Works in Progress

 God knows what's on your heart.  Whom The Lord loveth, he chasteneth.  Sometimes love is manifest in a two by four and smacks you in the face.  To chasten is to straighten, to restore to an upright position.  Often the chastening is painful.  However when we go through the fiery crucible of life and are work-hardened by tribulation and pressure of the battle, tribulation shall have her perfect work.  At times it's painful to be transformed, to be squeezed, not according to the mold of the world, but according to the pressure of the potter's masterful hand.  Thou art the potter, I am the clay.  The clay does not complain to the potter about being shaped by the potter's hand and about being hardened by the fire of the kiln.  We're earthen vessels shaped by our master.  For we have this treasure in an earthen vessel that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

We're all works in progress:  For it is God which worketh in you to wil andto do of his good pleasure.  Holiness and sanctification means to be separated for the purpose intended by the designer.  We do now know the beginning from the end, but he does.  We're being shaped and fashioned, molded according to God's divine design.  He is the master designer.  We're being shaped as instruments, fit for the master's use.  As vessels, we must be first broken so that we can be reconciled.  Reconciliation means to bring back together that which has been separated.  Jesus came not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.  One meaning of salvation is to be made whole.  He picks up the threads of our broken hearts and weaves them together again.

To become reconciled to God, we must turn from self, from the world and the pleasures of the flesh.  Repentance is to turn around.  While we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are unseen.
The glory is in the Lord.  Glory means weight.  It means value.  The world says to count the cost.  God says that it's not about the cost, it's about what you value most.  Some things are priceless.  Jesus Christ is the pearl without price.

Jesus said to Peter, "loveth thou me more than these?"  Do you love me more than your fishing business, your livelihood, your earthly credentials your material goods, your earthly family?  What is it that you love most?  Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Jesus said to seek the Blessor and not the blessing:  but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.

Regardless of the problems of life, the solution is Jesus Christ.  For this light affliction which is but for a moment worketh a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.  Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of the world will become strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.

Thou art the Potter, I am the clay...  not my will but thine be done.

Your Brother in Christ, Michael