The View From Here - Blacksmith Ministries

When I was a boy, one of my favorite places to visit in our small western Kansas hometown was the blacksmith shop. The inescapable aroma of the coal-fired forge that filled one corner of the small dusty shop, the whir and slap of multiple leather belts snaking their way across the ceiling onto spinning pulleys, the metronome rhythm of the driveshaft that slowly spun an ancient drill press boring a hole in steel plate coupled with the hypnotizing dance of an oscillating rocker arm that alternated between pushing and pulling an even older hacksaw dragging its blade to split an iron bar, the muffled conversations of blue denim overall-clad men mulling over the best way to rebuild a broken part, and the battered almost unreadable sign which hung overhead depicting a massive anvil and bearing a quizzical, comical title in bold black letters: "IRON BUTCHER" - all of these sensory stimulators immediately focused my attention and grabbed my imagination every time my dad brought me along on the three-mile trip to the blacksmith shop.

My dad was a pretty good blacksmith in his own right. He was a trained welder with many years of cobble-it-together farm experience. When he needed a row-crop planter, a front-end loader for the tractor or a round bale hauler- he'd just build himself one! Pawing through the pile of scrap iron stashed behind the shop, he'd drag out old sticks of angle iron, various lengths of cold-rolled shaft and an old red dilapidated moldboard plow frame, fire up the cutting torch and the Lincoln arc welder and before you knew it, he'd have a working masterpiece, usually topped off with a shiny coat of silvery aluminum paint.

When I met my father in-law, I quickly found him to be a gifted blacksmith as well, a self-taught mechanical engineer who designed and built parts for local manufacturers and fabulous machines of his own. His shop too, smelled of that unique mixture of tobacco, used grinder wheels, and molten slag pouring out of steel plates as the oxygen-rich flames of his torch worked their magic on the metal below.

And in all these places you would hear the jarring, ringing sound of heavy sledgehammer blows against an immovable anvil as red-hot iron was shaped, transformed, and made into something new.

Blacksmiths have been around for centuries. The role they fill, the job they do, is an important one. A Blacksmith takes iron and fashions two things: weapons and tools.

So, for those beloved men who shaped me, and for the easily applicable parbable-like imagery of the blacksmith and his shop I've chosen to name this new ministry endeavor, "Blacksmith Ministries". What I feel God has called me to, and equipped me for, is to proclaim and explain the gospel - and in so doing, put weapons and tools in the hands of His people. My goal is offer back to God any gifts and abilities He has blessed me with; to be used by God as a tool in His hand to accomplish His purposes however he chooses. Perhaps being a kind of "spiritual blacksmith?"

"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Eph. 4:11-13)

"The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2Cor. 10:4-5)

I want to equip. I want to build up. I want to fashion and proliferate weapons that will demolish the strongholds of satan. I want to take satan's lies captive and help others do the same. Of course, these tools, these weapons, if they are to be effective at all, can be nothing more and nothing less than the sword of the Spirit - the Word of God.

"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Heb. 4:12)

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes..." (Rom. 1:16)

My vision for Blacksmith Ministries is that it be used to communicate the gospel through as many avenues, venues, and mediums that the Lord opens - to proclaim and explain the gospel through writing blogs, books, articles, speaking in pulpits or podcasts, online or in person, whether large groups or one-on-one, teaching Biblical truth whenever, wherever and however the opportunity arises.

Paul put his call this way in Eph. 3:7-12:

"I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence."

Pretty eloquent. I say "amen" to that ...and pick up my hammer.... to fashion some weapons and some tools... to proclaim and explain... the gospel.

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Up next... What is an Acts 26 Witness? ...and how you might be one!

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