Purifying Fire!

Let the glory of your purifying fire reign over my life Lord!

As we enter into the grace of Jesus Christ, yield to his Lordship, accept his claim of possession over us, long for and dwell in His daily presence, we begin a process of being refined in the presence of His consuming fire.

This lifestyle costs us everything! It is when “more of him, less of me” gets real, as we proclaim – Yes, Lord! Send me!

Though the cost is great, it is in this place we begin a life of overwhelming abundance. In this place we dwell on His heights and depend on his provision for all that sustains us. On Christ, our rock, we lay strong defenses for all of life’s circumstance – for He alone is our strength and joy.

When we enter this yielded consumed place we find our lives are no long ours but belong wholly to the one who paid in full the debt we owed. This is the place where we step into the works of the kingdom of heaven, we begin to see the river flow out of us, the lame begin to walk, the blind see, the oppressed and captives are set free.

With great joy and in complete abandonment, I willingly, longingly wait in His presence to be so consumed by His fire that there is nothing left of me!

Yes, Lord! Come Holy Spirit and let the glory of your purifying fire increase and reign over my life Lord!

Mal. 3:2-3 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiners fire and like a fuller’s soap.  He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. (ESV)

Titus 2:14  who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (ESV)

(Image courtesy of Toa55 @ freedigitalphotos.net)

Unearthing What Treasures?

Our lives begin the search for treasure as we gasp for our first breath, growing and learning, fine-tuning our search engine to include every aspect of life from beginning to end.

There are many forms of treasure that can be searched for, those hidden deep in the earth, laying out on top of the surface, laying on the ocean floor and those within books and lives.

Who hunts them? We all do, in one way or another. Almost all professions are in search of something, looking for treasure in hidden places; accountants, lawyers, doctors, electricians, archaeologist, ecologist, pastors and on and on it goes.

My desire is finding treasure of eternal value, life changing both in the spiritual and the natural, found in the intimate presence of God, the bible and time in prayer, hidden in his gifts and treasures that are in my life and lives I have impact on.

I love finding treasure in unexpected hidden places. One treasure that I am continually amazed by is found as I open my bible and read, having done so for over 4 decades, I find new revelations that I have never seen, even having read the same passages over and over. The bible is truly new every morning, for we are new every morning, as we listen and are led, new directions and revelation change us. However the word of God-Jesus is the same – unchanging – yesterday, today and forever BUT it is new, an oxymoron for sure.

So, my treasure hunt begins afresh every morning as I unearth his treasures.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (ESV)

Treasure Hunting

My love of treasure hunting must have been ignited as my sisters and I dug in the  mud, making mud pies and hoping to dig all the way down to China.  That love, being passed on to my children as we hunt for hours on beaches, looking for the best shell or the one special rock that had to come home with us, ending up in piles of memory-filled rocks that now lay embedded in concrete on our back yard path, always a reminder of those wonderful hunts.

How does that relate?  Well, it is the beginning of the one true hunt, the one hunt that lasts throughout a lifetime journey, the one where searching for the purpose I was created to express drives me on, the one that I have found as I willingly exchanged my life for the one that Christ purchased for me.

His treasures fill each of us – let’s dig, let’s make mud pies and see how He directs us to find the best shells and perfect rocks that He has planned to use to adorn His kingdom.

Matthew 13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (ESV)