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Day 319, or November the 15th. Get over it and

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get on with it. Our thoughts today come from

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Romans chapter 9, verse 21. Does not the potter

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have the right to make out of the same lump of

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clay some pottery for special purposes and some

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for common use? And now the big picture surrounding

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this verse. As a devoted Jew, Paul mourns over

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his fellow countrymen who have rejected the ultimate

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gift from God, his Messiah. He even says that

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he would accept condemnation in their place if

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that were possible. This is a great image of

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what Jesus has already done, dying in order to

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make possible the redemption of the whole world

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back to God. And now today's action step. It

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seems to me that the world is made up of two

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kinds of people, those who we are glad we are

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not like and those who we wish we were like! God

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is an amazing God who loves individuality and

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who has therefore never made two people the same

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when we look to replace our minister or some

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other church leader never fall into the trap

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of looking for someone the same as the last one

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if god had not wanted you to have someone different

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he would have arranged for the current one to

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stay looking around your congregation, you will

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see a sea of different people god loves variety

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it's these thoughts that are in Paul's mind when

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he ponders the ridiculous idea of an item of

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pottery questioning the potter over why it was

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made as it was. Yet we do the same with God very

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often. If only I could do... If only I was like...

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We are what we are. Tall, short, extrovert, introvert.

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I believe it's only when we fully accept this

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reality that God can use us. He doesn't make

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mistakes. He leaves that to you and me. As of

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today, why not thank God for what and who you

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are, irrespective of the good and bad influences

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others may have been to you in the past? God

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loves you unconditionally. Of course you can

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argue like the pottery did with the potter, but

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it will be to no avail. When we accept we are

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far from perfect, that's when God can perfectly

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use us.