayer for the Day

Father, we pray that we may be willing to grow. We pray that we may be found deep stepping up on the rungs of the ladder of life. Amen.


A Disciple's Reflections:  Suffering - The Sculptor’s Chisel

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 

His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.  As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 

Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.  – John 9:1-7

Beloved, allow me to share with you about the suffering so many of us have known and how best to respond in it.

Early in his ministry, a pastor read C. S. Lewis' book 'The Problem of Pain'. It was a very lucid explanation of why there is suffering and pain in this world. This pastor was so impressed that he immediately preached an eloquent sermon on the subject. After the sermon, at the front door, an elderly woman said to him, "Preacher, that was a good try, but you haven't lived long enough or suffered nearly enough to know what you're talking about."

And of course she was right. In fact, after Lewis' wife contracted bone cancer and died a suffering death he wrote another book, "A Grief Observed", acknowledging that in his early work even he knew nothing about pain.

It's easy to give clear and logical explanations of suffering when you aren't the one suffering. Besides, what difference would it make? The most eloquent theological explanation can't restore sight. Jesus didn't allow himself to be drawn into some theological explanation about why this child of God was unable to see. Jesus was not concerned with why the man was blind, but what to do to help him.

Blindness was probably epidemic in that day. Blowing sand and unsanitary conditions resulted in many people losing their sight. Today our blindness is much less physical, but no less limiting. Think for a moment about some area where we might be blind, an area where our vision may be hazy, muddled, or confused. Perhaps some aspect of life seems dark and gloomy, where the grace of God's mercy and love never quite seems to penetrate. We've all probably spent a good deal of time examining why we are blind in those places. We have psychoanalyzed ourselves repeatedly. We probably have some clues about the source of the dim places of our lives.

The bottom line is that knowing the cause really doesn't matter unless it leads to a cure. Insight is valuable, but diagnosing a disease will not heal it. Too many of us are like people who have been poisoned. We have described the symptoms, and had blood drawn and analyzed. We know what the poison is. We may even know how it got into our system. What we lack is the antidote, or perhaps the will to take the treatment that would cure us.

Like the blind man previously mentioned, Jesus is challenging us to ask different questions about that which is blinding us to the light of God. Jesus is seeking to provide a cure that will bring healing to us and glory to God. That seems a lot more important than theological answers or bible studies regarding the matter.

I'm certain, beloved, that when we submit, and learn the reality of the darkness within us that blocks the sunlight of God's Spirit from getting into our lives, and we seek God to remove it, the sooner we can be delivered with power, and the sooner the scales will fall from our eyes and we shall see.

Let us pray:  Yeshua HaMeshiach, Jesus Christ, Light of the World, shine your truth into our hearts. Give us the strength to take the first step towards healing the dark places of our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen.


Make Us To Be Truly Thankful

"...in everything give THANKS...” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Another translation of the above verse says, "in ALL things give thanks...” Let us imagine ourselves right now as being thankful for anything and everything in our lives. In fact, this might be the perfect time for reflection upon the things that we simply take for granted. For instance, shouldn't you be thankful that you are alive and able to read this message? Life itself is a gift for which we should be thankful today. Thanksgiving should be a daily exercise, not an annual celebration reserved exclusively for the end of November.

Now that we are thankful for our lives, our families, our friends, our jobs, our freedoms, our homes, our food, our clothing, our pets (the list of good things goes on and on, doesn't it?), it is time to be truly thankful for the not so good things. After all, as instructed above, we are to be thankful in everything. That means trials, tribulations, strife, health concerns, tragedies, struggles, challenges, disappointments, failures, let downs, etc. Do we get the picture? Yes, let us be thankful in all things for even our troubles help to build character, strength and hope. No matter what hardship we face today, this too shall pass.

Let us start each day by being thankful and remember.

"This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."  – Psalm 118:24


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Please have a blessed day, be hopeful, be encouraged, and know you are not alone.

“God Calling” compiled by A. J. Russell.
"Twenty-Four Hours A Day" Hazelton – adapted.
Kerry Nelson writes Suffering-The Sculptors Knife.
Greg Candelaria writes Make Us To Be Truly Thankful.
Barry Gray writes "A Disciple's Reflections".