“MUST READ” VERSES “Can
I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” (Jeremiah 18:5) “We
are all the work of your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8b) “Submit
yourself therefore to God.” (James 4:7)
Yielded to the Master Potter BY JULIA O’CAREY
DID YOU KNOW? It costs $30,000 per year to
“The potter takes the clay in his hands and molds and fashions it according to his own
run the Sda Center (a refuge
will. He kneads it and works it. He tears it apart and then presses it together…Thus it
for those with AIDS). You can
becomes a vessel fit for use. So the great Master Worker desires to mold and fashion us. And as the clay is in the hands of the potter, so are we to be in His hands. We are not to try to do the work of the potter. Our part is to yield ourselves to the molding of
administer love to “The Least” by giving $45 per month for the care of one resident.
the Master Worker” (Testimonies, vol. 8, page 187).
S
opheak Seng works for the Lord as a shepherd of a flock of over thirty women and children, along with a few men who are infected with the HIV virus. She admitted that there have been times she longingly thinks back to when she cared for sheep and cows in the countryside. “That work was much easier!” she exclaimed. These people come to the Cambodian Sda Center (ASAP refuge for those with AIDS) with not only their diseases, but mental and emotional pain as well. Can you imagine how you would feel if you were cursed at, spit at, thrown out of your home, abandoned and left on the side of the road to die? The medicine they take for AIDS has negative side effects and because of the close quarters and low immune systems, they often catch each other’s sicknesses. Sopheak shared, “I have been chased with a knife and my life threatened at times because of residents who do not want to abide by the rules of the Sda Center. I pray and speak calmly to them and God has helped me through every difficult situation. The forgiveness I show them changes their hearts because they see God’s mercy.”
The residents come as broken, cracked pots, but the Master Potter patiently works to mold and shape each one into new, beautiful creations. No longer are they considered outcasts and rejects. They become useful vessels in the hands of God. Take, for example, Mr. Kem. Read his testimony: • • • • • • I heard the good news of salvation from my friend, Seng Put, when I was in the hospital. He shared with me from the Bible about how God created the whole world and that He is the only one true God. He told me that God has a law called the Ten Commandments that shows a person how to live so that they will be happy and healthy. He even puts His Holy Spirit inside the hearts of those who believe and the Spirit helps them obey the law and changes them from the inside out. His words gave me hope. My life looked nothing like the good life he described to me. I drank, smoked, gambled, and could not hold down a job. My wife died three years ago, which caused me to be angry and discouraged. I was failing at the job of raising my eleven-year-old daughter, Saree, by myself.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012
Adventist Southeast Asia Projects
“So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” (Jeremiah 18:3, 4)