“If I say, ‘I won’t mention Him or speak any longer in His name,’ His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones. I become tired of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.”
Jeremiah 20:9
Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. 2009. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
The Old Testament writers knew the poetry of fire. They understood what it was like to hear the Word of God come to them in Spirit and in Truth. David spoke of a fire burning within, whose only passage of escape was off the tip of His tongue (Ps. 39:3). David’s was a prayer for understanding his own nature. To understand the length of his days on earth. He asked for understanding that would surely give him wisdom for using his life and reason for hoping in Father God. I’m glad David was bold enough to ask the question that blazed within Him. David’s limited understanding revealed God’s power and his authorship of the story of all reality (v.7).
“I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:3
Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. 2009. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
From the origin of it all, God’s plan has been to open up participation in His narrative to all the peoples of the earth . What good news! As if a blessing for all people were not enough, God gets specific. God-made-man dying on a Roman cross for the sins of the world is the remedy for all the people on the earth. Where does it get its power? Anyone could die. Not all people could rise again. That is just what Jesus of Nazareth, the Chosen One and Only Son of God, did. This is the potent and beautiful news of Truth that opens the door from all mankind to God, for all who enter.
“For the Jews ask for signs and the Greek seeks wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human weakness.”
1 Corinthians 1:22-25
Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. 2009. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
The call has gone out through Christ, the living story of His passion and redemption. Jesus is the power to True wisdom. Understanding comes through knowing Jesus personally. This is crazy! This is insanity! This is oddly captivating! It chimes in harmony with something deeply embedded in the core of our nature. There is a density to God’s Word that stops the flow of human words. God’s is the most real wisdom. God’s strength is the most real strength. God is True. God is reliable. God is faithful. How do we know? Look to Christ crucified. This is good news!
“The God of the Bible refuses to be fitted into our blanks: we have to reshape our lives around him. It is just the same with his gospel, the gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ… The person who finds the truth is the one who looks at the crucified Messiah – a contradiction in terms for the Jew, a corpse on a gallows to the pagan – and who sees there God’s way of salvation, God’s way of putting us on the road to life.”
(Wright, p. 76)
Wright, N. T.. Small Faith–Great God, InterVarsity Press, 2010.
God’s good news puts us on the beautiful path of True life. As Moses raised the snake in the desert before the eyes of all Israel, acknowledging the reality of Jesus as the healing for humanity, the door is opened to True and healing reality. This is a reality covered in the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice – a path illuminated by the light He provides. This is insanity to man. Listen to the call! Hear His voice. Receive the Truth. Further the spread of this imperative message of the Good News! Pass out invitations to enter God’s Kingdom to anyone you come in contact with!
“For I am full of words, and my spirit compels me to speak.”
Job 32:18
Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. 2009. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
Elihu, in the book of Job, though he is not well received, continued to pour into the life of his friend Job (Jb. 32:18-33:33). He speaks of God’s faithfulness to redeem. God is faithful to restore individuals when they fall (v. 29). The Word bursts out of from the gut of his heart like unvented wine (Jb. 32:19). Only when the Word is spoken is there relief (v. 20). Though the timing may not be the best in human terms, the seed of the Word, sown in compassion, is destine to sprout into an invitation for fellowship with God in its season (Jb. 42:1-6). This is an unstoppable mission that each Jesus-follower is sent on individually and corporately (Mt. 28:18-20). Jesus-followers are spreading a Word that cannot be contained. Spread the Word without discrimination!
“Remember, God is as Great as He is Good!”
Noah R. Hunt
POIEMA: Created for Truth 