"Fireproof".... I wonder what God was thinking when He invented fire?
A while back I had a dream.... sort of being caught in a fire. In the dream, I was a young child and I was being chased by someone much bigger than myself. In my childlike state, I ran into a fireplace and climbed up the chimney to get away from my pursuer. Fortunately, he was too big to actually reach me. "I will just wait until you come out" he bellowed.
It was then that God started to turn up the temperature on my faith... He was testing me via a dream... How long would I stay protected from the enemy in that chimney? I could feel faith being challenged by fear.
First of all, timing was a factor. How long could I stay in a chimney and live? I recognized that there were various options to consider. I knew that, at that point, I couldn't go out the bottom of the chimney, because the danger was down there. I also recognized that looking upwards, was the only way out.... A good rule for all of life, don't you think?
Next, came the fear about how long I would last in a chimney without food and water. The enemy could just wait me out until I either came down or died of starvation and thirst. But then I was reminded that if God could provide water from the rock and quail from the sky for the Israelites, He could probably make a way for my hunger and thirst to be filled even in this tight spot. I also recalled times of fasting and prayer where God alone sustains you. I felt my faith starting to rise.
Finally, I sensed the enemy starting a FIRE in fireplace. As the heat and the smoke began to raise, I felt that fear try to take hold again.
Then God brought to mind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they were cast into the "burning fiery furnace." King Nebuchadnezzar actually commanded that his men should "heat the furnace SEVEN TIMES MORE than it was usually heated!" But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were men of prayer! God not only protected them in the fire, He walked with them in the fire... and then He delivered them from the fire. And He didn't just deliver them ... the fire "had NO power" over them. The smell of smoke didn't even cling to them!
Then I woke up.... Did I get out of the chimney? How did my dream end... ??
Well, I felt my hope rise and my faith stand strong in God's Faithfulness. This summer, only God knows how close we came to going through that forest fire in the Kootenay's, and only God knows what other fires may await us in the future. I know that I can get on MY KNEES and call out to God. I also believe that God CAN make me "FIREPROOF."
From here on in, just call me "A-Deb-Knee-Go!"
- Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with wrath, and the form of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He spoke and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. And he commanded mighty men in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to throw them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were tied up in their slippers, their tunics, and their mantles, and their other clothes, and were thrown into the middle of the burning fiery furnace. Then because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was amazed. And he rose up in haste and spoke and said to his advisers, Did we not throw three men bound into the middle of the fire? They answered and said to the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Behold! I see four men loose, walking in the middle of the fire, and there is no harm among them. And the form of the fourth is like a son of the gods. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near the door of the burning fiery furnace. He answered and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come forth and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth from the middle of the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's advisers gathered and saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power (and the hair of their head was not scorched, nor were their slippers changed, nor had the smell of fire clung on them). Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His Angel and has delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and have changed the king's words and have given their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God.
(Dan 3:19-28 MKJV)
