READY, STEADY … GO.
Having a hobby, is healthy and mentally refreshing. One very common hobby is pottery making. You have some lumps of clay, a wheel (foot-pedal controlled, or electric), and an amount of water. Add to this your imagination, and you are sure on the way of becoming a ‘master potter’.
Water is used to make it pliable and soft, easily workable. Without an amount of water, the clay remains hard and rigid and can’t be moulded or shaped into anything. It starts crumbling and makes your blood pressure shoot up.
Now imagine after a period of days, at the Art School, working on a Grecian type vase, the instructor comes in to check your work and according to his judgement, the end result is not satisfactory. He breaks up your pot and shows you the way how to do it, advance and succeed. The first thing he does is that with the mixture of the new clay he starts adding water, then the moulding follows, but most important, broken up pieces, or shreds from your old Grecian pot will be added to strengthen the new pot.
That is the way God works, and St.Paul knew about it, and mentions it in one of his letters to the churches. First of all ‘water’ is a symbol of the Word of God, this is the analogy. The Word of God is like water to our souls. Just like our physical bodies need water in order to be able to live and survive, in the same way our souls need God’s Word flowing through us in order to feed us on the inside, in our inner man.
” … that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:26) What this is telling us is that God cannot even begin to mould and transform us in this life unless we are first willing do our part.
What is our part? It means one thing; a change of attitude, radical demands on ourselves. Yes, if needs be we have to break down the pot which we thought was a perfect Greek sample, but only to our amateur eyes due to lack of experience. Our personality, understood as a complex pattern of attitudes and values, must be dismantled (broken up), and reassembled (adding on old shreds), according to the mind of Jesus Christ.
Our attitude, outlook on fame, position, power, wealth, family ties, marriage must be radically examined in the blinding light of the Gospel. No one who encounters the Light of the world in the Scriptures can respond otherwise than by the prayers that humbly begs for the mind of Christ.
All prayers involve our hearts. ‘Where a person’s treasure is’, says Jesus, ‘there is his heart.’ To reject satan and all false goods, for the treasure of Jesus Christ is to experience a change of heart.
New love in Christ is not without pain. Do you recall when the instructor broke up your first attempt, your Grecian pot? Prayer involving ‘metanoia’ or gradual conversion requires a deep change of heart in which we die on a certain level of our being in order to find ourselves ‘alive’ and ‘free’. We shall be a new creation, a new person, with a new outlook and mentality, transformed into a ‘Christ-image’ person.
Just compare, and contrast and see the difference for yourself; the first clay object you tried to mould when still an amateur, without experience, without the know-how, without any coaching … and NOW. You are on the way of becoming a master potter.
Ready, steady, GO.
Having a hobby, is healthy and mentally refreshing. One very common hobby is pottery making. You have some lumps of clay, a wheel (foot-pedal controlled, or electric), and an amount of water. Add to this your imagination, and you are sure on the way of becoming a ‘master potter’.
Water is used to make it pliable and soft, easily workable. Without an amount of water, the clay remains hard and rigid and can’t be moulded or shaped into anything. It starts crumbling and makes your blood pressure shoot up.
Now imagine after a period of days, at the Art School, working on a Grecian type vase, the instructor comes in to check your work and according to his judgement, the end result is not satisfactory. He breaks up your pot and shows you the way how to do it, advance and succeed. The first thing he does is that with the mixture of the new clay he starts adding water, then the moulding follows, but most important, broken up pieces, or shreds from your old Grecian pot will be added to strengthen the new pot.
That is the way God works, and St.Paul knew about it, and mentions it in one of his letters to the churches. First of all ‘water’ is a symbol of the Word of God, this is the analogy. The Word of God is like water to our souls. Just like our physical bodies need water in order to be able to live and survive, in the same way our souls need God’s Word flowing through us in order to feed us on the inside, in our inner man.
” … that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:26) What this is telling us is that God cannot even begin to mould and transform us in this life unless we are first willing do our part.
What is our part? It means one thing; a change of attitude, radical demands on ourselves. Yes, if needs be we have to break down the pot which we thought was a perfect Greek sample, but only to our amateur eyes due to lack of experience. Our personality, understood as a complex pattern of attitudes and values, must be dismantled (broken up), and reassembled (adding on old shreds), according to the mind of Jesus Christ.
Our attitude, outlook on fame, position, power, wealth, family ties, marriage must be radically examined in the blinding light of the Gospel. No one who encounters the Light of the world in the Scriptures can respond otherwise than by the prayers that humbly begs for the mind of Christ.
All prayers involve our hearts. ‘Where a person’s treasure is’, says Jesus, ‘there is his heart.’ To reject satan and all false goods, for the treasure of Jesus Christ is to experience a change of heart.
New love in Christ is not without pain. Do you recall when the instructor broke up your first attempt, your Grecian pot? Prayer involving ‘metanoia’ or gradual conversion requires a deep change of heart in which we die on a certain level of our being in order to find ourselves ‘alive’ and ‘free’. We shall be a new creation, a new person, with a new outlook and mentality, transformed into a ‘Christ-image’ person.
Just compare, and contrast and see the difference for yourself; the first clay object you tried to mould when still an amateur, without experience, without the know-how, without any coaching … and NOW. You are on the way of becoming a master potter.
Ready, steady, GO.
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