My 100th post

Okay...this post has nothing whatsoever to do with anything anniversarial or date-worthy. I just noticed that it was my 100th when I signed on to record my thoughts on...fire. I'm currently reading the Bible with careful attention to fire. This fascination is somewhat scholarly and came from musing about the classical depiction/ symbolism of fire in literary texts. Fire, religiously speaking, is usually connoted to be negative and essentially OF THE DEVIL. However, fire is so closely tied into who God is (his character/nature) and what he looks like (his actual physical attributes) that I am pretty sure God likes fire a lot. We should reevaluate our simplistic literary representations.

In the 66 books of the Bible, God mentions fire well over 400 times.

• Smoking firepots with “blazing torches” appear out of nowhere and burn up covenant sacrifices
• There are fire horses and fire chariots in the Bible
• Pillars of fire hang out in the atmosphere above a bunch of people walking around in a wilderness
• At certain times God apparently travels by fire
• His glory is described as looking like fire
• Fire can be authorized or unauthorized
• Burning bushes appear out of nowhere
• The presence of God can and has shot out fire
• It’s a hangout for four pretty interesting living creatures (think of a cherubim that has a bull’s head)
• Fire is an instrument of purity
• It can fall from heaven
• His love burns for us like blazing fire
• There is a spirit of fire
• The Light of Israel will become a fire
• We will walk through fire and not be burned
• We are not supposed to put out the Spirit’s fire
• There are fire-breathing lion-look-alike horses (yea, I like this one too)
• It’s maybe mixed with a sea of glass in John’s vision of heaven
• God is described as consuming fire and as a fire that goes ahead of us and devours our enemies! Rock on.
• Let’s not forget, there are fire angels, whatever those may be (perhaps sparking the sequel to “Touched by an Angel” entitled “Burnt by an Angel”)
• It is the characteristic of Jesus’ eyes…they are blazing fire
• And of course, there’s a lake of it

Leviticus says over and over, “The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.” And I suspect, this is a major reason why we sing, “Fire fall down...” If you want to be purified and refined with all sin melted away…if you want to be consumed by God’s love, His passionate love for you…if you want your life to be a sweet-smelling aroma to God…if you want His glory to fall all around you…if you need to be led by Him out of a dry place…if you need your enemies defeated for you…and if you want to see Jesus…Call it down.