Brown's Daily Word 6/9/15

Praise the Lord for the sweet rest Jesus gives by grace and by His love. Praise the Lord for this new day. It has been raining almost all night. The fields, meadows, hills, and mountains are green. The streams and the rivulets are overflowing. People are busy decorating their lawns and gardens. The farmers are planting new crops with great joy and anticipation. The farmers' markets are popping up everywhere. Some friends who live in Miami, Florida, have a huge mango tree in their yard. They sent us fresh mangoes the other day. I love mangoes. I ate them with gratitude and dreamed that night I was back in India , gathering mangoes.. fresh .. unadulterated, straight from the vine. My soul was full. May Jesus Christ be praised.
I preached from 2 Corinthians 4:7 ff this past Sunday. We are described in this passage as "vessels." This is not the only place this figure of speech occurs in the Scriptures, and it is a most significant and fitting description. The sole purpose of a vessel is to hold something, and very often that "something" is far more valuable than the container itself. This verse is so significant because it reminds us that we human beings were intended to contain something. Vessels do not, of themselves, have that substance in them, they are, of course, empty. It is no accident that we describe lives without Jesus Christ as empty lives, because that is exactly what they are.
  The world today is suffering from what Dr. Carl Jung calls "a neurosis of emptiness." He says, "When goal goes, meaning goes; when meaning goes, purpose goes; when purpose goes, life goes dead on our hands." This is what is happening in many hearts and lives today of both young and old alike, as they are consumed by a great wave of emptiness, of despair. The result is hollow men and women, who have a façade of interest, attention and activity, but within whom there is nothing but emptiness, creating the restlessness which is so characteristic of our age. Unfortunately, that restlessness breaks out on every side in the form of rebellion and reaction. We are made to be vessels, made to hold something, and if we do not have that something in there, our lives are inevitably empty and meaningless.
We are "earthen vessels". That is, we are made out of dirt, made from clay, from very common material which has nothing in itself of any value, nothing pretentious. Something is there, yes, but nothing of any real value in itself. Here, of course, is the concept with which so many struggle today and which the humanist vigorously rejects. He says that man is the substance of all things, but the Word of God takes a very humbling and realistic approach to mankind and says that we are nothing but insignificant bits of clay.
That is a wonderfully realistic view of human life. Like pots we are made to hold something, but are of little value in and of ourselves. This corresponds so exactly with the words of Paul when he warns the Galatians not to think of themselves more highly than they ought, "For if any one thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself," (Galatians 6:3 RSV). This is the biblical picture of man.
In the Christian life, according to Paul, we have a treasure in those earthen vessels, which he describes as "transcendent power." That is the glory of the Christian life, of humanity as God intended it to be. The vessel is not much in itself, but it holds an inestimable treasure, a treasure beyond price. These are glowing words. They speak of a reality, of something genuine. It is indeed a treasure, a treasure so valuable that the world would give everything it has to get it It is a treasure because it is a transcendent power. The word transcendent depicts something that is beyond the ordinary, something above ourselves, something wholly other, something different, unusual. It is not like the ordinary kind of power, which tears things apart, destroys, blasts, or breaks. This is a power of a strange kind, which unites, harmonizes, gathers, breaks down barriers and middle walls of partition. In other words, here is the power to change a life or a society from within, not from without. It does not make superficial, external adjustments, changing the outward face of things, but a genuine transformation which arises from within, which completely and permanently changes an individual. As individuals become changed, the society of which they are a part likewise becomes changed.
There is nothing like this in the world. The gospel has no rivals whatsoever. There is no other philosophy, or approach to life, which can anywhere even closely compare with it. It is completely unique. It is so tremendous because it is the power which really changes men and women. Thanks be to Jesus.
In Christ our Lord, Brown
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