Romans 12: 11 Never
be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord
The
church was born on the day of Pentecost in fire.
Acts 2: 1 – 4 When the day of Pentecost came, they were
all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a
violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were
sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that
separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were
filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit
enabled them.
Fire
draws a crowd and the fire of God drew the crowd at Pentecost. It transformed a
fisherman into an orator who preached with passion and conviction and 3000 were
saved. It so inspired those early disciples that they revolutionised their
world. They were prepared to die for the one who had died for them.
There
are many references to fire in the Bible and most of them have to do with
either the presence of God or his judgment.
As Simon Ponsonby wrote ‘If we
will not embrace the fire of his love, we will experience it as the fire of his
judgment.’
Moses
met God at a burning bush – a place made holy by God’s presence so that Moses
had to remove his shoes. I believe God placed a spark of his fire in Moses at
that encounter that changed him from a timid shepherd into a man who could
confront Pharaoh, one of the mightiest leaders of the known world.
We read
in Exodus 11 that after Moses had accosted Pharaoh for the final time ‘Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh’.
What had happened to the timid shepherd? The fire of God had changed him.
Many of
the rebellions against God and Moses in the desert were dealt with by fire from
the golden calf (Exodus 32:20) to
Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16: 31 – 35).
God’s
presence was revealed time and again with fire. Fire on Mount Sinai, the pillar
of fire that led God’s people through the desert, Elijah and the prophets of
Baal and the chariot of fire that took Elijah up to heaven. The sacrifice at
the instigation of the priesthood was consumed by heavenly fire as was the
sacrifice at the dedication of the temple.
In the
New Testament John the Baptist promised that Jesus ‘will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire’ (Matthew 3:11). When
Jesus returns it will be with ‘blazing
fire’ (II Thessalonians 1: 7). Our
God after all is ‘a consuming fire’ (Deuteronomy
4: 24).
Paul
inspires and exhorts us to be people of passion and fire – to keep our zeal
alight and to blaze with spiritual fervour.
Luke
warm Christians have been the bane of the Church and never more so than in the
Western church in the 21st century where respectability and
political correctness and God-help-us entertainment have infiltrated the ranks.
God is
stirring up a fresh generation of radical, burning Christians. He wants believers who will be like John Wesley. ‘I felt ablaze with a desire to go the length and breadth of Wales to
tell of the Saviour.’
I love
the quote from W E Sangster when interviewing a nervous young man who said
that he was not the type to set the Thames on fire replied, ‘I’m not interested to know if you could set
the Thames on fire but if I was to pick you up by the scruff of the neck and
drop you into the Thames, would it sizzle!”
God is
looking for a generation of sizzling Christians whose lives have been burnt up
on the altar of his love who are now ablaze with his presence. Zeal needs a
fuel. The fuel is God’s presence, daily pursued by people not prepared to be
half-hearted or lukewarm but devoted to their Lord and Saviour.
The
giants of our day are not going to be overthrown by timid, fearful Christians
but by burning Christians. That does not necessarily mean noisy and
outspoken. Quiet and passionate is
powerful.
Let’s
put some fuel on the fire of our lives and burn with God’s love that transforms
our world.
Footnote: I am grateful to Simon Ponsonby and his book on Romans entitled God is for us. I have shamelessly taken the title of this blog from him.
