The Potter, the Clay and the Fire

Through The Fire by The Crabb Family

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WujzOtnuY0k

So many times I’ve questioned certain circumstances
and things I could not understand.
Many times in trials my weakness blurs my vision
and that’s when my frustration gets so out of hand.
It's then I am reminded, I've never been forsaken.
I've never had to stand one test alone.
As I look at all the victories, the Power of God starts rising up in me.
And It's through the fire my weakness is made strong.

(Chorus)
He never promised that the cross would not get heavy
and the hill would not be hard to climb.
He never offered a victory without fighting.
He said help would always come in time.
Just remember when you're standing in the valley of decision
and the advisory says give in, Just hold on.

Our Lord will show up right on time
and He will take you through the fire again

(Bridge)
I know within myself that I would surly perish
If I trust the hand of God, He'll shield the flame again.

(Chorus)
He never promised that the cross would not get heavy
and the hill would not be hard to climb.
He never offered a victory without fighting.
He said help would always come in time.
Just remember when you're standing in the valley of decision
and the advisory says give in, Just hold on.
Our Lord will show up right on time
and He will take you through the fire again

Just Hold On
Our Lord will show up (YEAH)
and He will take you through the fire again


The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” 3 So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.
5 Then the LORD gave me this message: 6 “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. Jeremiah 18:1-6

I was raised close to two potteries. I even worked with the potter some. Clay is not very pretty when it is just clay. It is dug up and hauled to the potter’s shop. It is dry and not pliable. The potter may blend several types of clay together to get the product he wants. Water is added to the clay to make it more workable. The potter will begin to work with the clay before putting it on his potter’s wheel to get out all the rocks, trash or any other impurities. He may use someone else to do this (this is what I helped do) but when it comes time to put it on the wheel the potter is the only one who can turn it into something beautiful and/or useful.
Even when it is finally put on the potter’s wheel is still just a glob of ugly clay. We don’t have any idea what it will turn out to be but the potter does. He had a plan before he even started working with the clay. The clay is now on the wheel and the potter begins to work with it. The wheel starts turning and his hand begins to form the piece of pottery. It begins to take shape. If we watch closely we can begin to get an idea what it will be – a jug, a churn, a pot, a dish, a coffee cup or even a vase.

As he begins to form the piece, the potter may find that the clay is the wrong consistency, it may be to wet or to dry. It may just not feel right. He may smash the piece back into ball of clay. He can add water to make it more pliable or add some dry clay to make it drier. He may even decide to make it into a completely different piece. He may want to make something beautiful like a vase or he may want to just make something that is just plain but very useful. Either way the power to make the clay into something is completely in the potter’s hands.

As the piece turns on the wheel and the potter begins to thin out the walls he may find a piece of trash or a pebble that was not gotten out in the beginning. (Remember, this was my job) This could cause him to have to start over again. Why? First of all even if the imperfection is not visible, he will know it’s there. Also, the imperfection may be hidden from the human eye but when the piece is put in the kiln or furnace and subjected to the intense heat from the fire it could explode and ruin what would have been a beautiful or useful work.

Why must the pottery be put through the fire in the furnace? When the potter has finished turning the piece of pottery it is very fragile! Even after it dries it is still easy to break and not at all useful. Not usually very attractive. Kinda’ dull looking. Sometimes a glaze (like paint) is brushed on the piece to make it more attractive or to just give it some color or to make it shine. When the glaze is brushed on it is usually very dull and the actual color doesn’t come out until it goes through the fire of the furnace. After the piece of pottery has been subjected to the intense heat, hundreds of degrees, it will come out very beautiful and/or useful and will last forever. Pieces of pottery have been found that have withstood the elements for thousands of years.

What does all this mean to us?

We're the clay, He's the potter; the wheels--what about them? The revolving wheel represents the daily round of life, whether it is joyous or sad. It's on the wheel that the design of the potter's mind is transferred to the clay. The fire is what makes it durable and beautiful, but it can also find the flaws. Mark 9:49 says, “For everyone will be tested with fire.”

If there weren't any designs or differences in them how could we explain the tangles of life's circumstances? The potter's making them all--temperament, environment, bereavement, poverty, disappointment, misfortune, sickness. They all contribute to the perfecting of the vessel that He is fashioning on the wheel and will put through the fire. Amazing, isn't it? All of these things--bereavement, poverty,disappointment, misfortune, sickness--we say to the Lord, "Why are You doing this, Lord?" He says, "I'm making a vessel, a useful vessel."

Romans 9:21 says “When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn't he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?” Do you realize that complaints against your circumstances are really directed against the Potter who ordered them? How stupid can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you. You are only the jars he makes! Should the thing that was created say to the one who made it, "He didn't make us"? Does a jar ever say, "The potter who made me is stupid"? Isaiah 29:16

No other circumstances than those in which you find yourself as a Believer at this moment could achieve His highest beneficent purpose. What we need is not so much a change of circumstances as a changed attitude towards them.

Life is no blind whirring of wheels, but it's a combination of circumstances ordered with meticulous care by a loving Father. If we rebel against them, all we achieve is our own unhappiness and the marring of the vessel of our life.

And what about the clay? Job said in Job 33:6 “… I too have been taken from clay. A statement, which is true both materially and spiritually. Because it was made of the earth that God first formed man. "Man is but a handful of dust along the road of life," someone has said. The clay is the frail human nature. We are the raw material for the kingdom of God.

Clay is so common that it's practically valueless. It is very common stuff. It wasn't worth much of anything until they made it into a pot. And someone has said, "It is the art, which gives the value--and not the material." Left to itself clay would remain clay, but yielded to the shaping hand there are no limits to its possibilities.

Like clay, a human life is a thing of almost infinite possibilities. Geologists tell us that there are endless varieties of clay, each locality having its own peculiar varieties. No two of which can be treated the same. The heavenly Potter recognizing the fact that no two human beings are the same, doesn't deal with us as a group but bestows on each His individual and undivided attention. His dealings with each of us are unique and exclusive.

Are you willing to be molded and made and put through the fire by the Master Potter? Are you going to complain and say, "Lord, why are you doing this to me?" Or will you remember that He's shaping a vessel for His own use. And know that He will be with us and take us through the fire and make us useful and strong.

Could it be that God wants you to see that the trial you're facing today is a part of the bigger plan of shaping you into a vessel He can use?