Monday, 30 January 2017

THE POTTER AND THE BROKEN VESSEL



“And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.” 
(Jeremiah 18:4, ESV).

Recently I was on one of the social media cites, and came across this quote in a post. It read, “In Japan, broken objects are often repaired with Gold. The flaw is seen as a unique piece of the object’s history, which adds to its beauty.” Not sure how true this statement is. If it is true, it carries with it a grain of truth that applies to the believer’s life. When we first came to Christ, we came to Him and acknowledged our brokenness before Him in our sin. Fortunately for us, the Lord is our Heavenly Potter who is in the business of fixing broken vessels. Today’s text reads, “And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.” Just as the Japanese potter used gold to repair the broken object, even so gold can be seen in the broken vessels of a person who has been born again in Christ. Gold in Scripture speaks of the deity of Christ, so it is that traces of the precious beauty of that gold can be seen in a believer’s life. Broken by the curse of sin, yet the gold of Christ’s presence in the believer shines out in testimony of God’s marvelous grace in his or her life. Yes, praise be to our Divine Potter who removed the rock of sin from our clay heart and fashioned it into a new heart, a heart repaired with the gold of Christ’s blessed touch. Yes, on the outside we are still the same marred vessels we always have been, but our change is inward, a change that magnifies to the world of lost sinners the truth that broken sinners can be washed and repaired in the precious gold of Christ’s blood! “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Cor. 4:7, ESV).  Indeed, the power of a changed life is by God’s hand, and not by ours. Yet, there are those today who have “forsaken” our heavenly Potter, and thought themselves to be potters and “hewed out cisterns for themselves” of their own making. However, because they were broken, so were their cisterns broken. Their cisterns could not hold water. Only our heavenly Potter can make us into fit vessels that can hold Christ “the fountain of living water,” the water that Christ gives us. “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” ( Jer. 2:13, ESV). May the gold of Christ's touch in our flawed being reflect the beauty of a Christ like character for God's honor and glory.

Heavenly Potter, we thank You that your business is in fixing broken lives marred by sin and misery. Lord, as we go about our day today, help us to reflect through our cracks to the world your gold you have placed in us in Christ name we humbly pray, Amen. 

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