Consumed, Cleansed, and Consecrated

My neighbor is getting ready to move. He has been busy cleaning out his garage and backyard shed - places where we know things 'gather', sometimes without us even noticing! He is getting it ready to be purchased - knowing the new 'owners' won't want all his excess stuff just hanging around when they take ownership. When we are bought with a price, there is an exchange of ownership. This exchange of ownership is to have an effect on us. The first thing we should notice is that there is a desire for cleansing. We want to have things in our life that are not honoring to God dealt with and removed so that we can move on. 

God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it's now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness. (Romans 3:25-26)
The place of cleansing is often referred to as the altar in the scripture. The altar had various purposes in scripture, but there is a lesson to us in each purpose.

· It was a place that required something to be placed on it – an empty altar is nothing more than ornamentation. The only way something can be affected by the altar is to be placed there - for the purpose of sanctification - cleansing. There is an action of submission that must occur if something is to be 'placed' upon the altar.
· It was a place that consumed what was placed upon it – we yield or submit to the work of the altar; Christ does the work of consuming the sacrifice that is placed there. In the Old Testament, the altar sacrifices were consumed – either by the fire, or by the one tending the fire (the priest). In the case of the “spiritual altar” we are called to embrace, there is a yielding our hurts, sins, fears, failures, etc. to God, so that the fire and the one tending the fire are both able to do their work in our lives. What is touched by the fire of the altar is never the same again – even a sacrifice not fully “touched” by the fire has noticeable evidence of having been in the fire!

The altar is a place where we can yield all to God and he will take our “all”, in turn, he cleanses it. The blood of Christ has both the power to cleanse and the ability to keep us clean. When a vessel is cleansed at the end of one use it is so the vessel can be of use to transport something new. We are cleansed at the altar in order that we might be of use for another purpose – instead of responding to our sin nature, we begin responding to the Spirit of the Lord. At the altar, we find that we are changed – filled up with something that takes the place of that which was once so evident in our lives. We are filled up with the Spirit of God in the place of that sin, failure, fear, etc. To be filled implies that we receive a full compliment of what is needed. To be filled also implies that as much as can be put into our spirit is put into us until our spirit is not able to contain any more. We walk away from the altar satisfied.

A life invited to the altar is one that is tenderly transformed – we are received there in order to be transformed there. Once we are cleansed by the Spirit of God, we are also filled. In that filling comes the ability to be open to his leading and direction. Direction implies that we are willing to have the way pointed out to us – having our activities regulated in such a manner that we are energized by another. The fire has done its work. We are transformed. We have been invited to come to the altar. There we will find transformation awaits the yielded soul. The purpose is sanctification – the be in the place of cleansing. What is God asking you to lay on the altar today? What needs to be affected by his fire? What is in need of his consuming touch in your life today? Surrender it on the altar of his grace and mercy – be affected deeply by the fire of his love – never to be the same again. Just sayin!

A consuming fire!

What does straw have in common with wheat?
   Nothing else is like God's Decree.
Isn't my Message like fire?" God's Decree.
   "Isn't it like a sledgehammer busting a rock?

(Jeremiah 23:29)

To a farmer, a crop of straw has little value compared to wheat.  Each has its purpose, but what is yielded in the return of the seed planted is much greater to the farmer with wheat than it is with straw.  If all the farmer is doing is raising a bunch of cattle, the straw might have a purpose - but it still has a very limited purpose.  God's word is as different from the words of others as wheat is from straw.  There is something infinitely more valuable in his word than that of man, no matter what authority that man may claim to have.

Israel finds themselves in a position of having drifted from what God had intended for them as a nation - they were in a position of seeking visions and messages from their prophets.  Yet, these visions and messages were just that - visions and messages from the heart of man, not the voice of God.  The nation had adopted the "philosophy" of the nations around them instead of remaining true to the "truth" of the God they were to be serving.  Sometimes we find ourselves in a similar situation - looking to the things and people of this world we live in to give us what it is that will "fix" us.  This is a dangerous position to find ourselves in because when we rely on anything other than God's word to guide us, we are open for all kinds of error in our ways.

The passage is clear:  God's Word is like a FIRE.  His Word is like a HAMMER.  Fire and hammers have differing characteristics, but when God uses something we are familiar with to describe something about himself, it is because he wants us to make a connection that we associate with.  So, let's examine how God's Word is like a fire.

First, fire gives light.  By your words I can see where I'm going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path. (Psalm 119:105)  Light makes vision possible - try seeing clearly in the dark sometime and then turn on a light.  You will see just how much "detail" you missed by not having the light.  In the darkness, you only make out images of what you could see in detail once the light made manifest the intensity of color, or the beauty of the portrait on the wall.  

Light actually gives us the ability to conceive and perceive things in the spiritual sense, as well.  Light brings about an enlightenment that we were lacking - enlarging us and bringing us to a place where we comprehend something.  In the spiritual sense,it gives us spiritual insight that brings us to a place where we are freed from ignorance, or a place of misinformation in our lives.  Have you ever had one of those "Ah-haw" moments when it just seemed like there was immediate clarity as to what you were to do in a situation?  That is because you received the insight that brought you out of your ignorance about what to do next.

Light really brings about a discernment - giving us the ability to distinguish and select those things that are excellent, appropriate, and true.  It is light that helps us go way beyond the obvious or superficial - it guides us into the detail and the completeness of revelation.  So, living without God's light is like walking around in the dark - that is why he tells us that his word is like fire!  It gives us the ability to move beyond the obvious or superficial in our walk!

Second, fire gives us heat and is a kind of "fuel" that we use in everyday life.  It adds energy that causes us to expand and rise to new levels.  Ever remember doing that science experiment where we set a beaker of water on to boil and then watched as an object was actually expanded by the heat?  As the heat is "turned up" in our lives through God's word being spoken into our daily walk, we sometimes feel like we are being asked to "expand" a little - to rise to a new level.  The heat applied to the water in the beaker causes that water to begin to stir - it sets it in motion.  Without the heat of the fire, the water is really without "incentive" to move!  God's word is like that - it gives us incentive!

Last, fire consumes that which it touches.  I was a Girl Scout, so I made my share of campfires as a kid.  One of the things that I was taught was to have a healthy respect for the "force" of fire.  We had to dig a pit, surround it with stone, clear the brush away from the place where we'd light that fire, and then be vigilant to watch for flying embers as the fire burned.  One spark drifting to dry timber nearby could result in devastation to the entire forest!

Why did the leaders emphasize such care with the fire?  It was because of the consuming force of fire - it would dramatically change the image and character of that which it touched.  That wood piled into a nice stack on the center of the pit soon was reduced to glowing hot embers - excellent for cooking our meals and roasting a few marshmallows!  Fire changes the "consistency" of that which it touches - that wood would never be the same again.

The same is true in our lives - once touched by the word of God, we will never be the same again!  Sometimes we avoid being touched by the flame because we don't want to be affected by the flame!  We want to affect the flame, effectively trying to "stamp out" what the Word is attempting to change in our lives.  When we do this, we effectively are resisting the change God intends by igniting that fire within!

So, rather than resisting the "fire" of God's Word, isn't it time that we allow it to do exactly what it was intended to do?  Fire promises us illumination - it won't leave us in the dark.  Fire affords us understanding - bringing new clarity into our lives.  Fire creates a newness - changing us is ways we never thought possible.  Have a healthy respect for the power of God's word!  It desires to consume what it touches!