When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; the flames will not set you ablaze. Isaiah 43:2

Today I am thinking about fire.

Thankfully, it’s been raining this week. After months of negligible rainfall, this is pure gift, a  godsend  to our parched  and thirsty land. Autumn rain signals the end of devastating forest fire season here and in neighboring states. Dan and I never had fire close enough to threaten our property but friends who have experienced California fires are understandably very “fire wise”  and cautious.   So today as the rain pours down from the gutters and fills the copper rain chain outside of my kitchen window, I am grateful for the rain. 

Today I think about fires – those burning up the land and those blazing away within us: the “trials of fire” so many people are experiencing personally. I think of family and friends  suffering from grief, depression, anxiety and the daily cultural attacks on our faith, deepest beliefs and  moral centers. A former pastor once described such times. It is like being pulled through a knothole. Backwards.

Is there any believing Christian who hasn’t felt threatened in this tinder box called life in 2021? Our family seems to be in a prolonged red zone of fire danger and honestly, some days God and I are not on the best speaking terms.  Our circumstances are not unique nor is this age. The prophets warned about both fire and storms in eras which were vastly more dangerous,  dark and just as demonic. It is no surprise to God.  Jesus, the Word,  taught that his disciples, we, will have trials and tribulations. Knowing that He would soon leave the disciples who would thereafter face persecution and death, He counseled and comforted them,

 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

We cannot avoid trials or sorrows this side of heaven, but Jesus is offering Himself in the here and now. He will be with us to the end.  

There is a popular Christian lyric which I heard Sunday and strikes a chord.

There is another in the fire standing next to me

There is another in the waters, holding back the sea. Hillsong

The song refers to Daniel 3:8-25, the  story of the three young Jewish men who were thrown into a fiery furnace  for refusing to worship an image of gold.  As the fire raged, it burned hot enough to kill those who threw them inside, but “there was another in the fire” seen with them, one who “looks like the son of the gods”. It was Jesus then and it is still Jesus for us now.

But which Jesus is in the fire with you? Who is it that stands next to you as the firestorm hits? Is it the compassionate Jesus walking among the poor, the hopeless ones, the outcasts and the broken hearted? The Jesus who heals every type of disease and  casts out oppressive demons by name?  The One with power over natural storms and winds?  And fire? Is it the Jesus who agonized in the Garden, asking the Father to take away the cup set before Him? Who acquiesced His will to endure  the torture of the cross, die and still call out  forgiveness for ignorant man?  Is it the One who came out of the tomb putting death itself to death forever?  Is the risen  Christ with you?  Would He now forsake you after  saving you to witness  His love and the Gospel of the Kingdom globally? 

Is it the Jesus of Revelation, the Lamb of God seated at the right Hand of the Father, “the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass,” (Rev 2:18)? Jesus, Lord of  the heavenly host who will return some day with all authority and power  to establish His Kingdom  on earth?  Which Jesus do you believe is in your fire today? And in tomorrow’s ?

Yes and yes!