Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from the video of Crystal Lewis & Ron Kenoly singing … Beauty for Ashes … poignantly singing of God’s reality of producing His glory from the brokenness of life.
{For images on Nozomi Jewelry - GO TO THIS ARTICLE LINK}
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Highlight Verse[s]: 2nd Corinthians 4:7 [NLT] …
7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
… We are like broken clay pots with the light of Christ shining from us into a darkened world.
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Highlight Passage [context]: 2nd Corinthians 4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul encourages Christians to look past our weakness or brokenness because of the hope we have in Christ.
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Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … 2nd Corinthians 11:30, 12:9-10 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Once more, the Apostle encourages Christians who are weakened or struggling in brokenness.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Elisa Morgan, used true story of jewelry crafted from broken shards from the brokenness produced by a devastating earthquake in Nozomi, Japan. The ODB author wrote: In 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake and a resulting tsunami took nearly 19,000 lives and destroyed 230,000 homes in the region northeast of Tokyo. In its aftermath, The Nozomi Project, named for the Japanese word for “hope,” was born to provide sustainable income, community, dignity, and hope in a God who provides. Nozomi women sift through the rubble of homes and furnishings to discover broken china shards [see photo] that they sand and insert into fittings to form jewelry. The jewelry is sold around the world, providing a livelihood for the women while sharing symbols of their faith in Christ.
What a lovely word picture of how God can take our brokenness and turn it into His glory. The Nozomi Project jewelry is called “shards of hope,” describing, as the linked video sings, beauty from the ashes of life. And it’s just as the Apostle Paul was picturing to the early church with his image that, in Christ, we Christians are like broken pots of clay (see 2Corinthians, Chapter 4) with Christ’s light shining thru our brokenness to light up a darkened world. And Paul in his own state of brokenness wrote (see 2Cor. 11-12 links) of how God’s grace turns our brokenness - our weakness - into His glory.
So, those of us in Christ need not despair of our state of brokenness, trusting that God will shine His light of hope thru His repair of our brokenness.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … shine thru this broken pot, dear Lord. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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