Clay in Potter’s Hand

By C. J. Refsland on April 2, 2015 • ( 0 )

Isaiah 64:8 – But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.

I think it’s safe to say that we’re not always aware of all the changes that are taking place around us. For example, in the area of technology, sometimes I will look down at my cell phone, and it will tell me that it has just finished updating itself. Something was getting changed around inside my phone, and I didn’t even realize it. This is how it is with all kinds of things in our world today. Another example would be in the area of food. It is true that the food we eat today is very different from the food people ate a generation ago. Food today is more genetically modified, more protected from bugs and disease and decay by pesticides and chemicals. Some will argue that this is good, and others will argue that it’s not so good. I don’t want to get in the middle of all of that – but the fact remains that things in this world, like food or technology, are always changing, and you and I aren’t always aware of what’s going on around us.

We the Christians are prosecuted all over the world and some time we feel that this is the hardest time ever Christians faced on the earth, but if we look into the history Persecution of Christians can be traced historically from the time of Jesus in the first century to the present time. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith at the hands of both Jews from whose religion Christianity arose and the Roman Empire which controlled much of the land across which early Christianity was distributed. Early in the fourth century, the religion was legalized by the Edict of Milan, and it eventually became the State church of the Roman Empire.

Christian missionaries, as well as the people that they converted to Christianity, have been the target of persecution, many times to the point of being martyred for their faith.

There is also a history of individual Christian denominations suffering persecution at the hands of other Christians under the charge of heresy, particularly during the 16th century Protestant Reformation as well as throughout the Middle Ages when various Christian groups deemed heretical were persecuted by the Papacy.

In the 20th century, Christians have been persecuted by various groups, and by atheistic states such as the USSR and North Korea. During the Second World War members of many Christian churches were persecuted in Germany for resisting the Nazi ideology. Hitler expressed a desire to destroy the influence of Christian churches within the Third Reich, seeing it as absurdity and nonsense founded on Jewish lies. He planned to do this after the war, and not during it, believing “that suited his immediate political purposes”.

In more recent times the Christian missionary organization Open Doors (UK) estimates 100 million Christians face persecution, particularly in Muslim-dominated countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim countries of the world. According to the International Society for Human Rights, up to 80% of acts of persecution are directed at people of the Christian faith.

But every time we prosecuted we feel that GOD is not protecting us. In the recent time we the Christians are prosecuted more than one country at a time and unfortunately the prosecutors are Extremist Muslims groups of different Muslim countries namely top of the list are Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt and Malaysia.

We are the Christians are the Clay of Potters hand, hand of Jesus Christ our savoir, our holy father Lord God. Like potter always create best things from their clay same like Jesus always create good things for the world. But we feel that we are in fire and in very hard time, if you look into the pottery process. When potter create a pottery from the clay first they construct the structure of the pottery then he put that pottery into the fire to make them strong and then he painted that pottery with the vibrant colors of life.

Same like this we the Christians are clay in Jesus hand. He created every human being with love and care and then HE put us into fire to make us strong and then he painted us with the word of God and we flourish.

So every time we prosecuted, we should stand strong in faith that the only way to survive is Jesus. There is no other way of survival. In so many countries of the Muslim world Christians are being prosecuted and they are thrown away from their home. A large majority of the Christians are thrown away or forced to leave their homeland like Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt and Malaysia

The Bible clearly say’s about Christian Prosecution. Reason for Persecution:

The Cross separates us from the world

John 15:18-21 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you… If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you… because they do not know Him who sent Me.”

John 16:1-4 “These things I have spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues [today it might be from churches]; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.”

Following Jesus: Sharing in His suffering and promises

Matthew 10:16-20 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues….But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.”

Matthew 5:10-12 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven….”

We are the clay, and you our potter: respecting their original formation out of the dust of the earth; and so expressing humility in themselves, and yet ascribing greatness to God, who had curiously formed them, as the potter out of the clay forms vessels for various uses: it may respect their formation as a body politic and ecclesiastic, which arose from small beginnings, under the power and providence of God; and we all are the work of His hand; and therefore regard us, and destroy us not; as men do not usually destroy their own works: these relations to God, and circumstances in which they were as creatures, and as a body civil and ecclesiastic, are used as arguments for mercy and favor.