The Potter's Hand
By Pastor Paul Klusewicz
January 27, 2007

Ezekiel 36:25-27 (NIV)

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

This scripture passage reminds all of us that we are clay in the Master’s hands. This passage shows us how completely God works in us, through us and with us. These words remind us that God saves men, women and children. “I Will = God’s Will” and the problem we have as Christians is we focus so much on ourselves that we lose our focus on God. As lumps of clay we must also remember that moment by moment God is shaping us to become the best we can be for Him and this is a continual process. How often does the potter have to reshape his design?

How often does the potter have to begin anew? We who are broken, we who in our humanness make mistakes, we who stray and backslide need to realize that God has invested Himself in us. He will never let us go; we are works in process and the Lord will bring us to completion. God will bring us to the place where He wants us to be and mold us into what He needs us to be.

And how many people does God use even while they are clay on the wheel; while they are works under construction?

Jeremiah 18:1-6 (NIV)

“This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the LORD came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”

The prophet Jeremiah was appointed by Yahweh. God’s people had descended from the heights of revival to the depths of rebelliousness. And here was this man of God preaching the word and coming under constant rejection. Jeremiah was known as the “weeping prophet” and rightly so.

During his ministry he was humiliated, persecuted, rebuked, reviled, harassed and beaten up by his own people-the very people he was called to minister to and deliver God’s Word to. Although he reached a point where he wanted to walk away, God’s Word had been planted in his heart and no matter what happened he knew he had to get the Word of God out to the people.

As Christians we can relate to Jeremiah and to many others who were called to serve God in their fullness and in their brokenness; while they were on the mountain top and while they were in the valley and every where else in between. People like Abraham, David, Gideon, Moses, Samson, Paul, Barnabas and Peter who denied Christ three times. In our humanness we are reminded that we are in the company of saints. God has made us in His image. We are different from animals-we think and laugh; we are creative and artistic; we are smart and we are funny. Yet at times we do really stupid things and we hurt each other. But we are still called to press on, to be ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Created in the image of God we minister to all kinds of sinners; we strive to reach the lost.

Just like Jeremiah, the call to the pastorate can be frustrating at times. People aren’t getting saved, people in the church body aren’t right with the Lord, and people aren’t allowing the Holy Spirit to fill them. If one allows discouragement to seep in then the Church can become a hollow place. If we take a lesson from Jeremiah we know that we must continually press on in the Lord. Philippians 3:12-14 (NIV) “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

So we see how important it is to get the Lord’s message out. The Lord calls and we respond.

Christianity is about God-it’s not about us or our circumstances. It’s not about choosing your own path; it’s about God’s path. In 2 Kings, Chapter 5 (NIV) we read about Naaman, an army commander and a valiant soldier who was burdened with leprosy. He was instructed by God through the prophet Elisha to dip himself seven times in the Jordan River and he would be cleansed of his disease. He challenged this procedure-imagine challenging God. However his wise servants convinced him to go down to the Jordan and do as the Lord requested; sure enough Naaman did so and he was healed.

We must stop challenging and fighting God and respond to His call. We must release our pride and our stubbornness to the Lord. We must realize that with all our flaws, dysfunctions and problems that we have a God who can fix us. God does not throw away any human being-so you gossiped, you complained, you lusted, you sinned-realize that God loves you and forgives you. He is a great and awesome God; the potter who is continually shaping us; the God who went to the cross for us; the God who is using His potter’s wheel to burn out our impurities; to heal us of our iniquities; to shape us into brand new pots as He sees best. Isaiah 64:8 (NIV) “Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

God uses our problems and errant ways to bring us to restoration in Jesus Christ. By the blood of Christ we are redeemed, restored and healed. Allow yourself to be shaped by Jesus. Remain on the potter’s wheel; Praise the Potter; Worship the Potter and always know we have the victory in Jesus. Amen!