Mesmerizing Fire

Are we not mesmerized by fire?  I love a fire in the fireplace and can get lost for hours looking into the flames.  Fire has always been important to God.  He revealed Himself as fire. He was the burning bush, the cloud of fire which led Israel, the tongues of fire at Pentecost.  He sent fire to burn up Elijah's sacrifice, He consumed Sodom & Gomorrah with fire, the priests sacrificed with fire.  Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego walked around in fire and lived to tell about it.  And the great city of Babylon will be burned by fire in judgment.  God is a consuming fire.

The very nature of fire consumes.  It has to be fed with something to even exist.  I remember a terrible fire at the beginning of the drought in the Texas panhandle which consumed acres and acres of land.  That fire was fed by grass.  A bonfire is usually fed by pallets of wood.  And we feed a fireplace with logs to keep it burning.  But God needs nothing--He is the source.  He is the fire which consumes the sacrifice of our flesh.  He is the cloud of fire which leads us into the Promised Land.

Instead of being consumed with ourselves, money, fame, or the world...let's be consumed by the Fire of God.  That's what the story of Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego is all about.  They wouldn't bow and worship the golden idol which King Nebuchadnezzar had created, so he had them bound and thrown into a fire which was 7x hotter than normal. The next thing the king saw were four men--unbound--walking around in the fire.  God didn't just spare the lives of Shadrach, Meschach & Abednego, He met with them in the fire.  I believe He became the fire and consumed their bondage.

We can lose ourselves in the Fire of God and be loosed...and live to tell about it.