Where Christ is Unknown

‘By the power of signs and wonders, and by the power of the Spirit of God. So, from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. In this way I have aspired to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.’ Romans 15:19-20.

Raw streaks of splattered wet sludge lined the edges of the potter’s wheel, remnant blobs of clay slowly trailing down the sides into the murky cold water in the basin beneath. Before his latest creation, the student potter sat, head held in dry caked hands, rapidly breathing in the musky air. Behind him the master potter silently flicked through the pages of drawings in his sketchbook, steadily comparing them to the final piece, entitled ‘Life’.

What had started out as a simple jug, swiftly created by the master’s hands, was now unrecognisable. Moulded flower petals and leaves jarred with deeply etched graffiti, birds half in flight were ensnared by the tangle of abstract shapes that jutted out beside and around them. Carved reliefs of dancing people were broken up by deeply cut holes, some decorated and some left crudely unfinished. Velvety smooth polished areas with stencilled footprints had become neighbours with crackled gashes and roughly worked squares. The gentle curves of the jug lost to harshly indented thumb prints.
 
Putting a sympathetic hand on his student's shoulder, the master met his student’s frustrated and tear stained eyes, sensing his thoughts of failure. ‘You are not the first student to attempt this project, nor to produce what stands before you now. Many have tried to express the concept of life in all its forms only to become confused by what they had created. They, like you, had not yet learnt that ‘life’ is not a product or expression of a human's thought, skill or strength but rather the consistent choice to humbly view the work of the master’s hand.’

Have we learnt that lesson yet? Or are we still like the student potter striving to produce an effective image of God’s life by what we have known, learnt or experienced? Do our hearts soar as we set about our latest project or inspiration in serving the Kingdom only to be disappointed by others reaction, or the lack of fulfilment and satisfaction that it has produced in our own hearts and walk of faith? Is the image and reality of Christ as the master craftsman, creator, refiner, and restorer still unknown to us even now?

In John 10:10, Jesus declares that He came to give us life and life to the full. That same life he demonstrated when He walked on the earth is now within each of us by the power of the Holy Spirit. What we cannot do by our own logic, or in our own strength, the Holy Spirit, in and through us, can do freely, willingly, and openly in our cities, communities, and families. What we lack in our vision of ourselves, of others, of God, He has, and reveals, in its fullness.

Let us look afresh at our own lives through the eyes of the Master and begin to recognise life for what it truly is – Him in all, through all, to all, for His Glory.

- Anna Marie MorGan

Inward prayer: Pray that we would cease from our own striving and humbly allow the Spirit to move powerfully in and through every part of our lives.

Outward prayer: Pray that many would encounter the Master’s hand as He brings healing, salvation, deliverance, restoration and revival to this land.