Risks or Reformation     

The Bible says, “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” James 4:11-15 (KJV)

The Irish Potato Famine (1846-1851) resulted in a 30 percent drop in the population of the west of Ireland. The prolonged suffering of the Irish peasantry had broken the survivors in body and spirit. John Bloomfield, the owner of Castle Caldwell in County Fermanagh, was working on the recovery of his estate when he noticed that the exteriors of his tenant farmers’ small cottages had a vivid white finish. He was informed that there was a clay deposit on his property of unusually fine quality. To generate revenue and provide employment on his estate, he built a pottery at the village of Belleek in 1857. The unusually fine clay yielded a porcelain china that was translucent with a glass-like finish. It was worked into traditional Irish designs and was an immediate success. Today, Belleek’s delicate strength and its iridescent pearlized glaze is enthusiastically purchased the world over. This multimillion-dollar industry arose from innovative thinking during some very anxious times.

It is a wicked trap for us to focus on the events of the world, the mindset of this younger generation, the apathy, the backbiting, the decadence all around us and the distractions of the world. When we take our focus off the Lord we begin to sink as did Peter that time walking on the water. As Believers we need to get a check-up from the neck-up, get rid of the stinkin’ think’in and focus in on what matters for eternity! The Lord is always at work around us. There are precious souls headed for a Christ-less eternity who desperately need to hear the good news of the Gospel. We can join Him where He is at work and help change lives! 

Daily Chronological Bible Reading: Jeremiah 30-31