The Process

Adam and I stayed home from church today (he was exhausted and had NO dry shoes to wear). I still wanted to hear the Word of God, so I attended via internet a church in Maryville, TN, pastored by Ken Carpenter. He preached on "the process" and it was excellent! Scriptures were Acts 2 (this is that which was prophesied by the prophet Joel....) and Jeremiah's chapter on the potter and the clay. The way he brought it all together was fabulous. He began with a story about the other day when he was driving down the highway behind a STINKY cattle truck. The cattle were on the way to the processing plant, where they would be washed, checked carefully for disease, slaughtered and made into other things. Now, nobody buys a painting of dirty cattle headed to slaughter to hang in their family room. Nobody buys a scented candle that smells like cow manure. But you bring home a big rib eye stake for the table, all attention is focused on it. Or your wife brings home a beautiful new leather purse, it is the envy of all her friends. What made the difference? The process. The potter, when getting the clay he needs to make a vessel, can't just take clay from the ground and use it. It is full of rocks and other things that, if you put the vessel in the fire with those things still in it, would cause the vessel to break and be useless. It must go through the process of being cleaned (like the cattle) by soaking in water until it is the consistency of thick soup. The potter then runs his fingers through the clay to remove the rocks and impurities. THEN it can begin the process of being made into a useful vessel. He also discussed how the priests in the old testament were required to be washed or they would die. It is the same in our life today. We have to go through the washing/cleansing process FIRST before we can be a useful vessel for God. When we got saved, God did not put a period at the end. No, we are just beginning the process of being made yet again another vessel as the Master sees fit to make us. We have to go through the process of removing the "stones and impurities" such as jealousy, bitterness, etc before he can mold us and put us through the fire to become the vessel God wants us to be. It may not feel good, it may not be pretty (the process rarely is), but the vessel you become on the other side is more beautiful than you can imagine! Thank you Jesus!