Core Values
Theme of the Week: Our Incomparable God
Rick Ezell
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
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Key Bible Verse: For our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). Bonus Reading:Hebrews 12:18-28
William Willimon tells that at the base of the pulpit of the Duke University Chapel is a Christian symbol consisting of three triangles. It's a symbol for the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A student on Parents' Weekend was heard to ask his dad, "Why have they got the warning symbol for nuclear radiation on the pulpit?" Sure enough, Willimon says, it does look the international warning symbol for radiation.
All of our pulpits and houses of worship need a warning symbol. God is God. He is to be treated, respected, and honored as God. His words are true and are to be obeyed. We are to approach Him protected with spiritual lead garments because we are about to be exposed to the radiating fire of God. Left unheeded, his fire will bring about damage and destruction, if not death.
I've seen people made to feel guilty about their behavior last weekend even in a world that lives by the philosophy "If it seems right, it is." God's consuming fire compels us to worship. His spreading fire leads us to witness. His cleansing fire washes us pure. His punishing fire issues us a warning.
—Rick Ezell in Defining Moments
My Response: How have I experienced God's fire in my life?
Thought to Apply: What sort of power [do] we so blithely invoke? … We should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.
—Annie Dillard
Adapted from Defining Moments (InterVarsity, 2001) by permission.
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
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