{"product_id":"as-silver-refined-isbn-9781400073481","title":"As Silver Refined","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat Can You Do When Life Doesn’t Turn Out Like You Planned?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow do you respond when your husband or wife tramples your emotions?  When your boss fires you unexpectedly?  When you lose your life’s savings?  When the child you’ve loved and prayed for turns his back on you and your values?  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWhen disappointments like these smash their way into your life, you may want to scream, “How could God let this happen?”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBut what if God didn’t just “let it happen”?  What if the things you call \u003ci\u003edisappointments\u003c\/i\u003e are really \u003ci\u003eHis appointments\u003c\/i\u003e—events He is using to make you more like Christ?  What if your circumstances are actually the flames of His grace, intended to melt and burn away the undesirable elements in your life, leaving you pure and radiant—like refined silver?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYou can be defeated by life’s unavoidable disappointments, or you can become stronger because of them.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eLife’s disappointments can send you on a dangerous downward spiral into discouragement, depression, or even despair.  But in this eye-opening book, Kay Arthur guides you to biblical truths that will help you break that cycle and instead embrace disappointment as the cleansing fire God uses to make you—as silver refined—a reflection of His goodness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow includes a 16 week Bible study!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eKAY ARTHUR\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of numerous books, including \u003ci\u003eWhen the Hurt Runs Deep \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Lord, I Want to Know You.\u003c\/i\u003e An international teacher and communicator whose work has touched millions of lives, Kay has received several awards for her writing and media programming. She currently serves with her husband, Jack, as co-CEO of Precept Ministries International, the organization they founded together more than forty years ago and which today operates in one\u003cbr\u003ehundred fi fty countries in seventy languages. Kay and Jack live in Chattanooga, Tennessee.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Refiner and His Fire\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCOME, LET ME TAKE YOU BACK to a Judean village in ancient days. Inside a small, walled courtyard under a blue and blazing sky, there stands a refiner of metals. In his hands, gnarled with age, he is rolling and fingering a lump of ore. He watches the sun play on the streaks and veins of lead and other minerals running through this bit of rock chiseled from the bowels of the earth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis experienced eye knows that, intermingled within this ore, there is silver.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe lays the ore on his worktable then builds his fire with care and the wisdom of years. Soon the flames are rising in the pit situated against the courtyard’s stone wall.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the worktable he picks up his hammer and begins crushing the lump into smaller pieces.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe pauses occasionally to stare at the fire, as if in study. From time to time he places more fuel upon the already-blazing coals and works his bellows until the flames are in a frenzy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen the fire is right, he gathers the hammered bits of ore from the place of their crushing and lays them in a small, sturdy container of tempered pottery—his crucible.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe places the crucible in the fire and sits down beside it. A long day is before him, and this is where he will stay for as long as the metal is subject to the flames. Silver is too precious to be forsaken in the furnace, too valuable to be ruined through inattention.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCarefully he watches the fire. It must be maintained at exactly the right temperature for the right duration of time to accomplish its purpose. Slowly the ore softens. The silver, with its greater density and lower melting point, liquefies first, hissing and bubbling as oxygen is released. The still-solid impurities rise to the top of the molten metal. This is the dross, and the refiner skims it off.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow he adds bits of charcoal inside the crucible. He knows this will enhance the sheen of the silver. The carbon of the charcoal will keep the refined metal from reabsorbing oxygen from the air, which would only dull its finish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe tends the fire, adds more fuel, and applies more air from the bellows. Amid the relentless heat surrounding the crucible, more dull impurities, newly revealed, rise to the surface of the mixture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAgain the refiner carefully skims away the murky, smudgy metal floating at the top of the crucible. Gazing down upon the molten surface, the refiner sees at best but a dim reflection of himself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe refiner works and watches and waits. The heat and its effect continue. More impurities rise to the surface, and again he skims them off.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe never leaves the crucible unattended, never steps away from the fire he has formed to do its work. The finished product he cherishes demands this process. Only his guided and guarded refinement will yield the promised and precious metal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd he is not yet satisfied.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe lets the fire cool. Eventually he sets the crucible aside.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen once again he builds up the fire, and the process begins all over. This time the skilled refiner makes the fire hotter. Within the crucible, new impurities are released, brought to the surface, exposed for what they are, then skimmed off.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinally his leathery face breaks into a smile, for now as he gazes into the liquid silver his reflection is apparent—not yet sharp, but more distinct than before.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMore hours pass as he perseveres in his anxious and delicate work. And then . . . once more he bends over the crucible, and this time he catches his breath. There it is! In the silver he sees what he has waited for so patiently: a clear image of himself, distinct and sharp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDelight banishes his frown. His task is done. The impurities are gone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe silver is refined.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe has his treasure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe has “choice” silver, the most lustrous of all metals, beautiful and highly valued. It’s as pale and shining as the wings of a dove, as brilliant and splendid as the moon, worthy to become coin or trumpet or ornament, worthy to grace the king’s table or to reflect sunlight in a crown upon his head. The refiner has taken what was impure and made it pure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe has taken what was dull and made it beautiful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePotential value has become actual value.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd the fire—the guarded, guided, relentless fire—made the difference.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe fire allowed ordinary ore from the earth to be transformed into treasure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll under the refiner’s watchful care, for all the while he never left it unattended.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou and I are more than observers in this picture, beloved. This image of refinement is something God touches on again and again in His Word. He is the true Refiner. We are His silver.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd the fire is the fire of His making, for through His fire our Refiner will perfect an awesome work, a divine work. He will take what is impure and make it pure. He will take what is dull and make it beautiful. He’ll take what is of potential value and reveal its actual value. He will transform us into treasure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe’ll refine us in the crucible so that He can see Himself in the silver—in you and me. And so the world, as well as the principalities and powers and hosts of Satan, can behold the triumph of the Redeemer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe fiery flames—the array of disappointing situations in our lives, from minor irritants to major tragedies—will make the difference. Different flames, different fires will come and go. In the pressure of their heat we’ll see the impurities in our lives being released and rising to the top. Then He’ll skim them off, purifying us, refining us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe’ll make the fire a little hotter, causing new impurities to rise and be released, exposed for what they are. These, too, He’ll lift away. Early in our Christian lives He may see only a very dim image of Himself as He looks into our crucible. But as time goes on, His image becomes clearer, more lustrous, more beautiful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd all the while, He never leaves or forsakes His treasure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur Refiner never leaves the crucible, never steps away from the fire. He is always there to make sure every flame that reaches us is exactly the right temperature—not too hot!—to accomplish its work in our lives. He knows the precise temperature to maintain so we don’t face more than we can bear. He tests and proves our faith, not to discredit us, but to show us how far we’ve come. He perfects our perseverance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYears ago I filed away a copy of a poem called “The Refiner’s Fire.” Now is the time to share it with you. Instead of silver, the metal here is gold, as in 1 Peter 1:7—“that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” But the process—and the Refiner’s attitude—is just as we have seen, as the last two stanzas of this poem testify:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCan we think it pleases His loving heart\u003cbr\u003eTo cause us a moment’s pain?\u003cbr\u003eAh, no, but He sees through the present cross\u003cbr\u003eThe bliss of eternal gain.\u003cbr\u003eSo He waited there with a watchful eye\u003cbr\u003eWith a love that is strong and sure,\u003cbr\u003eAnd His gold did not suffer a bit more heat\u003cbr\u003eThan was needed to make it pure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Refiner’s fire is a picture of great worth and importance to God, one He refers to often in His Word. Let me share a few of these verses with you as we begin our study of how to handle the disappointments and difficulties God uses to refine us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The refining pot is for silver . . . ,” He says, “but the LORD tests hearts” (Proverbs 17:3).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, and a man is tested by the praise accorded him” (Proverbs 27:21). Even the praise we receive can be a refining and testing fire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver” (Proverbs 10:20). He even uses this image as a picture of His own Word: The words of the LORD are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times” (Psalm 12:6). Seven is the number of completion, perfection—God’s Word is perfect and complete. And you will be too as you learn to respond to the fires in a way pleasing to God.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Lord promises to bring His people “through the fire,” and to “refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, “The LORD is my God’ ” (Zechariah 13:9).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe can all tell the Lord what the psalmist acknowledged, “For Thou hast tried us, O God; Thou hast refined us as silver is refined” (Psalm 66:10).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet unfortunately, there are times when God’s refinement fires are of no avail.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhy? Because you and I can resist and ruin God’s refining process. Jeremiah 6:29-30 describes this very situation as God speaks of His people Israel:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe bellows blow fiercely,\u003cbr\u003ethe lead is consumed by the fire;\u003cbr\u003ein vain the refining goes on,\u003cbr\u003ebut the wicked are not separated.\u003cbr\u003eThey call them rejected silver,\u003cbr\u003ebecause the LORD has rejected them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe fire burns and burns. But the dross—the wickedness, the impurities—is not allowed to be released and removed. Instead it’s held on to, stubbornly clung to, no matter how hot the Refiner’s fire. So the silver becomes rejected silver or, as the King James Version puts it, “reprobate silver.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTherefore the Refiner must reject it. It is impure and unusable and unattractive. God will send the fire several times and with increasing heat to get rid of those impurities, those un-Christlike things in your life and mine, beloved.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut if we insist on hanging on to them, then God must set us aside. He’ll call us reprobate silver—rejected for His use.\u003cbr\u003eCould there be any more tragic and fearful condition for a Christian than to hear God say, “I cannot use you”?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePaul abhorred the possibility of becoming God’s castaway. In 1 Corinthians 9:27 he spoke of his fear that “after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” This word for disqualified is adokimos, meaning “without approval”—unfit for the Master’s use. Adokimos is the negative form of the Greek word used in James 1:3 for the “proving” or “testing” (dokimos) of our faith, the proving that happens as we “consider it all joy” (James 1:2) when we encounter various trials.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf we respond correctly to the Refiner’s fire, we find our proven faith producing endurance in our lives. We will exercise the self-control in “all things” that Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 9:25—the self-control that brings our flesh under subjection to the Holy Spirit, delivering a blow, a technical knockout to “self.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt means running in such a way as to win the prize, as Paul also said in that passage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut if we respond wrongly to the Refiner’s fire, we will find ourselves unproven and disqualified. This is the  consequence—the awful, wasteful consequence—of failing to let God complete His purifying work in our lives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI can’t use you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOh, my friend, there is nothing greater in all this world than being used by God . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNothing greater than knowing you’ve been obedient to what God has called you to be . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNothing greater than hearing from the lips of the Father, “Well done, My good and faithful servant” . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNothing greater than knowing you have pleased the One who gave His all so that we who were nothing might know the greatness of being reformed into His image . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNothing greater than being used by God to do the work of God, to reach out and introduce others to Him, to His family, to His life. There’s nothing greater.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow my heart aches for those so self-centered, so wrapped up in themselves and their own world, in their own happiness and fulfillment and success, that they won’t bend their knees and bow their heads and find out from God why He put them on this earth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeloved, we have much to explore about all of this.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe’ll look at what it means to respond to the Refiner’s fire so that refinement truly happens.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd we’ll look at the dangerous alternative, which triggers a process of downward degeneration in a deadly, depressing spiral.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe want to understand all this well—because the good fire of our loving Refiner is burning. It burns for your good and His glory. You need not fear, for He never leaves the fire unattended or attended by someone else. He is always there . . . the perfect Refiner watching over you—His redeemed silver.","brand":"WaterBrook","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303575408869,"sku":"NP9781400073481","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781400073481.jpg?v=1767721838","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/as-silver-refined-isbn-9781400073481","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}