When I was growing up, I recall my mother telling us often that my grandmother and two of my uncles died in a house fire. They lived downtown around Chartress and a fire station was within a few miles but they would not be saved. Two other uncles managed to get out but the flames were to intense to make it back in and attempt to save them.
Last week, many of us saw a construction worker almost lose his life in a structure fire. The fire was bad enough that he had to jump from one floor ledge to another, it got worse after he was rescued. Once he was rescued the side wall of the building where he had been standing seconds before, collapsed. The "fire wall" just missed the construction worker and the fireman.
The story here is that the fire, once it began,took a life of it's own. Sure there were first responders attempting to put it out but it was so big, it was a five alarm fire. What causes a fire to spread so quickly and get so out of control? How is it that it becomes so intense that it changes the lives of families?
Wouldn't it be nice if we could destroy the sin in our life by setting it on fire? Burn! Destroy! Consume! Ashes!
I think of the references in God's Word to fire. If you stop and think of Jeremiah 23:29 "Is not my word like fire" declares the Lord?
What if we got into the Word of God and allowed it to consume us, allowed it to spread into our life? What a difference it would it make. If fire can destroy a dwelling or burn something to ashes, then what could happen if we allowed the "consuming fire" of God's Word to take hold of our life?
My grandmother met her demise because someone did not guard their house. They allowed an open flame to burn as a gentle wind blew a curtain into the flame creating the house fire.
God wants us to guard our hearts. He wants us to fill it with His Word, His promises and His truth and allow that o spread
Ike a consuming fire.
Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol; in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire. Deuteronomy 4:24
Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that can not be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire!" Hebrews 12:28-29
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