Skip to main content

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

Do you ever feel like chucking life and saying it is not worth it? Perhaps you want to find a secluded cabin in the mountains? Or maybe your place is where the waves of the ocean roll to the sandy beach. A place you can just be with no cares in the world. This works for awhile as places to escape and not be caught in the blah, blah, blah of the world. When you are in the fire those places look so good! The problem is that the fires of life will join you on your retreat. 

So what do you do in the fire? Do you just give up and die? Do you give in and conform? Do you accept it as it being just the way it is going to be, so it is what it is? Or, do you live your life committed to Jesus Christ? Lip service for God will get you burned lips, commitment and surrender to God make you fire proof. 

I am reminded of a story I heard over and over as a child. It was a story about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were committed and surrendered to God no matter what they faced. They were bold in not bowing down to any other God or King and turning on the Lord God Most High. They were bound and thrown into the hottest fire possible and no harm came to them. While the three were thrown in four were in the fire together. God was with them. 

The message today is twofold. When you are doing your part in committing and trusting God, God is doing God's part protecting you in the fire. Emmanuel, God with us. 

The second part of this message follows the question "what happens next?" It is pretty cool when God shows up for us and saves us in the fire, but God does not stop after the rescue. God saves us, God redeems us and God does not let the stink of the fire of the past linger around us. There is no campfire sell. We are cleaned and redeemed. 

The scripture illustrates this for us.

“Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!”So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke!”  - Daniel 3:26-27 NLT

Sermons and morning views make this all so simple. God into the fire, God is with us, we will be safe and move on. It is not easy, There is great pain. You will wonder and suffer and still want to escape to the mountain or ocean. You will question and struggle, You may even feel hopeless. BUT today I encourage you to be true to the Most High God who loves you and redeems you. 

You will end up smelling like a child of God. 

Peace,
PB

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

If you proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then I must ask you a question. Are you seeking the deepest possible intimate relationship with God that you can ever experience on this earth? Because I know what I am about to say to be absolutely true. If you are not and if you are pursuing anything other than God you will not ever be satisfied and ultimately any other relationship will fail. It does not matter how deeply connected with another person you are without God it will fail. Failure may not mean completely walk away, failure can mean that a relationship will not be what it is intended to be and you settle for it because at least it is there, it's the best I can do, it could be worse and for many other reasons.  We are created to be in relationship with one another. We have many relationships and many depths within those relationships. We have social relationships. We have relationship with many forms of addiction and substitution. We have friends and we have FRIENDS...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View From the Balcony at OBX

So far the weather has not been at its best for us. It is a very cloudy morning. It is rainy with a good chance of clearing up later in the day. But as I sit here this morning I noticed that it does not matter if it is sunny and clear, partly cloudy or even ugly storm cloudy, the sun comes up. We just need to decide how to navigate the day!  Our lives are the same. We need to decide how to navigate each and every day we face. It does not matter what we face, if it is sunny and clear, partly cloudy or even ugly storm cloudy, we still have another day to live and the Son is with us.  I know to some of you this sounds like a no brainer message. Well of course PB, this is the day the Lord has made! Everyday is a great day. To others this is such a difficult message to swallow. It becomes a difficult task to simply tie your shoes. We are all different in our view and response and it is alright to be different.  But please recognize that the sun does come up no matter what. Als...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

I really struggle with what I see and experience in our world today. I say this and am really not sure it is the world as much as it is our country.  I guess it is not so much our country, but with those who proclaim and profess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. I realize in my setting I am making blanket statements, so this is not intended as an attack on anyone, but as a thought provoking moment for everyone.  My heart has been impressed with proclaiming what it means to be a Christian. I grew up with a checklist and if I did not check the proper blanks, I was not a good Christian. I have found out that living that way is full of a bunch of lies and a dangerous understanding of perceived salvation. I believed that there was no way God could ever forgive me for what I have done and who I have been. Again a dangerous lie. I see and read comments people make about issues, government, religion and their faith in Jesus Christ and I cross reference what is said with how Jesus l...
Post a Comment
Read more