Cracked Pot How Do You Smell?

Cracked Pot How Do You Smell?

Clay pots are fragile, easily broken.  Yet there is a treasure in them, not an earthly treasure but a heavenly treasure.  Did you know that you’re a treasure and that you can have a power flowing within you?  If you don’t already have it.  Not a power of your own, but the overwhelming power of God.  His power is overwhelming, overflowing, bursting out, busting out, spilling over, leaking out and shining through the cracks.  Corinthians 4:7 - But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it will be evident that such overwhelming power comes from God and not from us.

These clay jars I am talking about are you and me and everyone.  These clay jars are cracked pots.  Did you know that everyone’s a cracked pot?  And that in each Cracked Pot is a treasure.  A precious gift of God!  It’s you.  We as cracked pots are letting God’s light, power, blessings, pour out, shower over, leak, and shine through all the cracks in you to all those around you.  You know it’s actually a blessing to be called a cracked pot.  We are all cracked pots.  None of us is perfect or completely whole.  But it’s in those cracks that we shine like stars.  It’s a blessing to be one that is used by God.  Because then God uses the cracks to bless others and to show others the Way to Him.

Now don’t get me wrong, being used by God doesn’t mean life is easy.  On the contrary it can be just as difficult as being without God.  Let me read 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 - We have all kinds of troubles, but we are not crushed; we are perplexed, yet not in despair;  persecuted, yet not abandoned; knocked down, yet not destroyed.  We always carry in our bodies the dying of Yeshua, so that the life of Yeshua may be manifested in our bodies too.

So as you can see we are persecuted, troubled, perplexed and knocked down.  The Bible tells us about the situation we will be facing.  It is what we have in life and we will continue to have it as long as we live here.  But it’s in those moments that we need to hit our knees in prayer and then we can stand strong.  When we take the time to go to God in prayer then we are not alone in the situation.  We like to say that God will not give us more than we can handle.  And reading from 1 Corinthians 10:13 it says  No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.   So you and God make a majority.  So standing strong in prayer means we are supported by Jesus.

            We carry Jesus death and His resurrection within us.  In 2 Corinthians 4:11-12 - For we who are alive are always being handed over to death for Yeshua's sake, so that Yeshua's life also might be manifested in our mortal bodies. Thus death is at work in us but life in you.  So without the one we can’t have the other.  You can’t have the death and forget the life.  Or have the life and forget the death.  It’s together that they work.  It’s a matched set.  Did you know that each day we are dying for Jesus sake in everything we do?  In that we are being a servant for Jesus, a servant to Jesus.  While we are doing that we are being alive in Jesus.  We’re dying for Jesus to live for Jesus.  We’re dying to live more!  I like the role of a servant.  A servant is defined as a person who performs duties for others.  Jesus was a servant and yet He was also a leader.  I try to serve others and we should all try to serve others.  If we all tried to serve others than no one would be sitting around, we would all be moving around trying to help others.  Being a servant for Jesus is dying for Jesus daily that we can live in Jesus more.  That means we smell like Jesus.

            Let me reiterate that.  We smell like Jesus because we are dying in Him daily and in that we are living in Him more.  Let me read this to you for your thoughts, 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 - But thanks be to God, who in the Messiah constantly leads us in a triumphal procession and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of what it means to know him!  For to God we are the aroma of the Messiah, both among those being saved and among those being lost; to the latter, we are the smell of death leading only to more death; but to the former, we are the sweet smell of life leading to more life. Who is equal to such a task?  For we are not like a lot of folks who go about huckstering God's message for a fee; on the contrary, we speak out of a sincere heart, as people sent by God, standing in God's presence, living in union with the Messiah.  Not only do we smell like Jesus to God, but we are being led like in a parade, a processional of triumph, like returning victors.  Our fragrance is of knowing Jesus.  Think about when someone with perfume on hugs you, the fragrance lingers and sometimes spreads around you.  So it is with us.  We’re the fragrance of Jesus to God and we spread that wherever we go.  If your fragrance is strong enough the world smells it too.  If you’re servant attitude is shining like the Son then they too can smell it.  To others like us we smell good.  To those who are the least be receptive we smell at the least curious, similar to “Oh that smells good, where did you get it?”  And then to others that are blind and not as receptive we smell like death.  It’s because we remind them of what their future is like and what they don’t have.

            This leaves us with a difficult task, but not one that we can’t handle.  Why not? You may ask, because God is our supporter and out backer.  Jesus is right there with us and we can do it.  We are, everyday a witness to the world and we show life to some and death to others.  But we’re up to it, because we are “Cracked Pots” that smell like Jesus.  Giving the Good News, but not selling it.  2 Corinthians 2:17 - For we are not like a lot of folks who go about huckstering God's message for a fee; on the contrary, we speak out of a sincere heart, as people sent by God, standing in God's presence, living in union with the Messiah. We are speaking with sincerity out of the heart, not trying to make a profit.  We are a people of God, called out by God for God.  We’re standing with Jesus and letting God’s love flow into us and letting that leak out through the cracks to all around us.  Take your cracked pot and be a blessing as you’re being blessed.