Luke 14:28-34
28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, 'This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.' 31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won't he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. 34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
Jeremiah 18:1-6
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 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. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me. 6 He said, "Can I not do with you, house of Israel, as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.
These scriptures are challenging ones. The first Jesus speaks to the crowds that want to follow him about how resolute you must truly be to call yourself a disciple of Jesus. The second the prophet Jeremiah speaks to the people of Israel about the reality that God, in spite of their flaws, was planning on reworking them and making them whole and useful again. Together, might these passages challenge us to look at our own lives and ask if we’ve either lost our saltiness or been marred in such a way that we don’t feel useful to God anymore? How do you think these passages might be calling God’s church at Community Reformed to renew their commitment and submit to being reworked by God?
Community Reformed Church - Newton, Iowa
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Marred, but Still Salty
Posted by
Pastor Eric
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3 comments:
Maybe the potter represents God and we are the clay pot. Is it possible that God's intention was for us to live as is described in the bible, but over time society and man's values have changed. As a result God has changed his intention's for us? The potter was not able to make the pot that he intended, yet he was still able to make a beautiful pot out of the original clay. Our world is far from what God intended it to be and I think we are still a long ways from giving God what he wants.
If we submit to being reworked by God will he rework us or will we be searching our whole lives for God to touch us? In my opinion it's better to error on the side of safety, but it makes it harder to be a true believer in christ. I've lost my saltiness, that's why I go to church, hoping that everytime I sit through a sermon or teaching from the bible I get a little salt thrown on me as I leave the doors of the church.
I don't consider myself a "good" discple of Christ, though I consider myself a follower of Christ. When watching Ray Vander Lans "Dust of His Feet" video series, it was noted that Jesus passed by all the people that you or I would consider Him to choose to be His disciples, and picked the ones who weren't the most popular, scholared, or most likely candidates. Maybe God can mold us better when we're not in the "popular group" of society.
As far as being a disciple, I don't know if I could come close to pleasing God, as He would wish< because my works are still as filthy rags in His sight. Someday I'll have to get by the thinking it's "what I do" thats important, but rather it's what Christ has done through me by His changes in my life. The potters wheel is still spinning and the clay isn't all dried up yet.
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