The late Reinhold Marxhausen was an eccentric art professor at Concordia University Nebraska. Among Marxhausen's contributions to art was the unique fact that he created his works of art from junk. He would take things that were once useful and served a purpose, but are no longer used in that manner. So he would take what had become junk and he used it to create art. In Isaiah 64:8, Isaiah writes, “We are the clay; You are the potter. We are all the work of your hand.” Through His Word, God continues to shape and form us for His purposes.
As you grow through His Word, the Potter will shape the clay for His purposes. And the Potter is never done with you. And as it is through His Word that He continues to shape and form us, we recognize that we never stop growing and learning as His disciples. There is no one who has no need for God’s Word and there is no one for whom the studying of the Bible is unimportant or a waste of time. Studying God’s Word gives strength to those who are carrying the burdens and pressures of life, direction for those who seem lost and confused, and purpose for the person whose life seems pointless. Studying God’s word helps to turn old, tired, pieces of junk in to new and improved, pieces of art because that is what we are – we are the work of His hand. And most of all, studying God’s Word gives forgiveness to those laden with guilt and hope to the inconsolable. God’s Word reveals to us His perfect plan of salvation through Christ’s atoning death on the cross. God’s Word is a sure and certain word of truth unlike all of the shifting sands of relativism in the world today. God’s Word is truly our great heritage and we hand it on from one generation to the next.
The potter is still shaping and forming his clay as God’s Word accomplishes what God intends among His people. Apart from Christ and His saving work, our lives have been like cracked pots because of our sin. We are utterly worthless and can serve no purpose for God. But on account of Christ, as God’s new creation in the waters of Holy Baptism, and being shaped and formed by God’s written, preached, studied, and sacramental Word, we are the work of His hands.
Prayer - Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Fraternally in Christ,
President Lee Hagan