Now, we start on the next issue (May/June 2008) of ‘Every Day with Jesus’, with the interesting title ‘The Burning, CleansingFlame (For he will be like a refiner’s fire … Malachi 3:2)’
The verses set for reading and meditation, are unsettling in a way, Luke 12:49-59 (NIV): “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?
“Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”
Jesus came to reconcile God with man – to enable men and women to live in peace with God. Yet, in a counter-intuitive way; His very message of peace and forgiveness of sins, will cause division and strife between those who believe in Him and those who refuse to believe.
Selwyn writes: “As we listen, on the one hand to Christ speaking of casting His holy, heavenly, purifying fire on earth, and on the other hand to James (3:6) describing for us the appalling harm done by a tongue set on fire by hell, we come up against the rigorous truth that we do indeed live out our lives between two fires. The question each of us must ask ourselves is this: What kind of fire has got hold of me – hell fire or holy fire?
It’s a question that I think we will come back to, over the next two months – one, of these fires will consume us here on earth – and, the nature of our fire will determine how hot it will be for us, in the next life!
Any early thoughts on this new issue?
Danger! Fire!
Now, we start on the next issue (May/June 2008) of ‘Every Day with Jesus’, with the interesting title ‘The Burning, CleansingFlame (For he will be like a refiner’s fire … Malachi 3:2)’
The verses set for reading and meditation, are unsettling in a way, Luke 12:49-59 (NIV): “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?
“Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”
Jesus came to reconcile God with man – to enable men and women to live in peace with God. Yet, in a counter-intuitive way; His very message of peace and forgiveness of sins, will cause division and strife between those who believe in Him and those who refuse to believe.
Selwyn writes: “As we listen, on the one hand to Christ speaking of casting His holy, heavenly, purifying fire on earth, and on the other hand to James (3:6) describing for us the appalling harm done by a tongue set on fire by hell, we come up against the rigorous truth that we do indeed live out our lives between two fires. The question each of us must ask ourselves is this: What kind of fire has got hold of me – hell fire or holy fire?
It’s a question that I think we will come back to, over the next two months – one, of these fires will consume us here on earth – and, the nature of our fire will determine how hot it will be for us, in the next life!
Any early thoughts on this new issue?