Jeremiah 18:
"The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words..."I used to think this passage of scripture was to do with making something beautiful out of nothing but a piece of dirt - until I went to pottery classes some years ago and tried the potters wheel.
I picked up a piece of clay and put it onto the wheel but as I started the wheel and tried to shape it, the clay went everywhere. Then the teacher came to help.
First of all she said I had to place the clay onto the wheel, not forcefully but enough to help it stick and so we lightly wet the wheel and placed the clay.
Next I had to centre the clay. Now believe it or not that was the hardest part but while I was trying to centre the clay I got a real spiritual sense of that is what we had to do with the Christian life.
First and foremost we must centre our life on Christ. He must come before everything else - our family, friends, things we watch on TV. Everything we do must be for his glory. If what you're watching on TV doesn't glorify God if you're somewhere you think you can't take Jesus with you, well you shouldn't be there.
I'll be honest with you, there are times when I'm asked out to someone's leaving party from work and they are going to the pub. I really don't want to go - why? because I can't take Jesus with me. Oh I know Jesus went into the homes of sinners and sat with those who were prostitutes, drinkers - but he always told it like it was. He told them of their need to repent, in other words he told them of their need of Christ and well, I'm not sure I could do that in a pub full of unbelievers, and not when they are not sober, so I'd rather not go; you see I want my life to be centred on Christ and I'll speak to them at work.
When you try to centre clay it really is one of the hardest things to do. You need a great deal of persuasion to get that lump of clay to do what you want. You need gentle but firm pressure to move the clay and again I found that was me. Jesus needed to gently but firmly persuade me to be in the place where I could make him centre of my life.
I'd sometimes say something that wasn't right (call someone names) and you know God's words would tell me 'do everything in love'. If you can't say anything nice about a person, then don't say anything at all. I'm still learning that at almost 60 and the Lord is still gently but firmly persuading me to be in the centre of his will - to do what he want me to and not what I want and 1 Peter 1:15 reminds me to be 'holy in all manner of conversation'...
So when I start to gossip about someone or start to say something I shouldn't then the Holy Spirit gives me a nudge and tells me not to do it.
Once the clay is centred you can start to shape it. Now, I've seen master potters at work and it looks so easy to take hold of the clay and to draw it up and shape it into a vase or a jug - but it isn't easy - once you start to bring the clay up it seems to take on a life of its own.
If you go too fast the clay comes apart in your hands..
If you put too much water on it starts to flop all over the place and you end up with a soggy mess
And well, it's a bit like us really. If we try to go too fast as new Christians things can overtake us. We need to grow at the right speed, reading our bibles daily and praying continuously (1 Thess 5:17).
We start off the Christian life as babes, taking in spiritual milk 'as new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby' (1Pet 2:1-3). But then we grow into taking the meat of the word. We grow gradually and this helps us not to fall.
When the clay flops or falls over the potter can pick it up, put it together and start all over again and if we fall we can pick ourselves up and allow Jesus to put us together again so he can continue to shape us.
If we allow Jesus to be the centre of our life, if we are obedient and walk in the centre of his will, he will continue to mould and shape us to be the person he wants us to be.
The portion of scripture in Jeremiah was a warning to the people of Judah that once the potter has made his pot there is a point that it dries hard and if it is broken the potter can't reshape it - it's past the stage of being moulded. Jeremiah was to break the vessel the potter had made to show that the Lord would break the people and the city.
Maybe we can think on this too - there may come a time when that will happen to those who heard God saying repent, turn away from your sin, what you know to be wrong and follow me. Those who hear this message and do nothing about it might just be like the pot that was broken, they remain unmouldable, unmoveable, they can't be put back together and reshaped - they refused to listen to the word and to do anything to change their life and to follow Jesus.
I'm reminded of how God chose David, a man after his own heart to be anointed King and God also wants us to be a people after his own heart but if you don't know the Lord as your Saviour, don't refuse to listen. Repent and turn to him now and let him mould and shape your life until you grow into the likeness of Christ.
And Christians make sure Christ IS the centre of your life and you will be in the centre of his will.
Credit: witch-selena.blogspot.com