In The Potter's House

In the Potter’s House – Most of you have been to period or cultural villages at some time during your life. These are the places where you can watch craftsmen make things “the way we used to do it” and then be thankful that you won’t ever have to do that.


Very few of us weave our own clothe, build our own furniture, dip our own candles, blow our own glass, harvest our own food, cure our own meat, or throw our own pottery. We admire the ability in others. We just never really sought to have the ability ourselves!

God told Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house. Jeremiah went. “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you a message."

It was there, he received the message from the Lord. Read carefully. The message did not come to Jeremiah as soon as he walked in the door. It took time. For those of you who have seen any of the skills performed by the master craftsmen. You know it can take a long time. One has to have patience when working with most of these materials. Jeremiah had to be patient as well.

He watched the potter begin to form a vessel. Things seemed to be going well. Suddenly, something happened and that which should have been beautiful was marred and ugly. Fortunately, the potter had skills beyond the skills of most. He took that which was marred and useless and made it into something else. It may or may not have been as beautiful as what was originally intended. It may not have looked as grand as the original could have looked, but it was useful. It was useful because the potter was patient.

Some of you are waiting at the potter’s house. You long to hear a message from God – a message of comfort, a message of hope, a message of encouragement, a message of guidance and direction, or a message just to confirm that He is there and that He cares.

For some of you, you feel as if your life has been marred, broken, or has become useless. Be patient. God didn’t speak to Jeremiah until the lesson had already been displayed, conveyed, if you will, through another media.

The Holy Spirit has not been sent into your life for just this day. The Spirit is there for the long haul. The Spirit is being patient with you, even when you appear to be “bad clay.” God’s skillful hands find the ways past your brokenness to mend and mold you into something beautiful, if only you have the patience to wait on His work!

Pastor Craig