GLASS BLOWING

Many times you’ve heard of God shaping his child like the potter shapes the clay.   Right?  I’d like to help you see it through another light.  As my husband I were going through some very difficult times in our life God spoke to my heart and helped me to see  what He was doing in our lives within the analogy of blowing glass.

When a glass vase is formed there needs to be a glass blower, right?  It’s not going to take form on it’s own.  It needs the glass blower to be in control of making, shaping, and blowing the glass into just the right shape and design he wants that glass to take.  Right?  So it is with God and his child.  God showed me that He is the Glass Blower and we, his children, are the glass.  When I looked into the actual process of glass blowing and how it was done I was amazed at the similarities as to how God shapes his child.  I’d like to share with you and invite you into this process.

Here’s what the host of the video I was watching said about glass blowing “ Glass blowing is full of beauty, function, and inspiration.  There's suspense, tension, and danger in the glass blowing process, after all they are working with fire.  There's craftsmanship like you've never seen.  All of that to make a beautiful piece of art and yet so fragile, with one wrong move it could shatter and break.”

Now when I heard that, I saw those words written all over God’s transformation/sanctification process.  The time when he takes us through a whole new birthing process, and creates a new person.  God’s process, although it doesn’t feel good is also full of beauty, function, and inspiration.  God's process is going to produce a child that displays His beauty, that child is going to have learned how to function with in that beauty, and God is going to use it as inspiration to and for others.  Maybe some of you have gone through this process or are going through it now.  If that’s the case you can attest to the fact that this process is not fun.  It’s hard and it is filled with suspense, tension, and danger while you’re in the fire.  God's craftsmanship in our lives is like nothing we’ve ever seen!  And He takes us through all of that because He loves us and it’s necessary in order to make us into a beautiful piece of art that will bear the image of Christ and bring God glory.

The glass blowing process is done and made in what is called the “hot shop”. The working temp of the furnace is 2100 degrees F.  That is really really hot! Do you ever feel God turning up the temp. and the flames getting really hot in your own life?  God may have you in the “hot shop”.  Just as that glass needs to be formed and worked on in the “hot shop” God puts you and I in the “hot shop”.  Sometimes we’re in that hot shop for 13 years.  Like my husband and I.  It’s up to God how long you need to be in the “hot shop”.  Joseph (in the bible) was in the “hot shop” for 13 years being shaped and molded before he was birthed into the new person God wanted him to be.  Listen, if God is turning up the heat in your life he’s in the middle of a very important process and it’s important for us to work with God.

Glass blowers also have another furnace called the “Glory hole” or “reheating drum” that is 2250 degrees F- used to make larger pieces and to work at them a long time.  I had to laugh a little when I heard this because I have been in the “glory hole”!  God has taken me, the glass, and put me right in that “glory hole” and has had to work on me a long time.  Have you?  There might be someone listening right now that feels like “how long is this going to go on...can’t i ever get a break...”  I want you to hear right now that if God has put you in that “glory hole” it’s because he’s working on you and shaping you and that’s where the work is going to be done that will bring glory to God!  You can bet when you come out of that hole, all that went on in that hole was part of God making the glass that will bring him glory.  That’s where God gets all the glory!  I’m assuming they call it the "glory hole" because it’s the place where the long hard work has to be done on the glass in order to create the glory in the piece that the blower wants in the end.

Then if the glass blower wants color on the piece he takes colored chunks and rolls the heated glass over them and reheats the glass again in the drum.  For me God said “Ok Marsha, now I want to add some chunks of humility, more love, more compassion, understanding of others, understanding of yourself and your own sin, repentance, and more truth and faith.”  And he rolled me into those chunks and reheated me again, back into the “glory hole”.

Glass blowers have to use many different tools, along with blowing, to shape the glass, and the heat from the glory hole allows them to shape the vessel that they want.  The heat from our own “glory hole” is necessary to allow God to shape our vessel the way it needs to be for our good and God’s glory.

There are many tools for different things the blower may need to use:
One tool helps to shape the glass so they can get the core of the glass hot and it blows out evenly.
One is an old wet newspaper that allows them to shape the glass with their hand. 
One allows them to cut and one to grab the glass. 
One is just a standard tweezers to pick at stuff.

God too, uses many different tools on us.Take a look: 
He has effective tools he uses to shape us and get at our core. 
He has the right tool that will allow him to shape us with his loving hand. 
He has tools he uses when he needs to grab and cut something out of us or our lives...such as impurities, sin, strongholds, bondage, prison bars. 
And just a standard tweezers to pick out things that need to be removed. 
These tools can look a little different in each individual life.

After the glass piece is shaped and finished it's still relatively hot. About 1000 degrees.  The glass blower can't just leave it out on the table b/c of thermal shock it would crack.  So they carry it and put it in what is called a Kneeler that keeps it at 900 degrees to cool down slowly for 12 hrs or over night.  This process is called ‘a kneeling’-taking a high temp to a low temp slowly to relieve all the stresses related to the heat.  After the glass is cooled off you're left with a beautiful piece of art. 

The video pointed out that the process is very captivating, and when you look at a piece of blown glass you have much more appreciation for it because now you know how much it's gone through to be made.

After we’ve been in the “hot shop”, in an out of the “glory hole", shaped and formed, worked on with God’s hands and tools, He continues to tenderly care for us.  As we are still hot from all the fire and the temperature of the “glory hole”, he doesn’t leave us alone to experience thermal shock and crack.  He tenderly picks us up and carries us to the kneeler where he helps us to go from that high temp we were just in, slowly to a low temp so that we can relieve all the stresses that were on us due to the heat.  Through this process we will see God for who He really is, see his attributes clearly, feel his tender love for us, and KNEEL in great awe and reverence, and humility to the Everlasting Father.

We will marvel at how he took a once balled up slab of glass and tenderly and lovingly took it through the “hot shop”, never once leaving our side.  The glass blower, we’ve seen, has to be very attentive to the glass not leaving it for a moment.  You can be sure that your loving Father has never left you for a moment!

Once you’re cooled, you and others will see a beautiful piece of art crafted by the very hand of God, displaying the glory of the Creator.  We won’t reach full beauty until we see Jesus face to face and our sanctification is complete, but if we belong to God through his son Jesus Christ, we can watch God make our vessel more beautiful and new as time goes on.

Rest Assured!

DRILL A MAN

WORDS...they come together on page. Right?

Alone... they don't mean as much, but put them together with each other and they become more meaningful.  Such are the things of life.

Have you ever entertained the thought..."What if I am just a fool... A Dreamer living in a dream world?  What if all that I've been believing isn't even true?  What if the hope I've been clinging to is silly?"

I have.  Those thoughts have came knocking at my door, and unfortunately I let them in.  I know they're lies, but somehow they grabbed hold of me and began to affect my emotions.  They became real to me.  As I let them seep into my reality I began to feel even more depressed.  In that depressed feeling I began realizing with even more clarity that my hope in God and the work of Jesus is solely what has kept me going amidst trials and hardships year after year.  Without a hope that God has a bigger plan and purpose for me, what's the point?  There is no point.  We'd all be living life aimlessly, but not REALLY living at all.

Think about it...if there is no God, no bigger plan, and nothing after you die...what are you doing here on this earth?  To love my family and do good for others, you might reply.  But for what?... Why? So they can be loved to just die and it all be meaningless?

In the movie "Moneyball", based on the true story of Billy Beane and changing the game of baseball he said this:

Billy Beane: It's hard not to be romantic about baseball. This kind of thing, it's fun for the fans. It sells tickets and hot dogs. Doesn't mean anything.

Peter Brand: Billy, we just won twenty games in a row.

Billy Beane: And what's the point?

Peter Brand: We just got the record.

Billy Beane:  I've been in this game a long time. I'm not in it for a record, I'll tell you that. I'm not in it for a ring. That's when people get hurt. If we don't win the last game of the Series, they'll dismiss us.  I know these guys. I know the way they think, and they will erase us. And everything we've done here, none of it'll matter. Any other team wins the World Series, good for them. They're drinking champagne, they get a ring. But if we win, on our budget, with this team... we'll have changed the game. And that's what I want. I want it to mean something.

Just as Billy wanted meaning for what they were doing for people in baseball...Our reason for existence has to mean something.  Or otherwise we are just living here to be erased and as Billy Beane said, "NONE OF IT WILL MATTER".

As I wrestled through getting the lies out of my mind I remembered something someone once said:

When God wants to drill a man,

And thrill a man,

And skill a man

When God wants to mold a man

To play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all His heart

To create so great and bold a man

That all the world shall be amazed,

Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects

Whom He royally elects!

How He hammers him and hurts him,

And with mighty blows converts him

Into trial shapes of clay which

Only God understands;

While his tortured heart is crying

And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks

When his good He undertakes;

How He uses whom He chooses,

And which every purpose fuses him;

By every act induces him

To try His splendor out-

God knows what He’s about.
- Anonymous

This really helped me to get my focus back, kicking those lies out and jump-starting my believing again that all the trials and hard things my husband and I keep going through have distinct purpose and meaning for our good and God's Kingdom plan for people.  There is a point.  It's not just a big waste of time.  God is always about the people.  Our pain and trials will be used to bring comfort to someone else going through similar pain and God will use it to build our character as well and bring Him glory.

When I'm going through sufferings and hard times I always like to know that there is at least one person who can relate and understand how I'm feeling.  It always comforts me to remember that Jesus, my Savior, walked the road of suffering.  He knows what it feels like to be betrayed.  He knows what it feels like to step forward in love to love people, and have them spit in your face, mock you, and walk all over you.  He knows how it feels to be rejected and under-appreciated.  When He came in the form of a human, to set us who are captive to our sinful nature free, He wants us to know that he knows the pain and how it feels.

If you are struggling right now or have been for quite some time through hard times...I understand.  Let's press on together asking God to show us the meaning of our pain and trials.

If you are struggling with believing if God is real...open up a Bible and sincerely ask God to show you who He is.  He will show you.  It may not be when or how you expect, but if you seek Him He will answer.

What's your hope that keeps you going through hardships and trials?

I hope that you find your Hope in God's bigger plan.  His great love for you and Jesus Christ's redemptive work on the cross.

Just like words, if you take seasons and moments of your life and separate them to stand alone, they may seem meaningless.  But put them all together and you will begin to see them forming into a meaningful story with purpose if you walk with God and salvation in Christ.

Are you desiring for just one person to love you unconditionally and not make fun of you?  Someone to lead you and have your best interests at heart?  One who can, most importantly, free you from the wages of your sin which will only lead to eternal death?  One who wants to have an intimate relationship with you and who cares for you so deeply that He watches over you all the time...never sleeping?  I did!!  And still do!!  I've walked the road of feeling like I don't belong, being stuck behind the prison bars of insecurity and feeling like you don't matter, and frequently feeling overlooked.  But not anymore!  If you feel like that, I want you to know that God did NOT overlook me!  And He does NOT overlook you!  There is love and freedom for you through Jesus!

Jesus is that ONE.  God is waiting for you to accept His free gift of love to you through salvation in Jesus if you haven't.

I believe that you can't speak into people's lives about things you haven't experienced yourself.  So I want you to know that I speak all these words and anything I write on this blog from personal experience.  Let's walk together!

WHO AM I?

The other day I was listening to a speaker and he posed the question, "WHAT IS A HUMAN BEING?"  He went on to share what some say is the answer.  Some say "we are nothing more than a pack of neurons and chemicals".  Others say, "I am the clothes I wear", "I am who I convey I am to others", or "I am what I own".  At some point in our lives mankind thinks about the answer to this question. When we are honest, everyone of us has an answer to that question. 

I have also asked myself the question over the years, "Who am I?  

I once believed that I was what I did, and who I made myself to be.  I was the type of clothes I chose to wear and the things I chose to possess.  I believed "If I did good, then I was good...if I did bad, then I was bad".  My whole belief system was wrapped around these thoughts.  So I lived my whole life under the belief that who I was... was all dependent upon me.  The only problem with that is that I kept failing at who I wanted to be.  I could never stay consistant at always following the template I had made for myself.  So my identity kept changing according to my belief system.  When I did good-I was a good person.  When I failed-I was a failure.  When my emotional wounds would get opened-then I was a victim.  When I hurt someone emotionally-I was terrible person, worthless...etc.  You get the picture.  After a while I didn't know who I was!  My identity was unstable.  It's a terrible way to live!  

How about you?  Can you relate?  Are you desperately trying to figure out who you are?

I have hope...there is an answer. Outside of these lies sits truth.  In my next post I will share the answer.