In The Potter's Hands

"But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands, so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. ...can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel." Jeremiah 18:4,6

Beautiful pots always start with a chunk of shapeless clay. The first step in making pots is to prepare the clay. It is kneaded back and forth, back and forth, with the heel of the hands of the potter, until it forms a smooth ball. Next it is pulled, stretched, pressed, smoothed, and rolled into the shape of the pot that the potter desires.

I admit that I am a marred piece of clay. My Heavenly Father is the Potter. Just like that clay in the hand of the potter, so am I in the Lord's hands.

If we want to be honest, I think we would admit that we spend a whole lot of time in the kneading hands of the Potter. There seem to be particular seasons in life where the pressure of His shaping hands is felt more than the hand of His blessing. It is so important to God that we become even, pleasing, well-formed, and purposeful, that His infinite love will allow us to be very uncomfortable.

We are kneaded and stretched in many different ways. A difficult work situation. A fight with a spouse. A disobedient child. An aging parent. People talking about us. Feeling offended. Thinking life isn't fair. We may have more month left at the end of the money. But God tells us that He is shaping us as it seems best to Him.

Human clay is not passive, as is the clay of the earthly potter. When we are being kneaded and stretched, we can respond. Therein lies our choice. While God is sovereign in His work, He is responsive to our wills. We can choose to live by our emotions and feelings, giving way to anger, bitterness and resentment. Or, we can choose to respond in love. We can choose to return evil for evil or overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21) We can choose to renew our mind with the Word of God and obey it, or we can choose to conform to the patterns of the world. (Romans 12:2) We can choose fear or faith.

I believe the more right choices that we make, the less time we will spend on the potter's wheel. The children of Israel turned an eleven day journey into a 40 year trip, around the same mountain over and over and over again with their grumbling, complaining and disobedience.

Are you pliable in the Potter's hands, or are you hard and cracked? Are you concentrating more on the pressure of His hands, or on the loving touch of them? If a piece of clay is pliable, it is much easier and faster for the potter to mold it into shape. If it is hard and cracked the Potter won't stop -- He will just continue to knead and press until it is just as He wants it to be.

The making of a beautiful pot doesn't stop with the kneading process. The pots are then fired. They are put into a kiln or furnace. These are the real pressures of life. The marriage fails. The child rebels. The job is lost. The eviction notice comes in the mail. They ruin your reputation. The doctor's report says it's cancer. This is where total surrender to the Potter is the only rational choice to make. When it comes to God it is perfectly appropriate to say, "I give! Take it all! Take control of it all! There is nothing left of me." Isn't that just the response He wanted from you all along? Self-sufficiency may impress men but it doesn't impress God. Our feeble strength is no match for the strength He can give. The more helpless we are, the more God can show His power.

Show God that you trust in Him completely. Repent of your sins and thinking you can take care of yourself, or that you can solve your own problems. Stop relying on yourself and men - start relying on God. He knows what He's doing. Isaiah 29:16 says, "You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"? Of course not - He knows everything! He is our Creator, and is the only one who can control our lives without destroying them.

Fall limp in the hands of the Potter. Be pliable and moldable no matter what comes. God says in Isaiah 30:15, "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength."

An assessment of a finished pot should reveal an even thickness of the walls, a pleasing form, well-joined pieces, and it should be made for a designated purpose.

I am making a determined decision to be a pliable piece of clay in my Potter's hands beginning today. I have been on the wheel a lot lately, and God's light has shown on many dark places I still have in my heart. He has made me acutely aware of the ugliness of my sins, great and small, in His sight. But He has also let me know that those lessons learned were the exact reasons that I've been on the wheel. I believe that He is evening me out, and smoothing my rough edges. He is giving me a pleasing form in His sight. He is imparting to me His strength to keep my pieces well-joined so they don't come apart under pressure. And He is daily showing me the designated purpose for my life.

Repent - Rest - Be Quiet - Trust

We will always be marred to some degree until Jesus comes and we are made just like Him. But in the meantime, being moldable and pliable in the Potter's loving hands will cause Him to stand back from His finished product and say, "Ah...You are now a vessel of honor fit for my use."

When It Seems Like It's Too Late

"Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days"

Wait! What?

I know that it's happened to you before. You're reading a passage of Scripture, one you've read what seems a million times before, and something just jumps out at you. It jumps right off the inspired, God-breathed page! That's exactly what happened to me yesterday. 

I've read John, Chapter 11, so many times. I've preached on it. I've taught on it. I've memorized many of it's verses. You probably know all about it too. Even non-believers can tell you about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

I almost wish that you had never heard this account before. I wish this was the first time that you've ever laid eyes on it. Perhaps someone is reading this right now, and has no ever-lovin' idea who Lazarus is, and what Jesus did that day in Bethany. Oh, let it be! For those of you familiar, humor me, and pretend for a moment that you're reading it for the first time.

As I began reading this Bible account yesterday, I was on familiar ground. Until my eyes saw verse 5. For some reason I never, ever noticed those words. Until yesterday, I never fathomed how important it was for the Holy Spirit to put them right there, at the exact place they needed to be.

Think about it. There was a man named Lazarus. He had two sisters, Martha and Mary. He was sick. Jesus was told that his friend needed Him.  

"Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus."

I believe that God placed those words right there to speak something so special to us, right before we were about to read the difficult passages that follow. He wanted to be sure that we knew that Jesus LOVED this trio of friends. He LOVED them. God wants you, the reader, to know this for sure, because...

...what follows are troubling words.
So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

Two more days!  If you had no idea how the rest of the story goes, here is where you might shout! "Jesus, how could you? Why didn't you drop everything and go?" Two more days! In the meantime, Lazarus dies, has already been buried in the tomb, his corpse stinketh (KJV), Mary and Martha and many other Jews are grieving, and wondering where in the world their friend, Jesus is. He is too late. 

 "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus."

When something in your life is dead. D-E-A-D. When it's so dead that it stinks. When it's past the point where you needed the answer NOW.

Jesus loves you.

When, like Martha, you believe that everything will be okay when you arrive in Heaven, but can't believe that there is any goodness left for you in the land of the living. When your situation is so dead, so far gone, when Jesus is so late that you need a miracle, if you even believe in miracles.

 Jesus loves you.

The Holy Spirit included those words in this account because you need to know, today, that just as He loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, He loves you! Yes, you! He is no respecter of persons. He has no favorites. He wants to comfort you with those words in whatever situation you're going through. He wants you to be assured of His love, before, perhaps, things only seem to get worse with each passing day.

You may see nothing. It seems that there is no hope for your desperate situation. Be encouraged! Jesus loves you! Love never hurts you. Love never leaves you. Love never betrays you. Love always does what's best. Love is perfect. Love's results are awesome. Jesus is Love. God is Love.

And ... He. Loves. You.

Jesus told the disciples that this would turn out for His glory. (v. 4) In the end, He spoke these amazing words to Martha. "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" (v. 40)

Believe what? Believe in His love for you. 

He will not dishonor Himself. He will not be unglorified. He will not be put to shame, or called a liar. He is all about His glory, and sometimes things have to become so out of reach, so difficult, and so impossible, that no man can come to the rescue. No human being or institution or worldly help can be savior.

Then the Savior, the Deliverer, the Redeemer, the Restorer, the Lord God Almighty, can come in and do what ONLY HE CAN DO!

Wherever you're at this day, precious one, plant the truth that Jesus loves you deep down in your heart. Don't just intellectually know it. Let it go from the page, to your mind, to your heart, and to your spirit.         

Jesus loves you.

Tether yourself to that truth. Anchor yourself to His love for you. Then when things go from bad to worse, you will hang on. You will endure well. You will persevere. You will not be moved. You will be steadfast and unshakable. You will be filled with hope, because you will know that you are dearly loved.

When you can't trust His hand, trust His heart.     

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 If you would like to listen to a message that I preached based on this account click here:

A Message of Hope 

 

 

Like This...

 Falling like rain. 

There is no sound.

It's a quiet

stripping. 

Why?

Still falling. Falling like rain.

For no other reason 

than because it's the season. 

A season for breaking and crumbling
beneath feet that dare to trod holy ground.
Because holy ground
breaks what was never meant to last. 
It crumbles the temporary. 
Until all that remains is eternal.

It's a necessary stripping bare. 

Where some go quickly.

Others die a slow death.

Bending, but not breaking.

Wobbly, but not falling.

Somehow, 

there is a beauty in the dying.

When arms are lifted high

 and roots have grown deep.

Faith holds on.

He says that without faith

it is impossible to please Him.

The One who was stripped
bare
broken
with arms lifted high.
 

I want to please Him with faith

more than I want the thing I'm believing for.

  

Faith knows that

after the Winter,

 Spring will come.

It will all be beautiful again. 

" I do it because, though He slay me, 
yet will I wait for and trust Him".
 (Job 13:15 AMP)







 

The One Where I Learn About Forgiveness From A Four-Year Old

The Episode

She's only four years old. I should have seen it coming. It may seem like small potatoes to you, but the lesson I learned from my four-year old granddaughter, a few short days ago, will stay with me for a lifetime.

We had set up a play date with Ashton's cousin Ted. She had been asking for a while to get together with him, so I set up the date with my sister-in-law, Ted's "Nana". We had originally planned to visit the local cider mill, but the weather was really icky. Instead, we would go to McDonald's (or "O'Donald's", as Ash likes to call it), and then we would come back to Gigi's house to play. "Gigi" would be me.

Ashton knew the plan full well.

We arrived at O'Donalds, got our lunch, and went into the playroom. You know the kind. The one with the HUGE play scape and only one way out. The little darlings have to pass right by you to get out the door. Ash and Ted had a wonderful time, except for one minor altercation, when Ted found himself another "Princess" to play with. Silly boy, who doesn't know that there can only be ONE Princess! 

Gigi and Nana had a wonderful time too, chatting and catching up on our lives. Gigi and Nana had SUCH a wonderful time, that when Nana's phone rang, THREE HOURS LATER, with Ted's daddy asking where in the bajeebers we were, there went the plan to go back to Gigi's house and play. 

Saying our goodbye's in the parking lot of O'Donalds was Ashton's first clue that things were not aright. The goodbye's were a little too final for her liking. She was catching on. No sooner did I pull out on the road, when she asked the fatal question. "Are we going to your house to play?" When I explained that we ran out of time, that Ted's Dad was waiting for him, and that no, we weren't going back to my house to play with Ted....all Hades broke loose in the back seat of my Mustang. 

It was already late in the afternoon, so I was on my way to drop her off at home. She didn't catch on to that until I was two blocks from her house. When I turned the car onto her street, she made her first display of disappointment look like a walk in the park. She wanted to go to Gigi's house, not home. I'm telling you, one would think I was taking her, well, I don't know where, but it was BAD!!! She promised to be good. She promised to let me get some things done around the house. She promised that she would play by herself until I did my chores. She promised the world. Just so she could come back to my house. Mind you, by now, we were about ten houses away from her house. I called her Mama who said to just bring her home, a lesson needed to be learned, and that's that.

My heart was broken. Shattered. Into one million, gazillion pieces. I was sick to my stomach. I had let this precious one down. In her mind, Gigi had totally broken a promise. And that killed me. She was still a little upset when I left her at home, but a little upset doesn't even begin to describe me for the rest of the night. Ask my husband. I was sick over the whole ordeal. I just wanted to go to bed and not have to think about it. I was devastated that I had let her down. It was Thursday evening.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. I hadn't seen Ashton since "The Episode". As usual, I didn't see her before the church service. We were dismissed from the sanctuary, and like every other Sunday morning, I stood in the middle of the foyer, waiting for my husband to pick Ash up from Sunday school. 

She appeared. At the top of the stairs. With a smile as big as the moon, her arms outstretched, and a loud "GIGI"!!, she ran into my waiting arms. We hugged and I almost squeezed the life out of that little body. 

I was so obviously forgiven that it took my breath away.  

The Lesson

 "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18: 3)

When someone breaks our heart, when someone breaks a promise, when someone lets us down, do we, as adults, forgive like that? This isn't about forgive and forget, mind you. I'm sure that if you asked Ashton about "The Episode", she remembers it well. But her little child's heart allowed her love for her Gigi to leave the hurt in the past, and forgive me. It allowed her to run to me and throw her arms around me and love me anyway. Oh, how we need to learn forgiveness like that!

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." (Luke 15: 20)  

Isn't this just like our Heavenly Father? How many times have we let Him down? How many times have we broken our promises to Him? How many times has He seen us coming from a long way off, opened His arms wide, and welcomed us home in total forgiveness? 

"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." (Colossians 3: 13) 

"Forgive as the Lord forgave you". How did He forgive you? Graciously and freely! We are commanded to forgive in just that same way. 

Like a little child. Like our Heavenly Father. 

So forgiven and forGIVING, that it takes breath away. 

If you haven't sinned or been forgiven much, then this isn't for you. However, if you, like me, have been forgiven much, you will love much and forgive, graciously and freely. 

You're going to love this. After church on Sunday, we had breakfast and made our weekly trip to Starbucks for coffee. On a chilly autumn day, the Fourth of July far behind us, saying our goodbyes outside, the little darling looked at me and gave me her parting words.

"Gigi, tomorrow you'll take me to see fireworks!"

Really?    

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Linking with:
Ann at A Holy Experience 
Emily at imperfect prose on thursdays 
Tell Me A Story 
Wisdom Wednesday