The Fire is Already Present

The Fire is Already Present

1/21/15

How much do we proclaim to know about the Word of God?  Do we understand its fire-like consistencies or do we just refer to its contents when it is convenient for us to do so?  These concepts are necessary for us to understand how the Church functions when they are witnessing to the world and it is compulsory that we understand that there is a difference in thoroughly knowing the Bible and just whimsically flashing a passage or two to others in order to get a point across.  God’s Word represents life, eternal life and the direction in which this eternal life is spent depends upon what we know and portray to the dying world.

I have to admit that the small community that I live in is probably a typical one in the fact that when something out of the normal occurs in the area the majority of the people begin to act crazy.  It is amazing how many rumors get started and what is even more fascinating is at the speed of which these rumors circulate.  It has been almost 1 ½ years now since the house across the street from ours burned and as the neighbors and I were trying to keep the street inhabitants under control I remember seeing people around that I did not recognize.  After the excitement settled down a bit I took a longer look at the people gathered in the area and realized that the majority of those people I did not know and many were not even from our neighborhood; and this was after midnight.

Our Dachshund Heidi likes to sit on the top of the couch and look outside our large bay window.  It allows her to see what is occurring and who is walking along our street.  For the most part she usually sticks to this placement during the day but every once-in-a-while she will extend this “viewing” after the sun has set.  One night a few months ago she was sitting in her usual place on the top of the couch and she all of a sudden sharply raised her head up and began to rapidly turn her head back and forth as if she knew something was there but could not see anything.

By the time I got over to her she had graduated into whining and whimpering but still continued to look in both directions along the street.  After her shaking began I finally heard a small and faint noise of a single siren.  As I continued to comfort Heidi, the siren came closer but I could tell that it was not coming towards us.  The sound brought back memories of the house fire the year before and I instinctively glanced over at the unoccupied house just to satisfy my curiosity but everything was dark and quiet protruding from the house.

I then heard another siren begin and as I sat there for a moment realized it was headed in the same direction as the first, then the third siren became audible but this one was one from a fire truck.  Within a few minutes many sirens were sounding and heading in the same direction which of course peaked my mind and continued my curiosity.  So much so that when bonnie came up the stairs I looked at her and she immediately knew what I was thinking and she asked me “do you want to take a ride?”  I was off the couch and into my shoes within a few seconds and ready to go.  Yep, we had fallen into the same category as all of those other people had done with the fire on our street. 

It took us a while to find the fire and in fact it took some amount of time because it was up by the high school and off the road a ways.  We actually had driven past it and did not see it until after we had turned around and basically given up on locating it. Both Bonnie and I saw it almost at the same time and then we understood why all the excitement was occurring.  Another house had caught on fire and the fire department had responded in full force to combat the blaze.  We could not see any flames remaining so we had shown up very late to the party and did not pursue the matter any longer, but it was sure fun to talk about for a while.  We laughed at ourselves for getting caught up in the moment and doing our best to do exactly what we fussed about when others came to our neighborhood and did; got to love being human.

In both instances the people within hearing distance understood that a fire was occurring somewhere due to the distinctive sounds of the fire trucks.  The fire and police departments had personnel on each scene and were directly involved in putting the fires out while the “looky loos” were present in force as well but participated indirectly, mainly getting in the way if you want to know the truth.  In both sides of the participation aisle presented varying directions.  The ones directly involved in fighting the fire knew exactly where the fire was located and were doing their jobs accordingly.  The ones who might have known where the fire was exactly or came onto the scene just to see what was going on may not have known exactly what was specifically occurring but arrived and stood around and did absolutely nothing, but watch and talk about what might had occurred.

When I was an older kid and teenager I remember watching many commercials on television that featured Smokey The Bear promoting fire safety and prevention.  When I was younger I was fascinated that a bear could be the one to instruct me about fire safety yet at the same time I had many thoughts about why fire was so destructive.  As I began to enter into high school my science classes taught how fire begins, consumes and how it can be extinguished.  As my life experiences continued, I realized that millions of people had been exposed to fire safety and prevention training as well and understood the potential dangers of fire.  It is also understood that once a fire is started it will acquire all of the necessary fuel ingredients so that it can stay “alive”.

If one thinks about this state of the fire it can be drawn as a constant state which needs to grow or to die out.  In either circumstance it is necessary for humans to plan out the fire’s future which includes letting it burn itself out or to voluntarily put it out before it does any further damage.  Many questions occur when a fire starts which include, how the fire started, how hot the flames were burning, how long it took to put out and how much property or land was destroyed.  All of these questions are considered normal questions even if the fire is still burning at the time.  These questions bring out the desire of the human heart to try and fathom of events that have occurred and to try and understand why they occurred.  It is a natural state of humans to question things, even the ones we are not directly involved in, or believe we are not involved in.

Many of us might have helped in putting out the two fires mentioned above or believed we could have, but in reality how could we effectively accomplish this task?  As I looked around our immediate neighborhood I saw many people just standing around just watching and not offering much help at all, but they sure did stir up the gossip chains.  There were many other cars passing by the high school road that night as well, and it was amazing to notice that each one of them slowed down when they realized where that fire was burning too.  We all know about the fire and are quick to give our opinions about it to others, but for some odd reason that is all we do.  How does a fire go along with our spiritual lives and how does it tie into the Word of God?  Those are questions that should be easily answered but for most of us we cannot answer them because all we do is look at it instead of understanding its meaning.

There is no question that many of us that walk this planet are familiar with the Bible and its contents.  I am also quite confident that many of us do not fully comprehend the finer details of God’s Word and what it means to our lives.  How can I justify this statement?  My father has been a minister for over 50 years and while I have sat under his ministry for a good portion of those 50 years, he readily admits that God shows him new things every day.  If this true, and it is, then there is no reason for me to believe otherwise, I do not know everything and I also know that my finite mind cannot include every drop of information that God’s Word has for each one of the people on this earth, but what God does show me I learn from and what God shows my father he learns from, so why would I doubt that statement especially since each article I write and every word that my father reads centers from the Word of God?

God’s Word is the only true source of eternal life and salvation and we have allowed our enemy to steal that truth from our hearts.  It is this purpose of this message of the knowledge of a fire that God wants us to understand.  It is frustrating and hateful for one of God’s people to use a passage of scripture without understanding its entire context.  It is easy for all of us to do this and this is not the first time that God has shared with me to write about this topic, but it is of the utmost importance for us to understand the entire Word of God and not just the portions that we want to use as defensive or offensive measures.

I understood exactly what was going on with the fire that was burning across the street from my house.  I was directly involved since I was the first one on the scene and made sure that everyone that was inside the house was out.  I had split decisions to make if they were not and I was prepared to take a risk if necessary.  I also understood the intricate details of the house since I knew of the conditions of the family that lived there, which placed me privy to the hidden dangers as well.  I am not bragging about that night at all, but with the extra knowledge of the details of who lived there, what the general appearances were, and what the conditions of the people living there I could give a full and accurate account to the police and fire department concerning the issue at hand, while most of the spectators around the scene only could provide fictitious accounts.

It is these types of details about God’s Word that He wishes for us to understand.  Giving sketchy details to others will only prove to produce doubt and hurts because it gives these people nothing to feed upon and thrive from, only questions and doubts to ponder and then throw away.  The Church have become masters at this strategy and what makes things worse is that they have no clue that they have been sucked into this lifestyle.  God knows that if we do not know His Word cover to cover and word for word we will have no chance of surviving the attacks from our enemy.  We will not be able to withstand the tricks because we do not comprehend that the Bible is filled with people and their stories, and whether or not they succeeded or failed due to their knowledge of God.

How do I know this to be true?  Look at all of the denominations falling over themselves trying to appease the world and its standards in order to make headlines and to prove that they know God better than others.  It is sickening to God and we are voluntarily moving from our own lukewarm status to perfect worldly sinner status and parading around happily about it as well. It is evident that they are looking at the Word of God as one that is standing by watching the fire but does not know the intricate details of what is going on.  If they did understand the details concerning God’s Word (the fire) they would be falling over themselves trying to bring the people of the world to Christ instead. 

There is no way possible that we can personally understand every nook and cranny of God’s Word, it is physically impossible for us to have the notion of doing so.  However, we must find it within our hearts to understand what exactly is occurring in the lives of those people within the context of the Bible.  The Church cannot give people that do not know God just a morsel of information about God either, for if this occurs we are proving to them a disservice and actually providing an eternal lie; like Satan did in the Garden of Eden when he seduced and tricked Adam and Eve to eat of the forbidden tree.  If we understand the Bible in all of its wisdom and knowledge and apply the contents to our lives, then we will be able to effectively share this knowledge with others; we know about the fire and can present it to others accordingly.

What occurs when the people that we bring into the Church and then allow them to continue in the sinful practices that they harbor?  What happens when those within the church settings approach these people and then begin to witness to them and showing them that the Word of God says things differently than what they had been told?  What happens to these people and who do they believe to be telling them the truth?  This is exactly what I am referring to when people of the church accept ways of the world into their lives and accept them as the truth from God.  They are standing by the fire and spreading idle (idol) gossip to the people that really need God.  This is the dangers of not understanding the fire and the capability that it has to burn and the same principle applies to the Word of God.  Using a portion of its message for a specific purpose or belief is very dangerous and it can lead to one’s own eternal separation from God and eternal death.

It is time that we tell the truth to ourselves concerning this topic.  First of all if we believe that we know a great deal about God and His ways we need to repent now!!  Secondly, if we fall into the category that we know just portions or parts of scripture we need to place our hearts back into the Bible and ask God to show us what His word says to our lives, so that we can truly witness to the people that are dying in their sins.  Lastly, if we are in the category where God has shown us some specific details about His Word we need to be doing everything in our power to share this information with others, including and continuing to learn from the passages of wisdom that we have been shown.  Our learning about God and His ways never stops and if it ever does, it should be a signal to us that something is wrong within our lives.

I do not mean to sound cold or harsh concerning this matter but it is necessary for me to share what god is trying to get across to us today.  The settings and conditions of the Church are in dire positions and by our words and actions it has become clear that we do not desire to change our positions concerning these matters.  God is doing everything He can to show us that we need to stick our hearts back into His Word for guidance and for us to realize that even though we have fallen away from His ways; He is just and ready to restore our standing within His eyes.  We cannot allow our pride to influence our sinful mannerisms nor can we allow the god of this world seduce us well enough to blind us into falling away from God eternally.  If we do not understand God’s Word thoroughly, then all we are doing is effectively spreading rumors and believing rumors.

DLB