"I am already being poured out as a drink offering." 2 Timothy 4:6....."Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar." Psalm 118:27....."The altar means fire - burning and purification and insulation for one purpose only, the destruction of every affinity that God has not started and every attachment that is not an attachment to God.............."What is your way of fire?" Oswald Chambers
I am confronted by Chambers question. "What is your way of fire?" The concept of sacrifice is not completely unknown in the western church. There are many who sacrifice a great deal to serve and follow Him. Yet is the sacrifice one that involves the whole self, or is it partial? At root, is the sacrifice really offered up to Him, or is the motivation one that in the end benefits we who make the sacrifice? We can do a lot seemingly for God and others, but be doing it for our gratification far more than His pleasure.
Paul's words to Timothy give witness that he was not his own. He saw his life as being completely poured out for His Lord. Poured out in whatever way or direction it pleased His Father to do. If it led to prison and death, and it did, He received it.....joyfully. He was the bondslave of Christ. Are we?
There seems to be a growing neglect in the church for the teachings of the books found within the Old Testament. "That's law," we think, "and we don't live under the law, but under grace." We show our ignorance in such a statement because the grace and mercy of God is seen throughout His Word, Old Testament and New. More when we fail to understand the significance of those Old Testament offerings to the Lord in our current walk with Him, its no wonder so many of us live such small and powerless lives. Lives that for all their energy, make little eternal impact. Instead of being a whole, burnt offering to Him, we end up presenting Him a mixture. A mixture of our own agenda mixed in with His. And it's usually our agenda and purpose that gets lived out.
Paul's words to Timothy give witness that he was not his own. He saw his life as being completely poured out for His Lord. Poured out in whatever way or direction it pleased His Father to do. If it led to prison and death, and it did, He received it.....joyfully. He was the bondslave of Christ. Are we?
There seems to be a growing neglect in the church for the teachings of the books found within the Old Testament. "That's law," we think, "and we don't live under the law, but under grace." We show our ignorance in such a statement because the grace and mercy of God is seen throughout His Word, Old Testament and New. More when we fail to understand the significance of those Old Testament offerings to the Lord in our current walk with Him, its no wonder so many of us live such small and powerless lives. Lives that for all their energy, make little eternal impact. Instead of being a whole, burnt offering to Him, we end up presenting Him a mixture. A mixture of our own agenda mixed in with His. And it's usually our agenda and purpose that gets lived out.
A sacrifice that is bound to the altar cannot leave that altar. It is presented to the one who holds the fire. The fire that consumes. For the believer, that One is God, and that fire is His Holy Spirit. When the whole offering, the whole self, is placed on His altar, bound there by holy cords, His Holy Fire then consumes that offering....totally. He then, as Chambers writes, purifies and insulates we who are the offering, and at the same time, destroys every motive, inclination, desire, and thing that is not of Him. This is a lifelong process that goes on as we stay bound to the altar of the Lord. Are you and I bound to that altar, or do we jump off whenever His Holy Fire seeks to burn up something we don't care to have burnt up and out?
What's our way of fire? We will have no way to answer that question so long as we seek a path off the altar? We will know it and discover it as we live lives that are bound with holy cords to His altar and experience the ongoing purification, insulation, and wonderful power of the fire of God. There is a way of fire for each of us. Will we go that way, or, will we continue to insist on having our own way?
Blessings,
Pastor O
What's our way of fire? We will have no way to answer that question so long as we seek a path off the altar? We will know it and discover it as we live lives that are bound with holy cords to His altar and experience the ongoing purification, insulation, and wonderful power of the fire of God. There is a way of fire for each of us. Will we go that way, or, will we continue to insist on having our own way?
Blessings,
Pastor O
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