In Jars of clay

“Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord, your Redeemer,

the Holy One of Israel.  “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. 

You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.”

Could any two things be further apart than a worm and an instrument with teeth?

The worm is delicate, bruised by a stone or crushed by a passing foot;

an instrument with teeth can break and not be broken - it can cast its scar upon the rock.

And the mighty God can change the one into the other.   

He can take a man or a church, or even a nation, who has all the futility of the worm,

and by the energizing of His own Spirit, He can provide His strength, in order that a noticeable

and impressive mark is left upon the history of time.

And so the "worm" may take heart.  Our mighty God can make us stronger than our circumstances.

He can bend all things to His good and to ours.   In God's strength we can rest in knowing that everything can enrich our souls. 

We can even take hold of a dark disappointment and find a gem of grace. 

When God gives us wills like iron, nothing can stop us!  And if our God is for us, who can be against us…?

Christ is building His kingdom with earth's broken things.

Men and women in their own human natures want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms.  

As God’s people at Friars, we remember and hold onto the glorious fact that in our weakness He is our strength. 

Even the failures that we each face at times can be turned around – both within Friars, and outside,

as we seek to reach out and touch lives for Jesus. 

As we go into this autumn term, may we place into His keeping both ourselves as a fellowship and also the estate and area around,

trusting in His grace and mercy to move us outwards into the world that He so loves.

“For we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  

And all this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more

and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.” (2 Cor 4: 7 & 15).