WEB SIGHTING - REFINERS FIRE

Morning Story and Dilbert is a delightful devotional blog that I have come to appreciate deeply.  Check it out if this post appeals to you. STEVE

Refiner’s Fire

Vintage Dilbert
July 30, 2007

There was a group of women in a Bible Study on the book of Malachi. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three which says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.”

This verse puzzled the women and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group a their next Bible study. That week this woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest or 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 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 eye on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even 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 this world’s fire, just remember that God has his eyes on you.

THE ONLY THINGS THAT MATTERS

BY STEVE DUNN 

I have long been a fan of Bill Watterson and his comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. His is not as overtly theological as was Charles Schulz in Peanuts, but every once in a while (I suspect inadvertently) Calvin makes a profound statement that triggers a scriptural truth.  Here are two that I find in this particular strip.

The first is from James 4:17: "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them." New International Version

Then Galatians 5:6." The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." New Living Translation.

An authentic disciple understands that omission can be every bit as significant as commission when it comes to sin.  Too many of us have changed the focus from loving our neighbor as ourselves to love myself and then give my neighbor the leftovers.  Or be careful of loving my neighbor too much lest I not have enough for me. Or this one - love myself spontaneously but be sure and schedule how much I will do for my neighbor in need.

Maybe we need to walk through life with eyes wide open to opportunities to be a blessing to others, praying that our love will find greater expression than merely intellectual assent or carefully orchestrated projects.

LOVING PEOPLE--REALLY

BY STEVE DUNN

One of the great scandals of contemporary Christianity is what Craig Groeschel calls “Christian Atheism.”  This is where we say we believe something and then live like we do not believe it.

The lawyer of Luke 10:25-28 stands up and asks the quintessential question of a seeker,  “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” At the end of the chain of discussion Jesus leads the man to the answer.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

In fact, Jesus punctuates it with, “Do this and you shall live.”

Even non-Christians know, and many practice, the latter half of that commandment. We call it the Golden Rule.

But for many persons, including many Christians, there is more intellectual assent than real life application. We know we should practice it, and we do … up to a point.

Up to the point when….

Demonstrating that love requires us to sacrifice a significant amount of time.

Loving them requires us to wade into the mess in which they find themselves living where we might get messy, too.

Loving them calls us to sacrifice something precious rather than what is convenient or superfluous.

Loving them demands us to see them as persons for whom Christ died rather than simply objects of our good works.

Loving them is met with rejection or contempt.

I am reminded that God loved a world where people were His enemies.

He loved a world that killed his prophets and dishonored His holiness.

He loved a world where people keep asking, no, demanding His help and then squandering the blessing.

He loved a world that He knew would crucify Jesus.

Love, genuine God-inspired and empowered love is unconditional and incarnational and sacrificial.
Any less is not really love.  It is a counterfeit.

(C) 2014 by Stephen L Dunn

ONE OF THE BEST NATIONAL ANTHEMS EVER

To honor America from Jennifer Hudson (not sure why YOU Tube repeats, but enjoy)

IS THIS WHAT THE FOUNDERS INTENDED?

 BY STEVE DUNN

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." - The Declaration of Independence

I often wonder what our Founding Fathers - Messers. Jefferson, Hancock, Adams, etc. -- would think about the nation they helped to create on that hot July day in Philadelphia.

How would they respond to the moral confusion created by the pursuit of human happiness at the cost of breaking down the social contract of common decency in our dealings?

How would they react to the trumping of right to life with something called reproductive rights?

What would they think of the right to bear arms in the light of repeated school shootings?  Would they think of this as true liberty?

How would a body that invoked their Creator as legitimizer of their efforts deal with the government's attempts to chase religion from the public square?

I am no sage (nor do I presume to read the minds of the Founders) but on this Independence Day 2014 find me asking:

Are all things conceived in the human mind good?  Can every desire be tolerated even it leaves a nation without a moral compass by which to engage in human community?

If life is so precious, why are we excluding life in the womb from its roster, simply because not every person wants to take responsibility for the outcome of their sexuality?

Do we really think that a document whose writers knew only of muskets and cannons, whose wars themselves rarely result in collateral damage; intend every person with the wherewithal to do so to possess automatic weapons and "copkiller" ammunition?

G.K. Chesterton once spoke of the "terrible gift of freedom," by which he intended us to see the awesome responsibility that went with receiving the gift.

I do not believe freedom should ever be defined as "license" nor can it be divorced from responsibility to others and accountability to the larger community.

Personally, I don't believe our Founding Fathers believed that either.

MONDAY MORNING REFLECTIONS - GOOD PARENTS

BY STEVE DUNN

Meet two very important people - my son Michael, the oldest of my son's and my second child (pictured here with his family-wife Melonie, daughters Natalie and Ashley.

The other is my daughter Katherine Marie, a.k.a. Katie (now Huther). She is pictured here with her son Caleb (husband Jason is probably taking the picture).

Katie is the "baby" of the family-the one her other three siblings were convinced was spoiled rotten by her Daddy.  (Katie winks and says with a wry smile, "You're right.") Besides being children of a brilliant father, they have two things in common.  Both are two of the most conscientious parents you will ever meet.

The second is that they have the same birthday. (Actually they were both born in the same hospital as that brilliant dad of theirs).   Seven years after Michael boldly entered the world, his younger sister was born--July 1st.  Michael, when discovering that Katie's impending arrival was about to rain on his birthday parade actually asked his Mom to stay in labor so that this little intruder would be born July 2nd.

But they are different as well.  Yes, it's obvious from the photo that Katie is a brunette and Michael a blond.  What I mean is they are different persons with different skills, experiences, and dreams.  Michael is an entrepreneur, Katie the quintessential penny pincher.  Katie has always been a great administrator and resource manger.  She worked in the cash office of a Walmart at age 16 and until son Caleb came along, was in demand in banking.  Michael is a master of managing people, especially people whose lives are struggling and out of focus.

Dianne and I did not raise these two the same--nor treat them the same.  We sought to foster their dreams and empower their passions.  We tried to see them as God saw them and challenge them to aspire to the same.

"Train up a child in his way to go and when he is old he will not depart from it," says Solomon in Proverbs 22:6.  His way as God designed him is another translation.  Good parents don't treat their children equally - except to love then equally.  Good parents do not cookie cut kids into their own image but help them be shaped by their callings from God.

I hope my children considered me a good parent.