Forged In Fire

I have done quite a bit of studying about how to make knives and swords with a forge. No, I do not actually have one, but a couple of conversations with God have caused me to look up the process.

Tv viewers got a fairly quick lesson on how to make a sword or knife from the tv show – “Forged in Fire”. I have to admit I really like that show – where contestants, have a limited supply of steel and usually the steel they were given was “junk” steel. It would be old car springs, chair springs, car parts and stuff we would be quick to throw away. The contestants would take this discarded metal and make a knife or sword with it. They were given a limited time to make the knife or sword that the judges asked them to make. Three judges critiqued and judged the contestants finished work on the look, quality and cutting precision of their blades.

From my studying, making a precision weapon like a knife or sword is really not something you can rush, yes, it is fine for a 1 hour tv show but not for real knives and swords if you want to end up with a weapon you can rely on.

To make a fine sword or knife, layers of very thin, metal are layered and heated together to make a blade. Want to know how thin? Well picture this, a craftsman will take “billets” which are laminated thin sheets of metal, and fold them of top of each other. With a folding of 8 to perhaps 16 folds, more than 65,000 layers of steel may be used, depending on your steel and what you are making.

Damascus steel, according to the American Bladesmith Society says that straight laminated billets of Damascus should have anywhere between 300-500 layers, which would produce blades of over half a million layers.  (www.redlabelabrasives.com)

A metalsmith will take the folds of steel and place them into a fire, now it is not just any fire, it is a forge, a very hot fire.

Do you remember in the Bible when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel 3) got thrown into the fiery furnace and the king ordered the furnace to be made 7 times hotter than normal. So hot in fact that the guards who throw these 3 fellows in, died just from being near the furnace. That is how hot we want to heat up the steel. It is about 2,100-2,200 F or 1,150 -1,200 C hot, the steel will look straw or yellow colored (past red hot).

Upon reaching the desired temperature the bladesmith takes the steel out and places it on an anvil with tongs and then begins to hammer the steel to begin the shaping process. The metal should be hammered to start to appear in the shape of a blade, remembering to keep the end part of the steel for “tang” the part that attaches to a handle. The metal maybe heated up to 3 times while cooling the metal completely in between. After the 3rd time you will let it cool in the fire overnight – this will make it softer and easier to file.

When you are happy with the shape, you will sand the blade to even out any blemishes.

The blade will not be sharp yet – not like a finished piece, you would reheat the steel and then dip it into motor oil or a special oil for 30-60 seconds.

Then you will place your steel into a lower temperature oven and for a couple hours to temper it.

Attach your handle and then begin the sharpening process.

To sharpen a sword, you will work each of the 2 edges, but usually breaking the sword blade up in segments, say 8-10” at a time. You will roughen up the edge with a file or coarse sandpaper leaving it raw. Then comes a whetstone or sharpener to begin the actual sharpening process.

Finally, your knife or sword will be complete, then you get to test it. A very lengthy involved process to make a blade worth investing in.

Each time your knife or sword gets dull you will roughen up the edges, leaving them raw, prickly and then you will begin the sharpening process over again, bringing the steel to a brilliant and razor-sharp finish. Then my friends, you will have a pristine and effective weapon to use.

As the 3rd judge on the tv show would say: “This weapon will cut” or “This weapon will kill”. It may sound harsh but it is the favorite line everyone, especially the contestants want to hear. It is the job that the metal by the metalsmith was created for, it is it’s purpose.

Imagine fashioning a precision instrument out of discarded materials.

What is with the sword making fascination? Well God reminded me that He created me as a vessel to use as He wishes. I had just told Him all the reasons why I did not wish to be used in that fashion.

It is at this point that the story of the potter and the clay comes up. Again, it is in the Bible (Jeremiah 18) where the potter has a lump of clay and He fashions it into a clay vessel. The potter is God and the assumption is the clay is us. The potter decides that the first vessel is not quite what He wanted so He re-fashions the clay into more of what He needs. Notice that He does not throw the clay away, He re-fashions it, re-molds it, re-shapes it. It always has value to the potter, He simply changes the purpose.

There are times in our lives where God wants to re-fashion us. For a season we may have had several gifts that He has given us and we have used them or perhaps we did not. But God is the decider of how He wants to use us for His Kingdom. The vessel or the pot, does not actually get to tell its creator that it would rather be a teapot than a serving bowl. How bizarre would that be?

That is what a lot of us do. We get stuck on what “we”, you and I, “want” to do for God’s Kingdom or what we think we should do for God’s Kingdom. We pick the jobs that appeal to us, that give our ego’s a boost, or the jobs that suit our lifestyle.

Abraham was told by God to “go”. He went, we have no idea if he liked it or not, he obeyed.

Moses was told by God to go lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he had already tried to run away, but God found him. He went, probably not all that thrilled with the idea.

Jonah was told to go and preach to his enemies; he ran in the other direction. God also found him in the belly of a whale and sent him in the direction God had picked.

Saul thought he was being used by God and persecuted those awful Christians, until Jesus met him on the road, and he became Paul, a new and useable instrument.

God saw these men as precision instruments for His Kingdom, He did not discard them. They became instruments that He had heated, hammered and molded into the people He needed them to be.

When we chose to not use the gifts God has given us; when we chose not to pick up the new gifts and challenges He has asked of us and stay stuck in our ruts; when we do not believe we have it in us to do the job He has asked of us; or when we actually simply ignore the things God has asked of us – it is total disobedience.

God, our Creator, reserves the right to tell us what our purpose is for, and He also reserves the right to re-fashion us into something new, something for this time, this season.

Jesus never did the same thing over and over, He was a man who changed it up often. He was not bound by man made rules and feelings. Jesus kept up with God. He put God first and spent time each day talking to God about how to proceed in life.

Can the same be said of us? Are we keeping step with God, allowing Him to redefine us, re-shape us, mold us into what is needed in this season? Or are we stuck in the mentality of this is the way it is and the way it has always been done. Has our blade got dull? Have we lost our “edge”?

Canada is now considered a post-Christian nation. What that means is that at some point Christ was brought to Canada and those roots, those beliefs were what Canada was founded on. A walk through the halls of Ottawa’s Parliament buildings, our National Anthem, our Constitution all bear witness to this. We were founded on Christian principles, we believed that these principles were for the good of all the Canadian people. We reinforced it in our schools and churches, in our courtrooms and government meetings.

Today, in this season, Canada is considered to be a post-Christian nation, that means we no longer hold to the values of the Bible, to God Himself. We have told the potter, that we would rather not be a teapot, nor serving dishes, we will decide what we want to be. We have allowed God to be removed from all of our above-mentioned places. It now signifies that many Canadian people have never heard about Jesus, they know nothing about Jesus and other countries are even sending missionaries to Canada because it is no longer a Christian nation.

This is a new season – a time for re-defining what will work, a time to re-build and re-tell others about this Jesus they have never heard of. The old system, the old order of things has been set aside, it is time for new thinking, new planning. God is not surprised, but He is now deconstructing old processes, He is re-shaping people to be pristine instruments to be used in new systems to proclaim His presence to this country and to the world.

Are you willing to be re-shaped, re-molded, re-fashioned into a new vessel that God can use in this new season? It may get hot, it may not be easy or feel like being battered. You may go from hot to cold and even find yourself feeling raw. God is refashioning us into beautiful precision weapons, with a new strength that we have no idea of. He is looking for those individuals who will say yes to the process of being forged in His fire.

The end result will be stunning weapons of war that bear the marks and scars of battle, that proudly wear the name of Jesus, with the strength of God Himself, the Holy Spirit within us. God has said we are to bring the light to the world, His light, not ours and that light will be reflected in the shining light of our life.

Our life is the blade that is being prepared as a precision instrument that God can use, that He can count on to stand ready to battle in the world today. We battle by boldly proclaiming His presence; we battle by prayer for our families, neighbors, country and world. We battle by speaking the truth and not being ashamed of the name we bear. We battle by offering love when the world seems to have none of it to offer. We battle by loving our enemies and those different from us. We battle when we forgive those who come against us. We battle by singing, worshipping the one whose glorious image we bear. We battle by being prepared in season and out of season to provide an answer to those who want to know about God. We battle because He first loved us. We battle because He asked us to.

We battle because: “… at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and those under the earth and that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:10-11