Defects

​Recently, I was talking to John, one of our attendees at The Road Home who works at Gunderson, a manufacturing and assembly plant that makes cast steel parts.  John shared how he and a team of workers had to travel to China to investigate why the parts they were receiving from the foundry in China were breaking.  What they discovered was profound.  

When a mold is poured, it must be smooth and complete. Metal must be at the right temperature to flow in and fill all the cavities.  Then it must set for the right period of time.  The temperature must also be hot when the mold (made of volcanic black sand), is broken.  The Chinese workers in their hurry to produce parts were breaking molds too soon by cooling them too rapidly.  The products looked fine when they were shipped to the U.S.  But when the parts were fitted into machinery for use, they cracked because they were defective.
 
Meditation
2 Chronicles 20:32,33—Jehoshaphat was a good king, following the ways of his father, Asa. He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight.  During his reign, however, he failed to remove all the pagan shrines, and the people never fully committed themselves to follow the God of their ancestors. (NLT)
 
King Jehoshaphat was a descendent of King David.  As the passage above notes, he was a good king. But contrast his description with what the Bible says of Jotham, his great, great, great, great grandson.  “King Jotham became powerful because he was careful to live in obedience to the Lord his God” (2 Ch. 27:6—NLT).  

Jehoshaphat took moral shortcuts.  He didn’t get rid of all the pagan shrines (impurities), thereby encouraging half-hearted commitment to God in his countrymen.  Nor did he spend enough time mentoring (curing the mold), of his oldest son, Jehoram.  Those two omissions were incredibly costly.  After he died, Jehoram murdered all his brothers and many of Judah’s moral leaders.  Judah descended into decades of idol worship and conduct that angered God.  Small problems in the father became huge problems in the son and the nation!
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So, how’s your mold?  Are you following God wholeheartedly, allowing Him to develop you into His image?  Or are you allowing character defects to mar your condition?  Are you engaged in consistent obedience or do you vitiate God’s plan for your life?   Let’s pray that God will give us the courage to walk in holiness and the wisdom to do what is right all the time so when we are engaged in life’s battles, we don’t crack! 
 
Inspiration
. . . sin in its final analysis is not a defect but a defiance, a defiance that means death to the life of God in us.—Oswald Chambers in Biblical Ethics
 
©2006 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)