REFINERS FIRE

“If the refiners fire is not hot enough, you’ll just get burned.”
… Roger M. Stapley, October 23, 2008,

The whole purpose for our being in existence, is what? Why was this world created? Why are we here? What is going to happen to us after we die? Is that the end? I would submit, for your contemplation, that death is but a beginning.

As I sit here, encumbered by near blindness, curtailed by shoulder impingements, slowed by neuropathy and imbalances, I struggle to remember fond memories of past activities and performances, further subdued by knowing that life is hard but it is so very much harder on my wife. The fact that eventually there are better things coming, better then this life's mere potentiality, makes waiting, living and struggling well worth the effort.

If we pull back, and at a great distance, look at the scheme of this life as a plan formulated by a council of God's, what do we see? Look at a full panorama, encompassing the total plans of eternity. First, what is eternity? Eternity definitely is a long, long time. I heard an analogy to explain what eternity is. Imagine a solid block of granite with dimensions of a mile on a side -- a mile cube. Imagine a beautiful little lark. Imagine that lark flying south for the winter and returning north for the summer. Every time that lark would past that mile long block of granite it would rub its beak on that cube. It would rub its beak twice a year -- once going and once coming. After the time it would take for that beak to rub and erode that block away-- the time that that would take -- is only a drop in the bucket of eternity's time.

Like I said -- a long, long time. So what are we going to do for all that time -- for all eternity? We are here and we came from somewhere. We are here and we will go somewhere. This whole process is called "the plan of salvation". I will discuss what happened before we got here and what happens after we leave here in another discussion What I want to talk about now is why we are here and what we must do to prepare for what happens, after.

We are born. We are imbued with a body and a soul. Our soul is perfect -- at the beginning. Our body has to grow and develop and the things that we do with it and to it injure the soul. How do we hurt ourselves? The answer to that is, many things and many ways. Let me cite a few examples. As little children we have fallen and scraped a knee. As athletes we have strained and struggled to get in shape and developed sore muscles Some of us have broken limbs. Some of us have inhaled vile things -- cigarette and campfire smoke, chemical vapors, who knows what all. Some of us have eaten things or tried to digest things -- Thanksgiving over eating, too much grace, fat, or butter, too many carbohydrates and sugars, even some kinds of drugs. Some of the things that we've done to our bodies are more subtle -- inactivity and non-exercise. Some things are even more subtle -- not studying and not learning. (That last is a subject for another Jeremaid). Another thing that we, as mortals, do to hurt ourselves is, to waste time. I've actually heard it said that if you kill time, it injures eternity


.All of those things mentioned above not only hurt the body but injure the soul. The problem with that simply is the body only has to last the length of our lives. The soul however lasts for eternity. That eternal soul reflects, in part the shape and condition of our bodies.

When we die, the body slips, or is thrown, into a grave or becomes a container full of ashes--you get to choose. What happens to the soul. It waits around somewhere for the resurrection and the continuing journey through the eternities. In what condition will your body be when you leave this life? And what condition will your soul leave, wait, and prepare to press onward? Now we come to the purpose of this discussion. This life has as its main purpose the perfection of the body and soul and the preparation to return to and meet God -- the father of our intelligences and spirits. This life is more or less a refiners fire.

Do you know what a refiners fire is? What about the heat -- what is the heat of a refiners fire? A refiners fire could be considered a test. The heat could be considered as the trials of life. Let's consider for a minute the true purposes of a refiners fire. First of all it's very hot. It has to be hot to meet its ultimate purpose. Consider your body and soul as a lump of impure substance -- impure because of what you've done to it. Your body and soul, your lump of substance, is thrown into a refiners fire -- to what purpose? First, to free your body from impurities or unwanted material. Second, to free your body from moral imperfection. Third, to ELEVATE your body and soul to a higher level -- towards perfection. Fourth, to improve or perfect your body and soul by polishing, or as they say, putting a shine, or glamour upon it. Fifth, to free your body and soul from what is coarse, vulgar, or uncouth. Sixth, to become pure or perfected.

The test is hard. The heat is intense. Life was never promised to be easy. Somewhere I've heard that life is tough and then you die! Someone else has said to be a success in life you must endure to the end and then you die. They're both true. But the important thing to remember is that the test of this life is to help us make it into eternity.

Start your preparations now. Make changes that you need to make. Prepare to meet your God. Prepare to progress into the eternities by becoming more refined, purer and ultimately more righteous. There is another more important refiners fire that has been provided for us. It is the refiners fire of the atonement of Jesus Christ. You know the story of his life. He came into this world to die and be resurrected so that we could follow him. In addition to that, he suffered great pain in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. He suffered for our pains, and our sins and our travails -- if we but accept him, follow his teachings and principles and ordinances, and repent -- then he will have refined us.

Now is the time for you to be refined, to perform your labors, to follow our Christ. I hope we all can accept the refiners fire of Christ.