Turning up the heat a little

Back in the days of the pioneers, there was a crazy flurry of activity to 'hit it big' in the gold mining 'rushes' of the day. Someone would come across the 'mother-load' and the rush would be on. Whether that sparkly stuff was panned from streams or chiseled from the walls of the caves that housed their rich vein, the result was the same - it had to be melted down before it could really be used. Along came the silver and copper mines, each yielding their own 'ores' of great promise - each requiring their own type of 'smelting' processes, but each producing various 'qualities' of 'finished product' as a result. The smelting process usually involved what came to be known as the 'crucible' - that smaller collection spot within the larger furnace where the refined metals would be collected. While the furnace produced the heat to accomplish the refining process, the crucible acted as a collection device to capture the purified substance which would emerge from the furnace.

As silver in a crucible and gold in a pan, so our lives are assayed by God.  (Proverbs 17:3)

Silver is mined - then must be separated from all the various impurities that it is surrounded by such as sulfur, arsenic, antimony, chlorine, or argentite - all important elements, but not really desirable for us to wear or use in our eating utensils! It is rarely found in some big clump, or small dust particles such as you have with gold. There is a refining process that must occur in order to separate the other stuff from the silver so you are left with the silver alone. Silver is 'bound to' or 'clings to' other substances and it must be 'extracted' from the stuff that it clings to or that which clings to it.

Sulfur - when burned, it can have a suffocating odor. Its various uses are for the production of gunpowder, in the formulation of medicines to kill various germs, and in the vulcanizing process of making rubber. While it has a benefit to us, it doesn't really belong to the silver, nor is the silver made any stronger by it being there.

Arsenic - the interesting thing about arsenic is that it vaporizes when heated, has a great metallic luster which gives it an appearance of beauty, and is quite poisonous if it is ingested. Now, I don't know about you, but something that that just gives me an appearance of beauty, but is 'poisonous' by nature isn't all that appealing! I don't think we'd want that stuff around too long!

Antimony - a kind of lustrous metal compound that looks good, but has very little value as a metal. It has one main use as an addition to metal alloys to give them strength. It is the item usually added to the mix when someone is manufacturing semi-conductors. The important thing to remember is that it is quite toxic - although useful, it carries a very high risk by being present.

Chlorine - we know that chlorine has many uses, but its main use is in the purification process because it has the ability to kill bacteria. It is toxic in both its gaseous and more "visible" forms such as liquid or crystal. Sometimes it is a silent killer since it can escape without notice and be carried pretty far on the winds. There is really a great risk in keeping something so volatile and lethal around.

Argentite - this mineral usually never exists alone. It is found in the silver mines along with the silver, clinging to the silver as part of the ore. It is lead grey in color and is very unstable once exposed to air, so it is not really of any use as a mineral. It is a 'cling-on', but it is useless if it cannot 'ride on' something else. Remove it and the silver is still strong - keep it around and it just makes silver ugly.

Okay, I did not want to bore you with all kinds of information on the minerals of silver mining, but I wanted to refer to each of these just a little bit to bring some clarity to why this analogy of silver in a crucible is used to describe God's work in our lives. It is important for us to see just what God may be doing by placing us in circumstances that we refer to as the furnace - the refining "crucible" of trial.
We may have some "sulfur-like" behavior that we need to have brought to the surface and separated from our lives - such as anger or wrath. When it is allowed to remain "combined" with the silver - we have a "combustible" part of our character that does not bring honor to God. Arsenic may look good, adding some type of "luster" to our character, but it is toxic. We might have some types of "toxic" character traits, such as gossip, malice, or envy that God knows have the capacity to be extremely "toxic" if they are allowed to remain. He puts us through the purifying process in order to remove these from our lives. 

 
Antimony gives the appearance of "looking good", but the presence of the "mask" never determines the reality of what is hidden. God knows that a transparent Christian is more valuable than one that looks good on the outside and is hiding nothing of value on the inside. Antimony is kind of like being this intensely strong appearing Christian on the outside, but being a blubbering idiot on the inside!
Chlorine has both a positive and negative affect - it can be a purifying agent, but not until it is "processed". It must be separated from all the other impurities, then it has to be used very carefully or it burns! We can liken this to either giving off a "sweet smelling odor" that delights God, or being "toxic" in what we emanate, burning the world around us. Argentite is absolutely worthless when it is exposed to air - it does nothing to lend to the strength or beauty of the silver once it is exposed. That is the same with any secret sin in our lives - as long as it is hidden in the core of our inner man, it gets along just fine. Once exposed to the Word of God, the sin shows the true corruptibility of its presence. God always uses the furnace and crucible of circumstance (trial) to remove the stuff that only serves to contaminate our spiritual beauty and our testimony. The next time you are going through the fire, you might ask God what "worthless mineral" he is focusing on separating from your life at that moment in time. The "smelting" process God uses is designed to produce the clarity of pure, refined silver - gleaming in all its beauty, reflective of the image of Jesus. Just burnin!

Potency and Purity

³ As silver in a crucible and gold in a pan,
   so our lives are assayed by God. 

(Proverbs 17:3 The Message)

Yesterday, we took a look at the process of "stoking" the furnace of our hearts - getting us to a place that God can work with us, forming us into what it is he envisions for us.  Today, I'd like to continue to explore another instrument of the craftsman used in the process of purification - it is what is known as the crucible.  The crucible is similar to the furnace, but its purpose is not so much to heat to the point of being "pliable" in the hand of the craftsman as it is to bring to the surface that which is impure in the substance he is working with.  For some of us, we feel the "heat" of the crucible much more often than we'd like.  Take heart, that really means that God is just at work bringing to the surface the things in our lives that he needs to remove by his tender care.


When I lived in Alaska, I got to know a gentleman that was into looking for gold.  He used a process of "panning" for gold in the streams and rivers of the area.  He did not hit any big "mother lode" of a gold find, but he found enough to make it worth his while.  As I would watch him go through the arduous process of sifting that sand, stone, and debris through the gold pan, I observed his tenacity for the process.  Slowly, he'd let water in and out of the pan, shifting the contents back and forth, until all that remained were tiny flakes of gold in the midst of just a little sand at the bottom of the pan.  That gold would catch the rays of the sun and glimmer brightly in the midst of the sand that remained.  He'd pluck out the gold bits, placing them carefully in a pouch he maintained for that purpose, and then he'd "dig in" for another plate of sand, debris, and stones.


Whether it is the craftsman at the crucible, refining the impurities from the metal substance being heated, or the gold miner gently sifting the debris away until only the "shiny stuff" was visible, both are reflective of the process of getting the impurities out of the way so the "good stuff" is seen.  Did you ever stop to consider that we often don't see the "good stuff" until there is enough agitation in our lives to bring it out clearly?  We often resist the agitation of our souls - because it hurts - without realizing that without that agitation, the good stuff is always going to be masked by the other stuff that gets in the way of it!


I see a word used in this passage that we don't use so much in today's communication - assay.  There are two meanings of this word that I think apply to our passage today:


1)  To examine or analyze - the goal of the process of the crucible is to determine the measure of what is contained within.  When God goes about the work of assaying our lives, he is bringing us through one examining process after another.  No part of the assaying of our character is unnecessary - it all serves a purpose of exposing the impurities and bringing out only the best in us.  


2)  To determine the potency of something - the process of assaying a substance is to see what "strength" that substance is capable of producing.  When a scientist assays the various substances that make up a product, they are really looking to see if the strength of the combined substances will make the substance more or less potent.  God only looks for that which will lend potency to our lives - all the other stuff he wants to remove.  


The process of assaying is really a process of analysis.  Therefore, the crucible is an instrument of analysis in our lives.  The crucible results in a lot of agitation of the substance contained within - "good stuff" is hidden deep and must be uncovered.  God is not too timid about how he goes after that which is hidden within - both the good and the bad.  When he gets the bad to the surface, he gently removes it, freeing us from that which impacts our potency and purity.  When he sees the good stuff becoming clearer and clearer, he is delighted because he knows we are developing the strength of character that will give us the potency to stand strong in this world.


God's goal in the crucible - in the refining process - is not to break us, but to bring out our highest potential, our greatest potency, and our strongest character.  The process involves a little agitation in order to uncover the "good stuff", but without that agitation, we'd never really get to see the beauty his grace is able to produce in our lives.  So, allow him to stoke the fires, sift the debris, and assay on!  Good stuff is about to catch his eye and become that which he notices with great delight!

Invited to the Crucible

³ As silver in a crucible and gold in a pan,
   so our lives are assayed by God. 

(Proverbs 17:3)

I lived in Alaska for three years.  One of the biggest "tourism" souvenirs that you could take with you back to the lower 48 was a gold pan.  Often, they would be fully painted with some scenery of the great gold rush days of Alaska or just an outdoor rendering.  The served as a memory of the big gold bonanza that brought many a prospector to the territory.  

Silver is mined - then must be separated from all the various impurities that it is surrounded by such as sulfur, arsenic, antimony, chlorine, or argentite.  It is rarely found in some big clump that you can take out of the mine and say that it was purely silver.  There is a refining process that must occur in order to separate the other stuff from the silver.  Look at what silver is found "clinging" to:

• Sulfur - when burned, it can have a suffocating odor.  Its various uses are for the production of gunpowder, in the formulation of medicines to kill various germs, and in the vulcanizing process of making rubber. 
• Arsenic - the interesting thing about arsenic is that it vaporizes when heated, has a great metallic luster which gives it an appearance of beauty, and is quite poisonous is ingested.
• Antimony - a kind of lustrous metal compound that looks good, but has very little value as a metal.  Its main use is in being an addition to metal alloys to give them strength.  It is the metal often used in semi-conductors.  The important thing to remember is that it is quite toxic.
• Chlorine - we know that chlorine has many uses, but its main use is in the purification process because it has the ability to kill bacteria.  It is toxic in both its gaseous and more "visible" forms such as liquid or crystal.
• Argentite - this mineral usually never exists alone.  It is found in the silver mines along with the silver, clinging to the silver as part of the ore. It is lead grey in color and is very unstable once exposed to air, so it is not really of any use as a mineral.

Okay, I did not want to bore you with all kinds of information on the minerals of silver mining, but I wanted to refer to each of these just a little bit to bring some clarity to why this analogy of silver in a crucible is used to describe God's work in our lives.  Let's examine each one briefly to see how they relate to what God may be doing by placing us in circumstances that we refer to as the "crucible" of trial.

• We may have some "sulfur-like" behavior that we need to have brought to the surface and separated from our lives - such as anger or wrath.  When it is allowed to remain "combined" with the silver - we have a "combustible" part of our character that does not bring honor to God.
• Arsenic may look good, adding some type of "luster" to our character, but it is toxic.  We might have some types of "toxic" character traits, such as gossip, malice, envy, etc., that God knows the extreme "toxicity" of if they are allowed to remain - so he puts us through the purifying process in order to remove these from our lives.  
• Antimony gives the appearance of "looking good", but the presence of the "mask" never determines the reality of what is hidden.  God knows that a transparent Christian is more valuable than one that looks good on the outside and is hiding nothing of value on the inside.  Antimony is kind of like being this intensely strong appearing Christian on the outside, but being a blubbering idiot on the inside!
• Chlorine has both a positive and negative affect - it can be a purifying agent, but not until it is "processed".  It must be separated from all the other impurities, then it has to be used very carefully or it burns!  We can liken to this as either giving off a "sweet smelling odor" that delights God, or being "toxic" in what we emanate, burning the world around us.
• Argentite is absolutely worthless when it is exposed to air - it does nothing to lend to the strength or beauty of the silver once it is exposed. That is the same with any secret sin in our lives - as long as it is hidden in the cores of our inner man, it gets along just fine.  Once exposed to the Word of God, the sin shows the true corruptibility of its substance.

God uses the crucible of circumstance (trial) to remove the stuff that only serves to contaminate our spiritual beauty and our testimony.  The next time you are going through the fire, you might ask God what "worthless mineral" he is focusing on separating from your life at that moment in time.  The "smelting" process God uses is designed to produce the clarity of pure, refined silver - gleaming in all its beauty, reflective of the image of Jesus.  Our invitation today is to endure the crucible - the refining process is well-worth the heat!