God's word is like fire

Artist: Eugène Delacroix

Image from Wikimedia Commons

(Original in The Louvre)

Ah, I wish I were preaching this morning; the lessons are so rich and powerful. Here's something from Jeremiah (one of the O.T. choices):

Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the LORD. Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

And here's a passage from the Epistle for today:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us...

And the gospel passage will really knock you for a loop if you let it have the impact on you that (I'm sure of this!) it is meant to have:

Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided...

And here's one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotations ever (and it seems to fit...):

Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? "Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

-- (From The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe)