A Pencil---which pencil are you? Sharpened or dull?

 Good morning all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  You are so blessed to be a child of the living GOD!!!

  This morning I really felt God woke me with this word.  Talking to me, yet available to share with family and friends.

  Are you like a pencil?  When you get a new pencil it is blunt on one end and has an eraser on the other end.  Between the blunt end and the eraser is simply wood and graphite.  What can you do with this object?  You can look at it; hold it in your hand; lay it down somewhere; yet it has no real purpose.  So what do you do?

  Well, often this is what we do with our Bible.  It sits on the shelf, you can hold it in your hand, look at it, dust it, put it out for display,and yet it serves no purpose.

   So, we sharpen the pencil.  Now what?  We can write with it; draw with it; and do many more things with a sharpened pencil.  It comes to a point and is just what we need.  This can be our relationship with Jesus.  We sharpen our knowledge, go to him in prayer, go out into the world sharing the good news,and can produce good in his name.

   Then, the more we use the pencil it becomes dull.  Sometimes this is our relationship with the LORD.  Our relationship is still there, but becomes dull. We don't have the prayer time we used to have; we don't do the Bible study like we used to, and our relationship is still there but dull and only "when we think about it".  What do we do?  Just like the dull pencil, we have to sharpen it, so we get back into our Bible study, prayer time, and become closer to the LORD.

   As we sharpen the pencil it becomes shorter and shorter.  Yes, this is as our lives.   Our live span becomes shorter and shorter.  Once the pencil has been used up it can serve no more.  As are we, once we have served our purpose for the LORD, HE will then say "Well done good and faithful servant" and then call us home.

  You say this is all well and good, but you have not mentioned the eraser.  Oh yes, the eraser.  Just what is the purpose of the eraser?  The eraser on a pencil is there for the sole purpose of me, you, making a mistake.  We then turn the pencil over, erase the misteak------uh----mistake and continue on as if it never happened.  This is God in our lives.  He forgives us our mistakes and brings us back into fellowship, continues on and we continue to serve HIM.  

   Is your Christian life as the new pencil, sitting on the counter and doing nothing?  OR, as the sharpened pencil that is in relationship with the LORD, working for HIS kingdom, reading, praying, and sharing the Good News?

  Please pray for me and others that our lives will reflect activity and production as would a sharpened pencil.  Thank you for reading. Love y'all.

In Christ's Love and Grace

Johnny