potter

Our Heavenly Father Potter

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I looked up to the sky (well actually the ceiling as I was inside) as I was PRAISING GOD for some good data in the lab, PROGRESS. And it hit me, just Holy Spirit fashion just then, seeing the fire alarm label, it said POTTER. Hmmmm… our Heavenly Father Potter. Hmmmm…

Yes, for this lab work, it’s been quite the process for FINDING THE TIME, bigger chunks of time, to do the lengthy steps. It’s not that the work is hard, but it has to be precise, and it really needs time – uninterrupted time. OH, TIME… Oh that’s what a Potter needs, to work us with TIME. Lord, You do know that we need Your help and molding.

And then I thought it funny when the graphical output of some of my data had 2 humps in the unmistakable reminder of a TV cartoon monster from Bugs Bunny – so funny – I saw the orange hairy monster instantly in my head. Our brains and memories are so marvelous. I mentioned this to my coworker of the same vintage and she said “the one with the sneakers?” YEAH!

The monster wasn’t scary to Bugs Bunny and Bugs always had an ulterior motivation of distraction that fueled his actions, like pretending to give this monster a spa treatment day just for distraction… Why this all screamed in my head I don’t know…

What was I talking about? Oh yes, the fire alarm, THE POTTER, oh yes THE FATHER, OH YES THE PRAISING! But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.

And what about ‘the pottery of us’??? Of me??? Was I being tested to see if I could find that level of asking for help? Was I just in a place to be place-held for Your purposes, Lord, unknown and known? What step is this in my life as clay? As formed? As drying and getting stronger, or fired in the kiln ready for decoration… ??? Hmmmm…. The fire alarm was quiet, but the scripture reference blasted into my head all weekend, even seeing other references. The Potter. 

Hmmm… if my brain thinks randomly with cartoon characters, then surely I need the scriptures even more to refocus me… And then even more I must believe God’s non-random signal is simply to know that: I am HIS. WE ARE HIS. And keep keepin’ on…

Oh, MOLD ME, Lord, and please do let me see the finished product someday with Jesus leading the Way, His Way. 

This clay and Potter scripture from Isaiah (excerpts 64:4-9 below) does speak VOLUMES of who God is, and the blessings of us being molded, BEING SAVED,  being attended to because of God’s Righteousness. And it speaks of a people Israel who failed to follow God, and it speaks of ALL of us needing to return to God as Lord.

May we return and capture our thoughts into Your clay too, Lord, help mold our steps today.

Amen 

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For since the beginning of the world

Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him. You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned – In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved.

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But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. …

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But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.

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Do not be furious, O Lord, Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look – we all are Your people!

Clay Pots needing to be filled – Jeremiah 18

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Even angels long to look into these things.

Oh Holy Spirit – I love the Lord’s Word – it is meaty and solid and yet leaves plenty of room for a space in the middle of you to be open and receiving and movable and fresh – yes – a jar of clay that has that space for the Holy Spirit to be in us – a fresh filling!  The Holy Spirit brings us the Glory of God in our midst – we are to call upon Him and ask for a fresh filling.  While discussing the Holy Spirit in my bible study class and how we are made of clay by our Father the Potter, I find today here in Old Testament book of  Jeremiah, where he instructs the people based on the messages directly given to Him by God, that God says “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. This was God’s message to have Israel repent. Jeremiah was watching a potter at his wheel reworking old clay into a new vessel, “shaping it as seemed best to him.”

We are formed and remain His, He forms us as He sees best. As Isaiah (chapter 64:8) teaches: But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand. Do not be furious, O Lord, Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look—we all are Your people!

In the New Testament, Paul writes a letter to the Corinthians that we are jars of clay, hard pressed by the world – the stress and the circumstances – but honestly that makes us stronger and able to be filled. STRONG and able to hold something! We are shaped by the inside and the outside to be functional and fillable. We are to ask for this fresh filling of the Holy Spirit – a baptism of Spirit.

Oh to be re-filled and re-filled and movable and ready to be poured out into a situation. Oh Lord, we ARE clay pots needing to be filled. Even angels long to look into these things – the Spirit pointing us to Jesus.

Thank You Lord for the work of Your Hands and the Life of Your Son and the Spirit of Yourself bringing us always to see Your Majesty and Plan.

Amen

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At the Potter’s House (Jeremiah 18:1-11)

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.  Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’

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Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ Acts 11:16

2 Corinthians 4:6-18 NKJV

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. * And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. * Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

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1Peter 1:8-12

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.