http://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/DS/06/173.shtml

http://www.abideinchrist.com/devotion/may31.html

http://www.wschurchofchrist.org/Sermons/claypots.html

http://www.keyway.ca/htm2003/20030328.htm

http://www.grace-for-today.com/427.htm

http://www.fbcrichmond.org/sermons/11-15-98sermon.htm

http://www.ldolphin.org/clay.html

http://www.pbc.org/library/files/html/AC_08.html

http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=1218

http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper82/091282m.htm

http://www.temc.net/ref2002-f19.html

http://www.muncherian.com/s-2cor4v7.html

http://www.daveblackonline.com/cracked_pots.htm

These pottery lessons dedicated to Brad Nelson and all who possess the spiritual gifts of exhortation
and encouragement. And, of course, to any crackedpots who may be hanging around.

caritas,

mm <*))))><

Cracked pots. Good, very good.

It seems from many of the links you provided that the "earthen" in earthen vessel is meant to denote the common as opposed to the uncommon or the treasure. Perhaps that is so. But, as always, our expressions of what probably can't be expressed are lacking. Whenever I'm feeling particularly prideful about something (not often, for sure, but it does happen), and I know I'm in the midst of a good puff-up, I say to myself, "Self, tell me just what atoms that make up you are unique to you or particularly well made or different in some way? Which of the electrons flying around your nuclei are gold plated? Which protons in you have been polished to an especially Cartier-like gloss? Which neutrons are like sooo neutronically neutral that they wouldn't even have an opinion concerning Clinton?

We are made out of the same atoms and quarks that make up diamonds and gold...and slugs, poop, and nose hairs. We are "just" earthen vessels and, astonishingly, we are made out of this incredible substance called "earth". Somewhere in between we might catch a glimpse of what we really are.

You're very kind, MM, and I wish you the best.

I met a Lakota medicine man who claims to speak to spirits that originate here:

http://www.abmedia.com/astro/dsc2/pleiades.html

He said that four psychiatrists examined him for six months and that he kept having his visions and they all went crazy. No neat little category in the DSM4
to fit him into. He believes the visions and Crazy Horse and other spirits are just as real to him as flesh and blood human beings. I don't have a contextual framework to understand something like this, so I will not try, knowing what happened to
the "professionals."

Some things cannot be understood in conventional ways. How could a force that could create this:

http://hubblesite.org/newscent...ve/releases/1995/44/

Care about me in a personal way? Why not? I need not understand how it works, only that it does.

caritas,

mm <*)))))><

Here's an interesting bit from one of your links (I forget which.):

quote:

Bruce Larson, in �Believe And Belong�, shares this: �For many years I worked in New York City and counseled at my office any number of people who were struggling to surrender their lives to Christ. Often I would suggest they walk with me from my office down to the RCA Building on Fifth Avenue. In the entrance of that building is a gigantic statue of Atlas, a beautifully proportioned man who, with all his muscles straining, is holding the world upon his shoulders. There he is, the most powerfully built man in the world, and he can barely stand up under this burden. �Now that�s one way to live,� I would point out to my companion, �trying to carry the world on your shoulders. But now come across the street with me.�
�On the other side of Fifth Avenue is Saint Patrick�s Cathedral, and there behind the high altar is a little shrine of the boy Jesus, perhaps eight or nine years old, and with no effort he is holding the world in one hand.
�We have a choice. We can carry the world on our shoulders, or we can say, �I give up, Lord; here�s my life. I give you my world, the whole world.��

Another interesting bit from another link:

quote:

Elsewhere Paul can write of God choosing �the foolish things of the world to shame the wise [and] the weak things of the world to shame the strong� (1 Corinthians 1:27). His point, it seems to me, is that the treasure has nothing to do with the container, so that others might recognize that the power, the glory, comes from God alone. This is nothing other than divine paradox: the strength of God being manifested in those who are weak; the wisdom of God being expressed through mere �nothings� in the world�s eyes; the powerful Gospel being borne by jars of clay. Paul, in short, is claiming to be a �cracked pot,� if you will, or at least a �crackable pot��a brittle and delicate vessel that can survive the knocks of life not because of the durability of the pot but because of the sustaining grace of God.

I guess I just have an in-built resistance or dislike for denigrating or lowering something in order to make something else look grand. Certainly God wouldn't need us to be beggars in order for Him to look glorious by comparison. Well, then neither do we have to consider ourselves cracked pots, lumps of clay, or dirty bits of earth. If someone wishes to find Holiness and meaning in a life of asceticism then I say "go for it". I think the above interpretation is well-spirited and positive. No problem with that. But some of those other links seemed to revel in calling human beings worthless dirt. I just don't agree with that approach. There's humble (and humbling) and then there's denigrating and they're not the same.

How could a force that could create this:�Care about me in a personal way?

Boy, that sure looks like some nasty smog. You sure you want this Creator person to care about you?

Christianity elevates humanity to it's highest level, higher than the mountaintop that humanism aims for. We are created "a little lower than the angels." Humility is emphasized a great deal, and perhaps overmuch in fundamentalism, but the glory of being a human being is not fully realized until the whole person is surrendered, heart, will, intellect, mind, emotion
and spirit into a CONSENTING co-operation with the
divine plan. Easier said than done...
I really like the Atlas vs Jesus analogy, it's the whole struggle of Western civilization, IMHO. It's a paradox, surrender to win.

"He is no fool, who gives what he can never keep to gain what he can never lose." -Jim Elliot

caritas,

mm <*)))))><

http://nourishedintheword.org/jim.html

http://www.intouch.org/myintou...m_elliot_213678.html

http://www.hyperhistory.net/aw...ios/b4jelliot6ra.htm

http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/arc...cs/elliotsrmons.html

http://www.christianmissions.net/bios/jelliot.html

http://www.nourishedintheword.org/jim.html

This guy is huge in evangelicalism. The Real McCoy!

caritas,

mm <*)))))><

I don�t know, MM. That evangelical fire can sometimes burn a little hot and a little haphazardly if you ask me. When a whisper will do I wonder why some shout. Sometimes I wonder if people aren�t running from something instead of running toward it and then using �God�s plan� to mask or justify satisfying their cravings. What a tragic death because of ignorant savages, but I�m not so sure I�d want to follow Elliot�s footsteps. Still, to each his own and maybe he was doing exactly what he was called to do.

Yes, God can become a drug for many to avoid life,
but Elliot seems rather healthy and well adjusted to me. People like this are so "dead" to self that their actions may seem quite foolish.
I believe his motive was love.

I've been wanting to post something on the Salvation Army and Volunteers of America for a long time now,
if perchance thou wilst grant indulgence...

http://www.victorshepherd.on.ca/Heritage/william.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wbooth.htm

http://www.sendrevival.com/pio...liam_Booth/index.htm

http://www2.salvationarmy.org/ihq/www_sa.nsf

http://www.ourchurch.com/member/t/The_Booths/

"Onward Christian Soldiers"

mm <*)))))><

Another organization which arose from the opium parlors and dens of iniquity of industrial era London, they invented volleyball, basketball, Boy Scouts and Gideons international. If you never stole
a towel or a Gideon's bible from a motel room. you just have not lived.

http://www.ymca.net/about/cont/history.htm

http://www.ymca.int/history/history.htm

http://www.ascent.net/ymca/ymca.htm

caritas,

mm <*)))))><