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Tag: Refiner’s fire

Are you Cold and Hot (for God)?

A part of Genesis 8:22 states that “While the earth remains, cold and heat, shall not cease.” Cold and heat go hand in hand and one usually thinks of cold as the absence of heat. Here we see that these thermal states are infact a part of God’s promise to mankind, while we inhabit this earth. So if cold and heat are divine provisions, do they have any significance?

Cold preserves. At absolute zero (0 kelvin or -273.15 degrees Celsius), there is minimal molecular motion and at low temperatures, harmful agents cannot survive thus preserving items that are subject to the cold. Think of how the coolness in the refrigerator preserves the food items that we store in it. It is not the refrigerator itself, but the coolness within, that is the preservative. On the other hand, heat purges. Think of the dross that is purged by the heat of the fire when refining precious metals such as gold and silver (Malachi 3:2-3). It is the heat that purges.

Points to ponder:
Cold and heat are God’s promise to mankind. When we are cold in our Spirit to sin – the harmful and destructive elements of sin cannot survive in our lives, and we are preserved in God’s hands. When we are hot in our Spirit, he purges the sinful nature in us and makes us conform more toward the likeness of God’s only Son, Jesus Christ. Cold preserves and Heat purges. We need to be both, but not in between i.e., lukewarm (Revelation 3:15), for if we are neither cold nor hot, we are distasteful to God and he will spit (vomit) us out. Are your Cold and Hot (for God)?

Genesis 8:22 (KJV)
22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Revelation 3:15-16 (KJV)
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

My beloved

Sangeetha Johnson

My beloved

An obedient daughter, a wonderful mother, and a loving wife
would be an understatement to describe my beloved, my love, my life
A woman of faith expressed in action,
is how I choose to describe my beloved to whom I am married to in union.

A decade plus one year ago, to be made one flesh, we vowed,
leaving earthly ties and cleaving to a heavenly relationship, we bowed,
before God our maker, the first braid in our threefold cord
who strengthens us, to tide over trying times, our staff and our rod.

Like the denying Peter, not once, not twice, but thrice, have I broken her heart,
only to find out, that each time, she forgave me and accepted me, in full, not in part,
just as The Savior did, from whose Love, nothing can bid us depart,
and emulating that Sacrificial Love, unmerited favor and mercy to me, does she perpetually impart.

Two wonderful children has God loaned us to cherish.
My beloved teaches them to grow in his knowledge, lest they perish.
Her tutelage, “Always be focused, humble and caring, loving God and loving your neighbor”,
expressing her words in action, does she arduously labor.

As she celebrates her arrival on earth
bringing to all around her, joy, happiness and mirth
My prayer for her is that God grants her, her heart’s desire
and makes her shine even brighter, refining her in his fire

A woman of faith expressed in action,
is how I choose to describe my beloved to whom I am married to in union.
I promise to love her, as I have been loved
For in my beloved, I see the fingerprints of God’s Beloved.

Proverbs 5:18 (KJV)
18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

Ephesians 5:21-33 (KJV)
21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Fire – releasing, refining and renewing Spirit

The next element in our series is Fire.

When the Hebrew men, known more commonly by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnance, the fire had no effect on them but the bonds that tied them were loosed and Nebuchadnezzar the king exclaims that he sees four men walking in midst of the fire and the form of the fourth was like the Son of God (Daniel 3:25).  When Samson came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arm became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands (Judges 15:14). Again, a demonstration of the presence of God releasing bondage and interestingly in both instances, God presence has to do with fire.

On the day of Pentecost, the outward expression of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was tongues like as of fire (Acts 2:3-4). When Jesus opened the scriptures to the two on the road to Emmaus, they said to one another, did not our hearts burn within us? (Luke 24:32).

And as a fire is not effective, when quenched, Paul warns us to Quench not the Spirit, the Fire of God (1 Thessalonians  5:19). The Spirit of God refines and purifies us to righteousness (Malachi 3:2-3).  The Spirit of God is THE ELEMENT, the FIRE that not only burns away the chains/ropes that hold us in bondage, but also warms the hearts of those who listen to the Son of God to have a renewed relationship with him.

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