Science Sunday: Burn Baby, Burn!

In high school I took a sculpture shop class. In that class I got to learn how to weld! And, boy, let me tell you, if I had an opportunity to weld the rest of my life, I would should take it! I fell in love instantly (after I got over the sheer fear of blowing up the building of course). Yesterday's God experience was all about metal!

If you look up Zechariah 13:9 (or if you read it below)

This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'the LORD is our GOD.'

it talks about metal refinement. In my high school class we did not refine any metals, but I did Google the process. I actually looked up 'smelting' (which is the process of getting the metal separate from the ore it was found in). This is a type of refinement since it is removing a lot of impurities.

http://compendiumofawesome.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/blog-smelting.jpg

I'm not going to get into the details but what basically happens in the smelting process is that extreme heat is used along with other compounds to liquefy the metal and be able to remove it from the 'junk'. In the verse above it talks about God throwing His people into the refining process. We go through extreme heat and tough times to begin to separate from the 'junk' that surrounds us. Different temperatures are used for different kinds of metals. So, for some people they require a lower heat for a longer time to remove the 'junk' from their lives. Other people require an extreme heat for a short amount of time to begin the purification process.

When we experience an increase in temperature in our lives (more theoretical heat, not necessarily the summer or global warming) it is God refining us. He is removing things in our lives that are keeping us from being the purest metal around. Even a little flaw in a piece of metal can keep it from being used to make fine jewelry. And, since we start by being surrounded by so much ore to begin with, our refinement process lasts our whole lives. There is always more 'crud' (to use my favorite scientific term) to be extracted from us.

Don't resist God's refinement for your life. You are precious to Him and He is developing you into the priceless metal you were designed to become.