He Is The Potter We Are The Clay / Mrs Peggy Adamson

Mrs Peggy Adamson

Pastor's Wife

Northview Baptist Church

Brookhaven, MS

HE IS THE POTTER AND WE ARE THE CLAY

     During the past two years, God has allowed many trials in my husband's and my life, through many health issues.  Recently, He has allowed my husband to have prostate cancer.  My first thought was,  no, Lord, not again.  Two years ago, I went into kidney failure, then exploratory back surgery to discover what the mass was by my spine in my upper back. Then had a pick line for six months total because of a bad infection in my back, the mass.  God has been good through all this, brought my kidneys to function normally and infection has been gone now for a little over a year.  Now cancer?   God, what are you trying to tell me or teach me?  Then Jeremiah 18:1-6 came across my Bible reading one day.  It talks about the potter and the clay.   Verses 4-6 say, "And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.  Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."  I believe God is also teaching us a lesson in this.  He allows things in our lives to mold us into what He wants us to be.  1 Peter 1:7 says, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."  

   Ok, Lord, I thought, you are still trying to mold me into what YOU want me to be.  This trial He has allowed to come our way is there to mold us into what He wants us to be.  As Peter said, when we are tried with fire, we want to bring praise and honour and glory to God.  He is worthy of our praise!!!

We won't always understand why God allows the trials in our lives, but we can keep our eyes on Him, trusting Him, and allowing them to bring glory and honour to Him. A favorite song of mine that I've been singing a lot of lately is, "He didn't throw the clay away."   May I share some of the words with you.  "Over and over, He molds me and makes me, into His likeness, He fashions the clay.  A vessel of honor, I am today, all because Jesus didn't throw the clay away."  I am so thankful He doesn't give up on us, but gives us these trials to help mold us so we can bring glory and honor to Him. 

   I read a story recently of a couple who went into an antique shop to buy a teacup.  The wife picked out one that she thought was very beautiful and unusual.  As she picked the cup up, it spoke to her.  "You don't understand," it said.  "I haven't always been a teacup.  There was a time when I was red and just a pile of clay.  My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over. I yelled out for him to let me alone, but he told me not yet.  Then he placed me on a spinning wheel where it went round and round. I got dizzy and yelled for him to stop, but he only nodded and told me not yet.  Then he put me in an oven where it was so very hot.  I  thought I would burn up, and yelled and pleaded with him to get me out.  He only said, not yet.  Finally he opened the door and put me on a shelf, where I began to cool.  He brushed and painted me all over. Then back into the oven I went.  Only this time it was twice as hot as the first time.  I knew I was gonna suffocate.  I begged and pleaded with him to take me out, but he only said, not yet.  Then I knew there was no hope.  Just when I thought there was no hope, the door opened and he took me out and put me on a shelf.    An hour later he handed me a mirror and told me to look at myself.  I saw how changed I was.  I was no longer that lump of clay but a beautiful, exquisite tea cup.  He reminded me of all that I had gone through to make me into this new vessel."  Friend, God knows what we each need in our lives to make us usable for Him and to bring glory and honor to Him.  Will you be that vessel that allows God to mold you into what He wants you to be?  I pray through this new trial of my husband's cancer that we allow Him to continue to mold us into what He wants us to be so He can use us  in the way that He wants to use us.  

Drop It Like It's Hot! / Mrs Mandy Winkle

Mrs Mandy Winkle

Pastor's Wife

Bible Baptist Church of Rendon

Fort Worth, TX

Drop It Like It’s Hot!

Four years ago, I had a freak accident with the pull-down attic ladder at our church. A large side section of the tip of my left index finger had been severed between the metal hinges. Thankfully, the cut narrowly missed the bone and the plastic surgeon who was on call at the ER that day was able to reattach my finger tip. The doctor said a person has anywhere between 5,000 to 10,000 nerve endings in their hands. It makes sense as we use our hands to feel with. It also explains why I had pain for months after my stitches had healed. To this day, my finger tip is very sensitive and still has some numbness to it. I have trouble clasping a necklace behind my neck because I can’t feel where I’m holding the clasp. This wound left damaged nerves behind.

As I said, it has been four years since the accident, but I was keenly reminded of this wound recently. My son was helping me drill a hole into the brick fireplace above the mantle, so I could hang a picture. Drilling into the mortar was giving us a fit. As the drill was grinding through at what seemed a snail’s pace, I pressed my weight into the drill to give it some help. That made the drill bit snap in two! Amazed by my own brutal strength (ha!) I curiously picked up the broken drill bit from the mantle to inspect it. That was a mistake! The red-hot drill bit seared into my left thumb and index finger like a hot knife through butter. I screamed and dropped the drill bit. My son looked up and said, “Mom, that’s hot!!”

Even though my finger had long since healed, I was reminded of that old wound. This made such an impression on my heart. We all have old wounds. Wounds that have been made by past disappointments, failures, sin, and wounds made by others. We eventually heal and move forward. Sometimes the wound leaves some damage behind and we become sensitive to certain things.

Hurts are going to come our way. It’s a fact of life. It is also a tactic of our enemy, the devil. There are some hurts that we need to let go of, immediately. Things that need to be dropped like a hot drill bit! Anger is one that comes to mind. Ephesians 4:6 says, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” It is not a sin to get angry. The Bible tells us that even God is angry with the wicked every day. Look at the verse again – it gives a time table to when you should stop being angry. Holding onto anger will only sear your heart further, making the wound grow. It will eventually grow into bitterness and will eat into your very soul. Let go of your anger.

Another thing we need to let go of are our past hurts and disappointments. Holding onto these will numb your heart toward your relationships with others. Because my finger was numb, I probably held onto that drill bit a little longer than I should have, creating a deeper wound. Being numb to others will only hurt you further. Forgive and let go. Proverbs 18:14 “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Wounds need time to heal. Holding on to additional hurts, will only remind you of that old wound. If it’s left to fester, it will only bring more harm. We have a real enemy! If he can get us focused on ourselves, our hurts, our wounds, he effectively renders us useless for the cause of Christ. If you’re holding on to anger and bitterness, you won’t be telling others about Calvary. If you’re numb and callous toward others, you won’t be reaching out with encouragement to your brother or sister in Christ.

I urge you to take an inventory of your heart. Are you holding onto something that you need to let go of? Relief flooded my sensitive little nerve endings the very moment I dropped that hot drill bit. Yes, it throbbed and hurt for awhile and I wished I had never picked it up. But

it wasn’t until I let go of the thing that hurt me that healing could begin. You, too, can have healing – if you let it go.

Seeing Through the Storm / Mrs Brenda Cunningham

Mrs Brenda Cunningham

Lakeview Baptist Church

Lakeview, MI

“Seeing” through the Storm”

“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion...that HE might be glorified.”  Isaiah 6:1-3
I would like to share a short bit of my family’s experience in the last 6 years, but mostly how God has wondrously been carrying me through; in hopes that there will be something here that God uses to encourage you in whatever storm you may be facing.
It was 2012. My husband, Darrell, had been diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s and Vascular Dementia combination. We had three children, two of which were still at home, with the third at college. I couldn’t believe that this was happening to my intelligent, caring husband at only 59 years old, turning him into a stranger to us. It shook us to our core. He lost his job and we had to care for him at home. Our daughter, Becca, came home from college and helped as much as she could, along with our then teenage sons, Isaac and Ian. The disease didn’t allow my husband’s mind to be able to realize that he had an issue. He thought he was perfectly fine. This made it very very difficult for anyone to help him. There were some very scary moments in especially the next three years following his diagnosis. This disease is different with everyone, but with my husband, it was like an octopus with each arm having a different personality, delusion or reaction, and you never knew which arm or when it would stretch out. It could come and go within minutes.
 If anyone is on a journey similar to this, please be encouraged that God will help you through. Also, If anyone reading this is going through a similar trial and needs someone to pray for you, I will be glad to add you to my prayer list!
These next points are basically part of my survival list, if you will, of how God is helping me to see through the storm on this journey, in faith, and sometimes just LET Him carry me.
The first list here is what God wants me to see, believe and remember. (Some of these are in reference form for you to look up) (please bear with the length of this and lack of grammatical, writing or punctuation skills on my part and read through for a special treat for you at the end, by the way) First,
I Needed to “See”:
1. That God still loves me. I needed to remind myself how true that is by fighting the devils’ doubts and strengthening my belief with the Word of God. There are so many Bible verses on God’s love that we can use. What are your favorites? One of mine is: Psalm 143:8 “Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust”, also Psalm 40:1.  A long time ago I started writing verses out on 3x5 cards. One time I searched for all the references to God’s love for us and wrote them on these cards.  Find whatever method helps you to search for, read and memorize the verses that you need. Oh how it helps to LET God show us His love and comfort.  I’m going to be transparent here. Some days, I was so drained emotionally, physically and mentally that all I could do was focus on one or more of these cards to get through the day, and hope the next day would be better. But I had to get right back at good devotions or my spirit would grow weak. My Pastor’s wife, Eileen Abberger, can’t stress enough to her ladies how we need to dig into God’s Word for what we need.
2. His comfort. If you have a loved one with this disease, or are grieving in any way, then you will need lots and lots of comfort from the Lord. Don’t feel guilty for asking Him, even if it feels like you are asking Him all the time sometimes. It’s ok! He loves to give you comfort through His Word! He is a great Comforter! He is a great encourager! He is strong and mighty! Psalms 94:19 “In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. And: Psalm 119:50 “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy Word hath quickened me.
3. That Jesus is near. That He hadn’t forsaken me. The well known verse, Hebrews 13:5.“I will never leave thee nor forsake thee”. Psalm 34:17-19 ...”the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

4. That God’s Word is still true. Psalm 119:11,18 & 105:  “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee...Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law...Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
5. That Jesus really understands. Hebrews 12:2. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
6. To see others needs and hurts. At first, It seemed like I couldn’t focus beyond this “twilight zone” that I felt like I was in. I felt very alone and felt strangely distanced from my loved ones because no-one that I knew could relate to this. One day, while sitting in church, the Lord urged me to look around at everyone. He lovingly reminded me that all these dear folks had needs and heartaches, too. They needed my prayers just as much as I needed theirs. I was humbled and asked for God’s forgiveness and help to reach out beyond myself. There were also still lost souls that needed to hear the gospel message.    

                                                                                             
Whenever I follow the first list above, it gets me in gear for this next list:

The “Some Things I Needed to DO” list:

1. Thank and praise Jesus every day, no matter how I felt. How often do we hear this. It is so true. I can’t explain it, but every time I do this, it is a lot easier to trust the Lord and not let bitterness get a foothold throughout the day. I‘ll admit I didn’t do this every single day. There were times I was praising and thanking Him through tears and with a broken heart, and I didn’t always feel better right away, but God always brought something later to help me. Psalm100:4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless his name. Along with this verse, I usually sing this next song to God first thing upon awakening, “This is the day, this is the day that the Lord hath made, that the Lord hath made. I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it, and be glad in it....”. God gives us so many blessings that we don’t see if we don’t have a grateful heart. For those of you that have “God loves me” reminders, I do too. I need to look for them plus count the blessings I already have, when the devil tries to distract me with fear, uncertainty, hopelessness, etc. Maybe it’s an answered prayer for a loved one, seeing an uncle finally get saved after 40 years of prayer, loved ones telling me that they are praying for me, sighting something in nature, food and raiment, etc. etc. It takes practice to tune in quickly to thank Him when He’s trying to show me something. I’m still working on it and have a long way to go.
2. Make time with my Lord every day! Psalm 63 “O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee...” Seek Him. Psalm 27:8 “When thou saidst, seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord will I seek” Talk to Him always throughout the day. Devotions! Get my Bible out, ask God to show me what He wants me to “see” as I read it. Seek Him and know Him through His Word. Make a long list of His character and read it to Him. “God, you are Amazing, Forgiving, Merciful, Kind, Strong, My Redeemer, Patient, Near Me, etc. and etc. Go on and on about Him. Get to know Him more by reading Bible portions in the first person about Himself. (There’s lots of these in Isaiah, 43:10-15, for example, and Psalms, Jeremiah and Jesus’ words about Himself in the four gospels). There is something comforting beyond words about reminding myself through the Bible of all the wonderful things God is, and that with how big He is, He still cares about us personally. There’s no one like Him!
3. Pray! Keep short sin accounts. Ask God’s Holy Spirit to reveal to me where I have displeased Him! I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.” Ask God to remind me to pray for loved ones the moment I see them. Use a prayer list. Pray for the unsaved. Pray for those I’ve led to the Lord. Pray for whoever I’ve been able to slip a tract to the moment I walk away. This
world is not my home and in Heaven there will be no more I can do for Jesus here on earth. Praying for others distracts me from feeling sorry for myself.
4. Ask God to help me practice positive thought control. II Corinthians 10:5 “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God; and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” Also read II Corinthians 10:4 and II Timothy 1:7. Professionals say that in order to ease panic attacks, one should ground herself (focus on what you can see, hear, touch, etc.) God has shown me that focusing on Bible verses relevant to each negative thought and devils attacks, GROUNDS me back to the truth.
5. Stay faithful in serving God at church. Because of my husband’s disease, he and I had to stop serving in a few areas at our church, God showed me the things I could continue to do and focus on those.
6. Let loved ones help. It’s sometimes difficult for me to ask for help. I had a group of loved ones who desperately wanted to help, but didn’t know how. Don’t be afraid to ask them. Sometimes it was just having a friend take me on an outing or one of Darrell’s friends watching him for me.
7. Set goals. “Psalm 27:13&14. “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord. Ask God to show me how to glorify Him through this. Proverbs 4:26 and Psalm 32:8 are good also.
8. Take care of yourself. There were many times that I needed a break. My body would tell me by shutting itself and my mind down. Jesus got away into the wilderness. Take care of yourself, don’t feel guilty about it, then come back refreshed.
9. Have and keep a sense of humor. Proverbs 17:22  “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” If you don’t think you have one, find one! It’s fun and very refreshing. Darrell and I would often sit down and watch funny videos until we had a gut laugh. Have fun and laugh with loved ones.
10.Listen to music that tunes your heart to the Lord. Remember the saying, “music soothes the savage beast”? This is even more so with good Godly music. Having Darrell’s and myself favorite hymns and songs playing in our home did wonders for both of us.
11.Finally, Glorify God. God simply gets all the glory for everything, and that’s the way I want it! Galatians 6:14 “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” and of course, Isaiah 61:3 above at the very beginning. ...”that HE might be glorified.” I am nothing and I have a long way to go in perfecting these things I need to do. But I am so grateful to Him for carrying my family through, for His many blessings and answered prayer, for everything! We can trust Him for our future.                                                                                                                                                 
On an end thought: I am a crazy creation lover! We live in the woods and I especially love bird watching. One day I saw a lovely female cardinal sitting on our deck railing in the freshly fallen snow. She was surrounded by this snow. It hid her food supply. But she needed to “see” that she needed to venture out to look for it. God promises to take care of tiny birds. How much more will he take care of us! I’ve had to “venture out” to find some of the blessings Jesus had for me all along!
I was able to get a video of this lady bird for you to enjoy, below. And for my fellow northerners (we were all so longing for Spring) please don’t hate me for showing more of that S..S...N..N......you know what!

God Has a Better Plan / Mrs Becky Williams

Mrs Becky Williams

Pastors Wife

Youngstown Baptist Church

Youngstown, OH

God Has a Better Plan

Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

When I was a teen girl I had a picture of what I wanted my life to be like. I wanted to marry the man of my dreams, have beautiful children, live near my family, and serve in the same church that my whole family attended. They were simple dreams, but its what I had in mind. Of course, we've all heard if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

I did get to marry the man of my dreams, and 13 years later I can honestly say I love him more now than I even did then. Shortly after we were married, my husband felt the call to the ministry and specifically knew that God wanted us to move to the city of Youngstown to be His tool in starting a church ( I always hesitate to say we started a church, because it was so evident that it was God and not us.) I remember thinking I didn't like this plan, that God's plan would make me unhappy. Like Isaiah 55:8 says, my ways were not His ways, and of course, I thought mine were better. Can I say though, even though my surrender was done probably not in the best of spirits, I'm so glad I surrendered. Ministry is hard, but I love it! How blessed I feel, to see God work. Sure there are hard times, but many Sunday mornings during the singing I will start to tear up as I look around and see what God has done! I'm glad His ways were not my ways and my faith has grown so much as I've seen what He is capable of.

Recently the Lord has tested my faith again as we entered the world of adoption. You see in 13 years of marriage, those beautiful children never arrived and we had been praying and praying. In March of last year, an opportunity to adopt was brought before us and we excitedly started our home study. Around Mother's Day, we found out it wasn't to be and I was devastated, but you see again God had another plan. In September, we found out about a baby to be born the next month that needed a home and the Lord so sweetly allowed us to adopt him. There is a sign in our nursery that says, "How is it possible that out of all the little boys in the world, we got the best one." That is exactly how we feel. How excited I am to have celebrated my very first Mother's Day yesterday! Not only did God have another plan, but in every case, looking back I could see that God had a BETTER plan.

Have you hit a detour in your life? Are you going through something that you wouldn't have chosen or wasn't in your 20 year plan? Just remember Proverbs 3:5,"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." We need to trust Him and follow the direction He gives us for our lives, because when we do, His plan is far better than anything we could have thought of on our own. How blessed are we to follow the One who can turn our ashes into beauty, our mourning into joy, and our heaviness into praise(Isaiah 61:3)! God ALWAYS has a BETTER plan!

Is Your Vessel Broken / Ms Moriah Henderson

Ms Moriah Henderson

Church Pianist / High School Senior

Harvest Baptist Church

Manhattan, KS

Is Your Vessel Broken?

                Is your vessel broken? To most people this would seem like an odd question. Even to me, when I first considered it, it made no sense. Awhile back I read a book called The Calvary Road. It approaches the topic of personal revival and how that through brokenness, repentance, and confession, one may obtain it. Recently, I decided to read it again. The chapter on brokenness stuck out to me, and I began to study it out. So often, we get so concerned with our own personal needs and desires, that the Lord’s will and personal revival cannot be made manifest in and through our lives. As it is often said, the Lord cannot use us, until He properly breaks us. Although it sounds painful, (and sometimes may be), if we truly want God to be fully revealed to us and lifted high in our lives, then being broken is the only way that we may obtain it. The beginning of brokenness is personal. I have found that as long as I am in control, God cannot and will not use me. No matter how much I may desire to be used of God, if I am not willing to give everything I have and am over to Him, I simply cannot be used. Brokenness is a two-way street. God applies the pressure, and we must humble ourselves and yield to His molding. Psalm 51:16-17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, though wilt not despise.” Daily humbling ourselves, allowing the Lord to fill us with His Holy Spirit, and heeding to His voice is paramount to being broken. Not too long ago, I was at a revival meeting that lasted several days. Sitting next to me was a girl I did not know too well. For the duration of the meeting she cried through the entirety of each service. I sat quietly beside her, begging God to lead and guide me as to what I could do to help her and point her to Him. A few times I prayed with her, but felt a spiritual battle going on that I could not fully grasp. After the last meeting, I talked to my dad and told him the Lord put this person on my heart, and I didn’t know why. His words were, “Moriah, all I can tell you is to stay tender to the Holy Spirit’s leading and guiding.”

 So, I continued to pray earnestly for her. The very next Sunday an intense message was preached on hell, and she raised her hand for salvation. Although she has not gotten saved yet, had I not been tender to the Lord’s leading and direction, I would have missed an opportunity to come before our Heavenly Father’s throne on behalf of someone whose life truly depends on it.

  I heard a preacher recently say, “The Christian who neglects the Holy Spirit is like a lamp that is not plugged in.” How sad that would be! To be a child of the King, yet not show the truths and blessings that God has given to us to point others to Christ. In Exodus 2:11-25, God could have used Moses when he was young, confident, and had power and authority in the land, but He chose not to use him until he was an old, humble shepherd who was scared to even speak before the king (Ex. 4:1-17). Throughout the Bible, we see time and again how God could not truly use people until their vessels were emptied of themselves and they were willing to let God fill them with Him. Is your vessel broken, ready for His use?  Let’s listen to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to work and move through us so that we may be a blessing to others!

Psalms 143:10

Teach me to do thy will; for thou are my God: thy spirit is good: lead me into the land of the uprightness.

Galatians 5:25

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.