Into the Fire

A few of you read my blog post awhile ago entitled “Some Title”. If you did, you know I admitted to despising some titles that were applied to people groups because of their redundancy, among other reasons I probably didn’t say.

Then I expounded on how important I considered “some” titles to be, such as book titles, blog post titles, titles of magazine articles. Add to those film titles. Anyway . . .

“Into the Fire” signifies to me that I’m entering a hot zone. A place where you can get singed. A place where you empty some heart contents and discover if anyone else sifts through the smoke of your admissions and admits to feeling the same kinds of bristling heat. It’s a willful step forward into the place where your assertions, be they serious or an attempt at humor, are fair game for anyone who happens to stop by to read them. It’s definitely an avenue to vent, but there is the danger of being victimized by a flame thrower. (I have been blessed by wonderful visitors to this blog.) It is a soapbox for opinions, but it is also an electronic “pulpit” to preach. It is a place with a potentially significant risk factor. The risk is that those who stop by will disagree so strongly as to never return, that others will vent their strong opinions against whatever has been posted, and the even bigger risk is that I will assume that everything I have to say is worthy of reading. Make no mistake: I would love to make it so.

“Into the Fire” is also a Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego reference. The three brave Israelites, young men when they became selected by King Nebuchadnezzar to serve in his palace, defied the king and would not worship his image of gold, earning them a trip into a furnace so hot it consumed and incinerated the soldiers who deposited them into the fire. The king was aghast when he saw their forms in the midst of the fire with an unidentified fourth person walking with them unimpeded amidst the flames even though the three had been bound.

Rescued by God. A miracle of grand proportions even to this pagan king, who acknowledged there was no God like the One of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s. “. . . for no other god can save in this way.” (Daniel 3:29, NIV)

The fire is also a reference to the blessed Holy Spirit who supplies the anointing and the flaming desire to serve God relentlessly. I pray that He would step into the writing here, the conversations, the prayers. I pray that each person who ventures “into the fire” will be blessed in some way by some thing on any given day. Because wherever the Spirit is, there is freedom. My opinions have no value, but when they are motivated by and concur with the Spirit of Truth, they are invaluable. That is my hope. That the Spirit of God would provide a “place” of refuge in some of these posts, in all of the prayers, and give something of value to those who visit here.

Those are the reasons and things behind the title “Into the Fire” . . .

Father, you own me, I am yours. I truly desire to serve you and honor you with my writing. Help me to always improve. Help me to be careful with the written word as well as the spoken word. You must increase, I must decrease. I love you, Lord. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.