Holy
Fire
“He will
baptize you with the
Holy Spirit and fire.”
Luke 3:16
Jason and Sherry had gotten iPhones
specifically so they could ‘Face-Time’ during his deployment. The
fairly-new app allowed them see each other while they talked. “Hi
Honey,” Jason greeted his wife’s call. “It’s really hot
here!” he teased, knowing it was probably cold back home in the
Midwest.
Sherry’s response was tactful and
direct, “I’ll trade you places anytime you want, dear. The
thermometer broke last night when the temperature hit -27°!”
Jason’s reaction was one of concern,
“Are you serious?! Did it really get that cold last night?”
Her grin told him he’d been had…
“Nah…but it felt like it when Ricky and I brought wood in for the
stove.”
An involuntary shiver coursed through
Jason’s body and he smiled. It could get pretty cold at home when
the Canadian winter air descended from the north. As a matter of fact
he had spoken with his eldest son just prior to leaving for
Afghanistan about not letting the fire go out because it was harder
to get the temperature back up when the house grew cold. “Is Ricky
following orders?”
“You’d be proud of the job he’s
done, Jay. It’s been toasty in here, and the fire has never come
close to going out. Ricky took what you told him seriously,” Sherry
answered.
†
In his book,“Viral”, Leonard Sweet
writes, ‘…in ancient cultures, the most important thing a
household did was to never let the fire go cold. In rural Korean
cultures the same ancestral fire burned for centuries, and when they
moved they took the fire of their forefathers with them. When your
fire went out, it was thought, you lost your connection with heaven.
Would that Christians were as careful about tending spiritual fire as
these ancients were about natural fire.’
It’s our responsibility to keep the
spiritual fire burning, yet for some reason many don’t place an
emphasis on it, and fail to keep and communicate the importance of
our Holy Fire to their children.
Prayer
“Lord, I want Your Holy
Fire inside me to be fanned into a flame that never goes out and is
seen and felt by others. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”
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