Malachi 3:3

In the Old Testament, Malachai 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. " What does that mean? This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study group, and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. I don't blame them, I would be questioning it too.

In the past, many people owned things made out of silver or gold. Nowdays, people use custom jewelry, plastic plates, plastic utensils and papergoods and many other disposable products for parties, and holiday dinners. We don't place much value on precious metals, like our parents or grandparents did. I hear many older people complain that their children don't want any of their nice china sets or expensive jewelry. I remember on special occassions we would always use the nice china, cups and saucers, and silver fork and knives. Not anymore. So it is no surprise that the comment about the "refiner" and "purifier" of silver, sounds foreign to us, and hard to understand. When was the last time we ran accross a "silversmith" ?

One of the women in the group offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to them. She  called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him work. She did not mention anything about the reason for her interest, beyond 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, so 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 says: "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 that he NOT only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked him, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered...."Oh that is easy!...when I see my image in it."

In order for silver to be suitable for sale in the market today, it must be a minimum of 99.99% Pure. The silver does not react to the air, but all the other metals, such as lead and copper oxidize and separate from the silver. What I found fascinating is that the silver, with its greater density and lower melting point, liquefies first, hissing and bubbling as oxygen is released. Also, I learned that silver's melting point occurs at 1,764 degree Farhenheit. WOW! Pretty Hot. I know how hot 110 degrees can be. Also, silver in its raw form is dark and not beautiful, until it is refined.

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you, and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you! WOW! What a statement. God is watching over us, and wants us to be like Him, pure and holy. As the saying goes "We are all a work in progress". We should be working on becoming better people all the way until our time is up, here on earth.

"Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once." 

Spend it wisely!

Have a great week!!

 

Do you know why it is hard to be happy?.....

It is because we refuse to let go of the things that make us sad.....This was a quote I read not to long ago, and it made me ponder about it. I suppose there is a lot of truth in it. When good things happen to us, we tend to be "happy" for the moment, and then we move on. But..when bad things happen to us, we tend to hang on to them and bring them up over and over, which makes the experience more and more intense and harder to forget. We tend to downplay the positive experiences, but magnify the negative ones. Think about it. It could be a job you didn't get, an interview that did not go so well, a date that went sour, or an "F" you got in an exam, in third grade! Some of these experiences make us feel like a failure, or give us an inferiority complex. If we concentrate more on our successes though, rather than our failures or disappointments, life would be much happier. We make happiness out of what we have, not of the things we don't have. The circumstances of life should not dictate how we feel, rather we should rejoice inspite of the circumstances we may be facing.

Did you know that optimists are associated with a longer lifespan? They have a greater chance of living past 90. That is what many studies show. For example, optimism helps people cope with diseases, protects against depression and stress, and better recovery from surgeries.  More impressive is the impact of positive outlook on overall health, throughout life. We can all work on a few things that will make us more optimistic. Here are some very simple steps that we can take daily: 

• Be careful who you associate with...the company you keep...don't associate with negative people, they will bring you down
• Turn off the News...they can be very negative, and tend to upset us
• A few minutes every day, write in a journal all the good things that happened to you, there are miracles around*** us every day....take notice of your natural environment     
• Acknowledge what you can and cannot control, and then let it go

***Ordinary Miracles we may not think of:

• A fresh cup of coffee you did not make yourself
• An unexpected phone call from a friend
• An unexpected gift, or "I was thinking of you" card in the mail
• The fastest line in the grocery store
• Green stop lights, all the way to your destination and...last but not least
• A breeze on a hot summer day!

Quotes:

"It is better to walk alone, than with a crowd going in the wrong direction"

"You cannot hang out with negative people, and expect to live a positive life" 

"Always remember that your present situation is NOT your final destination" 

When asked how they managed to stay together for 65 years, the woman replied: "We were born in a time where if something was broke, you fixed it, you did not throw it away"

Have a great summer......stay cool

"Battle Hymn of the Republic"

Have you ever wondered who wrote "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"? We have all heard and sang along the Chorus....Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!....His truth is marching on...which is the most familiar refrains in the world.....but honestly, I did not know the name of the song, nor the rest of the words...until Galen texted me the story behind it, and I think it is worth sharing. It is very inspirational.

It was a poem that was written by Julia Ward Howe in November 1861, during a wartime tour of Washington DC, as Americans realized with gloom, that the seven month old Civil War, would last a lot longer than anticipated (sounds like the Ukranian-Russian war going on right now, and the sacrifices that people are making). The hymn inspired many. It has been called  "America's fight song". Julia was born in 1819 in New York City to wealthy and educated parents. Her mother was a published poet and her father a prominent businessman and one of the founders of NY University. Julia was exposed to literature and the great minds of her time. She published many poems and essays in her early 20s, and spent years as one of the leading voices for women's suffrage, as well as championing the role of mothers in American society. She married an acclaimed doctor, 18 years her senior, in Boston, MA and had six children.

Her story is very inspirational and you can read more about it on-line.   

My eyes have seen the glory

of the coming of the Lord

He is trampling out the vintage

where the grapes of wrath are stored

He has loosed the fateful lightning

of His terrible swift sword

His truth is marching on

"Chorus"
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!  
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His truth is marching on

I have seen Him in the watchfires

of a hundred circling camps
they have built Him an altar
in the evening dews and damps
I can read His righteous sentence
by the dim and flaring lamps

His day is marching on

"Chorus

He has sounded forth the trumpet
that shall never call retreat
He is sifting out the hearts of men

before His judgement seat

Oh, be swift, my sould, to answer Him

be jubilant, my feet

Our God is marching on

"Chorus"

In the beauty of the lilies
Christ was born accross the sea,
with a glory in his bosom
that transfigures you and me 
as He died to make men holy
Let us die to make men free

While God is marching on

"Chorus"

By the way...John Steinbeck lifted the phrase "the grapes of wrath" for his 1939 epic Novel, from the famous second line of this hymn. "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored", which is a plea for divine justice inspired by the Book of Revelation.

Hope you enjoyed  reading the story behind the song. 

Enjoy the holiday, and stay cool and safe!

Summer is here.......Happy Fourth Of July

The daylight hours are already getting shorter. It is July 1, a new month is here again. 

June 21 is the day the summer solstice occurs which makes it the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. During this time the earth is tilted towards the sun in such a way, that in the most northern countries of the earth, the sun never sets. In some parts of the world you see the sun set and rise almost at the same time. From this day on, the days begin to shorten as the tilt of the earth adjusts. Is that an amazing thing?  The days will continue to shorten until the winter solstice, December 21. This marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, when the earth is tilted away from the sun. The opposite occurs in the Southern Hemisphere, reaching the winter solstice in June and the summer solstice in December. We have friends who travel to New Zealand and Australia when it is winter here in the States, but summer there... 

I remember when we lived in Sweden, and we experienced this phenomenon. The sun was still out at eleven o'clock at night. In order to sleep we had to close the window blinds, because it was so light outside. You felt like being up and working outdoors. We used to hold a "Midsummer Festival", on June 21st.  In the winter though, it was the opposite. In fact, it was very depressing, because the days were very short and dark (not to mention all the snow for 4 to six months). One of my cousins still lives in Sweden, in a town called Mora, which is very close to Lapland, at the very top of the country. They really experience the longest and shortest hours.The sun never sets in June, and the sun never comes up in December. The interesting thing is that many cultures around the world from ancient times, had built stone monuments to track these solstices. The most popular with tourists are Stonehenge in England, Machu Picchu in Peru, and the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt. All of these were built 3,000 to 5,000 years BC. Amazing! OK, that's as much as I know about this subject.

Normally, temperatures reach their peak in June or July where we live now, and so it was in Southern California. Surprisingly though, this year the heat started first part of May. Temperatures reached the triple digit mark, with added humidity, and have not let up much. It will be a hot summer! I miss our pool and the Pacific Ocean, but we now live on a lake, so I should learn to enjoy that! I need to learn to Kayak or Canoe...or swim on the lake with whatever else is in there! We will have many boats on the lake this 4th of July and we have many homes who have spectacular fireworks that we can watch from our porch! There will be firework displays and BBQ's everywhere to celebrate Independence Day!

Remember to drink lots of water and eat water-rich fruits and vegetables. Reports say that dehydration is one of the most frequent causes of hospitalization after age 65. How do we know we are drinking enough water? Figure out your weight in pounds and devide it by 2. For example: If you weigh 150 lbs, you will need to drink about 75 ounces of water/day....150:2=75 oz (A little over 9 cups of water..and stay out of the sun as much as possible. Have a hat on and sunscreen. 

   Here is a list of fruits and vegetables high in water content:

Apples, Bananas, Grapefruit, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Blueberries, Grapes

Asparagus, Broccoli, Carrots, Cucumber, Spinach, Bell Peppers, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Tomatoes

Have a safe and fun 4th!