Fanning The Flames

Our Annual Ladies Retreat is coming up in January and we're really looking forward to this time of coming apart from the world and having fellowship with the sistren (as Bro. McCracken would say ~heee~).  Beneth Jones will be our guest speaker again (we refuse to ask anyone else!) and we're not only looking forward to hearing her speak, we're looking forward to finding out what the Lord has laid on her heart regarding our theme for this year; Fanning The Flames.  She has always brought an amazing series of lessons and so I have a feeling this year will be both a mental and spiritual challenge to our Ladies (as always).  Anyway, thinking on our theme, and fire and flames and their mention in the Bible, I came up with a few thoughts of my own.

Fire, like most things, has two sides.  Fire creates warmth, a feeling of safety and it brings light.

Fire also rages, runs wild and destroys.

God used fire in the Old Testament in judgement, such as in Numbers 11, but it was also used as a cleansing fire, such as in Isaiah 6 and a purifying fire as in Zechariah 13.  God's fire is a controlled fire, even when it was used in judgement.  He didn't fling it about randomly, destroying everything in His path; only those who deserved this judgement died (refer once again to Numbers 11).

Man's fires are not controlled when we try to be the ones in charge.  When King Nebuchadnezzar threw the three Hebrews into the fiery furnace, he commanded that it be heated seven times hotter than it had ever been.  It was a fire that was out of control and the heat alone killed Nebuchadnezzar's men when they threw the Hebrews into the flames.  But God can control even a man-made fire and His children didn't even break a sweat in those flames.

Arsonists start fires due to a little understood inner compulsion, although some start fires for pay, such as for insurance fraud. Mostly, compulsive arsonists simply love fire, love to see the beauty of the dancing flames as they consume whatever fuel is available.  And some arson fires are due to a much darker reason.  Whatever the reason behind it, all arson fires will eventually flare out of control, destroying more than ever imagined, unless those brave men and women we know as fire fighters are able to bring it under control and kill it. 

However, fire that is controlled can be used to create beauty.  Rings, necklaces, artwork, automobiles, planes, ships.  Properly controlled, fire is of great use.  God can control the flame of our spiritual fire, if we let Him.  Under our control, the flames can either flare out of control, creating a false sense of self-righteousness, or they can dim and burn down to bare embers of laziness and complacency. 

When God controls the fire, He can fan the flame to the right temperature to refine our lives to a thing of beauty, like a Master Jeweler refining silver.

A silversmith was once asked how he knew when the silver was heated to the right temperature to be able to create something. His smiling reply was "when I can see my image in it."

Who fans our spiritual flames?

Who heats us as silver to be refined and molded?

Who's image do we want to reflect?

Do we want our fire to be used to create?  Or destroy?

10 Miles Down A Dirt Road

I work with a woman who used to be married to a man who owned a ranch in Nevada. She had some.... interesting stories about her time out there and invariably started every tale ~ or mentioned it somewhere in the narrative ~ that they lived "60 miles from town and 10 miles down a dirt road."

Now, that is isolated!

While almost every tale was humorous, I was always reminded of the isolation of where she lived. It was well outside of what I would call the stop-by-for-a-visit zone. While I don't know the details of her former marriage, I know she learned nothing from her isolation but to rely solely on herself. It didn't even draw her and her (ex-) husband closer. She is a strong willed woman with a mile-wide stubborn streak who doesn't easily admit to any faults ~ although she believes she does ~ and has certainly never wanted to learn about the love and support of God in her life.

But, her situation ~ isolated in the deserts of Nevada ~ made me think of the lives of men in the Bible that God isolated for periods of time in different ways; Noah and Job who were emotionally isolated; Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were spiritually isolated; John the Baptist and Paul who were physically isolated. These are only a small selection of people in the Bible who were isolated for periods of time, but God was using their isolation as a teaching tool.

Noah and Job's emotional isolation was from people they'd known and loved for most of their lives. People they'd relied on for support, people they could share their problems with and from whom they believed they would receive loving advice. These same people turned their backs, mocked their efforts and told them their problems were their own fault. In Job's case is was even worse because the woman he loved, who had sworn to love him for the rest of her life, turned on him all her grief and bitterness, urging him to curse God and die. Yet, both men refused to believe that God had abandoned them and continued to trust in His goodness.

Daniel and his friends were spiritually isolated when they took an unpopular stand for obedience to the teachings and laws of God in a land of spiritual degeneration. A stand that could have cost them not only their own lives but the life of someone they considered a friend. Yet all four men trusted God to keep His promise to bless them in their obedience to Him.

John the Baptist and Paul each found themselves physically isolated ~ in the desert, I might add ~ from everyone and everything the knew. This was not a permanent isolation, but it was for a long period of time. For most of us, physical isolation from those we love ~ even from other human beings ~ would be extremely difficult. It's even been known to cause severe mental distress in people such as depression, anger, anxiety and panic attacks. Yet, God used this time to teach these men and they allowed themselves to respond properly to that teaching.

God placed these examples in the Bible for us to read about and ~ hopefully ~ learn from. To learn to rely on God for support in every area of our lives ~ emotional, spiritual and physical. These various situations could have worn these men down if they'd turned away from God. When we rely solely on ourselves ~ or even those around us ~ we can find ourselves in a self-inflicted quagmire of confusion. Trying to "follow your heart" ~ or instinct or nose or however you want to phrase it ~ is dangerous. The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

God, however, has clear answers for us in our lives. The problem is sometimes we allow ourselves to get so busy ~ or complacent or lazy ~ we can't (or don't ~ or won't) hear what God has to say. So He has to isolate us. Maybe it's physical isolation, but instead of sending us "60 miles from town and 10 miles down a dirt road" He sends us to a hospital. Pretty hard to run from Him when we're flat on our backs.

Maybe it's spiritual isolation. My sister is blessed in her job, her boss and co-workers are all Christians. Most of us are lucky if one or two of our co-workers are saved. Perhaps God will give you a co-worker (or two) who thinks "all Christians are the worst liars and hypocrites." It's one way to make us take a close, hard look at how we live our lives as Christians. Are we a true example for God? Or do we say one thing and live another. There's an old saying, "Your walk talks so loud, I can't hear what you say." What is our daily walk with God like?

Perhaps it will be emotional isolation. We all have times when we're lonely, feel misunderstood or become depressed. It happens, it's part of the emotional make-up God designed into our psyches. How we handle it decides the outcome of these emotional battles. Do we turn inward? Have a "poor-me" pity party? Or do we turn to God?

In all of these situations of isolation, God wants us to turn to Him. Learn to rely on His strength and love. Spiritually, His Word strengthens our foundations so we can follow His directive in Ephesians 6:13b-14a "...and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore," Physically, we can rely on His strength in our weakness. Physical limits are no limit to Him if we give our physical limits to Him. Emotionally, only He can understand our weepings, our depressions, our fears when they threaten to overwhelm us. He knows our fears, hears our pleadings and weeps with us.

Are you spiritually, physically or emotionally "60 miles out of town and 10 miles down a dirt road?" If so, are you going to whine about the isolation and rely on your own stubbornness or use it to draw closer to God?

Illustration ~~~ Beginnings

There's more to follow. My Sunday school teacher and her daughter (a pastor's wife in another city) have written a series of stories as a mother/daughter bonding. The characters are Angel, Cherub and God and Cherub is usually having to learn a lesson about what a wonderful, loving, always right, never cruel in any way God we have. I'm working to talk Teacher into publishing these stories and I'm working to update my skills at drawing because I would love to illustrate these (I know you shouldn't assume, but I'm going to assume Teachers' other stories are as wonderful as the one I heard). SO! With her permission, I'll start by putting the story *I* first heard on here. The drawing is a no brainer, it's mine own, so I can post it. This one is "Safe In God's Hands." You'll have to forgive the rough nature of it, but that's precisely what it is, a rough. I'm brushing off (and hopefully sharpening) skills I haven't used in awhile. I've also never used art markers before, so this was something of an experiment. As my skills improve, so will the quality, I promise.

p.s. I'm afraid I may not have made things too clear, and I'm sorry. This illustration is where God is preparing a baby to be born into his new family. I have a bit more work to do because the character, Cherub, thinks this baby isn't ready to go, yet, because "he's not finished, God!" Cherub has a few things to learn about God in this story ;)

The Apologist Explains...

Y’know, people today try to use Jesus as an excuse not to act against sin. Don’t speak out against what we know Scripture teaches us about how God hates sin. Jesus was AAAAALL about love, you know! He would never condemn showing love for one another. Why, Jesus even advocated loving one another!

Well, okay, I’ll give you this much. While He was on the Earth, Jesus did not condemn others. John 3:17 tells us “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” Later in John, when the adulterous woman was dragged before Jesus by the scheming Pharisees, Jesus did not condemn her. Short version; the Pharisees wanted to be able to call Jesus out over either not following the law of Moses which stated those caught in adultery should be stoned (which means they would accuse Him of not adhering to the Law if He forgave her of her sin) or for not being compassionate enough to forgive her if He did follow the Law of Moses and order her stoned.

Guess they forgot there was a third choice. Jesus pretty much ignores their pious posturing and, stooping down, begins to write in the sands. The Bible doesn’t say what He wrote but He only paused to speak when they kept pestering Him about what to do with the woman. ( John 8:7b) “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Then He bent down and went back to writing. It was about then they began to pay attention to His writings and, whatever it was, it shut them up in a hurry. In fact, starting with the oldest down to the youngest, they began to leave. I’d really love to know what Jesus wrote. Some scholars think He might have been writing out the name and sin of each man. He could do that, you know. He is God.

When Jesus stood back up, only the startled, frightened woman remained of those that had dragged her in and Jesus asked (John 8:10b) “Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?” And when she said “No man, Lord.” Then Jesus does the one thing only He can do. He forgave her, then gave her an admonishment; “Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” THERE, my friends, is the love of Jesus the World is looking for, but doesn’t understand. Like a loving parent, He forgives her of her sin because, at that time, He was not there to condemn anybody. He’d come to “seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10) But that didn’t mean He ignored sin. He still called people on it, as with this adulterous woman. He flat out told her “go and sin no more.”

Now we’ve got this actor, Ian McKellen, who is openly homosexual, admitting he’s defacing Bibles by ripping out the pages in Leviticus where God condemns homosexuality. Really. And, does he actually believe that this will change Gods’ mind about how He views homosexuality? “Oh, dear. Ian McKellen is openly homosexual and is highly offended by what I’ve written in My Word. I shall have to give a new revelation to someone because (gasp) a truly loving God would just never condemn sin!”

(Oh, no, that wasn’t sarcasm AT ALL!)

If Mr. McKellen wants to be consistent, he needs to remember that Romans chapter one in the New Testament also condemns homosexuality. It starts in Romans 1:22 and goes pretty much to the end of the chapter. Still, even if Mr. McKellan were to start defacing the New Testament as well, it would not change the truth of God. He hates sin (and, like it or not, admit it or not, homosexuality is a sin)!

Here’s another truth. God did not call us to be cruel or hateful to those who live in sin. He called us to teach the love He has for us in giving His only begotten Son to die for our sins. To teach that Jesus loved us so much, He willingly obeyed His Father, even to dying on the cross (as shameful a death as there was at that time). Yes, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit hate sin. But, the job the Father gave us was not to get into someone’s face and scream at them about their sin. I mean, I would surely want to get to know someone who’s screaming at me, red faced and spit flying, about something I’d done whether I believed it was wrong or not. I just SO enjoy being told how wrong I am, that I’m worthless and that God hates me for what I’m doing so just die, why don’t I, and get it over with?!

Uh huh. That’s surely going to change my mind about how I live.

Aaaaaand that brings me to a group that’s gotten under the skin of a lot of people. Sadly, they give both Christians and, more specifically, Baptists a very bad name. Because of these people, we are an anathema to the unsaved world. They have no desire to get to know the God of people such as they and, by extension, we serve. Who’d want to believe in any kind of being that promoted hate, which is exactly what these people do. I refuse to mention their name since they garner much too much media attention as it is, but they protest EVERYONE and EVERYTHING as being hated by God. God (according to them) hates the Jews. He hates the homosexuals. He hates Catholics. He hates all Baptists (but them). He hates hates hates hates hates…..

Which is the exact, extreme opposite end of the spectrum as those who want to use the “Jesus is Love” excuse for their sins.

Let me be very clear on this. God hates one thing. God. Hates. SIN.

He does not hate the sinner or He would never have sent Jesus to die for our sins. And, we have to be careful of our “holier than thou” attitudes. Our, “I’m not as bad a sinner as ol’ Jane Smith!” Got a news flash for ya’, in the eyes of God, yes you aaaaaaarrrrre! God even compares the sin of gossip as being equal with the sin of murder. And, yes, talking about someone with a “Did you hear what I heard about….” or a falsely sympathetic “Oh, poor John Doe. Did you hear what I heard about what he did!” is gossip. I’m here to tell you, if you can’t say what you’re saying about someone TO someone, it’s gossip, plain and simple, and gossip is as evil as murder. And we’re every one of us guilty of it, even when we don’t think we are.

So, back to our two extremes; the “God Hates You (but not me because I am SO on His good side)” and the “God is love and we have a special understanding so I can do what I want” people …. Uhm…. No. To both of you. Right now, we are living under mercy, not judgment because Gods' judgment is coming at the End of Time (and, no, I don’t think that’s going to be two years from now; I just think the Mayans couldn’t count any higher… plus, hey, most of us thought 2010 was going to be flying cars, space travel and evil computers named “Hal”!)

Extremist number first: we who study God’s Word, both on our own and under God’s Anointed (aka, Preachers, Missionaries, Evangelists), know that the “God Hates Everyone But Me”-ers are wolves in sheeps’ clothing. As I recently pointed out to someone, I don’t think we can ignore them because the unsaved doesn’t distinguish between the so-called “good” Christians and the “bad” ones. We’re all the same to them. Most don’t even know what a Christian really is or that the word actually means “little Christ” (it was a derogatory term when it was first used, by the way... "Well, aren't you just a little Christ!"). We can’t ignore them, but we can’t really “do” anything about them, except pray for God’s intercession; otherwise, it becomes a case of Shakespeare’s “Me thinks [they] doth protest too much!”

Extremist number second: it doesn’t matter if you tear a Bible apart. God’s Word will not change, no matter what those who believe we need “newer, more modern translations” to understand it (and I won’t get on that soap box tonight!) say and/or publish. Eventually, though, someone will come up with a non-offensive, politically correct, gender and “religion” neuter version that will appeal to the masses because it doesn’t point out sin or explain how to live a moral life (according to God’s laws and mercy) or even use the word sin in any context.

It will be three pages long…. Including a page and a half for the Foreword.

The Stones Would ...Cry Out!

There's a verse in the Bible, the book of Luke, that talks about the stones praising Jesus. Let me set the scene before I quote; Jesus has just begun His final trip to Jerusalem riding on the colt of an ass and the people are praising Him. OF COURSE the Pharisees are way upset about this (when are they not upset about anything to do with Jesus... or that He has ~ or hasn't ~ done?). Here are the verses from Luke:

Luke 19:37-40 (KJV)
37 And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
38 Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
39 And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

I've always thought that would be SO cool to hear... the very stones themselves praising the King of Kings. Well, turns out that we have begun to hold our peace when it comes to praising Him. And, it turns out, all of creation sings His praise in more ways than we knew. Now, that IS cool!

I enjoy going to a particular web site that shows amazing photos of deep space. Sadly, everything is from a non-Christian perspective so everything is pro-evolution. However, they are scientists and they do learn some interesting facts that, in my mind, merely corroborate what the Bible already teaches (not that they will ever admit it!)

~Actually, "they" will denegrate, flagellate and decry anyone who's opinion of science rests on what the Bible teaches. OBVIOUSLY we are uneducated, mentally lazy and too narrow minded to accept "accredited facts" as they've been taught evolution to be. Yes, I know they do THIS for a fact, it happened to me. A Jewish evolutionist tore me a new one when I dared to state I couldn't be swayed to evolution because I believed what the Bible taught in Genesis 1:1. After some back-and-forth (no, I never lost my temper) in which I quoted the Old Testament (and HE mis-quoted several modern sayings... yes, I politely corrected him) I was told I'd "lost the argument because I'd mentioned Nazi's first" (there's an "unwritten law" called "Godwin's Law" that, if you're losing an argument and call someone a Nazi, you've lost... how-some-ever, I didn't call him a Nazi, I was using the Nuremburg trials in an example I was quoting to him... and he couldn't even get "Godwin's Law" correct, he called it something entirely else - snerk!) It never occurs to them that, when the monkey thinks it's learned where the banana is, it'll keep going back even when the banana-well runs dry!~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law (in case you want to read about Godwin's Law)

So, back to the part about the stones - in specific - and creation - in general - singing praises. On this web-site I love so much, scientists have learned that, not only does the Earth "hum", but black holes emit musical tones. Yes, they do, only the human ear will never hear the music of black holes because their tone is 57 octaves below middle C. Wow! So, let me quote a couple of the articles I've read about Earth's music and the music of Black Holes:

(condensed from the article "Source of Earth's Hum Revealed, Space Symphony Possible" by Robert Roy Britt and published on Space.com 26 March 2000)
Competing with the natural emissions from stars and other celestial objects, our Earth sings like a canary -- it drones on in a constant hum of a gazillion notes.
In recent years scientists have used seismographs to sort out these subsurface sound waves from earthquakes (all seismic waves are, essentially, the in-ground equivalent of sound waves). But what causes the hum, which researchers call the background-free oscillation, has been a mystery. [aside: refer to Luke 19:40 to solve said mystery]
The apparent answer, revealed in the March 24 issue of the journal Science, is as surprising as the hum itself.
Kiwamu Nishida of the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute has, along with colleagues, analyzed 10 years of seismic data and tied the seismic waves to similar oscillations in the atmosphere.
Inaudible sound waves in the lower atmosphere push and pull on the ground, the researchers say, creating coupled "sound" waves, or seismic waves, inside Earth. The initial source, as yet not determined, could be changes in atmospheric pressure. The researchers also did not rule out possible oceanic sources, such as pounding waves, as the cause of Earth's hum.
The strange-but-true solution was first proposed in 1997 by Naoki Kobayashi, a theorist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and co-author of the new paper.

(condensed from the article "Black Hole Strikes Deepest Musical Note Ever Heard" by Robert Roy Britt.... prolific, ain't he?.... published on Space.com 09 September 2003)
Astronomers have detected the deepest note ever generated in the cosmos, a B-flat flying through space like a ripple on an invisible pond. No human will actually hear the note, because it is 57 octaves below the keys in the middle of a piano.
The detection was made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and announced at a press conference today.
The sound waves appear to be heating gas in the Perseus galaxy cluster, some 250 million light-years away, potentially solving a longstanding mystery about why the gas surrounding this cluster and others does not chill out as existing theory predicts.
The gas is apparently dancing excitedly to the eons-long drone of a deep B-flat.
Black hole music
Astronomers were not surprised to find the supermassive black hole making a strong sub-bass sound. Though these greatest known matter sinks are by nature dark and invisible, they create bright and chaotic environments in which many forms of radiation -- from radio waves to visible light to X-rays -- have been recorded. These electromagnetic waves all travel at the speed of light.
Sound waves are similar, but they travel far more slowly and are more physical in nature. Sound you hear, for example, can be produced by the visible compression and expansion of a stereo speaker. The waves physically compress the stuff through which they move, be it air, water, or hot interstellar gas.
Musical production appears to be ubiquitous in Nature. Scientists often call it flicker noise, and it has also been detected in the X-ray outputs of magnetic fields within our solar system. Even Earth hums its own tune. Musical analogies are found in everything from seascapes to brainwaves.


So.... everything has some sort of musical intonation or beat (I know, there are those who are "tone deaf", but science has even stated the human heart has a musical sound as it works). I could go to other sources and articles about the "music" in all of Nature, but I think the point has been made. Nature sings, in her own peculiar way, the praises of, and to, the King of Kings.

Why aren't we?