Lighting the Fire

Is not my Word like fire. . . Jeremiah 23:29

I wanted to do an experiment, but I didn’t because I am just too cheap (make that frugal, will you) to waste the fuel. I know that if you take a half gallon of gasoline and light it, you get and explosion and resultant fire. I know that because I used to use gasoline to start brush fires when clearing the farm. As I got older and smarter, I started using diesel. Believe me it is much better. But, let’s get back to the point.

I wonder what would happen if you mixed a half gallon of water with that half gallon of gasoline? Maybe they won’t mix, I don’t know (too cheap, remember). But let’s pretend that they will. What would happen if you tried to light that mixture. Once again, I don’t know, but I guessing it would be harder to get started? It wouldn’t burn? It might burn, but poorly? Maybe I should have done the experiment!

Anyway, the whole point is this. In our buildings where the Church of Jesus Christ meets there are those who are regenerate and those who are not. There are those who have made faithfulness and commitment the hallmarks of their relationship to Christ and those who have not. When we mix the two together, which we do when we gather, sometimes it is really difficult to get the fires of faith and llove burning.

In Jeremiah 23:29 we read “Is not my word like as a fire, says the LORD; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? Yet it seems at times that the Word of the Lord is not powerful enough to overcome the spiritual apathy of our distracted lives. I believe it is true that the Word of God is a sword, cutting wide and deep through the sin that wreaks havoc on this World’s inhabitants. The proclamation of the Cross, presented in His Word, is the power of God to salvation. It is the force required for renewing the mind and transforming the walk. But we can never forget that the renewed mind comes because of a regenerated heart, and without the latter the former can never be accomplished even by kindling the fire of His Word.

First, let fill the jug with gasoline! Let’s displace all the water. Then, reaching for a match, he said, . . .