The Potter wets his hands and stoops to pick up a formless shape of gray clay. He begins to mold it in his big hands into a ball shaped mass the size of a soccer ball. Continuing to mold it and shape it he looks for just the right consistency. Finally, when it is ready, the Potter seems to almost throw it onto the spinning wheel below. At first it seems still to be a shapeless blob of clay spinning in an unbalanced, off-center manner on the wheel. Faster and faster the Potter spins the wheel as he begins to shape the piece of clay. His big arms seemed like a vise as the he caressed the clay. His skilful fingers pressed into the clay with a persistence that moved the clay upward and inward. Gradually, the blob of clay begins to take the shape of a tall slender vase. The Potter’s hands and fingers move up and down the spinning clay with the smooth confidence of a master craftsman. His fingers curve up and over the edge of the clay and he begins to descend into the widening mouth of the vase. Deeper and deeper he went into the vase until his fingers disappear, then his hand, and finally only his wrist was visible. One hand smoothed along the outside and the other shaped the inside the vase. In concert his hands glided along the inside and outside of the vase defining the shape, the thickness and the height of the vase. After several moments of spinning with very little visible change in the vase, the Potter began to slow the wheel until it finally came to rest. Just before the wheel stopped spinning, the Potter’s lifted his hands from the vase. There it sat, a perfectly formed vase, tall, slender, and beautiful. Carefully the potter set the vase aside to dry.
Then, after a time, the potter coated the vase with a glazing compound and placed it in a white-hot furnace. No, the intense heat did not destroy it. Instead, the heat baked the vase and hardened the glaze. After sufficient heating, the vase was allowed to gradually cool. Finally, the potter reached into the cool kiln and removed the finished vase. He held it up for inspection. He turned it slowly in his hands searching the surface for any imperfections. With a smile of satisfaction the Potter placed the finished vase on a display shelf along with many other vases of various sizes, shapes and colors. The skill of the Potter had changed the blob of clay into a beautiful work of art.
God is like that with us! He is the Potter and we are the clay.
It is GOD who wills and works for HIS GOOD PLEASURE in us who are HIS children. (Philippians 2:13) We must remember that it is HIS WORK, HIS WILL, and HIS PURPOSE. John 6:28-29 clearly states that we have no work of our own but to believe. We must have no other will but to will HIS WILL in our daily walk. We must have no other purpose but to surrender to HIM and thus allow HIM to do HIS WORK in us and through us for HIS GLORY and our good!
We need to remember that GOD’S WILL is for us, never against us! God’s Purpose is to mold us, to make us, to conform us, to the VERY IMAGE OF CHRIST. Just as the Potter’s goal is to shape the blob of clay into a vessel of beauty, the totality of GOD’S WILL is to conform us to THE VERY IMAGE OF CHRIST! Everything GOD does in us and through us is directed toward this magnificent and wonderful end. Yes, as we love HIM, as we yield to HIM, HE causes ALL THINGS TO WORK TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD. This “GOOD” is conforming us as HIS CHILDREN TO THE VERY IMAGE OF CHRIST. In the framework of eternity, nothing could be better for us than this!
Remember, dear brother and sister in CHRIST, When we place our faith in CHRIST JESUS, not only are we “BORN AGAIN OF THE HOLY SPIRIT” HE also makes us “A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST JESUS”. GOD also adopts us into His family! HE becomes OUR FATHER, and makes us joint heirs with CHRIST. We need to comprehend that being made a “JOINT HEIR” means being made equal with CHRIST --to share and share alike with CHRIST in ALL THAT OUR FATHER POSSESSES. (AND, MY FRIEND, THAT IS EVERYTHING.) While we may tend to focus on the material blessings of this “INHERITANCE”, the immaterial blessings ETERNAL LIFE, JOY, PEACE, AND LOVE are really the permanent and wonderful blessings of OUR FATHER’S INHERITANCE.
LET US THANK GOD, OUR HEAVENLY FATHER FOR ALL HE HAS DONE!!!!!! ALL THE GRATEFUL CHILDREN of ALMIGHTY GOD,
GIL, AND ALL OTHERS.
Amen! Amen! Amen!
Pastor J. Gilbert Hammond