A Burning House

A Burning House

A while back I was over around Jasper with a friend of mine looking at the Indian Creek Youth Camp. As we were leaving my friend spotted smoke coming from up a hill in one of the small towns outside Jasper. Being a fire fighter my friend wanted to drive up and see if it was a house on fire. He had a suspicion that it was because of the thick smoke. We drove up the house and it was on fire. We got out and he called 911 as he was checking to see how bad the fire was. He had to kick open the door and yell to see if there was anyone inside or not. Luckily, to the best of my knowledge, no one was home. After some time past the fire department showed up along with the usual spectators.

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with the church or Christian living. The reason I am writing this because of the people's reactions. There were people who came out and after the fire department was there and said they had seen the smoke but had failed to call 911! Talk about neighbors! My friend and I were the first ones to call.

As I watched this fire destroy the house, which was too far gone by the time the fire department had gotten set up, I thought about our lives as Christians. How many times do we see our friends, or relatives, standing in the path of sin and figuratively burning up because of the sin that leads to hell, yet we stand back and do not tell them about how to put that fire out. It is our jobs as Christians to act like those firefighters and help people combat the flames of sin. Although we cannot put their fire out ourselves we can show them who to go to for help. Jesus tells us that if we confess him before men he will confess us before the father but if we deny him before men he will deny us before the father (Mt 10:33). So as we proceed and go out this coming week instead of being a bystander or sitting on the sides lets get out and tell people how they can avoid the eternal fire. We mustn't get discouraged if they do not hear our job is not the make them believe but to tell and show them the way, then it is their duty to choose whether or not they want to follow that path.

It is only by our help and our example that people are going to want to fight sin or even care about sin. The world teaches sin as the normal and regular, as Christians we know otherwise. Also as a person, I hope that you would want people around you to care enough about you and your family to call 911 if your house catches on fire and begins to burn. Even so much more we as Christians should watch for every one who is burning in the flames of sin!