Title:- Wonky At Work
Romans 5:3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations,
My wife had made some cakes which had filled the house with that homely sweet smell that made you hungry and happy all at the same time! I was there when she bought the mixture that she intended to bake at school for some of the young ones she was taking care of, so why was she cooking them here? For me? “Oh,” she says, “I couldn’t cook them for the kids yesterday, because the oven was ‘wonky at work.’” That made me smile! Of course, you all know what you call a three-legged donkey? ……A Wonkey!
It’s a funny old thing that being like Christ in our present Christian culture is translated as being, ‘as near perfect as you possibly can be.’ If you are a leader or even if you’re simply, ‘mature in the faith,’ then you are definitely not allowed to have problems. If you do, then please keep them to yourself, thank you very much!
I can understand the often heard, but rarely seen, frantic brush of broken pieces under the carpet, for the church has had some terrible examples of leadership and the world has rightly laughed us to scorn. Such bad leadership has embarrassed Jesus and put Him to open shame. However, my proposition is this: We have the tendency to set ourselves up for a fall, for who after all, is sufficient to rightly represent Jesus in His perfections by being perfect in themselves? Maybe it might do us all a lot of good to remember that we are all a little, ‘Wonky at Work.’
Jesus has a cunning plan in enticing sinners to His love and grace. He takes His glory, His forgiveness, His very presence and places them in pots of clay. That’s us folks, just pots of clay and the truth about us, is that we are all cracked pots! These flaws, these cracks of various dimensions depth and proportion are there in each one of us, so let’s just face it, because it’s just farcical to hide it. We are all cracked pots. The wonder of this though, is that the Glory of Christ Himself, shines out of the cracks! Could there be anything more enticing to other cracked pots, but to see shining glory pouring out of the flaws of other, but redeemed, cracked pots?
Imagine today being approached by a fellow Christian who asks, “Hey how are you?” If you replied, “Well I’m feeling hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down,” I am pretty sure you would enter into some diagnostic discourse that would lead to pastoral counsel, after all, you’d be concerned about your fellow believer wouldn’t you? However, maybe we shouldn’t be, maybe we should just shout “GLORY!” and even “GLORY HALLELUJAH!” After all, maybe we are all a little ‘wonky at work’ for a Divine purpose? Yes, Paul’s personal testimony is most instructive.
Listen: - Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size — abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become .(from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 )
Pray: - Father, let me not settle in my sin but never the less be able to glory in Your GIGANTIC grace toward me in Jesus Christ, the Lord of cracked pots, amen and amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment