THE REFINING PROCESS

He is tender and loving and patient with me,

While He cleanses my heart of its dross,

But "there's no condemnation"-- 

I know I am free,

For my sins are all nailed to the cross.

                                               from the hymn Nailed to the Cross

Cleansing my heart of its dross is a reference to the refining process that silver and gold must go through- to go from its natural, rough, impure state to a state of refined purity and beauty and high value.

Psalm 66:10 says For You, O God, have tested us;

You have refined us as silver is refined.

To think that God is actively involved in the refining process of my life is both humbling and exciting!

I  put a lot of pressure on myself to do this myself and then I am reminded by verses such as these that it is God working the process!  What a relief!! Of course I must be willing to submit to His hand in this process, and that is the hard part. Because refining requires heat and pressure- neither of which are comfortable.

The raw metal must be heated to a very high temperature for the dross (impurities) to be removed.

Psalm 66 continues the thought:

You brought us into the net;

You laid affliction on our backs.

You have caused men to ride over our heads;

We went through fire

and through water;

But You brought is out to rich fulfillment.

Submitting to the process, I believe, means trusting God through the difficult times. Times when we are fearful, doubting, struggling, suffering because of our own sins or the sins of others.

It means keep on keepin' on!

Keep reading His Word- IT IS YOUR FOOD-YOUR SUSTENANCE.

Keep praying- it is your communication with your Savior. 

Keep assembling with your brothers and sisters- there is strength here!

Keep looking for the value in your suffering-how you are learning to lean upon the LORD.

Remember He said I will never leave you nor forsake you!

I am confident that He truly IS always THERE. 

My feeling that He may be distant or disinterested is simply that:

my feeling. Nothing more.

God still has A LOT of work to do in refining me, but I'm so glad that He loves each one of us enough to do it.

And HE does all things well.

purification's juicy effect

". . .looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works"  Titus 2:14

 Even if these were the only words a person ever  heard about Jesus, wouldn't the

 IMMENSE LOVE

 expressed in this passage compel them to respond to our amazing Savior?

 

 

What stands between lawless deeds and zealous good works in this verse is purification.

The ongoing, loving purification of the blood of Christ compels me to try to do better.

To put the lawless deeds behind and eagerly, willingly, zealously serve such a

 

 LOVING SAVIOR

 

 

 

with all the good works I can squeeze into my day!

BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART

Jesus includes the condition of having a pure/clean heart in the Beatitudes:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Like many Bible verses over the years, my initial understanding of this verse, I think, was not complete or as in depth as it later became. It's that beautiful aspect of the Word being living and active that makes it exciting and rich and meaningful to dig into.

Anyway, I used to assume that the seeing of God here, was after death- in heaven.  But it now occurs to me that we can see  God even while living on this earth. 

David said in Psalm 141:8 my eyes are upon You, O GOD the Lord.

He is also the one who said create in me a clean heart, O GOD in Psalm 51:10.

It seems that a pure heart produces pure vision.

If my heart is full of those selfish little "demons" that like to live there, my spiritual vision is obscured. I can only see through a lens which has become clouded, blurry and warped- God, and all His goodness, is not visible through this lens.

Small children, I believe, have a "clear" lens with which to see GOD. Why? Because they still have pure hearts. 

So. My quest for a completely pure heart so that my ZEAL is renewed brings an added benefit:

SEEING GOD

Not just later, in heaven. But NOW. In this life.

WOW.

Create in me a clean heart, O God

At first my theme for 2014 was to be about ZEAL . . .  re-energizing.

Bur as I read verses in the Bible on the subject I began to realize there was something that must come BEFORE zeal:

A CLEANSING OF THE HEART

As with all  issues which impede our service to our Lord, a lack of zeal is really a HEART issue.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."  Psalm 51:10

Psalm 51 is David's prayer of repentance after he was confronted with his great sin by Nathan the prophet.

He prays for forgiveness and for a right spirit. And rightly so. His sin was great.

But having a "wrong spirit" can also be the result of someone sinning against us.

 "Uncleanness" can dwell in the heart of the offended as well as the offender. 

Having once swept our hearts clean of  bitterness, we turn around

and there it is again;

 uninvited and unwelcome.

So, exploring what the Bible says about cleansing the heart will be the subject which will then, hopefully, lead into the second part of David's prayer:

RENEW A STEADFAST SPIRIT WITHIN ME.

It is my goal to become more zealous, more productive and more useful for my Lord in His kingdom and I believe this is where it starts.

Keeping the WORD

Continuing on the shirttails of the last post . . .

Perpetual Sunshine in God's Presence

Tree of Life, with its life-giving fruit and healing leaves

Pure River of  Water of Life

 

 

Four times in the last book of the Bible it states very clearly that the ones who will be enjoying the above are those who

"keep the words of the prophecy of this book."

 

First Jesus Himself says it to John.

 

Then an angel says to John "I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God."

 

Verse 14: "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city."

 

Verse 18: "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book:

 If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;

and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy,

God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

 

 

I really try not to preach here, there are others who are much more qualified, but . . .

 

I am very afraid! 

 

I see brothers and sisters in Christ playing with God's Word:

 

-Trying to "update" it (Its author is not bound by time- His Word is timeless)

 

-Trying to make it more "appealing" to the world (The world won't be drawn to something that looks like its ugly self!  but to something that is much better!)

-Trying to make it less restricting (i.e. sin just isn't THAT bad)

 

WHAT ARE THEY THINKING??!!!

 

Do they seriously think they can make one single word better than the Creator of the Universe??!!

And YES! God apparently IS serious about EVERY SINGLE WORD. None are to be ignored.

 

I'm not claiming perfection in the keeping of God's Word, but I hope that we all would WANT to keep it perfectly.

 

Nothing is worth missing out on Heaven.

 

 

 

the tree of life revisted

 

 

 

 

Have you  noticed that the Bible begins and ends with the Tree of Life?

 

Adam and Eve had free access to it- it was their source of  immortality (Gen. 3:22)

 

When they sinned their real punishment was that access was denied.

 

"So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden,

and a flaming sword which turned every way,

to guard the way to the tree of life.  (verse 24)

 

 

The next time we read about the Tree is at the very end of the Bible:

 

"And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me,

 to give to every one according to his work.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.

Blessed are those who do His commandments,

 that they may have the right to

 the tree of life,

and may enter through the gates into the city."

 

Revelation 22:12-14

 

Life as a pilgrimage to get back to the tree of life.

I like that imagery.

 

Can you imagine the JOY of Adam and Eve being reunited with the Tree after their deaths?

Can you imagine YOUR JOY seeing it for the first time?!

 

"But I [John] saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

They city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. . . And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life . . ."    (Rev. 21:22-23; 22:1-2))

 

 

If I keep my mind focused on this glorious scene, how can I have anything but JOY?

I think I will teach this verse to my granddaughters and begin to lay before them the

Glorious Joy

that we just don't want to miss.

 

                                                                                                        

today i choose joy