Refiners Fire

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."   This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study. 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 needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as 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 that says: "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 that 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 the silversmith, "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.   Pass this on to everyone you know. Right now, this very moment, someone needs to know that God is watching over them.  and, whatever they're going through, they'll be a better person in the end.      "Life is a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you  can only spend it once."

Wet Oatmeal Kisses

One of these days you'll explode

And shout to all the kids,

"Why don't you just grow up and act your age!"

And they will,

Or, "You guys get outside and find something to do-

Without hurting each other

And don't slam the door!"

And they don't. 

You'll straighten their bedrooms

Until it's all neat and tidy,

Toys displayed on the shelf,

Hangers in the closet,

Animals caged.

You'll yell,

"Now I want it to stay this way!"

And it will... 

You will prepare a perfect dinner

With a salad that hasn't

Had all the olives picked out

And a cake with

No finger traces in the icing

And you'll say,

"Now this is a meal for company." 

And you will eat it alone...

You'll yell,

"I want complete privacy on the phone.

No screaming, do you hear me?" 

And no one will answer.

No more plastic tablecloths stained

No more dandelion bouquets.

No more iron-on patches.

'No more wet, knotted shoelaces,

'Muddy boots or rubber bands for ponytails.

'Imagine. ...a lipstick with a point,

No babysitters for New Years Eve, 'washing clothes only once a week,

No PTA meetings or silly school plays .where your child is a tree, no car pools,

Blaring stereos or forgotten lunch money.

No more Christmas presents made of library paste and toothpicks,

No wet oatmeal kisses, 

No more tooth fairy,

No more giggles in the dark, scraped knees to kiss

Or sticky fingers to clean

Only a voice asking,

"Why don't you grow up?" And the silence echoes:

"I did"

--Author Unknown

That's Dying

By: Henry Van Dyke
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone"

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

And that is dying...

Death comes in its own time, in its own way.
Death is as unique as the individual experiencing it.

Anonymous

The Starfish

The old man awoke just before sunrise, as he often did, to walk by the ocean's edge and greet the new day. As he moved through the morning dawn, he focused on a faint, far away motion.

He saw a youth, bending and reaching and flailing arms, dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin. As he approached, he realized that the youth was not dancing to the bay, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea.

He asked the youth the purpose of the effort. "The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves," the youth replied. "When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back into the sea."

As the youth explained, the old man surveyed the vast expanse of beach, stretching in both directions beyond eyesight. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation.

The hopelessness of the youth's plan became clear and the old man countered, "But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference."

The youth paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to the man, he said,

"I made a difference to that one."

God Wanted Me To Tell You

It shall be well with you from this day forth. No matter how much your enemies try this year, they will not succeed. You have been destined to make it and you shall surely achieve all your goals this year. For the remaining months of the year, All your agonies will be diverted and

victory and prosperity will be incoming in abundance. Today God has confirmed the end of your sufferings sorrows and pains because HE that sits on the throne has remembered you. He has taken away the hardships and given you JOY. He will never let you down. I knocked at heaven's door this morning, God asked me... My child! What can I do for you? And I said, Father, please protect and bless the person reading this message... God smiled and answered... Request granted.

Have a Blessed Day!!

Giving Blood

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at Stanford Hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.

The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save Liz."

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?"

Being young, the boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

I Wonder

I wonder what I would have done, 

Had I been there in that crowd; 

Would I have spoken up for Him, 

In a voice clear and loud?

​

Would I have walked beside Him, 

Down that dirty, rock-strewn road? 

Would I have tried to steady Him, 

As He stumbled with His load?

​

Would I have let Him lean against me? 

Would I have gladly borne his weight? 

Could I have helped in anyway, 

To ease His great heartache?

​

Could I have said the proper words,

To comfort His aloneness, 

To show I shared His sorrow, 

To attend to His forlornness? 

I wonder if I'd been there,

​

Would I have stroked His tear-stained cheek, 

And kissed His bloodied hands, 

And washed his bloodstained feet?

​

Would I have rubbed His aching shoulders, 

Put soothing lotion on His back, 

Tended to His open wounds, 

And supplied the water that He lacked? 

​

I know I was not good enough, 

To volunteer to take His place,

But could I have helped Him bear that cross, 

And kept the sweat from His dear face?

​

Would I have put my arms around His mother, 

And hugged her to my breast? 

Could I have shielded her from viewing, 

Her precious Son's tormented death? 

​

Could I have helped prepare His body, 

And have bathed Him with perfume? 

I wonder if I'd been there, 

Would I have waited by His tomb?

​

No doubt that Easter Morning,

I would have shouted, "HE IS RISEN!" 

And I know I would have thanked my God, 

For that most joyous of occasions. 

​

​

I'm so sorry that He suffered, 

And I am sad it was that way, 

But I know it was God's plan for man, 

And because of it ... we're saved.

​

The only thing I could have done,

I suppose, had I been there, 

Would have been to state my love for Him,

And tell Him I cared.