Created, Marred and Made Again: Allowing the Hand of God to Mend and Reshape What Has Been Cracked and Broken by Life
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About this ebook
Through life we experience many things, and most of us will find some broken places along the way. This book is based upon Jeremiah 18, the story of the potter and the clay. The effects of sin, words spoken over you, a bad beginning, a broken spirit, and any number of things can shape the person we become. But there is good news for the life surrendered to the hands of the Lord. Whatever the scar that you bear, He has it covered. He has always known your heart and what it would take to bring you to your knees. This is his placeHis opportunity to take you into His hands and make you again. Will you allow the process? And do you believe? God waits. He waits for permission. He waits and longs for a willing heart ready for change. This is where the healing can take place.
Michelle Horne
Michelle Horne, currently a cosmetologist, has had a love and passion for writing from the time she was a child. Starting with poetry, her writing has advanced over the years as she has followed the voice of God in her life. Michelle is working on her second book, entitled A Place at the Table, which she plans on publishing sometime in late 2013. She and her husband, Allen, reside in Highland, Michigan, with their two boys, Austin and Aydin.
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Created, Marred and Made Again - Michelle Horne
Copyright © 2012 Michelle Horne
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
ISBN: 978-1-4497-7883-5 (s)
ISBN: 978-1-4497-7884-2 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4497-7882-8 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012923043
WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson,Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
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WestBow Press rev. date: 12/28/2012
To my husband Allen, who has continued to fight the good fight of faith in all things. Our marriage was God’s plan from the beginning; all that we have been through has only made us stronger.
Contents
Introduction
The Journey Begins
I Once Was Blind
Tearing Down the Walls
Breaking the Silence
Unspoken Pain, The Woman inside Made Again
A Broken Marriage Made Again
Who Told You That You Were Naked?
Health Restored and Made Again
Wounds in Waiting
The Hands of the Potter
The love that washed away my fear
hushed the noise of many years.
Judging eyes, or so it seemed,
from gripping lies,
I’ve been redeemed.
Broken vessel,
chosen daughter,
desperate to know
the love of the father.
I am clay
held in His hands,
for His purpose,
in His plan.
I asked you to show me
you’re never too far.
You said,
See the beauty in who you are.
I gave you my heart;
you held it for me.
The love I know now
is making me free.
I ask now for words
that I may speak of you,
how saving grace has seen me through.
Made alive by the love of my father,
made again
in the hands of the potter.
Introduction
And the vessel that he made of clay
was marred in the hand of the potter;
so he made it again into another vessel,
as it seemed good to the potter to make.
Jeremiah 18:4
He made it again. Can you see it? The vessel in the hand of this potter, the vessel with the crack. The one with the broken place. Can you see His skillful hands at work as He mends, restores, and reshapes the clay to His liking? Can you imagine the transformation taking place as the vessel is made again out of the pure and good intention of the potter? Do you see that it,
the vessel, is you? That’s powerful. That’s our God. All powerful without question! The question is this: do you believe it? Do you believe He can take every broken place in you, even the one you have buried in the deepest pit you could find within yourself, and create a new place of wholeness? The part of you that is hidden behind walls. The disappointment you have tucked away. The scar you bear that can’t be seen. The divorce you never anticipated. The abortion you’ve kept hidden. The shameful. The unspeakable. The unthinkable. The thing that eats at you and won’t let go. God has it covered. He knew all along what it would take. He knew what would break you. What would shake you to the core and bring you to your knees. This is His place, His opportunity to take you into His hands and make you again. It begins with believing. The next question is this: will you allow the process? Yes, God waits for permission. A willing heart ready for change is where the healing can take place.
The effects of sin, words spoken over us, a bad beginning, a broken spirit—a number of things can shape the person we become. But there is good news for the life surrendered to the hands of the Lord. Something beautiful takes place when we give all that we are, and are not, into the hands of the Father. It is a divine exchange. No one else will you encounter who is eager to trade your junk for his or her jewels. The hands that made you did so with a plan and purpose in mind. We need to trust those very hands to take all that we have become and make us again into the person He created us to be. Every hurt, every scar you have carried has been or will be used by God for your good. He will allow what He knows He can use in your life. For each of us, He knows what will work. I dare you to take your pain, fear, shame, disappointment—your everything—and place it all into His hands and watch as He begins to exchange it for glory, for healing, for purpose in your life.
This book is born of a revelation, a treasure found in the book of the prophet Jeremiah. In chapter 18, we read about the potter and the clay intended for the house of Israel to turn and to obey the voice of God. As I read this one day, the Lord began to show me the restoration that had taken place in my life. Regardless of how I had been shaped, handled, or broken by my past, He would always remain the one who restored me. Actually, He goes beyond restoration. To simply restore would mean to give back or to return to a former condition. I don’t know about you, but my former condition needs to stay former! You and I are vessels of clay that are cracked, broken, and in need of mending. In the right hands, we will be made again.
There is something in each of us that calls us to something more. The ache inside moves us toward change. There is a longing and a desire planted deep on the inside. God’s desire was and is for us to long for Him, desire Him, reach for Him, and find ourselves in all that He is. Our cry for change begins with a thought, is followed closely by desire, leads to prayer, and lands us in the hand of God. This is where change begins.
If you have found these pages in your hand, I believe God has intentionally given them to you. This is my journey with the Lord so far and the answers, the healing, and the hope I have found in Him. I pray that through my transparency, a new light of hope will shine on you and you will find all that you need, all that you are in Him. May you find yourself in His hands restored, mended, and made again.
CHAPTER ONE
cross2.jpgThe Journey Begins
S OMEWHERE DEEP INSIDE EVERY PERSON resides a place that only God Himself can fill. For most of us, there comes a point in life of internal self-examination. In this moment, we begin to think, There must be more than this. There may be a lingering ache of dissatisfaction, often met with the famous question, What’s wrong with me?
This moment for me began as a small spark in my early teens. At that point in my life, I was angry but didn’t know why. I was lonely in the presence of company and felt empty deep inside. Something was more than missing in my life; it was desperately needed. The realization of these problems was the very beginning of a gradual and ongoing journey well into my thirties, where my original What’s wrong with me?
was now being met with many other questions and concerns as God started a process of revelation and healing, layer by layer, line upon line. When we are younger and think of being thirty-something, somehow we figure that’s about the time of life we will have things figured out; after all, to a teenager, thirty-something is