”LUKE 12 REFLECTION - Casting Fire Upon the Earth” Kids Ministry Coffee Break 60: Fire is a good thing. Embracing the work of fire in our own lives leads us to life--and we can lead others too.

"LUKE 12 REFLECTION - Casting Fire Upon the Earth" Kids Ministry Coffee Break 60: Fire is a good thing. Embracing the work of fire in our own lives leads us to life--and we can lead others too.

Jesus says he didn’t come to bring peace, but fire.

What a line!!

Start your next sermon or meeting out with that line.

Fire is such an interesting image used in Scripture time and again.

We often first go to the image of fire as a bad thing, but there’s so much more going on.

In Malachi 3, among other places, we get this image of the refiner’s fire.

Fire is used to heat up metals.

When the metal heats up to the right temperature, the impurities of the metal rise to the top and can be scooped off so that what remains is a pure version of the metal. You discard the impurities and move on with the metal.

John the Baptist talks about fire when giving the image of separating the wheat from the chaff. The winnowing fork is used to toss the picked grain into the air so that the breeze will blow away the lighter chaff and allow the grain to fall back to the ground. You do this enough, and you will only have grain at your feet. You then gather the chaff and burn it, because it has no use. You have purified the harvest and discarded what didn’t belong.

Jesus is going to baptize us with fire, John the Baptist says.

Not to burn or punish us, but to purify us.

To sort out what doesn’t belong in our hearts and lives and remove it…forever.

To refine us back into what we were always meant to be.

Fire…is a blessing.

It might not feel like it in the moment though, right!?

Nothing peaceful about being tossed into the air with a winnowing fork or blazing a fire to melt down a metal.

We all crave to be purified and refined.

God craves to purify and refine us.

Jesus didn’t come to bring peace, but to bring refinement to the whole world through the church.

So…where do you recognize The Holy Spirit bringing fire into your own life?

Where is God working to remove impurities in your heart, mind, and being?

It may hurt, but let us praise God for loving us enough to do this work.

As ministers, you are called to be a vessel through which Jesus brings the wonderful work of fire to the lives of others…

to help them sort out what doesn’t belong.

It’s a tough calling,

it’s easy to get impatient,

it’s easy to feel overwhelmed,

but your ministry is bringing the fire of God into people’s lives.

It may not always look like it…and people may not always like the way it feels,

but keep prayerfully serving, friends.

keep your eyes open and look for where we see signs of the change in our own lives and the lives of others.

And lift up the things you come to see with great praise to God.

Message brought to you by Rev. Joseph Sanford of Sanford Curriculum (Student ministry resources available on The Sunday School Store written by he and Lauren Sanford).

Music by The Muse Maker