4/15/2024
In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote:
“If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire. If you want to get wet, you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.
They are not a sort of prize which God could, if he chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you; if you are not, you will remain dry.
Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?”
Jim Denison writes that if you want to “stand near the fire” today . . .
1. Make Christ the king of your life and day: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).
2. Spend this day in his presence: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (John 15:4).
3. Think biblically and act redemptively: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32).
4. Name your greatest challenge, then “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
How closely are you standing near or standing in the fire of Christ’s purifying and redeeming love?
-Michael