Rawhide, Steel, The Word and Jesus

One of the tools I use when I repair jewelry at The Karat Patch in Big Spring, Texas is a rawhide mallet, a hammer that’s head is made of very hard leather. The purpose of this hammer is to shape metal without leaving any significant marks. It's a great tool but it is almost useless without its partner tool, a steel mandrel. The steel mandrel is a tapered, round steel bar about 12 inches long. These two tools used together can straighten out rings that have been bent out of shape. When I slide the steel mandrel inside a bent ring I can see where the bend is, strike the ring at that point with the rawhide mallet and the ring becomes straight by taking the shape of the steel mandrel which is on the inside of the ring. The ring takes the shape of what is on its inside with some ‘persuasion’ from something on its outside. The ring is actually shaped from the inside out.

As Christians, sometimes we can feel like a ring that's bent out of shape. In fact, during that time that’s exactly how one might describe us, 'bent out of shape'. We need to be 'straightened out'. We get bent out of shape because of sin in our lives, disobedience to God. As Christians we have Jesus Christ living in us – the steel mandrel. And we have the rawhide mallet, God’s Word. It’s important that we experience God’s Word whether it’s in reading it or in hearing it. It’s what ‘persuades’ or pushes us into Jesus Christ so that we can be shaped like Him. Sometimes the Word of God hits us hard because we are really ‘bent’ in some area of our lives. Sometimes it’s a gentle tap that gets the job done. But whether it’s the hard hit or the gentle tap, just like a rawhide mallet God’s Word leaves no significant marks on our outside surface...no bruises or scars. Oh, there’s a change on our outside all right. It’s the affirmation that things are right on our inside. You see, it’s how things are on the INSIDE that determines how things are on the OUTSIDE (Luke 6:45). When the inside of the ring is bent…so is the outside. Fix the inside and the outside follows suit.

If it were possible to have a steel mandrel inside of a ring all the time it would never get bent out of shape. It’s when we place our finger in the ring instead of the steel mandrel, and let things other than the rawhide mallet push against it, that the ring becomes bent out of shape. Likewise, it’s when we place ourselves into our heart instead of Jesus Christ, and let things other than God’s Word push against us, that we get bent out of shape. The challenge then is to keep Jesus Christ on the throne of our hearts and not ourselves and allow God’s Word to push us into Him (2Timothy 3:16). By letting God’s Word continually persuade us and push us into Jesus Christ, we become more like Him. And others will notice that our outside is right when our inside is right, just like they notice when we are, or a ring is, bent out of shape.

Rawhide and Steel, The Word and Jesus…things that help keep valuable items ‘straightened out’.

NEXT POST: More About The Mallet

Jewelry Casting and the Creator - Part Three

The Refiner’s Fire

(To review the key paragraph from Part Two: "The Process" click here )
“...impurities begin to surface from the liquid metal. It is at this point that all the impurities are removed with a pure quartz rod, or incinerated by the fire. In this liquid state the metal will actually follow the flame around the crucible as the impurities are being removed."
The closer the metal comes to being ready for casting into the new form, the more it follows the flame. The more Christ-like we become, the more we seek that thing that helps get us there. As impurities are removed from our lives, the more we want to become the likeness of Christ. The more we seek positive change, the more we seek to follow the flame that incinerates the impurities in our lives. The rod of pure quartz used to remove impurities from the metal reminds me of the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And the fire itself that brings impurities to the surface of the liquid metal reminds me of God’s Word, pure truth that shows us our sin and brings our impurities to the surface (Hebrews 4:12). In comparison, the likeness of Christ would be the absolute purest form of metal possible, and then some. If we seek Christ’s likeness, then we must constantly seek that “refiner’s fire” to remove all the impurities in our lives.

"When the impurities are gone and while the metal is still liquid, it takes on a “mirror finish”, indicating that it is time to activate the casting machine to move the liquid metal into the new form which is waiting at the open end of the crucible."
Now I don’t want anyone to be confused here. There’s an important statement to make in following this process. Often when a person falls under conviction, they think “I better get my life cleaned-up”. But only Jesus can do what Jesus can do. The Bible states that if we confess our sins that Jesus is faithful to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). That’s the process. I believe the purification process in our lives begins with the moment we begin confession of our sin. Then Jesus is faithful to forgive us of our sin within that same moment. In the casting process, this is the “mirror finish” state in which the jewelry caster determines the metal is ready to move from the crucible, to the new form inside the plaster flask. The “mirror finish” state is the time when the metal is ready to make the move to the new form. I really love this comparison: The “mirror finish” in the casting process is when the liquid metal reaches a state of condition in which the jewelry caster can see his image. Once we have confessed our sin and accepted Christ as our Savior, we reach that “mirror finish” in which the Creator sees His own Image. That image is the same form that is waiting to receive the now purified metal of our broken-down lives, and we are cast into a new creation.
Because of our decision to confess Jesus Christ as Lord, when the Father looks at us He doesn’t see our broken-down junk anymore, He sees His son who lives in us (Matthew 3:17).

“When the casting machine is activated, the liquid metal moves instantly into the waiting plaster flask which contains the new form for the metal."
When the metal begins to leave the crucible there’s only one way it can go to reach the point of new creation, just as Jesus said there is only one way to the Father (John 14:6). The metal gets there in an instant. The change in our lives with Christ is instantaneous when we accept Him as Savior and we become a new creation (II Corinthians 5:17) which is PERFECT in the eyes of the Heavenly Father. But our earthly lives can take j-u-u-u-st a bit longer to change.

NEXT POST: JEWELRY CASTING AND THE CREATOR - PART FOUR: THE NEW CREATION