Sanctify, Saturate, Spread

As our country continues to descend seemingly into chaos, I am reminded again of the need for something that can draw people together. Have you ever noticed how people are drawn together around a campfire? Both the light and the warmth of fire pulls us in. Fire is attractive, but it must be the right kind of fire.

On Pentecost Sunday, May 31^st, I spoke about the sanctifying fire of the Holy Spirit.  The sound of the Spirit on Pentecost was wind.  The sight of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was fire and fire burns, sanctifies, cleanses and spreads. We need the right fire!

The Wrong Fire is Destructive

Right now, there is a lot of bad, false, and wrong fire getting caught up in the right fire.  There’s the fire for justice, the fire that is marching for peace, and the fire that is justifiably angry and absolutely enraged by police brutality.  Then there is the fire of outside forces that are coming in and intermingling with peaceful protesters.  There was a brother, and I felt so badly for him, standing in the middle of the street saying, ‘But why would they burn down my business, I am a builder of the community. This has taken me a lifetime to build.  Why would they burn it down?’

There are people are coming in from these different arenas and burning down our cities to the ground.  It does not help the cause of justice to drive a brand new car through the glass, running through the streets with a bag of sneakers, or grabbing bottles of wine/liquor; it does not help the cause of justice.  Some of these people are paid to do this.  They are coming in from the outside to deliberately cause destruction.  They are not the good people that are black, brown, white and red that are together marching, kneeling, and standing before police forces.  God Bless them!

The Right Fire is Attractive

Some have said “Where’s the Church?”  The Church is where it has always been.  We are taking a stand for justice and sending offerings.  Al Sharpton told me, ‘We all can’t go to jail at the same time, somebody has to be on the outside to bail us out.’ Someone has to be on the outside funding it financially.  All of us can’t be at the same place doing the same thing, but we all need to be outraged in a very constructive way.

I want to encourage us to have the fire of the of the Holy Spirit which cleanses, the fire spreads, and then the fire attracts.  We want the fire to attract people to our worship services, we want the fire to bring people to our ministries, we want the fire to attract men, woman, boys and girls to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Don’t forget in the midst of the turmoil of our country, Christ is still the answer.  The scripture still tells us in Micah 6:8, “He has shown you oh mortal what is good and what the Lord requires of you; to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.”