The crucible of trials

INTRO. For quite some time I have been contemplating speaking on the trials of the Christian life. On my heart was the subject of 1 Peter 1:6-7 (read 3-7). I thought I had spoken on these verses not so long ago, but found it was 13 years ago. At that I did two messages on this subject, and in going over that I found that when I was doing those messages a young Jewish lady sent us a note at Christmas. Her husband had been in Bible school where I taught some years before that. Her name was Shauna MacIntosh. And that Christmas, over 13 years ago she sent us a letter saying that they were excited to see what the Lord had next for them in life. Well, little did she know that the next change of events would be to find her husband dead underneath their car. I expect he was working on it. That left Shauna as a young widow with four children.