PLAYING WITH FIRE

“I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”
Psalm 16:8

When I was in my pre-teen years, I suffered briefly of being a pyromaniac. I know, you may think it hard to believe, but it is true. It started when my best friend and I were messing around with lighter fluid. We would squirt little patterns on the ground and then stand back, dropping a lit match. The fluid would burn up and leave us wanting to do it again. The patterns got more elaborate until one day I got the ‘bright’ idea to make a design from the ground up to his club house. I loaded the wood floor with fluid, being sure it was good and soaked, and trailed my path down the stairs, through the brush, and to our starting point. Then, standing a little distance off, I lit the match and watched as the liquid burned up and black smoke appeared. My ‘bright’ idea wasn’t that smart, though, and soon we were panicked, trying to grab the hose quickly to put out the fire that was eating away at the floor boards of the club house now. Between a mixture of water and sand, we got the fire out. I can still remember to this day the fear I felt, with legs shaking, as I think back to the potential blaze we just about had.
These days my pyromaniac-ism is under control. Sure, since then I have poured gasoline on a few hot wheels and watched them melt. Yes, I have made a bonfire in my BBQ. And true, I have tried to repeat the fiery furnace from Daniel 3 in my fireplace, but other than that it is under control. The fires I want to set these days, however, are of a different sort. I want to set people on fire with a passion for God.
I think of the words penned by David in Psalm 42:1. Just as the deer desired a drink, so David’s soul thirsted for God. Or how about Psalm 57:7 where David wrote that his heart was fixed on God. To me this speaks of passion. In Psalm 40:8 David even states he delights to do God’s will and His law is within his heart. But the one that sticks out to me most is Psalm 16:8, where David boldly proclaims, “I have set the LORD always before me.” The Message translation reads, “Day and night I’ll stick with God; I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.” Yet what does this mean? The word ‘set’ is the Hebrew word SHAVAH, meaning to agree with, become like, or resemble. David was so passionate about his relationship with God that he worked to resemble God.
So then, the next question I pose is how? How do we resemble God? Ephesians 5:1-2 tells us to be imitators of God and live a life of love. I Corinthians 11:1 tells us to follow Paul’s example as he follows the example of Christ. So perhaps the answer to how is in doing the things we know Christ did, which even Christ says were the things God did (Jn 5:19). Christ burned with passion to see people reverse their evil ways and come in surrender to Him. Christ portrayed a life of passion in healing people from all wounds, physical, emotional, spiritual, everywhere He went. And Christ etched out a life of passion in that while we were sinners He died for us.
I may have been a fire starter of sorts back in the day, but these days I want to set a new blaze. I want to reach out to people and extend the blaze I have for God to them, and walk in the example that Christ left for me. I am not the way to heaven, but I just may be a vessel God can use to start a flame in someone else. That said, I want to burn with a passion so blazing for God that it leaps off me and sparks a wildfire for God in someone else. I want to play with fire.

***check out this song by Britt Nicole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHIPe0JOr4w