People of the Fire

“Whatever we build on that foundation will be tested by fire on the day of judgment. Then everyone will find out if we have used gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw. We will be rewarded if our building is left standing. But if it is destroyed by the fire, we will lose everything. Yet we ourselves will be saved, like someone escaping from flames.”

1Cor. 3:12-15, CEV

“The fire doesn’t make you what you are; it reveals what you were.”

Jack Hyles

Christianity at the end will basically an incendiary endeavor. We understand this and know the need for quality, which we should be building into our lives. What makes us think this is that fire is the metaphor that describes what the Holy Spirit is doing. A torch will be set to ones construction. This sounds all wrong and yet it does explain our built-in need of proving what is authentic. Our building supplies may vary, and the quality will need to be continuously monitored. Things that are real, will last.

When we see the torch thrown on the pile, we must get ready for it to burn all that can be burned. This is undoubtedly an unpleasant and anxious process, but it happens no matter what we think. Only fire will determine our authenticity. As it burns, only precious jewels, gold and silver show a magnificent durability. The rest is reduced to ashes. Things of permanence are left when everything is burned away. We rake through the ash piles looking for the things that have endured. Gold and silver, red rubies and glittering diamonds are that which will survive. The fire could not destroy these precious things.

For years this passage has frightened me. My anxiety over this has grown when I actively consider the negligence and foolishness of my life. When I think about what could be, I’m intimidated by this principle of testing, and the ‘Day of Judgement’. It is hard for me to rest in grace on these days.

I guess I feel responsibility, accountability and my awareness of shame. I have lived my life somewhat ‘frantically’, which has disturbing consequences for me. I don’t want them. I do not want to be evaluated with the torch. The day of judgement frightens me. I do not want to be brought to terms with my mammoth sized foolishness. It makes me very nervous.

But my reading of the Word makes judgement inevitable. But we have been given time and space to change our lives. There is no way we can skirt this reality, the man who was building could choose any foundation he wished– would it be the rock, or the sand? It’s all on you. It’s your call.

The Judgement Day !!!! (dabholkarmadhura.wordpress.com)
Judgement Day is here (themiddlegeneration.wordpress.com)

Making Stripes

I was watching the crew painting stripes in a parking lot. They were methodical and aware, I suppose. I suppose I wondered how they do what they do. I’ve been curious to understand exactly how they can get such straight lines. Perhaps you have seen them. They are as straight as you can get.

As I watched them work, there was an instructive moment. They brought out a “chalk line” and measured out 15 to 20 feet. They snapped the line which was perfectly straight. All of a sudden there was a wonderfully perfect line of chalk. The painters would use this line as they painted the yellow stripe.

As I watched, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. He is in a habit of using such things. I considered everything I saw. The chalk, and the line gave me a sense of this present age. In a sense, it was the temporariness of this present moment. The chalk line was merely temporary. It did provide a straight line which the permanent line of paint could use. The chalk line made the paint line precise and accurate.

Reflecting on this, I renewed my vision from the temporal to the eternal. This present life is all chalk. We lay it out, but eternity will paint the line. We do what we must, to make sure our chalk lines are straight. But we also understand that all we do. is temporary. Chalk can easily be washed away. Our heart, to be precise, can easily become nothing.

The yellow paint of the lines, is quite permanent. As they are painstakingly laid out, they cover our chalk with permanence. This is quite amazing (to me, anyway). What is chalk is only the precursor to what is permanent. We must see through this if we will understand what is real, and true.

The chalk lines represent this life. All that we do is significant as it effects our ability to make the lines. But eternity, follows the lines we lay down. If we are somehow negligent, we will never lay down anything straight. We must put down the line that will become eternal and everlasting.

All that we do is chalk, but I truly believe that it has to be significant. What we lay down, in chalk form, becomes a certain eternal value. We direct where the paint will go. And perhaps that is all that is necessary.

ybic, Bryan

Chalk Line Beginnings (bethparkerart.wordpress.com)
Look of the Day: Striped Out (fabsugar.com)
Magic stripes the filled the sky (cassandracamua.wordpress.com)

Control the Brightness?

I have come to a place that much of what I have learned is wrong. It is humbling to think that I knew so much, and aggressively propagated what I knew. I am embarrassed by so much.

A room can be lighted in different ways. A contractor determines what kind of illumination will be required, and the electrician will wire in the necessary outlets and switches. One can eat dinner by candlelight, but its kind of challenging to read by. I find personally, that I vastly prefer a brighter room than the murkiness of a room poorly lit.

For years I believed that our Christian life was a run-of-the mill on/off switch. If it was off, there was a good chance it meant no light. You turn it on, and “presto” the room was lit. Spiritually, it worked the same. You meet people everyday who live in darkness, they will not flip the switch.

Lately, I have come to see that the spiritual life is more like a dimmer switch. Using a dimmer means that the householder can adjust the light for the moment. Dinner with the wife, and the switch dims the light to the desired level. To tie “flies” or to do emergency surgery on the dog requires a lot of light (probably the max).

Some Christians keep their rooms bright, others not so much. When I speak with someone, it seems I unconsciously am determining just how much light they have. I listen for verbal cues, underlying attitudes, and the joy and peace that is evident. Do they love Jesus first and foremost, or is there a short-circuit of some kind?

Jesus said that we were to be a “city on a hill”. Bright and obvious to everyone. Some would lead us to believe that we are to camouflage ourselves to blend in. And while a case can be made for that approach, we are simply not-of-this world. We have been made for another.

_______________________

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” Matthew 5:14-15, NIV

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” Ephesians 5:8, NIV

“You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.” 1 Thessalonians 5:5, NIV