{"id":1208,"date":"2025-04-27T08:07:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T13:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2025-04-27T08:25:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T13:25:16","slug":"26-consuming-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/27\/26-consuming-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"26 – Consuming Fire!"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.26.0″ _module_preset=”default” da_disable_devices=”off|off|off” global_colors_info=”{}” da_is_popup=”off” da_exit_intent=”off” da_has_close=”on” da_alt_close=”off” da_dark_close=”off” da_not_modal=”on” da_is_singular=”off” da_with_loader=”off” da_has_shadow=”on”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.26.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.26.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_heading title=”Consuming Fire!” _builder_version=”4.26.0″ _module_preset=”default” title_font=”Georgia|700|on||||||” title_text_align=”center” title_font_size=”42px” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_heading][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.26.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.26.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/h4you.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Sun-in-clouds.jpeg” _builder_version=”4.26.0″ _module_preset=”default” title_text=”Sun in clouds” align=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.26.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.26.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.26.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”-40px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

By Terance Clark \u00a0 \u00a0 April 26, 2025 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a08 Minute Read<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Week 26<\/span><\/o:p><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This Weeks Passage: Leviticus 9:1 \u2013 11:47<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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This week we have the privilege of seeing the two contrasting sides of God.\u00a0 Typically we love to hear about His grace, mercy and love, but this week we also get to see the fire side.\u00a0 Hebrews 12:29 says “Our God is a consuming fire!”.\u00a0 Let’s take some time to understand it through the lives and deaths of Nadab and Abihu.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whenever my wife and I travel to Africa we always take some time to go on a safari in the Serengeti.\u00a0 It’s such an amazing adventure to see the wild animals in their natural habitat and we’ve seen some pretty amazing sights.\u00a0 Giraffes being born, crocs eating zebra in a flash of a second, and cheetah in full speed hunting their prey, and yet we feel safe within the confines of our Range Rover.\u00a0 We were told of a time when a man decided to leave the safety of the jeep to get a closer look at the lions.\u00a0 From the jeep they look as harmless as a litter of kittens, but he found out real quick that once you step outside of the jeep you quickly will become lunch for a hungry carnivore.\u00a0 We all felt bad for the man, but also recognized his stupidity and didn’t blame the lion one bit for doing what was natural.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Altar of Love<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I share the story to compare it to the nature of God.\u00a0 In this weeks lesson Moses took seven days with Aaron and his sons to prepare them for their duties as priests.\u00a0 Now that God had filled the tabernacle there needed to be some clear rules and boundaries for the relationship to work.\u00a0 Number one, God is a consuming fire.\u00a0 For those who experienced literally God’s presence they all acknowledged that He was like fire, smoke and mist all in one.\u00a0 God had consumed the altar with His presence burning the initial sacrifice, but establishing an ongoing flame that the priests were to keep lit continually.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“God is the true fire that must burn within us a<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em>nd it is our responsibility to keep our hearts burning <\/span><\/strong><\/em>with desire for Him”<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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The altar represents our hearts and just like the fire had to be kept burning, so our hearts must be kept aflame with the love of God.\u00a0 Fire is an analogy of our love.\u00a0 When the tribes moved, the priests would cover the flame so that it became hot coals and then when they arrived at the new location they would stoke the coals until it became a flame once again.\u00a0 The picture is that sometimes our love burns hot as a flame and at other times it may burn low but steady, but regardless we must never let it go out.\u00a0 God is the true fire that must burn within us and it is our responsibility to keep our hearts burning with desire for Him.\u00a0 Strange fire is any kind of fire that was produced away from the altar and it was forbidden by the Lord.\u00a0 Do you understand why?\u00a0 It represents burning passions for things that are not built from our relationship with God but come from our flesh and are rooted in self.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Eighth Day<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

On the eighth day Aaron and his sons were to begin their work as priests and things started well as they began to offer the sacrifices upon the altar.\u00a0 Moses and Aaron walked through the purification (sin) offering, then the grain offering and peace offering.\u00a0 They then blessed the people and the fire came forth from the Lord and everyone worshiped, but then Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire.\u00a0 We don’t know all the details as to why they would do such a thing, but they did and in a twinkling of an eye God burned them up.\u00a0 People have tried to fully understand what happened and why\u00a0 for thousands of years now.\u00a0 All I’m going to say is God gave the boundaries for engaging with Him and if we choose to get out of the Jeep thinking we are going to ad hoc our own boundaries, we will be mistaken.\u00a0 There are people to this day who try to redefine what God said and what God really means, but on that day everyone understood exactly what God said and what He means.\u00a0 In the most painful way, people had to experience the truth that God with all of His love, mercy and grace is also dangerous and He needs to be taken seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n

After watching his boys die Aaron was told to finish the sacrifice without mourning.\u00a0 Let me explain, they were inside of Gods house.\u00a0 There will be no mourning in God’s house, there is only joy.\u00a0 There is no crying or pain, He will wipe every tear from our eyes.\u00a0 To mourn in Gods house is certain death, do you remember the time Nehemiah had the forwardness to mourn in the presence of the Babylonian King Artaxerxes, he feared for his life.\u00a0 Those of us from the West don’t understand the rules for standing before kings and certainly not the King of all of Kings.\u00a0 We do not dictate the atmosphere nor do we dare when standing before the Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A Consuming Fire<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The purification (sin) offering was completed when the priests eats the sacrifice, but Aaron refused to eat it rather he let it all be burned up.\u00a0 Moses approached him asking why he didn’t eat it, because you see when they ate the meat they were to do it rejoicing and Aaron was basically saying how could I eat the meat and rejoice when my sons have just died.\u00a0 He was saying, I will not act so religiously as to behave as though I have no feelings and Moses understood and God also remained silent giving His approval.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we close this weeks challenging lesson we learn that God has clearly defined how we should interact with Him.\u00a0 He has sent His son for us and now we have access to draw close in new ways, but that does not give us a blank slate do whatever we want.\u00a0 He is God and we are called to obey His word.\u00a0 Yes, He loves us and his grace and mercy extends beyond our understanding but He is still a consuming fire and there are repercussions for not doing what He says.\u00a0 This week is a sobering lesson discovered by two young men who for whatever reason decided to take matters into their own hands and found out that God is a consuming fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

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By Terance Clark \u00a0 \u00a0 April 26, 2025 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a08 Minute Read Week 26 \u00a0 This Weeks Passage: Leviticus 9:1 \u2013 11:47 This week we have the privilege of seeing the two contrasting sides of God.\u00a0 Typically we love to hear about His grace, mercy and love, but this week we also get to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1080","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1208"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1245,"href":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions\/1245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/h4you.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}