worldliness + fire = purity

There's a desperation that can come on you that shouldn't be taken lightly. It's a desperation for........'less'. In Paul's second letter to the Corinthians he writes, "having nothing, yet possessing all things" (2Cor 6:10 nasb). That's a dangerous thing to desire. It screams of freedom though. Freedom from things that people are killing each other for. Materialism is not as blatant as it appears to be. Even the 3rd World is steeped in over their heads with the need for things which distract them from true freedom. Humanity craves more 'stuff'. The whole reason God gave us a covenant which is based on freedom is so that we would be free. Yet we have exalted that freedom to a status of Master, and it has ensnared us with greed and pride. What an awful miscarriage of justice. We've used God's love for us against Him.

We cry to God for "More" while ignoring His cry of, "I have already answered that prayer." What if we were satisfied with Him, and Him alone? What if God never ever did anything for you from this day on; would you still serve Him? Isn't what He already did for you enough? If He never blessed you with enough money to enjoy your luxuries again, isn't what He already done for you enough to give everything you own? What if the Body was filled with people who never asked God for anything, but were content only to serve Him out of the desperate love which He has for us? What would this look like? I think I know, but it's an answer that would leave 90% of christendom very unsettled.

I desire to be satisfied with serving Christ, period. I do not want to work for Christ, I want to serve Him. "A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned. But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself" (Rom 4:4-5 gnb).

Although we are already dead (Galatians 2:20), we still die daily (1Corinthians 15:31). I pray that the Lord would kill us again, this time slowly and painfully, so that we would not forget. So that we would identify with the love Jesus had for us when He endured the cross for us. Today, I am desperate. Yet not to the degree which is desperate for His lost bride. My desperation needs to increase till I cry as He does. Draw us in closer Lord. In Your fire lies purity. And in Your presence lies Your fire, which burns off the worldliness that feeds our complacence. Burn it off Lord, please, millions are waiting ...................