Elements melting with fire … heavens set ablaze and dissolving. These are images from 2 Peter 3:8-15.
We had a taste of fire this week.
California has been on fire for months.
We experience firestorms in our lives.
Fire today reminds me of …
1. F – The FURY of Divinity. Our God IS a consuming fire of unconstrained and un-contained power. God is mighty and is experienced in the fury of creation as well as the disassembling of creation.
2. I – INVITATION to INVENTORY – As I comb through the rubble, I find myself inventorying my own life, priorities, and activities as well as my possessions. What took my wife 3 years to build was consumed in minutes. What took me 45 years to collect was destroyed in a moment. Yet, what remains is what it important.
3. R – REFINING – Ironically, I spent some hours this weekend, at home, sorting out stuff to get rid on in my life that might be cluttering my space and attention — meaning possessions, collections, extra clothes, old ties, old toys, and junk. How often do I do that with the essential and ethereal elements of my life?
4. E – ENERGY – Fire is energy. It is power. It produces warmth. It moves things. When channeled, it is a mighty force for good. How can we channel the opportunities of our fire and the daily fires in our lives for the good of our causes and the glory of God?
On the day of the fire, I had to keep two medical appointments as well. In the second, I was given some bad news with which I could cope. The next day, I lost a briefcase with some important things inside. I will probably get it back. But all of this reminds me to hang loose and hold everything with a light grip.
God is not slack concerning His promises. God is not negligent. God is not flippant, lazy, arbitrary, nor without purpose. He draws us all to repentance and life. He is working out His will in the midst of time until He brings all to fruition.
When He does, it will seem like a storm and it will take most by surprise.
But it will not be chaos. Nor will it be without promise.
The day of the LORD will be all that fire is, but it will also usher in news heavens and a new earth.
That which judges and burns will, ultimately, refresh all things.
In the meantime, let us remember than we are merely living in the meantime.
2 Peter 3:8-15:
"But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him …"
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