FIRE

FIRE    “WORTH CONSIDERING”    8/25/20

Worthy Brief <worthybrief@worthynetwork.com&gt;    (Across my desk this morning.)
2 Corinthians 7:1 Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Throughout California forest fires are burning out of control. To give you some perspective, California is battling two of the largest fires in history. Over the past week nearly 600 new fires have started by dry lightning strikes.  Yet even as these raging fires consume the forest, something is quietly going on to prepare their very renewal.

You see, there are an unusual species of Evergreen called the Lodgepole Pine that grows in great numbers throughout Northwest America, especially in Yellowstone Park. A fascinating aspect of this Pine is the uniqueness of its cones. Lodgepole Pine cones may stay on the tree for years before they fall off – and, even when they do fall, they will not open to release their seed…until they are in the presence of intense heat! What could explain this remarkable ecological foresight?

God, having designed nature, even in its fallen condition which includes devastating forest fires, has providentially prepared for their subsequent renewal by designing a Pine tree whose reproduction requires the agent of its own destruction…fire! So, even as trees, wildlife, and all living things are being destroyed in a forest blaze, the seeds of renewal are also being released for the “resurrection” of forest life…because, of course, since their seeds are actually released by the fire, the Lodgestone Pines is the first to grow in an area that’s been burned!

In each of our own lives, there are areas that need to be or are already being burned up — consumed by the “Refining Fire” of God’s Holy Spirit. Yet God has also provided for a renewal in us…a “seed” of something brand new, which can only be birthed by intense heat. This new seed, however it manifests in our lives, represents the resurrection life of Christ, which emerges in the presence of His purifying fire. So the Lodgepole Pine is a picture for us, of resurrection and hope in the midst of fiery trials.

So let’s endure our fiery trials with great hope, allowing Him to consume everything in us which does not serve His Glory! With so much work to be done — we must not despise the cleansing process — even if it means a lot of heat!

Deuteronomy 5:22 These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.

Psalm 104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire

Isaiah 10:17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and
Isaiah 66:15 For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.

Jeremiah 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Ezekiel 28:18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.

Zechariah 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

Matthew 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Luke 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

Acts 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

Hebrews 1:7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

Rev. 12: 10-12,  10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.  11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

So much better to catch on fire in the LORD and bring forth new spiritual life around us than to rot out.  When we are the center of our own little world, we tend to rot out.  But when we make Christ Jesus the  center of our world and find out what HE had in mind in our creation and go for it we find life and life eternal.  John 12:24-26…

 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.  25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.  26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.