LORD, Make Me What YOU Want Me To Be.

A picture of what every 
Christian life should be!
(J.R. Miller)

A writer tells of going with a group 
of visitors, down into a coal mine. 
On the side of the passageway 
grew a flower which was perfectly 
white. The visitors were astonished, 
that there, where the coal dust 
was continually flying--
this little flower would 
be so pure and white. 

A miner, who was with them, 
took a handful of black coal dust 
and threw it upon the plant, but not 
a particle adhered. Every atom 
of the black dust rolled off. 

The visitors themselves repeated 
the experiment, but the coal dust 
would not cling. There was a wonderful 
enamel on the folds of the white flower 
to which no speck could adhere. 

Living there amid clouds of black dust--
nothing could stain its snowy white!

This is a picture of what every 
Christian life should be. We live 
in an evil world. We go among the 
ungodly continually in our daily walk 
and work. Unholy influences breathe 
all around us; but it is our mission 
to be pure amid all this vileness--
undefiled, unspotted from the world.

If GOD can make a little flower, so that 
no black dust can stain its whiteness--
can HE not by HIS grace so transform 
your heart and life, that no sin can 
cling to you? If GOD can keep a little 
flower stainless, as white as snow, 
amid clouds of black coal dust--
can HE not keep hearts of HIS people 
in like purity, in this world of sin? 

"So that you may become blameless 
and pure, children of GOD without fault 
in a crooked and depraved generation, 
in which you shine like stars in the universe!" 
Philippians 2:15 

"Religion that is pure and unblemished 
in the sight of GOD the FATHER is this . . . 
to keep oneself unspotted and 
uncontaminated from the world!" 
James 1:27 

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GraceGems has published Timothy Shay Arthur's insightful short story on child-training, 
"Digging up Seeds".