5 lessons from 'The Forge'

Ephesians 2:10
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Recently, I watched this Christian movie called 'The Forge'. The main premise centers around this young man named Isaiah and his journey from an unbeliever to a faithful and inspiring man of God. Isaiah is a video game–obsessed, directionless teen just out of high school. After his single mother gives him an ultimatum to get a job or move out, he lands at Moore Fitness, where owner Joshua Moore becomes his mentor and through Christ, Isaiah is transformed and equipped with the passion for God and His people by the end of this film. Granted, it's a work of fiction, the lessons and values Joshua or God taught Isaiah as well as his real relatable struggles are things all of us as Christians go through and need to be living out. Bearing this in mind, Here are 5 of my biggest lessons from this incredible media:

#1 Be a fountain not a drain

God loves us unconditionally and without expecting anything back from us. “Wait but I thought if we don’t love Him back we go to hell?” Yes, but if you really think about it, He doesn’t expect us to automatically love Him back for what He did on the cross for us (though He literally died for us). Christ’s death on the cross and Him being a pathway for us to get right with God is a FREE GIFT to us which doesn't require anything in advance for us nor does it require us to love Him back for it. That’s right. All you have to do to receive the gift is to recognise the love and gift and the fact that you needed it because you are a sinner. We don’t love God from our own sinful hearts. God gave us so much love that our hearts change after we receive this one of a kind love and we love Him back because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

Similarly, as recipients of God’s amazing love, we are to love others in a radical manner, drastically different from our fleshly-driven love. Fleshly-driven love or human love is many times feelings-driven. We love others when we feel a certain way about them or when they make us feel a certain way about them. The love God has for us is not feelings-driven. It’s by choice. Case in point being Jesus’ choice to go on the cross for us despite His reluctance to do so as apparent in His woes at the Garden of Gethsemane.

The second major difference is that fleshly-driven love expects and wants. Our human nature justifies this feeling. If the other person doesn’t bring anything to the table, we don’t need to love them, we don’t need to care for them since they aren’t loving us back, they aren’t giving us anything in return for our time and effort. Guess what? We weren’t doing anything for God when He sent His Son down to die on the cross for us. And what’s more crazy is God still blesses and creates us fearfully and wonderfully even when He knows many of us just want to do what we want in this earthly life rather than live our lives for Him. Yet, He molds us in our mothers’ wombs, He watches over us and waits for us to open the door of our hearts to let Him in not so He can control our lives but so He can show us just how much He loves us with the infinitely better plans He has in mind for us compared to what we were planning to achieve (1 Corinthians 2:9). If we love out of our own capacity and strength, we get exhausted and tired when the recipient of our love doesn’t respond in the manner we want them to. Why? We are all imperfect and love imperfectly. Our God however loves us perfectly. With His abundant love, we can love others without needing anything in return. We can forgive people who have not apologised or mended their wrongs. We can love others despite their flaws. Perfect love. This is what is meant by being ‘a fountain not a drain’. Treat others the way you want to be treated, without expecting them to treat you back because you can trust God sees your actions and love and will treat you well just as he always has.

Galatians 5: 13-14

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

You can’t love others the way God intends you to love them if you don’t love yourself. How do you love yourself? Is it by telling yourself: “I’m so handsome or beautiful”? No, that’s the worldly way of trying to find a reason to love yourself.

The Lord declares in Luke 12:6-7, “ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Don’t use worldly measures and thinking to value yourself because you will only end up misjudging it and comparing yourself against others. Here’s what your supposed to do: You recognise just how much God loves you. The whole bible echoes one consistent message and that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God was sacrificed for your sins, out of sheer love and grace from God the Father. In the midst of this chaotic world that tries to define you by what you do, how much you make and how you look, only God’s currency of love for you has remained the same. If you forget everything in life, know this one thing—You are dearly loved by Creator God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and that’s all you really need because who are we to have the King of Kings die for us and give us a pathway to His perfect kingdom despite how sinful and disobedient we are.

I’ll tell you who we are, we are loved by God to the point that He calls us HIS sons and daughters, heirs even. If your creator loves you even at “your worst”, don’t depend on what the world thinks of you or how others treat you. The world doesn’t know the real you as intimately as your creator does. He is by your side every step. He’s watching over you. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself whose name is above every other name and has authority over all things is interceding for us (Romans 8:34). That’s more than enough. His love is more than sufficient. The overflow of this perfect love is what we should love ourselves with and subsequently, others.

#2 What kind of person do you want to be?

Many of us have our own goals and success metrics to determine precisely what kind of person we want to be in the future. With these personal goals and desires clouding our vision, we fail to see the kind of person GOD wants us to be. The person God wants us to be may not have worldly riches and success or even a stable career. However, this person is still a million times better off than the person we would want to be without God in the equation. This is simply because of the great trust, reverence and faith this ‘poor’ person will have. And we know that without faith it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). The more we rely on God, trust in His character and earnestly seek Him and His kingdom, the more peace we have in our hearts— a peace that surpasses all understanding and guards our hearts and minds enabling us to endure every situation (Philippians 4:7).

So, don’t be blinded by what the world wants you to be. Instead, align ourselves with His perfect will and become a man or woman of God. Always pray for God’s will to be done in your life for it’ll be far better than our own selfish wants and desires even if we don’t see it as such in the short term.

#3 The way you treat others and carry yourself is extremely important in reflecting Christ to others

You can see this very evidently in the way Joshua Moore and his wife treated Isaiah when he wasn’t even a believer, was disrespectful, slothful, tardy and harboured many negative emotions within his heart. Joshua Moore didn’t just tolerate Isaiah, he cared for him enough to teach him how to be better— not just how to be good at his job but how to live well. He taught him discipline and adopting healthy mentalities. They welcomed him in their home and his wife was not afraid to share their journey of brokenness (the loss of their beloved son) with Isaiah and more importantly how Joshua was saved from his emotional burdens and wearies upon receiving Christ in his heart and changed completely into the loving man he now is, even in his employer-employee relationship with Isaiah.

You see, transformation is a key sign of God’s power and the gospel. Without radical transformation, no one can testify the provision of God’s hand in their lives. Joshua Moore showed that to Isaiah by being able to let go of past hurts and anger and love others insofar as giving a tenth of his company’s earnings to the poor and needy. This testimony reflected God’s saving power to Isaiah which he then received and began his own journey of transformation: from being a taxing burden to his mother to being a cause for joy, from harbouring hatred towards his father to forgiving him without any demands in return, from wanting to be respected to respecting others and God first. These are some of his greatest evolutions among others.

#4 There is a COST to discipleship

Luke 9:23

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

“Something must die.” The Christian journey is not easy. If you want to bear fruits that please God through Christ such as love, self-control, gentleness and patience, sacrifices have to be made to allow God more room to work in you and transform you. Unlearn bad habits and learn good ones. Breaking addictions and making time for God. It is a process of constant renewal of the mind just as proposed by Paul.

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The struggle is not just to start going to church more often but to actually stop cursing from your mouth, to stop lusting over women and to restrict the time spent excessively on gaming, social media, clubbing or even a sport. The activity can be anything. It could be an attitude or a desire. A desire to become rich, famous, popular with the ladies or even chasing after a woman could all be ungodly passions if convicted of it by the Holy Spirit or if they take time away from knowing God. Although it’s challenging, we must cut these things if we truly love God and want more of Him in our lives.

#5 The importance of a community that shares at least this one common goal - knowing Christ.

“The Forge” is an apt name for this group. Each individual encourages one another by sharing their encounters or experiences in life and how God saved them from their circumstances or just thanking God for His grace and peace in their situations.

Hebrews 10:24

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

We didn’t get to see many exchanges with the forge members and Isaiah but the one that stood out was the sharing by the man whose drunk driving led to Joshua’s massive loss actually became the first member of the forge when Joshua chose to forgive him, displaying the unconditional love that can only come from Jesus Christ. Eventually, Isaiah followed in Joshua’s footsteps and forgave his father despite all the pain he had inflicted upon both him and his mother.

The radical transformation of a believer doesn’t happen overnight (usually). It’s a gradual process. While we are in this world, troubles, distractions and the devil will do their best to drive us away from doing God’s will and this is why we NEED others. Rely on each other, learn from others the various ways to avoid or reduce these distractions and grounds for the devil and share your thanksgivings with others so that everyone can STAND FIRM in faith, hope and love - the crux of the gospel.

Philippians 1:27-28

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.