Problems with Modeling Clay

From our special revival and reformation feature.

—A. ALLAN MARTIN, PHD, CFLE, serves as pastor of Younger Generation Church, the young adult ministry of the Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church, Arlington, Texas, United States, as well as adjunct professor for discipleship and family ministry, Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Berrien Spring, Michigan, United States.

I always found modeling clay to be a disappointment. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the vibrant colors, the shapable glob, and the fun machines that could squish it out as ovals, hearts, stars, even as stringy hair to be cut with plastic barber scissors. But if you left it out too long, it would get hard and crumbly. If it got too hot, it would even begin to lose the shape I had formed it into.

Modeling clay reminds me of my heart: it is too easy to misshape when the heat turns up or is left too long exposed to the elements. It loses the form the Creator intended and shaped from the beginning. So being completely honest, maybe I am less disappointed with modeling clay and more disappointed with the condition of my heart and the shape it is in.

My deformed spiritual heart yearns like King David, and calls out to God:

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me

(Ps. 51:10, NKJV).

Only God can reform my heart. With the same cosmic power by which He formed the world and took dust from the ground to contour my shape, only God can breathe a revived Holy Spirit inside me.

May Christ Jesus, the Creator and Redeemer, reform my heart and yours. May His life-giving Spirit resuscitate our passion for His kingdom, reviving the righteous spiritual desire in our lives.

—A. ALLAN MARTIN, PHD, CFLE, serves as pastor of Younger Generation Church, the young adult ministry of the Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church, Arlington, Texas, United States, as well as adjunct professor for discipleship and family ministry, Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Berrien Spring, Michigan, United States.

April 2012

Download PDF
Ministry Cover

More Articles In This Issue

The Holy Spirit—So what?

Four guiding principles that have helped me understand more clearly how and when the Spirit moves and works.

From Revival to Reformation

Our special revival and reformation feature.

The Work of the Holy Spirit

Read how individuals have been led to a new awareness of the Spirit and His gifts in the lives of believers.

Ellen White and the Personhood of the Holy Spirit

This article explores Ellen G. White’s understanding of the Holy Spirit against the background of early Seventh-day Adventist theology and experience.

The Holy Spirit and Biblical Interpretation

We must recognize and respect the origin of the Bible because of the role of the Holy Spirit in the production, interpretation, and application of Scripture.

“Another Paraclete”: The Holy Spirit in John 14–17

The author explains how a group of five passages in the apostle John’s Farewell Discourses refer to the Holy Spirit as “Paraclete” or “Spirit of truth.”

View All Issue Contents

Digital delivery

If you're a print subscriber, we'll complement your print copy of Ministry with an electronic version.

Sign up

Recent issues

See All