KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Sincere
IN ANCIENT TIMES...the finest pottery was thin...
It had a clear color, and it brought a high price. Fine pottery was very fragile both before and after firing. And...this pottery would [often] crack in the oven. Cracked pottery should have been thrown away. But dishonest dealers were in the habit of filling in the cracks with a hard pearly wax that would blend in with the color of the pottery. This made the cracks practically undetectable in the shops, especially when painted or glazed; but the wax was immediately detectable if the pottery was held up to the sun. In that case the cracks would show up darker. It was said that the artificial element was detected by "sun-testing." Honest dealers marked their finer product by the caption sine cera -- "without wax". (James Montgomery Boice)
THOUGHT: Our lives must be free from the wax of hypocrisy.
KneEmail: "That you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ" ( Philippians 1:10).