A Love Unlike Any Other.

At the very end of Hebrews 12 the author tells us in a quote from Deuteronomy 4:24, that “‘Our God is a consuming fire’” {12:29}.  The immediate context says, “Therefore,” or since God will soon remove “what can be shaken”— that is, the realm of visible and temporal Creation— “so that what cannot be shaken”— meaning the spiritual, the invisible and Eternal— “may remain,” in light of this, “since we are receiving a Kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us be thankful....”  Echo means- ‘have and hold,’ lit. ‘in one’s hands, keep fast, preserve secure, possess as one’s property.’  “Let us have and hold on to charis, to grace,” is what it says, “let us keep it constantly in our hands, securely in our hearts, let us possess it as our birthright... every moment!”  You see how grace and gratitude are so interwoven Biblically that they’re used almost interchangeably by the Holy Spirit?  To be in possession of grace, to have and to hold it securely, is to maintain an attitude of constant gratitude, appreciation, thankfulness, a spirit of generosity and genuineness.

“And so worship God [Or lit., ‘by means of grace we may worship Abba’] acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire,’” v. 29.  Note how indispensable a ‘spirit of grace’ is to our acceptable worship of Abba.  Grace protects us, and those around us, from arrogance {‘I deserve....’}, from elitism {‘At least we’re not like....’}, and from a self-centred, self-directed spirituality {The ‘me, my and mine’ mentality!}.

So, Hebrews says, “Our God is a consuming fire.”  The apostle John wrote, then repeated, so there would be no mistaking this by you and I, that “God is love” {1 Jn. 4:8b and 16b}.  I think it’s entirely reasonable to conclude: The love of God, the love which God is, the love emanating from the centre of His being, is a consuming fire.  And to be ravished by it is to be radically and irreversibly altered.  No one, having been submersed in and surrounded by His flame, can ever be the same!  Follow me here.

Is is possible the love of our Lord is so unlike the trite phrases we use to describe what we ‘like’ and what we don’t, “I lovvvve _____ ,” this, that, whatever; is it possible His love is so utterly beyond us, so unlike anything we have ever experienced that the deepest, most profound connection between two human beings is merely the palest of comparisons?  Is it possible His Love is so powerful in motion, so pure in motive, so holy in Spirit and so healing to our souls, that the reality of its radical nature and the rhetoric we use to try and define it are universes apart?  And that there is no way, until we stand in Love’s Presence, we will fully understand what we so long to convey?  God’s love is a consuming fire.  While it welcomes the world into its flames, it will brook no bystanders content to warm their hands by its heat!  You are in the Flame or you are out, by our own choice, but no one will be left standing on the sides.  No one.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296 | hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – where the Word and the Spirit are one.