The Day God spoke to me from a piece of Wood

 

The Day God spoke to me from a piece of Wood

 

In the back of our new home is a dry creek and a greenbelt that goes all over the neighborhood.  Last weekend, I talked Jan into going exploring with me and I found a large piece of a tree that had broken off and was beginning to rot in some areas.  When we were clearing the property, I had cut a large cedar with the intent of making a cross, I took the tree to a sawmill had it cut, and began to work on the cross.  The cross was finished and it came to my mind that a sign with the following; (All Praise to Jesus, who is risen and at the Father's right hand) would be a good testimony. 

 

So, with that in mind, I picked up this part of a tree and carried it home.  It is the 25^th of November and I began to work on the piece of wood.  As I began to inspect the wood it became clear that I had my work cut out, that the front part that I would write on was good wood and yet the ends and back had a lot of bad wood.  That is when I began to think this can be a lot of work or it can be easy.  If you are familiar with me at all, you know Easy would be my first choice.  It was at that point; that thoughts came into my mind that I did not believe were mine.  I am very simple and do not have these kinds of thoughts, so I am going to tell you I believe it was God speaking to me.

 

This is how it began, Bob you have every right to make the sign any way you desire, but is your purpose to honor Me.  My thoughts were, “Yes, Lord my heart desires to honor You with this sign.”  And that is when God began to explain that much of my life, I had chosen to do with my life what I was now thinking about doing with the wood.  Just clean up the outside and put a good finish so it would appear good.  But it became clear, that it would not last and my time would be wasted.  I chose to begin removing the rot, and once more I had thoughts that I contributed to God.

 

It went like this; this wood is full of rot, and it seems like the rot is below the surface and hard to remove.  Once more thoughts came to my mind, Yes, Bob, that wood is a very good example of your life, when I found you full of self and rot.  As you keep digging into the wood you will find all kinds of grubs and bores and other things eating the life of that wood.  I found all kinds of pollution in you and rot and the only way to remove it was to cut out the bad wood.  I’ve seen that often you have hit your hand while removing the deep rotten wood and the hammer hurts, it was also painful and I found no pleasure in removing the rot in your life.  But I never forgot the goal, to conform you to the image of my Son.

 

I’ve also noticed that after much work sometimes the rot goes too deep and it pains you to remove or break off a piece that you had worked on for such a long time.  I will always break off the areas of your life that are polluted, for my desire is to have a vessel that is usable in my kingdom.  As you discover the grubs eating away at the rotten wood, I also have had to dig deep into your heart to remove wrong thoughts and plans that were not in your best interest and would only bring you harm.  

 

Bob, only My Holy Spirit can teach you truths from this piece of wood, but if you listen, I will show you how to change a rotten piece of wood into something that will bring honor to my Name and glory to my Son. 

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice