Craig Smith   Psalm 25:4  Search with holy eyes  This vessel in Your hands  Sift and purify  By the standards You demand  Sculptor of my heart  Cast and forge my mind  With a quest for purity  And as the poet weaves his line  Compose You melody  Chorus  Please make of me  Your Kingdom's art  May You be pleased  Sculptor of my heart  You have fashioned perfectly  Your image in the Son  Shape and pattern within me  To be the paragon  Sculptor of my heart  Hew away those places  Which cause blemish to the whole  As the only skillful Master  Engrave Your name upon my soul  Chorus  You create from a heart of stone  A vessel of honor that You call  Your own, Your own  Chorus  The desire of the Father is that we be conformed to the image of His Son.  May we have the boldness and wisdom to come before the Lord and prayfully  request He mold uss into that which is pleasing and productive to His  Kingdom, at whatever the cost to us personally.  There are at least two qualities found in a master-craftsman in relation to  his work. One is the constant striving for perfection in his art. Patiently  exerting all his abilities to create a beautiful, expressive, and seemingly  flawless place. Secondly, being able to apply his entire imagination to  visualizing the completed art form, even prior to picking up his first  sculpting tool.  After mentally fixing what the completed form will look like, he then begins  to hammer and chisel away those unsightly chunks and pieces which would  distort the final image. He will labor diligently until that which was once  only a mental image cast upon formless material, has been transformed into  a timeless work of art.  Through the laborious and skillful process of the artist, material which  once had little worth is converted into an object of great value.  In similar manner, we come to Christ as objects of little value, and  certainly no value when considered in relation to the Kingdom of God. As we  are convicted of our sin, ask forgiveness and repent of our sin, He becomes  our Saviour and His Lordship then moves into every aspect of our life. As  we stand before Him, in His grace, as mere babes in Christ, He not only sees  our present immature state, but He also supernaturally sees the finished  products.  Because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, we have moved from a  position of worthlessness to God, to a secured position of great potential  and eternal value to God. He takes "...from a heart of stone," and through  the work of the Holy Spirit makes "a vessel of honor."  The gift of salvation is made available to each of us only to the extent  that we each are willing to respond in obedience to His invitation. Upon  accepting His terms to that free gift, we then become a child of the King.  This is the foundation we are established on, and can reason from God's  Word, that we should continue to build on. It is the process of tearing down  the fleshly man, and building up the spiritual man "...put on the new self  (man) who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the  One who created him." (Col. 3:10) The Lord did not intend for us to remain as  "babes," in fact we are instructed to "long for the pure milk of the Word,  that by it (we) may grow in respect to salvation." (I Peter 2:2) "...grow  (increase) in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."  (II Peter 3:18) It should be our desire, goal, and prayer that the Father  would remove, hammer and chisel, away any material which does not conform  to the image of His Son.  He reveals those thing in our live which are unpleasing in His sight, and we  respond in obedience so they do not hinder the final result.  We submit to Him because He has loved us enough to give us life through His  Son. We were created to bring glory to God, to be pleasing in His sight.  That is our destiny. We are the clay in the potter's hand. We are material  being constructed into living objects which are pleasing and bring  satisfaction to the Father. God is not just wise, He is the source of true  "Wisdom." As vessels, then, let us not worry but have complete trust in Him  and His wisdom that He will chip away only those unnecessary and unsightly  pieces.  As we are in submission and obedience to Him, the end result will be a living  work of art, worthy of the King's chambers.--Craig Smith  We Praise Thee, O God, Our Redeemer   Craig Smith  We praise Thee, O God our Redeemer, Creator  In grateful devotion our tribute we bring  We lay it before Thee  We kneel and adore Thee  We bless Thy Holy Name, glad praises we sing