Dudley Bienvenu, Jr. wrote, "It is a fact that all precious metals must go through a refining process to be purified. In order to achieve this, refiners heat metal, such as silver or gold, to a boil that causes the impurities to rise to the surface. These unwanted and foreign particles are then filtered off, after which the liquid ore is allowed to cool. The process is then repeated several times. When one refiner, who used the old-fashioned method, was asked how many times he performed this operation and how he knew when the metal was pure, he replied, 'I do it until I can see a clear reflection of myself when I look into the liquid ore.'"
"In the same way . . . God sometimes turns up the fire in our lives to purify us. How often does He do it? Until He can see a clear reflection of Himself in us."
Dudley Bienvenu, Jr, You Can't Make It Alone! You Need God and Others, p. 23
"But who can endure the day of His coming? And who will be able to stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire and like cleansing lye. He will be like a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the Lord in righteousness" Malachi 3:2-3 (HCSB).
Pressed to Perfection
Coffee is Americas morning drink of choice! But what makes a great cup of coffee is often determined by how it is brewed! To the coffee snob, the French Press is the best.
It works like this---
The beans are crushed coarsely and placed into the French Press. Boiling water is added to the course grounds and it sits for 3-5 minutes. Then the top of the French Press is placed on the glass and the floating grounds are "pressed" to the bottom of the votive. The coffee flavor is amazing because the true aroma, oils, and essentials are extracted though the "pressing."
It works this way in life as well.
So many good things are produced when pressure is applied. Coal is pressed into diamonds; grapes are pressed into wine; and we are pressed into maturity. It is through this process that we manifest the true "aroma of Christ."
"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him" (2 Corinthians 2:14).
Among its many valuable qualities, gold is highly reflective. In fact, so effective are its reflective qualities, that Air Force One, the President’s plane, is equipped with gold-plated reflectors to confuse in-coming heat seeking missiles. Not only that, but astronauts’ visors are coated with a gold film to protect their eyes from the extremely intense rays of the sun they encounter while in space. This speaks of the near perfect reflective quality of highly refined gold.
The reflective qualities of highly refined gold provides a picture of what happens in the heart of the person who is refined by God. In the refining process, God removes the sin, or dross, allowing a more perfect reflection of His image. In this way gold speaks of purity, of holiness, and of the capacity to reflect the image of God.
"The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart" (Proverbs 17:3).