When I meet him today "in a flaming fire,
"when I welcome him today "a consuming fire" in me,
shall I be afraid to meet him in flaming fire in that day—No; I
shall be accustomed to it; and knowing what a blessed thing it is to
become familiar with meeting him as "a consuming fire,"
knowing what a blessing that has brought to me today, I shall be
delighted to meet him on that other day, when he shall be
revealed from heaven in flaming fire. "Our God is a consuming
fire." Bless the Lord!
"Who may abide the day of his coming? Who shall
stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s FIRE."
Good. Then when I meet him now, in the consuming fire that he is,
I meet him in a fire that is refining, that purifies. "And he shall
sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of
Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the
Lord an offering in righteousness." That is separation from
sin; that is purification from sin. And that sets us where we offer an
offering unto the Lord in righteousness: we become the servants of
righteousness unto holiness, that we may meet the Lord. So, then, bless
the Lord that he is a consuming fire,—that he is as a refiner’s
fire.
Look again at that expression in Revelation:
"His eyes were as a flame of fire." In that day his eyes will
rest upon each one of us, and he will look clear through us. When his
eyes are as a flame of fire, and those eyes in that great day rest upon
every one of us, and look clear through us, what will that look do for
every one who is wrapped up, body and soul, in sin?—It will consume
the sin and the sinner with it; because he would not be separated from
the sin. And today, just now, those eyes are the same that they
will be in that day. Today his eyes are as a flame of fire; and
"all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we
have to do." Very good, then. As all things are naked and opened
unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do, whether we will have
to do with him or not, why not accept the fact, choose to have it so,
and on our part open up everything to the eyes of him with whom we have
to do? And having opened up the life thus to him, to the flaming fire of
the glory of his shining eyes, what will that do?—Those eyes of living
flame will look clear through us, and will consume away all the sin, and
all the dross; and will refine us so that he shall see in us the image
of himself.
It is written that we are to serve the Lord "as
of sincerity." Sincere is genuine; it is true; it is as
strained honey. Originally, it is honey strained, and strained again,
over and over, until, holding up the honey to the light, it is found to
be sine-cera,—"without wax," no trace of cera to be
seen floating in it. That is what he says you and I are to be as
certainly as we are Christians. God cleanses us in the blood of Christ,
and holds us up in the light of the Lord, and the world can see only the
light. And so, "ye are the light of the world."
Search me and know my
thoughts.