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When Julie and I were in Ireland this past summer we visited the Beleek pottery factory. The process started with a batch of clay and along the way craftsmen would each do something different to the clay until at the end you had a beautiful vase or figurine.
The church is kind of like a pottery factory. The newly baptized Christian is taken like a lump of clay and molded into a vessel. All the imperfections in the clay are removed and beautiful accoutrements are added. A glazing takes place and an artist paints beautiful decorations on it. Finally the finished piece is placed in a place of honor so as guests enter God’s throne room they can marvel at its beauty.
The reality is you can choose what kind of pottery you want to be. You can dedicate yourself to the study and implementation of God’s word. You can place yourself in the care of a local congregation whose members and Elders can assist you and you can pray to God to do his part.
Where do you want to be, on God’s fireplace mantel or hidden in some dark closet?
There were two notable men of God in the Bible who spent some time in prison… Joseph and Paul.
They were both put in prison on false charges. Joseph (from the Old Testament) was imprisoned because his master’s wife said some false things about him and Paul (from the New Testament) was put in prison because some Jews made some false claims about him.
Both prospered in prison. Joseph was put in a position of being in charge of all the other prisoners. Paul was so trustworthy that he was placed under house arrest in Rome under a Roman guard and could receive guests to teach the Gospel without fear from Jewish persecution. Imagine what that Roman guard must have seen… the sick cured, demons exorcized and the Gospel taught. I would bet anything you wanted that he became a Christian.
Eventually Joseph was granted an audience with Pharaoh the King of Egypt and became second in command. His heirs (with God’s help) would bring the Egyptian empire to its knees.
So too Paul… He was granted an audience with Caesar the King of the Roman Empire and testified about Jesus Christ. Eventually Rome would be brought to her knees and would reject polytheism for the worship of the one true God.
All this brought about by God who arranged to have Joseph and Paul placed in prison. You see God’s greatest work is accomplished through the hands of men who are meek and humble.
There are a few learning points in this…
- Don’t despise and pre-judge those who are or who have been in prison. They may be agents of God who are planting the seeds for world change.
- You may find yourself in a low spot in life. Don’t despair and wallow in self-pity. Don’t complain (No one likes to listen to complainers anyway) to anyone who will listen that you’re really
innocent. Keep your mouth shut and just do the best you can and allow God time to elevate you.
God loves humble people… choose to be humble.
When Joseph was 17 years old God communicated with him through a couple of dreams. The only problem was that God didn’t tell him what the dreams meant. One dream was an agricultural dream about “sheaves” bowing down to him. The other was a celestial dream about the Sun, Moon and 11 Stars bowing down to him.
Throughout his life he never forgot those dreams… when he was sold as a slave he remembered them, when he was thrown in an Egyptian prison he remembered and when he was elevated into Pharaoh’s house-hold he remembered.
At some point God quit communicating to Joseph in dreams (at least we have no record of that) and began interpreting the dreams of others. In the Egyptian prison he correctly interpreted the dreams of two fellow prisoners and started his reputation.
When Joseph was 30 years old he was called into Pharaohs presence to interpret his dreams and with the interpretation was made second in command of all Egypt.
Eventually we come full circle to Joseph’s dreams from when he was 17 years old. His brothers come to Egypt to buy grain because of the great famine. Genesis 42:9 says… “He remembered the dreams.” The “sheaves” and the “Sun/moon/stars” bowing down to him were his own family paying homage to him.
Hebrews 1:1-2, states that in old times God communicated to his people in different ways (including dreams) but in our times communicates to us through Jesus Christ.
We, like Joseph, may not fully understand everything about God and what he expects of us but if we will follow His simple truths about faith, hope and love all will be well with us.
Joseph had a lot of misfortunes in his life but held on to the message God sent him in his dreams and all turned out very well for him.
Sometimes the road might be a little rough for us and might take a few turns we hadn’t anticipated. We might begin to question our faith and wonder where in the world is God when I need him the most?
Remember Joseph and keep your faith in God and one day you’ll look back at your path just like Joseph did and see God was with you the whole time.
Philippians 1:3-11 contains Paul’s prayer on behalf of the Christians in Philippi. It consists of 199 words but the crux of the message is stated in 36 words… “That he who began a good work in you will perfect it unto the Day of Jesus Christ…” (1:6)
“that you may be sincere and void of offense unto the Day of Jesus Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness.” (1:10-11) Both phrases are connected with the “Day of Jesus Christ” and are therefore related to each other.
In the prayer Paul also gives instruction on how to be "sincere and void of offense"… namely by the growth of their love that is based not upon feelings but upon “Knowledge and understanding” so that they can recognize the “things that are excellent”.
In the rest of the letter Paul is going to illustrate for them those things that are excellent.
Sometimes it’s a good exercise to restate things in your own words. Let me take a stab at that.
I pray that as you start your Christian life that you will study to increase your knowledge and understanding so that you can see clearly the things you need to do. Namely, that you rid yourself of every sin in your life and replace it with works of service to others and then you can stand tall on the Day of our Lord.
Joseph had two coats that were very significant in his life.
The first was a very distinctive coat that his father gave him. His brothers knew their father loved Joseph more than them and every time they looked at Joseph wearing that coat they were reminded of it. Finally they could take no more and sold Joseph to some slave traders and took his beloved coat and doctored it with blood and rents and presented it to their father Jacob. Jacob looked at it and concluded the worst… some wild animal had killed and devoured his beloved son.
The second coat was given to him when he served as a slave to the Egyptian Potiphar. Potiphar’s wife made aggressive sexual advances to Joseph and when he was trying to get away she grabbed his coat to hold him back and he slipped out of it and got out.
Later she told her husband… your Jewish slave raped me and I cried for help and he ran away… here is the coat he left. Of course Potiphar saw the evidence, believed the story and had Joseph thrown in jail.
Note this… both Jacob and Potiphar were presented evidence and a contrived story and they believed it. They trusted the story tellers and failed to examine their motives.
I personally have been told by believable people that others, whom I also have trusted, have said bad things about me (in confidence). What do you do with information like that?
As for me… I did nothing. In one case I refused to believe it because I knew the character of the accused individual. In the other case I accepted that it might be true but decided it wasn’t worth pursuing. I didn’t let it affect our relationship. I just pretended it never happened and kept being me.
Jacob lost a beloved son (for a period of time) but found him again.
Potiphar lost a servant (forever) who had made him rich and that servant went on to make the King of Egypt rich.
I guess the lesson of the Two Coats is that you can’t believe everything you see and you can’t believe everything you hear. The Two Coats also teaches that there are people out there who are evil schemers trying to separate loved ones.
Carefully consider what you see and what you are told and who is telling it so you don’t suffer the same kinds of loss.
Last week in Bible class the question was asked… “could Jesus have forgiven Judas Iscariot?”
Interesting question but before we can answer a question like that we must consider the question… “Are there any sins that cannot be forgiven?”
Certainly the answer to that question is yes there are.
“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” (Mark 3:28-29)
“If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” (1 John 5:16)
So Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgiveable and there is a Sin unto Death that we are cautioned not to pray for.
Next we should consider exactly what sin Judas was guilty of. Of course we know that he identified Jesus to the Jewish officials but was that really so bad? Well yes… it was very bad.
Judas knew that the Jewish officials were trying to kill Jesus. By selling Jesus out he was complicit and even responsible for the murder of Jesus Christ. He rejected Jesus as Lord and savior in spite of all the spectacular evidence that he intimately witnessed and joined Team Caiaphas/Herod/Pontius Pilate/Satan.
Judas therefore was guilty of the sin of blaspheming and rejecting deity in the form of Jesus Christ.
Could Jesus have forgiven Judas? No he could not or he would make himself a liar by violating his own revealed word.
There are many Bible beliefs and practices that are based upon human conceived premises.
The one I want to address is the idea that “God will not violate our freewill”. By the way I could not find any scripture that states or infers this and google could not either.
Here are some questions to consider…
Can Satan violate freewill? Obviously yes. Satan empowered his demons to possess and manipulate the speech and actions of his human victims. Would God allow Satan to do something that he himself would not do?
Did God violate man’s freewill when he told his prophets or tongue speakers to say things that sometimes they didn’t even sometimes understand?
Did God take away Balaam’s donkey’s freewill when he caused the donkey to speak and reason with Balaam?
A plain and clear statement found in the Bible is that “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart” Seems pretty simple right? Sometimes Pharaoh hardened his own heart and sometimes God did. However, if we are married to the premise that “God cannot violate anyone’s freewill” (not found in the scriptures) then to make this passage fit that premise we have to massage it a little bit and explain away how God might have done this without really doing it.
A similar thing would be the question… “Did Judas have a choice?” Could he have changed his mind about the betrayal? I think not.
In Romans 9:21-22…
“Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?”
In my opinion God (as a potter) prepared special pots (Pharaoh and Judas) to accomplish his purpose. What if men like Pharaoh and Judas were already condemned (because of their own actions) and destined for the fires of Hell and God merely used them for his purposes before they reached their final destination?
Thanks for thinking with me.
