At Hebron in Israel, Ruth and I saw a potter make clay pots like they did in Old Testament times.  God sent Jeremiah to the potter’s house (Jeremiah 18).  There God gave Jeremiah encouragement and hope for a depressed Israel whose original dream had been shattered.

Potters worked at a round table that spun like a wheel, powered by a treadle.  The potter would choose a blob of clay, place it on the center of the wheel, and shape it with his fingers as it spun.  Sometimes a lump in the clay caused a defect in the pot.  But the potter did not throw the pot away.  He kneaded it back into a lump and started over, reshaping the pot into something useful and attractive.

God can remake our ruined lives.  He can redeem and use our life whatever the past--moral or other failure, divorce, emotional illness, addiction, crime, backsliding, rebellion.  He will restore us whether we were damaged by our own bad choices or by things beyond our control.

Maybe like Israel your first dreams have been shattered.  God is so great that he can turn the greatest evil or suffering into good.  From Christ’s ordeal on the cross God brought salvation for the world.  God used Joseph’s slavery and imprisonment to save Joseph’s whole family from starvation.  He used Paul’s illness to make him into a world-changing apostle. 

Every time we see a life reborn we glorify God for his mercy, wisdom and power.

Jeremiah 18:1-8;  Joel 2:25;  1 Corinthians 6:9-11;  Isaiah 1:18;  2 Corinthians 5:17;  Isaiah 61:1-3;  1 Timothy 1:12-17

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Copyright 2006 by G.B. Shelburne, III.  May be freely reproduced or forwarded for non-commercial purposes provided content is unchanged and this copyright notice is included.  These shepherding messages are sent to members and friends of New Beginnings Church (www.nbchurch.com), to students and alumni of South Houston Bible Institute (www.shbi.org), and to other interested persons. 

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