Luke and the Lost
We love building fires, contained in our fire pit in the backyard. There is something relaxing as you watch the glowing embers and feel the nice gentle heat. Then Randy comes along and disturbs my peaceful gaze by stirring the fire with a poking stick! He lifts up some of the logs that have settled into a comfy place together in the dying fire. This causes fresh oxygen to ignite the embers, causing the fire to flame up, sending ashes everywhere. The heat rises to a temperature that is so hot I have to move back my chair a bit. Smoke fills the area until the fire settles back down again. Are we too comfortable? Are we a dying fire or a roaring blaze for God and with God?
Luke 12, The Message
To Start a Fire
49-53 “I’ve come to start a fire on this earth—how I wish it were blazing right now! I’ve come to change everything, turn everything rightside up—how I long for it to be finished! Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront! From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be—
Three against two,
and two against three;
Father against son,
and son against father;
Mother against daughter,
and daughter against mother;
Mother-in-law against bride,
and bride against mother-in-law.”
54-56 Then he turned to the crowd: “When you see clouds coming in from the west, you say, ‘Storm’s coming’—and you’re right. And when the wind comes out of the south, you say, ‘This’ll be a hot one’—and you’re right. Frauds! You know how to tell a change in the weather, so don’t tell me you can’t tell a change in the season, the God-season we’re in right now.
57-59 “You don’t have to be a genius to understand these things. Just use your common sense, the kind you’d use if, while being taken to court, you decided to settle up with your accuser on the way, knowing that if the case went to the judge you’d probably go to jail and pay every last penny of the fine. That’s the kind of decision I’m asking you to make.”
May the Master stir the fires of our souls, breathing new life and restoring the flames that burn within us.
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for Your encouragement through Your Word, our Holy Manna, each morning. Thank you for salvation, restoration, provision, protection and help all along the way so that Your fire in us is kept alive. May we pass it on as You have commanded and given us the authority to do. Give us the right words at the right time in the right Holy Spirit of love.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 