Everything from purgatory, the afterlife, birth, and the hard times of your life can all be explained in terms of a tool's lifetime.

For this example, I'll be using a Hammer to prove my point.

This is gonna be a summary of the parts of a Hammer, expressing to you how Man sees the world. Jesus was a Carpenter for a significant reason -- so that he may view the world as his Father does, with the eyes of a Creator.

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The Trinity

There are three Persons of a Hammer.

The most obvious is the physical Hammer itself. This is called the Hammer's Body. The Body of a Hammer consists of parts, which can be made of different materials. There is the Head, the Handle, and the Wedge. The Head can be made of any hard material, the Handle can be made of any stout or springy material, and the Wedge is one of any various methods to bind the two to form One Body.

Another Person of the Hammer is the Idea. The Dream. The concept that was born in the mind of the Creator who made the Hammer as an original Creation. Before there was a Hammer in the Universe, the Universe knew the Hammer not. When a Creator makes something, that Creator is giving birth to something with the Universe as the Womb. The Idea of the Hammer existed before it physically did in our Universe. The Mind of God holds all sorts of secrets and things which have yet to come. Humans were given Authority to pull from the Mind of God all that which he has deemed good and worthy. When we act in a Creative way, we are pulling from the Void any from a collection of things God has kept from us like a Parent awaiting his Child's birthday, keeping the presents hidden in the closet. The Child sins when he opens the present before the appointed time.

The last Person of a Hammer is the Work. So what if something has a Body and Idea? It's just a paperweight like everything else unless it is put to use. The Spirit of the Hammer is the Spirit of Work. For every action you take, you let loose into the World some part of yourself. The impact of the Hammer leaves its mark on the World, confirming to the Universe that even should its Body wither away, the Hammer was there. Your Legacy is what has been wrought by your actions, for good or for bad. The Master Craftsman will determine if you have been a good tool or bad by evaluating your Work and how well it was done.

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Maintenance and Work

All tools must be maintained. Just as a Hammer grows rust, builds grime, and the handle shrinks and expands with time and moisture, so do you.

In order to prevent rust on hour heads, we must steer clear of wet and corrosive substances. It's fine to get wet every now and then, as it will leave no marks, but should you soak in water your head will gain rust, your wedge will unseat itself, and the handle will gorge itself and split at the end grain. The Wetness of life is comparable to overindulgence. You must eat to survive, but to overeat will result in swelling. You can drink alcohol to relax, but overindulging on such things will cause the wedge in your eye to come unseated.

There are those things, however, which are always abhorrent to the Hammer, such as any acid or other acrid thing which dissolves the metal while severing the lignum bonds in the handle. Such things as depravity, delusion, perversion, malice, theft, and the humble lie are to be avoided at all costs because they seek to destroy the Hammer by their very nature and prevent Good Work from being done.

A tool must also find its way to its appointed place. Like a Workshop, there is a place for every tool, and all is well when every tool is in its place. When God; the Creator; the Carpenter, goes to grab a tool and finds it missing, it brings about all kinds of turmoil. Just like when you go to grab something and it is not where you left it, it displeases God to find his tools have run off when he needs them most to complete his Greatest Work of all. He does not like having to run about searching instead of doing his Work.

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No Tool Was Made in Vain

The lesson is clear, God made each of us for a reason. Some people, just like some tools, will hardly see any use as compared to others, but God does not make his tools in vain. It's not every day some niche tool is used, sure, but when the time comes where no other tool will suffice God expects you to be there ready to serve.

When that day comes, when you are called by God to do his Work, will you be there for him? Or will you have let yourself rust and wither away in a pool of your own iniquity? Or even worse, will you have run off and made yourself scarce, for fear of being damaged during the exertion? Or, worse of all, you hide from God so that his Work not be done?

When you sin, you fail to be there for God when he needs you. So, Maintain yourself for such a time that he may put you to Good Use.

When you are going through a hard time, it's that time when God has pulled you off the shelf and is using you. Work is not kind on any Tool, but the Creator knows when you have reached your limit, and will stop and refine your edge should it get dull and will be mindful of you so that you don't crack or break under the pressure. He knows what you can take. When you go through hard times, it's because God has Work to be done, and you were the tool he made to do it.

If you find the Work he has for you to be too hard, perhaps ask yourself if you truly kept yourself sharp and sturdy for such a time. Often you will find it was God who was left wanting, rather than you who is being "punished" unduly.

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Purgatory

There are times when a tool has been put through a lot and signs of wear and tear work upon it. At these points, the tool finds itself in need of repair. Whether the damage is a result of constant use by the craftsman, or whether the tool fell away but returned to the Master asking for forgiveness. There is a process which must come to pass for which the tool is taken apart and cleansed of its impurities, even parts of its Body if necessary, such that it may find renewal and resurrection.

Some tools may never have need of such a degree of restoration. These we may call Saints. Others, however, have gotten wet for a time, fell into a corrosive vat, or gotten dirty when they decided to fall out of the Master's toolbelt and get lost in the field. The Master will go back to collect them, as the only tools the Creator forgets are ones which refuse to do Work for him when he calls.

So, the Master gets to work, pulling the Wedge from the Eye of the Hammer. He yanks the Handle out, or saws and beats upon it to loosen it free. He grinds down the Hammer head to remove the rust and returns the smooth and resistant shine. He hews a new haft, fits it to the eye, and then seats the wedge so that the Head once again is renewed, with a firm and solid resolve to do Good Work once again.

This is the Purgatory. The cleansing Fire of Love which extends from God to burn away all of the World which accumulates and weighs down the function of His Tools. It is a necessary process for most, but the degree to which one must be cleansed and refurbished depends on the individual's condition.

There are some tools which are beyond saving. Their uses may have been niche or labored. Regardless of the circumstances, there are some tools so rusted to the core that there is no saving them. Others only have a single damaged component which is irreplaceable. In both cases, they refuse to do Work, and for any tool which refuses to do Work when asked there is but one place for them -- to be tossed into the waste bin or salvaged for parts.

To be forgotten about... Left out in the night where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth...

There is no greater hell, no image of hellfire and brimstone as severe, as the simplicity of God merely forgetting about you. Not because he has abandoned you, but because you have abandoned God and the Work which MUST BE DONE.

Hell is a place of our own making.

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The Perfect Tool

There exists a Tool above all other Tools. A Tool which performs every role and function that God, the Creator, would have need for.

This is the Tool of Tools. The Tool by which all others are Measured.

It is the Tool of which God is most pleased.

Belief in this Tool is something of Faith. Faith that it does exist as described, though we could hardly comprehend what it may be.

Jesus is this Tool of Tools. The Perfect Tool, which has been designed such that it does not wear, nor tear, nor gain any form of grime or rust.

This Tool can build furniture, hammer nails, raise barns, harvest crops, fell trees, transport raw material, tend to the beasts, prune trees, and build a Church.

Build a Nation...

You may ask "What tool could possibly fulfill all these requests?"

This tool is Man. Man can do all these things and more. Man can do all manner of Work upon this World, and most importantly, Man can do this because he is God's most beloved Creation.

God created man to be the Perfect Tool with which he may Move anything in this World he made. God made the Paper, the tapestry for Creation, and then he made us, the Pen, with which he may write any number of stories and intellectual works far beyond the mind of Man, which thinks primarily in the Material world and not in the Spiritual.

We are the Pen and Jesus' blood is the Ink. This Story is written by him.

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Man is the Tool of God.

Jesus is First among them -- like the favorite among a collection of Hammers. This Hammer which is Jesus can perform all other works, but there are some tools which were made for a particular function.

When God goes to grab that tool, when he goes to grab you, he is either found proud of his beloved child or found wanting, perhaps even searching for where his child has hidden itself for fear of being found rusted and split; for fear of being thrown out for failure to do all that which it was asked.

Just because God has Jesus doesn't mean you are worth nothing. On the contrary -- Jesus gives you purpose. A higher purpose. Just as one can fell a tree with a Hammer, it's not the best course of action. For felling trees, an Axe or even Chainsaw will outperform a Hammer.

However, when God goes to grab the Axe and its head falls off, or grab the Chainsaw and it won't turn over, he always has the trusty Hammer to fall back to. He always has Jesus there to bear the Sins of those who did not and were not when God had need of them.

That's why it is said that Jesus died for our sins. He bears our sins, just like that poor Hammer was left as the only Tool still by the side of Our God to perform the task at hand. When we sin, we put undue strain and stress on that Hammer because it is the first and the last tool left to accomplish the goal. It is the most favored of God's Tools and therefore the Servant to All.

Only such a Tool may be the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and the Son of Man.