People talk of carving out time for God…family…exercise. But what if we are the ones being carved?

A pumpkin is plucked from the patch, taken home and carved into simple Jack-o-Lanterns or  intricately formed pieces of art. Similarly, God takes people, like pumpkins rotting in the sunshine, and carves lives that will bring him glory. Like the pumpkins, our flesh (Romans 8:1-11) feels the blade take away that which is to make that which we cannot yet see…a life more closely resembling that of Christ.

Do not despair if you are presently under the surgeon-like precision of a God who infinitely loves you. He disciplines us for our good that we may share in His holiness.

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. ~Deuteronomy 8:3, 5-6

He carves out from the innermost darkness to replace it with His light; His glory revealed.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night, ” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. ~Psalm 139:11-12

But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. ~John 3:21

Here are our favorite pumpkin and magical reads of October:

That is what we are reading this Wednesday!