“And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God’<\/em>” (Zechariah 13:9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Photo by Manoj Kulkarni<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n A master craftsman has a unique love for his workmanship. However, creating something beautiful also requires intense effort and care. The silversmith fires, molds, pounds, and polishes. The potter cuts, kneads, pinches, and forms. The woodworker saws, files, hammers, and sands. The sculptor carves, chisels, grinds, and hammers.<\/p>\n From the perspective of the creation, this molding, firing, cutting, and grinding might seem unnecessarily harsh. Yet the master craftsman knows precisely how much work is needed to transform raw material into its finest form.<\/p>\n Sometimes, the refining, testing, hammering, and grinding in our lives feel overwhelming. We look at Joseph in prison in Egypt and think it was too harsh. We see Moses spending 40 years in the wilderness, and believe it was far too long. We see Daniel in the lions’ den and think it was unbearably frightening. Yet, in each case, the Master Craftsman was shaping and refining these men into their best possible selves.<\/p>\n Consider the trials and hardships in your life as masterstrokes from the Master Craftsman, molding you into the best disciple you can be.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Chadwick Brewer “And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God’” (Zechariah 13:9).…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[188],"class_list":["post-79133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-trials"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":82148,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-at-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":79133,"position":0},"title":"God at Work","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson Christians need encouragement! This is evident from the abundance of Bible passages designed to build up and motivate. Certainly, we need all the commands and all the warnings of the New Testament, but thank God also for all the verses that say, in essence, \"Your efforts to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5397,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-religious-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":79133,"position":1},"title":"What do you think about religious art?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What do you think about religious art, especially the portraits of Christ? Have you ever heard that it is a graven image or idolatrous? Some think that to portray Christ in movies or artwork is akin to blasphemy or at the least a kind of pagan idolatry. They say\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83268,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-joys-of-involvement\/","url_meta":{"origin":79133,"position":2},"title":"The Joys of Involvement","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson Have you noticed? The happiest Christians are highly involved in the Lord's work. Why is this so? There is joy in using our God-given talents as He intended for the good of others. \"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32764,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-bondage-discipline-sadism-masochism-practices-moral\/","url_meta":{"origin":79133,"position":3},"title":"Are Bondage\/Discipline\/Sadism\/Masochism practices moral?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My query pertains to the practice of \"Bondage and Discipline\", \"Dominance and Submission\", \"Sadism and Masochism\", which collectively make up the acronym \"BDSM\". Specifically, I am curious whether or not the Bible has anything to say on the morality of \"Master\/Slave (Dominant\/Submissive)\" relationships? Quite frequently, elements of pain are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3136,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-we-say-for-sure-that-onesimus-stole-from-his-master\/","url_meta":{"origin":79133,"position":4},"title":"Can we say for sure that Onesimus stole from his master?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In regards to Philemon 18, can we say for sure that Onesimus stole from his master? Answer: Paul tells us in the book of Philemon that Onesimus was a slave (Philemon 16) who became a Christian after meeting Paul while Paul was in prison in Rome (Philemon 10). Paul\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66002,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/using-our-god-given-abilities\/","url_meta":{"origin":79133,"position":5},"title":"Using Our God-Given Abilities","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bret Miller Think on These Things, Vol 55, No. 1, January-March 2024 In Matthew 24, Jesus is asked about the signs of the end of the age. Jesus then spoke for a long time on many different subjects, answering what the kingdom of heaven would be like in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/potter-300x200.avif\")