Malachi 3:3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,

I am struck by the fact that it is the Lord who will do the refining. We understandably get upset when we see or encounter people who claim to be servants of God, but their lives seem entirely inappropriate for that office. For that matter, we may look at ourselves and feel that same way! However, that’s not ultimately a problem for God. He isn’t pleased with it, but He can clean  it – and them – up, like it says here. God’s ultimate “miracle cleanser” is the blood of His Son Jesus. No sin or impurity can resist it! We rightly seek to repent of and root out sin in our lives, but there is only so much we can do. We need to trust the Master Refiner and trust ourselves and those around us to Him, so that all sin and impurity may be done away with.

Just yesterday the Lord set up an appointment with a Buddhist priest whom I have known casually for several years. He is past 90, but is remarkably alert and active. I have no idea how the conversation got around to it, but very quickly we were talking about salvation, and specifically, the assurance of salvation. The Lord guided my words beautifully, and the priest was honest in his responses. I said that anyone who is honest, the longer they live, the more they will acknowledge that they are a sinner. I’m not as old as he is, but at 77 I do have room to talk! I told him I enjoy living, but I have a huge anticipation of leaving this body behind. He said that at 89 he thought that was certainly long enough to expect to live, but then he realized he really liked living, and he wanted to keep doing it as long as possible. He said frankly that he had no assurance of any sort of bliss after death, and the fact that I have that assurance impressed him deeply. He said that Christian funerals seemed to have an element of joy, but there was none such in Buddhist funerals. This went on for over 20 minutes, and God was totally in control. Another friend, not yet a Christian, was also present, and my prayer is that the Holy Spirit will take the words that were spoken and bring both of them to repentance and faith for salvation, for His glory.

Father, thank You for Your appointments! Thank You that Jesus is indeed the Refiner and Judge, and He can be trusted with my own life and with those around me. I pray that more and more would recognize their need of salvation and open their hearts to receive what You offer so freely, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!