Summer Heat

Whew- the summer is now into full swing and it's quite a warm one out there. Today in church my pastor has been talking about trials. One of the stories that he told was when he and his wife visited a pottery store and while there they had demonstrations. As the person explained the process he described how the pottery got "thumped" with a special instrument and if there was a thud, it had to be placed back into the fire in order to elimate those infirmities. We are the clay and God is the potter- our thuds may be in our complaining, fault finding, selfishness....sin. Lately I feel as if I have thuds and get concerned about the trials to come; however, the demonstration continued at the pottery store and if the finished product was hit with the instrument and it "pinged" as it sang, it was ready to be sold- to be put in use. We can rejoice that through our trials, God is refining us and making us useful for His kingdom. I've been quite humbled as I've been reading this book entitled, "Back to Jerusalem. These believers in China had/have such a great faith. One example was of a pastor who was lifted by a crane and dropped to his death- not once, but twice dropped because of his faith in Jesus. Whoa, I'm humbled to a point of no words.