BOOK REVIEW: As Silver Refined

As Silver Refined

Answers to Life's Disappointments

By:  Kay Arthur

Published by WaterBrook Press

Copyright 2011

Do you know how we get purified silver?  Silver that we wear or form into beautiful objects for use or decoration?  It doesn't come out of the ground ready for the mass market.  It must be purified, refined.  The more heat, the right amount of heat, makes more of the dross or impurities come to the surface so they can be skimmed off.  The process is repeated until all that is left is purified silver.  Once the silver is purified it must be heated and poured or beaten into it's finished shape.

In her book As Silver Refined, author and well loved and respected Bible teacher Kay Arthur uses the analogy of refining silver in comparison to the trials and hardships that come into every Christian's life.  Yes, God does allow bad things to happen to His children.  And yes, God does bring those trials to His children.  He uses them to mold us, to refine us, to be more like Him.  It is up to each of us to choose whether or not to allow God to shape us more like His image.   Yes, trials and hard times hurt.  When do you find you pray the most?  When do you study God's Word more diligently?  More than likely when you are hurting the most.  God not only uses these times to draw us back to or closer to Him, but also to make us more like Him.  When we first become a Christian, we are like the raw silver.  When we finally see Christ, hopefully through the refining process we will come out purified (not as in salvation, but as in a closer picture of Christ).

As Silver Refined is encouragement for the believer.  Through the use of hundreds Biblical passages, Biblical illustrations and modern day life stories, as well as the stories of her own life, Kay Arthur teaches us how to be more like Christ. This book consists of fifteen chapters preceded by the story of "The Refiner and His Fire".  At the conclusion of the book is a thirteen lesson study guide.

I hope you will enjoy and learn from this book as much as I have, both as an encouragement and as a guide to Christian living.

In order to comply with new Federal Trade Commission regulations, please note that this book was provided compliments of Blogging for Books, a division of WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Company.