Come in Fire

Daily Reading: Isaiah 66

Scripture Focus: For behold, the Lord will come in fire. (Isaiah 66.15)

Devotional Thought: Several weeks ago, I led the morning prayer and devotional times at Southwestern Ohio Nazarene family camp.  A common theme of the prayers was for God to "come with fire."   I've often prayed that same prayer for the churches I've pastored, and even for my own soul. But, what does "come in fire" mean?  Do I really want that?

Consider, fire...

·       Illuminates.  When God comes in fire, he reveals to us where we are and what we need.  He also points the way we should go.

·       Captivates.  People love to sit around a campfire and just watch the flames.  They are always moving, ever changing.  God wants to get our attention.

·       Radiates.  Heat comes from fire.  When our souls are cold and in need of revival, God's fire warms our hearts!

·       Motivates.  Think about a steam engine.  The fire creates steam which is then translated into kinetic energy and moves tons and tons of freight!  If we're bogged down, the fire of God will get us moving again!

·       Decontaminates.  You've probably sterilized something with a flame.  The fire of God will purify us from all that contaminates both spirit and body.

·       Adjudicates.  Fires tests the purity of metal.  In the verse after our text, the prophet wrote: "For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment."  God's judgment will come with fire.

·       Incinerates.  Not a pleasant image.  Seven centuries after Isaiah, Peter wrote: "The heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly...  The heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up" (2 Peter 3.7, 10).

God will come in fire.  Are you ready?

Prayer: Lord, I do not know all that it means for you to come in fire, but that is my prayer.  Come and reveal your will and your way.  Hold my attention.  Make my spirit burn with zeal and energy.  Purify my heart.  Prepare me for the great day when you will judge the world with fire.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 95.6-11

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,

8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways."

11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter my rest."