Molded Clay

"But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our Potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand.  Isaiah 64:8"

I have always enjoyed thinking about God forming me into the vessel of His choosing, wondering what I look like in His eyes.  Do I look like a plate to hold nourishing foods for people, and if so, am I making certain that the foods I offer are generous and nourishing?

Am I a cup?  What am I filled with; Living Water of His Spirit or poison?   Am I a bowl, a pitcher, a saucer or simply a knick knack?

Imagining can be a lot of fun as long as we remember that He is the Potter and we are simply the clay in His hands. 

What we do not enjoy imagining, let alone experiencing, is the finishing process.  In order for a piece of clay to be molded into a useful vessel and remain so, it must go through fire.  The temperature has to be hot enough to refine it, but not so hot as to dry it too quickly and cause a crack.  Here are the temperatures needed to refine the clay into ceramic pottery:
Clay becomes pottery at temperatures over 1,000 degrees F (the beginning of glowing red heat - about 540 C). Common tribal earthenware is fired to about 1,400 degrees F (760 C). Heat removes the molecular water in the clay. This heat converts clay molecules to pottery, sculpture, brick molecules that do not dissolve in water. Glazed pottery and modern brick is fired in kilns to temperatures ranging from 1,800 F to 2,400 F. Most common clays start to deform and melt if they are fired higher than about 1,900 F. Modern toilets are fired to about 2,400 F. by Marvin Bartel, Emeritus Professor of Art, Goshen College, Indiana, USA  (Thoughts on the toilet run through my mind, but I will ignore them for now.)

God is not in the business of playing with clay.  He is in the business of making useful pottery.  Therefore, He is going to place us in the refining kilns of life.  When we feel as if we are going to crack, we can cry out to Him and let Him know.  He will either adjust the temperature, or help us realize we can withstand it and He will be there to help us make it through.  Our problem is we want the temperatures to stay lukewarm so we can always be comfortable.

I am at an age where my body is changing.  Most women have hot flashes.  I have cold flashes instead.  It starts in my feet, works its way up my legs until finally I am shivering.  My body temperature actually drops, just as a woman with hot flashes body temperature rises.  Because of this, heat feels good to me.  When others ask for 65 degree weather, I ask for 75.  However, I do sympathize with women having hot flashes.  I had them when pregnant with my sons.  They are not fun in the least.  They seem to start on the inside and work their way out so that you feel as if you are permeating heat and very little brings comfort.  I used to sit under fans that were in front of the air conditioner in order to receive a little relief.  To say these flashes are a normal part of a woman's life do not make them any easier, but it does help to remember that we are not the only ones going through them.  Many women before us have been there and survived, so we most likely will too.

We will survive the fires of refinement as well, if we remember that every Christian goes through them.  If we don't, we may crack and then what use are we?  With God's miracle working power, the crack can be glued, but will always be noticeable. 

Lord, make me a vessel worthy of Your calling and may I fulfill Your every heart desire for my life.  Help me not to crack under the pressure of the heat I must go through in order to be refined and become that hardened vessel that withstands the hands of hardship that try to remold me.  When I am refined, help me be generous and allow my contents to be poured out for others and refilled by You alone.

Practice Makes Peace

"These things I have spoken unto you, so that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."  John 16:33

Dishes to wash, laundry, vacuuming, dusting, scrub the bathrooms and the phone rings.  Frustration sets in - why? 

A meeting to attend, people to visit, letters (or messages in today's world) to write, lessons to study and someone comes to visit.  A feeling of needing to hurry it up almost overwhelms - why?

Each day, virtually every moment of every day, we are given opportunity to choose peace, but more often than not, we choose the emotion that feels as if it is suffocating us.  Again I ask - why?

And then we ask the question: Why doesn't God just take those feelings away and fill us with peace?

Yesterday I went to visit three of my grandchildren.  One of them crawled into my lap and said, "I can't hula hoop."  I said, "It's difficult, isn't it?  (a nod) But if we practice something over and over again, it becomes easier."  I received a modest smile and a nod and we went back to playing.

I believe this is what God is trying to tell us.  We have it within us to walk in peace, just as my grandchild had it within himself to hula hoop, but it takes practice.  God has given us the Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control).  Peace is there for our use, but it takes practice. 
Last night I started to really feel the pressure to give in to trepidation.  I started praying and God spoke to my heart to choose to trust Him.  I admit it was a bit of a struggle for a moment, but as I practice doing so, I am getting stronger at it.

I was able to go to sleep and woke remembering that I am not to worry.  When things start pressing in, I need to climb up in the Father's lap and tell Him, "This is difficult, but I'm going to keep practicing until I get it right." 

Make me a Grape

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.  II Corinthians 5:17

My aunt just had three heart surgeries in one.  Her aortic valve was replaced with a cow's valve (she says she has to go around saying "moo" now - I told her that at least we would know it was her coming towards us), they strengthened her mitral valve and they put in a pace maker.  Even though she has  a new valve, if she doesn't do as the doctor's tell her, she will ruin the replacement and weaken the mitral valve all over. 

We are given surgery the moment we accept Jesus as our personal Savior and Lord.  Our "heart of stone" is replaced with a "heart of flesh."  But what if we refuse to eat the meat of God's Word and drink the water flowing from His Holy Spirit through communication with Him?  Our heart will wither up like a grape as it turns into a raisin.  Now a raisin is still a grape, it is simply dried out, just as we, though shriveled with the cares of this world, are still children of God.  We just don't look nearly as appetizing as the plump, juicy grape.   We have little juice to share with those who are thirsty and our meat is much tougher to chew, but those grapes will quench the thirst and feed the soul of someone starving and dry a little at a time if they keep refueling with the Water and the Meat.

Father, help us remember that we need Your nourishment daily so that we have enough to share with others in need.  Studying Your Word and allowing Your Spirit to speak to and discipline us is both refreshing and rejuvenating.  It plumps us back up sweet and juicy.  It makes our lives a nourishing treat for a starving, thirsty world. 

Short and Sweet

During my bible reading this morning, averse tried to jump off the page.
And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  Matthew 24:12
I said, "Lord, this is what is happening today.  People see the weather causing deaths, people shooting and murdering each other sometimes for no apparent reason, earthquakes, sink holes and mudslides swallowing people up, families being killed in the name of a god who is not You, narcotics being legalized, pornography and deviant sex being looked on as normal, and much more and they blame You.  They do not look at how many warnings You have given and that You even tell us in Your word that You will give us over to our choices if we persist in them." 
I wanted to get on my knees in prayer right then, but felt impressed to go on with my studies.  Then I read this verse and hope surged through me: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens.  Psalm 8:1
Yes, there are battles of insurmountable proportion going on in this world and in the spiritual world, BUT God is majestic in ALL the earth and will continue to display His wonders to all who will watch in wonder and faith believing!!

Light of Love

Then Jesus spoke to them again saying, "I am the Light of the World; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life."  John 8:12

When I plug in a lamp, electricity flows through the cord up to the switch next to the bulb.  The switch blocks the flow until I flip it to the on position and then flows freely to make the bulb glow and light up the room.  The switch makes all the difference in the world.

It is the same with the Light of God's love.  It flows through me, but there is the switch of sin that blocks it from the bulb of manifestation in me.  When I flip the sin off of me through confession and forgiveness, it turns His love loose to flow freely through my smile, my eyes, my actions; everything about me will light up with His love and others will not be able to miss it.  The moment I allow sin on board, it jumps on that switch and turns the light of His love off.  When I allow anger, hurts, jealousies, etc. to be entertained, that switch becomes heavier and more difficult to move.  When I fall on my knees and deliberately, through faith cast them off and give them to Father God, the Light comes back on.  It is not my light, but His.  It flows through me, but will remain at a standstill as long as I refuse to let it loose.

Yesterday, in Sunday School we were discussing Jonah and how much he hated the Ninevites.  Even after going through being tossed into the sea, being trapped in seaweed and nearly drowning, being swallowed by a great fish and thrown up right at the foot of the city he was supposed to preach to in the first place, he still harbored that hatred.  I guess he thought that if he simply ran through the town quickly shouting their need for repentance that they would think him a raving lunatic and disregard him.  In the pit of his stomach though, he knew God didn't really need him to say those words for the Ninevites.  The Ninevites needed to hear them, but God could have used anyone to say them.  God needed Jonah to let go of the hatred so the Light of God's love could shine through him to a dying world.  Instead, Jonah went up on the hillside, hoping to see the destruction of Nineveh.  He did not get his wish, because they repented.  Rather than rejoicing that their lives had been turned around, Jonah became angry and said, "Ah, Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my country?  Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents for doing harm.  Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!"  Then the Lord said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

God gives Jonah one more lesson through a vine and reminds him that Jonah didn't create the vine, but had pity on it.  Shouldn't he then have pity on the thousands of people in Nineveh that he hadn't created either and that were dying like the vine?  God doesn't tell us if Jonah got it or not.  I hope he did.  I hope when I get to heaven to be able to sit down with him and have him tell all about how God taught him that day and how he rejoiced in being set free from the sin of hatred so God's Love Light could shine through him. 

Lord, may I learn to hate sin so much that I flip the switch before it has a chance to settle on it and make it heavy.  Shine Your Light of Love through me to a world lost in darkness.  May it ever be so.

Confession of Dread

Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, for to You I pray.  In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; in the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.  Psalm 5:2-3

These words of David really speak to my heart.  He places God as his King first and then his God.  David understood what it meant to be called king.  He knew from first hand experience that being king was not just a really big responsibility, but also gave you complete power over a certain group of people.  So here he is proclaiming before all the world that, though he himself might be considered king over Israel, God is King over all, especially his own heart.  Therefore, it is to God alone he prays and no other.  In simpler words he is saying, "God, You are King and therefore the only God, so I offer my prayers to You alone."

There is more to this though.  Those last couple of words haunt me, "I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch."

Week before last our music minister announced his family was moving back to Louisiana.  Last week our pastor had a massive stroke and passed away Tuesday morning.  Then our music minister's dad passed away as well.  I confess that I looked at all these events and wondered, "So what is going to happen to the church family now?"  My prayers in this particular area were difficult, so I finally just decided to rest and watch what God would do.  Then I read these words and it hit me that my attitude was the block in my prayers.  Rather than watching with eager expectation for God's intervention, I was watching with concern and almost a sense of dread.  As of this morning I choose to seek God's forgiveness, choose faith over questioning and stand firm, trusting that God's plans are greater than anything I could cook up, so I will begin now to watch with great expectations of His miraculous hand at work in our church body.

Lord, pour out Your mercies on Your people and make us strong.  Unite our hearts with Yours.  Make us a people worthy of Your holy name.  In Jesus' precious name I ask it!!

Warm Hugs

The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.  Deuteronomy 32:4

At this moment one of my aunts is being taken in for open heart surgery.  She is having a valved replaced.  I have been praying a lot for her, mostly that God's perfect will be accomplished in and through her and that the enemy not be allowed to steal even one breath of life from her early; that her days and breaths be only what God has ordained them to be. 

My aunt is a Christian, is a widow (has been for many years), has nine children and I do not know how many grandchildren.  Because of this I know she is in the Father's hands and am not worried.  I know He will do what is very best for her, her family and us - the others that love her dearly.

I have a choice to make daily. Will I draw closer to my heavenly Father or become angry and distant?  My aunt's surgery and frail health could easily make me question and become angry.  I have learned from experience what that does in my life. 
Last evening God brought this to my attention in a very sweet manner.  I climbed into bed and, as is my habit, snuggled up against my husband.  He asked, "Are you warm enough?"  I answered, "As long as I am next to you, but if I move away I get cold."  It immediately hit me and so I shared with him that this is but another reason God compares our relationship with Him to marriage.  As long as we stay close to the Father we remain content, warm and secure.  When we move away we become cold, cynical and insecure.  He chuckled and hugged me closer.  I could imagine the Father doing the same to me, because I understood the message. 

I love hugs!!  They are the best expression of love to me.  I received a Mother's Day card from my grandkids (they know me well) that said, "You know what I like about Grandma hugs?  Free refills whenever I want!"  Amen to that!!  They can have as many as they want and more!!  Father God gives us hugs too.  When I grasp a message like this I can feel Him draw me close and wrap His loving arms around me with a smile.  Yes, I have had many heartaches watching people I love dearly pass on before me, grandparents, best friends, aunts, uncles, a brother, cousins, parents, etc. but each time God has sent His hugs to make it bearable. 

As my sweet aunt is sleeping through this surgery that will take several hours to accomplish, I pray God wraps her in his hugs and gives her peaceful dreams full of wonderful, vivid, colorful pictures that bring her great joy.  Then when she wakens she will be able to smile through the pain of recovery.

I don't know all the whys we have to go through different painful events in this life, but I do know we do not go through them in vain.  God will use each and every event in our lives to bring about something good and miraculous somewhere, even though we may not get to witness it in this life.  
One day I will be totally unencumbered with sin and be able to see the entire picture of why things happened in my life as they did.  Then I will look, see and say, "OH! That's why!  It was well worth it!!"