Free Fire

Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed.  And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” – 1 Kings 18:31-33

In The Pursuit of God A.W. Tozer wrote:  Current evangelicalism has … laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel.

Any religion can build an altar and arrange things properly upon it.  Sects and denominations will argue about the correct number of stones and if they should be arranged in a square or oblong or round.  Really, whether we are talking about evangelicals or Orthodox, Roman or Reformed, conservative or liberal, Puritan or Pentecostal, it’s all just so much dirt and dead bull unless the fire falls. 

Elijah did not call the prophets of Baal for a showdown on altar-building.  I am no longer terribly interested in who has the most traditional or deepest interpretation of Scripture or which school of theology is most respected.  Until the lightning strikes, all shouters and dancers, expositors, expounders, and pulpit-pounders are indistinguishable from the followers of the lord of the flies, lured, as they are, by raw, dead meat. 

As someone who has spent a considerable amount of time around Pentecostals and charismatics, I have seen more than my share of flakes and false prophets.  Crowds are drawn to a show, and, for those who draw their living from the offering bucket, the bigger the crowd, they better they eat.  There’s a good chance they have lighter fluid and a Zippo stashed in the plastic plants – just in case.  With the right lighting, it’s not that hard to pull it off.  Revival is not an entertainment extravaganza any more than it is ritual and ceremony.  It is not based on magic tricks, jokes, jazzy orchestras or screaming guitars, suggestion or seduction, falling over backward or acting a fool.   

Good, sound theology and biblical teaching give us guidelines, boundaries, direction, and structure.  There really is nothing wrong with being able to build an appropriately solid altar.  Trying to meet God out on our own, with no structure is, at best, risky.  We are too easily deceived and too apt to talk ourselves into believing that a four-lane on the downhill side is really the narrow road after all.   But what we are looking for is not “Seven Steps to Good Behavior” or “How to Be a Baptist Deacon”.  Our hearts long for God, and our God is a consuming fire.  

In John 10, Jesus warns us to beware of those who come around looking to deceive us.  A deceiver is deceived, and to be deceived is to become a deceiver.  We don’t have to follow Baal.  We can know the Truth.  All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them (John 10:8).  Sheep are not smart, but they are sensible, most some of the time.  They know their shepherd.  If we are of Christ’s flock, if we desire to follow the Good Shepherd, we will know His voice, and we will not be led too far astray.    

God is real.  He is present with us right now.  All we need to do is open the Door -- I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.  Yes, I know there is fire on the other side.  But Jesus is in the midst of it, just as He was in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, and just as with those Hebrews, the only thing that the fire is going to burn are the shackles that bind us.  We won’t look at the fire.  We will close our eyes if we have to and listen only to the voice of the Shepherd.  We know He is no thief or destroyer.  He says, I came that they [you and I] may have life and have it abundantly.

I hear a lot of people talking about God.  I’m not so sure very many of us are talking to Him.  Elijah prayed first for the fire, because the Holy Spirit as fire is needed to transform our dead flesh, consume what needs to be consumed and change the very structure of our lives into something palatable and pleasing to God.  After the fire fell, Elijah prayed again, for rain.  We need the fire to burn up the chaff and make us holy, but we must have the rain to bring new life -- to sustain and nourish.  

Pray like Elijah, a man like us, with a nature like ours, as James says.  Call down the fire of judgment, of sanctification, of liberation upon the dead thing you have placed on the altar -- the only thing you have to put there.  Then, pray for rain.  It's time.

Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright,
God leads His dear children along;
Sometimes in the valley, in darkest of night,
God leads His dear children along.

Though sorrows befall us and evils oppose,
God leads His dear children along;
Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,
God leads His dear children along.

Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long. – George A. Young from “God Leads Us Along”

Watchmen and Pathfinders

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. – Matthew 24:36-44 (ESV) emphasis added

It is pretty easy to be thinking about floods after three or four consecutive days of heavy rains. My wife said that Poplar Bluff is being evacuated which made me laugh, since Poplar Bluff is located on – help me out – a BLUFF. Nevertheless, there are people who live somewhat lower down and the Black River is overflowing its levee, though, at last check, the levee had not been breached (update: the levee has broken downriver from town). People from the flood plain of the Black and folks who were cut off by street flooding were being evacuated by boat. We have flash-flooding. Roads are closed. There’s water over the highways. The weirdest thing is that one area nearby is a good 1200 feet above sea level, but it is really a very large diameter, relatively shallow sinkhole. The only place for water to go is down into the substrata. Normally the ground will absorb the rain as fast as it falls, but occasionally the water backs up as is the case now.

Back in the hills there are a lot of small roads with low-water crossings. In the days of my childhood, those normally dry washes were bridged by structures made mostly of wood. Spring run-off would, as often as not, wash them out. Going home from somewhere one night, Mom, Dad, and I in the Chevy pickup came to a spot where the water was over the road in a boiling, rushing stream draining from the high lands. Even my inexperienced eye knew the little culvert could not be under more than a foot of water -- if it was there, which was the question. The headlights bounced off the murky flow and could not tell us what lay beneath. We weren’t going to die if we drove off in it, but we would be thoroughly stuck four quarters from the house. Dad was wearing brogans and bibs as usual. Mom had on a dress that fell probably mid-calf, pumps and no stockings. Dad said to her, “Why don’t you take your shoes off and wade out there? See if that culvert’s washed out.”

I should point out that Mom never wore shoes at all if she didn’t have to, so taking off her shoes and walking down a gravel road did not intimidate her. However, she could not swim a stroke and had a phobic dread of any body of water bigger than a bathtub. As best I recall, Mom did not suggest that Dad test the bridge himself, which is what one would expect these days. She crawled out of the cab and, shoeless, padded up to the edge of the water, black below the yellowish fall of the truck lights. Cautiously, she stepped into the overflow, her feet alternating anchor and point, fathoming the occult floor. I half-expected her to drop out of sight and be swept into the field below, but she reached the far side without incident and stood, casting a long shadow in the headlamps, waiting for us to drive across the torrent.

I’m not sure that has anything to do with the text, but I like the story.

We know that prayer is important, and prayer is often associated with watching. What is watching? It is being awake and alert, keeping an eye on things, maintaining the fire, singing to the herd or guarding the flock. When we are not secured behind strong walls and locked doors having someone on alert is a pretty good idea. We may be citizens of the City of God; however, we find ourselves traveling through the wilderness at times. Even in the Master’s house, we must be on guard for [t]he thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10), and constant vigilance is our only protection against such predations.

When watching, the important thing is not to allow the mind to wander or to be captured by the random thoughts the thief may throw like pebbles to draw us away into the shadows. The discipline of maintaining focus is essential, but we need not be discouraged by lapses. Like all disciplines it must be practiced to be perfected.

I have heard people speculate that the veil of this world gets thin as the third watch ends and the fourth begins around three hundred hours by the clock. The eyes that are open in those dark hours may pierce the murk of rippling, rushing illusions and confusions. Perhaps it is not that the veil is thinner; rather, we may possess a usually dormant sense that awakens, a spiritual sense that pierces the darkness and knows the truth of the unseen.

It is easy in these challenging times, when troubles and trials seem to rain down upon us, to be discouraged, to get stuck in or to be swept away by incessant streams of bad news, torrents of lies and deception. It is often hard to remember there is a reality beneath, a bridge that we can trust even if we can’t see it. Sometimes we need someone to step out onto that bridge and show us the way. Sometimes we need to be the ones who step out.