The Upper Room Emmaus of the Greater Fredericksburg Area is a large and diverse Community of believers from churches throughout the Fredericksburg, VA area and surrounding cities, towns and counties.

The next Gathering is at Fairview Baptist Church on May 10th!

thoughts from our lay director...

The Blacksmith's Shop        by Max Lucado

In the shop of a blacksmith, there are three types of tools. There are tools on the junk pile: outdated, broken, dull, rusty. They sit in the cobwebbed corner, useless to their master, oblivious to their calling.  There are tools on the anvil: melted down, molten hot, moldable, changeable. They lie on the anvil, being shaped by their master, accepting their calling. There are tools of usefulness: sharpened, primed, defined, mobile. They lie ready in the blacksmith's tool chest, available to their master, fulfilling their calling. Some people lie useless:  lives broken, talents wasting, fires quenched, dreams dashed. They are tossed in with the scrap iron, in desperate need of repair, with no notion of purpose. Others lie on the anvil:  hearts open, hungry to change, wounds healing, visions clearing. They welcome the painful pounding of the blacksmith's hammer, longing to be rebuilt, begging to be called. Others lie in their Master's hands:  well tuned, uncompromising, polished, productive. They respond to their Master's forearm, demanding nothing, surrendering all.

We are all somewhere in the blacksmith's shop. We are either on the scrap pile, in the Master's hands on the anvil, or in the tool chest. (Some of us have been in all three.) From the shelves to the workbench, from the water to the fire...I'm sure that somewhere you will see yourself.

Paul spoke of becoming "an instrument for noble purposes." And what a becoming it is! The rubbish pile of broken tools, the anvil of recasting, the hands of the Master- it's a simultaneously joyful and painful voyage.  And for you who make the journey--who leave the heap and enter the fire, dare to be pounded on God's anvil, and doggedly seek to discover your own purpose--take courage, for you await the privilege of being called "God's chosen instruments." (End of Quote)

As I have surveyed the Emmaus landscape over the past few weeks, it would seem that many are on the anvil. I know I have been feeling some heat and taking a little pounding lately, but I am not alone.

The Community as a whole is also being shaped and molded to fit God’s purposes. I hear some messages of gloom and doom, some messages of apprehension and fear. But take heart, this is God’s Community and He is able. Isaiah said His arm is not short or His ear dull. God knows what we need, we are the Body of Christ, a tool in God’s own hand and I do not believe that He will allow the nub of a finger, or the most insignificant tool to fail.

DeColores,

Mark Lawrence