Are you a broken vessel?

Does your life feel broken? Do you feel broken in your walk with God? Sometimes our lives feel this way but Jesus and His Father have not left you. If anyone has moved in the relationship, it is you. Even though you may not have moved very far, distance makes the relationship a little harder to feel from our perspective.

Is your relationship with God feeling empty or lacking in depth? Mine does at times. At the point where we are in history, our lives and our relationship with God needs to be fresh and refreshed daily. Walking with Christ daily from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep at night is a process and it is one that He desires from you. It is also one which will enhance your life with Him as long as you keep your part of the relationship active and alive.

In biblical times, when pottery became broken and useless, it was thrown away much as we do today with things that don’t work anymore. The pottery and the clay of which it is made can be used again, unlike electronic junk today. Pottery just has to be broken and wet to the point of being remolded and shaped into something useful again. In our lives, it is the breaking and remolding which causes us discomfort but it is necessary if we are to be useful to Christ.

A few verses which show this are found in the book of Jeremiah: “Arise, and go down to the potter‟s house, and there shall I announce my words to you.” Then I went down to
the potter‟s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?‟ declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter‟s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:2—6)

God can work with us as a potter does with clay to make whatever is needed and to make it better suited for the job. How can we help the Potter in making us a suitable vessel for Him to work into the shape that is needed? By keeping our lives on the path which is set before us and by studying His Word and asking Him to show us what He would have us to do with that which we learn.

I am not saying that we will become as wise as Solomon or as effective as Paul was but God knows what we can do and He will equip us to do that which He has purposed for us to do. All that is required of us is to obey Him and listen to Him. Just as Abraham and all of the other prophets did when they were chosen to be His servants, so are we to do in our walk with Him. All of the disciples which followed Jesus and were faithful to Him in their service while He was about His Father’s work did this as well. They listened to Him and to what He taught and then when He told them to go and teach others to do the same, they did. The commission that was given to them was passed to us as believers today and the church too.

We, as the body of Christ which is the church, are to go and make disciples of all nations. That includes those at our workplace or at home or anywhere else that we may be asked about the joy that is in us. I know that there are times when we don’t feel “joyful” but when you have Jesus in your heart, the joy will leak out whether you feel it or not. Those around you can and will see it.

What kind of vessel are you? Are you a pitcher to bring forth prophetic words, a bowl brimming with the Spirit of Truth, or a perfume vial filled with anointing oil? Are you a basin to wash feet, a fine goblet fashioned for the King’s table, or are you a large platter to hold the bread and meat of His gentle Word?
We are uniquely made in the gentle hands of Jesus, and He alone knows your color, shape, and purpose. Are you going to allow Him to mold you and shape you to do great works? Do others see the works that you can do but you are not doing them? Could that be why your life seems to be off just a bit?

We are at the beginning of a journey, one which will be wonderful for some and endless for all who have come to know Him. If you have not made that commitment in your heart to Jesus, do it today. He patiently waits for you and He loves you more than you can know. Living the life of a follower of Christ is not the easiest journey that you will make but it is the most rewarding. We don’t know and can’t imagine the life that we will have with Him in Heaven and we won’t know if the decision is never made.

Show Christ what your heart is made of so that He can live there and He will show you what you are made of and He will make you better than you are now. You will be a new creation when He comes to live with you, one which can do all things through Christ and with His power so that others will see Him through you and your witness for Him. The finishing touches won’t be done until you are born into your heavenly body and it will be there that your eternal life will truly begin!

Can you see?

When we are born our eyes take a while to get to the point of actually seeing what is around us. Our brain and the nerves have to grow to the point of being able to process the information. What about when we get older? Can we see things as they are or do we only see what we want to see? It depends on what we are looking at.

When we are looking at things or people that we like or love, we usually see the best in them. Then at other times we may see more or less good or bad, it depends on our mood and sometimes how we feel. Then there are times when we are looking at things with our spiritual eyes, especially if we are Christians. Those who have not accepted Jesus don’t have spiritual eyes yet.

I have had people to ask me about this and it seems odd that people who have been in church for many years don’t understand about their spiritual eyes and what they are for. We have to use all of our gifts from God if we are to be successful in delivering His message to a world that needs it. There are so many people in the world and outside the church that do not see things happening according to prophecy and the scriptures that refer to this time in our history.

Why is that, you may ask. It is because of the deception from Satan‘s spirits and demons and the lies that they get people to believe, especially those within the church! We are the ones that are targeted more often than any others because we already claim to belong to Jesus. If he can get one or many of us to slip up or believe something which is “twisted scripture”, or scripture that is true but has been altered so that it says something different or means something different, then that is what he wants to do. Corrupt the message and the messenger so that others will be deceived and follow a teaching which will carry others straight to hell.

In that way, Satan can take unwitting victims which may have been searching for the truth and lead them down a path to destruction without them ever realizing it until it is too late to do anything about it. Our scriptures show that he is good at that because he is the father of lies. Back in the garden of Eden, he twisted God’s words and added a question to make Eve question God. He did it again when he tempted Jesus by leaving out some parts of scripture to fit his purposes, although Jesus knew what he was doing we don’t! When he comes at us through a preacher or some other messenger that we trust, with words that sound right, we have to ask God to help us to understand the message so that we get the correct message.

If we don’t do that, Christians can be deceived just as easy as everyone else. Satan has been at this for thousands of years and can craft a lie that sounds true and he can do it well enough to fool even the angels of Heaven. That is how he got so many to follow him in his rebellion against God!

Now those that followed him are the ones who deceive us and cause us pain and disease and depression and heartache. The world that doesn’t know Jesus may not even know about the work that Satan and his demons and spirits do because they are already outside the love of God. Satan doesn’t care about them unless he finds out that they are going to give their lives to Jesus. Then they become a target because they can cause him problems, especially if they are going to be a strong in their witness for God.

Our lives are worth a lot to God because He loves us and He created us. When these spirits cause rifts in churches or families, Satan loves it. Especially when there is a death in the family. He will use that death to cause more anger and frustration between members of the same family when there wouldn’t be if he weren’t right in the midst of it. Prayer is the only avenue that we have in this to have power over him and what he does to us. That is why I am still praying for those who have lost a loved one recently because they do need it, whether they want it or not. God can do wonderful things in your life if you will let Him.

Give Jesus a chance in your life and you will never regret it, on this side of Heaven or when you get there. When we get there, we won’t have anymore pain or sorrow, or anything that comes from our enemy here on earth. We will have life everlasting and a home for all of eternity.

What will the Church do?

“Men and women have become “lovers of self’ (humanism), “lovers of money” (secularism), and “lovers of pleasure” (hedonism) “rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power” (2 Tim. 3:2, 4b-5), and the church in general has moved in tandem with the trends of modern society. In many ways, the society in which Noah lived, as described in Genesis 6:5-12, was not unlike the society we live in today!” The Rapture Question Answered: Plain and Simple (Kindle Edition). By Robert Van Kampen

At the time of the Great Flood during Noah’s time, people were going about their business and their everyday life with no clue as to what was about to happen. Even though Noah was preaching to them and telling them that if they didn’t repent, there would be consequences and yet they did not listen. It sounds a lot like today. Our world and those living in it are going about their lives with no care about who they are serving. Most may not be aware of what spiritual condition they are in.

It is a sad situation that we find ourselves in, especially concerning the times that we are living in and those that are approaching rapidly. The church and those who profess to have Jesus in their hearts are also on the edge of a precipice, one that could calve out from under us like ice from an iceberg. Is the body of Christ, His church, ready for it? I am not sure if we are. Even if we are not in the time of the Tribulation right now, the testing will come. Some of those who teach that the church will not enter this time are clinging to the rapture of the saints before the time of Tribulation which is coming and that may be the correct view. No one is sure about this, yet.

What will we do? What can we do as the representatives of Christ? Pray and seek Him, then follow Him and keep our eyes and our hearts focused on Him and His Word. If we don’t do those things, the world and our place in it will be sealed because either we will keep our faith in Him or we will lose our faith in Him and fall away from the church. Those that lose their faith will have the same fate as those who didn’t have any to begin with.

Those who stand by with Christ as their Savior and persevere with their faith intact, will be rewarded. What are you going to do when the church that you have attended most of your life denies that the tribulation has begun? I am not sure what I will do. The only thing that we have to hold onto is Jesus and His Word with our faith as the anchor.

The time has come for us to be watchful of the times and the prophecy concerning them. It is a concept and a problem for the church because many don’t teach about prophecy and the book of Revelation and we need to be. Because we need to watch and be informed enough to be able to know what God’s Word says about the news that we hear and see everyday.