To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: emaildevotionals-leave@... 02.23.2008 Old Testament To read the Bible in a year, read Number 8-10 on February 23, AD 2008 The Beauty of the Lampstand By Don Ruhl Beautiful was the lampstand that was in the tabernacle. Here are three reasons why we know that it was so, "Now this workmanship of the lampstand was hammered gold; from its shaft to its flowers it was hammered work. According to the pattern which the LORD had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand" (Num 8.4). 1. The lampstand was the result of workmanship. God put into the heart of a certain man and his workers, the skill needed to construct the tabernacle. That alone made this lampstand an unbelievably beautiful piece of artwork! 2. The whole lampstand was made of hammered gold. Take a skilled craftsman, give him gold, and watch him hammer it into an object. Will anyone exceed his work? Can you put a price on what he has done? If a price could be put on the work, could you afford it? 3. The Lord provided the pattern for this lampstand. That tops it all. Men come up with good patterns, but magnificent are the patterns of the Lord! We learn later in the Bible that the lampstand was a copy of the true one in heaven! How can anyone beat this combination? There was a man in whom God placed special skills, and this man used gold, and made something out of a pattern provided by the Lord. I wish that I could have seen that lampstand. Oh wait; I shall see the original! Then again, Revelation chapters one through three show that the church is the lampstand. That means that I am part of the lampstand. There was a skilled, a very skilled, Workman who has hammered me out into something that He wants me to be. Oh Lord, keep hammering away until the church and I become what you want us to be! www.GrantsPassChurchofChrist.com www.TheBibleMeditator.com http://associate.com/groups/emaildevotionals/ For your friends to subscribe have them send a message to: emaildevotionals-join@...