Issue 686 – The Smithy – March 17, 2022
Kathy and I visited one of those historical/cultural villages. You know, with costumed actors playing out everyday life in a historical setting. This one was the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village (near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and well worth a day if you are ever up that way during June-September).
The blacksmith shop is one of my favourite stops. Odd tools hang on the wall, and piles of metal and partially completed projects are everywhere. If you need one built, the blacksmith can do it. The smithy improvises many items and makes replacement parts for things that cannot be purchased at the local hardware store anymore (if they ever could be).
The skills of the smith amaze me. I watched, fascinated, as he blew the fire into a fury of heat and smoke using a set of bellows. When the fire was ready, he placed a piece of metal into the furnace using long tongs.
The smithy heated the bar of metal to a brilliant glowing red. Pulling it out of the fire carefully, he laid it on the anvil and pounded it repeatedly into shape with a heavy hammer. Sparks of molten metal flew in all directions with each clang of metal on metal.
Finally, the smith tempered his work by dunking it in an oil and water bath. The metal screamed when it hit the cold liquid. The liquid boiled and hissed, and smoke curled around the barrel.
When all was said and done, the result was a horseshoe. A simple piece of metal became something very practical through the application of heat and stress.
Much the same can be said for our own lives. Life is not always easy. Sometimes the heat and pressure can drive us to the point of screaming. We want to be used by God, but the process of being made that way can be painful.
We need to be broken at times. He shapes us until we comply with His will and allow things to happen by His power rather than by attempting it on our own.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:1-5
God calls us to endure the fires and to rejoice in them.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:2-8
I do not know where God has you in the process … deep in the furnace or being pounded on the anvil or perhaps screaming in the tempering bath. Maybe you have just been through the process and are in between firings.
I do know that it is for your good and His glory, and the net result will be something beautiful. It may not be fun in the process, but the result will be worth rejoicing over.
The life of a Christian is not always easy but brings great comfort and joy even when God is shaping us.
Until next time, may you persevere and rejoice.
Hallelu Yah (Praise God)
Be blessed.
Kevin.
Gleanings From The Word.
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (for the glory of God alone.)
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All contents are © 2001, 2022 K. F. “Kevin” Corbin and Gleanings From The Word.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV). Spelling modified to Canadian English as required.
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