Shattered Pots
Welcome to Shattered Pots Magazine
Lessons From "The Potter and The Clay"
Volume 1, Issue 3
Lessons From "The Potter and The Clay"
Volume 1, Issue 3
You, Lord, are our Father.
We are nothing but clay,
but you are the potter
who molded us.
who molded us.
Isaiah 64:8 (CEV)
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Welcome to
Shattered Pots Magazine
Lessons From "The Potter and The Clay"
Shattered Pots Magazine
Lessons From "The Potter and The Clay"
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MESSAGE FROM DEB HARRELL, EDITOR:
Well, I am a little late getting out this issue, but I am a bit of a shattered pot myself right now. Recently, as I was heading back to St. Louis from a family funeral in Memphis, I fell off a step and flew face first onto a concrete sidewalk, shattering my nose, BOTH of my wrists and sustaining multiple other sprains and strains. After 12 days in the hospital and three surgeries (to set my broken nose, and surgery on both wrists to place 3 inch stainless steel plates), and more than a month recuperating at my daughter's house, I am finally back home. I do have challenges doing everything I want to do, but my injuries are healing daily and God is giving me the strength to do all I NEED to do.
Typing is slow and excruciating, but will get better as I continue with the exercises and therapy. I covet your prayers as I seek, myself, to stay in the hands of the Divine Potter until He knits my shattered bones together again, as perfectly as He did the first time in my mother's womb, and as He molds and shapes the vision to expand this Shattered Pots ministry...YES!...I did say EXPAND!
I am currently researching ways to use New Technology to conduct Online Support and Study Groups for the various life issues we publish on ShatteredPots...victims of abuse, abortion and other groups as well. Please pray for resources, curriculum and leaders.
OK...I know that does not sound feasible when I look in the mirror and see the raccoon eye bruises from my broken nose and try to wiggle my fingers in the splints on both arms, all I see and all you would see are the remnants of the shattered pot, the broken shards...but even though right now I am totally dependent on others in ways I have never been before, God is actively at work in my life and I am eager to join Him in this process. Whatever happens will be God-shaped and God-sized because I am totally dependent on His provision physically, financially and emotionally at this point. I can barely squeeze the silly putty exercise ball, let alone fight the Potter with these hands, so this lump of clay is humbled to the point of no resistance and though I expect the process to be painful, I know His hands will be far more gentle if I just rest and do not resist.
You may feel like a shattered pot right now, too, broken beyond repair and may even wonder why God has let this happen to you. Please be encouraged that God does have a hope and plan for your life and if you will trust Him, He will create something beautiful from those shattered pieces.
The purpose of ShatteredPots.com is to be a connection point between people who have been through life-shattering experiences, stayed in the hands of the Potter until they were remolded and refined through the fire and are now ministering to others with those who may be going through similar circumstances and need the encouragement and comfort of those who have been through the potter's fire before them.
I have to push my scheduled articles forward a few months until I can better use my hands, so this month I am using two manuscripts I wrote a few years ago, but I think they are appropriate for this time. Please take the time to read an Easter dialog I wrote and have performed in a number of churches when I was serving with Mission Service Corps. It is called, "Were You There?" and forces each of us to examine our lives as we progress toward the Cross.
The other article is Fannie Lou's Blessing. It is about Fannie Lou Pender, my grandmother, who died just short of 102 years and the blessing she bestowed upon me during our last two conversations before her death. During her last few months she, too, was totally dependent upon others and her blessing has been comfort to me these past few weeks.
And if you missed any of the previous issues, you can still click through to those stories in the index below.
BLESSINGS!
-deb harrell, editor
www.shatteredpots.com
Well, I am a little late getting out this issue, but I am a bit of a shattered pot myself right now. Recently, as I was heading back to St. Louis from a family funeral in Memphis, I fell off a step and flew face first onto a concrete sidewalk, shattering my nose, BOTH of my wrists and sustaining multiple other sprains and strains. After 12 days in the hospital and three surgeries (to set my broken nose, and surgery on both wrists to place 3 inch stainless steel plates), and more than a month recuperating at my daughter's house, I am finally back home. I do have challenges doing everything I want to do, but my injuries are healing daily and God is giving me the strength to do all I NEED to do.
Typing is slow and excruciating, but will get better as I continue with the exercises and therapy. I covet your prayers as I seek, myself, to stay in the hands of the Divine Potter until He knits my shattered bones together again, as perfectly as He did the first time in my mother's womb, and as He molds and shapes the vision to expand this Shattered Pots ministry...YES!...I did say EXPAND!
I am currently researching ways to use New Technology to conduct Online Support and Study Groups for the various life issues we publish on ShatteredPots...victims of abuse, abortion and other groups as well. Please pray for resources, curriculum and leaders.
OK...I know that does not sound feasible when I look in the mirror and see the raccoon eye bruises from my broken nose and try to wiggle my fingers in the splints on both arms, all I see and all you would see are the remnants of the shattered pot, the broken shards...but even though right now I am totally dependent on others in ways I have never been before, God is actively at work in my life and I am eager to join Him in this process. Whatever happens will be God-shaped and God-sized because I am totally dependent on His provision physically, financially and emotionally at this point. I can barely squeeze the silly putty exercise ball, let alone fight the Potter with these hands, so this lump of clay is humbled to the point of no resistance and though I expect the process to be painful, I know His hands will be far more gentle if I just rest and do not resist.
You may feel like a shattered pot right now, too, broken beyond repair and may even wonder why God has let this happen to you. Please be encouraged that God does have a hope and plan for your life and if you will trust Him, He will create something beautiful from those shattered pieces.
The purpose of ShatteredPots.com is to be a connection point between people who have been through life-shattering experiences, stayed in the hands of the Potter until they were remolded and refined through the fire and are now ministering to others with those who may be going through similar circumstances and need the encouragement and comfort of those who have been through the potter's fire before them.
I have to push my scheduled articles forward a few months until I can better use my hands, so this month I am using two manuscripts I wrote a few years ago, but I think they are appropriate for this time. Please take the time to read an Easter dialog I wrote and have performed in a number of churches when I was serving with Mission Service Corps. It is called, "Were You There?" and forces each of us to examine our lives as we progress toward the Cross.
The other article is Fannie Lou's Blessing. It is about Fannie Lou Pender, my grandmother, who died just short of 102 years and the blessing she bestowed upon me during our last two conversations before her death. During her last few months she, too, was totally dependent upon others and her blessing has been comfort to me these past few weeks.
And if you missed any of the previous issues, you can still click through to those stories in the index below.
BLESSINGS!
-deb harrell, editor
www.shatteredpots.com
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SHATTERED POTS FEATURE STORIES
Current Features
"Were You There?"
By Deb Harrell
An Easter dialogue that forces each of us to examine our lives as we progress toward the Cross
"Fannie Lou's Blessing"
By Deb Harrell
Fannie Lou Pender, my grandmother, who died just short of 102 years bestowed a precious blessing upon me during our last two conversations before her death. During her last few months she was totally dependent upon others for all her physical, financial and emotional needs and her blessing has continued to encourage and comfort me.
BOOK REVIEWS FOR THIS MONTH:
"The Little Pot", Author, Dawn Stephens
(As reviewed by Deb Harrell)
"The Shack" Author, William Paul Young
Past Features
by Paula Talley
Physically and sexually abused by her father at the age of six, Paula's quest for a loving father figure led her to pursue destructive relationships that resulted in date rape, promiscuity and abortion. Learn how the loving touch of The Potter's hands molded, healed and restored this shattered life and turned it into a beautiful vessel that is being used to heal other shattered souls and bring glory and honor to God.
"For Her I Have A Hope and Plan"
A Testimony of Childhood Molestation
by Deb Harrell
Have you ever wondered if God didn't care what was happening to you when you were shattered to bits, when you were going through more than you thought you could bear, why He did not stop what was happening to you or your loved ones? Based on the story of Job (Book of Job) and the promise of hope in Jeremiah 29:11, I hope this will help you know that there was activity in Heaven on your behalf all along and a plan far greater than the circumstance you were enduring.
"Bambi, Missing for more than 22 years"
"When prayer seems un-answered"
by Deb Harrell
At the age of 26, this beautiful young woman went missing without a trace, shattering the very foundation and faith of her family. Read on to discover what Bambi's family learned about seemingly un-answered prayer and how God restored the one who had been missing from this family.
Coming Features
Marolyn Ford,"Grace to Endure"
Shattered HealthLOOK FORWARD TO HEARING ABOUT TWO MIRACLES OF HEALING! World-renowned author, speaker and conference leader, Marolyn Ford's world crumbled at her feet when she became blind at the age of eighteen. Blindness was more than losing her eyesight, it was an attack on her self-image. It was a dying to the only way of life she had ever known. After thirteen years, God miraculously restored her sight during a bedside prayer. But, after faithfully serving God through her ministry of writing, speaking and encouraging, she was struck with another incredible physical challenge after an accident triggered Digestive Failure. This left Marolyn unable to eat or drink for more than a decade. You will be deeply touched, challenged and inspired by her endurance and faith to believe God for yet another miracle of healing from this life-shattering challenge. And you will be blessed to hear how God did, indeed, provide another miracle of healing. Marolyn is once again able to eat and drink anything she desires and has gone on to continue to share a message of hope, faith and miracles. You will definitely want to invite Marolyn Ford to share her miracles of God's grace and power with your group or organization.
Dr. Roy Brunson, President of World Light Ministries,"Shattered Business and Finances"
Roy Brunson was a bitter, ruthless, ruined and depressed businessman who was planning his suicide during a flight from Dallas to Memphis when the lady in the seat next to him punched him and started asking about his spiritual condition. He was rude and loudly rejected her inquiries, but she persisted unashamedly. That woman was Marolyn Ford, who shared how God gave her a miraculous healing of her sight. This divine appointment and the long-suffering prayers of his faithful wife began to open Roy's blind eyes as well.Now, Dr. Roy Brunson is the co-founder and president of World Light Ministries Inc., a ministry that financially supports Ukrainian pastors, orphanages and a regional children's hospital in Kirovograd, Ukraine. He has been to Ukraine and Russia over thirty times and has led numerous missionary teams and crusades to these countries. In May of 2000, over thirty-four hundred men, women and children repented and received Christ during one of the World Light Ministries crusades in Ukraine alone. And that is only a fraction of the scope of Dr. Brunson's ministry.
Don't miss how one restored shattered pot was used to hold a candle that shed light for another shattered pot to see a plan and purpose for his life...and consider how God can use your own shattered pot story to minister to and comfort others and perhaps someday be a springboard to new ministry like that of Dr. Roy Brunson.
John Smid, Executive Director for Grace Rivers Ministry, "Shattered Families"
John Smid shares testimony and a tribute to his Dad who loved his son unconditionally and without judgement despite his choice to end his marriage to step openly into a lifestyle of same-sex relationships. After being delivered from that lifestyle by the power of the Holy Spirt, John shares how God led him to minister to others struggling with sexual identity issues and addictions...and to the woman he has been married to now for over 20 years.
Jim "The Rookie" Morris, Former Pro Baseball Player, "Shattered
Dreams Fulfilled"
Motivational Speaker, Writer and
Former Professional Baseball Player
Janice Davidson, Educator and Potter Janice will give us a powerful visual demonstration of the "potter and the clay" analogy. CHECK BACK LATER to enjoy this powerful testimony.
WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR SHATTERED POT STORY !
If you have a Shattered Pot story that would minister to our readers, CLICK HERE to request GUIDELINES and information about how you can submit your story to be considered for publication on this website.
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