Last Sunday, our pastor preached on the God’s potter illustration.  It is found in Jeremiah 18:1-10:

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

The sermon inspired me to post my own thoughts:

The key verse is verse 4:

And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

• The vessel was “made of clay”: Clay is a type of soil or rock.  God formed “man of the dust of the ground” according to Genesis 2:7.
• The vessel was “marred in the hand of the potter” not BY the hand of the potter.  I think of Job in that it wasn’t God who caused all of the disaster: it was Satan and God just allowed it.
• I picture a rock or some hard place in the clay that is not moldable.  As the pot spins, it would catch the potter’s hand and instead of fitting the form He was making, it would cut into the surrounding clay.  The potter would have to pull that rock out before He could continue.  God is constantly refining us and removing those rebellious, sinful spots from us.
• “he made IT again” not he threw it away and started again with another piece of clay.  He is the God of second chances.  II Peter 3:9 says he is longsuffering and not willing that any should perish.  It doesn’t matter what we have done, God is in the bussiness of remaking.

We got some new shoes for Kent, and we had to take a picture.

On another note, here is Kent’s version of Ring Around the Roses:

Ring around the roses
Ring around the roses
Crashes
Crashes
We all fall down

Here is the first sonogram:

The doctor said that Lorraine is healthy and everything is normal with the pregnancy.

Lorraine is really struggling with the morning sickness.  We can’t wait for that to end.

Yesterday, I was searching for a fun illustration for our Awanas group.  I found several of them, and wanted to share/preserve them for use later.

I first thought of the illustration using Iodine and water:

Cleansing Blood of Jesus

Here are some instructions that might help:

Nothing Gold Can Say

This is another way of doing it:

YouTube: Cool Gospel Presentation

Here are the instructions for doing this:

The Story of Hank

Because I couldn’t find the chemicals to use that illustration, I ended out using this one:

The Pop Quiz

I wonder if this will be that last picture of riding the tricycle.  He got a bicycle for his birthday, and he is doing excellent with it.  The tricycle he did not pedal.  He would just walk it around and around the pool.  He looks like a pro in this picture.

I thought Google’s Flu Trends was an interesting approach.  The Google Operating System Blog pointed out that Google has expanded to tracking Mexico with the Swine Flu.  With Flu being in the news so much, I wonder if that impacts the accuracy.

Here is Kent’s duck that he got for Easter.  It dances and sings besides looking crazy.

Okay, a little late, but here are the Easter pictures.

First up, Kent has his new Easter suit on, but I am not sure he is quite awake yet!  Notice, he always has to have something in his hands.

Then, on the way to church, Kent wore his sun glasses.

Here is the whole family after church.

Of course, we did have the annual Easter egg hunt.  Notice the Easter Lily didn’t quite make it for Easter.  In fact, as far as I know, those Lilies haven’t bloomed yet!  Also, notice the “boy” egg in the background!  I liked the basketball ones better.

The kids had their chance at hiding the eggs too.  They can come up with creative hiding places but maybe not the hardest places.

Kent lined them up like this!

The red white and blue!

Playing in Jamies!

Can you believe it?  We are still trying to convince ourselves.  So far, three tests have said the same thing!

We still have yet to go to the doctor though.  Lorraine is guessing the doctor will say Dec 27th for the due date.