Inside

Clay Balls

A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake.
 
They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.
 
He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, diamond!  Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 10 or so clay balls he had left. Then it struck him.
 
He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!
 
It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside.  It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.
 
We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.
 
There is a treasure in each one of us. May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay.
 
We are clay but inside each of us something that is of great, great value.

 

Ge 1:26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

 Ge 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

`

What is inside of us, that we cannot see is what is in the image of God.  Our spirit is of God for God is a spirit.  We have a spirit, a soul.

 

Gen. 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Mat. 10:28

 

I heard a story about a young  college student. He had wild hair, wore a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college.

He was a brilliant student and had become a Christian while attending college. Across the street from the campus was a very conservative church. They want to develop a ministry to the students but were not sure how to go about it.

One day the student decided to go there. He walked in with no shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service had already started and so he started down the aisle looking for a seat. The church was completely packed and he couldn’t find a seat. By now, people were really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one said anything. He was close to the pulpit, and when he realized there were no seats, he just sat down right on the carpet.

By then the people were really shocked, and the tension in the air was thick.  About this time, the minister realized that from way at the back of the church, a deacon was slowly making his way toward him.

Now the deacon was in his eighties, had silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very well respected. He walked with a cane and, as he walked toward this boy, everyone said to themselves that you can't blame him for what he's going to do.

How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?

It took a long time for the man to reach the boy.
The church was utterly silent except for the clicking of the man's cane. All eyes were focused on him. You can't even hear anyone breathing. The minister can't even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do.

Now they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great difficulty, he lowered  himself and  down next to Bill to worship with him so he won't be alone.

When the minister gained control, he said,   "What I'm about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget."

"Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some people will ever read!"
Can you imagine that no one else saw any worth in that young man. No one knew what he was like on the inside or how he would serve his God.  No one knew how he would influence others.  They only knew he looked different.
 

He may have been the answer to their desire to start a ministry at the college. 

 

Sometimes people are like this about a young person or an older person who barely gets inside the door and sits on the back ready to leave the moment services are over.  We never know what is inside this ball of clay, until we get beyond the clay to what is inside.

Eph. 4:17-32

We can all be this person, because inside each of us the that Good spirit that God put there.  We just need to put God over our life and allow the spirit to develop in us.

Ro 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.  13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Mat. 11:28

Gospel have you obeyed? Are you a Christian!?