Are You God's Leaky Vessel?

God uses some interesting things to help us understand who we are in Him. We are sheep, a body, and living stones making up a temple. We are His friends, co-heirs, and God's sons. He also calls us His "earthen vessels". 2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." Even though we came from the soil, check Genesis 2:7, the Lord has determined to use us to carry the glory of His message concerning His Son. The Spirit of God dwells in us and empowers us to live lives that have purpose and value. However, there seems to be an issue with God's plan. Even though all these things are true, God directs the Apostle Paul to warn the believers in Ephesus that their vessels may well leak.

Ephesians 5:18, "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit." Writing to a city that had pagan festivals which involved the consuming of wine to the point of intoxication, Paul warns the believers to avoid such conduct. Drunkenness removes self-control and leads to all sorts of actions that are wounding, foolish and sinful. In opposition to this the Spirit brings forth fruit, including , self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). To be consistent in our Spiritual fruit bearing we are told to be "filled with the Spirit". Individuals have had some interesting interpretations concerning this verse. Sometimes forgetting that "self-control" is an evidence of the Spirit's filling not lack of control. We, who are filled, should be bringing forth that Spiritual Fruit. You remember, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. These aspects of the Spirit's fruit integrated together reveal that "excellence of the power of God" we read of in 2 Corinthians 4:7. So we have the message and the power, however, we do not seem to always be effective at putting all that on display.

The problem seems to be that our earthen vessels leak. In Ephesians 5:18 the word "filled" is actually a present passive imperative verb. Meaning we need to constantly keep on being filled with the Spirit. The passive part indicates we cannot do this ourselves. It is something the Spirit does, we just need to be willing receptacles. In reality, it is less that we need more of God's Spirit and more like God's Spirit needs more of us. We crowd our lives with an enormous amount of stuff and push the Spirit into the corners of our existence. We replace the Spirit with things like anxiety, bitterness, complacency and insensitivity. It is never our objective to do so. We my never get drunk with wine but we may well replace being self-controlled by the Spirit. It may be that we acquiesce to the cry of the urgent and the tentacles of our illusion that we can handle things on our own. We often are unaware of how easily we can be drawn away from the Spirit and fail to receive His desired filling of our lives. It seems, in my own life, that my Earthen vessel leaks more often than I would want to believe. Paul shares some very good advice. We do indeed need to keep on being filled with the Spirit so we can produce the fruit of the Spirit so the excellence of the power may be of God, rather than having our own weakness on display. I do want to be more than a leaky vessel. How about you? 

My Trampoline Died

It is sad but true, our trampoline has come to the end of its life. It has served our family for something like 12 years. It has been bounced on by myself, my children and my grandchildren, not to mention more of my children's friends than I could list. It has served as a launching pad to get on the shed and a landing platform when doing flips off of the shed. It has provided a place to sleep on and even to hold a pop up tent so my campers didn't have to deal with the hard ground. But its time has passed. The tabs holding the springs are tearing and the fabric is deteriorating. So it will soon find its way to the land fill and the metal will someday be a Kia. 

It is like the rest of the world we live in. Tainted by death and deterioration. It is hard to avoid the reminders that come our way. Death is a strange thing to me. I do not understand it or really know what to do with it. We were not created to die. When God made us He made us to live. "God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being" (Gen. 2:7). But Sin entered and now death touches everything. There is an odd tension concerning death in the Scriptures. Paul points out, "to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21). Yet he knows that living is a good thing for those around him. John tells us in his Revelation of Messiah that "Death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14). Death will be removed. Like Satan, death is our enemy. We do not need to fear it, but it is not our friend. It is an affront to all God began. Even our Lord, when contemplating the pain and agony, wished that it would not be so, but cried "Not My will but Thy will be done" (Mt. 28). By the way, this really baffles me. The Divine dying? Conquering death makes sense to me as He is life and gives life and began life, but the dying part............??? 

I understand that there are times when the suffering ends and going to be with the Lord is a great release. I have been to memorials that are a celebration of the life of the one past. But death is still so wrong to me. The aging process that is unavoidable. The "putting down" of my faithful trampoline because the enemy called death takes his toll on everything. But this is the reality we face.

Paul tells the Corinthians that death has lost its sting and the grave has lost its victory. I will have a new body that will not suffer the deterioration this one is undergoing. To be "absent with the body is to be present with the Lord" is true, however all this seems to be pretty clouded to me. Now don't misunderstand. I do not fear death. (A bit apprehensive about aging and not being able to provide for my beloved wife. The no Social security, no retirement, no real savings thing haunts me a little, but not death) Fear of dying is not the issue, fear of missing life is.

Life is a gift. My daughter is expecting. I was asked if I hoped it was a boy this time. Sorry, no expectations or wishes here. Just amazement that the God who created the universe is forming and knitting together this tiny being in my daughters womb. Awestruck at the thought. Every day, every breath is a gift. Each day is filled with new mercies from God ( Lam. 3:22-23). Our enemy, death, wants to rob us of that reality. I woke up yesterday early and captured a moment as I watched Debbie sleep peacefully beside me. This remarkable being, this creation of God, resting comfortably in the gift of sleep that is also a gift and God's design. Thoughts wandered to how blessed I am. In His divine mercy this woman loves me, and has been my soul mate and my greatest earthly treasure for over 37 years. Life is a gift. I would have liked the moment to last. It reminded me of other moments when one of the little lives given to my stewardship would rest comfortably nestled in my arms. Well, yes, that has been a few years but now granddaughters occasionally fill the gap. Life. 

In the harried pace we live, do we miss the daily mercies? Do we take time to just savor the reality of breathing, knowing that it was God's very breath that gave us life to begin with? Take ten minutes, a few times a day and soak in the reality of the God who loves you. Revel in His creation. Be aware that death wants to take life from you long before your final breath. Take it away little by little, moment by moment, day by day. 

We have responsibilities, work, all the things we have to do and many are not really optional. But we do have the option to pause. To stop for a moment and hold life. Treasure the moment. Bask in His mercy. He gave it to you fresh this morning so don't miss it. Don't let the day go by and allow death to win. Death surrounds us. It tries to immerse us in its gray mist of activity and deadlines. Hmmmmmm dead lines. Perhaps right now you need a life line and He is there who gave you life. He said something about abundant life, not living in the shadow of death every day. Take time to live, to enjoy the gift. Don't let the enemy win today. Celebrate life and then you can say goodbye to the trampoline.