"Thy Gold to Refine"

Sometimes all it takes for us to express ourselves is an internet cat picture.

Copyright 2012--icanhascheezburger.com

Feelings of distress are not necessarily sinful--and it's always good to remember that fact. In the Old Testament, we see the example of Nehemiah, who became upset over the plight of Jerusalem. He went so far as to appear distressed before the king of Persia--an offense worthy of execution. But Nehemiah's heart was saddened as he thought of his people and his city (Nehemiah 2:1-5).

In the New Testament, we see Jesus express his emotion as he arrived at the graveyard of his friend Lazarus. Every other account of Jesus raising the dead sees him appear stalwart and strong--but this situation was different. This was a person he had known and had fellowship with. Christ broke down in sorrow. The God of the universe cried. Scripture tells us that "Jesus wept." (John 11:35-36).

The fact is, everybody is going to go through times of disappointment, distress, and despair. But the most important part of those things is the reaction we have to it. An attitude of trust in the sovereign God who made us must be developed. And sometimes things are put in our way in order to build that trust with God, even when the people we care about break our trust.

God's will is not as mystic as it seems. His will is for us to draw closer to Him. His will is for us to trust Him. All we can do is our best to restore the things in our life that have been broken, and to do so in an attitude of dependence on God and kindness towards those we come in contact with.

 John Rippon captured these thoughts well, with these lines from his 18th century hymn:
                                 
                                  "When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie
                                    My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply
                                    The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design
                                   Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine."


"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of Yahweh forever."  --Psalms

An Entrance Into Glory

Every obituary is someone's child.


Think about it for a second. Often we only understand death when it directly relates to us; when we are the ones being impacted. But really, the obituary page we breeze through every day contains two...maybe three obituaries that we barely notice.But those are people's children, parents, and grandparents--and they are spending eternity somewhere.


That eternity can take one of two approaches. I have heard about two examples within the last year.


The first was an elderly man in Florida. His reaction to the gospel was always resistance. That resistance was evident in a life fraught with difficulty and poor decisions. Multiple witnessing opportunities were met with occasional questions of interest, but never commitment. The final state of his soul remains unknown--only God knows the heart of a man, especially in his final hours--so a person may only hope that his destiny was for the better.


The other was an old guy from Michigan. This guy had a rough life--much of it of his own making. But at the end of the day, it was clear he had chosen the path of righteousness. Even when the cancer took him to the brink of death, he was distressed, but "not crushed," as the Apostle Paul wrote. Finally, the cancer took him as he sat peacefully in his living room. But it was an entrance into glory.


Both of these men were my grandfathers. And each of these men have passed into either fire or glory.


Just like each of us will. Just like every single name in the paper.



"Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him."    -the Apostle Paul