Sweet Tweets

Friday, July 13, 2007

Refinement

From my wonderful friend Beth P's wise mind:

It seems God likes to bring about trials of fire, thus the comparison to refinement, which is done over a fire, to test us, remove impurities (which is what blacksmiths do when they hold their objects over fires) to make us more fruitful and righteous. Why does he have to use fire??? Its freakin hot in here! Anyway, hope you're blessed by the Words.

One more thing, speaking of purify (removing impurities, not that I used that word. You're not crazy), the words purify and prune are the same root. John 15:2 says "He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." The greek word for prune means, "pure, clean, without stain, without spot. To clean off, cleanse from filth, make clean, purify, remove defilement or imperfections. In John 15:2, this is referring to the pruning of the vine by the gardener.

Fruit-bearing branches symbolize those persons who are genuinely and vitally united to Christ (the vine). They are destined to be pruned by the Father (the gardener) so as to insure greater productivity in the future. All that was from my lexical aid. I thought it was really cool. When you prune flowers, you use scissors, which are quite sharp, but the flowers always blossom more when you cut off their ends.


Beth always has the gift of curiosity to delve into the root of the what the Lord is teaching us...and rejoicing over the power of suffering to bring us closer to Him through the process. It has been a good lesson that she has reminded me of over and over, especially right when I need it.


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