I was really angry. Another person had pulled another evil stunt and hurt a whole lot of people and I was ready to “call down fire.” Perhaps I better explain myself. Hackers took a pipeline and held it for ransom, leaving thousands and thousands of people without fuel. The same day I heard about this, I heard from some people in my church who had been fooled into giving away sensitive information to identity thieves, and when I got home after a few busy days, I found a message on my answering machine from someone attempting to do it to me. I started to think about how these folks need to be caught and iff it is foreign interests the sanctions that should be leveled against the sponsoring nations. When I say I wanted to call down fire, that is what I meant, but where does calling down fire come from.
In Luke chapter 9, Jesus has set his mind on Jerusalem. The die was cast and he was headed there. At the time, He was in Samaria, where previously He had started a revival, but now because Jesus was headed to Jerusalem, the Samaritans resisted Him and the disciples, who were starting to realize the power they had in Christ asked if Jesus wanted them to call down fire to destroy the Samaritans. For the record Jesus rebuked them, and I must admit when I wanted to cal down fire, I felt similarly rebuked.
You see what I have been seeing over and over again is that none of the man-made solutions work against the problems of our world. They seem to fail over and over again, and my sense is they always will. They have no power to change hearts and minds. When I was thinking of “calling down fire” (metaphorically, of course), I felt a little question in my soul. Did you pray? You see there is one thing that works. It’s the Gospel. When people get saved, there is supposed to be a change in their hearts. This is what all Christians should want to see and this is where our hearts should be. So instead of calling down fire, maybe we should be doing what we can to spread the fire of the Holy Spirit. Let’s continue to be faithful using our gifts to serve the Lord, so that others may see our good deeds and praise our Father in Heaven. Only the Gospel truly changes things.
If you want a little inspiration, check out this song.
AMOKArts 