Friday, August 6, 2010

Refiners Fire

At my retreat this weekend, the speaker said something that caught my attention. He said

“Christians look for transportation rather than transformation”

By this, he meant Christians want transportation into heaven rather than transforming themselves to become better people. Now when I say transformation, im not talking about listening to a sermon that completely change your life forever. Well im sure it may happen to some people, but for most, this will not happen. Im talking about changing your life little by little with God leading the way in order to become a better, happier and holier person. Im talking about tackling one sin at a time, with God’s help removing them from your daily lives. The very things that you know you don’t like about yourself, the qualities that keep getting you into trouble, keep you feeling depressed every night, keep you from living a joyful life.

With every step you take closer to God, every little change you make, over time; 3 months, a year, you will notice a big change in yourselves. I know I saw it in myself in just over a year. I saw it in the way I thought about the world, the way I treated people, the way I talked to people, etc. Although I still have a long way to go still!

But the point is, our time here on Earth isn’t just waiting to be transported to heaven. I remember either someone said, or it’s in the bible somewhere that Eternal life with God doesn’t begin when you get to heaven. It begins when you submit yourself to God and proclaim in your heart and mind that he is your savior, your king… your father

So the point here is that we’re not suppose to wait for heaven to start changing ourselves.. we re suppose to start NOW!.... like right after you finish reading this sentence now!!!

So start chipping away at those sins of yours, those character qualities that you possess that you know are bringing you down, it could be anger, a reluctance to forgive others, grudge holding, PRIDE…Laziness just to name a few that I could think of off the top of my head.

I will leave you with a cool analogy I heard at the retreat.

Person 1, lets say his name is Joe walks into a silversmith and observes the silversmith purifying a raw, dirty, impure silver ore.

The Silversmith builds a fire in the furnace and puts the ore into the furnace. And for a long time, all he does is put more wood into the furnace and waits and waits and waits and puts more wood into the furnace and waits and waits… eat, sleep, rinse and repeat (I know …it sounds just like a life of a student right?)

Joe says to the silversmith… how do you know when the ore is purified into silver?

The silversmith replies, when I can see a perfect reflection of myself in the silver.

Of course we will never be pure enough that God will see his reflection in us, but through persevering through trials, persevering through time, slowly refining ourselves and slowly removing our impurities and sins and becoming as pure as we can God can say that he’s proud of us for removing as many impurities while living in this sinful, impure world.

So be encouraged and go do the things that God has asked us to do … not to earn your way into heaven because Grace is a gift, not something that we need to or can earn.. it’s just given to us in a box wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper with a bowtie on it and all we need to do is receive and accept it,…. but we do these things because we want to say to God on that final day… I truly did try my best to transform into someone who you could be proud of and remove as many impurities as I could!

And for all of you asking how can we be expected to complete such a difficult task? No big.. just go out and be AWESOME haha!

6 comments:

  1. Why would god create us as an impurity in an impure world and then ask us to try and rid ourselves of the very essence of what he created us to be. That's like asking someone to count to infinity... he's set us out to do an impossible and redundant task. What a cruel thing to do.

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  2. immm its more like.. he created a world where he gave us the freedom to choose what we want to do. I mean he didn't a world full of robots. Thats why he gave us free will.. the free will for us to choose, to make decisions.... Its just us that chose to turn away and become impure... for example, when babies are born, they re pure from the start.. once they come into this world, they see, hear, experience the impurity that we ve made the world to be... so its not God that created an impure world.. its God that created us with the freedom of choice.. and its us who choose to become impure

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  3. If god created us with the freedom of choice with the options: to sin or not to sin, statistically speaking, should we not expect half of the world population to be sinners and the other half to not be sinners? If this notion of free will is true then how do you justify how 100% of human beings sin. How are u so sure that we are made pure from the start (such as babies)? Maybe god made us impure by nature, in fact, is that not a more likely scenario since ALL humans have sinned and will continue to sin. So since sinning is clearly apart of human nature which we have no control of, why do you continue to defy what you were created to do.

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  4. haha when are statistics always right? today had a 70% POP and thunderstorm warnings for tonight, but i ended up playing all my softball games today with a light drizzle in the afternoon. I think its just the environment we re raised in that makes us sinners..im not 100% sure if babies are pure but if you dont know anything, you have no anger about anything, no jealousy, etc... i dont know.. to me that sounds pretty pure. Yes since all humans have sinned so we will continue to sin, i will continue to sin... but i mean if you know that someone you respect and love, would you not want to try to make that person happy by doing things they really want you to do.. that will at the same time make you a better person? I know that when i try to avoid sin and defy my human nature, im generally a much happier person... no drama, extremely blessed.. seeing things optimistically, knowing that everything happens for a reason and that theres a bigger picture than what I can see and understand.... i dont know if you'll believe me or not... but this is from my personal experience... i am A LOT happier since i met God... my job isnt here to convert you or anything... my job is just to tell you why I believe and why i love God.. you can take it for whatever you want it to be.. but this is my belief and id be happy to share it with you at any time!

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  5. actually let me correct myself... i dont think i didnt do a good job in explaining.. but we are all born sinners... i shouldvnt have said that we re not born pure, that was my bad, so you are correct that we are all 100% sinners.... but basically the Gospel explains that although we re all sinners and the punishment for sinning is death, God sent Jesus down to die on that cross to absorb our sin if we so choose to believe in him...and if you ask why doesnt he give this gift to everyone if he was a just God? the answer is that the gift is there for you to receive, its up to us individually if we so choose to accept it. so yea i apologize for my terrible explanation, but i hope this helps

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