The Two Fires

 Lately we have heard how fire has devastated certain areas of our state. It appears fire can be a dreadful thing to fight against.

Last year the boys and I were on a field trip and got to speak with a Forest Ranger. He went over the different ways they fight fire. We were surprised when he said one of those ways was to fight fire with fire. My oldest instantly looked at me and smiled. I knew he was thinking of the Andy Griffith episode where Barney proclaims the only way to fight fire is with fire!

Spiritually, there are two fires. They are both consuming and unquenchable but the goal of one is to destroy and torment while the other is to rescue and save.

What am I trying to say? Lately, the Lord has set a fire in my soul, in my bones! I want to share Him with everyone! I want to fulfill the purpose He had in mind when He formed me. This is a fire I cannot contain nor control. This fire is of the Holy Spirit!

Jeremiah spoke of this fire "Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name. But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not."

You see like Jeremiah I think we as Christians experience this fire at some point but we allow others or ourselves to quench it in some way. His word should be in our hearts like a fire. People need the word and it's within us! What an honor!

Then there's the other fire. The fire that is death, torment, and destruction that awaits those who reject Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You see this place was created for Satan and his devils. God's desire is that no one should perish but that all would come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). There was a woman in the 1800s who had visions of people walking into a hole of fire oblivious to what was happening. That vision struck a fire from God inside of her to preach and share the gospel. When we are filled with His truth and the fire of the Spirit we can understand Acts 4:20. Peter and John were threatened and told to never speak or teach in the name of Jesus. They responded "for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."  They couldn't help themselves! They had to share the One who had set them free and has the power to set others free!

Whether we like to think about it or not, hell is a very real place. We are the redeemed of the Lord. The passionate fire in our souls can rescue those who are on their way to the fire of destruction! Corrie Ten Boom said in one of her books that most believers are like firemen in a burning house who are busy straightening pictures instead of rescuing those who are persishing. We too can be complacent and more concerned about trivial things rather than precious souls all around us.

Jude verse 23 says "but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by flesh."

Last year my husband came across an awful wreck and the vehicle was on fire. He could hear the man screaming for help. My husband and his coworker ran to the vehicle though it was on fire, they cut the seat belt and pulled this man through the car window to safety. As he told me this story I was so proud of how brave he had been and I also thought of Jude 23.

There are people all around us locked in chains enclosed in darkness who are crying for help like this man. Their cry may sound different. Their cry may be seen in their actions. There are many walking this path of destruction. When will we arise and be the sons and daughters with fire in our bones? The fire of the Holy Spirit inside of us can rescue those who are deceived and headed to the fire of torment and destruction.

Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest; heaven so real that we must have men there, Christ so real that our supreme motive and aim shall be to make the Man of Sorrows the Man of Joy by the conversion to him of many. — Hudson Taylor