In the Potter's hands

Isaiah 64:8  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.

I often here this verse in the context of "God's still working on me." We are clay in the Potter's Hand.  He is shaping us and molding us, cleaning up the cracks, making us into what He designed us for.

Lately verb tenses have really caught my eye in reading scripture.  We ARE the clay.  We ARE the work of Your hand.  These are present tense.  Where I am now, cracks and all ARE the work of His Hand.  

Several scriptures quickly came to mind as I really thought about this:

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

II Corinthians 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

And as I thought about these scriptures, I thought about how people share their testimony.  I realize that as much as I want to be "the perfect Christian,"  the testimony that draws others to Him, that compels  to grow deeper in  relationship, and that challenges to act is that of the cracked pot.

A perfect pot, even with a light in it, only spreads light in the one direction of its opening.  The cracked pot is the work of the Potter. In the Potter's hand, it spread light in the direction of the main opening, and light escapes in every crack.  

It is in the cracks of life I see the work of God.  It is in the weakness of man, that God's strength is shown.  It is in the hard times, that people are able to overcome that His purpose is made clear and His goodness is made known.  

So many times we are busy asking God to heal our cracks, to mend them and cover them so others do not see our weakness.  I am learning, that my cracks ARE the work of His hands.  I may have fashioned them, through my poor decisions and actions but He has put His touch on them.  He smoothed them over, so I could share light with others through that experience, what I learned, how He helped, how the victory was won.  I realize that the Bible has one perfect Man, and a bunch of cracked pots - they were our example.  God didn't try to cover the faults in the Story, His glory shined through their faults, made them people we could relate to centuries later.  He is writing our story now, will we be someone others can relate to, sharing our cracks, or just try to appear perfect.    

Open the floodgates

As we were in praise and worship tonight singing "Let it Rain, Let it rain, open the floodgates of Heaven" it occurred  to me that typically I personally sing this sing talking about my open life.  Thinking "God pour out your Spirit in my life, open the flood gates of Heaven in my life."  It occurred to me, especially in the context of revival that the "Let it rain" part of the song is for the Church, but when the floodgates of Heaven are opened, our city, region, nation and world will be changed.

In the natural sense,  when the rain waters come down too hard and fast, or slow and over an extended time, floodgates are opened to lower the water level.  When the flood gates are opened, the land down from it is flooded.  Depending on how long and wide the flood gates are opened, makes a difference on the regions that get flooded. It also matters if the towns down river from the flood gates have set up sandbags and levees to deter the water.

As I let this sink down in my soul, I couldn't help but pray and sing a little louder that God would send the rain.  That the church would be so saturated that as the doors of the Church opened as people left, the floodgates of Heaven would be opened over this region and that lives would be changed.

Lives will be changed, not because someone was invited to church or to a powerful service, but because the Christian's leaving the building would be so full of God, that Heaven would be flowing in and through them to the lives of all they come in contact.  that the Spirit would overtake those, so that they would also be filled and overflowing with the Spirit of God, and so forth until this region is saturated, completely consumed with the flood of the flow of the Holy Spirit in and through us.  As the region is filled, the flood would continue on until the Spirit is free, flow in in every region under the sun.