A Spiritual Pottery Lesson

[NOTE: I have no idea why this says Tuesday July 1st. This is Wednesday July 2. Or it was when I got up this morning. Hummm! Interesting.]

Charles Stanley tells the story of visiting a potter's studio. He said, "I decided to take a cue from the prophet Jeremiah, who visited a potter's studio at the Lord's request (Jer 18:1-6). So I stopped by an art institute to observe a class ... my sole purpose was to better understand the biblical metaphor of God as the Potter and people as the clay." Here's what he learned when He walked into a room full of whirring pottery wheels.

He learned that the Potter has complete power over the clay. He can do with it what He chooses. We humans do have limited free-will, but God's will is greater than all the clay in the world. So even if we try to resist His sculpting hands, He continues to work toward His purpose for us. The Master Craftsman has set out to achieve a particular design He has in His mind. He already has a plan to make it take the shape he desires. Press in the fingers a little and then let them go back out and you've started shaping the graceful slopes of the vessel's sides. There is little resistance, merely a slight hesitation and as you slide your fingers up, with equal pressure on both sides, you create the shape of this beautiful vase that will be used for the tasks you have planned for it.

The potter works the clay with care and patience. Since God knows that spiritual maturity can't be rushed, He forms our Christlike character slowly ... one experience at a time. That means He must also have perseverance, as human clay sometimes shifts off center and becomes misshapen. Just as clay can be fashioned only with it sits precisely on the middle of the wheel, Christians must be in the center of God's will to grow spiritually strong. The Potter maneuvers the drifting believer back into position and begins remolding it. Sometimes it is necessary for the Potter to punch down a nearly-formed vessel to make it just the way He wants it. So sometimes God allows us to be "punched down" by struggles and trials but He immediately begins reforming another vessel with a firm, but tender touch, not forcing the clay to go one certain way but instead merely coaxing it into the right shape. He never discards His vessels, He just skillfully reforms them into the vessels He desires and He works tirelessly to perfect them, bringing them into perfect shape.

Our God is a personal Potter. His creations reflect His personality and character. And His Holy Spirit is poured into each human vessel so He can be an intimate part of our lives. The result of the ceaseless, gentle touch is a work of true beauty ... perfectly formed into a saint wholly committed to Him, existing in Christ's likeness for ever and ever.

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A little drift smoke worked its way back in yesterday afternoon and it's still visible in the air today but it's nothing like what we had last week, thank God! I guess we run the risk of having the smoke come back any time the wind blows just right until the fires have been put out. Thankfully the second dry system to move through the area didn't set off any new fires for firefighters to battle. I feel so guilty when we have lightning fires because I love storms so much that I'm always hoping for some thunder and lightning and that makes me feel responsible in an unpleasant way.

I have no plans for today except to run a few errands. I need to pick up a couple things for dinner tonight, go by the bank, and mail a few things off at the Post Office. I've been searching for a good magazine and, strangely, I got an offer for a free issue on a magazine I'd never heard of [tell me the Lord isn't interested in even the smallest matters in my life!] called "Discipleship Journal." It looks exactly like what I've been looking for. The only problem is that it's a little expensive and it comes out bimonthly instead of monthly. But if it's as filled with all the articles it seems to be filled with, it may take me two months to work my way through each issue. But that still works out to roughly $4 per issue which seems pretty steep to me. But I went ahead and filled out the card for a trial issue just to check it out. If it's what I'm looking for, which I have the strong sense that it is, it will be a blessing. It's worth checking it out anyway.

I love my quiet times in the mornings. They are exactly what I've been wishing and hoping for for years and years. I don't know why I couldn't get the routine down to do them until recently but I'm just grateful that it's working now. There's no better way to start out my day than in the company of the Lord. To feel His loving presence within me swelling to a full measure is hard to explain. But it's the reality I'm having with my morning devotionals. I took up a challenge last night. There are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs and there are 31 days in the month of July and I have decided to read one chapter a night when I do my other devotionals. Just an added little something. Sort of spice things up a bit. When I read the Bible I tend to skip Proverbs because... well, I don't know why exactly. I just usually skip them like I do the book of Numbers. I did read Job the last time through and that's another one that I tend to skip. And yet a couple of my favorite quotes come from the book of Job. Go figure!

It's been awhile since I've read the NT and that's probably something I need to concentrate on doing. I'll work on a reading plan for that. I started a reading plan at the start of this year but I ended up not doing it. It was one of those plans where you read a chapter here and then a couple paragraphs there, etc. But that was just reading it for the sake of reading it and that's not why I read my Bible. I read my Bible for content and there's no better way to do that than to just sit down and open at the marker and read for 30 minutes to an hour every day. Otherwise it gets so chopped up that it's impossible to remember how things read and what was the main thought for that chapter, etc. I've found it best to read it book by book and chapter by chapter.

I did my Wiersby study in Romans yesterday and will do another chapter tomorrow. Wiersby is very good. It's just that I have to concentrate so hard to follow his train of thought. I do a chapter every Tuesday and Thursday. When I complete this study I'm going to do some of my studies by Max Lucado. I think I have 6 or 7 of them. I wanted to buy some new studies but we ran across that box of books in the garage and all the Lucado books were in it and it was like, Whoa, I've got plenty of studies. I also have a study that I started and never finished because the author exhausted me. She had me looking up so many verses that I just got tired. I mean, it was nothing for her to reference 50 - 60 verses to look up. It took me 3 hours to do the last study I completed. I don't think she meant for it to be studied chapter by chapter. You know, just study until you get tired and then come back to where you left off the last time. But if you do that you lose the continuity of the material. Or at least I do.

I have a Deacons meeting tomorrow night. I can't believe it's been a month already since our last meeting. Where does the time go?!! I love being a deacon but I do get tired of the meetings. I wish there were a way to do it without meetings. Wouldn't that be great?!! No meetings! I need to come up with a devotional for tomorrow night too. Ugh!

I have had the hardest time this past week thinking of things to write about in my blog. I mean, how hard can it be? For me, it's pretty darn hard lately. So anyway, rather than just fill this blank space with words I'm going to opt out and promise to try and do better next time.