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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for January 12, 2010
“What Are You Doing With Your Raw Materials?”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
So we had a bright young man in the studio yesterday.
He had written some inspirational scripts and he came in to record them.
He was excited. “Yeah, it’s like God just gave me the ideas and I sat down and wrote them as fast as I could. The words were just flowing.”
So we set him up, turned on the mic, and he started reading. And he started stumbling over some of the words and phrases. And he started mumbling under his breath. And several times he just stopped and said, “This doesn’t make any sense.”
Were his ideas not so good after all?
No, that wasn’t it. The ideas were good.
Was he not a good writer?
Oh I’m sure he can write just fine.
So what was the problem?
The problem was that it was only a rough draft. He mistook the raw material for a finished product.
Oh, he started well enough. He felt inspired by God and got the ideas down on paper. He did the right thing by writing and writing, furiously pulling the information from thin air and putting it into words. When you are inspired like that, you’ve got to get the information down before you forget.
But then you have to step back and look at it. What do you have?
Raw material. The real work begins now – now that you have the raw material.
For the young man in the studio, getting the ideas was easy. He said they just came to him. So he did the easy part. He received the ideas and got them down on paper.
But then comes the hard part, which is turning the raw material into something beautiful.
So what he should have done was step back, take a look and say, “What do I have here? What can I do with it? How can I best present this information to the world? What can I say to make them sit up and pay attention? How can I say it so they will actually ‘get it’ and apply it to their life?”
Then he should have rewritten his scripts. He should have taken that raw material, that lump of clay, and formed it into something both useful and beautiful.
And now here’s the point. I think God has given us all raw material to work with. We all have gifts and skills and resources, but they are not a finished product. They are simply raw material.
So the question is – what are you doing with your raw material?
Now think about Jesus’ parable of the talents, in Matthew 25. It says the kingdom of heaven is like a man going on a journey who left his goods in the care of his servants.
It says he gave one servant five talents of money, another servant two talents, and another one talent.
That was their raw material. They were not all given the same raw material, but they were all expected to do something with it.
The first two went at once and put their money to work. They took their raw material and doubled its value.
And when the master returned he told each of them, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”
But the third servant did nothing to increase the value of his raw material.
And what did the master call him? Wicked and lazy.
Well I sure don’t want to be wicked and lazy! I want to take the raw materials God gives me and turn them into something. I want to take the muddy lumps of clay and turn them into objects both useful and beautiful.
When God gives me 2, I want to turn it into 4.
So think about it. What do you have? What raw materials has God given you?
Well don’t bury them. Don’t sit on them and do nothing.
One day He’s going to ask about them, and what do we want to hear: “wicked and lazy” or “good and faithful”?
Well I want to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
And that means I need to identify my raw materials, then do the work to increase their value.
So I’ll leave you with this question, one more time.
What are you doing with your raw materials?
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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