Concord Hymn

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Photo: Kirk Heflin BY the rude bridge that arched the flood,  Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,  Here once the embattled farmers stood  And fired the shot heard round the world.  The foe long since in silence slept;  Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;  And Time the ruined bridge has swept  Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. On this green bank, by this soft stream,  We set to-day a votive stone;  That memory may their deed redeem,  When, like our sires, our sons are gone.  Spirit, that made those heroes dare  To die, and leave their children free,  Bid Time and Nature gently spare  The shaft we raise to them and thee. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) (The Battle of Concord was fought on April 19, 1775, the start of the American Revolutionary War)

Fire has a way

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We all saw the detestation in Southern California from the wild firesthat came ripping through that area. Hundreds of expensive homes were reduced to piles of smoldering ruins. For many, insurance payments will allow them to replace the structures, but it will not be possible torestore exactly what has been lost. No one can reconstitute the ashes, re-glue the beams, and restore the broken windows making the homes exactly as they once were. Fire has a way of permanently changing things.

It is that very property of fire that Jeremiah uses to describe God's Word. The Prophet quotes God as saying, "'Is not My word like fire?' declares the LORD, 'and like a hammer which shatters a rock?'"(Jeremiah 23:29). The point of this illustration, I think, is to demonstrate that God's Word permanently and completely changes the personwho hears it. As fire chemically changes a house, and a hammer permanently changes a rock, so the Word of God permanently alters the person who hears it.

How has the ministry of the Word changed you?

(from my friend, Dr. John Williamson)

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