The true fire

But he [Jesus] turned and rebuked them and said "you do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destory lives, but to save them. (Luke 9:55-56)

Too often we forget who we are. And we forget the promises of God; we even forget the meaning of his words. Recently, in one of my Bible readings in the St. James Daily Devotional I use, there was a commentary on the “Sons of Thunder” who wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan village because they rejected Jesus. (Luke 9:51-62)

Patrick Henry Reardon wrote of how God planned that the disciples should call down fire on the Samaritans, but not the fire they intended. He wrote:

Luke, who describes the wrath of Zebedee’s sons against the Samaritans, also tells the ironic “second half” of the story, when he comes to the Samaritans mission in the Acts of the Apostles. After Phillip baptized the Samaritans, Luke tells us, the church at Jerusalem “sent Peter and John to them, who when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.”

As Reardon puts it, from heaven came the “true fire.” I think so many of us, recently; have wanted to call down a bit of fire ourselves, but God is calling us to pray for fire from heaven. The true fire, so that hearts will be illuminated and many will once again be renewed and changed by the word of God, including ourselves.

God has called us into a ministry of giving out the true gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit. Whether in the PCUSA, the EPC, the PCA or any denomination, we have a calling and are to carry God’s concern for the lost and hurting. We are to also pray that the many wolves howling over our denomination will find mercy and seek forgiveness.