Tuesday, August 10, 2010

waiting for fire

Jesus words in Luke 12 move from inspiring confidence in what God can do on behalf of his people to showing us the reason why Jesus came.
He came to bring fire to the world. 3 years ago I wrote a reflection on this weeks Gospel that still gets a hit every now and then. The reality is still the same. Jesus' passion for us is no different. He burns to see us alive and on fire for his sake and not our own. And still we wait as a church in idle speed. Listen to George Barna and others and you can start to see the effects of idling as the church while the Spirit moves past us.
Jesus' words in Luke 12 start with a promise that God will be present and that he will provide for us in every need and every way. We can trust in that promise. The trouble is we are waiting for signs that tell us God's promise is good when that's been true all along.
A few years ago Peter Stucki presented a great painting No Waiting for Signs at the Northeast Minneapolis Spiritual Art Show a.k.a Spargex. Pete's painting of a street sign with the words NO WAITING FOR SIGN is a message for us. (if anybody knows a link for Peter or this painting please pass it on. We don't need to idle any more. The Good News is in our hands and on our lips. Spread it and watch God do the work. You will see the fire move.
pax
John

2 comments:

Ivy said...

Thank you for that perspective. I'm trying to come up with a children' message.

Nancy Marshall said...

Peace Unlikely,
Your blog burns with passion and Kingdom vision. Thank you for continuing to write it.

Regarding fire...Friday night our new believer's Bible study was discussing being Christians who are "onfire".
All but one of the six cooks all their meals on an open fire. They dont have gas stoves so they are familiar with trying to get the wood burning and stay burning. We talked about ignighting it using paper and fanning it... kindling types of wood, grass...then one of the boys said he just puts kerosene on it and Boooom! Works everytime. We laughed... that would work. How do we light our hearts on fire with as much heat and energy as kerosene on wood? It would burn so hot that it would be hard to put out. It's focused, not wavering..not needing fans and wind to keep it going. Our faith should be like that...Come Holy Spirt, send your Holy fire. Let us burn with your courage and hope as if lit by kerosene.