Is Your Cup of Christ
Pretentious or Plain?
Good Morning Friends,
If we are going to ask questions about the things that are to be, it is more revealing, complete and appropriate to do so by looking to the entire Bible and especially Christ’s teaching and visions than ancient messianic prophecy alone. Nevertheless, today’s Old Testament scripture words speak both to our personal and collective activities in modern times. The argument of judgment written seems all too abundantly justified for today. Isaiah and Jerimiah, as prophets, believed that God had a covenantal plan for His country to be used for a Holy purpose. Isiah was convinced that the leaders of the day were messing with the Godly outcome intended. He spoke of a materialism which literally blinds people to the signs of the times; he spoke of politicians who assume the power which belongs to God alone. He spoke of unhealthy alliances with foreign countries, of a national life confused, of religion that had become a man-made discipline. But he also gave hope that their society might become a glad response of people who through obedience learn the liberating truths of the Messiah. He instructs us to accept God as part of the structure and spirit of society. He guides us to the conclusion that God is in charge and does so by asking questions. The questions of the Bible are very telling and are used to teach us. Here are a few examples that come to mind:
God asks Adam in the garden,” Where are you”?
God asks Cain,” What’s wrong with you”?
God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”
Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”
Paul creates a fictitious and hypocritical character in a teaching moment, and asks of him, “You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself”?
Isaiah asks, “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”?
And in Chapter 53,
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
The list of questions goes on and to them we add one of our own: Is Your Cup of Christ
Pretentious or Plain?
Scripture: You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? Shall the thing made say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or the thing formed say of the one who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?
Isaiah 29:16 (NRSV)
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ‘Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? Says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.
Jeremiah 18:1-10 (NRSV)
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 11:27 (NRSV)
Message: I’m a fan of the Indiana Jones’s series, especially the Holy Grail film. However, I am not one to lift up idols. And I am not superstitious about relics that many claim to be significant, especially when it comes to their alleged powers. So when it comes to the question of the Holy Grail I find it historically interesting, but am resigned that the symbol and meaning of the cup is of more importance than the actual cup that the Lord Jesus and His disciples drank from as He consecrated the New Covenant. However I am wondering how many today would be willing to take a sip to prove their commitment as Indian Jones did in the movie. I am wondering how many would see the reflection of their very lives as the reality of the cup they have already chosen. I for one find it more meaningful to believe the cup was from a potter. It just makes sense to me that the cup would be made from clay. For we are dust without the life giving water of the Holy Spirit. We are unformed clay without the Master’s hand. So today we learn from the questions asked as they mold us, as we discern where the Holy Spirit reveals God’s desire for us. And so the answer to today’s question, I hope for you, is about the overflowing abundance of the cup of Christ that pours out His love into our lives. I hope it is about His power to transform, His blessings to assist, His Spirit to sanctify, His grace to forgive, His presence to comfort and His love to encourage. Today we have a message about the love of Christ and rejoice that it is so vast that it has to spill out of heaven as a great mystery to experience. And it is in this work of love we are molded by the potter’s hand into something practical but also beautiful. It is in this act of love that the Master’s ongoing work of creation is realized in us.
Pray we be completed by the Potter. Pray we have the hope to become new creatures in Christ. Pray we are transformed into the image of Christ. Pray we look like Jesus. Pray we sound like Jesus. Pray we act like Jesus. Pray we are molded for a purpose.
Pray that we be made into wonderful vessels for the glory of God and survive the pressure and heat of the process. Pray that the sign of His love is on us. Pray we find truth in the trials. Pray we develop character as we face the challenges of life. Pray that even when broken we can find and be used for a purpose. Pray that as long as God is the Potter and we are the clay that we are to fear nothing because He is in control. Pray we realize that before the art is created it first becomes a vision in the mind of the Potter. Pray we conform to the image God would have of us. Pray we are more concerned about the Potter’s purpose than a political prophecy.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 