{"id":1021,"date":"2010-11-02T12:15:57","date_gmt":"2010-11-02T19:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/one-church.net\/crosseyedlife\/?p=1021"},"modified":"2010-11-02T15:54:12","modified_gmt":"2010-11-02T22:54:12","slug":"when-youre-hot-your-hot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/2010\/11\/02\/when-youre-hot-your-hot\/","title":{"rendered":"When you’re hot, you’re hot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged. This would burn away the impurities from our lives as the bugs and fungi were burned away by the fire that dwelt in the bush.<\/em> – A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit Of God<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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A simple thought today. Not one to change a belief system, or alter the course of one\u2019s destiny (Calvinists should be happy with that line since I said destiny, and Arminians should be happy since I mentioned altering it).\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a thought I have been pondering \u00a0since a phone call with a friend a few weeks ago. He and I had been reading A.W. \u00a0Tozers \u201cPursuing God<\/a>\u201d (one of the best books in the universe, by the way). He called me as I was sitting in the drive through of our bank and asked, \u201cWhy does this guy compare God to fire? I thought that was the symbol for the devil.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The question really caused me to think and admit, that our culture really does associate fire\/flames with evil and satanic (I don\u2019t capitalize that name on purpose, just so you know).\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure its because of our Holoywood-esque images of hell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In comedies, they always portray satan as\u00a0some suave looking devil, appearing out of a cloud of smoke, with flames dancing in his eyes. He’s always clever and endearing. He\u2019s never as bad as you thought he was\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the horror films a gruesome, horned, snarling beast claws at you from under the bed, catching you after you fall down (of course you fall down, it\u2019s a horror movie). This devil is terrifying and nightmarish as he claws your soul to a fiery and explosive hell! This one is always worse than you ever imagined…\u00a0<\/p>\n

I’ve never really questioned that imagery because it’s been ingrained in me since I was a child. However, the reality is that our descriptions of heaven and hell (streets of gold vs.\u00a0eternal burning) are metaphorical\/illustrative. Don’t get me wrong! I think they are accurate, but they lack the punch that is needed to truly convey reality. Even the giver of many of those Biblical descriptions says that his words are just substitutes for things that are inexpressible (2 Corinthians 12:2-4<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no doubt, these words mean what they say. But, the question\u00a0I am asking \u00a0is what are they saying?\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, because we learned that fire equals the devil via pop culture, it’s hard for us to see how much biblical imagery there is for fire to portray God.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you start going through the Bible, you will see you again and again and again that fire is used to describe the power and presence of the Almighty.\u00a0<\/p>\n