{"id":5949,"date":"2017-10-31T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T13:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/daily-e-votional\/?p=5949"},"modified":"2017-10-30T11:58:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T18:58:46","slug":"joy-in-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/joy-in-ashes\/","title":{"rendered":"JOY IN ASHES!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Isaiah 61:3<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #c40000;\"><em>\u201cTo console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A grave site is not the usual place for a happy reunion, but it was just that last Friday. As I approached the graveside a young woman greeted me and introduced herself. It turned out that I had officiated at her wedding over seventeen years ago.<\/p>\n<p>From that first introduction I was soon surrounded by others I had known before. The somber occasion quickly became a rather joyous time of meeting and greeting several young women who had been children or even not yet born way back then.<\/p>\n<p>As we took the time to honor the memory of the woman who was being laid to rest, it struck us all that life does pass by quickly &#8212; and because this life will soon pass, it is important to live our life for Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Since we have been blessed with a new life in Christ, in our times of sadness there can and should be a joy in the ashes. We truly do not grieve as do those who have no hope. Our hope and joy is in the Lord!<\/p>\n<p>May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211; Pastor Cecil<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Isaiah 61:3 \u201cTo console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.\u201d A grave site is not the usual [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-isaiah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}