A Chip Off the Old Block

“Your hands made me and formed me;
    give me understanding to learn your commands.” 

Psalm 11:73

Allow me to start right off by saying I mean no disrespect when I use the phrase:

‘a chip off the old block’ where you and I are the ‘chips’ and God is the ‘old block’.

Rather, it is meant to paint a picture of the fact that God, as was expressed so well in the service yesterday, is ‘carving’ us – as it were – into the image of His Son and to fulfill the purposes He has for our lives.

A gifted artist can look at a block of wood, a canvas or a piece of metal and see the completed work in it.

There is no greater creative touch than that of God in the lives of His children or – for that matter – in anything He touches or speaks into existence.

God sees in you all the plans, purposes and dreams He has for you.

God see in you what no others have seen.

God sees in you what you yourself may struggle to see and believe.

God speaks to those things in you that are not as though they were.

Why? Because He has created greatness and wonderful things in you!

He is ‘incapable’ of anything else!

Some may look at the mess in their lives and ask: “God, why did you do this to me?”

We are carved by the hands to which we surrender our lives.

If we choose to be the one forming, fashioning and carving then the work is of our own making.  

If we surrender to the Master Craftsman and allow His hand to carve and shape us He will bring greatness from what we may have thought was a simple block of wood.

Jesus saw in Peter some things Peter himself would not have dreamed were in him.

Some things Jesus carved out of Peter, others were carved into him.

So it is with you and I.

We are not yet complete in what God has for us to be – some never will be.

But the choice to surrender to God’ hand, the enemies or our own is ours to make.

Choose wisely.

In the end your life will be a reflection of those choices.