Tag Archives: treasure

CRACKED CLAY POTS

Christian Life, ,

2 Corinthians 4:7 NLT
[7] “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”

We have established that God’s sovereignty is expressed, not in His randomly creating some people for heaven and others for hell, but in His purpose to have a family of sons and daughters recreated in the image of Jesus through His mercy and grace.

We are all essentially clay pots, made from dust and destined to return to the dust. No one can claim any privilege or position since we were all born rebels with Adam’s nature. We are all under judgment, destined for death except for God’s intervention.

Despite the audacity of some who claim authority or office that elevates them above the riff-raff in the church, there is no grounds in Scripture for anyone assuming any such title or function outside of God’s grace. Even the greatest of the apostles called himself the least. Through grace, God called him and equipped him for his task.

Galatians 1:1 NLT
[1] “This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.”

1 Corinthians 15:10 NLT
[10] “But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.”

Paul claimed no calling or authority except by God’s grace. He appealed to the members of the churches to which he wrote always as a slave of Jesus and under His authority.

So, Paul saw himself as nothing more than an empty, fragile, and cracked vessel out of which God’s glory shone through his brokenness. He did not lord his authority over the churches as some do, but appealed to his divine appointment and his obedience to Jesus as the source of his authority.

Can those today who claim titles and offices say, as Paul said, “Follow me as I follow Christ”?

1 Corinthians 11:1 NLT
[1] “And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.”

What does Paul mean when he says that we are cracked pots? Let’s go back to David’s experience recorded in the Psalms.

Psalms 51:16-17, 19 NLT
[16] “You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. [17] The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
[19] Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit— with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.”

Why, if God Himself had set up the sacrificial system in His instructions for worship, did David say that God was not interested in animal sacrifices?

Instead of animal blood being a symbol of repentance and forgiveness, the people of God had used their sacrifices as an excuse for sinning.

Hosea 8:11-13 NLT
[11] “Israel has built many altars to take away sin, but these very altars became places for sinning! [12] Even though I gave them all my laws, they act as if those laws don’t apply to them. [13] The people love to offer sacrifices to me, feasting on the meat, but I do not accept their sacrifices. I will hold my people accountable for their sins, and I will punish them. They will return to Egypt.“

God had come to hate their sacrifices because they sinned deliberately and offered sacrifices for their sin. They had developed a completely wrong idea about their sacrifices, not as a symbol of their repentance but as an excuse to carry on in their rebellion.

Through his blatant disobedience to God’s laws, and his humiliating exposure of guilt, David learned that a broken (crushed and shattered) heart and a contrite (collapsed) spirit, are of far greater value to God than animal blood.

Brokenness, however it happens in our lives, is of great value to us because it keeps our feet firmly on the ground. Paul was fully aware of, and never forgot his history. He was a persecutor and a murderer. Grace had changed him but the memory reminded him of who he was without God’s grace.

He could, therefore, say with all humility, “Without Jesus, I am nothing more than a cracked clay pot.”

That is the truth but not the whole truth. Paul completes his expression of truth by adding,
“… But God’s presence is the treasure, the light in me that shines out of me through the cracks!”

What an amazing picture…we are not fancy light fittings, created to adorn an expensive, up-market home. We are fragile, cracked vessels made from dirt, that carry within us the glory of God. God’s glory shines out of us through the cracks and fissures that sin has caused. Grace has rescued and transformed us but the scars of our sin remain as a testimony to that grace. It’s our very fallen-ness that qualifies us to receive His mercy and forgiveness. He places His own Spirit in us to shine out of us because we, without Him, are nothing but dark and empty.

God has chosen to reveal His glory to the world in different ways, through the mirror of His Word, through the majesty of His creation, but most of all, through the mercy of His redemption….and He has chosen to shine His mercy through the holes that sin has made in these clay vessels.

Only God could have done that!

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – A BANK YOU CAN BANK ON

Bible Study, ,

A BANK YOU CAN BANK ON

“Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bank robbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. The place where your treasure is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” Luke 12:33, 34.

God’s economic system hits at the core of our fallen nature. As long as we are ensnared in the dominion of darkness, our disposition will be one of selfishness driven by greed. However, Jesus’ work on the cross sets us free from the one thing that will destroy us as surely as night follows day.

The Apostle Paul has given us another principle that appears to be a paradox. He said,“…Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12b, 13. You work out…God works in. Once again Paul declares that God works through our choices to perfect His work of grace in us.

The potential to be generous is the spontaneous outcome of salvation but we have to turn that potential into action. Both Jesus and Paul tell us, “Now work it out.” This is the miracle of what Jesus has done for us. Sin shackled us to a nature that has endless potential for greed and wickedness but, when we were transferred from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of light, we were freed from that potential and released into a new potential. “Be imitators of God as dearly loved children…” Ephesians 4:1(NIV). There it is again, the family environment in which we are set free to develop our new nature in God.

Jesus urges us, “Now get on and become what you are.” Developing our generous nature has huge potential – firstly of imitating our Father and secondly, of growing our assets in an infallible banking system.

This has far greater significance that we can imagine. According to Jesus, eternal life is ‘knowing’ God and ‘knowing’ Him, Jesus, (John 17:3), but what does it mean to ‘know’ God? Strangely enough, we find a clue to knowing God in the Old Testament. Jeremiah was talking about Shallum, Josiah’s son, who succeeded him as king of Judah. He had been taken captive to Babylon. What was his crime?

“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labour…does it make you a king to have more and more cedar?  Did not your father (Josiah) have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord?  Jeremiah 22:13, 15, 16 (NIV).

We will develop an intimate knowledge of God by doing what He does. Growing our potential, then, means using every opportunity we can to be generous givers. The more generous we are, the more revelation we will have of who God really is, and the more we will experience intimacy with Him. And, after all, that’s where He is heading – leading us into oneness with Him – the essence of our marriage with Him at the end of time!

MOLLY AND ME – TRANSFORMED

Christian Life, , ,

When play is done for the day, toilet parade and garden inspection over and she feels mellow and sleepy, Molly loves to lie on my lap with her head on my tummy and gaze into my face with complete adoration in her soft brown eyes. I always respond with words like, “You are so beautiful. You are so sweet. You are my treasure. You are precious to me. I love you, my little one…”

A few weeks ago, I was lying awake during the night when two Scriptures invaded my mind:

“Without holiness, no one will see the Lord”, and “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  

I pondered these words for a while, wondering what the Holy Spirit wanted to say to me. I understand that to “see” God is not about literal seeing, nor is it about seeing God in the afterlife. What was the Lord saying to me?

David had a heart after God and, when he heard the voice of the Lord calling him to seek His face, he eagerly responded with the words, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” (Psalm 27:8 – NIV). Since we cannot literally see God’s face, what did David mean? To see the face of God is to contemplate His greatness and His attributes, but even more than that, to respond to who He is by acting in ways that resemble Him.

God’s character can be summed up in one word – generosity. God is outrageously generous in who He is and in everything He does. “Righteousness” and “generosity” are often used interchangeably in the Scriptures. God’s righteousness is expressed in lavish generosity and wants us to treat others in the same way as He treats us.

In Hebrew thought, generosity is a duty demanded of us, but our generosity towards others should never out of a heart of benevolence towards those who are less fortunate than we are. It should be our response of gratitude to God’s overflowing generosity towards us.

However, to “see” God goes even further than that. The Hebrews had a word for the kind of generosity that goes beyond our duty – zikkut. It means doing more than is expected of us – simply because of who we are – God’s children who are made in His image and have His nature. To see God implies acting out of the very nature of God, i.e., experiencing the depth of His compassionate heart towards those in need.

Then another thought came to me as I pondered this “message” from the Lord. What about the Scripture that says:

“So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into His very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by ADONAI the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18 – COMPLETE JEWISH BIBLE)

I have chosen this translation because it accurately reflects the words of the original Greek text.

Slowly, the meaning of these words began to dawn on me. The Holy Spirit is not calling us to gaze at (or contemplate) Jesus in this text, but to gaze at His image in us. When we look into a mirror, we see our own reflection. So, too, as we gaze into the mirror of God’s word, we see the image of Jesus reflecting back at us. As I look into the face of my dog, I see something beautiful and precious in her that causes me to speak the words of love and blessing.

So, too, as I gaze at the image of Jesus in me – “Christ in me, the hope of glory”, I hear the words of Jesus expressing to me all that I am to Him. In Solomon’s love song to his bride, which mirrors the song of Jesus to His heavenly bride, he says to her:

“Everything about you is beautiful, my love: you are without a flaw.” (Song of Solomon 4:7 – COMPLETE JEWISH BIBLE)

As I speak my words of love to Molly, although she is only an animal, the more beautiful and precious she becomes to me.

So, too, I become what I look at. No longer do I see myself as weak, frail and flawed but as the very image of Jesus who, by His Spirit, is transforming me, one day at a time, into that image.