Affliction is God’s forge where He softens the iron heart. You cannot work with iron while it remains cold and hard. Put it into the fire though, and make it red hot there and you may stamp upon it any figure or impression you please. Melted vessels are impressionable to any form. So it is with the heart of man, by nature it is cold and hard, and this is much increased by prosperity and the longsuffering of God toward sinners. The furnace makes the soul pliable to God’s counsel, and sometimes God is forced to make the furnace heated seven times hotter to work out the dross that renders men so resistant to the ministry of the Word.
-Thomas Case, as quoted by Eric Mason at Desiring God Conference for Pastors 2010
The Fourth Commandment: Remember The Sabbath
3 months ago
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