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G. Hastings- People for two millennia have been refuting and overthrowing this book, and yet it stands today as solid as a rock. Its circulation increases, and it is more loved and cherished and read today than ever before. People make about as much impression on this book as a man with a tack hammer would on the Pyramids of Egypt. When a French ruler proposed the persecution of Christians in his realm, an old warrior said, "Sire, the Church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers." The hammers of infidels have been pecking away at this book for ages, but the hammers are worn out, and the anvil still endures. If this book had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and princes and rulers, scholars and intellectuals, have all tried their hand at it; they die and the book still lives.
Chuck Swindoll said of the family, “Whatever else may be said about the home, it is the bottom line of life, the anvil upon which attitudes and convictions are hammered out. It is the place where life’s bills come due, the single most influential force in our earthly existence.”
For more from Chuck, visit http://www.insight.org
“The anvil is not afraid of the hammer.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
InstrumentsOf Grace In His Service
The grace of God can turn problems to patience, vexation to victory and tragedy to triumph. The same pressure that can cause a destructive explosion can be harnessed to drive the wheels of progress. Pressure usually produces and the production can be good or bad. Both the Old and New Testaments give many examples of the right and wrong ways God’s people have responded to pressure as they were tested in the crucible of crisis. The mere mention of names such as Job, Jonah, Joseph, Elijah, David and Peter immediately conjures up images of proper and improper responses to the pressures of Christian living. It is clear that the grace of God is the key factor in the proper response to problems.
One of my most vivid and pleasant memories from my childhood involves working the bellows for my father and uncle, who were both trained by my grandfather as blacksmiths. I would watch as they would heat farm tools in a fiery bed of charcoal, quickly withdraw them, beat them up...
“There are three great enemies of the Christian: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is against us. Our flesh is an enemy. As if that were not enough, we have a powerful foe in Satan, who is described […] as a ‘roaring lion looking for someone to devour.’ There are many things against us, but what are these things when they are put into a sentence containing the words ‘If God is for us…?’ […] It is as if Paul is challenging us to place all the enemies we can think of on one half of an old-fashioned scale, as we might do if we were weighing peanuts. Then, when we have all the peanuts assembled on the scale, he throws an anvil onto the other side of the balance. The scale comes crashing down, and the peanuts are scattered. Who can stand against God? The answer is ‘nobody.’”
Author Unknown. “Part Three: The Triumph of God’s Grace. No Separation From God’s Love- Romans 8:28-39. BSF International. 1998.
We are always in the forge; or on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.
STEPPING STONES
When the blacksmith strikes his hammer repeatedly on the anvil, it is said that the same anvil will wear out many hammers. Those who strike Christians are creating boldness in the body of Christ. When Christians are persecuted there is more courage.
Tell about the workers at Youth for Christ in Shri Lanka who were beaten and hospitalized after their host was killed during a weekend of ministry, and the head of the organization took one other man and the new van to go get them out, Luther's conversation with the papal envoy and their threat of what was coming to him and the fact that all his supporters would desert him. Then they asked where he would be then. And he replied, "Then, as now, in the hands of God" One writer said, "we have the courage to be obedient even unto death, for we know that obedience leading to death will be used as a stepping stone for victory by God."
Source: From Jason Jones' Sermon: God-Approved Prayer
Hammers and Anvils
I paused last eve beside the blacksmith’s door.
And heard the anvil ring, the vesper’s chime.
And looking in I saw upon the floor
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.
“How many anvils have you had?” said I.
To wear and batter all these hammers so?”
“Just one,” he answered. Then with twinkling eye:
“The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”
And so, I thought, the anvil of God’s word
For ages s...
Family--The Bottom Line of Life
Chuck Swindoll said of the family, "Whatever else may be said about the home, it is the bottom line of life, the anvil upon which attitudes and convictions are hammered out. It is the place where life’s bills come due, the single most influential force in our earthly existence."
(From a sermon by Michael McCartney, Keys to a Healthy Spiritual Family Part 2, 10/22/2009)
For more from Chuck, visit http://www.insight.org
LONGFELLOW ON CHARACTER
Longfellow said: "In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer."
