“Treasure in Fragile Jars”

 2 Corinthians 4:6-7

“ For God who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”

I’ve been pondering upon these passages for almost half the day. What does it meant “fragile clay jars containing this great treasure?”

Ahhhh..finally I got it!! (Lord it takes long if it’s only me, thanks for the patience!). We are the fragile clay jars. Our bodies are that fragile clay jars the passage was discussing about. And knowing God, seeing the glory of God through Christ, there was this light that ignited in our hearts. Like a great treasure.

And then I remembered the parable of the Kingdom of God was likened to a hidden treasure:

Mt. 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went

and sold all he had and bought that field.

Weeee!!!yeah! knowing God, receiving Him is truly a great find! A treasure worth keeping…

Just today, after a long (for me it’s long because of all the details I have to do : D ) day, I was filled with this ‘light’ like in the fragile jars. That light that makes you Light. Jajaja…I was really happy, no, actually it was Joy. There is really this ‘treasure’ inside of me today. It makes me say, “God I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life NOT doing this.” Did you get it? Seeing people blessed, loving Him, loving people. Why should I stop doing what I am doing now? It makes me excited for more.

The chairs were now lacking, there were a lot of people today at the Sunday Service. If I could smile in this blog, my smile would be from ear to ear. You don’t know how overwhelmed we were! The leaders were also overwhelmed, one thing that I desired for them to desire. To really fill this place. For me, if we are not faithful in the small things-our small space at home for the services, how can God entrusts us to fill a new location to capacity? When you are faithful in the little things, God is faithful to give the big things.

Speaking of that, today God fulfilled my dream. Whenever I share the Word in our services, the usual people would be from 9 to 12 people. I also shared during the service, that my mother always encourages me bout this. She also observed it and said that God was testing my heart if I would be faithful to giving the Word, powerfully through God, whether it was a small or big crowd. Today, I was amazed! God almost filled our space, 29 people. Maybe for others it would seem a small crowd but for me, God is already starting to exceed what we used to have last year. Yeah! Exceed 2012! Then I just remembered that before the week started, I wrote in my prayer wall my goals for this week.

1.       Evangelize 5 persons

2.       30 participants on Sunday Service

3.       Open a cell.

The amazing part? This 3 was accomplished! For the number 2, we were lacking for 1 person. Still, God is faithful. Next week new goals again!! Thank you Lord!!

But God reminded me today with this:

2 Cor. 5:12

“Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart.”

Amen! It’s true. I grew up w/ the mentality that a successful ministry is just about multitudes, members, and numbers on papers. But today, I finally understood what it truly meant of having that sincere heart for the ministry. Seeing those people, coming back and more people are added, I found joy in it that was lacking in the past. Joy that the world could never give. Joy that only comes through a sincere heart of loving God and Loving people. “Passion for God. Compassion for people.”

And there is the Love. When I shared the Word today, I also preached to myself (I think it’s always like that). That whatever we say, think and do should be done with Love and most especially love for others. Coz, really, if I didn’t love what I was doing, I won’t be doing this. But God loved us first (1John4:9) as my sister reminded us in the huddle. All should be done with love.

Back to the topic. One thing I realized today, that when people would look at us we will really seem like “fragile clay jars”, in the MSG version; “unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives.”

Yes. We all seemed ordinary people with ordinary lives w/ a great treasure, a “light” that shines in our hearts that makes us do all this crazy things. (crazy? Kasi sabi pa ng isa sa leader ko, “kung ordinary lang ito na ministry, di na natin sila dapat sunduin?” Hakot Ministry kami ngayon. If they could not come, we will come to them!).

And truly just as the passage goes, “This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” Yes. All that enables us to do all this is because of Him. We could not and never will take credit of what truly belongs to God. So God, just like the fragile jars, break us as an offering to you. And so others, will see that ‘Light’ that truly is Yours. All Glory and Honor goes to you God.

To God be the Glory!