Tend the Fire

In the Hebrew Bible, sacrifice always involved transformation. Sacrifices burned. The Levitical instructions for burnt offerings forbade separating the offering into parts, but required the whole animal to burn on the altar. In our complacent, lukewarm society, there are some things that are not optional. We cannot serve God without fire, and fire requires constant tending. The fire of God will never come down on our lives until every dream and every ambition is put on the altar to burn. One either dies to oneself or in oneself. To walk with God is to die to oneself; to be transformed by fire and brought into a new life. To keep the fire burning we must tend what God sends. This will cost us everything. But in the end it is worth everything.