Dark Glass Ponderings

The fireplace was easily one of the selling features of our home to me.  Adjacent to the fireplace is a nice cozy chair for reading my Bible, or sitting wtih my laptop and writing.  Or even better, snuggling up with the hubby or one of my children.

I know, just what you wanted to talk about in the middle of August...scorching heat, right?

But there's another kind of fire.  No its not much fun to talk about that kind either is it.

In the book of Daniel, it was a literal fire. 

And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.-Daniel 3:27, KJV

No smell of the fire!  Will we beg for the heat to be turned down or will we allow God's refining process.  Today in my time with God, I read Daniel 11.  In verse 35 he says that the wise will be "refined," "purified" and "made white."

Isaiah 48:10 says "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace  of affliction."
I recently read a life-changing book about a Chinese brother in the Lord, The Heavenly Man.  Brother Yun isn't perfect but he is an example of weathering persecution for the Lord.  I know none of the "fires" in my life can compare to Brother Yun's repeated prison stints and torture.  In each prison he was in he witnessed by his life and words to prisoners and guards alike.  Many lives were changed.

Who might be watching you while the heat is on?  What will they say about the living God as they watch you?  Will we allow God to burn off the dross of the world sticking to our body?  Are we going to cry out for the Lord to turn it down, willing to miss the opportunity to be refined?