This month, our meditation has been excerpted from the book entitled Extreme Devotion, compiled by Voice Of the Martyrs. In the following passage, the account of Christians in Iran provides us with fodder for reflection and perhaps application:
Yet, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand. (Isaiah 64:8)
One believer stood at the window, watching the midnight streets for movement that could signal the police closing in on the worshipers. The Christians were meeting secretly in the southern part of Iran. The foreign visitor added to the danger, for Iranian police would be furious to know Christians were sharing fellowship with an outsider.
One believer had recently been released from police custody, and the bruises on his body told about the treatment he had received. Although the police watched him closely and knew of his Christian work, he continued, ministering as much as he could when he wasn't under arrest.
He spoke with passion and urged the gathered believers to grow more like Christ, regardless of the cost. All of them knew that the cost would be high, for all of them knew Christians who had been arrested, beaten, or murdered. Others had simply disappeared.
The wonderful service was long and worshipful. Afterward, the amazed foreign guest asked the speaker about his prison experiences and the suffering he had endured. "How can you," he asked, "keep such a spirit of hope and cheerfulness in the midst of these troubles?"
"These trials are just 'tools' in God's hands," said the Iranian believer. "Who am I to criticize the tools that God uses to make me more holy?"
A moment of consideration: When we think of the word, "potter", what image comes to mind? Harry Potter and his magic, Sherman Potter from M*A*S*H, the Potter's field, one expectantly planting flower pots with new blooms in the Spring, or perhaps another. For how many of us would the word, "potter", bring to mind God? He is the Potter; we are the clay. the old Christian hymn, "Have Thine Own Way, Lord" speaks of this:
Have thine own way, Lord!
Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter,
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me
after thy will,
while I am waiting,
yielded and still.
One of the requirements of clay in the potter's studio, is that it must be yielding and waiting to be turned, molded, and shaped. It must be willing to be molded according to the Potter's will. Clay that resists the shaping of the potter's hands will not be usable for turning or shaping, possibly due to impurities within the clay. In the letter to the Hebrews, (Hebrews 11:35-38) the author recounted what some endured through the molding process; the apostle Paul also told of his molding by the Potter (2 Corinthians 11:23-31). What have our trials and perhaps tribulations been in life? In looking back at them or considering present troubles, in what way might these be tools of the Lord to make us holy?
Mr. Don Colp of Mission, B.C., is a sculptor, but his main tool is a chainsaw. Give him a block of wood, and in short order he can carve an animal with his chainsaw. As the Master Sculptor, God is at work in our lives. We may think that He must always use small, delicate instruments, but sometimes He uses a chainsaw! Or so it seems to us in our pain and anguish. But let us not fear, for He has a pattern in His mind for each of us, and He is shaping us into that design.
God chooses the tools He uses for shaping us into the image of Christ. "He leads us along":
Though sorrows befall us and Satan oppose,
God leads His dear children along;
Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,
God leads His dear children along.
Refrain
Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.
In Philippians 1:29-30, Paul acknowledges that some believers have been granted not only to believe in Christ, but also suffer for His sake. What tools has God used up until now in our lives, to bring us to Christlikeness? What tools is He employing at present, for this purpose? For some:
In shady, green pastures, so rich and so sweet,
God leads His dear children along;
Where the water’s cool flow bathes the weary one’s feet,
God leads His dear children along.
But no Christian's life is completely carefree--without heartache, loss, pain, or other troubles. "These trials are just 'tools' in God's hands," said the Iranian believer. "Who am I to criticize the tools that God uses to make me more holy?" We are the clay; God is the Potter. His desire is that, as God is Holy, we too should be holy.
One of the main aims of Christian living is to become more like Christ. The apostle Paul expressed his own desire to emulate Christ and share in His sufferings (Philippians 3:8-11). We may not be called to live a life like his, but we should recognize our own travails as having the capacity of changing us into being more Christlike. The writer of the song “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” espoused a desire to show people Jesus' image:
Have thine own way, Lord!
Have thine own way!
Hold o'er my being
absolute sway.
Fill with thy Spirit
till all shall see
Christ only, always,
living in me!
A father and his small son strolled down the street in Chicago past the place where a skyscraper was being constructed. Glancing up, they saw men at work on a high story of the building. "Father," said the little boy, "What are those little boys doing up there?" "Those are not little boys, son. They're grown men." "But why do they look so small?" "Because they're so high," his father answered. After a pause the boy asked, "Then, Father, when they get to heaven there won't be anything left of them, will there?" It's so true. The nearer we come to Christ the less others see of us and the more they see of Christ.
The closer we come to Christlikeness, people will see more of Christ in us. Selflessness is not a state of being to be avoided, as we move toward Christlike living. As John the Baptist remarked to his own followers, Christ must increase, and John must decrease. (John 3:30) This in a broader sense is also true for us. The world needs more of Jesus--not so much more of us. He is the Potter; we are the clay. In living Christlike lives, will there be anything left of us? Yes! We are the clay--the "vehicles" carrying His image. There is victory in Jesus, and our lives are being shaped to take part in that triumph!