One of my regular job duties is to load plastics into railcars. The railcar has to be inspected for cleanliness before we can load our final product. Each railcar has 4 compartments. Each compartment has bottom tubes that must be cleaned out and closed before we can put the plastic inside.
One day I was cleaning out a railcar tube....sometimes there will be several little plastic pellets stuck in these tubes.
As I was cleaning these tiny little pellets in the railcar, Jesus said, "Rachelle, get every single little pellet out of this railcar."
I scrubbed the tubes and scrubbed the tubes. Little tiny plastic pellets kept falling...coming from seemingly out of nowhere.
Just when I thought the tube was clean, another little pellet would appear.
Then, I was down to one or two tiny tiny little pellets.
I was about to give up. I was tired. These little pellets didn't want to move. But Jesus said, "Rachelle, I want every little pellet out of this railcar."
I was thinking, one little pellet isn't going to hurt anything. But I moved on. I pushed forward.
Finally. Finally, the last pellet was removed.
I asked Jesus, "Why did you want me to clean Every single tiny tiny little pellet out of this railcar?"
Here is what He said:
That those tiny little pellets represent sin in our lives.
How one tiny thing can destroy, can taint the quality of the entire railcar.
He wants us to be clean. One little thing in our lives that shouldn't be there could spread like a disease.
Sometimes railcars can be rejected by our customers if they are not clean. One pellet. One thing in our lives...and we could be rejected.
Do you have any "pellets" in your life?
(Galatians 5:19-21) 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, 21 envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God
Those would be the "pellets."
oh man this made me cry!!!
ReplyDeleteconviction!!
but i love it!! I love hearing God's still small voice telling me "Johanna this isn't right you shouldn't do this or Johanna that wasn't nice to say you should apologize but even better when He says "johanna I love you and you are beautiful in my sight. I have called you to be mine!"
Praise God for you Rachelle. I'm excited for what He is doing in your life.
This reminds me of two scriptures. One in the Old Testament, and one in the new. One from Ecclesiastes that I remember reading as a child:
ReplyDeleteEcclesiastes 10
1 As dead flies give perfume a bad smell,
so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.
and later:
1 Corinthians 5:6-9
6(K)Your boasting is not good (L)Do you not know that (M)a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
7Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our (N)Passover also has been sacrificed.
8Therefore let us celebrate the feast, (O)not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9I wrote you in my letter (P)not to associate with immoral people;
That's a good illustration. Thanks for sharing 'Chelle. :)