Fire has a way

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)