But we have these treasures in jars of clay...

Tonight I was sitting here going through my dashboard, looking through the blogs that I have found via Pinterest. The majority of the blogs I follow were the source of pins, or in the case of one, was linked from Pinterest to one blogger to the second blogger. 


Did that make sense? 


~~Well, it did in my mind.~~ 


Anyways, through two blogs in particular, I feel as though I have been blessed. The first has a playlist, rotating through music. I went so far as to leave the page up to listen to it! The first song was an acoustic version of Jesus Loves Me by Andy Leftwich. I've listened to it cycle through a couple of times tonight! 


Not growing up in the church, I missed out on the traditional hymns. In my car, my radio plays K-LOVE constantly and I know the contemporary songs; at our church before we moved I was able to sing along with everything At church now, I play my clarinet and do not sing the hymns and am still not very familiar with most of what I play. Later on down the list is are arrangements of I Have Decided to Follow Jesus and of  Jesus Loves Me. It made me think- no matter how "old, slow, boring, etc." that the old hymns seem sometimes, the message has always been the same. Without the traditional hymns, the contemporary music couldn't follow. 


Take the Gungor Band for example. One of their songs I have had in my head is titled Beautiful Things. They sing that God makes "beautiful things out of dust" and also makes "beautiful things out of us."

All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all?

They remind me that God can take the driest ground, the most barren land and turn it into a beautiful garden. He makes all things new and turns them into beautiful things. No matter how dry we are when we first turn to Him, He makes us into fertile and beautiful gardens. His power and love is shown through His "garden" so to speak.

Below is one of my favorite passages, 2 Corinthians 4:7-18. I love what it says- that we are afflicted but not crushed because we have Jesus! We should not waste our time on momentary and "transient" problems, because waiting for us are heavenly, permanent, ETERNAL beauties! 

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. ~2 Corinthians 4:7-18 ESV
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