Refreshed!
Elizabeth's personal reflections
on living and growing with Jesus

July 2010

Do you like a good story?

I'm happy to announce a new development on my website. I've incorporated more functionality which allows you, my reader, to add your voice to this site. This is more than a simple 'add a comment' function. It goes beyond responding to what I've written, and allows you to add your own stories.

Here's how it works. Have you got a story to share about one of the topics I've written about? For example, have you journeyed through loss and would like to encourage others with what has helped you? Do you have a story to tell of choosing obedience and would like to reflect upon what taking this step has been like -- or tell a story of the reward that has followed? How about sharing your testimony of your spiritual eyes being opened, of how you moved from darkness to light? For each of these topics there's an opportunity for you to create your own page, and with ease.

Take a look at the pages I've linked above and the stories which have already been posted (scroll to the bottom). Then consider adding your own story. I'd love to hear your story, and I know others would too!

11/07/10

The Silversmith

Marlous from our Faith Foundations group sent this last evening. It's so beautifully said that it merits posting here.

I've long found encouragement from knowing how gold is refined. When gold is boiled its impurities rise to the top as froth. It takes 7 times of being brought to the boiling point before no more froth appears, evidence that the refining process is complete. Here is a description of how silver undergoes the refiner's fire.

Malachi 3:3 says: He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study group and they wondered what this statement revealed about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out and get back to the group at their next meeting.

That week the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that, in refining silver, one needs to hold the metal in the middle of the fire where the flames are hottest to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot.

Then she thought again about the verse: He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked, 'How do you know when the silver is fully refined?' He smiled at her and answered, 'Oh, that's easy--when I see my image in it.'

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until he sees his image in you.

01/07/10

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