"For our God is a consuming fire."
-Hebrews 12:29

Spiritual Lessons from Making a Fire

Often, when working to build a fire, I am struck by the meaning that lies within it.  To successfully make and keep a fire going, there are a few things that must be done, and from each we see spiritual points illustrated:

1.  The wood cannot be wet; as even a touch of dampness makes it incredibly difficult to set ablaze.

If we see the wood as a symbol of man, then building a campfire is about how man comes to God.  Is he free of the dampness coming from the cares and pleasures of the world (water on the wood) which quench his hunger for God and subvert his yieldedness to God (as wood that is wet cannot be yielded to the flame, but is yielded to the water)?  Wood cannot be both dry and wet at the same time; and so the love for the world cannot exist with love for God.  One must inevitably conquer the other.

Matthew 6:24, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
Job 18:5, "Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine."
1 Thessalonians 5:19, "Quench not the Spirit."

2.  There must be a source of heat and fire outside of the wood to set it ablaze.

Taking a match and sticking it on the end of a log will never set it on fire by itself; so it is with our own attempts to become Christians or to live holy lives by our own power.  Wood cannot set itself ablaze without a strong and sustained outside source of fire and heat.
In short:  Fire begets fire.  It is God who must set us ablaze (as He is the outside responsible 'Source' of the fire) unto salvation, purging us by the flame, cleansing us from sin.

Isaiah 6:5-7, "Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and i dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.  Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged."
Zechariah 13:8-9, "And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.  And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God."


3.  This source of heat and fire has to be close enough to the wood to kindle it, but not so close that it is smothered and therefore not allowed space to blaze up itself.

Heat and flames from the 'source' must be set at an optimum range to kindle the logs (leaving some air space for the flames to grow).  So the proper focus on the Scripture is needed.  Time must be taken to mull over the verses being read, if one is to truly understand what God is saying.  Reading speedily may accomplish a goal to read an entire chapter or book of the Bible, but little will be gained without actual thought about what the verses mean.  The word of God is to be cherished, as they really are the words to the beloved (true believers) from the Lover.  "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts." Jeremiah 15:16

1 Timothy 4:13,15:  "Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine... Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all."
Proverbs 1:5-6, "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings."

4.  Air must be blown upon the source and the wood to whip up its heat and flames, in order that the logs should catch fire, and continue to burn.

Without this stream of air, the source is not quite hot enough, the flames are not fed, and the log will only be blackened on its surface.  So it is with us:  God must blow His Spirit upon us for His word to effectually kindle our hearts of stone, to stir up His word to be a mighty fire within us.  Without His Spirit upon us, we will only languish in our sins, the 'firelessness' that comes where there is no holiness.
John 15:5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."

Breathe on me, breath of God,*
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine...
-Edwin Hatch

5.  The combustibility of the source must be strong.

Newspaper will do very well as a source to kindle wood, but a magazine will not because its paper has other things added to it which make it burn poorly.  So too, false doctrines about salvation mixed with true will always hinder someone's way to God.  Paul said "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." 1 Corinthians 1:17.  It was the atonement that Christ brought, and all the consequences of that (that He did all the work to save someone) which was the heart of true doctrine, the Gospel of Christ which is to be brought before a man as a 'source' to kindle him.

Romans 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

6.  A reflector of the heat is helpful to nourish the fire; a fireplace or stones set around the campfire.

As the fire should be surrounded by things that also hold heat, so a Christian should seek out his fellow believers that they might "...consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:" Hebrews 10:24


A final thought.  The story is told that as Charles and Susannah Spurgeon sat together by the fire one night, Charles was arrested by a whistling sound that was coming from the wood.  He told his wife that it reminded him of her.  She had been bedridden for many years with a chronic illness, but had used the time to send the Christian materials her husband had written to any minister of the Gospel whose address she could get her hands on.  Most of these men barely were able to feed themselves and their families, and so did not have the means to own any other book beside the Bible.  Spurgeon noted that many men from all the corners of the globe had reason to thank God for Charles's own dear wife, and her illness.  As the log, Spurgeon said, only whistles its fair tune because of the pressure that the fire is exerting on it, so you my dear have been made to sing a sweet song to God by your infirmity.  "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."  Romans 8:28



(See the poem "Make me Thy fuel" by Amy Carmichael.)