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GOD'S BEEN KNOWN TO NIGGLE ------
by Max Lucado

EVERYONE LOVES WHAT Deborah Ricketts does. But nobody loves it while sheÂ’s doing it. Everyone loves the product, but no one enjoys the process.

She is an independent researcher for the film industry. Do you want your movie to be accurate? Want your facts to be reliable? Send a script and a check to this former librarian and watch the facts begin to fly.

A film set in the thirties needs everything to look like the thirties.
You canÂ’t have a person reading from a newspaper that didnÂ’t exist back then or a band playing a song that wasnÂ’t yet written. Such mistakes occur.

In Raiders of the Lost Ark the map that charted Indiana JonesÂ’s flight routed him over Thailand. Problem: The movie was set in 1936. Thailand was called Siam until 1939.

In Die Hard II Bruce Willis makes a phone call from what is supposed to be a Dulles Airport pay phone in Washington, D.C. No one noticed that the phone booth read Pacific Bell.

Deborah Ricketts lives to find these errors. She is on a scavenger hunt for flubs. She winds her way into props and sets and examines everything. Other peopleÂ’s oversights are her undertakings._

She niggles for the scriptwriterÂ’s own good. The process is not
pleasant, but the result is rewarding.

God has been known to niggle a few times, too. It’s not that God loves to find fault. It’s just that God loves to find anything that impedes our growth. Jesus portrays him as the Good Gardener who cuts and trims the vine. “I am the true vine; my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that does not produce fruit. And he trims and cleans every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even
more fruit” (John 15:1–3).

Deborah Rickets studies a script and offers: “It’s good, but here are some ways to make it better.”

I doubt if itÂ’s easy for a scriptwriter to turn his manuscript over to
someone like Deborah Rickets. He knows sheÂ’s on the hunt for errors. But he also knows the end result will be a better story.

ItÂ’s certainly not easy for us to turn our lives over to the Gardener. Even now, some of you are hearing the snip-snip-snip of his shears. It hurts. But take heart. YouÂ’ll be better as a result.

Besides, arenÂ’t you glad he thinks you are worth the effort?

Yip, it can be quite painful when pruning time comes, and we get so clever trying to avoid, but it is SO true, that our lives are so much more fruitful and better fruits comes from it all.

I went through a time like this two years ago. Phew, was that painful, but the Lord just didn't leave me in the cold to suffer and bleed on my own. He was faithful enough to have a few people that helped me through it with their tough love and encouragement. I cried many, many tears but it was all worth it! Pruning hurts, but love cushions it!!

:daisy:

Rita

In devotions yesterday, one of our staff referred to the condition gold is in when it comes out of the ground. He spoke about the furnace and the refining process....look what the final product looks like!

Boy, I could write another book on all the 'niggles' God had with me and still does ...sometimes

but if I look at the 'me' to day, compared to the 'me' of the past, I would not have it any other way...niggles...bring them on

Quote:Originally posted by Pronkertjie
Yip, it can be quite painful when pruning time comes, and we get so clever trying to avoid, but it is SO true, that our lives are so much more fruitful and better fruits comes from it all.

I went through a time like this two years ago. Phew, was that painful, but the Lord just didn't leave me in the cold to suffer and bleed on my own. He was faithful enough to have a few people that helped me through it with their tough love and encouragement. I cried many, many tears but it was all worth it! Pruning hurts, but love cushions it!!

:daisy:

lol Sue... I always say the title of my book will be "If my couch could talk..." My couch can tell you many stories of my times that I were talking things through with the Lord!!! My times of frustration, happines, disaplpointment, etc.

:daisy:

Morning Rita

I think He has humungus shoulders and has heard it many, many times before.....that's the amazing part, because He took on human form, He can identify with humanity and all our weaknesses.....

I often am up before the birds and watch the sun rise...what an awesome 'Good Morning' He gives us and yet so many miss it. I see the Rainbow and remember His promise, never to flood the earth again. I look at a tree in my garden that grew from a small cutting and today the birds of the air nest in it and I remember His parable of the mustard seed.

His lessons are all around and so the niggles can be worked through...we just have to be obedient and learn from our mistakes.....which is never easy.

Sue

When I was living in Amsterdam, 5 guys from SA came through and stayed with us. They were quite a fun combination... three Indian Pastors from Phoenix, a Zulu Pastor and a YWAMer.

I took them to an open air museum outside of Amsterdam and there were black cows in the field. The Indian Pastor turned to me and said..... "Just look at those black cows, eating green grass, giving white milk, and they tell me there is no God. " Such a simple statement, but yet so profound.

Heard the neatest testimony the other day. A girl from Bolivia, volunteering here in England are saving every penny to go to India to be a missionary there. It is a huge faith challenge for her. She needed toothpaste, and told the Lord about her need as she didn't want to use the money she is saving for her ticket. She prayed in the morning and in the afternoon she received a little envelope with a card to encourage her and a Boots gift voucher for £2! Now £2 isn't much, but it did pay for her toothpaste!!! He is the Lord of the little things and the Lord of the big things!

:daisy:

Rita

The small things are the reason I keep my journal. Very often things happen and we ignore their significance in the bigger picture. It's only when you journalise your walk and your prayers that you begin to see how He answers our prayers and straighten's our path's.

When I have looked back over time, it is like a light bulb is switched on...all of a sudden the full picture emerges and then I make the connections and I realise He was there all along with the smaller things....now a God so big taking time for my smallest needs is a God who I look too as a Father, because that's just what dad's do hey!! :wings:

So true Sue!

Wonder if there is someone else that also has a very special story to tell of God's faithfulness!

:lovef:

I have only come upon this thread now, sorry to interupt you two!!

I did my apprenticeship in Pretoria ( oh I know one does not call it an apprenticeship if you are a graduate and a professional nowadays, but I was a plain young appy working very hard indeed!!!) for a Jewish man...
I used to travel to work with him and I will never forget the morning he put a beautiful white Magnolia flower in my lap and said........... some people still say there is no God...

Quote:Originally posted by Pronkertjie
So true Sue!

Wonder if there is someone else that also has a very special story to tell of God's faithfulness!

:lovef:

Joan....
Everyone is invited to join us!

:daisy: