Consuming Fire part 2
Our God is a consuming fire. That is one of the most concrete pictures we have of Him from the Bible. Three verses in the King James Version of the Bible describe Him that way. Yesterday we looked at the first and last one, and kind of looked at why the New Testament verse left out the part the Old Testament verse had about God being jealous. Today I want to look at Deuteronomy 9:3, "Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee." Wow. There's a lot there. Let's start with God doing over before us. We talk about being followers of Christ, right? Disciples? But then, instead of following where He leads we always want to try to go our own way. A disciple is a student. So a disciple of God is a student of love. Learning how to love as we learn how we are loved. Receiving and releasing the love of God. It comes from knowing that He first loved us. That anywhere He wants us to go... He's already been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. We don't always have to forge our own path. Sometimes we can let God go ahead of us and make the way flat and smooth. He makes the valleys high and the mountains low. He is that straight and narrow way that leads to life. It can feel like a long and winding road, but it doesn't have to be. Rather than depending on God to clean up our messes (and He will do that, don't get me wrong) we can let His Word (which is Jesus, which is Love) be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We can trust that HE knows the way, and then we don't have to work so hard to find our way. Next. The consuming fire destroying our enemies. You know how I feel about this. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said he destroyed his enemies by making them his friends. Look at Romans 12:20, "Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." And, again, I've Ranted on this many times. The fiery coals are not to hurt or punish. They are meant to melt people's hearts. Feeding someone who is hungry--whether you like them or not--is love. Giving what you've got. Seeing a need and meeting it. Love is never a punishment. It is never used to hurt or to harm. Love doesn't demand it's (HIS) own way. Love gives what is needed. Because love IS giving. Not getting. Not judging according to appearance. Not deciding who gets love and who doesn't. Love is for everybody. Because God loves everybody. He loves you, and His new commandment (for the New Man that we are) is to love others as He loves us. To give what He has given us. One more time: To receive it and release it. To let it in and out with every breath we take and every move we make. To be so consumed with the love of God that we consume others with that same love! To kill 'em with kindness, if I can say it that way. Burn it all down and see that only love remains. The fire consumes everything except itself (Himself)!