Isaiah 50:10-11
10 “Who among you fears the Lord?
Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who walks in darkness
And has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord
And rely upon his God.
11 Look, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—
This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down in torment.
In verse 10 God encourages those of you who are living in fear, and those who walk in darkness, and who cannot see the light to trust in the Lord and rely on God for strength in Him.
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Let God direct you and lead you in the way that He has for you.
Yesterday on July 4th we celebrated our Freedom. We usually have a party we go too and enjoy great food and fireworks. And we usually enjoy some of the most common firework like sparklers, rockets, and fire crackers.
I want to look back at Isaiah 11 where it says "Look, all you who kindle a fire." This is where people try to light up their life with their own strength, plans, or their own words instead of following God. It describes someone that has a lot of pride and those that have rejected God's guidance so they can do their own thing.
And then it talks about sparks or what I think of as like sparklers. They burn bright and furious however, they burn out very quickly. It is a temporary relief like a drug or alcohol.
Then it talks about "lie down in torment" which means those that reject God's light and instead chooses sin, they will face judgment one day.
Then I want to talk about the rocket or bottle rocket as they are often referred too, but first I must go to a very famous situation that happened in the Bible.
I want to go to the time of Sodom and Gomorrah and talk a little bit about what happened there.
This started back in Genesis 18 where Abraham start to ask for God not to destroy Sodom. Abraham heard God and replied saying something that to me seems quit bold and that is "Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" I think that was pretty brave however, he did ask that.
Then starts this conversation between God and Abraham where God says if you can find 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. Then Abraham keeps trying to negotiate from 50 to 40 to 30 to 20 to 10 and yet they could not even find the 10 and God departed from Abraham.
Then in chapter 19 it talks about the Angels that came to warn Lot of the destruction coming to Sodom. Now while the two angels were with Lot they started to talk about going to sleep out in the open square, but Lot was not having that and strongly insisted that they stay there with him.
Then a knock on the door and the men of Sodom were asking for the 2 angel so that they may know them carnally. Lot being the man that he was tried to stop them and even offered his 2 virgin daughters. They refused and even threatened Lot if he did not give them up. Then suddenly the angels reached out their hand and grabbed Lot and pulled him back in the house and then struck the men outside with blindness.
When the devil comes at you with full force he does not give up on taking you out of the picture and away from God.
Then the angels tells Lot to leave with his wife and family for God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
And then in Genesis 19:23-26
Genesis 19:23-26
23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.
24 Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens.
25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
26 But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
I want to take a look at a fireworks rocket for a moment. When you light what is sometime referred to as a bottle rock you start by lighting the fuse which is a sulfur mixed with other ingredients that begins to build a pressure that send that rocket into the air. Once it is in the air it will stop burning and then ignite another mixture that will explode into the beautiful firework that you see.
I want to look at this with Jesus involved. When you give your heart to Him, He starts that monumental change in your life. He consumes your sin and gives you a happy and glories' life. When He starts that fire burning you will start to climb and you will get so excited that you are headed in a life of eternal happiness.
You see Jesus said if you call upon me then I will go to the Father for you. When Jesus died on that cross the Bible says that He became the mediator and that we no longer needed to make an animal sacrifice to remain a Christian.
To me I see it as Jesus consumes your sins when you become born again and the life you live will and should be beautiful like that explosion. The explanation of a bottle rocket says that when it explodes that it ignites the starts within that rocket. I want to ignite those stars that are in Jesus' eyes when I call on Him.
I want to be in that Jesus fire that works.