"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." - Jeremiah 29:11
Before we dive off into a deeper examination of this pottery metaphor, I feel the need to spend a little time on the Potter Himself; specifically his nature and character as described in scriptures. The Bible has quite a lot to say about God's character and nature. However, in spite of this treasure trove of information, there is still a great deal of confusion about who God is and how He operates in the lives of His people.
The attitudes and opinions about God's character and nature cover the entire spectrum of human analysis. Teachings about God range from focusing on the wrath of God against sin and sinners (Westboro Baptist Church) to focusing on God's loving goodness to the point of excusing sin (I'm ok, you're ok theology)...and everything in between.
I believe the primary reason for this diverse collection of conclusions about God's nature and character is fundamentally due to man's inherently selfish nature. Don't misunderstand that statement. I'm not referring to an adult who should know better but chooses to live their lives selfishly. I'm speaking of the adolescent who has not matured enough to realize the world does not revolve around their wants, wishes, desires, or conclusions about life. It is this level of immature selfishness that I strongly believe has produced this mixed bag of individual conclusions about God's character and nature.
Frankly, what most of us do when considering God's character is project our value system onto Him and then find the scriptures that back our preconceived conclusions.
For example, the Christian who either suffered from an alcoholic parent or spouse or battled alcoholism themselves projecting their value system about alcohol consumption onto God and judging all others from that perspective.
Or the church member who grew up in a dysfunctional home with a domineering and abusive father who projects their flawed understanding of what a father is onto their Heavenly Father and concludes God is a merciless tyrant who is waiting for us to sin so he can punish us with extreme prejudice.
Even someone who grows up in a loving environment can develop an unbalanced view of God's nature by focusing only on the love and mercies of God while ignoring the scriptures proclaiming God's wrath against sin.
The truth of the matter is, God's character and nature is complex. He IS a God of wrath against sin. He is also a God of lovingkindness and mercy, especially towards His children. God's nature and character is deep and deeply personal. Understanding how He thinks and what motivates His activities on Earth requires a relationship with Him that, frankly, few people are willing to invest time in developing.
I was one of those people. In spite of my many years of serving God as a pastor, I had a very superficial relationship with Him. As I've shared in earlier blog entries, my relationship with God was dependent on whether He met my expectations on any given circumstance. To divorce myself from my personal expectations in favor of His was completely foreign to my thinking. Because of this unwillingness to consistently yield my wants, wishes, and desires in favor of His wants, wishes, and desires for me, I placed myself in a position to fail in every ministry endeavor I put my hand to. That failure produced some deeply flawed thought patterns and conclusions concerning God's nature and character.
After the ministry debacle in Galena Park, Texas, my thought processes and conclusions about God's nature and character went to some very dark places. My anger and bitterness grew into an orchard of rage trees that bore some horrible fruit in my life. Fruits of vulgarity and fury, depression and apathy, and especially hatred toward anything relating to God and His people. In my wrath, I concluded that God was one of three possible things:
He was an apathetic father figure who could not care less if I was hurting or not.
He was a sadistic deity who enjoyed watching me (if not outright causing me to) suffer.
He was an antiquated figment of mankind's superstitious imaginations.
I vacillated between these three conclusions and in my darkest hours leaned heavily into the third one. Oh, there were a couple of years that I desperately wanted to believe the third conclusion. I immersed myself in every art form I could find that substantiated that conclusion. For at least two years I baptized myself in music, books, lectures, even stand up comedians that strongly promoted the idea that the modern concept of a Judeo-Christian God was as much a lie as the Greek/Roman "gods" of antiquity.
But, no matter how far and how hard I ran from God, I could not escape. I had been bought with a price. God had invested way too much into me to leave me in the pit I had dug for myself. So, like the parable of the good shepherd, He left the 99 to chase me down and rescue me. In fact, He is still rescuing me; daily, hourly, moment-by-moment. It is in this season of misery and darkness that I have experienced what so many of God's people have experienced. I have met the God of the scriptures in real time and that meeting is obliterating my preconceived ideas of God's nature and character.
As cliched as this concept is, there is absolute truth to the idea that we won't actually meet the true and the living God until we have come to the end of ourselves. Again, this is the ultimate goal of the Potter's process; to empty us of our selfishness and pride and fill us with Himself. We all enter our relationship with God with preconceived opinions of God and of ourselves. The Potter's task is to reeducate us about the truth of Himself and ourselves. That reeducation process is generally what pushes many of God's people away from any meaningful relationship with Him because of the nature of the process.
I'm not going to sugar coat this. The Potter's process is rough. The closest analogy I can find would be SEAL training. The Navy Sea Air and Land special forces (known as SEALs) have what is universally acknowledged to be the most difficult military training in existence. The number of people who have 'washed out' of SEAL training is incalculable. Men and women who appear to be physically capable of becoming SEALs routinely wash out because of the severe physical, emotional, and psychological toll that this expertly specialized training extracts from each candidate. The reason why this training is so incredibly difficult is simple. SEALs are called to do things no one else on Earth can do. In fact, the general public is largely ignorant of the number of times SEALs have been called in to literally 'save the world'.
The Potter's Process can be viewed in this same light. God has called all of us to be a part of His Kingdom for the purpose of occupying till He comes. That word "occupy" has military connotations. The concept behind that word is the idea of occupying enemy territory for the King until He returns to claim what his called subjects have 'occupied'. The context of that scripture is the parable of the talents. God's big-picture plan involves raising an army of blood-washed saints, equipping that army with talents, 'gifts', and abilities designed to work in concert with the Holy Spirit of God's empowering direction in order to carry out the King's wants, wishes, and desires for the Earth ("Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven...").
As with any army, training is required; from boot camp to specialized training. This training is difficult, challenging, and in many cases divisive as it tends to divide the flock between those who are "called" and those who are "chosen". Therefore, it is imperative that we understand the true character and nature of God before we begin an examination of His process for perfecting his vessels of honor.
Why? Because if you and I do not have a firm grasp of who God is, the enemy can and will infiltrate our thought processes during this process and use our own preconceived ideas and expectations about God against us to convince us that God is sadistic, apathetic, evil, or just doesn't exist.
So, there are a few choices that need to be made before we embark on the rest of this journey. Remember, the power of choice is what drives your entire Christian walk. We choose every single day how far we're going to go with God. Most of God's people have the desire to grow deeper in their relationship with God. But desire alone will not do much more than motivate you to start the process. It is the power of our choice that will make or break our desires for a closer walk with God.
If we base our choices on emotion, we will only go as far as our current mood will take us. If we base our decision on a head knowledge of God, then when the fires of the Potter's kiln start to heat up, that head knowledge will not carry you through. What is needed is the choice to commit to the the Potter's process because of who He is, no matter how rough the journey may get.
Because the journey is going to get rough. It is going to get very rough. The Potter is going to use everything at his disposal to empty you of selfishness and pride; including Satan himself.
Don't believe me? Then let me introduce you to our first example of the Potter's process in action...
NEXT UP: A TALE OF TWO JOES
Before we dive off into a deeper examination of this pottery metaphor, I feel the need to spend a little time on the Potter Himself; specifically his nature and character as described in scriptures. The Bible has quite a lot to say about God's character and nature. However, in spite of this treasure trove of information, there is still a great deal of confusion about who God is and how He operates in the lives of His people.
The attitudes and opinions about God's character and nature cover the entire spectrum of human analysis. Teachings about God range from focusing on the wrath of God against sin and sinners (Westboro Baptist Church) to focusing on God's loving goodness to the point of excusing sin (I'm ok, you're ok theology)...and everything in between.
I believe the primary reason for this diverse collection of conclusions about God's nature and character is fundamentally due to man's inherently selfish nature. Don't misunderstand that statement. I'm not referring to an adult who should know better but chooses to live their lives selfishly. I'm speaking of the adolescent who has not matured enough to realize the world does not revolve around their wants, wishes, desires, or conclusions about life. It is this level of immature selfishness that I strongly believe has produced this mixed bag of individual conclusions about God's character and nature.
Frankly, what most of us do when considering God's character is project our value system onto Him and then find the scriptures that back our preconceived conclusions.
For example, the Christian who either suffered from an alcoholic parent or spouse or battled alcoholism themselves projecting their value system about alcohol consumption onto God and judging all others from that perspective.
Or the church member who grew up in a dysfunctional home with a domineering and abusive father who projects their flawed understanding of what a father is onto their Heavenly Father and concludes God is a merciless tyrant who is waiting for us to sin so he can punish us with extreme prejudice.
Even someone who grows up in a loving environment can develop an unbalanced view of God's nature by focusing only on the love and mercies of God while ignoring the scriptures proclaiming God's wrath against sin.
The truth of the matter is, God's character and nature is complex. He IS a God of wrath against sin. He is also a God of lovingkindness and mercy, especially towards His children. God's nature and character is deep and deeply personal. Understanding how He thinks and what motivates His activities on Earth requires a relationship with Him that, frankly, few people are willing to invest time in developing.
I was one of those people. In spite of my many years of serving God as a pastor, I had a very superficial relationship with Him. As I've shared in earlier blog entries, my relationship with God was dependent on whether He met my expectations on any given circumstance. To divorce myself from my personal expectations in favor of His was completely foreign to my thinking. Because of this unwillingness to consistently yield my wants, wishes, and desires in favor of His wants, wishes, and desires for me, I placed myself in a position to fail in every ministry endeavor I put my hand to. That failure produced some deeply flawed thought patterns and conclusions concerning God's nature and character.
After the ministry debacle in Galena Park, Texas, my thought processes and conclusions about God's nature and character went to some very dark places. My anger and bitterness grew into an orchard of rage trees that bore some horrible fruit in my life. Fruits of vulgarity and fury, depression and apathy, and especially hatred toward anything relating to God and His people. In my wrath, I concluded that God was one of three possible things:
He was an apathetic father figure who could not care less if I was hurting or not.
He was a sadistic deity who enjoyed watching me (if not outright causing me to) suffer.
He was an antiquated figment of mankind's superstitious imaginations.
I vacillated between these three conclusions and in my darkest hours leaned heavily into the third one. Oh, there were a couple of years that I desperately wanted to believe the third conclusion. I immersed myself in every art form I could find that substantiated that conclusion. For at least two years I baptized myself in music, books, lectures, even stand up comedians that strongly promoted the idea that the modern concept of a Judeo-Christian God was as much a lie as the Greek/Roman "gods" of antiquity.
But, no matter how far and how hard I ran from God, I could not escape. I had been bought with a price. God had invested way too much into me to leave me in the pit I had dug for myself. So, like the parable of the good shepherd, He left the 99 to chase me down and rescue me. In fact, He is still rescuing me; daily, hourly, moment-by-moment. It is in this season of misery and darkness that I have experienced what so many of God's people have experienced. I have met the God of the scriptures in real time and that meeting is obliterating my preconceived ideas of God's nature and character.
As cliched as this concept is, there is absolute truth to the idea that we won't actually meet the true and the living God until we have come to the end of ourselves. Again, this is the ultimate goal of the Potter's process; to empty us of our selfishness and pride and fill us with Himself. We all enter our relationship with God with preconceived opinions of God and of ourselves. The Potter's task is to reeducate us about the truth of Himself and ourselves. That reeducation process is generally what pushes many of God's people away from any meaningful relationship with Him because of the nature of the process.
I'm not going to sugar coat this. The Potter's process is rough. The closest analogy I can find would be SEAL training. The Navy Sea Air and Land special forces (known as SEALs) have what is universally acknowledged to be the most difficult military training in existence. The number of people who have 'washed out' of SEAL training is incalculable. Men and women who appear to be physically capable of becoming SEALs routinely wash out because of the severe physical, emotional, and psychological toll that this expertly specialized training extracts from each candidate. The reason why this training is so incredibly difficult is simple. SEALs are called to do things no one else on Earth can do. In fact, the general public is largely ignorant of the number of times SEALs have been called in to literally 'save the world'.
The Potter's Process can be viewed in this same light. God has called all of us to be a part of His Kingdom for the purpose of occupying till He comes. That word "occupy" has military connotations. The concept behind that word is the idea of occupying enemy territory for the King until He returns to claim what his called subjects have 'occupied'. The context of that scripture is the parable of the talents. God's big-picture plan involves raising an army of blood-washed saints, equipping that army with talents, 'gifts', and abilities designed to work in concert with the Holy Spirit of God's empowering direction in order to carry out the King's wants, wishes, and desires for the Earth ("Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven...").
As with any army, training is required; from boot camp to specialized training. This training is difficult, challenging, and in many cases divisive as it tends to divide the flock between those who are "called" and those who are "chosen". Therefore, it is imperative that we understand the true character and nature of God before we begin an examination of His process for perfecting his vessels of honor.
Why? Because if you and I do not have a firm grasp of who God is, the enemy can and will infiltrate our thought processes during this process and use our own preconceived ideas and expectations about God against us to convince us that God is sadistic, apathetic, evil, or just doesn't exist.
So, there are a few choices that need to be made before we embark on the rest of this journey. Remember, the power of choice is what drives your entire Christian walk. We choose every single day how far we're going to go with God. Most of God's people have the desire to grow deeper in their relationship with God. But desire alone will not do much more than motivate you to start the process. It is the power of our choice that will make or break our desires for a closer walk with God.
If we base our choices on emotion, we will only go as far as our current mood will take us. If we base our decision on a head knowledge of God, then when the fires of the Potter's kiln start to heat up, that head knowledge will not carry you through. What is needed is the choice to commit to the the Potter's process because of who He is, no matter how rough the journey may get.
Because the journey is going to get rough. It is going to get very rough. The Potter is going to use everything at his disposal to empty you of selfishness and pride; including Satan himself.
Don't believe me? Then let me introduce you to our first example of the Potter's process in action...
NEXT UP: A TALE OF TWO JOES
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