The Potter's House - a place of brokenness and renewal

Jeremiah 18:1-6 - "The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: 'Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.' Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 'O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?" says the LORD. "Look, as the clay [is] in the potter's hand, so [are] you in My hand, O house of Israel!'" (NKJV)

Do you desire to serve God? Have you ever asked Him to use you? If so, then be warned now: your journey into the deeper things of God will lead you to the potter's house. There, He will break you and re-make you into the vessel He wishes you to be, the vessel He needs you to be if you are to do His works.

Most of us know that, "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature," but we sometimes fail to realize that renewal is not something that takes place in its entirety when we're born again. Renewal, or "sanctification," begins at the point of the new birth -- and sometimes dramatically so -- but it continues and becomes more profound as we progress in the Christian life. The Holy Spirit digs down deep within us, rooting out sinful attitudes and patterns of behavior, turning over the old, dry soil of our hearts and planting seed from which an entirely new type of fruit will grow, if we permit it. God's purpose in redeeming us is not merely to save us from His wrath, but to make us righteous, to conform us to the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what [is] that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." - Romans 12:2

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who...made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant..." - Philippians 2:5, 7

"for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for [His] good pleasure." - Philippians 2:13

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." - Galatians 5:22

"but as He who called you [is] holy, you also be holy in all [your] conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." - 1 Peter 1:15-16

"For it was fitting for Him, for whom [are] all things and by whom [are] all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." - Hebrews 2:10

The Holy Spirit of God knows our weaknesses; He sees the faults we would prefer to glance over; He sees our pride; He knows where our confidences lie, He sees everything in us that is contrary to the will and character of God, everything we protect and nourish within ourselves; and it these things that He must change.

Are you frequently impatient? You may expect find in yourself in more and more situations that require you to wait.

Do you have problems controlling your anger? You will made to feel the futility of it.

Are you self-assured, feeling as though you can handle anything? You may soon find yourself profoundly powerless.

Are you anxious, constantly seeking validation or a sign? There will be times when you will feel as though your prayers are bouncing off of the ceiling.

Do you feel as though you're better than others and probably pretty well off in the eyes of God? Prepare to be slapped in the face with your own sinfulness and inadequacy.

The Christian life is primarily one of dying to self in order to "take up the cross" and follow in the footsteps of Christ, and dying is always difficult. As the body will fight to resist physical death, so our sin nature, our "old man," as the Apostle Paul called it, will fight to resist the renewing work of the Spirit.

"For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish." - Galatians 5:17

"Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul..." - 1 Peter 2:11

A.W. Tozer once wrote: "It is doubtful that God can use a man greatly until He hurts him deeply." The more profoundly you wish to be used of God, the more profoundly you can expect to be humbled by Him, to the point where you may think Him cruel. With the apostle Paul, you may find yourself crying out, "O wretched man that I am!" With the prophet Isaiah, you may exclaim, "I am undone!" As the potter continues to break and reshape you, there may be times when you will find it difficult to believe that He could even love you, let alone use you.

It's never easy to come face-to-face with our own sinfulness and inadequacies. It will shake a man to the very center of his being to see himself in light of the majesty, holiness and power of Almighty God, and this is precisely what the Lord intends it should do. He will not build on another's foundation. He will take us down to the quick, He will shatter us in order to rebuild us in conformity to Christ. He will take away anything and everything we rely on in order to force us to rely on Him alone. He will empty us of worldly things in order to fill us with spiritual things. He will bring us low in order to rid us of the sinful pride that would otherwise lead us to claim His glory for ourselves.

It is in the depths of such abject humility and emptiness, painful though it is, that He can at last begin to fill us with Himself. It is when all of our pride and earthly or inward dependencies are broken that we can truly see our need for the all-sufficiency of Christ. It is then that we will give glory to God with each step we take, knowing deep within ourselves that whatever good we accomplish must be the work of Christ in us, rather than anything we have done on our own, as we will have come to understand just how weak we really are in and of ourselves.

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every [branch] that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit...I am the vine, you [are] the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." - John 15:1-2, 5

There is no greater honor in life than to be used by God for the service of His kingdom, no greater pursuit than to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. But, friend, you must understand that before God can use you, you must be usable; and the more deeply He intends to use you, the more deeply He must first remake you. My purpose here is not to discourage you, but merely to warn you that this remaking, this renewal or sanctification, is often very painful because it requires us to surrender the things that are most deeply rooted within us. To change in cooperation with the work of the Spirit requires patience and trust. You will either change into conformity with His will, or you will grow bitter against Him. It is, therefore, essential that you understand what He is doing in you and that you yield to His lordship.

There is no such thing as a single visit to the potter's house. The process of sanctification is life-long, as the footsteps of the Savior stretch on ever before us, always crossing new terrain - sometimes through beautiful mountaintops and fields of plenty, but oftentimes through the valley of the shadow. To endure, to press on in fighting the good fight and finishing your race, you must keep your eyes on the ultimate good that God intends and the promises He has made to you.

Surrender to His sovereignty. Believe in His love for you. Give Him glory when you least feel like it. Trust Him when you cannot "see" Him in the events of your life. Turn away from doubt, believing that "He who promised, is faithful." "Set your mind on things above, not on things below." Thank God for what He is doing in you, even though you may not understand it at the moment. Learn to walk in the Spirit, which is being mindful of the things of God and putting His word into practice in your daily life. Forsake sin. Don't cover your faults before Him, but acknowledge them for what they are. Don't compare yourself to your fellow men (or at least how they appear to you on the outside - the Lord knows their hearts), but compare yourself to the word of God and to His holy character. Lay hold on that which is eternal, rather than that which is temporary.

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that [is] in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." - 1 John 2:15-17

So when you find yourself being broken and remade yet again, rejoice, no matter how painful the process may be and how often it occurs. It is His love that is shaping you. He is emptying you that Christ may fill you and shine forth from you.

He is bringing you to glory!

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares [us], and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of [our] faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:1-2

"Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed." - Hebrews 12:11-13

"Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." - 1 John 3:2-3

Have You been to the Pig Pen Lately?

"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." - James 4:10

The story is told of a rich man who lay stricken with illness and certain of approaching death. Although he had never before had any regard for spiritual matters in his life, when the specter of death loomed large before him he began to fear for the destiny of his soul, and summoned one of his slaves, a man whom he knew to be a devout Christian.

"I am dying and afraid that I will be lost," the rich man explained when the slave came to his room. "Please tell me what I need to do to be saved."

The slave thought for a moment and replied, "Sir, you will need to get up and go down and kneel in the pig pen, confess your sins to God, and ask His pardon."

"You can't mean that," the rich man said. "Please don't joke with me. I'm dying and I fear being lost for eternity. Tell me what I must do!"

But once again the slave replied, "I've told you, sir. You need to go down to the pig pen."

Angry and incredulous, the rich man sent the slave away that afternoon. But it wasn't long before his thoughts again turned to his eternal destiny. Sleep fled from him. Visions of damnation paraded before his mind's eye. Again he sent for the slave, only to receive the same reply: "If you want to be saved, sir, you'll need to go kneel down in the pig pen, confess your sins to God, and ask His pardon." The rich man pleaded and threatened, but the servant remained inflexible, and again the rich man sent the slave away.

Finally, when the rich man felt his strength ebbing and his anguish threatened to to overwhelm him, he summoned his slave and relented in tears. "You win," he told the slave, "help me up. If I have to go kneel down in the pig pen to be saved, I'll do it. I'll do it."

But as the rich man struggled to rise from his sick bed, the slave placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled down at him. "You don't really have to go down to the pig pen, sir. You just have to be willing to."

I first heard this story as a child, and have often reflected on it in the years since. I find it an apt illustration of why so few in our society are ready to do business with God. Oh, there is no shortage of people who dream of Heaven, and it's clear that most of them expect to make it there by virtue of some good they've done or some evil they've avoided. In the American mindset, God is always ready to play "Let's Make a Deal" with all but the very worst of us, for no other apparent reason than He is the ultimate nice guy. Our society is full of people who think this way.

Hell is full of people who thought that way.

The truth of the matter is that God is terrifyingly holy. His justice is real. His wrath is not just something we read about in quaint Old Testament stories; it is a real thing, and for those outside of His grace, an inevitable thing (Revelation 20:11-15). When He says, "The soul that sins, it shall die," (Ezekiel 18:20) you can be sure that He means it. Play games with the Almighty, my friend, and you will lose - certainly and eternally (Matthew 25:46). Yes, God is full of mercy, patience and compassion (Psalm 86:15) - a thousand times, yes! In fact, the Bible tells us that His compassions do not fail, that they are "new every morning" (Lamentations 3:22-23), and for this we praise Him. But it is equally true that He will not put up with anyone who tries to make a mockery of Him (Galatians 6:7), and one way in which we mock Him most often is by coming to Him with a heart full of pride. I've actually heard people say that when they stand before God, they'll "tell Him how it is."

Really? Scripture makes it clear that no one who gets a glimpse of God can stand before Him in arrogance:

- Exodus chapters 19-20 recount how God descended upon Mount Sinai "in fire," and with the sound of trumpet blast, causing the mountain to shake. This so frightened the Hebrews that they backed away from the mountain and begged Moses to go up and talk to God for them, "but let not God speak with us, lest we die." (20:19).

- In Isaiah 6:1-5, the prophet Isaiah tells us of the following vision he had of God:

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!' And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: 'Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.'"

- In Revelation, chapter 1, the apostle John records a vision of the glorified Jesus Christ, remarking that, "when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead."

- In Revelation 6:14-17, at the breaking of the sixth seal, John records the following:

"Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'"

These are but a few glimpses of the One whom some flippantly call "the Old Man Upstairs," the One whose name they defile as a curse word, the One before whom they think they'll strut and smart-off, the same One before whose face the Bible says, "the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them." (Revelation 20:11)

Friends, as the slave in the story of the dying rich man understood, if we are to come to God, we must do so in utmost humility. We must recognize our sinfulness and unworthiness, and cast ourselves upon His mercy. Until we're ready to kneel in the pig pen before Him, as it were, we are not ready to know Him and receive anything from Him. Indeed, in God's sight, we're already in the pig pen and covered with its grime. In Isaiah 64:6, the Bible tells us that: "We are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away."

The Word of God is clear: everything we consider best about ourselves, all of which we would brag about before God, is, in His sight, filth; and until we see this, we are in no position to receive His mercy.

We live in what is perhaps one of the most arrogant generations in human history. As a civilization, we have come to trust in our technology, our self-perceived cleverness and sophistication. We think of ourselves as something special, perhaps as the Christians in the ancient city of Laodicea once saw themselves. And yet, what did God think of them?

Revelation 3:17 - "You say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—"

In spite of this, however, the Lord stands ready to forgive. He tells us how we appear in His sight and how we compare with Him, not to trample us under His feet but to bring us to the place where He can wash us and raise us up:

Revelation 3:18-21 - "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne."

James 4:8-10 - "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."

Psalm 34:18 - "The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit."

Psalm 51:17 - "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise."

Proverbs 3:34 - "Surely He scorns the scornful, But gives grace to the humble."

And so the question I would ask is this: have you ever been to the pig pen? Do you expect God to receive you because of who you are? Because of something you've done of which you're especially proud? Because others view you as such a good person? Because of social status? Because you haven't "done anything all that bad"? Because you deserve Heaven somehow?

If so, you are on dangerous ground, my friend. God is no respecter of persons. He stands ready, even eager, to save you; but before He can do so you must first admit your sinfulness before Him and your inability to save yourself. Accept the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on your behalf as the only means by which you can be declared "not-guilty" before God:

II Corinthians 5:21 - "He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

But the pig pen is not only for those who have never come to the Savior, as even those of us who know Him can sometimes be found strutting vainly through life like the Laodicean believers, confident in our own self-sufficiency, forgetting the lowly state in which He found us - mired in sin, condemned to eternal punishment, without hope but for the mercy extended to us by the grace of the Lord Jesus, and helpless to please Him even now without His power working through us (John 15:5). May we pray that God will examine our hearts and, if there is such pride there, that He will make it evident to us and cause us to repent, that we might be rich in His sight and clothed in the white garments that only He can give.

The Kingdom of the Cults

"The Kingdom of the Cults," written by the late Dr. Walter Martin, is considered the master work where cults, their histories and beliefs are concerned. In it, Martin covers everything from Jehovah's Witnesses to the Mormons to Theosophy. Highly recommended!

"It is I, be not afraid," by A. B. Simpson

When the storm was fiercely raging
On the Lake of Galilee,
And their helpless bark was tossing
On the wild, tempestuous seas,
Walking on the raging waters
In a robe of light arrayed,
Jesus came, oh, hear Him calling-
It is I, be not afraid!"

When the storms of life are raging,
And the night is long and drear,
When our strength is spent with toiling,
And our spirit sinks with fear,
Oft again we see Him coming,
Swiftly hastening to our aid;
Often still we hear Him calling -
"It is I, be not afraid!"

When the night of death shall lower,
And the Jordan's surges roll,
When the hour and power of darkness
Overwhelm the sinking soul,
Then above the raging billows,
And might's deepest, darkest shade,
We shall hear Him calling to us -
"It is I, be not afraid!"

Evangelical leaders sign a statement equating Allah, the Muslim god, with Yahweh, the Christian God

A "who's who" of evangelical Christian leaders, including Rick Warren, Robert Schuller, Brian McLaren, Richard Cizik and Bill Hybels, have signed a letter to the Muslim community entitled "Loving God And Neighbor Together" that openly equates Allah with the Christian God. This letter was in response to an open letter from 138 prominent Islamic leaders entitled "A Common Word between Us and You" which stressed that the "unity of God" is "thus the common ground between Islam and Christianity."

Both of these letters again and again talk of "God" as if both Christians and Muslims recognize and worship the exact same being.

To read the rest of this article, go here: http://thefinalhour.blogspot.com/2009/09/evangelical-whos-who-sign-letter.html

Paul Washer - A Sermon that may Shock You

The following video is a hard-hitting look at the state of the church in America today and the deception of believing that merely saying a prayer assures you of Heaven. Is Jesus really Lord of your life, or just a figurehead? Is your life changing? Do you love the things that God hates?

1 John 2:15-17 - "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that [is] in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."

Answers in Revelation - Bible Prophecy Site

Answers in Revelation.org is, by far, the best Bible prophecy site that I have found on the Internet. It's packed with great articles on topics such as the Rapture and the Millennium, features an audio teaching series on the book of Revelation, and also hosts some debates on topics like Preterism vs. Historical Premillennialism. Check it out and get ready for some solid Bible exposition:

http://www.answersinrevelation.org