Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Purifying Work

Scripture Passage that caught my attention today: Malachi 3:2-4 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.

Observation:
These words, also found in a Bass solo in Handle’s Messiah, offer a rhetorical question with a most definite answer—only those purified by God.

Application: Every so often we all need, as they say, a swift kick in the pants. Something that gets us off our proverbial duff and spurs us to actions congruent with the faith we claim to hold dear. Truth be told, were it not for God’s mercy, no one could endure the day of God’s coming. All of us would be held up to the light and left wanting. Refining and purifying is God’s work to do on us until we more accurately reflect, by our actions, the one in whose name we gather.

Prayer: Lord, thanks for the purifying work that you have done, are doing, and will continue to do. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: Malachi 3-4, Psalm 138, Acts 5)

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