I Don't Need to Change!

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1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 "Come, go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. 9 And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. (Jeremiah 18:1-11 NRSV)

Nellie says when she was growing up her Daddy taught her a lot of things about reading, writing, math, and other school type things. So on her first day of first grade she came home and announced to her Dad and Mom that she no longer needed to go back! "I knew everything the teacher was trying to teach me! So, why do I need to go back?" I've heard older folks say the same things about other things; I don't think I can learn from anyone else; I know most things. I'm about to teach you what you need to know. And various forms of those thoughts and exchanges some pre-potter house people might say. It's the classic, "I don't need to change!" Interesting how so many hundreds of years later, a man, who from birth on, learned all he could about his faith and his religion and reached a point where he no longer wanted to know any more about anything. In fact, this man, while still a young man, had the Potter's House come to him.

The prophet Jeremiah is told by God to take a field trip. One of the joys of being in a church was when it was my turn to do Children's Sermon and I'd take the kids on "field trips." Thanks to the invention of wireless microphones this became a possibility and made parents squirm not knowing how their kids might behave or run off while on said field trip. But Jerry gets told by God to go on this field trip to the potter's house, and the kiddie sermon would be there. The lesson was simple but powerful. The vessels being made by the potter, if defective or spoiled, could be made new. The young man I mentioned above, when he witnessed the first murder of a Christian, loved what he saw, and so devoted his life from that moment on to bringing other Christians to judgment; so sure was he of this calling that he got the credentialing and permission slips signed, and off he went to arrest, harass, and trouble men, women, and children, who devoted themselves to Jesus. So, Saul of Tarsus plans a trip to Damascus and along comes the Potter Himself and bam, knocks him off his high horse onto the ground, blinds with a great light, and remolds him as the new vessel he was to become! He did not ask for this; God just came and said, "Hey, you, Saul; what's this all about? Why do you think you should be persecuting me?"

As Jeremiah watches the potter work, he witnesses something both beautiful and heartbreaking: a vessel being formed, marred, and then reformed. The clay doesn't cooperate. The pot becomes misshapen. But instead of discarding the flawed vessel, the potter presses it back into a lump and begins again, shaping it "as seemed good to him."

This simple scene becomes a window into the heart of God and His relationship with His people—and with us.

The image of God as potter reveals something profound about His character. Potters don't work in haste. They don't force the clay. They apply steady, patient pressure, working with the material's natural properties while guiding it toward their intended design.

Notice what the potter doesn't do when the vessel becomes spoiled: he doesn't throw it away in frustration. He doesn't replace it with different clay. Instead, he reworks it, patiently reshaping what seemed ruined into something new and beautiful.

This is our God—not the angry deity who discards us at the first sign of failure, but the patient craftsman who sees potential in our brokenness and possibility in our flaws. When we don't turn out as expected, when we resist His shaping, when we seem marred beyond repair, He doesn't give up on us.

But here's where the metaphor becomes both comforting and challenging. While God is the potter, we are not passive lumps of clay. The passage makes clear that our choices matter: "At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it."

We have the capacity to resist God's shaping hands or to yield to them. We can become hard and unmalleable, or we can remain soft and responsive to His touch. The clay that fights the potter's hands will crack and become unusable. The clay that trusts the potter's skill will become something beautiful.

The most hopeful part of this passage isn't just that God can work with flawed material—it's that He can start over. When the first attempt at the vessel fails, the potter doesn't see failure; he sees another opportunity. The same clay that was "spoiled" becomes the raw material for something new. This means your past mistakes, your broken dreams, your shattered relationships, your failed attempts at becoming who you thought you should be—none of these are the end of your story. In God's hands, every ending becomes a new beginning. Every breakdown becomes a chance for reconstruction.

God specializes in second chances, fresh starts, and new beginnings. The areas of your life that feel most damaged might be exactly where He wants to begin His most beautiful work.

"Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand." This is both an invitation and a challenge. It's an invitation to trust that God knows what He's doing, even when His shaping feels uncomfortable. It's a challenge to remain soft and moldable instead of hardening our hearts against His work.

Trusting God as the potter means believing several difficult truths: that He sees potential we can't see, that His timeline is perfect even when it feels too slow, that His methods are loving even when they feel painful, and that His final product will be more beautiful than anything we could have imagined.

Life often feels like being on a potter's wheel—spinning, disorienting, with pressure being applied from all sides. We wonder if we're being shaped or simply being made dizzy. We question whether the pressure we feel is destructive or constructive.

The potter's wheel passage reminds us that the spinning and the pressure have purpose. The potter's hands that seem to be applying uncomfortable force are actually guided by skill, experience, and vision. The process that feels chaotic from our perspective is actually carefully orchestrated from His.

PRAYER: Lord, thank You for being the patient potter who doesn't discard us when we don't turn out as expected. Help us trust Your hands even when Your shaping feels uncomfortable or confusing. Forgive us for the times we've resisted Your work in our lives, hardening our hearts against Your loving pressure. Make us soft and responsive to Your touch. Help us remember that You see potential where we see only problems. When our lives feel broken or spoiled, remind us that You specialize in new beginnings. Give us faith to believe that You can take our failures, our disappointments, and our mistakes and reshape them into something beautiful and useful for Your kingdom. Help us rest in the knowledge that we are in Your skilled hands, and that whatever You're making of us will be exactly what You intended from the beginning. In Jesus' strong name, Amen.

Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! OUR CALL TO ACTION: This week, identify one area of your life that feels "spoiled" or broken and consciously place it in God's hands as the potter. Instead of trying to fix it yourself or despairing over its current state, ask God to show you how He might want to reshape this area into something new and beautiful.

I love you and I thank God for you!

Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.

Transformation

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1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and co-worker, 2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God 5 because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ. 7 I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother. 8 For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, 9 yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love—and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. 10 I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. 11 Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me. 12 I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. 13 I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel; 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. 15 Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. 17 So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. 18 If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. 20 Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. 21 Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. (Philemon 1-21 NRSV)

A most blessed Tuesdays to you, dear Friend; may this be a day of transformation in those areas where you know improvement may be necessary. Pray for your needs, for the needs of those who are on your church's prayer list and pray for this old man as tomorrow I may get the sutures out of my knee! I thank you for your prayers as I have been feeling them strongly! God is good, loving, and gracious.

The key for this week is transformation. The process of letting go and letting God come and change those areas in your life where you know you know you need improvements or adjustments to take place. As a true disciple of Jesus we are called to be in a daily process of improvement we can call growing in love or being made perfect in love. The notion is that today we should be more perfect in love than we were yesterday. Being a Christian, in theological terms means sanctification, a process; an ongoing day by day, step by step movement towards where we know God would have us be. We should never be content to being stuck to old habits or thinkings that hurt others and hurt God. I'm with the sheep in the graphic in the print version for today, where he says, "I just wish Paul had said, 'Phil, slavery is wrong.'" This is what this passage is all about. Philemon is a slave-owner. And he is a Christian. It might be considered okay for the time and place this was taking place. His slave, Onesimus, had run away and desired to be free. And in the process of running, ran into Paul and became a believer in Jesus. Paul was already in prison awaiting his fate and during this time Onesimus has become an assistant to Paul. And Paul, wishing to keep things legal and right, appeals to Onesi that he should return back to Phil, but Paul wants Phil to welcome him back not as a runaway slave but as a brother in Christ, Paul even offering to repay any wrongs this act of Onesi may have caused or cost Phil.

Paul's request seems impossible by worldly standards. He's asking Philemon to welcome back someone who wronged him—not just as a returning slave, but as a beloved brother. "Welcome him as you would welcome me." This isn't just forgiveness; it's complete restoration with full honor.

This challenges our natural instincts for justice and self-protection. When someone hurts us, we want them to pay. We want them to grovel, to earn their way back into our good graces. Paul asks Philemon to do something radical: treat Onesimus as if the wrong never happened, to receive him with the same warmth he would show to Paul himself.

The gospel doesn't just erase our debts—it elevates us to full family status. This is what Christ has done for us, and it's what we're called to do for others.

"So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account." Paul doesn't minimize Onesimus's wrong or ignore the financial loss Philemon may have suffered. Instead, he offers to personally cover any debt.

This is the gospel in miniature: Christ taking on our debt and offering us His righteousness. Paul embodies Christ's role as mediator, standing between the offended party and the offender, making reconciliation possible through his own sacrifice.

But notice Paul's confidence in the outcome: "I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say." He believes that grace will win, that the gospel will prove more powerful than resentment or social convention.

This letter challenges us to examine our own hearts and relationships. Who in your life needs to be received not just as they were, but as who they've become in Christ? What broken relationships in your sphere might be opportunities for the gospel to demonstrate its reconciling power?

The story also reminds us of our own position. We were all runaways from God, slaves to sin, deserving judgment. But Christ didn't just forgive our debt—He made us family. We who were once enemies are now beloved children, welcomed not grudgingly but joyfully into the Father's house.

Church legend says that Onesi became the Bishop of Ephesus, and later was martyred for his faith. It may mean that Philemon allowed Onei to return, and later leave, to become a respected leader of the faith in Ephesus. Transformation did come to both men, through Jesus. As it can for us.

PRAYER: Father, thank You for the story of Onesimus and Philemon, which mirrors our own story of redemption. Help us remember that we too were runaways who have been welcomed back not just as servants but as beloved children. Give us hearts like Paul's that believe in the power of grace to transform every relationship. When we've been wronged, help us see beyond the offense to the possibility of restoration. When we've been the ones who've caused harm, give us courage to return and make things right. Transform our understanding of forgiveness from mere pardon to full restoration. Help us welcome those who have hurt us with the same grace with which Christ has welcomed us. Show us how to be mediators of reconciliation in our own relationships and communities. This we pray in Jesus' strong name, Amen.

Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! OUR CALL TO ACTION: Identify one broken or strained relationship in your life where you have the opportunity to extend Philemon-like grace. Consider how you might move beyond mere forgiveness to full restoration, welcoming that person not just back into your life but into a deeper, more grace-filled relationship than existed before.

I love you and I thank God for you!

Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.

What's It Cost?

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25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. (Luke 14:25-33 NIV)

Happy and Wonderful Monday to you, Friend! How many ventures have you entered into without first checking all the details? Honestly, have you taken the time to read the CVS receipts, front and back? What about the mile-long details on your new smart phone, BEFORE clicking I AGREE and wink-wink the "I have read and accept.."?

Years ago, on a retreat sponsored by the Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, called the Walk to Emmaus, they showed a film at the very beginning about the Disciples after the Last Supper and the conversation people imagine could have taken place, and in one part, one of them says, "When this is over and we return home.." and he is interrupted by another disciple who says, "Wait, you don't understand do you? We're not going home. Our lives will never be the same again!" Did Simon Peter realize that when he said yes to Jesus, his life changed for good? His life as a fisherman was over. He would soon become the Vicar of Christ, and die in the same manner as his Lord, though he would choose to die upside down for he was not worthy to die in the same way as Jesus. They may not have taken seriously what Jesus said in verse 27; "And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." Gulp. How many of us did not realize what we would be giving up when we signed up for an afterschool sports program? For six months or so, our lives belonged to our coaches.

We cannot say we were not warned, we were. I cannot say that I did not know that in giving up family and home, I would receive a hundred times more family and homes than what I left behind. There is no such thing as cheap grace; grace comes through costly discipleship. In 1937, Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship. The book was in response to what was being preached and believed; a cheap grace meaning a grace without the cross, without discipleship, a grace without Jesus , living and incarnate in us; the true cost is to follow Jesus as a response to Him with our obedience and transformation. There are several movies on this man's life, who took his faith seriously that he believed that a man like Adolph Hitler needed to be stopped and took part in a failed assassination attempt on Hitler, and was hanged for his actions.

One of my mentors in ministry used to ask, Why do we have so many retreats and no advances or charges? He felt that retreating was to run away and we became good at that and we do not have enough, "CHARGE!" A great question to ponder and prayerfully consider. We talk so much about the cross but run with the first nail we see!

The real question Jesus is asking isn't "Can you afford to follow Me?" It's "Can you afford not to?" Yes, discipleship costs you your old way of life. But what was that life really worth? Yes, following Jesus might cost you some relationships. But what kind of relationships are they if they can't survive your commitment to Christ?

Jesus is inviting us to count a different kind of cost—the cost of not following Him. What does it cost to live for yourself instead of for Him? What does it cost to build your life on shifting sand instead of solid rock? What does it cost to invest in temporary things instead of eternal ones?

In a culture that often presents Christianity as an easy addition to an already full life, Jesus' words are jarring. He's not offering a spiritual upgrade or a religious accessory. He's offering a complete life transformation that demands everything and promises even more in return.

This passage isn't meant to discourage us—it's meant to prepare us. Jesus would rather have disciples who know what they're signing up for than converts who bail out at the first sign of difficulty. He's looking for people who will stay when the crowds leave, who will stand when others fall, who will follow when the path gets steep.

The beauty is that Jesus doesn't ask us to pay a price He hasn't already paid Himself. He gave up everything—including His life—for us. Now He's asking if we're willing to give up everything for Him.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank You for Your honesty about what it means to follow You. Help us not to be intimidated by the cost but to be motivated by the incredible worth of what You're offering in return. Give us wisdom to count the cost accurately—not just what we might lose by following You, but what we'll surely lose by not following You. Help us see that what You're asking us to give up are the very things that keep us from experiencing the abundant life You died to give us. Transform our hearts so that loving You more than anyone or anything else isn't a burden but a joy. Show us that true life is found not in clinging to our own plans but in surrendering to Yours. Give us the courage to be authentic disciples, not just casual admirers. In Your precious name, Amen.

Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! OUR CALL TO ACTION: This week, honestly assess what following Jesus is currently costing you and what it might cost you in the future—relationships, ambitions, comfort, or control. Then consider what not following Him wholeheartedly has already cost you in terms of peace, purpose, and authentic life.

I love you and I thank God for you,

Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.