Broken Clay Pot

2 Corinthians

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this TREASURE in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

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We are subject to being tired and weary. We have days that it is ONLY by faith we live and ONLY by faith that we move and ONLY by faith have our being. BY FAITH we rejoice and sing, BY FAITH we speak but there are days that I am weary, and my clay pot is subject to be broken.

We were not designed to carry the weight of the world we are clay pots and inside of this destructible vessel lives the indestructible TREASURE of heaven. The very same spirit, THE SAME SPIRIT, that raised Christ Jesus from the dead live IN ME. In my clay pot lives the third person of the trinity. The Holy Spirit HIMSELF. He brings to me council and direction and wisdom if I will stop to hear.

HE gives guidance in all seasons of my life and HE consoles and ministers to me when my clay pot is under great distress. When the world pushes in on me and fissures begin to appear in my fragile exterior HE mends and heals and strengthens from the inside out. HE so loves my clay pot that HE came to take up HIS abode and constantly reinforce the purpose HE has set before me.

BUT...... I am a clay pot.. I weep and I grieve and I break and have need of mending. I struggle to live yet I die daily. I sometimes hold on to this life with a grip of an iron hand refusing to relinquish my hold for the promise of a greater life.

I am a clay pot with the treasure of heaven encased deep within who I am. HE weeps when I weep and when I dance with my red tambourine HE will dance......... HE is all in all IN ME........ but I am a worn vessel subject to the cruel hand of the world coming to chip away at my exterior. I am a clay pot.

Never meant to be strong and mighty, never asked to do the impossible and never expected to toil without tears. We are clay pots and somewhere deep within the mortal clay that will crumble and return each of us to dust, lives the very person in the trinity that when God spoke 'Let there be" HE moved upon the face of the deep and life was, light was.

The very breath of God lives in my clay pot and because of HIS life in me the days that I crack under the pressure I am reassured that HE is the corner stone and HE is the master potter and in HIS hands I am sheltered. HE is the "I Am" and HE moves quickly to shelter me from being dashed upon the rocks.

Today my clay pot was in shambles and broken I sat and cried out to the only one that can mend the broken clay. My fleshly clay pot is weary and it longs for a place in time that I can feel at peace but just for a while..... I weep.

I heard from my youngest son today that my first born son Darryl had a stroke on Wednesday.
He has a hole in his heart and will see a surgeon in a few weeks.

I pray that my Father God from whom all life flows go before that surgeon and guide the hands that repair that earthen vessel known as Darryl. I have cried more today... Silly me, thinking that the 25 years that we have been estranged would somehow scar over the love that a mother has for a son. Silly me. I weep over lost years and I sob over a son that I need to hold..

I will go to the potter from where my life first started and HE will mend my clay pot from the inside out, and HE will hear the sobs of a mother grieving over a son and HE will go into that room HE will keep watch for me........ I know HE will.......

But HE was wounded for my broken clay pot and my transgressions; he was bruised for my broken clay pot iniquities: the chastisement of the peace of my broken clay pot was upon HIM; and with HIS stripes my broken clay pot can be mended and healed.

And within this vessel of clay is place the TREASURE of heaven.

Parakletos

"PARAKLETOS"


"The service of the Holy Spirit is that He helps us to distinguish pleasure from happiness and develop real joy. There are many experiences which give us temporary pleasure but do not add up to abiding satisfaction. Their thrills pass quickly, and sometimes leave a trail of regret and remorse. Some of our sense pleasures are like lightning flashes, while true joy is like the sunlight."

Ralph Sockman

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Get to know the Holy Spirit HE is such a gentleman, HE is such a teacher, HE has comes to give comfort. HE is the third person in the Trinity.

THE COMFORTER

Root Form (Greek)

"parakletos"

Summoned, called to one's side, esp. called to one's aid

A helper, succourer, (someone who gives help in times of need or distress or difficulty,) aider, assistant

The Holy Spirit destined to be sent to the apostles after the ascension of Christ to the Father, to lead them to a deeper knowledge of the gospel truth, and give them divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom.

To point all people to Christ. Never drawing attention to HIMSELF. A gentleman.

Are there trials in your life?

HE HAS COME ALONG SIDE.

THE HOLY SPIRIT, YOUR BEST FRIEND.

HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW

SO I KNOW HE WATCHES ME!

Why in the world we we even imagine that HE does not watch and care for us. Why in the world would we be fearful of tomorrow when HE takes meticulous care for each and every creation in HIS hands.

When our lives given over the the one that created the universe then the life that we have is in HIS care. I once shook my fist in the face of God and told HIM I was taking control of my life and NO ONE was going to tell me what to do. HE let me, I spun out of control for years. It was only when I surrendered my life back to the one that knows me the best did life make sense.

I thought you might like to read this.

HE is in control......... ENJOY!


God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs.

For example:

-the eggs of
the potato bug hatch in 7 days;
-those of the canary in 14
days;
-those of the barnyard hen in 21 days;
-The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28
days;
-those of the mallard in 35 days;
-The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich
hatch in 42 days.
(Notice, they are all divisible by seven,
the number of days in a week!)

The
lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for
His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life. If you try to
regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a failure. Only the
One Who made the brain and the heart can successfully guide them to a
profitable end.

God's wisdom is seen in the making of an
elephant.. The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the
same direction. No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this
animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs. For this
reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground
easily.

The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs
first. A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first. How
wise the Lord is in all His works of creation!

God's wisdom is
revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in
the number of grains.

-Each watermelon has an even number of
strips on the rind.
-Each orange has an even number of segments.

-Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
-Each stalk of
wheat has an even number of grains.
-Every bunch of bananas has on
its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by
one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd
number.

-The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to
the minute in all kinds of weather.

All grains are found in
even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty
fold, and a hundredfold - all even numbers.

God has caused the
flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day, so that
Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory
containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could
tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those
that were closed!

Thus the Lord in His wonderful grace can
arrange the life that is entrusted to His care in such a way that it
will carry out His purposes and plans, and will be fragrant with His
presence.

Only the God-planned safe life is successful. Only
the life given over to the care of the Lord is
fulfilled.

Alive and Dancing!

Times of fear sweeping the nation and hearts of man failing them for fear. Freedom slipping from our fingers, sickness ravaging bodies of those we know and some that we so love. Families loosing everything, despair and grief and fear.. Not knowing of what lies tomorrow... We live, we go about our days.

We pray.

If like me you wonder sometimes is my heart seated and established with the Father? Spirit man loaded down with concerns of the world, life and the darkness that wants compass us. Hearing and listening hard for HIS tender whisper. Looking for signs which HE warns us against. It is in the heart of us buried deep within the man that has been brought alive with the VERY spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead.................

That is where HE lives.

The very spirit of my man has been brought ALIVE. Born again, not of corruptible but with the incorruptible. ALIVE in Christ Jesus. Seated in heavenly placed with HIM. Never to die, alive for eternity. Journey through this dark and dusty land, not citizens, just passing through.
God of heaven comes down!

Alive and dancing this morning as I feed my spirit man and give him words and music that causes him to rise above the shouts of the one that would load us down with fear, dancing so that my spirit man can be loosed to praise and worship the one that so loves us.

God, HE lives in the praises. God, HE lives in the dance! God HE lives and because HE lives we will live also! Promises coming to the surface while I dance, while I live........ Promises of peace and love and promises of HIM being with me always. Joy that overcomes the fear and the darkness that wants to steal our peace.

HE is God...

HE is Alpha and Omega.

HE has always been and there is non before HIM.

HE is the last word in this world and HE will have no end. HE is God and HE is all present and all powerful.

Who will we fear?

HE is God that loved us so much HE sent HIS ONLY begotten son just so that HE could give us a hug and walk in the cool of the evening once again. HE is God that created all but sacrificed HIS son to return us to the garden from whence we started.

HE is God, and when I begin to dance my spirit man moves within me and hears the food for his soul and he rejoices and when my spirit begins to worship, I begin to dance.

I am alive in Christ and I dance.

HE is God.

DANCE!



(did you know that I own a red tambourine?)

Tools of The Trade

I read this email from a friend this morning and my heart was overwhelmed. How many times have I missed brushing someones hair. My mind is full of stuff and my ears are hearing nothing but sounds of a much too busy life. I do pray and I do talk to the Father God but I do long to be more do more. I long to brush someones hair.

Some think that God only live in the large places , that they need to be standing in front of the multitudes, but in fact God is big in the small places and lives are changed in the sheer simplicity of a hair brush.

As I read this article this morning, I so understand my position in the Kingdom of God. I know that due to my circumstances of caring for Mom and Dad I will not find myself sitting in airports traveling the nation and the world, but I will find myself my shopping at Wal-Mart or going down town to the market on Saturdays and Wednesdays. I will find myself at the beauty shop or the waiting rooms of Doctors offices. I will find my self standing with life all around me and I pray this morning to the Father of all life that I will fine tune my ears to hear HIS hearts cry.

It is in the one on one that nations are won to Christ, it is the obedience in the small things that touch a multitude of hearts. God just loves, that what HE does, HE just loves, and in that love that pours from HIS very being there might be days that the task at hand is large, but for the most part the tools required to do HIS will be as simple as a hair brush.
Today, let us each one LISTEN as HE moves in hearts and touches lives through us.

The will of God is simple and it ONLY flows through love...and in the story below, it is Love overwhelming in a simple hair brush.

Take time to read this and if you have already read it, read it again........


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HAIRBRUSH EXPERIENCE OF BETH MOORE AT THE AIRPORT

April 20, 2005, at the Airport in Knoxville , waiting to board the plane, I had the Bible on my lap and was very intent upon what I was doing. I'd had a marvelous morning with the Lord. I say this because I want to tell you it is a scary thing to have the Spirit of God really working in you.
You could end up doing some things you never would have done otherwise.
Life in the Spirit can be dangerous for a thousand reasons, not the least of which is your ego..
I tried to keep from staring, but he was such a strange sight. Humped over in a wheelchair, he was skin and bones, dressed in clothes the at obviously fit when he was at least twenty pounds heavier. His knees protruded from his trousers, and his shoulders looked like the coat hanger was still in his shirt. His hands looked like tangled masses of veins and bones.
The strangest part of him was his hair and nails. Stringy, gray hair hung well over his shoulders and down part of his back. His fingernails were long, clean but strangely out of place on an old man.
I looked down at my Bible as fast as I could, discomfort burning my face. As I tried to imagine what his story might have been, I found myself wondering if I'd just had a Howard Hughes sighting. Then, I remembered that he was dead. So this man in the airport... an impersonator maybe? Was a camera on us somewhere? There I sat; trying to concentrate on the Word to keep from being concerned about a thin slice of humanity served up on a wheelchair only a few seats from me.
All the while, my heart was growing more and more overwhelmed with a feeling for him.
Let's admit it. Curiosity is a heap more comfortable than true concern, and suddenly I was awash with aching emotion for this bizarre-looking old man.
I had walked with God long enough to see the handwriting on the wall..
I've learned that when I begin to feel what God feels, something so contrary to my natural feelings, something dramatic is bound to happen.
And it may be embarrassing.
I immediately began to resist
because I could feel God working on my spirit and I started arguing with God in my mind. 'Oh, no, God, please, no.' I looked up at the ceiling as if I could stare straight through it into heaven and said, 'Don't make me witness to this man. Not right here and now. Please. I'll do anything. Put me on the same plane, but don't make me get up here and witness to this man in front of this gawking audience. Please, Lord!'
There I sat in the blue vinyl chair begging His Highness, 'Please don't make me witness to this man. Not now. I'll do it on the plane.' Then I heard it......'I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to brush his hair.'
The words were so clear, my heart leapt into my throat, and my thoughts spun like a top. Do I witness to the man or brush his hair? No-brainer.
I looked straight back up at the ceiling and said, 'God, as I live and breathe, I want you to know I am ready to witness to this man. I'm on this Lord. I'm your girl! You've never seen a woman witness to a man faster in your life. What difference does it make if his hair is a mess if he is not redeemed? I am going to witness to this man.'
Again, as clearly as I've ever heard an audible word, God seemed to write this statement across the wall of my mind. 'That is not what I said, Beth. I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to go brush his hair.'
I looked up at=2
0God and quipped, 'I don't have a hairbrush. It's in my suitcase on the plane... How am I supposed to brush his hair without a hairbrush?'
God was so insistent that I almost involuntarily began to walk toward him as these thoughts came to me from God's word: 'I will thoroughly furnish you unto all good works.' (2 Timothy 3:17) I stumbled over to the wheelchair thinking I could use one myself. Even as I retell this story, my pulse quickens and I feel those same butterflies. I knelt down in front of the man and asked as demurely as possible, 'Sir, may I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?'
He looked back at me and said, 'What did you say?'
'May I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?'
To which he responded in volume ten, 'Little lady, if you expect me to hear you, you're going to have to talk louder than that.'
At this point, I took a deep breath and blurted out, 'SIR, MAY I HAVE THE PLEASURE OF BRUSHING YOUR HAIR?' At which point every eye in the place darted right at me. I was the only thing in the room looking more peculiar than old Mr. Long Locks. Face crimson and forehead breaking out in a sweat, I watched him look up at me with absolute shock on his face, and say, 'If you really want to.'
Are you kidding? Of course I didn't want to. But God didn't seem interested in my personal preference right about then. He pressed on my heart until I could utter the words, 'Yes, sir, I would be pleased. But I have one little problem. I don't have a hairbrush.'
'I have one in my bag,' he responded.
I went around to the back of that wheelchair, and I got on my hands and knees and unzipped the stranger's old carry-on, hardly believing what I was doing. I stood up and started brushing the old man's hair. It was perfectly clean, but it was tangled and matted. I don't do many things well, but must admit I've had notable experience untangling knotted hair mothering two little girls. Like I'd done with either Amanda or Melissa in such a condition, I began brushing at the very bottom of the strands, remembering to take my time not to pull.
A miraculous thing happened to me as I started brushing that old man's hair.
Everybody else in the room disappeared. There was no one alive for those moments except that old man and me. I brushed and I brushed and I brushed until every tangle was out of that hair. I know this sounds so strange, but I've never felt that kind of love for another soul in my entire life. I believe with all my heart, I - for that few minutes - felt a portion of the very love of God. That He had overtaken my heart for a little while like someone renting a room and making Himself at home for a short while.
The emotions were so strong and so pure that I knew they had to be God's. His hair was finally as soft and smooth as an infant's.
I slipped
the brush back in the bag and went around the chair to face him. I got back down on my knees, put my hands on his knee and said, 'Sir, do you know my Jesus?'
He said, 'Yes, I do'
Well, that figures, I thought.
He explained, 'I've known Him since I married my bride. She wouldn't marry me until I got to know the Savior.' He said, 'You see, the problem is, I haven't seen my bride in months. I've had open-heart surgery, and she's been too ill to come see me. I was sitting here thinking to myself, what a mess I must be for my bride.'
Only God knows how often He allows us to be part of a divine moment when we're completely unaware of the significance. This, on the other hand, was one of those rare encounters when I knew God had intervened in details only He could have known. It was a God moment, and I'll never forget it.
Our time came to board, and we were not on the same plane. I was deeply ashamed of how I'd acted earlier and would have been so proud to have accompanied him on that aircraft.
I still had a few minutes, and as I gathered my things to board, the airline hostess returned from the corridor, tears streaming down her cheeks. She said, 'That old man's sitting on the plane, sobbing. Why did you do that? What made you do that?'
I said, 'Do you know Jesus? He can be the bossiest thing!'
And we got to share.
I learned something about God that day. He knows if you're exhausted, you're hungry, you're serving in the wrong place or it is time to move on but you feel too responsible to budge. He knows if you're hurting or feeling rejected. He knows if you're sick or drowning under a wave of temptation. Or He knows if you just need your hair brushed. He sees you as an individual. Tell Him your need!
I got on my own flight, sobs choking my throat, wondering how many opportunities just like that one had I missed along the way .. all because I didn't want people to think I was strange..
God didn't send me to that old man. He sent that old man to me.
Please share this wonderful story.

'Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain!'