Tag: clay

16.k. “Thus says the LORD who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not”

Psalms 139:13  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Job 10:9-12     Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?  Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?  You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.  You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.

Psalms 71:6    Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.

Job 31:15     Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?

Isaiah 44:2    Thus says the LORD who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not,

Jeremiah 1:5     “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Isaiah 46:3    “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb;

The intelligent design movement suggests that the existence of an orderly, purposeful creation implies the necessity of an organized, purposeful design, and, therefore, a Designer.   Applying that idea to human beings, the presence of humans with the ability to find and fulfill a purpose in their life suggests a Creator who created them with a purpose to fulfill. There are certainly plenty of biblical examples: Abraham was called to create a chosen people; Moses was called to shape that people into a nation; Jeremiah was called to be a prophet to the nation; David was called to be their king; Jesus was called to redeem Jews and Gentiles alike from sin; Paul was called to deliver Jesus’ Good News to Gentiles and their kings…to cite a few examples. Psalm 139:13-16 pictures God forming humans and ordaining the days of their lives.  If you are seeking God’s specific purpose for your life, ask Him to show it to you. And ask in faith, believing He will shine light on your path.  True purpose in life can only be found in a life that is fully surrendered to Jesus Christ and the will of God.

Knowing God is not the same as knowing of Him

Psalms 119:73  Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.

Psalms 139:14-16    I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Psalms 138:8    The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Psalms 92:4-5     For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.  How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!

Isaiah 64:8     But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Psalms 100:3     Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Psalms 111:2    Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.

Ecclesiastes 7:29     See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

2 Corinthians 4:4     In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

“The workings of the human body are stunning in their design and execution. We know far more than David ever did about how we are made, and it should make us full of more awe and praise than David ever had.”

“If we are marvelously wrought upon even before we are born, what shall we say of the Lord’s dealings with us after we quit his secret workshop, and he directs our pathway through the pilgrimage of life? What shall we not say of that new birth which is even more mysterious than the first, and exhibits even more the love and wisdom of the Lord.” (Spurgeon)

Knowing of God and knowing God is very different.  Knowing of Him gives no personal relationship.  It gives no understanding of His steadfast mercy, grace and love.  It gives no secure place of refuge, hope, peace, joy, or rest.  It keeps God at arms distance.  It falsely allows us to form our own thoughts on what is right, wrong, good, bad, and possibly thinking we can do something to earn His favor. Knowing of God keeps a void filled with uncertainty and no fulfilling meaning or purpose in life .

Knowing of God keeps a void.Know God gives hope, peace, holy desire, joy, refuge, healing, forgiveness, love, kindness, gentleness, strength, encouragement, power, patience, growing faith, desire to know and understand Him and His plans and purposes in life, and desire to hear His quiet whispers of leading.  Knowing God fills the void with absolute assurance and, through faith, a much deeper and fulfilling purpose in life.

He has given us His word so that by it and through it we gain a basic understanding of how awesome, glorious, majestic, merciful, gracious, loving, and all knowing His is.  It gives us wisdom into the work of His hands.

Choose to know Him.  Desire and seek to know Him.  Commit to know Him.  He stands at the door of our heart, mind, and soul wanting for us to open it and ask Him in.  Your life will never be the same.

A passing shadows

“Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”

Psalms 89:47  Remember how short my time is! For what vanity you have created all the children of man!  What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah  

Job 7:7     “Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good.

Job 9:25-26    “My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good.  They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.

Job 10:9    Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?

Psalms 39:5     Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah  Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!

Job 14:1     “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.

James 4:14     yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Ecclesiastes 3:19     For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.  All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.

Ecclesiastes 8:8    No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.

Hebrews 9:27    And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

John 8:51     Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

Psalms 49:15     But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.

2 Corinthians 4:14     knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

Sometimes I wonder if we live without thinking about our end.  There is an end to life as we know it.  What then?  Eternal life or eternal death (a death without being dead – a death of total separation from anything good – a death without the presence of God).  We hear of people saying things like -“well most of my friends will be in Hell so it won’t be lonely for me”, – Or “I’ll see you in Hell”,  – Or “All the fun people will be in Hell so it won’t be all that bad”.  Lies!!  Separation for God while we are alive might be a sliver of what it will be like – no peace, no hope, always striving for something more but never getting that which satisfies the soul.  This is what a life this side of death without Jesus Christ is.  It is made up of things that have no eternal value.  Scripture says this life is like a passing shadow or a vapor, here one day and gone the next.  It says no one has power over the day of death.  Yet man listens to lies as if this day will never come and that there is no eternal judgement after death.  If you live to be 100 years old, life is short in comparison to eternity.  If there is lies, no satisfaction, always needing and looking for more stuff to satisfy in this short life, imagine what it will be like for eternity – Scripture says those who reject Jesus will be cast into the “lake of Fire” that burns forever and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth forever.  Separation from God now is the choice people take in the presence of God, while He is near.  After judgement God separates Himself from those who rejected Jesus.  Come to Jesus, seek Him while He may be found, and find peace for your soul this side of eternity and forever.