Good Monday morning...

… and prior to the message I shared yesterday at church, I was asked about the meaning of the statement, “God is a consuming fire,” a direct quote from the passage we were studying in Hebrews 12.  Before I get to the explanation, the question is why I do what I do.  Every Sunday morning is an expository lesson from the book of the Bible we are going through.  I have found this habit to be my way of handling the responsibility of teaching the Word of God.

It is my personality to want to please everyone, which I know is impossible.  It is also my conviction that God’s Word is powerful and effective for teaching, correcting, rebuking and training in righteousness.  So, rather than trying to figure out what the needs of our congregation are, I trust that digging into God’s Word as it has been given to us, allows God to speak to His people through the teaching.  It is amazing how relevant the ancient Scriptures are to the current events of our times.

Now, what does this statement, “God is a consuming fire” mean?  In the context of the Hebrew letter, the unnamed author is appealing to Jewish believers who were threatening to leave the church over issues of persecution and sheer exhaustion from false teachers who insisted that they had to keep the Mosaic laws in order to be saved, that faith in Jesus was not enough.  This is a consistent theme throughout the New Testament, as the apostle Paul dealt with it in many of his letters.

The author reminded the reader that in the presence of the Almighty God, our sins are exposed by the light of this fire, and they are consumed by its heat.  Like the impurities being burned away in the process of refining gold, so the sins of God’s people are removed from God’s people.  It is a great reminder for all of us who recognize that we are far from perfect.  It was a great reminder to the original reader of the Letter to the Hebrews that God was at work in their lives, even when they were experiencing persecution and the pressure of the false teachers.

There is a worship song that we often sing called “Purify My Heart” and the chorus declares, “Refiners fire, my hearts one desire, is to be holy, set apart for You, Lord.  I choose to be holy, set apart for You, my Master, ready to do Your will.”  This is a great source of encouragement reminding us that we are God’s children, chosen and equipped to do His will.  And, like the weary Jewish believers in the late first century AD, we are being encouraged to hang in there, to endure the hardships of this battle against evil and the call on our lives to remain faithful.  We are being made holy… a process of refining… and the truth is, God is not finished with us yet!

For His glory,

Pastor Mike