Apr 7, 2026 – Clay
This is my writing view today as I attempt to play catch up for the days I’ve missed since leaving for London on April 6. I met my daughter (the bride) and my niece (matron of honor) for some sightseeing, shopping, and great food before heading to Montepulciano, Italy (where I am now) to help with the planning for the Oct wedding! I actually wrote this entry before I left, intending to post it sometime on the 7th after my overnight flight, but we hardly slowed down each day; and, when we did, I wasn’t near the computer or didn’t have the energy to write.
Utmost – Mark 9:9 – “He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.” I’ve never quite understood why Jesus told them to not tell what they’d seen. Chambers’ explanation helps, “Say nothing until the Son of man is risen in you – until the life of the risen Christ so dominates you that you understand what the historic Christ taught. When you get to the right state on the inside, the word which Jesus has spoken is so plain that you are amazed you did not see it before. You could not understand it before, you were not in the place in disposition where it could be borne.” I suppose this is sort of a think-before-you-speak request: seek and believe and trust and dwell before you share anything about Him.
JC – “I am the Potter; you are My clay. I designed you before the foundation of the world. I arrange the events of each day to form you into this preconceived pattern…. On some days your will and Mine flow smoothly together…. On other days you feel as if you are swimming upstream…. When that happens, stop and seek My Face. The opposition you feel may be from Me, or it may be from the evil one. Talk with Me about what you are experiencing…. Say yes to your Potter as you go through this day.”
Prevail #98 – Ezra 1:2 – “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.’” Larson uses this verse to point out that we should be comforted knowing God is in always in control even when it seems He’s not (even when the clay is misshapen), “God’s purposes will prevail in the end – no matter what. He works through His people. And when necessary, He works through His enemies. The Israelites had so rejected God and His ways that God gave them over to their desires and they were carried off into captivity. Yet He had a plan to redeem their story long before they understood just how lost they were…. One way or another, God will work out His plan. God is in control; He’s always been in control.”
Simpson – “In Him we live and move” (Acts xvii. 28). Simpson refers back to the Potter analogy offering, “The hand of Gehazi, and even the staff of Elisha could not heal the lifeless boy. It needed the living touch of the prophet’s own divinely quickened flesh to infuse vitality into the cold clay…. We must come into personal contact with the risen Saviour, and have His very life quicken our mortal flesh before we can know the fulness and reality of His healing.”
