Get the dross out of here...

Hey Friends…

 Would you like to see everybody get along—more than just tolerating each other, but truly enjoying, respecting, and engaging everyone? Would you like to see every needy person in our community supplied with all they desire? Or how about every hurting person healed? Or the discouraged truly happy? Or the fearful renewed with courage? Or the aimless given enthusiastic purpose? I know this sounds quite lofty. But I’m serious. Would you want all this if you could have it? How much would you pay for it? Let’s talk more about this—and an interesting problem called “dross”—in Deeper Thoughts below. I might have a deal for you.
 
But first, just a few reminders / updates today…
 
·      Ladies: Join us for a one-day women's retreat featuring Cynthia Campbell and "The Steps to Freedom in Christ" with a special focus on the importance of forgiveness. Saturday, October 19, 9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Click here for more details and to RSVP!
 
·      ALSO… a new 7-week Ladies Bible Study led by Audie Hall kicks off THIS Tuesday, October 8, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. exploring “Jesus & Women in the First Century and Now.” Click here for more info and to RSVP!
 
·      It’s time for TRUNK or TREAT!! Join us Sunday evening, October 27, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. for fun, games, candy, costumes, and decorations. This is a great event to invite your non-church friends as we reach neighborhood families with love at Mt. Hope! We need your help! Volunteer to decorate a car and hand out candy, or help with organizing, set-up/tear-down, or greeting guests. We’ll have more info and a sign-up at church on Sunday!
 
·      Are you keeping up with “The Daily Six” and our journey through the Book of Acts? Join me every morning, Monday through Thursday, as we work through Acts verse-by-verse. Click here to subscribe to our daily reminder emails, or just go to our YouTube channel and pull up The Daily Six videos each day! And… click here for this week’s study guide. It’s not too late to jump in!
 
OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who prefer everyone stay a total mess.  BUT…
 
 
Some Deeper Thoughts…
 
I hate prerequisites. They annoy me.
 
Like when I go to the gas station and before I can start the pump, I have to first answer an inquisition about whether I am a loyalty member, or if I’d like to become one, or if I’d like a car wash today, or if I know there’s a sale on potato chips inside. (I’ve not seen that last one just yet. But wait. It’s coming.) Don’t give me a bunch of hoops to jump through. Just give me my gasoline.
 
College prerequisites are the worst. They are always the terribly boring classes no one wants to take. But to get to the important stuff related to your chosen career, you must first confirm you have mastered everything known to man about Beethoven’s orchestral masterpieces or how the ancient Chinese handled agricultural economics 3,700 years ago.
 
I hate being told that before I can get to what I want, I must first conquer a bunch of stuff I don’t care anything about. How about you?
 
When it comes to spiritual stuff--the things we truly desire in life such as love, family, happiness, financial stability, purpose, and meaning—it seems there are always a million barriers and endless lists of hurdles to overcome. It’s as if God doesn’t really want us to achieve the most important things in life. If He does, why does He have to make everything so hard?
 
But what if in spiritual realities, the hoops and hurdles and roadblocks really are prerequisites—that the most important things in life cannot be achieved without first passing through a series of genuine preconditions?
 
I know there’s a brilliant PhD somewhere who will explain with a straight face how studying the composition of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is necessary for you to become an excellent certified public accountant. But I am talking about a much more realistic prerequisite—that for spiritual realities to actually occur as God intended, we must first work our way through a series of intentional hardships.
 
I started today’s email asking how you’d like to see relational harmony, emotional healing, the absence of poverty, encouragement, and joy as the norm among us.
 
“Unrealistic,” you might say. But is that because these spiritual wonders truly are impossible, or is it because the prerequisites for such spiritual victory are too costly for our tastes?
 
Jesus promised--and delivered—the spiritual power to experience harmony, joy, healing, and deliverance that comes only from the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-8). The outcome of that mighty outpouring (Acts 2:1-4) did indeed bring unity and favor between all manner of different people (Acts 2:44-47). It erased poverty (Acts 4:34). It offered healing and recovery (Acts 2:43; 3:6-8; 5:12-16). And much joy was upon them all (Acts 2:47).
 
His cousin John was a little more forthcoming about its cost: “One more powerful than I will…baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3:16).
 
The scriptures often use the analogy of silver or gold making to describe the painful prerequisites to genuine spiritual power and victory (see Proverbs 25:4-5; Ezekiel 22:18-22; Malachi 3:2-5). If you know anything about precious metals, you know they don’t come out of the ground shiny and ready to wear around your neck. The ore is mined all mixed up with a variety of other elements—copper, tin, zinc, aluminum, etc. It must then be refined--or purified—where the precious metal is extracted from the unwanted elements which are called “dross.”
 
The process of refining always requires heat. For gold, that heat is 1,948 degrees Fahrenheit to be precise. For silver, it’s a comparatively chilly 1,763 degrees.
 
Ouch.
 
The temperature is turned up. Everything melts. The heavier, more precious metals sink to the bottom of the cauldron. The dross rises to the top. The goldsmith uses a flat ladle to skim the impurities off the top over and over again until none of it is left. All that remains is perfect, pure, shiny, and precious metal.
 
Jesus here: “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so you can become rich…” (Revelation 3:17-18).
 
Did you notice the problem starts with not realizing the actual poverty of our condition? We may think the worldly comforts and achievements we’ve built for ourselves are truly wealthy. But Jesus is offering a far richer reality—a spiritual preciousness that is achieved only by fire.
 
As we continue our study of “The Normal Christian Life” on Sunday, let’s turn our attention to understanding the prerequisite of being refined by fire that comes with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
 
I don’t like prerequisites. Especially when they involve painful things like fire. But the outcome is worth it. Jesus promised. And he delivered.
 
Do a little advance reading if you’ve not already done so this week: Acts 4:31-5:16. Gonna be so good!!
 
Here we go…
 
Chris Eads
Mt. Hope Pastor
Friend