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Key Bible Verse: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death (Philippians 3:10). Bonus Reading: Isaiah 49:1-6

Buck knives have been called the best sporting knives in the world. Chuck Buck, CEO of the Buck Knife Corp., says, "The Christian life is analogous to our process of making blades. The blade is put in the furnace and has to go through 2,000-degree heat for 45 minutes to an hour.

"Then we plunge it into a 100-degree-below-zero container for three hours. After that, it's put in a tempering furnace for one and a half to two hours at a low, steady 800 degrees, and it really seems we've forgotten this little knife. Finally it comes out, toughened to a 58 Rockwell hardness, ready for anything.

"When a person gets saved, he thinks, 'Now I'm a Christian and everything is going to be okay." But all of a sudden here come the temptations, the persecution, and the person thinks God has forgotten him. I've been tempered through the trials I've faced."

Pain forges strength into our character and teaches us about the character of God. It removes our impurities, hardens our moral fiber, and makes us more useful tools in His hand.

—Stephen Arterburn in The Power Book

• What has God been using to forge your character?

Thought to Apply: Batter my heart, three-personed God … / That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend / Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new.

—JOHN DONNE (ANGLICAN PASTOR, 17TH CENTURY)

Credits: Adapted from—Tuesday: The Power Book (Nelson, 1996)

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information click here.

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