He's the Potter, We are the Clay!

Potter: One who makes earthenware vessels.

Clay: Earth that is pliable when moist but hard when fired.

There are many different ways the Lord uses to describe His relationship to His people. Today, I want to share with you how He’s the Master Potter and we are the clay and to inform you that the Potter has a mission! This mission is to take worthless clay and turn it into vessels of honor, which means that He has to mold it, shape it, and transform it, in order for it to be useful to Him. Isaiah 64:8 says it best; "But now, oh Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand."

It doesn’t matter what condition we're in when He finds us; God is more interested in taking the worst of us and changing us into the best He has to offer. Like the clay at first, our condition is initially worthless - it must be shaped, molded, and transformed, so that it can be used. We were worthless to God in our sinful condition, but thank God, He saw the vessels we could become. But first we must invite Him into our lives as our personal savior; at that point, God can begin His process.

When clay is first brought in from the fields it is unusable; it is usually hard and full of impurities. As the clay must first be refined, so must the Christian first be refined before we can be shaped into a vessel by the Master Potter. The clay has to be put into the kiln and expose to fire to be harden. We  too must be tried by fire in order to be strengthened. Look at Joseph for instance - Joseph was sold into slavery and imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. When he was tried by fire, he maintained a positive attitude toward the Potter, became a vessel of honor, and was made the second most powerful man in Egypt.

Jeremiah 18-6 says; "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel." In other words, just as the clay yields itself to a potter, we as Christians must submit to the authority of God. He’s in complete control and whatever the fire is that He puts us in has been tailor-made just for us.

With all that said, let the church say Amen… and AMEN!

Let's Always Have an Attitude of Gratitude!

Attitude - the state of mind toward some thing
Gratitude - the state of being thankful

An attitude of gratitude means making it a habit to always express thankfulness and appreciation
in every arena of our life - on a regular basis - for the small things as well as the big things. My mother would always say, "Every day is not going to be a good day, but be thankful that it is as well as it is."

If we have gratitude within us, we will be better equipped to endure the hard times like a good soldier. That attitude of gratitude is within our system, but sometimes we have to dig a little deeper to find it! Occasionally, what weaken us as Christians is when we get down, we get discouraged, and/or we get bitter about things in life. It's during those times that we must remember that God is the orchestrator of it all. The things that we encounter day-to-day are not intended to kill us, but instead to bless us - so let's get an attitude of gratitude! That attitude will help keep our spirits built up, and will help keep us strong.

There has never been a time in the history of the world when we (as a people) have had so much and yet many of us remain so unthankful. Friends, we ought to be eternally grateful to God that we have all that we have. Think about all that you have to be grateful for: we have eyes to see, legs to walk, air to breathe, food to eat, a mouth to praise God, and ears to hear His word, now that's MORE than worthy of our praise and gratitude. Oh, how we should be expressing thankfulness for God's blessings on a daily basis!

Ingratitude is dangerous! To return evil and ingratitude to God or man for the goodness we have received could be devastating for us, as it was for Haman in the book of Esther. All the Kings servants bowed, and reverenced Haman except for one man. Haman was so angry that he wanted that man hung, instead Haman himself was hung on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai (nobody wants that!).

Let's instead have an attitude as Joseph had. Although he was put in prison for something he wasn't guilty of, his attitude was so good that he was put in charge of the whole prison. He stood on the scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that tells us, "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Later when Joseph was let out of prison, he was blessed tremendously, because he kept an attitude of gratitude! Let's be like Joseph in that respect.

With all that said, let the Church say Amen and... AMEN!

What Love Does and What Love Does Not Do!

Love: unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for others.

I know that most of you are familiar with that song that says, "what the world needs now, is love, sweet love, that's the only thing there is just too little of." Have you ever stopped to think about just how true that little verse is? Can you imagine how peaceful and loving this world would be if love was shown as God intended it to be? Children would not be killing parents and parents would not be killing children. There would be so much less hatred, less robbing, and fewer killings, instead we would be sharing the real love of God.

Let me take a few minutes to share with you a few things about love:

• Love is a commandment and not a request. 
• Love is kind
• Love is greater than faith, greater than hope
• Most importantly, God is love

1 John 4:11 says, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." Not because they do good things for us, and not because they boost our ego - but out of a pure heart.

According to 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, here's what love does:

1. Love suffers long. We have to get over these things we have in us - you guys know we're not trying to suffer long, we have no patience or time for that, right?! But that's not like Jesus because Jesus is love.
2. Love rejoices in truth
3. Love bears all things
4. Love endures all things
5. Love covers a multitude of sin. 

My friends, we ALL need this kind of love!

Conversely, here's what 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 tells us that love does not do:

1. Love does not vaunt itself. 
2. Love does not behave unseemly
3. Love does not seek its own
4. Love thinks no evil

In other words, Love is never haughty or selfish or rude, love does not demand its own way, it's not irritable or touchy, it does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice it when other do it wrong! WHOA! I know I'm still working on some of these things - what about you guys??

Thank God that He is loving, extremely patient, and eternally kind. Remember, God so loved us, so we ought to love one another!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen and... AMEN!

Actions Speak Louder Than Words!

Action: the process of doing

I don’t know about you, but I've seen people who spoke "holiness," and who taught "holiness" but their actions said something totally different. Well, I've always tried to live by that old saying - if you're going to talk the talk; you have to walk the walk. Anybody can praise God with their lips, however, God is looking for there to be some actions behind the words we speak! Did you know that things can get very serious if our actions don't line up with the word of God? The Bible tells of some cases that have been deadly.

Acts 4:32-35 tells us how there was voluntary sharing among believers, nothing was their own, they had all things common, "...for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold... and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." Ananias and his wife Sapphira were in full agreement with their lips, but their heart and actions were much different. In Acts 5:1-2 we find that they sold their land and kept back part of the money. The story continues in Act 5:3-10, "But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost." Just in case you were wondering, that means that he died! As we keep reading, we find that Ananias' wife comes in three hour later, she lied and she died as well. Their actions caused them both to lose their life.

My friends, the Lord is looking for men and women of faith, with integrity. He is looking for a people who are sincere and are living the life they talk about. While I have only given you a biblical example, I'm guessing that if you look around and think about it, you'll think of some evidence of this principle in our "modern-day" world. We can easily look around and see where God is exposing people who say one thing with their lips and do something completely different with their actions. In this world today, many have such a warped perception of reality that they think they can fool God with their words. People may be able to fool man for a season, but we can’t fool God anytime. He’s omnipresent - there is no place we can hide. That means that there is no where we can go and say one thing and have our actions display another thing and He not know about it!

Praise God that we serve a loving and forgiving God - if we're not walking the holy walk that we say we are to - repent!  He's always willing and ready to forgive!

With all that said, let the church say Amen… and AMEN!