He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
There is freedom from my sins. There is healing for the deep pains in my soul. The doors are thrown open.
The only problem is ... I just sit there and look at the open door. I don't walk through. It is like I am some dumb animal that refuses to go out of the barn and into the daylight. Why, oh why, do we sit in our pain rather than running to God.
Run. Run to the LORD. Embrace the promise and Live!
But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
For a job I used to have to dig around foundations of homes. And around here I would dig through a lot of clay soil. Sometimes I would make a sculpture out of the clay. Usually it would just be a face or head.
The clay was dirty and full of rocks and organic materials like grass and rotting stuff. So it would be rather interesting when it dried. If you wanted to use the clay for *real* would you would have to clean it.
So you lay the clay out in the sun until it completely dried. Then you would take a hammer and smash it to dust. Then pass that though a couple of fine mesh screens throwing out the stones and sticks. Until all that was left was a very fine powder.
Then put all the fine powder in a bucket and mix in water. And mix it all up and agitate it. Slowly the rest of the organic material would float to the top so you could skim it off. Clean the water a couple more times and then let it set overnight.
The next day pour off the excess water and thoroughly work the clay with your hands and a cutter.
Now the clay is ready.
That is what it sometimes feels like when God is getting us ready to be molded by His hands. We are the clay and He is the potter.
When You Lie Down ... 2 Thessalonians 3, 1 Timothy 1-2
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.
When you are getting smashed into power ... God may not feel like the Lord of peace.
When you are being strained out until you feel like everything that was "you" have been taken away ... God may not feel close to you.
But as God adds the healing water to wash away our sins. To put us back together. As His hands reach into our innermost being. As He shapes us into the vessels for His holy use.
A very important memory for me is memorizing Isaiah 52:13-53 for a Easter church service. The way I memorize is not to remember the words. It is to know the words and why they are being said. To make them come naturally.
Try it for these verses. Memorize them and say them aloud ... and mean what you are saying.
Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you — his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind — so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
When You Lie Down ... 1 Thessalonians 4-5, 2 Thessalonians 1-2
Testing. I like testing. It is probably the teacher in me. If there is one thing I want my students to do and understand is that they must know WHY they do what they do. WHY they believe what they believe. WHY they got an A or an F. :)
Test all of your actions against God. Does it meet His standard?
Test all of the people you follow against God. Do they meet His standard?
Obviously we are not perfect and will fall short. Yet, look at your actions and the actions of others against the backdrop of God. Hold on firmly to the good. And toss out the bad.
