February 20, 2018

The Promise of Spring

Spring is my favorite season of the year.

In the winter, days are short and cold.

Nights are long and colder.

The vegetation appears dead and lifeless.

Then one day it happens.

Warmth and sunshine.

Tiny green leaves bud from skeletal twigs.

Flowering daffodil bulbs pop up in the sleeping flowerbeds.

Life.

Longer days of Light.

Resurrection.

Just like my life.

Spring brings hope.

“Our Lord has written the promise of the Resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.” –Martin Luther

FullSizeRender-14 copy

Just last week, beautiful little daffodils popped up out of nowhere in my yard. It’s so fun to see what other perennials spring forth, producing life and beauty.

God looks at us as perennials. We may have our personal wilting, decaying periods, but He sees our potential. He knows we will grow and bloom again and again, adding life and beauty to our environment.

If you are feeling wilted or discarded, be encouraged today. God will resurrect the dead places in our life. Believe in the Resurrection. Spring brings Hope.

Reflect:

–What is your favorite season and why?

–What part of your life needs resurrecting like a perennial? Please comment.

–How can I plant seeds of encouragement?

Renew:

–“I came that they may have life, and have it to the full.” –John 10:10

–“‘Jesus said to her, ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?'” –John 11:25

–“Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.”  –1 Corinthians 3:5-7 NIV

June 2, 2015

Different Season, Different Fire

This glorious pre-summer weather invigorates me. Invigorates me so much so that I felt the urge to clean out my fireplace recently. It’s the annual spring rite of passage. Many life lessons are learned in this tradition…

I love my fireplace. I love even more the warmth and beauty of a wood-burning fire roaring and flickering in that fireplace. After a long, cold winter of cozy fires, all that is left are the ashes, ash-covered iron grate, and the sooty, tiled walls inside the fireplace.

Winter is over. These ashes remind me of my own life’s ashes I have endured this winter…ashes I still struggle to write about…surviving a serious six-car accident, hit by a drunk driver. My heart overflows with humble gratitude that God spared my life miraculously. With ongoing physical therapy, court hearings, and insurance woes, it’s time to clean out my heart’s ashes. It’s a different season, time for a different fire.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…He has made everything beautiful in its time.” –Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11 NIV

I prepare myself for the mess. Placing gloves on my hands, I gather a few plastic bags and double them. Carefully I use the metal ash shovel and begin scooping the gray, dusty ashes, dumping them in my bag. Gross.

Next comes the heavy iron grate. It fits awkwardly into a plastic bag, and I walk it clumsily outside to the backyard shed, closed away until next autumn. It had done its job well.

Scoop by scoop all the ashes are removed from the fireplace.  The blackened, sooty tiled walls and floor of the fireplace remain. With my cleaning spray and cloths, little by little the true color of the tiled walls and floor peak through. The fireplace is clean again and ready.

Years ago I bought a mirror and had it cut the dimensions of my fireplace back wall. Retrieving the mirror from the hallway closet, I clean it off, and gingerly place it in the back of the fireplace. It fit perfectly, reflecting the light pouring through the windows across the living room.

My favorite part comes next. Inside the fireplace I insert my old, multi-tiered wrought iron candle holder. I place the fresh, white pillar candles on each pedestal and light each one. Setting the torchiere down, I get off my knees and sit back a few feet. The mini flames reflect in the mirror, dancing. Glorious. Breathtaking. It’s truly a different season, different fire.  

Is that not what we are called to do, to shine God’s Light, to be His reflection?

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that Light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the Light; he came only as a witness to the Light. The true Light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”  –-John 1:4-9 NIV

Are you still sitting in the ashes of the winter’s fires like I had been? Let’s clean out our ashes, friend, and use them for our good and His glory.  It’s a different season; time for a different fire from the same Source.

May your soul be reinvigorated to reflect the Light of our Lord. Shine, my friend, Shine!

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives Light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.“ –Matthew 5:14-16 NIV

Reflect:

–What winter ashes might you have in your life that need cleaning out? Please comment.

–How do you or will you shine and reflect God’s Light?

Renew:

–“The Lord sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.” –1 Samuel 2: 7-8a NIV

–“Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.” –1 Thessalonians 5:19 NIV

–“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” –Galatians 2:20 NIV

Recharge:

–What will you do this week to “let your light shine?”

August 5, 2014

Refining, Shining, or Tarnishing? Post #42

On the first Tuesday of normally the warmest month of the year, it is on my heart to reflect on the warmth, the heat and process of silver refining.  I know it’s random, so please bear with me.

Each day I open my mail with a pretty silver letter opener, given to me years ago by a precious friend. It stays naturally polished, shiny from its daily use and the oil from my hands. Each day when I walk into my office building for work, I notice its naturally polished door handles, also shiny from frequent use.

Then I open my kitchen cabinet and see my ornate silver pitcher, tarnished to black from its sad lack of usage.

It seems this verse from Malachi 3:3 recently keeps surfacing in my life:

“He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.”

What does refining and purifying silver mean? I heard a story once of a ladies Bible study that asked the same question after reading that verse and wondered how it related to the character and nature of God.  One lady in the class offered to find out the process of refining silver and would report back to the group during the next Bible Study.

The lady called a silversmith and asked if she could watch him work. She made an appointment, not letting him know the reason for her curiosity of learning about the process of refining silver.

She watched the silversmith hold a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained to the lady that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames are the hottest as to burn away all the impurities surfacing to the top. The lady then thought about God holding us in such a hot spot.

She asked the silversmith if he had to sit with the silver the whole time it was being refined. He answered that yes, not only did he sit there holding the silver, but also he kept his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire, scraping off the impurities–the dross– that surfaced. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The lady pondered his statement, then followed up with the inevitable question.

The lady asked, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”

The silversmith smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy–when I see My image in it.”

What a sweet picture of how God takes such care of us.

I certainly am being warmed by the refiner’s fire in my life right now, having my impurities scraped away. So let’s say we eventually become “refined” this side of heaven, which I’m still not sure we do. What happens then?

I believe we have a choice. 1) We can choose to use our God-given gifts and talents daily and try to shine; or

2) We can remain shiny for a short time, displayed for the world to see, and after lack of usage we become tarnished until we are unrecognizable.

Which are you? Which do you want to be?

As we hunker down for our August warm weather, may you feel the warm glow of the Refiner’s fire.  May you see His reflection in your shiny self. If you feel tarnished today, be encouraged. Polish yourself off and use your gifts and talents to make a difference to someone. You shine!

Reflect:

–What do you relate to more? Refining, shining or tarnishing?  Please comment below by going to “View Comments.”

—-How are you being refined?

Renew:

–“And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.” –Psalm 12:6 NIV84

–“He has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver.” –Psalm 66:9, 10 NIV84

–“Remove the dross from the silver, and out comes material for the silversmith; remove the wicked from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established through righteousness.” –Proverbs 25:4, 5 NIV84

Recharge:

–In what ways this week can you “polish” yourself more? Is it writing a note of encouragement to a friend?  Inviting your elderly neighbor over to your warm home for some comfort food?  Getting more involved in your Christ-centered church? Joining a Bible study? Please comment below by going to “View Comments.”

Next Page »