As I sat beside the fire pit at Muddy Church at Christ Church, Mountsorrel, I found myself staring into the glowing embers, reflecting on their beauty, observing how the reds and golds flicker and change with flames dancing above and, not for the first time, I was struck with the ‘wow’ of God.  This is what Muddy Church is all about – finding God in the natural world.

Fire is a regular feature in the Bible.  In fact the word fire-s appears four   hundred and sixty four times.  Its use is varied, but here are some of the uses:

*  Fire.  Sometimes it is just that.  A fire, for cooking or keeping warm.

*  God’s presence.  God appeared to Moses from the fire of a burning bush.

*  Sacrifice.  Abraham was prepared to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering

    in the fire.  The Israelites made burnt offerings, sin offerings, fellowship

    offerings to God – offerings made by fire.

*  Guidance.  God guided the Israelites through the desert with a pillar of

    cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

*  Cleansing.  Pots, pans and other objects that had become ‘unclean’ were

    cleansed by being put through fire.

*  Judgement.  Elijah called down fire upon the men of King Ahaziah of

    Samaria because he wanted to consult another god instead of Israel’s God,    

    the Lord.

*  Love.  Solomon describes love as a fire that blazes like a mighty flame.

*  Punishment.  Often, after taking over a city and destroying or capturing

    the inhabitants, an invading army would set the city on fire so there was

    nowhere for them to return to.

*  Place of Reconciliation.  After his resurrection, Jesus met with Peter on

    the beach with a fish barbecue.  As they chatted, Jesus offered his forgive-

    ness for the three times that Peter had denied him, by asking Peter to

    affirm his love for Jesus and by Jesus calling him into future ministry.

    and perhaps the most well known of all:

*  Hell.  A place to be avoided at all costs.  A place of eternal fire.  A lake of

    fire.  A place without Good and without God.

I hope that this Summer brings you warmth – but not so much that you think

you’re in hell.

With every blessing, Colin Resch