Increasing Thanks

Sacred Gifts and Holy Gatherings
Holy Days
Feast of Weeks

2 Corinthians 4:7-15  The Message

^7-12 If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!
^13-15 We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, “I believed it, so I said it,” we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!

For Reflection 

We carry around the Gospel in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives!  Our clay pots infinitely different from each other, scarred, cracked and broken, poor as they are, are rich in spirit, a compliment to God.  Thanks be to God for the aura of the sanctity which surrounds us.  Thanks be to God for living in our lives.  Thanks be to God for the opportunity to be the vessel of the Holy Spirit.  You believe and it is impossible to ignore it.

Pray

thanking God for all your blessings.  Thank God for the Holy Spirit which resides in you.  Thank God for the opportunity to become a beacon to others.  Thank God.