The Faithful Teacher

On April 21, 1855, a Sunday school teacher in Boston named Edward Kimball went to a shoe store to see a young man who had been attending his class. Kimball would later write about the young man, "I have seen few persons whose minds were spiritually darker than was his when he came into my class." Kimball went in and led his young student to Christ.

It took the young man, Dwight L. Moody, some time to overcome his lack of education and grow in his faith. But he was a natural-born salesman and soon attracted a group of street urchins and started his own Bible class. He moved to Chicago where his ministry grew into a church until it was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Moody took to the road as an evangelist in England and returned to the United States as a celebrity. His new-found status allowed him to increase his ministry of evangelism in the United States. He also built educational schools for boys and girls, as well as the Moody Bible Institute.

A Sunday school teacher obeyed the leading of the Spirit and led a man to Christ who then led thousands more to the Savior.

The Refiner's Fire

… you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:6-7

Most people think a goldsmith's furnace is used to extract gold from its ore and burn away the dross and impurities, purifying the metal. That's only half right. It also makes the gold pliable. Alexander of Neckham, a twelfth-century Englishman, wrote of a goldsmith who plunged the gold into the fire to soften it. As Neckham watched, the metal was molded into the required form using tongs, hammer, and anvil. Other tools included a saw, a file, and even a rabbit's foot for smoothing, polishing, and wiping the surface.

As Christians, it's not hard to see the analogy. We become more sensitive to God during hard times. We're forced to trust Him in new ways during trials. We fall to our knees in helpless dependence on His grace. We rediscover the power of prayer, and we claim promises in the Bible hitherto neglected. In the process, the fire eliminates those things that might be obscuring our vision of our Heavenly Father, and we are molded into the image of our Lord.
The Refiner's fire is always for His glory and our good.

When God puts us in the furnace, His hand is on the thermostat and His eye is on the clock.
Author unknown