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Feed Rate
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Feed Rate by Phil One of the activities I do quite often in my wood shop is resawing lumber (the rest of the world calls it "timber," just in case you have trivia night coming up!) While crosscutting makes boards shorter and rip cutting makes them narrower, resawing makes boards thinner. This is usually done on a bandsaw by running a thick board vertically through its width to make two thinner boards. A properly tuned bandsaw can make a straight cut through the entire length of a board, but there is one crucial task left up to the operator. The woodworker must control the feed rate (how fast or hard you push the board into the blade). This is a learned skill that causes a struggle for almost all new woodworkers. For a bandsaw to make a straight resaw cut, you must go SLOW! The thin little blade has a lot of material to cut and clear, so patience is a must. The trick is to apply slight and steady pressure and let the blade cut at its own pace. If you get in a hurry and push too hard, the blade will veer off to the left or right, and your piece will be ruined. If you keep pushing, eventually the blade will give up and break - and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (from the woodworker). Sounds a lot like following Jesus, doesn't it? One of the hardest disciplines to practice is patience, especially when God seems to be stuck. How many times do we veer off the straight and narrow when we try to do things our way instead of waiting on God? Moses did when he killed the Egyptian taskmaster. Aaron did when he made the golden calf. Saul did when he didn't wait for Samuel to offer sacrifices to God. Peter did when he said he would never deny Jesus. Judas did when he betrayed Jesus to the hands of the chief priests. These are just a few examples; the Bible is full of people who weren't willing to wait on God's timing. I wrote a song years ago that I never finished, but the chorus comes back to me quite often... In God's time, He will do what's best, I know. The secret to successfully following Jesus is a proper faith feed rate. You can't push ahead of God and expect Him to follow you. You also can't sit and do nothing, waiting for God to move. You must pursue God with a steady consistency, letting Him set the pace. Sometimes it may be glacially slow, and other times you'd better hold on to your hat! Just remember: you run the race, God sets the pace! Click Here to Check our Concert Schedule! Check us out on Facebook! - http://www.facebook.com/PhilandPamMorgan |
Phil & Pam Morgan
We're authors and musicians who loves to talk about faith & spirituality, arts & crafts, and music. Subscribe and join over 2,000+ newsletter readers every week!
Permission by Phil This month, something happened that hasn't occurred in the past 26 years - we didn't get our devotions out to our monthly supporters until the end of the month. I know, I hear your gasps of shock and disbelief. This may only matter to me, but I think there just might be a lesson for many of us. First, a little glimpse behind the scenes... I am constantly on the lookout for God's hand at work in everyday life, and when I see something I think would make a good application of...
We come to the end of our month-long look at an episode in the life of Jesus. We’ve looked through the eyes of the four friends, the homeowner, and the students. Let’s wrap up with one of the main characters… Part Four - The Paralyzed Man When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them,...
Here we are at the third visit to our familiar passage. Last time we looked at an invisible character in our story, the homeowner. This time we’ll shift our attention to very visible but overlooked characters… Part Three - The Other Students When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to...