My Notes on the Potter Video

The clay is already spinning and in some kind of form at the start of the video, but I know that preceding this, the potter would have "thrown" the clay. This "throwing" is where the potter smears a small amount of wet clay on the center of the wheel and then throws a lump of unformed clay onto the wheel.

I found it therapeutic to watch the potter shape the clay into different forms. With just the right conditions, enough wetness to make the clay malleable, but not too wet for its form to collapse, the potter could skillfully make the pot, the vessel, the plate into anything he pleased. He could shape the clay into a bed pan or a delicate vessel to contain an expensive fragrance. The choice was the potter's; the clay had no say in the matter.

Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? Romans 9:21.

God is the Potter.
Take the phone off the hook. Watch the 10 minute video. Give it your undivided attention right to the end.

After you have watched it, jot down a few notes on what you observed. If you grasp the impact of what the potter is able to do, it will change your life.
The Potter and the Clay

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7

From the beginning of time in the Genesis account of creation, God creates man out of the dust of the earth and he calls him Adam.

According to the Abarim Publications' Biblical Name Vault, the meaning of the name Adam comes from several Hebrew words meaning dustling or earthling. The words adom and adem indicate the typical red color of the earth found in the Middle East.

Other names from this same stock are Edom, the nickname of Esau which also means red, ruddy, and Admah, the feminine derivative. Names that have to do with words that mean man are Enosh (Mortal), Gabriel (God's Guy), Methushael (Man Of God) and perhaps Zechariah (YHWH's Male) and Ishi (My Man). A name that may be a playful reference to the name Adam is Javan Mud Man

Adam, the first earthling God created, was fashioned in His image. God, the Master Potter, had created a perfect vessel into which He had breathed His breath, the breath of life.

If you believe God created man out of the dust of the ground, you will easily understand the many allegorical references in the Bible to the potter and the clay.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you 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? says the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel, Jeremiah 18:1-6.

The vessel we inherited from our father Adam is marred and unfit for the Master's use. Regardless of our good works and religiosity we have no merit as a proper vessel. Isaiah said, "Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the sight of the Lord."

As human beings, we barely blink an eye when we see a potter crush the clay after making what, we thought, was a perfectly lovely pot. Yet, when we read in the Bible about the Potter who created the first man from the mud of the earth, directing the killing of people, we rise up in indignation and cry, "This is not fair!"

Most people judge God when they consider the problem of evil. They ask the question, why do bad things happen? And yet, the very faculties with which we reason were given us by the Master Potter. God knows what He is doing in the world, even when He appears to be absent from it: "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" Acts 15:18.

We are horrified when we read the Old Testament accounts of God ordering the slaying of men women and even suckling babes! This cannot be the God of the New Testament we reason.

He that does not love does not know God; for God is love 1John 4:8.

"You call that love?" you say. But God's love is His righteousness, and His righteousness is His justice. God is not a loving God one moment, and an ogre the next. It is the supreme love of God, His impeccable nature that judges wickedness. God is justified in His wrath against wickedness.

If God cannot mold and shape us as He desires, because of our rebellion, is He not entitled to throw the clay away? In Isaiah, God rebuked Israel because they arrogantly defied Him and acted as though He had not created them. They acted as though they were in control of their own lives. Isaiah told them, You turn things upside down! Is the potter no better than his clay? Can something that has been made say about its maker, "He didn't make me"? Can a piece of pottery say about the potter, "He doesn't understand"? Isaiah 29:16. It is unthinkable that the "clay" should have such an attitude toward the Potter.

Rather than to question whether God has the right to shatter the vessel he brought into existence, should we not be asking, "What is man that You are mindful of him?" Hebrews 2:6.
My notes on the second potter video

I am touched by the humility of this potter. His feet are bare as he spins the wheel with one foot. I think of the Master and his humanity as He washes the deciples' feet, John 13:5.

In this video I see the potter pick out an impurity and then throw the unformed clay upon the wheel. He wets his hands in water held in an old chipped and otherwise discarded bowl.

The Dutch song: Teach me to make time to give myself to You. Take me, form me in Your strong hands. I place myself in Your hands.
Video courtesy of Charles Smith Pottery - www.smith-pots.com
More and more I feel that I know less and less about the ways of God.  There are impossible situations in life that are beyond our comprehension and ability to control.  When we pray, God does not always answer in the manner or in the timing that we would expect.  Does that mean that God is unfair?  No!  It simply means that we cannot put God, The Potter, in the vessel of our own understanding.

In the following scripture verses (2Co 4:6-11 NKJV) I have replaced the word "God" with the word "Potter" and, where our body or flesh is mentioned, I have put "vessel".

For it is the Potter who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of the Potter in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of the Potter and not of us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed - always carrying about in our vessel the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our vessel. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal vessel.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit 'till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.

Words: Adelaide A. Potter, 1907.
It is unthinkable that the "clay" should esteem itself above the Potter. But many of us do exactly that. We act as if"God" is the clay and "we" are the potters. We desire to mold God into whatever shape "we" desire. We seek an imaginary god who will tolerate our rebellion without requiring change. (Homosexuality, adultery, greed, etc.). But it is sin and it earns wages that most people are not aware of. Romans 6:21,23.


Change My Heart O God - Sung and played by Katherine


In the analogy of the Potter and the clay, there is a difference between the Potter crushing the wet clay and reforming it, and smashing to pieces a hardened vessel. It is easy to see that, while we are malleable in the Master's hands, He can mould us into a vessel for His use. Let us pray that we do not harden our hearts whereby our Creator has no use for us!

You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel Ps 2:9.