Molded by the Master

If you have ever watched a potter work, you know the thrill of seeing a lovely vessel take shape from a lump of formless clay. God's object lesson for the prophet Jeremiah at 18:1-6 was that the nation of Israel ... as well as every person from the beginning of time ... was to be shaped by His hands. We are all nothing but lumps of human clay waiting for the Master Potter's firm but careful touch.

The potter already has a specific design of a vessel in mind when he places the lump of wet clay on the wheel. The same holds true for us, God has already determined how He plans to work in our lives and what part we are to play in the work of His kingdom (Eph 2:10). He shapes us with His skillful, steady hands and cuts us with various instruments and tools at His disposal to form our character as He begins to make us into the image of His precious Son, Jesus Christ. He shapes us all differently to carry out the unique service He has planned for each one of us. But regardless of our individual features, we all bear the unmistakable imprint of our Potter. We are all uniquely shaped into the image of Christ Jesus, His Son.

Too often we look toward the talents and abilities of those around us and wish to be more like someone else. But we have been perfectly designed and uniquely created for the specific purposes God has for us to fulfill and He makes no mistakes in His pottery work. If we are spending our time wishing to be like someone else, we are wasting our time.


We are to use our God-given talents and attributes in God's specific plan. He created us to fill individualized roles in life and if we refuse to use the spiritual and human gifts He has given us, we waste His effort and we waste our opportunity to serve Him in the way He desires.

The Master Potter is pleased with us, His vessels, and with the way He has designed us and the abilities He has worked into us. We need to honor the Potter as vessels should and we must submit to the pressure of His hands on us as He forms us into the objects He desires, to fulfill the purposes He had in mind beforehand for us to do.

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Praise God, the smoke is gone!!! How wonderful it was to stop and look out the glass sliding doors this morning and actually see Hogback Mountain! This is wonderful. I had forgotten just how clearly we usually see this mountain. My understanding is that the fires are still burning so that must mean that the winds have shifted directions. Michael and I sat out on the deck for quite some time this morning, just enjoying the clean air and beautiful scenery over mugs of hot coffee. Then I came in and grabbed my books and went out on the deck alone to have my morning quiet time. Every day it feels like it's a more special day. It was really nice today without the smoke. I tried something a little different and I think I enjoyed it that way. It seems like lately I have struggled with reading retention. I just can't seem to remember what I'm reading if it's a short paragraph or something. I mean, when I get in and read a chapter of a book, I retain what I read as the plot progresses. But when it's something short like a devotional, I can't read it and then tell myself what I read. (I hope this isn't the beginning of a very serious problem but is just that I can't concentrate for one reason or another.) So it was hard to remember how to pray at the conclusion of each devotional. So this morning I opened in prayer and then continued that prayer as I read the material thought-by-thought . It seemed to work much better that way and I think I got more out of my quiet time. So I will continue to do that as the days go by. Now I'm going to reread the entire month's worth of Andrew Murray's devotions just to seat everything into my mind and heart.

I'm having a hard time focusing on the sermon on Sundays too. For one thing, I think Dan is talking faster and it's hard for me to keep up with him. For the last two Sundays I've had to struggle to remember what the sermon was about. This frightens me to no end, especially with the retention loss in my reading. Am I coming down with dementia of some kind? That's pretty frightening to even think about but I am getting much less out of my reading than I used to. I used to be able to read and turn around and tell you what I just read. I can't do that anymore. And that terrifies me!

I brought a couple magazines home with me yesterday to see if I might like to subscribe. (See how much my world depends on reading?) But after looking them over I have decided not to subscribe to either of them. Maybe I'll go back to Christianity Today. I used to subscribe to that years ago but then it started to seem like all the articles were written from a purely theological perspective, not that there's anything wrong with that. I was just hoping for a little more of real life thrown into the articles. I should check it out. It could be totally different now. Magazines do change. I'm just in the market for a monthly that isn't as shallow as Guideposts. Guideposts reads a lot like it is written by nonChristians who write the story and then sprinkle in a little religion to make it marketable in the Evangelical circles and then submit them to be considered for publication. They don't really read like they were written from the Christian perspective. Or at least that's my take on things. Seems like years ago I used to get a lot more "enlightenment" from Guideposts. Now they're just a bunch of short stories with God sprinkled in here and there to make them acceptable. And I didn't care for their Angels magazine either. Oh well, I will keep searching. I want a magazine that will help me live the Christian life. Maybe I'm hoping for too much. But I'm hoping for a magazine that will have articles about how to live my life as Christ would have me to do. Scripture spelled out. That sort of thing.


Our small group is due to start back up next week and I've suggested that we put it off to September first because we're all so busy in the summer time. Either that or at least take off July. We'll have to see how that flies. I can't help wondering if it isn't just laziness on my part because when we start up again we're going to be watching some VHS tapes I bought years ago on the book of Matthew. They are so good. But because they're my tapes I guess, I have to come up with some issues to discuss or questions to debate with the group. We're a very vocal group. I learned that when I facilitated over 2nd Peter. Some groups are so quiet. Not ours. We are very vocal. You ask a question of this group and it generates a lot of discussion, which is so great! They really are a great group to facilitate. There's nothing worse than a group that won't answer questions or give opinions.

Stacy and Dan, my missionary friends in Liberia, have taken a woman into their home. They have no idea who she is but she's deathly skinny and is very sick. A group of children were taunting the woman who was I guess living on the streets. Her clothes were good for nothing but burning so they gave her clothing to put on after her bath. She washed and braided the woman's hair and then took her to the German clinic for help. They gave her an IV and a bunch of medicine but she's struggling to keep the pills down. She keeps vomiting them back up. So please pray for this woman. I think her name is Mamie. And pray that Dan and Stacy haven't taken someone in who will expose them to some dangerous disease. Liberia (and the world for that matter) is filled with Mamies and what are we to do? We are to love them as Jesus loves them. And sometimes that means getting our hands a little dirty. All I know is that Dan and Stacy did what had to be done. Someone had to care for this poor woman. She is not only sick on the inside. She has horrendous sores and ulcers all over her legs and arms. Stacy is treating them with Aloe Vera because that's all she has. I know from personal experience that Aloe can do wondrous things but whether it will help in this situation I have no idea. Lord I just ask you to bless Dan and Stacy for taking this poor wretched woman into their home and nursing her back to health. That is the ministry they have been called to do. What is the good of preaching salvation if we just let the people die? I'm very proud of them for taking this woman in!

Well, I'm going to cut this short today. I spent a little more time out on the deck this morning and it's almost mid afternoon now so I need to get busy doing things. It seems like the only thing I've accomplished so far today is this blog. Well, I did have my quiet time and the bed is made but that's not much considering what time it is. Hopefully I'll have more to write about the next time I blog. I guess I'll have to go back to setting my alarm to have more time in my day. Without my alarm we sleep until 9:30 or 10:00 and the morning's half gone before I've even done my devotionals. I wish I'd just wake up on my own about 7:00-7:30. But I don't. I sleep for a couple more hours at the least.