Handel's Malachiac Music

The other night, I was listening to Handel's Messiah.
I heard the words, "And He shall purify...And He shall purify..."
I looked it up.
I found the words in Malachi chapter three.

"But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner's fire
And like launderers' soap.
He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer to the LORD
An offering in righteousness."

A horror and a weeping came over me;
not so much for the sin I do know about in my life. I know to come before Him with that.
It's the sin that I am blind to that frightens me.
To be honest, it is the fire that frightens me more than my hidden sin.

None of us can stand when He appears.
What will the refiner's fire expose in my life and the lives of those I have grown to love?
Fire spreads.
It won't hit one person.
It will leap aisles and touch all of us in one way or another.
We will have burns and soot and heat exhaustion.
I guess that is where the soap comes in.
He will burn what can be burned and wash us clean.

I already feel a sense of great loss,
for not everyone will stay around when He begins to purify.
They may run from the heat and not stick around for the soap and the righteousness that follows.
Others may become offended when they feel betrayed by another's sin and folly. Perhaps they will have too much pride to see their own unrighteousness.

Better a fire now
than a fire later.
Better judgment now
than judgment later.
Better a "This is not so well done, my son," now
so we can hear a "Well done my good and faithful servant" later.

2009
A year of The Refiner's Fire
A purifying of His sons and daughters
A year of cleansing and a washing away of residue
A year of reaping a harvest of righteousness
A year of being too busy with the purging going on in our own lives to point fingers at one another
A year of reconciliation and restoration as we reach out with God's mercy and grace toward one another
A year of dividing between the soul and the spirit
2009
A year of the fear of the Lord
A year of His favor