Life is like that.

Training Camp

The present life is a training camp for kings and priests in God's Kingdom. A soldier of God needs to be trained and tested before going into battle. To us, religion is not a hobby! God is not there to always make our life more comfortable. He stretches our abilities and capacity for an end-time purpose.

If we do our part, Christ will say to us, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34).

The following story by an unknown author sums this all up. It's excerpted from www.retirementwithapurpose.com/teacup.html and is probably based on Jeremiah 18:2-6 and Isaiah 29:16.

The Teacup

There is a story of a couple who went to England to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.

They both liked antiques and pottery—especially teacups. Spotting an exceptional cup in one shop, they asked, "May we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke, "You don't understand," it said. "I have not always been a teacup. There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay.
My master took me and rolled me, pounded and patted me over and over, and I yelled out, 'Don't do that! I don't like it! Let me alone!' But he only smiled, and gently said, 'Not yet!'

"Then WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. 'Stop it! I'm getting so dizzy! I'm going to be sick!' I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, quietly, 'Not yet.'

"He spun me and poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself and then… he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. 'Help! Get me out of here!' I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, 'Not yet.'

"When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened. He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good! 'Ah, this is much better,' I thought.

"But, after I cooled, he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 'Oh, please stop it. Stop it!' I cried. He only shook his head and said, 'Not yet!'

"Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven. Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot, and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up…

"Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering, 'What's he going to do to me next?'

"An hour later, he handed me a mirror and said, 'Look at yourself.'

"And I did. I said, 'That's not me. That couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful!'

"Quietly he spoke, 'I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd have dried up.

"'I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled.

"'I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked.

"'I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held.

"'Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you.'"

The moral of the story is this:
God knows what He's doing in each of us. He is the potter and we are His clay. He will mold us and shape us and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will. UN

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