It’s been quite a while since I’ve done anything with this.  Let’s say that with school, the bookstore, church, and family, I don’t get much of a chance to sit down and do much for myself.  It seems the only “me” time I get these days consist of pressure relieving trips to the men’s room.  Funny how that works, a place where you should be careful not to breathe in certain aromas is about the only place I can breathe at all.  But it helps to remember the encouraging words of Dr. Spradlin, “You can do more than you think you can when you have to.”

I’m in the middle of sermon prep for a ser mon I will be delivering on the evening of the 28th of this month.  I’ve talked about this passage here before but just to step back a little bit, the point I’m looking to make is that you have to be the salt before you can be the light. 

According to Old Testament law, salt was required with every meal offering.  This 1) makes sense because of the purifying and preserving qualities of salt, and 2) helps to keep the law consistent with the requirement that an animal that is brought to be sacrificed must be pure and without blemish.  Salt with also symbolic of the covenant between God and man.  I need to do more research about that.

This is enough background, I think to say that from the New Testament Christian standpoint, salt is symbolic of the holiness of Christ.  Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth…” Therefore, we can say here that Jesus is saying, “you are the holiness of me,” and within the holiness of Christ is the character of Christ.  So when Jesus says “you are the salt of the earth” he is explaining to us that we have within us the character of Christ.  This is given to us when we are first redeemed, (positional holiness). 

From the standpoint of a person like me who loves to eat good food, we know that salt is an enhancer of flavor.  It helps to draw out the good flavor of our food and eliminate the tastes that are not so good (granted some food just tastes bad anyway) (This is a picture of salt as a purifier.)  When we salt our food or add pepper and the like we are seasoning our food to make it taste better.  So when we are saved the character of Christ seasons us.  Our own character is eliminated as we begin to take on more and more of the character of Christ.  But also when we say that something is seasoned, we mean that it is mature; a seasoned Christian is a mature Christian and therefore has within them more of the character of Christ than a new Christian (practical holiness). 

This is all I have time for today.  I’ll get back on as soon as I can and just maybe I’ll get through the rest of verse 13.  Any comments or insights that I may have missed are welcomed and helpful.

Well, after completing the first term at the Seminary, and a long and drawn out process of signing my life away. The Featherston family is finally moving into Seminary housing appartments today!!  I’m not looking forward to actually moving, but I am excited about the final result of it.  This has been a good week, long, but good.  Our new church is working out very well, and we are very strongly supported in our new ministry.  I feel really good that this will be a great fit for us.  Pray that God will be glorified in our service, and in our ministry above all else!!

These last few days have been very much a struggle for me.  School is going well, and Greek has gone surprisingly well (my lowest score thus far has been a 94!!).  Yep, things are on the up and up there.  So what on earth can be going on that makes all this so hard?  I’m glad you asked.  While I’m here in Memphis for four days of class and practical missions, my wife and my son are up in McKenzie (about 2 hours away).  I can honestly say that I miss getting up for those 3 am feedings (can you guess what I did this weekend).  My wife and I have never been apart like this in our marriage until now.  And I don’t like it one bit.  But as hard as this is, we both know this is what God wants from us right now.  So we are trusting that God will make a way for my family to move down here with me.  I am most thankful that my mother is giving me a place to stay for the week while it’s just me, but my family is going to need a place of our own.  What’s exciting about it all is that I have an interview at a Christian bookstore Friday afternoon for a part-time opening.  It’s not going to put us in the position we want to be in, but it’s a start.

It’s hard to believe that only a few short days ago I didn’t know if i was going to be starting seminary this fall or not.  With no money or a way to get the money, it remained a big question up until the last second.  Yet God provided and today was the first day of my first term.  It’s amazing how God has provided for me these last few days.  Not only has this term been paid for, but paid for over and above what I needed which allowed me to buy all my books, but that isn’t all.  I was also able to get a much needed new tire for my car, and thus far I have had the gas money needed for my 2 hour commute.  As Dr. Allison would say, “Isn’t that like God?!”  

This term is expected to be very challenging.  First, I am taking a class called Personal Evangelism, which will require a lot of memorization and reading.  My second class is Beginning Greek.  Need I say more.  Language has always kick my tail end, but I think I’m going to have more help with this.  

Pray that God would give me sound mind to allow me to learn the material required for each course.  Pray that I would be diligent in my studies and preparations.  And pray that God would continue to provide for my family and myself so that we can move down to Memphis very soon and so that I will be able to see this thing through to the end with the tools to pursue the ministry that God has se before me.

This man gets home from work one late afternoon, and all he wants is a few minutes to himself to collect himself.  But out from the other room appear his son carrying his baseball gove and a baseball in one arm and a football in the other.  The boy asks his father to come outside and play with him.  The boy’s father tells his son that he will in a few miniutes and that he just wants to set for a bit.  The boy then explains that he had been waiting all day to play with his dad and was ready now to do so.  This father looks to the coffee table to see a magazine that was opened to a picture of the world.  He then tore the picture out, and tore the picture up and gave it to the boy explaining that it was a puzzle and he would go play with him when the puzzle was put together.  This father thought it a brilliant idea, figuring it would take his son a little while to get it all put back together.  But 3 minutes later in comes the boy with the picture all taped together.  The father was amazed.  “How did you get that put together so fast,” asked the father.  The boy replied, “That was easy.  I figured out that there was a picture of a man on the back side and once I took care of him the world took care of itself.”

How true that is. 

Already we have established a few things about this passage.  I’ve pulled out one major theme, but this time I’ll focus in on the clay as it is delt with by the potter in a little more detail.

There isn’t really isn’t much that I’m going to pull out here (at least this time).  But there is one thing that is so simple and so profoud at the same time.  I love how we can examine scripture and see conflicting expressions that are used in complete and perfect unity.  But what I want to say today is that, despite the potter’s frustration with the clay, despite the constant working and reworking of the clay and the ever remaining problems with the clay itself, the clay is never set out on the table to be pushed aside.  The potter molds the clay into a vessel as the clay will allow him to do so.  But when the clay becomes spoiled, he then begins to reshape the clay into a different form.  The potter is always working with the clay and the clay never leaves the potter’s hand.  The same is true of us.  We have our problems, we are marred creatures, we are leaky vessels in need of repair and reshaping.  And even though we fail so many times to allow God the freedom to make with us what He wills, we are always in His hands being worked on. 

What Love is This?!!!  What a blessing!!! May your soul be satified in knowing that he who has began a good work in you will complete it to the end!  

I didn’t realize it’s been THIS long since I’ve posted anything.  There’s been lots going on and no time to talk about that.  Other things have been consuming my thoughts as of late.  I have found myself in a very comfortable place that I cannot seem to move from right now.  I like to call it, the hand of the potter.  Over the last month or so, I’ve been taking a very hard and revealing look at Jeremiah 18:1-4.  The biggest theme that continues to come up for me right now, is unity within the body of believers, and how we need the kind of unity so desperatly that Jesus prayed about in John 17.  We need each other beyond the point of support and helping out; we need each other to the point that our spiritual health is dependant upon our unity.  So for your consideration, let me share how I came to this idea. 

It is needless to say who represents the potter and who represents the clay in the object lesson that Jeremiah is seeing in this passage.  What is important about this visual, is the relationship between the potter and the clay.  The crafting of the vessel by the potter becomes a continual working and reworking in order to achieve the desired product.  It’s a constant breaking and remolding due to the problems within the clay.  Here, it must be pointed out that the problem is not due to the error of the potter, but with the clay’s failure to submit to the workmanship of the potter (the clay doesn’t have the right give to it).  Throughout the process, the clay is marred.  The proper vessel cannot be formed.  At this point the question that I’ve entertained has been, “what is a vessel made for?”  The simple and obvious answer is that it may be filled.  Filled with what?  I think this answer is obvious too, when we consider the cross.  God wants to fill us with His love, mercy, grace,…  and ultimately Himself.  He wants to do so in order to cause us to overflow, or spill Him over into the lives of the people around us so that others experience God through us.  But God has not been able to do so because we are marred in His hands.  We have become leaky vessels.  Instead of God spilling over to others, God runs right though us.  But here is where our unity is so vital.  We all have different strong points and weaknesses.  In other words our holes, our leaks are in different places.  So here is another object lesson.  Take a few cups.  Now put holes in the cups so that they are in different places.  Then try to pour water in the cups individually.  The cups will not hold the water at all.  But, if you take the cups and stack them inside each other and then try to pour the water into them, the water will hold, and the only way it can spill is over the top.

We need each other in such a way as to prevent leaky vessels from failing to accomplish the purpose of God in the world here.  We need to learn dependence upon each other, but first we must learn dependence on God and trust that he is going to make us into the perfect vessel for His purpose so long as we let Him do it.

This was e-mailed to me this morning. So I am posting here with a very hearty AMEN!!!

 I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it for me! (Matthew 25:40 NLT)

Loving the Least

I remember a poster on a dorm-room wall during my days in college. The poster was a picture of a homeless man lying in a dirty gutter holding a bottle in a paper bag by his side. The inscription on the bottom was a quote from Mother Teresa. It read, “You love Jesus only as much as the person you love the least.”

For all we don’t understand about the life of Jesus and the true nature of God, there is one truth that he made completely clear. The Christian faith is about service and humility. It’s about helping those who can’t help themselves. It’s about loving others more than we love ourselves—even the most unlovable among us.

What is the sign of true followers? Is it the amount of knowledge that we have? Is it the money we give to missions? the degrees we’ve earned? the number of people we’ve preached to? the hours we’ve spent worshiping in church? the books we’ve read or written?

According to Jesus, the sign of the saved is their love for the least.

It is said that when Francis of Assisi left his wealth behind to seek God, he stripped naked and walked out of the city. The first person he encountered on his journey was a leper on the side of the road. He first passed him, then turned back. He embraced the leper in his arms before continuing his journey. A few steps down the road he turned and saw that the leper was gone. Until his dying day, Francis of Assisi was convinced that the leper was Jesus. Even if he was wrong, he was right.

 

 

 

 

 

Wow!!!  That’s about all that I can say right now.  Here I sit at home in front of my computer looking back at all the things that I have put behind me over the last 6 years (A calling, a change of major, an international mission trip to Europe, the death of a grandmother, marriage to the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met, and the birth of my amazing son… just to name a few) only to find myself standing at the end of my coligiate career.  What great work God is doing in my life and the life of my family!!!  There is much to be thankful for and much to praise Him for. 

So what’s next you may be asking.  Well, Memphis get ready, the Featherstons are coming!!! Why Memphis?  MORE SCHOOL!!!!!!  Can you believe that.  Well, anymore a 4-year college degree only amounts to about what a high school diploma amounts to.  God has been opening doors to bring this opportunity about, and praise to Him for it.  We certainly wouldn’t be able to be doing what we are doing now with out Him and the support of our extended family.

So now is time for reflection.  What has God done for you in the past that you still praise Him for?  What is He opening up for you in the future?  

I was sitting in church this past Sunday morning and really enjoying the  service and the opportunity to  worship  with joined believers and CEOs  (Christmas and Easter only), and it had occurred to me that we refer to the resurrection of Christ as Easter Sunday, but I can’t say that I have ever seen or heard of that day being called Easter in the Bible.  So why do we call it Easter?