ENTITY

It’s very revealing to note how God claims authorship for creating the blacksmith to heat up coals for the forge. It shows us the method of refining, say, silver in Psalm 66 where the whole process in verses 9-12 is revealed. Isaiah 48 verses 9-11 refers to a time when God wanted to refine his people but could find nothing of value, yet refused to concede his attempts as wasted. There are accounts of the silversmith regarding his work as complete only when he could see his own reflection in the refined metal, which obviously suggests that God leaves us on earth to endure the ‘refining’ process until he sees something of his own character reflected in our demeanour. Interestingly enough, as the eroding of the Christian faith has occurred in the west, the moral values of western civilization have spiralled downward, and the questionable influences of error and anomaly from minorities and ‘leftist values’ have pervaded western civilization. From straining upward for more noble goals for mankind we have more recently become engrossed with scrabbling beneath ourselves for imagined self-awarded ‘rights’. ‘They want all the joys and all the advantages provided by Christianity, but not pay the dues.’ Undoubtedly the most egregious part of life is that humanity is so caught up in the mechanics of living and prospering within the assault course (which will one day be removed), that very few people consider what the constructed assault course is there to achieve. It is designed to teach and train a person into love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control . These attributes are described in the scriptures as ‘fruit of the spirit’ and they are a natural expression of a person changing into Christ’s likeness.