The Crucible

I was spending some time with God this morning, reading a devotional classic by Samuel Bagster which went like this....
"How happy is he whose wrong doing is forgiven and whose wrong doing has been forgiven and whose sin is covered! How happy is the man whose sin the Lord does not hold against him, and in whose spirit there is nothing false."

Although the process of us drawing closer to the Father illuminates our many sins, He is faithful to forgive and not only forgive, but cleanse, so that in our spirit there is nothing false. I am sensing the closer I get to God the more this applies.  The closer I get to the Father the more real I become. This is not to say that I don't have sin and darkness quite the contrary; I can actually see it, acknowledge it and  finally deal with it.  I guess it is like the old anology of the gold or silversmith skimming off the impurities. Until the heat and light of the presence of God illuminates our sin and dislodges it, floating it to the surface where it can not be dealt with it, nothing much happens and we can sometimes remain unaware. The heat of the crucible which holds the silver can be our situation, but I also see it as our continually entering the the presence of God. It must have been like that for Isaiah in Isaiah 6.

5  "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
6  Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7  With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
This was Isaiah's spritual crucible, only ours is heated a lot more slowly, by daily visits to the Father.
The Father is our silversmith, our furness and our crucible. He provides the heat, he carries us as the crucible and he gently removes our faults.

The loving Father and the prodigal children learning to be together and love each. This such apowerful image that speaks constantly of our Christian walk.