Balance

By Ron Gallo

Balance is a collection of (3) volumes of gems that Author Ron Gallo has dug up to provide spiritual wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God’s word, to balance oneself. They will catch any readers eye and keep their attention for many reasons, one of which the book in three volumes is all written differently from other books,, with a different format and flavor that gets more tastier with each turn of the page.

Volume: One: “The Awakening”, here the author provides a vast treasury of Gems from his collection of Gods truths on living the Christian life. . Each one of the volumes compliments the other. All three volumes are written in short sentence/paragraph form, to capture the reader’s attention, with humor, and straight points that will enhance the readers walk with God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664196193

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Copyright © 2021 by Ron Gallo.

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version.

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Rev. date: 06/22/2022

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 Your Outlook

Chapter 3 Points to Ponder

Chapter 4 Points to Ponder

Chapter 5 Points to Ponder

Chapter 6 Valuable Gems from the Treasure Box

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Thought for the day: The spider teaches us patience as well as perseverance. We need to be patient and wait on God for all our matters.

CHAPTER 1

1.    Wisdom Gems for the Saint (Who Are You?)

As the twig bends, so does the tree.

—Virgil

Isn’t it funny how life comes full circle? Satan cannot create, he can only imitate. Satan will bring the same thing over and over again, but you must overcome any obstacle from your past. Whenever somebody shuts a door, it’s a sign that God will open a door.

—T. D. Jakes’ sermon No Room for Distractions

The thing that brings the curse, brings the blessing. Every battle has a blessing. Your greatest opposition will be your greatest opportunity.

Thought: The weaker I have become, the stronger God has become in my life.

Thought: After your last heartbeat and you kiss the world goodbye, your next beat will be in front of God. With no relative, attorney, or friend to represent you, you stand in front of God alone. You were born alone, will die alone, and face him alone. And God is not going to ask you how popular you were on earth, how many degrees you have (you can have more degrees than a thermometer), awards, trophies. How popular you were on Facebook. He is going to ask you the same question my wife, Joanne, would ask me: Did you have a relationship with me in the years I gave you on that planet I called Earth?

Our relationship with people is secondary to God. It’s amazing we have relationships with our family, friends, coworkers, which is fine, but he is the only one who provided the opportunity. Why is the Lord the last one we have a relationship with? It doesn’t make sense.

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. (Mark Twain)

All he asked me to do is just be still (Psalm 46:10, Be still and know that I am God) on my web and wait on God. Just like he wants you to do.

Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react. Own your attitude so it doesn’t own you. See Psalm 42.

The main purpose of this book is to show you that you can have balance in your life, and we all need it. I like pecan pie, and I like scrambled eggs, but don’t put them together for me at a meal. Just like a level is used to balance a picture on a wall or anything else in construction, we need to be balanced. And the only way is through the good doctor Jesus’s prescription for our lives. It can be filled at a sound fundamental Bible believing/teaching church and through his word only, called the Bible, not in man’s way or in any other book other than the Bible.

Man wants to put and see God how they see him through their lens. I have a bulletin for them: Those people are seeing farsighted through a nearsighted lens. Their lives are all blurry, out of focus. See it through God’s lens always.

Everyone in life, both rich and poor (don’t let folks fool you), all go through their hardships. But God uses balance like he does in the universe, nature, and the insides of your human body to balance everything out. For example, the weather can be nice outside one day and disastrous the next. Crime, disease, killings, sickness, etc. are in our world. They’re all part of God’s balance. People usually eat something that they like and have a certain taste they enjoy. But there is a balance that comes with that. You may gain a pound, and we all have to excrete that.

Children cannot understand why things happen; we don’t expect them to. How can we as God’s children understand what he is doing? God will use both your friends and enemies to keep you on track toward your destiny. So don’t be upset at people that push your buttons. God is just using them to set you toward the destiny he has for you.

God uses everybody and everything, not just the people, situations, or places we feel are right. He doesn’t look at things the way we see them, like a parent toward a child. That’s why God made thousands of natural species and not just one: more than one planet, one cloud, one fish, etc. Why, he made more than one muscle, one vein, one bone, one organ, one brain cell to support your body.

Paul had to go through many hurdles, including a thorn in his flesh. We don’t know what it was, but God kept it generic so we can apply that thorn to our lives. Paul wasn’t asking for a gold fountain or money. He did so much for God, but God didn’t remove it and said to him, My grace is sufficient for thee. Paul’s thorn was a future testimony for all of us on God’s grace. Don’t you think the guy who wrote the Bible and went through adversities and the person who reads it would go through the same things? Even Jesus had to endure going to the cross and the Father’s mission for him. Well, are we better than Jesus?

We all have to endure our cross. Remember, we are all on a mission, God’s mission—his agenda, not ours. It’s his kingdom; and every king, president, or CEO thinks in a kingdom perspective: what’s best for the kingdom, company, business, departments, government, etc. The problem with our society is that we think individually and not as a whole. God thinks of the whole. So when good and bad things come, say to yourself, God is doing this because it’s not about you, it’s about the kingdom (Bishop T. D. Jake’s sermon Pursuit of Purpose).

See Job 2:10. Basically everyone went against Job, and he said, How can I have the goodness of God, and not have adversity? A coin has two sides, you cannot have it both ways. It’s easier to have faith when things are going good, but it’s when it’s not, that faith is put to the test. You learn not as much from God what he gives you that makes you smile but the things that make you sad.

In Proverbs 30, God asks us to look at the spider and the ant. Why would God ask us to look at something that nobody looks at? Because nobody looks at them, he wants us to see what we don’t see. One a frightful/ugly creature and the other walking on the ground; they are so small, who looks at them? If a famous person comes by, do we look at him/her because they are famous, or do we look at their image? He didn’t say look at the big, muscled man or the mountain. Anyone can see those. God wants us to see the opposite, the little things, the things you wouldn’t think mean much. That is where he works his miracles. Once you understand that, then you learn more about the Creator and his relationship to the creation and your life, your purpose, and the relationship he wants with you.

So we will look at the small creatures to see ourselves in this book. And how the Lord relates to them is what we can learn about ourselves and shows us the understanding of ourselves. God works in opposites. He works his glory in people and things that people don’t think of. Think of David who slew Goliath and Moses who couldn’t speak well. God used Aaron as his spokesman, the apostle Paul who was Saul killing Christians, etc.

2.    No Explanation (Explain Why)

If man is so clean, why does he produce so much waste?

We all look at a weather forecast to see what’s coming. Do you ever look at God’s forecast for you personally? Is it sunny, is it cloudy, or is a thunderstorm approaching? You will only find that out not through ordinary people but through the Bible, prayer, attending church, and letting God lead you and bring people in your life who will bring out your best but may critique you with love. Let God use them to help bring you through the process.

If we think about it, who are we? We are just a gift from God and are not ourselves. We were meant to serve him and have a relationship with him first, not with ourselves. We cannot explain why God does what he does. He is the infinite God. He said in Isaiah, My ways are higher than your ways, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Can we explain the universe or how marvelous the human body is? The wonders of this world, including nature? We are just like a child not being able to explain why a parent does what they do because, as a parent, they have the knowledge and experience. Now expound that so much greater into God’s realm. That’s why in Matthew, he said, Be like little children. Children and animals are innocent and humble—that’s how God wants us to be.

Just because we get a little taller and smarter doesn’t mean we have grown too old for God. The great thing is we never do. Even if your children may be taller than you, they will always be your children. My mom used to say, You may have many girlfriends, but you will only have one mother. So the key is to be humble, and the Lord speaks about that all through the Bible.

The humble shall inherit the world. No one is greater than he, so humility is essential. All through the Bible, you see God showing us humility, such as Jesus leaving heaven to come down to earth. Look at his birth, his life, his death, and even the apostles—all have humility. Never think any job is below you. Jesus came down, and he wasn’t even the president of any bank or the CEO of any company. Even when persecuted, he just looked at his persecutors with love. He obeyed his earthy parents, Mary and Joseph. He didn’t tell anyone, I’m God, you cannot tell me what to do.

All through the Bible, you see that God uses the simple things, humble people, and things of the world to conform to the lack of understanding. Look at David, the shepherd boy. People ran away from Goliath, but he didn’t need any armor. Then there was Moses, who had a speaking problem. God used Aaron to be his speaker. God will send people in your life to bless/protect you and help you in your time of need.

We have two dogs, one of them is Sophie, a bulldog. I have stepped on her toes by accident many times, and within a second, she still loves me. Do it to a human being; they won’t talk to you for a week, maybe a month or longer.

This is why he said in Proverbs 30 to look at the spider and the ant; they’re smart. He didn’t tell us to look at a mountain, the big man with the muscles, the famous person that people look at for that person’s image more than the person himself. God picked the ugliest, most frightful-looking and the smallest creatures to look at. Why is this? This is because many times God does things in opposites. What we think, he does the opposite. He wants us to look at the small things in life, not the big ones everyone can see. This is where we learn about ourselves and how God is working through us each day, like a sculptor on his/her sculpture, chipping each day to perfect us. Because of this, there will be pain/suffering, just like in producing any masterpiece. But in the end, you will come out much better, and he will get the credit.

So can we ask God why this is happening to us? We could, but he will answer it in his own time and reason. People ask me, Why is God putting me through this, and when will it end? Why for so long? No one has the answer to those questions. There can be several reasons why, but instead of drowning in sorrow, as Paul said in Philippians, [We] go forward in Christ, not backward. God gave us emotions. He understands we’re not a block of wood. We will have sorrow on earth until we reach heaven, where he will wipe away every tear and sorrow. But the key is to move on from why and ask God two questions that move you forward:

1. How can I learn from this?

2. How can I inspire others to give others a blessing/learning experience from this?

We notice we’re not saddened when things are working out well: money is coming in, all are in good health, etc. It’s also the time when we tend to seek God the least. It’s like when as children running and jumping in the playground, we don’t seek Mom or Dad’s face unless we are tired or we have a problem, like getting hurt. Now compare this to adult life. God wants and seeks that relationship each day, not only when we are hurting. Do Joann and I only want our children to seek us when they are in need, or do we want to have that communication at other times also? What makes God any different? We’re his children.

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change. Instead of looking at the negative as an obstacle, look at it as a challenge. The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent. The day he forgives them, he becomes an adult.

We adhere to a policy manual/book at work because we want a good evaluation and a paycheck. We do the same with a professor/teacher at school to get a piece of paper. We follow a doctor’s prescription, listen to an airline pilot flying us, etc. Then why do we try and change/interpret God’s manual, the Bible, which is the Word of God, to fit our lifestyle? Why? It’s because we are prideful and self-righteous and want to fit God as we deem necessary. Well, I have news for you: it doesn’t work that way. You don’t do that in the relationships you have with people around you. Even though they’re different, they’re still relationships, not agreements. So why do we do it with the only one who charges us up (like your cell phone, but with no car/home charger; your heart)?

I cannot tell my wife I will only see her on Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. There would be a problem. So it is with God. God wants a relationship, not an agreement. We have relationships with everyone around us—family, friends, coworkers—yet the only one who gives you the ability is the last one you spend time with. Why? It’s because we take God for granted. We get up in the morning, jump out of bed, and run and do our thing. Yet we forget the only one who opens our eyes, keeps them open, closes them; gives us oxygen; works our brain functions; etc. He is taken for granted. Think of all the people you talk to on a cell phone or face-to-face in a day, week, month, year. And then think of how often, in the 86,400 seconds he gave you that day, you spoke to God through prayer and his written Word. We all become happy when a person compliments us through a pat on the back at work, a card in the mail when you graduated, etc. How about 86,400 compliments, pats, or cards in a day? How much more would you be excited then?

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Thought for Today

Don’t just look at things at face value. Otherwise, God wouldn’t have needed to give you a brain.

It doesn’t matter what happens to you here on earth, only what happens in heaven. You will be there a lot longer.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul said if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Can you say that of yourself? Discipleship is the key. It’s not just talking about God; it’s living about God.

3.    Through God’s Eyes, Not Yours

Roll a ball out there in the field, and there is no problem with ten children from ten different races, religions, or nationalities playing with each other. Now take the same ball and roll it out there, but to adults. Now what happens? The ball hasn’t changed. The Lord said that Satan fell because of pride, and it’s the biggest hurdle for people. From the top of this umbrella comes by-products that include greed, envy, jealousy, self-righteousness, etc. Pride will bring you down faster than anything else. The key is to pinpoint it and shoot it down any time it surfaces. Read God’s Word and memorize scripture, especially pertaining to pride. Praying is the biggest, and ask the Lord to help you combat this sin. Fellowshipping and speaking with other Christians and your pastor about this will help.

I have had people advise me that they have church at their home. Paul said in Hebrews not to forsake the assembling of [y]ourselves together. I can tell you I am married and have children, but if I don’t spend the necessary time with them, where would that relationship go? Why do we have relationships with everyone around us—our family, friends, coworkers—while the only one who gives us the 86,400 seconds of each day to do that is the last one we spend time with? Why? How are we managing those seconds for God, not ourselves? We go to work (eight hours) and want to do a good job for our employer—get a good evaluation, fine-tune our weaknesses/improve ourselves through classes, etc.—or ourselves if the business is ours. We manage our families, our friends, our pension, our bank account, and we play around, yet how do we manage those seconds for God? Are we putting people in front of God? Nine out of ten people I speak to don’t know what 86,400 means, yet we know everything else—what’s in our cell account, movies we’ve seen, the sport/hobby we went to/played last week, and so on. My friend, it’s not how you look at things; it’s how God sees it. And the closer you walk with Jesus each day, the closer you will find out what mission/assignment he has for you on this planet, and your relationship will be that much closer to him.

Life is not about you but about him. The Lord does not care about the print in our life’s journal but in the white space around it. Because the white space is nothing we have done; it’s what he did for us. Knowing this, you don’t need to be upset because that other employee received a promotion over you, terrible things happened to you/your loved ones, or someone did better than you in a sport, got that trophy, and caught a fish larger than yours, because it’s not about you. Yet when you see people in demonstrations, etc., they are making it about them even though they title it something else.

3. My mother-in-law went through two bouts with cancer and has liver disease, but she never complains. She asks herself—and I encourage you to ask yourself this when bad things happen to you—"What is the Lord trying to teach me and how can I give a blessing to others from this?" Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about him.

Who controls your destiny, your heartbeat, your oxygen? I’ve never met a person who can control those. Just one of many examples, my cousin was upset that her boyfriend had broken up with her, and she wasn’t going to find another boyfriend. I gave her some encouragement and advised to her to stop trying to fix the furniture but fix the foundation. Your foundation is built on God. I asked her if she would rather live in a house with a firm foundation and broken furniture or one with good furniture and a broken foundation. Situations in life happen to us, and we try fixing the furniture (putting out fires) when we cannot control many things like our destiny, heartbeat, oxygen, getting struck by a vehicle, etc. Stop trying to do it by yourself and let God be God and give all things to him. We would want our children to do that, so why don’t we? It’s because of one thing we have that they don’t. It’s called pride. We want to do it ourselves, and we fall all the time when speaking about a foundation, no matter where you go on this planet.

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Thought for Today

All you need is the name of the Lord, because the name of the Lord, is a strong tower a refuge, the righteous can run in it and hide (Dr. Jasmin Sculark). When I go to the meeting (on my lawsuit against the city for abuse, etc.), I would have the name of Jesus on my Bible and bring it with me and lay it on the table for protection. That’s all I needed—his name. The opposition looked at it like a deer in headlights. I said to myself, Bring it on.

A lady asked Dr. Morgan once, Should we pray to God about the small things also? He replied, Is anything too big or small to God?

Pray for everything; worry about nothing. It’s not saying see life through rose-colored glasses, but does a bird look at the weather channel to see if the worm will be out? Or does the cow fear the rain in the open field? Fear brings trust, and walking in and having faith each day is a mindset and a discipline you face, but it’s God’s grace that will see you through.

The apostle Paul said to pray with all thanksgiving, whether you get what you want or not. Even in his silence, he answers all prayers, and whether you get a nugget, a bound, or nothing, it is his decision, like a parent to a child, were his child my friend. The true blessing is to still be happy and content when we get nothing or very little, for he knows what’s best for us, and we can rest in that.

If you’re on top of a twelve-story building but your friend is on the ground, you’ll be looking over the horizon, above many other houses and buildings, and you can see far into the distance. Your friend can only see structures/buildings all around. Who can see more/further? You can, of course. Then how much more can God see in our lives that we cannot? And now you know the rest of the story.

Two farmers desperately needed rain. Both of them prayed for rain, but only one of them prepared his field to receive it. Which one do you think trusted God to send the rain? The one who prepared his field. Which one are you? God will send the rain when he is ready. You need to prepare your fields to receive it (1 Cor. 1:17).

In twenty years you will be more upset about the things you didn’t accomplish than the things you did. (Mark Twain)

Fishing is life, the rest is just details.

Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose. (C. S. Lewis)

Thought for Today

Like with Moses, God will part the sea so you can walk through life’s challenges/difficulties. Like with Moses, God will wait as those challenges (people that despise/upset/hurt you) are chasing you until they get to where he wants them, then the sea will return, and they will drown. God had it set up. He got Pharaoh right where he wanted him to be—crushed by the water. God felt the sign of the blood on the water didn’t convince Pharaoh to free the Israelites, so God felt now there will be blood.

Read Nahum 1:12 and Psalm 57. These two verses were very helpful when the city was tormenting me for over four years. God opened/parted the Red Sea for me to walk through untouched by the Pharaohs of the city and their write-ups against me. But then, just like what happened when Joanne was fired unjustly, God had them right where he wanted them, then the proverbial Red Sea closed up.

My friend did some research. They have topographical photos of chariot wheels, instruments that you hold while in a chariot, skeletons of horses, etc. at the bottom of the Red Sea. How did they get in there? Noah’s ark is on Mount Ararat in Turkey. All these date back to those biblical times—another part of God’s prophecy revealed.

When a sculptor takes a block of wood, marble, clay, or whatever, he or she can take a clean paintbrush all day long and go up and down on the piece, and you would never see a difference. They have to take a chisel or a knife to it to see the difference, and guess what? It’s going to hurt, but they will never see the difference each day—the progression, the day-to-day improvements—unless they perform it that way. The paintbrush comes at the end. Today, people want the paintbrush! Oh, I don’t want to hear that, tell me nice things. And even parents want to be their children’s friends, yet they’re making them their enemies instead. Without discipline, hurt, there is no progression. I told my children when they were young, I’m not your friend. I’m your father first, then your best friend second. This is how the good Lord designed this plan; it has his fingerprints all over it. In the same way, you don’t see behind the scenes and the practice and aggravation a person who wants to be great/excellent at something goes through, but in time, perfection comes. This is what God does each day to us. He perfects us as the master sculptor, and he chips away at us each day to make us more in the image of his son.

A good leader can take less than enough and make it more than enough. Anyone can lead highly qualified people, but the ability to take something less and make it more—that’s special. That’s a true leader. How can you make them better?

The stuff doesn’t make you; you make the stuff.

Many say, I am glad God gave me another day. That’s fine, but I’m not adding; I’m subtracting the days until I can see him. When Jesus was asked by the people in that day about the kingdom of heaven, he didn’t use what philosophers before him, like Aristotle or Socrates, said; he brought it down to the simplest of forms: a child, unless you’re like a child. God wants us to be in awe like a child, with no preconceptions.

When I look out into space, I see where man is nothing but a blimp on a screen, a minute fragment, who thinks they know more than they really know or understand. But here is a God who is the universe, who loves this nothing formed in the image of himself. He even loves the ones like Democrats, whose heads are filled with space. I believe they have more of that inside their brain than what you’ll see through a telescope.

In life, we like the assets but not the liabilities. You have to accept both. The liabilities will grow you more, even though you learn from them. We all like a GPS to go horizontally, and we like that it gives us a correction, a new direction for a mistake, or an upcoming road block. Why then don’t we use the eternal GPS to go vertically? It does the same. It’s called the Bible.

People that are arrogant are just empty suits. There is nothing there.

Understand what your spouse wants, not what you want. Truly understand them. Men and women are different. The key is understanding. Ask questions.

There is a message in the mess. The more you mess up, the more he loves you. Joy and happiness are choices. The fruits on the outer branch make better picking. Would you go out on a limb for Jesus? He did for you.

God will not let you go through this life without using your tear ducts.

I can see the tree branches/leaves moving, yet I cannot see the wind. I can see a sun rise and set, yet I cannot see the hand raising or lowering it. I can see a mouth, legs, or arms moving, yet I cannot see oxygen or a heartbeat. I can see vehicles on a highway speeding, yet all is in control overall. I can see me crying and laughing, but I can see my savior at work for me, not against me.

Who is watching the watchers? (Old Roman quote, c. 100)

People that are arrogant, like Democrats, couldn’t find north if you gave them a compass. They have a narrative, so understand what it is: it’s to destroy Christians—our family, our values from the Bible, and our heritage. It’s a shell game to them, it’s to deflect their own lunatic and criminal and unmoral activity. They move the shell and tell you to find the pea to distract you.

Procrastination comes from fear. Trust God and just do it.

Your smile will increase your face value.

Faith is God’s breath in our daily sailing as we’re on the sea.

Pastor Matt Hagee described his dad, Pastor John Hagee, ripping up his preaching manuscript when he started out like it was a biology experiment with all those red circles. But he learned that the message must come from God and not himself. Are you about you or about God?

The longest distance is from the head to the heart. Our generation sees with our feelings and thinks with our eyes. You need to show them, not just tell them. James says, Be ye a doer of the word, not hearer only.

Arrogant people are all cut from the same cloth.

God has laws. For example, gravity changes as you change locations, whether you go thirty thousand feet up or six feet below. God balances his laws, but they’re still laws.

Just like the weather changes daily, hourly, and we adapt, we must be able to adapt to life’s changes. Don’t depend on the ship but on the one who built it. If it wasn’t for his mercy/grace, you wouldn’t have opened your eyes this morning to read this book. You could have been in eternity. Did you thank him or take God for granted?

The Catholics, especially, promote the good works you do. Well, then, God is a liar. If it’s what you do, then Christ didn’t have to die for us on the cross. It’s not about you; it’s about what he already did two thousand years ago. Read Ephesians. Paul said, Not by works of righteousness, but through his mercy he saved us. And he said, Not works, lest any man should boast, and I see many who boast. Someday many of them that are unsaved will roast. Works come after you’re saved, not before.

We want to see a good image. We put makeup on in front of the mirror but forget about the mercy.

Many want the Christ at the cross, but not the cross for the Christ.

There are two kinds of Christians: believers and disciples. Disciples are believers, but not the other way around.

The process: There was a reason God made the earth in six days and waited a thousand years before he made each new day. He could have done it in the blink of an eye, but he is trying to teach us patience and that life is a process to deal with the good or the bad. That’s why there is death, mosquitoes, and cockroaches. Bad things happen to us/in the world so we rely on him and not ourselves. A child doesn’t understand why things happen (we don’t expect them to). Many times they don’t agree with it (toddlers especially), and they don’t like it. The Lord never said we had to (all three); we just need to trust our parent, the Lord Jesus Christ, for his guidance and that he is doing the right thing. Like with children, they feel comfort and trust in their parents/other adults.

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Thought for Today

It’s hard to decide your gifts when your interest takes over God’s.

—Joe Bailey

In God’s master plan, life has a process, and we, as humans, cannot interfere with it. Look at nature. It conforms to God’s plan and doesn’t change. It stays the same. It’s consistent. But man has to think he has a better plan. This is called pride. Nature doesn’t have this, nor do children. We will come back to children in a moment, but first let’s look at examples.

Look at a bird egg about to hatch. The chick has to keep pecking to break the egg and struggle to get out. Now, if you try and help it out by breaking the shell for it, it may die. If you handle it, the mother might not take it back. A human mother has to go through about nine months of emotional and physical situations knowing the pain that’s coming at the ninth month. But along with that is the prize, God’s special gift to her and her husband, so it’s worth it. Then you have the start of the long nights, feeding, childcare, etc. Then the toddler stage, growing years—all part of God’s process.

Whether it’s nature, the solar system, the human body, it is all regulated by God’s laws and providence. It’s part of the Lord’s plan. Look, there are laws on earth. For traffic, you cannot overspeed and run a stop sign or light. There are consequences. You play any board game such as Monopoly. You cannot just take Boardwalk. Other players will say, I’m not playing with you. Why? Because you’re not playing by the rules. The inside of your body has rules. If something goes out of whack, it affects the entire body. You will either be in bed or dead. You can get a slight toe injury and you will be in bed, yet everything is working okay, all connected. Take your back, for example. I had a slipped disk from an accident years earlier. It affected my entire body, and I still feel it at times about forty years later!

The average person, especially one with no sculpturing background, unlike an artist, cannot see the creation day by day and notice the changes that God is doing to make us more in the image of the creator. Not the creation; it’s not about you but about the Lord! It’s how God sees you, not how people see you. You can be the most popular person in your town, club, family, workplace, etc., or win the most trophies, awards, etc. It’s not how people look at you, it’s how God does.

When you’re in alignment with him by being close to him in reading/studying the Word, in prayer, and living it in your daily life so others can see the sculpture in progress, then all else will balance out with people around you. It’s like the foundation is the most important part of the house/building. The rest inside or outside can look nice, but if the foundation falters, what will happen to the house/ building? You know, people want to forget about the foundation of their lives and concentrate instead on the furniture, the nice paint, nice fireplace, lamps, etc. Meanwhile, the foundation of the house is collapsing around them.

If I walk into a building of a department store like Walmart and I want to know everything about that building—the electrical wiring, the plumbing, the structure, etc.—I’m not going to speak