Holy Fire
December 21
“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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