Mary “Joseph” – A Vessel Fit for the Master’s Use and Jesus

A Vessel Fit for the Master’s Use

   If you’ve ever watched a potter work, you’ll know there is a stage where the potter stops shaping. His critical eye examines every detail on the object he is making. Finally he picks it up and sets it aside for firing. In the potter’s eyes, the object, the vessel, is fit for use by even the most discriminating buyer. That’s clearly what the apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote to Timothy: “Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Tim. 2:21).

   But what does it really mean to become a vessel fit for the Master Potter’s use? The opening statement by the apostle Paul reflects on twenty verses of admonition and challenge regarding what Timothy’s life was to be like — and what he was to share with the church he was pastoring. That cleansing, which we’ll call shaping, was an ongoing process that reached a stage where the Master Potter could really use the person.

   It seems to me that the first prerequisite for becoming a vessel fit for the Master’s use is genuine humility.

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   You simply must be humble before your God and know that He is God, that only He can make your life count, really count for His glory. You must be willing to do what the Word of God and His Holy Spirit are telling you to do.

Obedient Acceptance of God’s Message

  To me, Mary, the mother of Jesus, represents that kind of humility. She was a teenager in the small town of Nazareth, engaged to marry a carpenter. So when an angel appeared to her, it was not exactly an everyday event. Much more surprising even than the angel’s appearance was his message: “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28)

   A cynical young girl might have said to herself, “Wow, what a build-up. Wonder what he wants.” Instead, Mary, “was troubled at his saying,” meaning she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The angel continued:

   “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:30-33)

   Hold it, Mary must have been thinking, a king born to me? So she responded, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34) Now comes the real

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puzzler: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

   At this stage most girls would either have a big head or be totally stunned by this grand news. But Mary simply answered humbly: “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

   That kind of humble acceptance of God’s stunning message made her a vessel fit unto the Master’s use. Nor is there any indication that Mary made a big thing of the angel’s appearance and his message in her social circle. In today’s world she probably would have made it onto the “Oprah” show after sharing the news with her friends. Instead she went to see Elizabeth, in keeping with the angel’s instruction, and shared with her close relative what God had promised. God honored this humble young woman, a vessel fit for the Master Potter’s use, with the great honor of birthing the Messiah and raising Him.

Why Live by the Bible

   Accepting God’s Word for us, even when it isn’t communicated by an angel, can bring rich rewards for us as well. Unfortunately, according to George Barna’s research, only one-third of the age group he calls Baby Boomers are willing to accept that the Bible contains absolute truth — and the generation below that age group is even less willing to accept the Bible as representing absolute truth (What Americans Believe, Regal Books, 1991). We have so deified humanity, put our intellect on such a pedestal, that in our pride we

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think we can pick and choose from what God has said, even as Christians. Whatever in the Bible happens to agree with our personal opinion is worth accepting as important for us, but if it clashes with our own ideas, especially our lifestyle, it obviously cannot be absolute truth and need not be acted upon.

   The person who will say with humility: “Your testimonies also are my delight / And my counselors” (Ps. 119:24) and “Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, / And I shall keep it to the end” (Ps. 119:33), is the person who will hear God’s voice, heed its message, and experience the rewards of obedience.

   Yet even when we do accept the Bible as God’s truth for us, we can treat it as though it really is not that important simply by neglecting it. I have found myself getting too busy for the Word — and that means I am too busy for God. I am too busy to just be in His presence and listen. The psalmist’s advice is so pertinent:

Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. (Ps. 37:4)

It’s Easy to Neglect the Master

   It is so easy to miss Him in the hurly burly of life, since the Master Potter normally talks to us only in the still, small voice.

   I find that I need to read my Bible regularly. In addition, I read from various devotional meditations. Then I talk to the Lord all day as I am doing things. One of my prized times is when I am driving the car, for there I can truly be alone with the Lord. But when

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I don’t do that, I lose the peace that He has given me. All of a sudden I think, “What is going on here? There’s something wrong. Have I turned to my own devices again?”

   We can make such terrible decisions at such a time. That’s why I asked Dr. Norman Vincent Peale one time, “How do you make a hard decision?”

   Dr. Peale responded, “Well, I have a cardinal rule. I don’t ever make them at night because my defenses are down at night after a tiring day.

   “If I am on the road and I have a really crucial decision to make, I get a pencil and paper and make two columns. I write the pros in one column and the cons in the other. Then I take the paper, raise the window if I can, and breathe deeply to get some night air. Then I say, “Lord, here it is. And I just don’t know what to do, what is right. I’m going to depend on you. I am tired tonight, so I am going to depend on you to give me an answer in the morning.” Then I tear up the paper and throw it in the wastebasket. I go to sleep. In the morning, the first solution that comes to me I take as from the Lord. Now sometimes I did not hear right, but God knows my heart was right in what I wanted, and He will overrule.”

   When we demonstrate humility in submitting to the Master Potter and become pliable under His shaping hands, He starts a whole chain of positive responses in us. These then make us a vessel fit for the Master’s use.

The Master Potter Starts in the Home

   I’m convinced the Master Potter wants to make us His special vessels in our homes first. Personally, I

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had been doing my own things for so long, and been such a failure in many ways, that submission to the Master Potter meant a whole new set of priorities. I determined they were going to be God first, Roy second, the children third, and my work last. That obviously created some conflicts, but as time went on I become more aware of how this priority pattern could work in my life.

   It really did start with my commitment to make God supreme in my life. We touched on that in the chapter on priorities, especially in relation to how we included a Christian message in all of our programs. Then there has been my commitment to give Roy his rightful place in our marriage and to work on problems that come up until they are solved.

   Our commitment to adopting children, even if they were of different ethnic origin or had physical problems, was a conscious decision to be a vessel fit for the Master’s use. You’ll remember Sandy, who came from a background of serious abuse and malnourishment. As a result he appeared to be a bit slow. After we took him home we discovered that he had brian damage. It was not serious enough to institutionalize him, but it did mean taking on the role of a humble servant in caring for him.

   First we had a terrible time with Sandy’s bedwetting. When he went to sleep he was dead to the world and just never woke up in time to go to the bathroom. When he began school, we discovered he had a serious reading problem, so we put him in the Marianne Frostig Remedial School. He came a long way as a result of that help.

   Once Sandy learned to read, he became totally focused on military books. Nothing else seemed to interest him.

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He decided he wanted to become a private first class in the Army, and that’s all he lived for. Yet he was so poorly coordinated that he could not learn to ride a bicycle or drive a car. Despite our best efforts he could not shoot straight enough to “hit a barn door.” We wondered if he might not simply experience another rejection.

   At seventeen, Sandy was failing high school. He just could not keep up with the rest of the students. But when he asked if we would sign for him to enlist in the Army, since he was under eighteen, we decided to take him in and see if he could make the grade. To our surprise, the Army accepted him.

   Sandy made it through boot camp at Fort Polk. He passed the tests, and I was there for his graduation from boot camp when he paraded with his company. They knew he had poor coordination, but in Germany he learned to load and unload a tank. At Fort Polk his sergeant said, “I have been in the military for eighteen years, and I have never seen a boy try as hard as he does.”

Prayer is Most Important

   The most important contribution we can make to our children is to pray for them. My maternal grandparents had eight children. Uncle Roy was the oldest, and seven girls were born after him. All the girls made their decision for Christ and joined the church. But Uncle Roy wouldn’t. He was a very mischievous boy.

   When World War I was declared, Uncle Roy joined the Army and was sent to Germany. All the years since Uncle Roy had been born, my grandmother

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had been praying for him. She wrote to him constantly, begging him to see a chaplain and confess Christ. She was so afraid he would be killed before he accepted Jesus as his Savior.

   Before the war was over and Uncle Roy could come home, my grandmother developed gallstones. They erupted, and peritonitis set in. Her death nearly killed my Uncle Roy. The first thing he did when he came home was to go to church and publicly accept Christ as his Savior, and he stayed true to the Lord for the rest of his life. He is proof that a righteous and faithful mother’s prayer “availeth much,” even though my grandmother died beseeching the Lord for her son, not knowing what the answer would be.

   I am so disheartened at what I hear about goals for women today. I’ve competed in business and entertainment for many years, and I know that whatever women do, they are never going to be men. I’ve worked in numerous offices as a secretary. I’ve been through sexual harassment. Yet for me the real joy came in being the wife of a man who loved me and the mother of children who looked to me for guidance.

   I discovered it is almost impossible to have a fullfledged career when there are little children at home, as well as a husband who needs attention. Having a successful career is commendable. Having an attractive home and cooking fine meals are plus points on anyone’s chart. But raising a child “in the way he should go” and nurturing a love for God in your child’s heart are truly creative accomplishments.

   I wrote a book called Woman in 1979 and received a lot of flak for it. I went to Atlanta to witness and sing for a group of largely African-American women. While I was there, the phone rang. A reporter from

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the daily newspaper, The Atlanta Constitution, was on the line. She asked me, “What do you think of ERA?” I said, “I don’t.” She responded, “You are kidding! I’ve read your books and you’ve worked since you were seventeen years old.”

   I said, “Yes, I know.  But I just cannot agree with women abdicating the throne of motherhood and their role as wives. We are trying to be men, and we will never be men, no matter how hard we try. God has a place for us, both men and women. I consider it a wonderful privilege to be a woman, with everything that God has endowed me with as a woman.”

   The reporter wrote a scathing article. As a result there were pickets in front of the auditorium where I sang and witnessed. But I had to say what I considered the truth. And I still do, because I have lived long enough to see the results of women’s involvement in the defense industries during World War II. When the men came home from the war, the women were used to getting paychecks for several years. Many of them kept their jobs, undercutting men who needed jobs to care for their families. Kids started running on the street, starting a new generation of latchkey kids. I really believe that the results of that trend are on front pages of newspapers and featured in television reports to day — as gang members and wanton murderers.

   True, not every child of every working mother becomes a problem teen. But I believe the trend was set with women working in World War II, creating new levels of income in families, new desires for this world’s goods, and more latchkey kids who had no one supervising their after-school activities. Nor were the parents there to make them feel important as family members.

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A Reverse Commitment

   Parent’s commitments to each other and to their children are not the only indication of humble commitment to members of the family. I’ve also seen a beautiful reverse commitment, that of children to parents. Remember Leonard and Frances Eilers? Like her parents, their daughter Joy also gave her life to ministering Christ to people in the movie industry. A graduate of Princeton, she is a fine pianist. She has traveled widely, giving concerts. Yet even though she is extremely talented, Joy has given years of her life to first both parents, and now to her father, who is ninety-four years old as I write this. Joy says, “As long as my father needs me, I am here for him at the ranch.” Indeed a vessel fit unto her Master’s use because of her humble service to her father.

   But there is also a world beyond the home for many of us. I call it the public world, where we interact with others in our social and church circles, in our places of work. The apostle Paul had something to say in respect to this public world, which he wanted Titus to share with his congregation: “Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men” (Titus 3:1-2).

   He continued that theme in verse 14:  “And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful.”

   The person the Master Potter was shaping into a vessel fit for the Master’s use was clearly a caring, gentle person known for his humility. Roy and I often found our gentleness and humility challenged as we moved about.

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   Being considered a “celebrity” means literally becoming public property in the minds of many people-like the woman who stormed into our house right after Robin’s funeral to show it to her aunt and introduce her to Roy.

Responsibilities of a Public Person

   The responsibilities of being a public figure are literally mind-bogging. That is particularly true if you are a Christian, and you do Christian work, like witnessing for your Lord.

   People have asked me, “Don’t you get tired of people wanting your autograph?” I reply, “Sometimes. I’ve been stopped when I am rushing to catch a plane.” Numerous times I’ve said, “Walk along with me while I try to catch the plane.”  

   But for me to be ugly about it and uncaring, indifferent, and callous would be like a cow giving a five-gallon can of milk and then kicking it over.

   My goal has been to let the Master Potter use me where He has planted me. I want to “walk worthy of the vocation to which I am called.” Some people take that to mean leaving what they are doing to shine for Jesus somewhere else. But I believe God calls some of us to stay there and be salt and light. Even at that, if you really follow the Master Potter, the business you are in may start easing you out, as happened with us on a major network.

   If you truly follow the Lord, there are many things you cannot do in show business, particularly in the awful movies being filmed nowadays. The studios simply do not want to make a Christian-oriented film and Christians do not want to be in films today.

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   There are times when I got really tired, especially when filming movies. But then I would remember I was in the hands of the Master Potter. I remember one time when we were filming in Big Bear. I was sharing my faith, working with Roy in the picture, and thinking of the children I had left at home. It was like a great big burden on me.

   I had a few minutes between scenes involving me, so I took a walk alone one morning. I was desperately tired as I walked down the streets. Suddenly I noticed two little birds accompanying me. They would fly when I walked, and settled down when I rested. I thought, “That’s strange.”

   All of a sudden I stopped and said, “Lord, I’m tired. I am worn out. I am drained. I have nothing more to give. Haven’t I done enough? Can I quit?” And as if a light had turned on in my inner being, I heard these words, “Herein is my father glorified in that you bear much fruit.”  I said, “All right, Father, I’m sorry.”

   Suddenly I was released and no longer so burdened. I could go back and carry on. The Master Potter’s hand had gently lifted me up and strengthened me.

   Misunderstanding is another factor in public life that calls for humility and the spirit of a servant. I was invited to be part of the dedication of the reconstructed London Bridge at Lake Havasu in Arizona. I was brought there by a group of eight churches for a Sunday night service. They picked me up in the afternoon and took me to the outdoor site. I sat down at a beat-up piano and played and sang, sharing what Jesus Christ meant to me.

   After the program one preacher walked up to me

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and said, “Dale, I’ve never believed you until tonight. Now I believe you.” What this minister was telling me was that he had been looking at my life in show business, at the glitz, even thought by this time I was really out of it. He had been conditioned to disbelieve the witness of people in that environment, so how could I be believed? By that time the Lord had taught me a lot about humility in the face of misunderstanding, so I simply accepted his statement. But it was part of the Master Potter’s shaping me to be a vessel fit for the Master’s use.

   At such a time it is wise to remember the apostle Paul’s admonition to: “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11).

   When we make a definite commitment on our part to do that, then the Master Potter is able to shape us into a vessel fit for His use. Yet I have also discovered that even though you may be a truly useful vessel, the Lord will still put you through the refiner’s fire as part of His total process. Sometimes the fire and pressure are really heavy, but think of the molding of the diamond. It is said that the diamond is the toughest gem, so tough that it can cut almost anything — but only because of the pressure it has been under.

Reflecting on the Shaping

1. How do you assess yourself at this point: a vessel unto honor or a vessel unto dishonor? Why?

2. What turns someone into a vessel unto honor?

3. What relationship does being a vessel unto honor have to our study of God’s truth in the Bible?

4. What family situations may the Master Potter want to use to shape you into a genuine vessel unto honor?

5. Where would the Master Potter want you to place your priorities in letting Him shape you into a vessel unto honor?

Visual Verse of the Day

“The wilderness and the dry lands shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom.” Isaiah 35:1