“…so he made it again into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make.
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?’ says the Lord. ‘Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!'”
+ Jeremiah 18:4-6
…and He caught me!
What do you mean by that, Thomas?
I mean that I leaped into total faith and trust in God. I suspended my misconceptions about God; my fears and concerns and anxiety, and I stepped out in faith. And when I did that, I saw wonders I never dreamed of! I saw people healed, I enjoyed pure fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ that I hadn’t known before. My time spent in worship FELT GENUINE for the FIRST TIME! I even witnessed others speaking in tongues (a short but really nifty story, by the by)! And I witnessed those around me step out in faith and watched God do some unimaginable things through them as well! I saw many of the great things God promised us this whole time! It’s sincerely hard for me to not start typing out right here all the amazing things I’m referring to, but I’m long-winded as you all know, so I won’t do that here or today.
…and all it took was letting go of myself, REALLY letting go, and placing myself in the Potter’s hands.
In fact, I literally kept writing over and over “I found Him! I found Him!” in my journal!
For so long I was caught up in the image of Christianity and TALKED about the intimacy of a relationship with Christ but had always held myself back from EXPERIENCING that intimacy.
I understand now just how dead faith, and life, without works are; and in the reverse just how alive they can be with them, for myself as well as the lives God uses me to touch!
This experience and the experiences I’ve had since camp are only a taste of what God will accomplish and teach me in this next year, and really for the rest of my life! I can honestly say I can’t wait to share them with you all!
So I can say now with certainty, “I’m ready!”
I’m ready to go out and get my hands and feet dirty in my faith journey. I’m ready to put myself in God’s hands.
I came out of training camp a different color than when I came into it. I’m “a lovely shade of red”, and it wasn’t the sunburn! I am changed!
And I AM the clay!
Though I was broken and my life and my faith were a wreck, I know that the Great Potter Himself is about to remake me into “a new vessel” as Jeremiah said; and this vessel will be made for the task He intends, and it WILL bear with it this truth into all the world; with confidence!
* * * * * * *
I am excited, relieved, overjoyed, and much more to announce that through the faithfulness of both God and many of you out there, not only have I reached my departure goal of $10,000 (which means I have a seat on that plane to Serbia! WOOT! WOOT!), but I am now on my way to my $13,000 deadline for September 30th and even a little bit more by the looks of it (update with more solid numbers will come when I’ve sent in all the donations I’ve received by hand), so from the deepest parts of my heart thank-you all again for your continued support, both in donations and in prayer! God has made that $18,017 look a lot less terrifying than it did almost a year ago.
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PS. Sorry for the OVERLY long wait for this next installment; I’ve mulled over its contents extensively; I’m finicky like that, so it’s either all right or all wrong and there’s seldom an in between (and I have been distracted, I will grant you. Still working on those other things I mentioned, but it’s a work in progress!)
