There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke.

"You don't understand," it said. "I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, 'Let me alone', but he only smiled, 'Not yet.'

"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. 'Stop it! I'm getting dizzy.' I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, 'Not yet' "

"Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips and he shook his head, 'Not yet.' "

Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. 'There, that's better', I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 'Stop it, stop it!' I cried. he only nodded, 'Not yet.'

"Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, 'Not yet.' "

"Then I knew there wasn't any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later He handed me a mirror and I couldn't believe it was me. 'It's beautiful. I'm beautiful.' "

"I want you to remember, then," he said, "I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you would have dried up.

"I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled.

"I knew it hurt and was hot and disagreeable in the oven but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked.

"I know the fumes were bad  when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened; you would not have had any color in your life.

"And if I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you. "

MORAL:
The Master knows what He's doing for all of us. He is the potter and we are His clay.

He will mold us and make us, so that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

     

Have Thine Own Way. Lord!
(Click to hear music)



Author:  Adelaide A. Pollard, 1862-1834
Musician:  George C. Stebbins, 1846-1945


Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit ’till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.

Crutches and Heart Transplants

His bitter countenance hardened to a sneer when I informed him that I was a Christian.

"Christianity," he snapped," is only a crutch for weaklings".

His eyes flashed hate against his Maker as he repeated this old tattered and silly platitude. It was obvious that rage was rolling and boiling within his innermost being.

What should I say in reply? Perhaps I could remind him that the sinner is lame and blind and in need of help and assistance on life’s great journey. I could go on to say that Christ alone is able to support the morally lame and guide the spiritually blind. However, such an answer would have been inadequate and misleading.

It is indeed true that unregenerate man is "poor and lame and blind" and therefore, unable to walk uprightly and in a straight path before God Who is holy, righteous and just. But man’s disease, in a spiritual sense goes far beyond the darkened eyes and the deformed feet. Both his sinful sickness and his spiritual penury are merely symptoms of a far more serious malady. Isaiah, the prophet wrote, "...The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;...". (Isaiah 1:5,6) The sickening symptoms of this disease are vividly pictured for us by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:10-18:

"There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one."
"Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit;"
"The poison of asps is under their lips";
"Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness."
"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known."
"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

This may sound awful, but remember it is God’s diagnosis of the problem, and men left to their own devious devices will soon manifest such terrible conduct as that described. We only have to read of the acts of men in recent history to confirm the truth of it. Even the behaviour of "civilized" troops sent to keep the peace in war torn lands attest to the facts of scripture.

Man does indeed seek out and use many devices to support himself as he travels through life. Indeed these props may appear to be of some help for a time, but by and by they crumble and break when they are most needed. These supports give a false sense of security and will be of no help at all when the poor forsaken soul stands before the Last Great Assize. These crutches have various names. A few examples are: socialism, humanism, atheism, psychology, religion and entertainment to name but a few. They all have some things in common. For example, their place of manufacture was Hell and their designer was the archenemy of souls. His name is Satan. They are among the many and diverse tools which he uses to blind men to their personal depravity and to the real cause of the present distress of nations.

When God reaches down and imparts saving faith to a poor sin sick soul, He does much more than provide a crutch. He performs a spiritual Heart Transplant.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezekiel 36:26,27 NKJV)

As the new heart is thus given in grace, the unsoundness of the head is also dealt with. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man." (Mark 7:21-23 NKJV)

To the one who calls Christian faith a crutch we can confidently answer, "It is not merely a crutch to the lame. Rather it is a spiritual heart transplant which never fails." The recipient of such a new heart as God gives will never die spiritually for he has eternal life.

Oh, that sinners may be moved to cry with Israel’s king David "Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10 NKJV). Those who do this, trusting in Jesus Christ and His redeeming work on Calvary will receive new hearts and will become new creations in Christ. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17) This truly describes the experience known as the new birth. Those who have truly experienced it no longer need crutches for they are enabled to "walk in newness of life."

Beloved reader, have you received this divine surgery? You don’t need to have your name put on a waiting list. God now calls sinners to repentance and faith in His Son the Great Physician of souls.


Jack Scott loved his Lord! He passed away on January 10, 2001 after a lengthy illness.
He is missed greatly by his family.

Jeremiah 6:16

The Lamb of God

Spring is not far away in this part of the globe. In a few weeks, buds will be bursting into beautiful cascades of colour. Brown fields will give way to tender, luscious shoots of green grass. The mornings will resound again with the melody of song birds, as they flit around in their new bright spring feathers, doing the things birds do while building their nests and raising their little ones. Soon, too, the little lambs will be seen sporting on the hills and in the valleys of Ontario, and Scotland and Ireland and many other places throughout the world.

Perhaps it was in spring that John the Baptist, on seeing Jesus coming to him said: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." John 1:29 (NKJV) What an unusual thing to call an adult male. What a peculiar statement to make. Think of it again. "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

Lambs were familiar to the Jewish people of John’s day. Lambs were a reminder to them of their history, when as slaves in Egypt, God had commanded them to kill a lamb, a spotless lamb, for each household and apply its blood to the lintel and door posts of their houses so that God’s judgment would not fall on them. This exciting story can be read in detail in Exodus 12.

When I was a boy (many years ago), my father used to tell me stories to illustrate the Bible way of salvation. He seemed to have an endless store of them. Some of these stories I have remembered fondly over the years. One was about a man in Switzerland who was employed to repair the steeple on a local village church. So used, was he to working at heights that he did not bother to attach himself with a safety rope. He wanted freedom to move around, but alas his desire for freedom almost cost him his life. To their horror, some of the villagers saw him slip and grasp wildly to break his fall. To no avail, downward he hurtled. The villagers ran frantically to where the worker lay. He must be dead! But wonder of wonders he was alive. Instead, a lamb lay beneath him bearing his weight. The lamb was dead, crushed beneath the human load which had fallen on it.

When John the Baptist called the Lord Jesus Christ, "The lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world", he was telling his hearers that Jesus would die on the cross to take the weight of sin of the nations so that judgment need not fall on those who like the Israelites in Egypt were protected, by the blood of the lamb.

In the book of Revelation 7:9-10 (NKJV), we see, "a great multitude from all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues standing before the throne of the Lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying with a loud voice saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb".

There is a lovely hymn we sometimes sing in the church where we fellowship that speaks of Christ’s sacrificial work as the Lamb of God and the blessings brought to all those who are His by personal faith in Him.

Angels

Angels, Angels, Angels. The ubiquitous angel. We find them in the Avon catalogue, in the jewellery shop window, and on the covers of glossy and not so glossy magazines. People claim to talk to angels, receive messages from angels and have angel companions. Many of those who pay great attention to the angelic hosts, oddly enough have little time for the Creator of angels or for His precious Word.

The reality of angels is not to be doubted. There are frequent references to them in the Bible. In fact, if you are interested in numbers, angels are mentioned 108 times in the Old Testament and 165 times in the New Testament. The writer to the Hebrews reminds Christians that "Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels." (Hebrews 12:22).

Yes, indeed there are angels, but how did they come into existence, what is their function and what is their relationship to the Eternal Son of God?

David, King of Israel reminds us in Psalm 148 that God created all things in heaven and on earth. Verses 2 and 5 read as follows, "Praise ye Him, all His angels: praise ye Him all His hosts. Let them praise the name of the Lord; for He commanded and they were created."

Paul the Apostle assures us in Colossians 1 that this one who created all that "IS" was the Son of God. "For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible". (For the context, it is suggested that Colossians 1:12-19 be read).

These heavenly created beings have many tasks to perform, ranging from chanting the praises of the triune God to executing judgment on fallen angels and those among humankind who reject the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of their principle activities is to minister to God’s people. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14)

Some people have tried to teach that Jesus Christ is an angelic being, the first created being and therefore the chief angel. Nothing could be further from the truth. The book of Hebrews in the New Testament (Hebrews 1:5-14) makes it very, very clear that while angels are created beings, the Son of God is the King Eternal uncreated and without beginning.

It is this same Jesus who became a man, lived a sinless life and has become the sacrifice for sin for all who will believe in Him. "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." (Romans 3:25)

Just a word of warning: not all angels are good. There are fallen angels too. These are enemies of God and of the souls of humans. Those who feel that they receive guidance from angels need to be very careful. Should anyone, human or angelic point you to any other source other than Christ for salvation or direct you to take actions condemned in the word of God, flee from that being and turn quickly to Jesus Christ the Saviour of men.

     "But from those who seemed to be something--whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man--for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me.
     But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter 8(for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles),
     and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised." Galatians 2:6-9 (New King James).