I’m a Pot, You’re a Pot – Part One

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”  (II Corinthians 4:7).

Jesus desires to fill your life and give you a sense of dignity, worth, and pride.              

Much is said and written today about self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-worth. The Scripture before us gives us a beautiful self-perspective.   

Emphasis on self has grown dramatically in recent years. Self-loving and self-interest are considered universal facts. As a result, in many quarters God is no longer the object of devotion, but a means by which to get what is wanted. For many, God has become a supernatural Tool. This type of religion is “hot tub religion” because it makes you feel good and requires nothing from you.  Churches that advocate it are called by Charles Colson “McChurch.”  Millions are being fed, but no one is being fed a balanced spiritual diet.

It is essential to encourage people to love and respect themselves. It is basic to say the church must teach how God’s word helps us with modern problems. At some point the church is going to have to tell people we are intended to love God first, not self.  Only when we do love Him first can we love ourselves properly. Then we come to know who we are.

When asked, Who are you? How do you respond?

Globally oriented people might say, I’m an American.

Sports fans might say, I’m a Braves fan.

Politically minded persons might respond, I’m a Federalist.

How about, “I’m a pot!”  A pot?  A pot!

In describing a Christian, II Corinthians 4:7 uses the term “earthen vessel,” The Greek word “skeuos” literally means a clay pot.

A pot’s not so hot because it’s a pot. What makes it valuable is what it’s got. That is, what is in it makes it valuable.

The text in describing us as pots speaks of Jesus as being in us. That is what makes us valuable.

A pot doesn’t diminish the value of what it contains. What it contains determines its value. Jesus in you makes you a valuable person.

Expand Your World

I am glad you have chosen to read this post. I value your time, I know you do. For that reason I try to write what is worth reading.

As a high school student I resolved I would never read another book as long as I lived. That was one of the worst decisions of my life. One of the wisest things I have ever done was to rescind that foolish thought. I want to be like Theodore Roosevelt who died with a book under his pillow. He was absorbing the ideas of others to the very end.

Stagnant minds bar the door to great adventure. You may never see some of the world’s most adventurous places, but you can go there through the eyes of a good author. From such a lofty scape you can see eternity.

A closed mind can never drink from the deep well of the great minds of all ages. Let them think for you, but don’t let their understanding elude you by closing the books of their insightful wisdom.

If you obtain a complicated mechanical device about which you know little, it is wise to read the instruction manual rather than frustrate yourself wandering around in the vast unknown technology needed.

Don’t swim around in the ocean of your unknown without benefit from others who have found islands of knowledge. Collectively we can know more and function better than we can alone.

Pages containing the insights of others can lead you into new mental realms. Grand vistas of insight await you with every page you turn. 

We human beings have been given an instructional manual regarding human life on planet Earth called the Bible, meaning “the book.” It has been given to us by the one who designed all human life, God. He gave it to us for the same reason the builder of your complicated mechanical device provided a how-to manual. He wants you to know how to live life to the best and get the most out of it.

There is this tag line in the Bible, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (II Timothy 2: 15) Study what is enfolded in the pages of the Bible that can help you understand and deal with the most complicated situations. Respond:

“Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.
Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes.
I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways.
I will delight myself in Your statutes. I will not forget Your word.” (Psalm 119: 11, 12, 15, 16)

Did you get it, teach me that I may meditate, contemplate, and delight?

Learn from others who are smarter on a subject than you. Is God smarter than you? Let Him take you on a voyage through time and eternity. All aboard! 

Getting to Know God

I thirst for knowledge, knowledge about God. A. W. Tozer has pulled back the curtain and granted us a glimpse of God. Tozer was a pastor and author of “The Knowledge of the Holy,” which is a clear, simple, and interesting work dealing with the attributes of God. Therein he writes of “The Self-Sufficiency of God.”

“Were all human beings suddenly to become blind, still the sun would shine by day and the stars by night, for these owe nothing to the millions who benefit from their light. So, were every man on earth to become an atheist, it could not affect God in any way. He is what He is in Himself without regard for any other. To believe in Him adds nothing to His perfection, to doubt Him takes nothing away.

“What peace it brings to the Christian’s heart to realize that our Heavenly Father never differs from Himself. In coming to Him at any time, we need not wonder whether we shall find Him in a receptive mood. He is always receptive to misery and need, as well as to love and faith. He does not keep office hours nor set aside periods when He will see no one. Neither does He change His mind regarding anything.”

In summary, God is God and what we think of Him, either good or bad, does not change His character or affect His nature, He is the one constant in our ever changing world. With Him there is no variableness. 

You will find Him best revealed in the silent sanctuary of His Word, the Bible. You will find Him knowable and loveable in all of His relations with you.

He is trustworthy.

If you want to know yourself better get to know Him better for you are made in His likeness. We try to make God physically like us with human features.  Instead we should strive to make us like Him spiritually. A starting characteristic is one that can change ourselves and those around us. It is found in this, “God is love.” Daily try to be like God in all things. That will mean we will love the unloving, unlovely, and unlovable. That includes those who are unlikable, unlike us, and don’t like us. Just think, God loves all of those. When the Bible says, “God so loved the world….,” “world” is code language for those noted above.

Here is good news, “world” includes you. God so loved you, He sent His Son on a rescue mission that not only provides the ultimate gift of an eternal  home in heaven with Him, but with the bonus blessing of His presence with you until you get home with Him.

I don’t know what you think of God, but I do know what God thinks of you. He loves you and wants the best for you. Every act of disobedience to Him is the forfeiture of blessings for you. Get to know Him better, love Him more, and be more blessed.

To Your Better Self Be True

There is an old cliche that is no longer vogue. It is, “Root hog or die poor.”

It is interpreted to mean as a hog has to work to get what it needs, so do we. If it doesn’t, it will die without achieving. The expression isn’t vogue, but it is valuable. 

Achievers are “rooters.” Adam and Eve were the first assigned work to do. It is an intended task for all. This is not only true in order to achieve, but to achieve in order that it might be gratifying, fulfilling. To avoid it is to avert gratification. 

Find your niche and be yourself therein. Be the original you. There is no other you.  If you try to be someone else you keep from the world your true self. Don’t strive to be anyone else.

Consider the lilies of the field. They are lilies. No lily has ever borne an olive. A lily is that, a lily. Does a stalk of corn ever bear a watermelon? Has an apple tree ever produced an orange? Neither are you ever going to be a better, more productive you by striving to be someone else. 

You don’t choose your calling, your calling chooses you. It is sad to see a person try to be what they are not gifted to be. It is good to aspire, it is better to assess your gifts and fit them to a suitable task.

Young David volunteered to face the giant Goliath. Upon doing so the king offered him his uniform and weapons. David said in effect they are not me, they don’t fit. He wanted it to truly be David on that battlefield not with the king’s sword, but with what he was capable of using, a sling, a simple deadly sling. It worked.

Be what you are capable of being, all you are capable of being. Prepare yourself to be your best by reading, training, studying, to groom yourself. Associate with people of like faith. Don’t be afraid of people who know more and have achieved more than you. Learn from them how to improve on your traits similar to theirs, but without trying to be them.

You have no obligation to succeed. You have only the obligation to be true to the self God created you to be.

In Shakespear’s “Hamlet” Polonius is bidding farewell to his son, Laertes, who is leaving Denmark for France. Polonius, like any concerned parent, gives his son some advice before the young man leaves home: “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12: 2)

“I, therefore, … beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4: 1)

A Joyful Heart

If happiness, joy, were a contagious disease how infectious would you be?

COVID changed the face, that is the face of America. Happiness, joy, was bleached from faces and for many has not returned.

If you have even the most faint smile on your face indicating a joyful heart you won’t have trouble infecting persons and soliciting a similar response. It can brighten things up. If you have a happy face about to break out you will never be short of friends. People who enjoy life in spite of challenges and an atmosphere of gloom are magnets of friendship.

Most persons who know the Bible, and they are not most persons, will remember, “ a joyful heart does good like a medicine” (Proverbs 17: 22)

There is another verse with a similar message: “A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.” (Proverbs 15: 13)

There are a couple of descriptive aphorisms worth recalling often.  Such as:

“If you have Jesus in your heart, notify your face.” And:

“Joy is the banner that flies over the castle of the heart when the King is in residence.”

It is people who typify these truths that people want to be around. They are friendship magnets, people are drawn to them.

The oil of joy is a medicine for those down and out, burdened, and sorrowful. A big gleeful smile is not suitable for every occasion, but a person who looks on the bright side of things and expresses the sufficiency of the Lord is.

Let’s face it, our tank of joy isn’t always full. We, too, have downcast occasions that drain us of things that give us happiness. It is then we must switch to our second tank and evidence the sufficiency of the Lord. 

Be honest when you are down and out. Lift up your head and shout “I am down and out, BUT I can see the glory of the Lord even amid sorrow. There is a little known poem, the fullness of which eludes my memory of all but one line related to the fact one has not learned to live until he has learned to see the stars through the sycamore tree. The sycamore is symbolic of sorrow. The star is emblematic of bright hope and joy. The line is emblematic of seeing the best and brightest even amid sorrow.

If Nehemiah 8:10 which states “the joy of the Lord is thy strength” is true, and it is, how strong are you? Those words were spoken to the people of Israel as they stood among the ruins of their homeland from which they had been away in exile for years. If they could find joy in their darkest hour so can we by reminding ourselves of the sufficiency of God and His promises of provisions for us.

Got a problem? “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3: 5, 6)

        Smile, God loves you.