A MESSAGE FROM:
Reverend Bertram Domineck
Some of the finest china in the world is made in London and a visit to the factory reveals an amazing process.
Designs painted on the china are not what you might expect. The colors are dirty red and drab blue, and around the edges are a flat black paint. Where is that brilliant, delicate beauty that is so well known?
Then comes the firing process. The china goes into a fiery furnace and is left to bake. The reds and blues are now bright and shining, and the dull black has become bright gold!
Doesn't it seem, when the trials of this life become great, that we've been lowered into a fiery furnace? But maybe we will emerge with a new understanding of God and of ourselves - we may be transformed.
The prophet Isaiah understood this process when he wrote that God would give "A crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for the spirit of grief." Isaiah 61:3
You see my friends, although life can be hard, God moves in mysterious ways and often with great blessings.
Remember the words of Jesus: "In the world you shall have trouble; but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world." John 16:3
Pastor Bert