Who hasn’t been broken in fires of life?  People are more stressed out than anytime on the face of the earth.  You can hear and see brokenness: anger, offense, frustration.  Verbal abuse is the norm, not the exception.  People who have failed or have been hurt, have angry attitudes. They are cracked pots who sound off in times of heat.

We like to sing about the potter and the clay in church.  We usually don't know what that even means and we don't like what it takes to get restored.  Yet we know God wants vessels of strength.

In Israel they understood pottery and the potter's wheel.  When a vessel became broken, it was a result of clay that wouldn't take the heat.  The fire produced a crack, usually around the lip of the vessel.  It was in need of repair.

God, (our Great Potter) will use all kinds of firewood to heat up the furnace.  He takes tough situations to use them to prove the hearts of His kids.  He will make sure we pass our courses in the proving ground of life.  He wants to repair us at any cost.

In the real-life pottery days of Israel, the potter had a remedy for broken vessels.  He used a small tick-like insect, called a "fasuka".  This insect lived on the blood of bulls and goats.  The potter kept them in small clay jars.

The potter grieved when one of his precious vessels became broken. He would take special time to sit at the bench and work with patience to repair it.  He crushed the fasuka between his finger and thumb to mix the blood with clay to form a mortar of glue.  He worked the substance into the cracked area.  This sealed the break.

Then it was placed right back into the fire that had cracked it to begin with.  You and I determine the holding power of the blood.  If it is cracked again, the process was repeated as often as necessary.  Only after it came out uncracked, could it be released for service.

The blood of The Lamb (Jesus), is our glue for cracked, broken people.  It's stronger than that of bulls and goats.  Jesus said that he was sent to heal the brokenhearted.  He came to love the losers & make victories out of failures.  He's In the business of redoing broken vessels.

If we honestly repent, He is faithful to forgive our sins and cleanse us.  This is the remedy of the potter for broken vessels. This blood will hold.  Come to Him and let Him do His work.