God's Word, the Plough

This was in our reading this morning; I thought worth sharing...nice word picture of the Word and plough. 

"No matter how much we might wish to change our own nature, any attempt that we make to change the harvest of sin will fail. All attempts at self-improvement, even if successful, will result in just that and no more: an improved self. God offers us not an improved self, but a new self: alive to God, alive to righteousness.

"We cannot transform ourselves, but Christ can form himself in us, giving his gifts of a new heart, a new creation.

"...God's Word is the plough that opens up the fields of our lives and lays them bare, exposing the roots of our sinful nature, removing the seeds of death, so that God may plant God's life in us."

Susan Reese Carloss, page 21 of Daily Readings from Spiritual Classics, Paul Ofstedal editor, Augsburg.