Broken Vessels

How many times a day do you greet someone with a variation of the simple question, “How are you?” which is answered with the standard reply of  “fine, well, good”,  a more creative “just peachy” or as my dad used to say, “fair to middlin’ ” which would likely be a more honest assessment.

What if the next time you asked that question of someone, he replied, “I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.”  Whoa!  That’s what is commonly known these days as TMI…too much information.  I wonder how a cashier would react if a customer answered her cheery, “How are you today” in such a way?

Truth is, we are surrounded by broken vessels, or maybe we are one of them.  We get up to face the day, feeling broken, as David did when he penned Psalms 31. I won’t  quote the entire chapter, but just read a little of how he felt:

⁹Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.

¹⁰For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.

¹¹I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.

¹²I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.

David felt alone  and rejected, not only by his enemies, but by his neighbors.  I don’t really know why everyone ran the other way when they saw him coming, but we do tend to shy away from negative people.  We really don’t want to know the answer to our “how are yous” because we don’t know how to deal with the problems of others.  We have enough of our own.

Or maybe we avoid people in the throes of  life altering situations because we don’t know what to say or how to help.  If we are around them, we simply avoid the subject at all costs.  A friend of mine is going through such an ordeal,  and I asked her once how it went the first time she was with a certain group of people after they found out her circumstances.  She said it was like the big elephant in the room that no one mentioned.

So what are we to do?  We’re not counselors; we don’t know the answers,  especially the whys.  How can we minister to broken vessels, those who may feel alone in a crowd, who are hurting inside more than words can express, who feel forgotten, unloved, rejected?

I remember once I asked God these same things.  I was overwhelmed at the magnitude of the problems of someone I knew, and I didn’t know how to help her.  God’s answer was simple, “Just love her.”  Ah!  That I could do.  I can’t fix people’s problems, no matter how much I’d love to be able to.  I can’t change others.  I don’t always have just the right words of wisdom,  comfort, or advice,  but I can simply love them.  Love as in an action verb, not just a feeling in my heart,  or even the words said out loud.

“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”  1 John 3:18

Show your love in concrete ways; make a phone call, send a card, give a hug, and above all, be a good listener.  I read one time that many times the best way to counsel someone was to just be there for her,  and listen.  Listen with an unbiased, non-judgmental spirit;  show her you are hurting because she is. “Weep with those who weep.”  How sad that David felt ignored and forgotten, like a dead man out of mind.

But how are we to know that someone needs us  if he answers “fine” when we ask how he’s doing?  What masks we wear sometimes!  Ask the Lord to give you a perceptive heart, so that you can see beyond the mask.  Actually,  it sometimes doesn’t doesn’t take that much perception to read someone. Just pay attention to his countenance, or as we say now, his body language.

Proverbs 15:10 says, ” A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.”

If we really take the time and the effort, I believe we’ll know when a friend or loved one, an acquaintance or maybe a person in line next to us, needs an encouraging word, a pat on the back, or even a smile.

Jesus said that God sent him to bind up the brokenhearted.  I don’t think it’s presumptuous of me to pray that God would use me in that way, as an instrument of His love.  That my heart would be attuned to broken vessels all around me, that I would be able to feel what they are feeling, to suffer with them, to share in their sorrows, and anxieties, and pain, so that I would fully be able to understand, to comfort, to encourage, and to pray for them to the Healer of hearts.

I had to look up this poem, because the first line has been niggling at the edges of my mind.  It’s a simple rhyme, but conveys what I am feeling in my heart:

P.S.  I thought I was all done, ending with the nice poem and all, but I feel the need to add one more thing.  In our desire to minister to broken vessels, we need to be aware that those most in need of our love and understanding are those who are hardest to love.  I’m talking about those who are  social outcasts, those with mental disorders,  those with bad attitudes, those who make bad choices, those who just annoy us to death, even those who need the same help time and time again. There are people who are not only broken vessels, but absolutely shattered, who seem to be beyond reach or hope.

My prayer is that Jesus, who was Himself despised and rejected of men, would help me not to be another who ignores and rejects these  shattered vessels, that He would give me a heart of compassion for them, and that He would show His love for them through me.

 

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

As vessels of God, we each come in our own unique form, created for God’s own unique purpose,  with varying gifts and abilities.  Our personalities are as different as our fingerprints. Like the VeggieTales character assures us, “God made you special!”  That’s what I’ve been emphasizing from the very first post on this blog.

We all have one thing in common, however; we are made of the same material…we come from the earth.  No matter how exalted a person becomes in this life, how well known, how well off; in the end he returns to the dust from which he was made.  That is a humbling thought, and one that Paul used in 2 Corinthians 4:6,7:  “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”

I like how The Message translation words it; “if you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us.”

So if your melodious voice can reduce your listeners to tears, if your sermons can bring the vilest sinner to his knees, if crowds of people gather round your paintings, their mouths agape with awe; remember,  you are just the earthen vessel containing God’s treasures.  I do believe we develop and perfect the gifts God has given us; it may take years  of practice to become an accomplished pianist, for example, but the gift of music comes from God. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights…” says James 1:17.

I have always struggled with feeling inadequate or inferior around others who are more accomplished in a certain area than I.  When I was younger, I was intimidated by those more popular or better looking.  On the other hand, I sometimes have to rein in those prideful feelings.  I’ll be honest.  I have gotten many good comments about this blog, and I have to remind myself that I am the vessel that God is filling with Himself.  It’s not me. I am taking the time and effort to write it, but any gift of writing I may have comes from God.

I want to bear in mind when either the feelings of inadequacy or the feelings of pride surface in my heart, that I am an earthen vessel, just as you are, just as the most notable celebrity in Hollywood is, or the President of the United States.  In the end, we are all equal;  “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”  Ecclesiastes 12:7 Death is the great equalizer.  I’m sure that’s not an original thought, but I just grasped the significance of it.

So we’re just dust, lumps of clay that God formed into a vessel of  His design.  How humbling!  Oh, but how reassuring is the verse that I hold dear:

“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth (has compassion on) them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.”  Psalms 103:13,14

God made me,  so He knows me better than I know myself.  He knows my feelings of inferiority and my feelings of superiority.  I tell him I’m sorry when those feelings surface, and He has compassion on me.  When I mess up, I cling to this verse.  I don’t care to think of myself as dust then, knowing that God will take that into consideration.  In fact, I’m quick to remind God of this very scripture from time to time…”Now God, you know I’m just dust.”

So I continue to strive for perfection, never quite reaching that blissful state, but secure in the knowledge that I am the work of His hand, made of dust, but filled with the treasure of the knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ.

“But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.”  Isaiah 64:8

There Are No Empty Vessels

I’ve been thinking about the word ‘empty’ and I’ve decided that ‘empty’ is rather a negative word.  Think about it; empty pockets, empty gas tank, empty promises. Now there may be a few times when something being empty can be a good thing…like that bushel basket of green beans you just broke up, but for the most part we just don’t like to think of empty things.

I’ve been writing about us being vessels of the Lord, and how we are filled with Him.  I was going to elaborate on how we are also filled with light, and love and any number of wonderful attributes from God.  Perhaps though, some of you don’t feel like you’re filled with anything; rather, you feel empty.  An empty vessel.  Unable to help yourself, much less anyone else.  Believe me, I’ve been there.

What if I told you that you are not really empty; none of us are.  We’re filled one way or another, either positive or negative, good or bad, .  Now I know that these days people don’t think as much in terms of black and white; there are myriad shades of gray in between. 

Not to Jesus though. In Luke 11:23 He says, “Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.” (NLT)  That sounds pretty black and white to me.

That’s why I’ve reasoned that we can’t really be an empty vessel.  If we are not full of joy, we then are full of sadness, or discontent, or some other joy stealer.  If we’re not full of hope, then we are hopeless.  If we’re not full of zeal, we are full of apathy.  If we are not filled with light, then we are filled with darkness.

Are we filled with the love of God?  If not, what are we filled with?  Hate, dislike, condemnation, pride, bitterness?  What crowds out the love of God?

Are you beginning to see?  We are never truly an empty vessel.  I looked up the word “filled” in the Bible, and I began to realize what all man can be filled with.  Let me give you a few examples:

Filled with the Spirit of God, wisdom, laughter, wonder and amazement, joy, fruits of righteousness, comfort, goodness, all knowledge….and in Ephesians 3:19, “….filled with all the fulness of God.”

Filled with mischief, filled with his own ways, filled with pain, indignation, wrath, fear,  madness, sorrow, envy….and in Romans 1:29,  “being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness…”

(All from the King James/New King James versions of the Bible.)

There again; black and white.  Goats and sheep.  Right and wrong.  Good and evil. 

I think it’s easier then to think of ourselves as empty rather than to think that we are filled with the wrong things.  But when I am empty of faith, then I am full of doubt.  When my cup of kindness runs low, it becomes filled instead with annoyance, irritation, rudeness, or even meanness. 

It may even be dangerous to our souls to think of ourselves as merely empty vessels, in self-deprecation saying, “Oh I don’t have any gifts, or God can’t use me, or I’m not of value to anyone; I’m just an empty vessel.”

Beware of empty vessels.  “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none.  Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order.  Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. “  Jesus himself said this in Matthew 12:43-45.

He was speaking of a human soul. A person accepts Jesus into his heart, the evil spirit has to leave, but if the person doesn’t keep the Lord in his heart, doesn’t truly commit himself to loving Christ and others, isn’t sincere in serving God, he doesn’t remain neutral.  No soul can be Switzerland, neither serving God or serving Satan.  He can’t just stay empty.  That is a sobering thought.  To me those scriptures show that there are no empty vessels.

I don’t want to sound hard or harsh…like I said, I intended to talk about light and love and all good things.  But I believe the Lord would have each of us to examine ourselves as to what is filling our vessels; to realize that we are full of something.  We need to admit to ourselves that we are not empty. 

I don’t mean to be presumptuous or compare myself to Paul in any way, shape or form, but I would like to use his prayer and his words as my own in closing:

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them.  Even so, I have been bold enough to write about some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder…”  (Romans 15:13-15 NLT)

God Fills His Vessels…with Himself

God gave me a revelation one time; here’s what He told me:

“I live in you.”

Let’s get this out of the way first…some people don’t think God speaks to us today, except through His word.  But doesn’t it stand to reason that if we truly are filled with God, that His spirit would speak to our spirit?  If He is inside us, won’t he communicate with us, and even through us?

That may seem too far out for some of you to comprehend.  The scriptures bear out time after time that when we become a child of God, He moves inside of us, lock, stock and barrel…and He brings the Son and the Holy Spirit with Him.

Jesus told Judas in John 14:23, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

Paul said in Galations 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me….”

1 Corinthians 3:16:  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Those are just a sampling of the scriptures that tell us that we are filled with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Believe me, I had heard and read these scriptures all my life; I had sung songs about Jesus living in my heart. But that truth became real to me the night the Lord said to me, “I live in you.”

I am a vessel of God who is filled with God.  Think about that.  Meditate on that awhile; try to comprehend it.

Maybe this will help you understand; maybe it will blow your mind even more!

It did mine.

In 1 Chronicles 12:18, the Bible says, “Then the Spirit came upon Amasai…” which literally means, “the Spirit clothed Himself” with Amasai.

Remember, God is the potter; we are the clay…we are the vessel that God fills with Himself.  We are the “skin” of the Spirit.

Here’s an analogy that helped me to understand this:

In the movie, Ghost, Patrick Swayze’s character died, and came back as a ghost to the one he loved; trouble was, she couldn’t see or hear him, so he had to enlist the help of Whoopi Goldberg’s character, who could hear him, because she had that gift…I know, I know..this isn’t in the least spiritual, but bear with me here.

Patrick so longed to touch Demi Moore’s character, and let her know how much he still loved her, that Whoopi finally agreed to let him use her body….so he entered the body of Whoopi, and he then controlled it.  He was able to touch Demi, to caress her and communicate with her.

In the movie, Whoopi became Patrick….because Patrick “clothed” himself with Whoopi’s body.

Paul said he no longer even lived, but Christ lived in Him.  The Lord had clothed himself with Paul.

I want to be that way…like Paul.  I want what I do, what I say, how I feel, how I live, to reflect the Christ that lives in me.  I want Him to control my body, my spirit, my mind.

Like those who watched “Ghost” no longer saw Whoopi in that scene, but Patrick, I want others to see the character of God when they see me.

The meaning of this verse just now became clear to me:

No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.  1 John 4:12

Some translations even add the “but” in there…..no man has seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and that’s how men see God….they see Him in us!

You are God’s Masterpiece

Have you given any more thought to just what kind of vessel you are in the Lord? Perhaps that sounds silly to you, and that’s OK. You don’t have to know what kind you are, just that you are God’s vessel if you belong to Him. You were created for a specific purpose, and that is the reasoning behind each of us being a particular kind of vessel.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

See, God had a plan for each of us before we even came into existence. We are His workmanship…one translation puts it this way, “we are His masterpiece.” Whatever gifts you have, whatever your personality, whatever your natural abilities, that is the way God designed you so He could use you to do those good works.

Don’t think that you have no gifts; that God can’t use you. Why would He create a useless work of art? And no, He didn’t create some of you just to look pretty. Look at some of the gifts the scriptures mention. Once again, we’re not all created to be a Billy Graham or Mother Teresa, but each of these gifts is needed in this world.

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. (Romans 12:6-8 NLT)

That’s not an exhaustive lists of the gifts God has given us, but see how the gifts vary from prophesying to giving to showing kindness.

Essentially, Paul is saying whichever gifts you have, use them! Notice the adverbs that tell us how to use them; well, generously, seriously, gladly. Those adverbs will come easier if we teach, serve, give, or show kindness out of love and not duty.

I’ve had people tell me they didn’t know what their gifts were. Maybe some of our gifts become apparent through our circumstances. God gave me Rena, a very special needs child, and through the years I have come to realize that one of my purposes in life is to take care of her.

Sometimes we’re so busy searching for our purpose, we don’t see that we’re already fulfilling it. I know I used to beg God, use me, use me, when He already was. I was raising my own children, and caring for others.

I have thought about becoming some sort of volunteer, but that never has happened. I admire those who work for Habitat for Humanity, or who go on Mission trips. But I voluntarily babysit my great niece and nephew; I used to babysit my grandchildren. I believe this is what I’m supposed to be doing. Not saying I always do it perfectly well, though! I’m still working on that patience thing.

I’m also not saying that I’ve always used the gifts God has given me. I’ve had lots of good intentions, good ideas, and good opportunities that never came to fruition. And I can’t say that I’ve always cleaned up Rena’s messes out of love and not duty.

But however imperfect a vessel I am, God still sees me as His very own masterpiece. He still has a plan for me, that my life may glorify him, just as He has for you.

being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

Why a watering can?

 

First of all, let me thank my vast horde of admirers (this means you Cheri, Brianna, and Terri) for giving me the impetus to do this.  I do enjoy writing, and I do miss having Bible studies, so this blog will give me an outlet for both.  At least right now I’m thinking along the lines of devotional type blogs, but who knows what may come of this….possibly not much, since I am prone to starting projects and then fizzling out on them.  Just ask Jon about his cross stitched Mickey Mouse; he’ll be glad to share that with you, again.

 

Why “A Watering Can” for a name, you ask?

 

Several years ago, a lady at church gave a devotional about vessels.  As followers of Christ, we each are vessels for Him.

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. 2 Timothy 2:20,21

We all have our purpose in God’s plan, we all are vessels, but we have different purposes and we are different kinds of vessels.

She said that God had showed her that she was a tea pot, which she didn’t take kindly to at first, seeing as how that brought to mind the little ditty about teapots being “short and stout.”  As she came to understand her purpose in God’s plan, she understood and accepted her role as His “teapot.”  Then she asked us to name different kinds of vessels and what came immediately to my mind was a watering can.  ???  I had no idea why that vessel was the first one I thought of at the time. Why not a crystal vase or something elegant?  She suggested we seek the Lord to find out what kind of vessel we were for Him.

 

So as I was driving home from work late one night, and I began to pray and ask what kind of a vessel I was.  A watering can….there it was again.  The Lord showed me that whenever I would get really close to Him, full of zeal to “do something” I always thought in grand terms.  I wanted to save the world, so to speak. Like a great evangelist I wanted to be a garden hose, turned on full force, spraying that water over everyone at the same time. 

 

But I wasn’t a garden hose, I was a watering can.  A watering can doesn’t water a whole garden at once, but one flower at a time.  A watering can isn’t forceful, but gentle; the plant still gets refreshed, but not beaten down.

 

 

 

I remembered how I would sometimes seek advice from a Christian friend on how to deal with people I was trying to help.  His answers were to be very blunt or even to wash my hands of one person in particular who I had tried to counsel for years to no avail.  I never could use his advice though, and now I understood why.  I was a watering can!

 

So I will never be a great evangelist or minister or have huge auditoriums filled with women holding notebooks, poised to jot down my infinite pearls of wisdom.  God has other vessels for those purposes.  He just wants me to water, to refresh, to encourage, to comfort one soul at a time.  Perhaps that is the purpose for this blog; I pray it is.

 

I often think of that quote, “The smallest good deed is greater than the grandest intention.”

 

I’ve had lots of grand intentions, always wanting to be that garden hose, but now I just want the Lord to use me as a watering can for Him; that I may be a vessel of honor.

 

Now, what kind of vessel are you?  Why don’t you seek the Lord, and let Him show you?

If you do, I’d love to know what kind of vessel you are.