Tag Archives: George Macdonald

On being the clay, not the potter…

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Here, O my potter, is thy making stuff!
Set thy wheel going; let it whir and play.
The chips in me, the stones, the straws, the sand,
Cast them out with fine separating hand,
And make a vessel of thy yielding clay.

(George MacDonald, The Diary of an Old Soul, 1905)

The Lord says…”You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing?

(Isa 29.16)

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord; “Go down to the potters house and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”

(Jer 18.1-6)

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

(1Thess 5.23&24)

The image of the potter handling clay, skilfully shaping and raising the material to create a useful and/or beautiful piece of pottery, is one which occurs several times in scripture to demonstrate the gulf between creature and creator. It is ridiculous to imagine the clay on the wheel stiffening indignantly under the potter’s hands and objecting to the relentless shaping process! In just the same way, as those who believe in Jesus, and who trust that God’s goodness underlies all he does, we submit willingly to the skill of our creator and Sovereign – especially when we cannot understand what he is permitting!

The verse by George Macdonald quoted above has caused me also to think about where the burden of responsibility lies between potter and clay as regards the removal of impurities…. I believe that it is not the task of the believer – the clay if you like – to be obsessed with looking for imperfections. The potter sees from a totally different perspective, and it is his objective goodness which leads him to reveal to us first one persisting sin, and then another – that we might in turn repent and, as his submissive and willing clay, put that sin behind us and move a step nearer glory. It is for the potter to decide which impurity to deal with next, and for his skill to decide how it should be done. As the clay, we have no idea what is right and good!

I accept that I will not be free from the remnants of sin, embedded in my body which will one day die, until I am made new in resurrection. And then I yield to the One who knows exactly how the rest of my life will be used under his skill, to melt and rub away all that is not like Christ in me, and to reveal the person that he made me to be. That is his responsibility, not mine. It is not for me to spend my days prying inward, determined to find sin in every corner, and utterly failing to live joyously in the freedom which is mine as a forgiven child of God. Such a life is filled with negativity, is blind to the glorious light in which I now live.

Will my Father not reveal what needs healed or cast out in his own good time? I am called rather to praise him, to live for and with him in love and gladness, looking for and doing the good things which he has prepared in advance for me to do. While it is wrong for a believer to live as though they were sinless – we should be alert to temptation, and not depend on our own strength to resist it – yet it is also surely wrong to live as though we had to earn our forgiveness by the diligence of our sin-hunting and self-examination…

Loving heavenly Father, thank you that I am utterly forgiven because of the death of your Son, my precious Jesus, on my behalf. Thank you that sin no longer defines me, and I am whole, free and glorious in Christ. Let me live then trusting in your refining and shaping hand. You will reveal to me what needs to be repented of, at the right time and in the right way. And your spirit will enable me to receive and respond to that revelation, in repentance and faith. And let me live in the meantime as one focussed on your goodness, on your kingdom, and continually thrilled by your love. Make me more like Jesus, for my blessing, and your glory, Amen.

Living with brokenness

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… I was given a thorn in my flesh… Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

(2Cor 12.7-10)

… I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

(Phil 4.12&13)

 When I am very weary with hard thought,
And yet the question burns and is not quenched,
My heart grows cool when to remembrance wrought
That thou who know’st the light-born answer sought
Know’st too the dark where the doubt lies entrenched –
Know’st with what seemings I am sore perplexed,
And that with thee I wait, nor needs my soul be vexed.
(George MacDonald: The Diary of an Old Soul, 1905)

Where does it come from, the dangerous and deeply ingrained fallacy which tells us that we are somehow entitled to a life free from pain, disability, mental ill health, relationship stress or breakdown? Any gospel message which tries to convince believers that God intends to make their lives and bodies better in every way on this side of glory, is a lie, and should be robustly challenged. I find the apostle Paul’s experience in this regard extremely encouraging! The great man experienced a very challenging health problem, one which he was convinced God could remove, but instead, God asked Paul to accept this weakness, even to embrace it. And, even as Jesus had done in Gethsemane, Paul said, “not my will, but yours be done”. He models for me what it looks like to come to terms with the particular limitations – of whatever kind – I am called to accept in my life. He accepts, and then chooses to rejoice in the very weakness which he has deplored, because now he sees how God is being glorified through it.

To accept our weaknesses, whatever they are, as God’s appointed calling and then to expect to see him at work through them, is not in any way to deny God’s power to miraculously heal, transform and change any situation. But, it is to come to the proper attitude of submission to a sovereign and almighty God. I am in no position to dictate to God just what is right and best for my life. God is good, all the time and He can deliver his children. When He chooses not to, He is still God and still good, and I am called to trust that he can and will use my weakness, my open wound, for his glory.

I am coming to terms with what I might describe as a faith-wound, a profound weakness which often causes me to stumble and suffer. I have long prayed for deliverance and healing, and what happens is that over and over again, my God strengthens me, and displays his power in my weakness, so that I continue in faith and perseverance, but still wounded.

I want to live with my wounds in humility and acceptance – since God is in NO WAY limited in His work in and through my life by the burdens which He calls me to bear. I am no less equipped for my calling by illness, incapacity, any kind of brokenness, than others who do not share my own particular issues. The glory is all His, because in my weakness, He is strong! If I truly long to exalt God, and to do his will, then I must accept the place and method which he appoints.

Heavenly Father, I praise you because you are good, eternally good, and your love for me is trustworthy. Thank you for helping me to accept the weakness which you call me to bear for your glory. Thank you for all the soul-medicines which you provide to enable me to live with this ailment, and for your faithful keeping of me through pain and turmoil. Thank you that I can offer up my struggles and grief as my sacrifice of praise, and that you use these according to your will and for your glory.

Thank you most of all that I can bear witness that you never leave me alone in my suffering, I am never abandoned to the darkness or imprisoned in silence. In Jesus, I am always in your presence; always gently held; always deeply loved; always completely forgiven. Thank you. Amen

 

 

 

 

Not just a future dream..

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No man presumes in that to which he was born; less than the gift to claim, would be the giver to scorn.

(G MacDonald; Diary of an Old Soul, 1880)

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you…

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted… to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion – to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

(Isa 60.1&2; 61.1-3; 62.1-3)

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God… you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

(I Pet 1.23;2.9)

I want to share with you some of the encouragement which I have been receiving in recent days as I come to the end of our ladies’ bible study in Isaiah, where the glory of God is revealed in his Anointed One, our coming King and the suffering Servant, Jesus.  The prophet is piling image upon image in his desire to express the wonder of God’s saving work, the beauty and all-sufficiency of the Anointed One who is also God’s word to a broken world, a word of healing and hope. I am – to quote an old hymn – often ‘lost in wonder, love and praise’ as I read and ponder our great God and his redeeming plan.

As followers of Christ in a broken world, living with the dregs of our old nature still dragging us away from holiness, living with the attacks of the enemy of our souls, living with the effects upon us of sin in the lives of others, it can be easy to concentrate on the difficulties of this life and our struggles. We cling to Christ for comfort and rest in his love, thankful to know forgiveness but acutely aware that until we are delivered through death, we will not know sinlessness. This is not wrong, this is our reality. But it is NOT the whole picture, and when we take time to consider who God says we are, and what he says has been done for us, then we see something intoxicatingly beautiful.

The apostle Peter, who surely knew plenty about human weakness and failings, writes to tell the church that they are – not will be, but are now – God’s chosen people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. Think about those things for a moment… You and I, aware of sin as we are, are also the beloved, purified, set-apart ones; we wear robes of rightness before God, he sees us holy and perfect because we are now born again in Christ. Because of the Word, Christ our saviour, we are re-created, and our new nature, our new name, our new potential is all for God’s purposes and glory. And we are not merely a trophy on a wall, to be admired, but actively participating in realising God’s purposes and sharing the life-giving Word with the world which is yet in darkness.

Let us today claim our birthright, and not scorn the one who called us into this new life, making us his own beloved children. Shall we close our eyes to his lavish goodness and cling tight to the rags of our shame?! Why on earth should we do so, when he is pouring out his love upon us, calling us to rejoice in our status and calling his own? Let us today stand against the lies of the evil one, who would blind us to the power in us by which Christ works to glorify God and shine the light into the darkness. We are irradiated by God’s glory – you, me, all our fellow believers around the world – we are the precious jewels which signify his majesty, power, grace and sovereignty.

Oh Father God, deliver us from the timid spirit that clings to its own familiar tattered garments of sin, and let us stand tall in the robes of righteousness which you have given us. Deliver us from shame, and let us so exult in your redeeming word and work that all may see and be entranced by your glory.

Choosing…

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In that day you will say: “I will praise you, O Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  

In that day you will say: “Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

(Isa 12)

Meanwhile, we’ve got our hands full continually thanking God for you, our good friends – so loved by God! God picked you out as his from the very start. Think of it: included in God’s original plan of salvation by the bond of faith in the living truth. This is the life of the spirit he invited you to through the message we delivered, in which you get in on the glory of our master, Jesus Christ.

So, friends, take a firm stand, feet on the ground and head high. Keep a tight grip on what you were taught, whether in personal conversation or by our letter. May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech…. Because of the master, we have great confidence in you. We know you’re doing everything we told you and will continue doing it. May the master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God’s love and Christ’s endurance.

(2 Thess 2.13-17; 3.4-5)

Against my fears, my doubts, my ignorance, I trust in thee, O father of my Lord!

The world went on in this same broken dance when, worn and mocked, He trusted and adored:

I too will trust, and gather my poor best to face the truth-faced false. So, in his nest I shall awake at length, a little scarred and scored.

(from: Diary of an Old Soul, by George Macdonald, 1905)

What will I do when my culture, my friends and some of those closest to me reject my faith and think me deluded? What will I do when the revelation on which my faith rests makes absolutely no sense in the thinking of my society – and in my heart I recognise how utterly alien it is? What will I do when my most earnest prayers, for God to glorify himself and transform lives, go unanswered?

I look over the brink at unbelief and tremble; I listen to assumptions of those who reckon it will all be ok, and wonder at how they get there. I turn again to the good news of Jesus, and find that he too faced mockery and unbelief, and yet held firm to his task, trusting absolutely in his Father’s love, power and purpose in and through his suffering and death.

I choose to hold fast – God helping me – to what I can know of Jesus; to what he told me about himself and his task; to what he told me about the character of my Creator and the place which is prepared for me in the age to come. It may seem nonsense to some, but it makes more sense to me than anything else has ever done.

I choose to believe, especially where I cannot understand and in spite of the mockery which such belief provokes in this sceptical age, that the God revealed to me through the Hebrew Scriptures, and affirmed as Father by my Lord Jesus, is absolutely just, loving, powerful and sovereign, and that when all things temporal are wound up and we enter into life eternal in glory, we will have no doubts left about him.

I choose to give thanks, for what I can know, can see, can experience here and now of all the good things which are poured into my life and which bring daily tokens of love from my Father’s heart. I give thanks for the revelation which I have in the bible, those parts which comfort as well as those parts which leave me baffled and uncomfortable – God forbid that I should ever think myself fully comprehending the mystery of his character, power and eternal nature! I give thanks for the global church, witnessing in so many places to lives transformed by Jesus’ love and sacrifice, which strengthens and encourages me to persevere in faith.

Master, take us by the hand and lead us along the path of the Father’s love and Christ’s endurance, by your Spirit at work within us day by day. May we glorify you, growing in faith and quiet trust, bearing fruit for Jesus, in whose name we pray, Amen.