The Potter and his Son

And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay and you are the Potter. We are all formed by your hand. Oh, be not so angry with us, Lord, nor forever remember our sins. Oh, look and see that we are all your people. 
Jeremiah 18:8-9

Morris & James is a well known pottery in Matakana about an hour North of Auckland.

We visited there on 28th November and were given a generous free tour of the extensive site by the owner who is the Potter. The most remarkable thing of all was that the entire plant is operated by only 2 workers - the Potter and his Son - producing 1000's of pots a year.

The sculpturing time is only the length of a pop song but the entire process takes several months.

What I can remember from the tour;
- Clay is excavated on site
- 1000 tonnes per year.
- Sifted
- Mixed with west coast black sand
- Extruded into bricks
- Left wet for a month
- Processed into tubes
- Sculpted into pots (shown on the video)
- Transported to drying room
- Dried for a month
- Pots shrink as they dry
- Put in oven to 925°C . Sand turns to glass and comes to the surface giving red terracotta colour
- Painted, glazed and heated to 1060°C making the glassy effect




The illustration is a timeless one. The Bible says that in the beginning we were formed from the clay in the ground. 

 The time came when the Lord God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And man became a living person. 
Genesis 2:7


You may not be convinced about the Creation but the fact remains that our bodies are composed of all the elements in the ground. It is an evidence for God. And the Potter is not averse to starting his work all over again should it not turn out the way he envisioned!


Soon I will be turning 50 years old with what changes that may bring. I will be changing jobs very soon and with that a new direction! Perhaps you won't recognise me in a while. Don't worry, I'm the clay in the Potters hands, I'll turn out alright.

 

Friday the 13th

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." 
Matthew 16:24

ISIS are an extremely cunning and dangerous enemy. Following the horrific Friday 13th November attacks in Paris, the terrorists made this statement; “A group of believers from the soldiers of the Caliphate set out targeting the capital of prostitution and vice, the lead carrier of the cross in Europe, Paris..."

The mention of the cross is very interesting. Paris is not the carrier of the cross at all. France is a secular country.

In fact, the ones who carry the cross in Paris and in France are the very few believers who follow after Jesus and love their enemies and turn the other cheek when struck. For this reason, carrying the cross is shameful, humiliating, of no value in this world. For carrying the cross means to identify with and suffer like Christ did when he died for us. The terrorists have hijacked the word "martyr". Terrorists are murderers. Jesus was a martyr, an innocent who died so that the whole world may be saved.

The terrorists are referencing the Crusades, provoking a powerful emotional response and trying to create a war between Christians and Muslims. In fact they want neutral sympathisers to join them because at the moment they are small in number but there is a large population of fence sitters.

The governments of the world justly respond in war. Unfortunately when "Christian" France (or Britain, Germany, US, NZ etc) responds with violence it is exactly what ISIS want, especially when innocent Muslims are killed. The neutral ones are more likely to become pro-ISIS.

On a personal level, the time when you can sit on the secular fence is over. Your government is making decisions for war that will have repercussions across the world. You will have to decide one way or the other whose side you are on.

This is not a normal war. ISIS are going to randomly kill anyone who isn't like them in any country including their own. Secular, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu or Buddhist they do not care.

There are 2 wars being fought, one is the one we can see like in Paris last weekend. But the other is a spiritual war between good and evil which we cannot see. I've said it before, we are not fighting people, what we are really fighting is an unseen evil of the kind you see in a Friday 13th horror movie. Therefore choose to fight like Jesus did, taking the Gospel to the Nations with prayer, with humility and in suffering.

Jesus is coming back soon. Even though it's likely to get worse for a time, Evil will not win. If you read to the end of the story you will find that ISIS are heading straight for the Lake of Fire along with all murderers.

"It is finished! I am the A and the Z—the Beginning and the End. I will give to the thirsty the springs of the Water of Life—as a gift! Everyone who conquers will inherit all these blessings, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But cowards who turn back from following me, and those who are unfaithful to me, and the corrupt, and murderers, and the immoral, and those conversing with demons, and idol worshipers and all liars—their doom is in the Lake that burns with fire and sulphur. This is the Second Death.”
Revelation 21:6-8

We cannot sit on the fence or turn back and be safe! We need courage to follow Jesus until the end.

So as one wise leader once said;
"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."
Joshua 24:15