Download the image to your phone or electronic device as wallpaper or print it out to keep in front of you to help you memorize scripture.
To download, click on the image, click file, click save. Save anywhere on your device and go into your wallpaper settings on your device it’s that easy. : )
“You are more than you the choices you make, you are more than the sum of yor past misktakes… you’ve been remade… “
Just some lyrics from the song “You Are More” by Tenth Ave North. We are more. The choices we made, the problems we create for ourselves, wherever our brokenness brings us, we can give it to God and He will remake us.
Be blessed.
Download the image to your phone or electronic device as wallpaper or print it out to keep in front of you to help you memorize scripture.
To download, click on the image, click file, click save. Save anywhere on your device and go into your wallpaper settings on your device it’s that easy. : )
If you like this wallpaper, please be sure to click the like button and share on social media with your friends and family, thank you.
Welcome back. In the last few weeks we saw how a broken pots could be restored and used again. Either by returning to its former function or by a transformation for a different purpose. Last week the pot broke to the point where it could not be repaired and used as it once was to hold water for flowers. One piece had broken into tiny pieces that could not be put back together.
But that didn’t stop the potter from restoring it. The potter left that peice out creating a hole that was big enough to allow light to shine through when a candle ws placed inside. This light also allowed the potter to clean out corners of the house that were cluttered.
A few days later, the potter decided to make another pot. This one would be shorter and wider to hold some tools. After completing the entire process of kneading, sculpting forming and firing, the potter decided he would use this pot to hold some of his tools and placed it on his work table. Until one day it was accidentally knocked over. This pot fell hard and from way up high. It was smashed into a million pieces unable to be put back together. But the potter was resourceful. He didn’t want to throw away the broken pieces, he like to restore and repurpose his work. So he took the fallen, crushed pieces and ground them down to a smooth, fine, silky sand.
He had an old wooden tray that he found in the corner he cleaned out. He took it out and filled it with the newly ground piece of pottery. He went out to his garden and picked five smooth stones to place in the sand to make a rock garden. He picked up some twigs and smoothed them out to make a small rake. Now he had something to calm his mind on stressful days.Â
All these three pots had a specific purpose. After they were broken one was restored and able to be used as it once was, to hold flowers. One was broken but once restored it had a different purpose to shine light, the last one even though the peices we shatered beyond repair it was transformed for an entirely different use, to calm and bring peace.
Can you relate to the brokenness of these pots? Do you identify with the brokenness? How has your brokenness transformed you. Were you once so broken you couldn’t function like you used to? God can work through your brokenness and restore you to full capacity and more beautiful. Sometimes He uses our brokenness to help others, to help shine His light through the holes in our lives so that others will know Him. Sometimes we think our brokenness is so far gone that we could never be used again for anything. But God can work ALL things together for good for those who love Him – Romans 8:28.
The brokenness hurts, the tranformation can hurt as God molds us and restores us. But we were created by Him, for Him to glorify Him and God can use anyone and anything to restore us so that we can shine His light in this lost world. Invite God into your brokenness allow Him to restore you. He is our HOPE!
Download the image to your phone or electronic device as wallpaper or print it out to keep in front of you to help you memorize scripture.
To download, click on the image, click file, click save. Save anywhere on your device and go into your wallpaper settings on your device it’s that easy. : )
Where has your brokenness brought you? Are you seeking to heal? Maybe you are in the process of healing. Healing can look different for everyone. We all heal differently and at our own pace, there are no time limits. It takes time.
Last week we saw how the potter formed a pot to hold flowers. And as life goes, accidents happen. The pot fell and broke. But the potter still had plans for the broken pot. After putting it back together the cracks had formed an interesting pattern. The potter painted those cracks to create a beautiful design to compliment the pot’s structure and the pot was able to function again holding water for beautiful flowers.
The potter decided that he wanted another pot. And so he started the process over again. Pounding and kneading the clay to get all the air out. His plan for this pot was to be bigger and taller to accommodate the flowers bursting from his garden and to compliment the first pot and add more contrast to the room. And so he began to form the clay on the potter’s wheel, adding pressure and water to cool the surface.
After the pot was completed, the potter added some water and fresh flowers and placed it on a window sill. One day, the pot accidentally fell onto the floor. Broken into pieces the potter bent down to gently pick up the pieces. There was one piece that broke into tiny pieces he could just not put together. But he continued anyway. That one piece left a hole right in the middle of the pot. The edges were asymmetrical and rough so the potter got some sand paper and smoothed out the edges and made the hole a little more symmetrical.
The potter had some candles that had been burnt down, making them the perfect fit for inside the pot. He placed the candle on a shelf in a dark corner of the room, illuminating the the house. Things seemed brighter and he realized how often he has stumbled in that corner of the room. But now he could see clearly and he saw the clutter in that part of the room that made him stumble so he cleared it out. The room is more beatiful now with the light from the candle, the decorated pots and now the clutter is gone.
Can you relate to these pots? Has your life been broken into pieces? Do you need light shed on the dark corners of your heart where you stumble and sin? Do you need restoration? Do you need healing and restoration? Stay tuned for next week, there’s more to this story.
Download the image to your phone or electronic device as wallpaper or print it out to keep in front of you to help you memorize scripture.
To download, click on the image, click file, click save. Save anywhere on your device and go into your wallpaper settings on your device it’s that easy. : )
When God created us He had a purpose in mind. Like like an artist has a plan for a piece of art. An artist is usually inspired by something to create a piece of art and has a plan and a purpose. Sometimes that purpose is to just add beauty, or it may be more functional to hold flowers or utensils, or something from which to drink, maybe to carry light.
God uses the imagery of a potter sculpting a piece of pottery. “Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8 (NIV). God formed us in His image, “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, …” Genesis 1:26 (NIV). And He has a plan for our lives, “For I know the plans I have for you, …” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV).
When the potter takes a block of clay, or a lump of clay it has no aesthetic form. The clay out of the package is moist and pliable, it can be easily formed and molded into anything the potter wants.
But before the potter begins, the potter has a plan, a design and a purpose in mind for the pot. The clay is slapped down on the potter’s wheel and is pounded. It is kneaded like bread to get the air out. The potter does this for a few minutes and as he does this kneading process, the clay becomes warm and softer. The the clay is slapped down one more time on the wheel and as the wheel begins to turn the potter wraps his hands around the lump of clay and begins to give it form. The clay can get a little dry from the friction of the potter’s hands, so the potter wets his hands and adds water to the clay and continues to shape and form the pot.
Now comes the time to add more pressure, this time from the top to make an opening, hollowing out the inside. By adding pressure at certain points on the outside, the potter can create grooves and curves giving the pot some interest and design. The potter is almost done. The lip of the pot is formed and smoothed out, he gives the it one final spin on the wheel, checking it, looking it over. The wheel stops and he takes a piece of string, slides it under the newly formed pot and lifts it off the wheel.
Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; …”
Isaiah 64:8
He takes it to a shelf with other pieces to dry for a few weeks. That clay, that lump of clay has been through a lot, pounding, kneading, spinning, pressure from all sides, from the top, emptied out, now resting on shelf, in the stillness, nothing happening, no movement, other pieces come and go, it’s still there just resting until the potter is ready to bake it.
The days pass and the potter takes the pot off the shelf. It is dry now. It is ready. It is ready to be baked in the kiln. The temperature in a kiln gets between 2124 – 2264 degrees Fahrenheit. The pot will bake for up to ten hours in the kiln. When the firing is complete and things have cooled down the potter takes the pot and gets it ready for its desired use.
The potter’s room is square like most rooms and as a matter of fact everything is square in the room, pictures, windows, furniture, books, bookcases, area rugs, tables, everything is square. The pot is round and will add contrast to the square room. (sometimes a contrast could be a compliment, opposites do attract). It will be obvious of it’s roundness. The pot will also have several uses. It will first hold fresh cut flowers. When the flowers fade the potter has another use, to hold paint brushes , pens, and pencils.
But one day the pot falls and breaks into several several pieces. Still, the potter loves this little pot and puts it back together. The cracks form an interesting pattern and the potter paints the cracks into a pretty motif. He adds more fresh flowers and water. The pot is holding water again. The pot is more beautiful with it’s pretty painted motif. It’s adding more beauty to the room, standing out even more.
How much like that pot are we after we are broken and healed? How have you experienced brokenness? Have you healed? Are you the same? What has changed for you?
Pause and think about your brokenness, where has it brought it you? How have you healed? Maybe you haven’t healed, maybe you’re in the process. There is hope and there’s more to this story, like there’s more to our brokenness. Stay tuned for next week.
The Kedge Anchor 
You must be logged in to post a comment.