Are You A Bedpan?

I believe that deep down inside all of us want a dream from God; a vision of something that He has made us to do; that can only be done by us. 

When we are young, we dream about what we want to do when we get older. We see ourselves leaping tall buildings to rescue those who need rescuing; stopping only to pose for a picture in the local paper. We see ourselves as the answer to all of the world’s problems. We are the local hero who can do it all!

When we are older we still dream, or at least we should; for God isn’t done with us yet. So dream on, my friend; let God bring His dreams for your life! Look at how God worked through His prophets of old; oh, to dream like they did! Wouldn’t it be great to get a prophecy like Joel did or one the other Minor Prophets? 

Wouldn’t it be great to get a prophecy like Jeremiah did, hearing accurately from God when very few were really listening to what God was truly saying. Having great lines like; “I know the plans I have for you…” (Jeremiah 29:11) Wouldn’t that be cool?

Wouldn’t it be great to get a prophecy like Isaiah did, hearing things that would take place hundreds of years later! Or like Daniel did, hearing things that would take place hundreds of years later and seeing incredible visions!

Or how about seeing what Ezekiel saw! Wouldn’t it be great to get a prophecy like the Apostle John did? WOW! The BOOK OF REVELATIONS!!!! Seeing incredible visions! Wouldn’t it be great to get gifts from the Holy Spirit and help people, and preach the Word of God, and do miracles, and to prophecy?

Wouldn’t it be great to get a dream from God? Are you going to go to bed early to try to make it happen? You CAN’T make it happen; He simply wants to be open to whatever He wants you to do. That’s what the dream is for.

All dreams, gifts, and callings: COME from Him and BELONG to Him.

God loves us as His children; deeply. But when He is anointing us, He is not thinking of us. He is thinking of others. God is essentially saying; “When I speak, you speak and when I stop, that better be two of us.”

The gift of healing is only good to us if we use it for others, otherwise we would only pray when we ourselves get sick. It, it is His power flowing through us.

He is looking for us to lay down our lives to be vessels for HIM! He is looking for “bed pans”; earthen vessels that contain the precious gift of Him. Now, I realize that metaphor is opposite of what we picture the role of the bed pan to be. But in God’s economy, it is the treasure in the earthen vessel that is valuable; not the earthen vessel.

Regarding this, the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth;

 “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 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.” (2 Corinthians 4:5-6)

He goes on to write;

 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Let me break down those words:

 

“Treasure” is a deposit, that is, wealth (literally or figuratively): - treasure, or “this ministry” as v.1 says.

 

“earthen vessels” is terra cotta); earthen ware, that is, clayey; by implication frail: - of earth, earthen. a vessel, implement, equipment or apparatus.

 

The word means baked clay and refers to clay pots. They were cheap, breakable, and replaceable. But they served necessary household functions. Sometimes they were used as a vault to store valuables, such as money, jewelry, or important documents. But they were most often used for holding garbage and human waste.

 

The latter is the use Paul had in mind, and it was how Paul viewed himself, - as lowly, common, expendable, and replaceable.

 

“POWER” comes from the same word that we get the word “dynamite”. It means force specifically miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself): - ability, abundance, meaning, might, power, strength, violence, mighty (wonderful) work.

 

Dynamite! It’s God’s power and not any power that we can generate. The messenger’s weakness is not fatal to what he does; it is essential so that when God pours out dreams and visions we remember that He isn’t thinking of us. He is the source; we are merely the vessels.

 

God is not done with you; keep running your race. Keep dreaming God’s dreams! You are “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10). 

 

Work with God and let Him take you through the process; you will find that the results will be eternal. And, embrace who you are! You will never be as good a version of someone else as you are of yourself! It is He who will complete the work that He started (Philippians 1:6) and “work in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13)

 

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"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

 

 

Observations from a Potter

I spent some time recently watching some videos of potters on YouTube making pottery using a potter’s wheel. I had been thinking about a passage in the Bible that says; “…as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!” (Jeremiah 18:6b NJKV). Jeremiah had been requested by the Lord to “Arise and go down to the potter’s house” 

I have observed many different potters over the years, both live and on YouTube. One shop that I stopped in the potter was cleaning up for the night. I watched him as he spent 5 minutes scraping the clay off the bottoms of his shoes; something that I hadn’t really thought about as being part of the process of making pottery. Lesson learned: The refuse from the pot is left upon the potter; something that he or she must remove so that they don’t leave it on someone else’s “carpet”. 

As an artist, I have worked with many different types of mediums including clay. I have used all types of clay; from “plastilene” to earthen clay. Plastilene Clay is an oil-based product and does not get baked or get hard. I have used it to create temporary sculptures from which I would make a mold; and then cast some other product into the mold, thus giving me a permanent sculpture of some sort. Earthen clay, on the other hand, needs to be fired in a kiln. 

One of the styles of clay that I haven’t done is working on a potter’s wheel. The idea of watching and observing and learning from a potter intrigues me because I personally have only made pottery without using a wheel. So I sat and watched several YouTube videos on potters to see what I could learn. And here is what I saw:

• The potter leaves marks on the pottery from his/her hand
• Water was constantly added or subtracted with hands or a sponge
• One potter said; “You can only pull it up so many times depending on the clay”
• It was the “flaws” that made the pot unique and beautiful
• They weren’t really flaws but planned markings by the potter
• So much energy was spent keeping the wheel moving at just the right speed
• The clay needed to be placed exactly in the center of the wheel or else the pot would be off center/oblong/out of shape
• When the pottery was finished, it was left setting on the wheel at the end and no one picked it up right away
• I saw the gentleness of hands picking it up off the wheel
• Wire was used to remove it, cut it away from the wheel
• Once the pot wass trimmed it was set on the shelf to dry for several days.
• After the pot is completely dry it is ready to be bisque fired in a kiln to remove the water so that the piece can be glazed without returning to the original clay and cause the pottery to break.  
• After the piece is fired and cooled down, the pottery is inspected and sandpapered. This is to remove imperfections as well as to provide a smooth surface for the glaze to adhere to.
• Then paraffin wax is applied on areas of the pottery where the potter doesn’t want the glaze to adhere.
• Then the glaze, which is uniquely mixed and chosen by the potter him/herself, is applied on the pottery.
• Then the pottery is set aside until the glaze dries.
• Once the pottery is glazed, it is returned to the kiln for a second firing, in which the pottery is no longer porous and the glaze achieves a glasslike finish.
• Then the pots are allowed to slowly cool over the next 24 hours before the kiln is opened and finished pot is seen for the first time.
• Then the finished pottery is then given a final sanding and dusting.

THEN, and only then can a piece of pottery be used for its intended purpose.

And yet, at any point, including after it has completely gone through all of these stages, the pottery still remains so very vulnerable to being broken.

 The prophet Isaiah wrote; “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.” (Isaiah 64:8 NJKV) 

The Apostle Paul writing to the Church in Rome wrote; “Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn't talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, "Why did you shape me like this?" Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans?” (Romans 9:20-21 The Message version)

The comparison to our lives as “pottery” can easily be applied. The Lord is asking us to let Him as the Master Potter form and fashion us into great vessels fit for His use. And that will require us to go through ALL of the necessary steps from clay to a completed piece of pottery. The Lord calls us to offer up ourselves a living sacrifice. 

“The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: ² “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” ³ Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. ⁴ And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. ⁵ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: ⁶ “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!” (Jeremiah 18:1-6 NKJV)