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• When God created light, it came out of his fire.

• Illustration: Nobel Prize-winning scientist suggests nature works more like fire than a machine.
• Fire is not God, but God is fire.
• Illustration: In 1 Kings 18, Elijah calls down God’s fire to win contest with the prophets of Baal.

• Illustration: Moses hears the voice of God in a burning bush.
• We want to get close to the fire of God, but not too close.
• God guided the Israelites out of Egypt at night with a pillar of fire.
• When God comes into our lives like a fire, he guides us day and night.

• Illustration: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into the furnace, but spared by God.
• John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus would baptize with fire.
• The fire of God ignited the early church at Pentecost.
• Abraham, Isaac, and Jesus are example of how God demands a living sacrifice.

• God inhabits the praises of his people, not just the praises of individuals.
• God himself is a community of Father, Son, and Spirit.
• In genuine communion, we cry out, “Come, union.”
• Human contact fans the flame of God.

• Jesus was part of his human culture.
• The church must encounter today’s human culture.
• Jesus encountered the culture of his time with the fire of God.

• Some of us are wood, who have never been ignited by God.
• Some of us are ashes, who were once ignited by God but are now extinguished.
• Some of us are weak pilot lights.
• We are connected to God when we are on fire.