Conjuring up images in my mind of horrendous pain, fear at unimaginable levels and extreme thoughts of no way out. I am less than sold on the idea that my survival chance are very high. Matter of fact I would say they are slim to none should I ever have to go through the fire.

Fire burns, fire brings pain at even the slightest hint of an encounter. Yet at the same time it has a mesmerizing beauty and intoxicating splendor that draws you into the depths of its flame.

No other phenomenon known is so very deadly, calculating and capable while being so very intoxicating and beautiful at the same time. I’ve watched the fingers of fire lick up the beautiful trees in just mere moments as if they were nothing more than water on a desert floor.

I’ve watched fire jump from place to place in an eerie dance of color and light as if reaching forth to the God of the entire creative order in a haunting melodic dance for Him alone. Beautiful and breathtaking yet if you were to stick even one tiny breath of a finger close she would turn and bite you like an adder caught in a charmer basket.

In my mind’s eye I’m drawn to the three Hebrew children thrown into the hottest fire that was known to man at that time period. I shiver as I think of the cries of their captors screaming in horror as they fell before the great mouth of the flame in agony as the skin melted from their bodies. Lying in heaps of death at the mouth of the great pit door.

Bravely as they were brutally pushed inside the roaring inferno, the Hebrews steady in their faith, relying solely on the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. The God they knew parted seas, brought water from rocks & shook mountains with the breath of His nostrils. The scriptures say they did not bend so much as a knee, nor did their backs so much as bow toward the evil. No, on the contrary, they stood as men of determination, character and strength, relying solely on the God who cannot fail.

Through the fire…

I’ve often wondered did this verse go through their minds at all? Did they ever think that one above all other verses applied to their situation and did it give them strength to stand in the fire obediently?

I believe so personally as the verse is almost verbatim to the circumstance for which they found themselves in. I believe that God is that way. Foreseeing, as the all-knowing God He is, our future as it is already unfolding. He has a whole book He’s written that applies. We just get so caught up in the mesmerizing and intoxicating beauty of the flame we sometimes get burned before we even realize it.

My challenge, is to let go of the images, let go of the fear and the extreme thoughts of there being no way out and open my eyes to the reality that someone is in this fire with me. That I went in this fire one way but I’m coming out another. I’m coming out refined for His Glory and the Lord of all Glory is going in there with me.

Isaiah 43:2

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the river, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

 The adversary can’t hold me in the flame if the Lord of Glory is going through the fire with me~

I’m hid with Christ!

Shawn