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Malachi - Uncontaminated
Brian Mashburn
December 1, 2013
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God As A Fire
Fire, when thought of in popular religious terms, is usually seen in terms of punishment. Pictures of Hell as a place of eternal burning surface, and the end of the world as we know it happening by the sending of a consuming fire come to mind.
But in Malachi, fire is utilized to describe God Himself.
Imagine God as fire. What kind of fire would God be?
Malachi does not say that God is like a forest fire, that burns everything up indiscriminately. Malachi does not say that God is like an incinerating fire, that totally consumes and destroys something.
No, Malachi says, God is like a refining fire.
He doesn't want to destroy sinners, He wants to refine them. Purify them. Burn away the contaminations. His desire is for holiness, cleanliness, wholesomeness, right-ness, and purity. It is such good news that Malachi introduces God not as a destroying, punishing fire, but a loving, transforming fire.
However, He is a fire. Refinement is a hot, painful, uncomfortable, intense process.
God's heart has never been, is not, and will never be about your pain.
But God's heart is, and always will be, about your gain.
No pain, no gain.