Devotions & Update from Alice and Brown 5-21-07

It is a bright and beautiful spring day in Jamaica Plain following 3 days straight of rain. Isn't it so often the way, that we slog through the rainy days of life, putting one foot ahead of another, to step out into the sunshine at last? Yet, even the rainy days, and the hard ones, are days that the Lord has made and we are commanded to rejoice and be glad.

It is so much easier to give praise and thanksgiving when all is "going right" in our lives than when we must endure hardships and difficulties.Did you ever think about the clay, kneaded, thrown time after time, bent into unnatural shapes, and then, if all of that wasn't enough, put into a fiery oven to bake out the impurities and imperfections and to create a vessel that can be used with honor. If the clay had "feelings" I am sure that all of that experience would be tortuous. Yet, without it, the clay would still be just a hunk of wet dirt with no particular value to anyone. We are the clay in the Potter's hands. We endure these hardships for a season but with the promise that "joy comes in the morning."

Brown and I had a restful and worshipful Sunday in JP, though we were unable to make it out for church. As a part of his daily meditations he read through Hebrews 10 and Hebrews 13."Where there is forgiveness of these,, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

Hebrews 10:18-25 Each day is a new day in which to practice that "new and living way", to be moulded, shaped, pressed, and set on fire that the Spirit of God may be alive and ever present in us so that we may provoke one another to love.

May this be your daily experience today. May He, who has begun a good work in you, be welcomed to complete it in you. All is well. By the way, Brown is gaining day by day, but can't wait to be free of his encumbrances. Furthermore, he is really eager to be at home again.
Alice and Brown