Our ONLY Way Out…

But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. ~ Isaiah 64:8

Yesterday, I was blessed to spend a Holy Spirit-filled day in the company of artists, healers, and wellness professionals at an “Open House” event hosted by Tony Gines of Breath of Life, a true believer in our Potter. In Friday’s devotional, Choose Achievement Over Affirmation, Maxwell likened those who choose the reverse to crabs in numbers greater than one that will pull one another down so none can escape the basket. In today’s In the Hands of the Artist, “People under the influence of an empowering person are like paper in the hands of a great artist. No matter what they’re are made of, they can become treasures.”

In this morning’s Chamber’s devotional, Disasters of Fellowship, he writes, “If you are experiencing disasters in fellowship, don’t get into despair, remain unswervingly and unhesitatingly faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ and refuse to compromise for one second. Don’t say ‘it can’t be done’ because you see a thing is going to crush your physical life. Calculate on the disaster of fellowship, because through it God is going to bring you into fellowship with His Son.”

Paul, the Pharisee of the Pharisees, experienced both the crushing and the disaster, and went on to achieve more in his life for the kingdom of God than all the others combined. That’s the kind of achievement that should interest every American, given the Potter’s hand in our founding. BUT, as I look around, brothers and sisters, I see political parties, sadly including my own, turning away from Christ AND Constitutions (state & federal) to focus their guns on one another. And the church, sadder still, the new age Pharisee of the Pharisees, in their self-imposed silos of irrelevance sealed off from the living water (John 7:39). All I see are those more clever than the Potter who made them…lining up to take the mark (Rev. 13:15-18)…save the Remnant I fellowshipped with in Newburgh yesterday. The Breath of Life…Truly a breath of fresh air!