This is how He is described "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." (Deut 4:24) This is not the only way in which He is described for the Lord can not be contained by a single word. His qualities and nature far exceed anything we can comprehend "For My thoughts [are] not your thoughts, Nor [are] your ways My ways," says the LORD. " (Isaiah 55:8)
God - The consuming fire
Can you imagine being burned alive? Or this. Think about when you have burned yourself. How much it hurt. I remember dropping a pot of boiling water down my leg and having it cause me pain for a week. How much more intense would being burned alive be? This is what God does in us to our sinful nature. When he comes in contact with us His very nature is to sanctify us and remove all impurity. His righteousness is too pure to be tainted by us! "He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire Devouring all around." (Lam 2:3) This is done because of the foul sin within us. Jeremiah knew this when he said "Let all their wickedness come before You, And do to them as You have done to me For all my transgressions" (Lam 1:22) Jeremiah had a life full of suffering and pain.
Point being the process of being sanctified is not a pleasant one. It is extremely painful. Our sin nature is being burned up, but the problem is we are attached to our sin nature. We get burned in the process. I am currently getting burned. Having my eyes opened to another level of my sinful nature. Seeing how deep the beast really goes. The comforts which my sin nature provides are being seared and destroyed. I will only have God, though I forget that I already have him.
I can only trust as Jeremiah(Fyi in case you thought righteousness equated to an easy life you are mistaken. Examine the life of Jeremiah or many other men of God.) was able to. Able to look back at his bitter suffering and say "The LORD [is] good to those who wait for Him, To the soul [who] seeks Him." (Lam 3:25)
You're sitting right behind me right now - but I thought I would do you a favor and tell you I like the photo addition to your blog. The burning bush eh? - good choice.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see you posting, Jon! Also, with the edition of the CIY photos somebody made a comment about that whole group were all just a bunch of drunks and where did "church camp" get us. Well, I'm glad to see some have continued this journey!!
ReplyDeletewow. this is pretty sweet jonny. It was neat to read this and be encouraged. This reminds of the night before I left Argentina last summer-- I burned pages that a pastor had me write on with all the people in my life that I needed to forgive who have truly hurt me. The neat thing was one of my team mates was taking picutes of the flame and one of the pictures turned out as a flaming cross :) literally. It's the coolest thing ever-- just seeing how my suffering had a flaming cross over it was the one of the most encouraging things ever for that summer of mine. I tried attaching the photo to this but it didn't work. if you want, I could email it ya.
ReplyDelete--thanks for sharing jonny.
I don't actually know how I found this blog. I googled the words "consuming fire" for an image and it came up with the picture attached on your blog. So I clicked on, it and liked what I read! So I'm a new subscriber :) Keep posting, I like the way you think!!
ReplyDeleteBlessings from Australia.