FIRE

I could NOT focus. So I decided, yet again, to do what I always do. Write :)

Sunday, March 21st.
It was raining outside. The kind of rain that I LOVE. Enough to renew, refresh, and wash off my car, haha. But not enough to make a mess of things, and not too little that it doesn't count. The kind of rain that makes anything but taking a nap seem ridiculous. I just wanted to read, so I read the story I've been reading a lot lately: the story of Moses and the burning bush. Moses was minding his own business, tending the flocks, when he saw this bush. I get the idea that it's not one of those nice cookie-cutter bushes that are found in many yards across Nashville. He was in the desert, so I picture this big, burly, messy, un-attented-to bush. And since he was in the desert, it probably wasn't green and full of leaves with little creatures. It was probably really brittle and dry, lacking fertility. ALSO making it much quicker and easier to burn. So anyway. this big bush was on fire. I wonder what was going through Moses's mind when he saw it besides what the Scriptures tell us. I would be wondering how the thing even caught on fire and maybe why nothing else was on fire. But I don't think I would go take a closer look. Nonetheless, Moses was like, hey, I'm gunna go check that out (my words, not his.) As he got closer, he realized that this bush was not burning. Not at all. It probably wasn't even looking any darker. Maybe it didn't even smell like fire! And then, God SPOKE to him. Out loud. He needed to take off those sandals that, little did he know, would later become such a fashion statement because he was on HOLY GROUND.
The bush was on fire.
The bush did not burn.
God was in the bush.
God showed himself to Moses in the form of fire.
I spend a lot of time painting a picture of a loving, compassionate, wonderful, precious Savior. Yes, all those adjectives, although not good enough, describe Him. But more than that, God is powerful, massive, consuming, and destructive like fire. God could have shown himself to Moses any way that he wanted to, and He chose fire. Maybe to show the seriousness of the task he was about to give Moses, and maybe just to show his sovereignty.
God is powerful in that he had "surely seen the oppression of his people."
God is massive in that he carefully and intricately designs a plan for each and every one of his children if they choose a better life in him.
God is consuming in that that bush had no choice. Although it didn't burn up, it was CONSUMED with the presence of God. It could not escape it, even if it tried, and we can't either.
And God is destructive in that he takes a hold of the wretched, miserable, lonely, lost people we all once were and creates new life.

"Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.
For our God is a consuming fire."
Hebrews 12:29

and he is not to be underestimated.