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Potential heat needs the spark of a pilot light

I was telling Ed that we are a little chilly because we have a dead pilot light for our fireplace. Of course, Ed instructed me to light the pilot light and get a fire in the fireplace.
Raymond Maher

I was telling Ed that we are a little chilly because we have a dead pilot light for our fireplace. Of course, Ed instructed me to light the pilot light and get a fire in the fireplace. The problem is the fireplace has a knob for the pilot light that needs to be pushed in, but it is stuck like cement refusing to move. I need to call for a serviceman of greater experience and ability than I have.

Right now, a burning candle can provide more heat and light than our gas fireplace. Ed, my old neighbour, said, "Your fireplace is like a car with a dead battery. It is just a temporary glitch so put your coat and mitts on until it is fixed.” For sure we are at the time of year when the heat in our homes is needed more often. Heat is a great necessity in our country during winter and often in the fall and the spring as well.

Most of us welcome the comfort of heat or warmth in our lives as well as our homes. We speak of the warmth of family and friends. There is the cold shoulder of an enemy or their icy words towards us. Some say love is a friendship that has caught on fire. Some other folks see love as the fire that can burn those that share it with others. Fire may give comfort, heat, light and life, but also bring destruction and death when it is out of control such as in a forest fire.

The Bible speaks of God as a consuming fire. One might see God as an absorbing, overpowering God that no one can escape in a negative sense, as a God who destroys or wipes out without mercy. There is no mercy in a forest fire for it consumes and destroys everything in its path. It leaves nothing unchanged.

In a more positive sense, one might say there is no one or anything God cannot change. No one can entirely avoid or escape God, for He is all knowing, and all seeing, and all powerful. In the book of Hebrews, Christians are warned to worship and honour God with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. The smoke of sin gets in our eyes, and we do not see and acknowledge God as one with the power to both bless and destroy us. No one facing a forest fire doubts that it can kill them unless they get to safety.

God is a consuming fire of love for everyone who will accept the safety given by trust in his Son Jesus Christ. Fire can be a consuming fire for good. With metals like gold and silver, fire burns and cleans away their impurities. The gold and silver become highest quality by being consumed by fire. God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to absorb the impurities of our sins on the cross. Jesus endured God’s consuming fire of suffering and death for all sinners. Purity and sinless righteousness before God are ours by fixing our eyes on Jesus. He is the author and perfecter of our faith in our living, consuming, God of fire.