Rev. Ray and Pat Amos

Ezra 9:8 KJV

“Grace has been shown from the Lord our God…to give us a nail in his holy place.”

“I just want to belong to something!” I can’t tell you how those words broke my heart when I heard them. Not everyone has the same opportunities in this life (for a multitude of reasons). The Gospel is about a Savior who does not reject anyone who comes to Him. (Whoever comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out.) If we come, we must offer ourselves as we are, and be willing for Him to shape us to who we can be. None of us can come into His presence and demand, or expect, to remain the same.

My grandfather was a part of the “do not throw away generation.” They came through the depression and realized the need for saving things for future use. I remember him pulling bent nails from boards, straightening them with a hammer, and saving them in an old coffee can. If you asked him why go to all the trouble when you could buy new nails, his answer would be that these are still good and don’t need to be thrown away.

Ezra spoke of God’s people as “nails in His Holy place.” Imagine that each one of us is a nail. (What kind would you be?) Some are spikes for heavy work, while others are small finishing nails for more fragile task. Each one has a place of usefulness in the plan of God.

We all can rejoice that our God is not a “throw away God.” We too have been bent; and Jesus has pulled us out of that old life, straightened and saved us. No nail is too bent for Jesus. He can restore anyone, and any situation, if we are willing to turn it all over to Him.

Got any bent nails in your family or among your friends? Do you feel a little bent yourself? Bent and broken lives often get discarded in this society, but grace has been shown from the Lord to make us a nail in His Holy place.

“Lord, you are the Great Carpenter of life, and I am a bent nail in the hardwood of sin. Pull me hard, or pull me gentle; but pull me from the world that claims a part of me. The good I would do; I do not, and the wrong that I hate I manage to do. Hold me on the anvil of your Word; then with the hammer of truth make my life straight as you drive the bent from my soul. I am only free when I am in you and you in me. Make me a nail in your Holy place.”

Grace and Peace, Rev Ray (2/26/2019)

“Link to YouTube Video – NAILS IN YOUR HANDS”