The Lord has blessed us to live in a world
of beauty and bounty, filled with His love and grace. He blesses us with
magnificent seasons. In Ephesians 1 we read how the Lord has blessed us in
Jesus Christ our Lord. In the midst of beauty
and blessings we witness and experience tragedy and trials, and even
tribulations. We are stunned by the beheading of a US journalist by the most
brutal, barbaric, demonic, and confused Muslim terrorists in Iraq. Many
innocent and defenseless Christians are terrorized and persecuted, and even
crucified, by heartless Muslims in the Middle East. We do not comprehend and do
not understand the trials and tribulations that are maddening and demonic. Our
Lord has promised that, "in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good
courage, I have overcome the world". The
Lord allows the sufferings and trials in our lives, not to punish us but to draw
us unto Him, that we might have a deeper fellowship with Him.
Most of us are familiar, in concept at
least, with something called a safe deposit box. It is a box in which we store
certain items that we deem to be so important or valuable that we want to put
them somewhere special for safe keeping. Some may use a safe deposit box to
store insurance policies, financial records, birth certificates, passports, and
other documents and possessions that are of particular importance to you.
Some go the extra mile for safety and security and rent a safe deposit box at a
bank where they believe their valuables will be even more securely protected
against theft, fire, or loss.
With this concept in mind, it is
interesting to discover that Our Lord and Redeemer does not use that same
principle when it comes to the most precious and irreplaceable possession that
you or I will ever possess, which is our life and salvation. The apostle Paul
says that God gives us treasures and then he says that we have to house those
valuables in "earthen vessels," not a steel-reinforced safe deposit box. Not a
fireproof box that can resist the attacks of this world, but an earthen vessel.
This image of an earthen vessel
refers to the clay and mud pots, and bowls and jars that were used by people in
ancient times. Paul draws an analogy between
the common earthen vessels of his day and our physical body. We are not as
strong as we think we are, and we are not as invincible as we wish we were.
These bodies in which we live every day are nothing more that earthen vessels
that can be chipped, or broken or shattered and destroyed. Paul tells us that
God enriches our lives with wonderful things, both physical and spiritual, but
then God houses them inside of our physical bodies that are prone to pain,
sickness and even death. God places precious things in earthen vessels.
We are reminded in 2
Corinthians 4:7-11. that "we are hard
pressed on every side but not crushed. We are perplexed but not driven to
despair. We are persecuted but not abandoned. We are struck down but not
destroyed" (NIV).
The grace of God is sufficient to
carry us through whatever this world may through our way.we are not in this
struggle by ourselves. There is someone on our side who knows all about our
pains and our problems. His eyes knew the presence of tears. His heart knew
the weight of grief. His flesh knew the ravages of pain and suffering. His
body even knew the confinement of the grave. Yet, by the power of God, He was
victorious and triumphant over all of that, and by that same power we can and
will be victorious as well.
In Christ,
Brown
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