A Good Fire Watch

"Scoffers set a city aflame, but wise men turn away wrath."

Proverbs 29:8

During my stint as a mechanical insulation contractor at NASSCO, "fire watches" were a requirement for any "hot work."  When steel was welded or cut out of decks or bulkheads, a worker armed with a radio and a fire extinguisher inspected the work from the opposite side.  The job of a fire watch is to ensure there is no combustible materials adjacent to the hot work, and ensure the molten steel does not contact an ignition source.  The worker cutting or welding cannot safely monitor the other side of the steel, and the fire watch ensures all is safe and up to standard.

Small sparks and slag are capable of starting fires which can rage out of control.  Solomon says scoffers can set a city aflame, and one tongue can start the equivalent of an inferno.  James 3:5-6 says, "Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell."  Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and our words can do great damage.  Once fire has taken to bush it is likely to spread, and scornful words do not stay contained:  they spread and do damage as they go!  The confined spaces of ships are especially dangerous.  As the fire consumes oxygen black smoke billows, burning eyes and lungs, impeding the way of escape.

If is important for us to set a guard over our hearts and mouths, giving no place to scorn, mockery, or lies.  We can also perform the duty of a fire watch as well.  By God's grace and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit - who Jesus compared to Living Water - we can quench the burn of harsh words, allowing them to stop with us.  A welder drops hot metal into a bucket of water for safety, and no matter how thick the sparks fly we can extinguish them with God's love, grace, and mercy.  Proverbs 26:20, "Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no talebearer, strife ceases."  A sleepy fire watch places himself and others in danger, and we must be vigilant to turn away the wrath of scoffers - especially the scoffer who lurks within each one of us.

Today is the Day!

Today is the day of fulfilled promises, the consummation of unbelievable dreams.  God-willing, tonight my family and I will become Australian citizens.  What is impossible with men is possible with God.  When God spoke to me in 2002, "You will preach, and you will be sent," I had no idea where or when that would take place.  In 2005, after resigning from my decade-long career in mechanical insulation, on my 30th birthday I was blessed to take on a full-time role as youth pastor.  As if that was not enough of a life-altering step, the same year God impressed upon my heart the east side of Australia.  I didn't know a soul in Australia, and was frankly ignorant about how life is "down under."  I continued to plug away where God had me, believing in His time and in His way He would accomplish all.

There were times of doubt and thoughts like, "Am I going crazy?"  Looking back I can see how God was preparing me for tasks long before they came into my heart.  I went to university for two years to hone my English and writing skills, even though I planned to enter a trade.  Little did I know God would redeem that schooling for writing sermons and contributing to this blog.  I spent 10 years in a construction trade, which provided training and discipline to approach church ministry in a workman fashion.  He placed me in a church with a rigorous schedule with the perfect pastor to teach and inspire me to faithfulness no matter the difficulty.  When the door opened to be a pastor at Calvary Chapel Sydney, He had prepared me, established my family and me, provided for us, and sustained us.  It is nine days short of a full decade between quitting my career and starting work at Calvary as a youth pastor to being a pastor in Sydney and becoming a citizen of my new country.  Only God could have known or accomplished such things!

To all who have shared this journey with my family and me, thank you for your prayers and support.  People in the States and Australia (and hopefully in other places too) are rejoicing along with us today, seeing God's hand at work.  I believe God has us here for His divine purposes, and He has been preparing us for the next decade of service and on - should He tarry.  It has been the most exciting, satisfying ride of my life, and I am so grateful to God and all He has used to help and encourage us along the way.

I received this scripture from my mum today, and it is most fitting to convey the overwhelming joy and almost surreal qualities of dual-citizenship coming to pass.  Psalm 100:1-5 reads, "Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! ² Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing. ³ Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. ⁴ Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. ⁵ For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations."  Praise the LORD, for He is good.  Not one word has failed of His good promise, and He alone is faithful and wise.  He is holy, and His ways are past finding out.  Rejoice in His presence and shout for joy, redeemed of the LORD!

Untempered Mortar

In building, it is not difficult to conceal shoddy workmanship temporarily.  But in the long run, cut corners have a way of broadcasting themselves.  A new house can look immaculate until the rains come and show the waterproofing was not done correctly.  That retaining wall may appear straight and true, but before long the plaster can chip off to reveal massive cracks.  A unit may appear clean on inside and out, but a broken sewer main underneath will foul the air as waste ponds.  The lights may work fine, yet a quick peek above the ceiling might reveal a wiring nightmare and deathtrap.

God chose the Jews as His special people and gave them His Laws.  They were pleased to have His guidance, provision, and for Him to fight their battles.  Over the passage of time, however, the Bible describes an erosion towards idol worship and disobedience.  The morality of God's people looked much like the heathen which surrounded them.  They maintained the outer appearance of piety through traditions and sacrifices, but they had heaped false gods to themselves and did evil in God's sight.  The cracks in the walls of their society built upon the foundation of faith in God were evident and clear.  God sent Ezekiel to warn the people of impending judgment for their sins.  He spoke the truth among many competing voices - false prophets who told the people what they wanted to hear.

God was against the false prophets who spoke lies in His name.  They promised "peace" where there was no peace.  They were like the townspeople who complimented the naked emperor for his fine clothes and urged others to agree with them.  The word of the LORD was spoken through the prophet in Ezekiel 13:10-16:  "Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, 'Peace!' when there is no peace--and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar--¹¹ say to those who plaster it with untempered mortar, that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it down. ¹² Surely, when the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, 'Where is the mortar with which you plastered it?'" ¹³ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume it. ¹⁴ So I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the LORD. ¹⁵ Thus will I accomplish My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it with untempered mortar; and I will say to you, 'The wall is no more, nor those who plastered it, ¹⁶ that is, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace,' " says the Lord GOD."  Every word came to pass, and God's truth will endure forever.

We live in a similar day, when people speak led by their own hearts concerning morality.  The world is keen to be politically correct, but cares nothing for righteousness according to God's standard.  There are false prophets all over the world who build walls to suit themselves, daubed with untempered mortar - sand without enough cement.  Only a fool would render a cracked slab of concrete or structural wall with massive cracks, thinking a slather of mortar will fix the gaps.  No!  A superficial "fix" is no fix at all.  Rebar, epoxy, and concrete engineered specifically for the job are required to restore structural integrity, applied skillfully by trained craftsman.  God would see to it that the lies would be washed away as well as those who spread them.  The lying prophets would be utterly destroyed.

Satan is a liar and thief from the beginning, and he is the author of the social, moral, philosophical, political, and spiritual erosion we see in the world today as people depart from the precepts of God's Word.  He has many mouths spouting lies in every arena, spreading untempered mortar of subjectivity over moral deficiencies.  The structure is dangerously close to falling, yet the untempered mortar is daubed on.  God has been denied, His word scoffed, His people despised and blamed for all the problems in the world.  "A little more mortar and she'll be right," say the liars - unaware their souls and those who trust in them are in mortal danger.

Today is the day for boldness in righteousness, O Christian!  Let us not be those who flee when we are called to the fight.  We serve an everlasting God whose Word endures forever, a Rock of Salvation Who cannot be moved.  Not one who trusts in Him will be ashamed.  David wrote in Psalm 11:1-7, "In the LORD I put my trust; how can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain"? ² For look! The wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. ³ If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? ⁴ The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. ⁵ The LORD tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. ⁶ Upon the wicked He will rain coals; fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. ⁷ For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright."

Let us be as Ezekiel who spoke the Word of the LORD, not moved by the desires of his own heart.  The enemy of our souls will continue to smear his falsehoods, but they will not avail him on the Day of Judgment.  It is time to value righteousness over "political correctness," for love is willing to resolutely speak the truth - even willing to die - so others might have life in Jesus.

Commitment and Redemption

Jesus is truly extraordinary.  He is a man of authority, power, and divine wisdom.  At His word the blind were made to see, lepers cleansed, and the lame walked.  Jesus knew who He was, why He had been sent by the Father, and what awaited Him on Calvary.  Yet He set his face like a flint and faced struggles and pain, for the joy that was set before Him.  While every other person would have been blinded by their own pain, Jesus saw clearly the eternal victory of not only His resurrection, but the salvation of all who trust in Him. 

I was struck with a statement Jesus made from the cross in Luke 23:46:  "And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, 'into Your hands I commit My spirit.' " Having said this, He breathed His last."  The heartbeat of the Son of God stopped on that darkest of days.  It seemed death had conquered the One sent to destroy the works of the devil.  The disfigured body of Jesus might have been buried in tomb hewn out of rock, His body wrapped in linen.  But the story was not over.  The Pharisees and Sadducees may have been giving high-fives to each other like the penguins in the Madagascar movies, but their celebrations were cut short with Jesus rising from the dead.  David the sweet psalmist, king, and prophet, wrote something centuries before which Jesus alluded to in His last words.  Christ's crucifixion had been finished, but Jesus was not finished!

Consider the words of Psalm 31:1-5:  "In You, O LORD, I put my trust; let me never be ashamed; deliver me in Your righteousness. ² Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily; be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense to save me. ³ For You are my rock and my fortress; therefore, for Your name's sake, lead me and guide me. ⁴ Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for You are my strength. ⁵ Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth."  Death for people on earth is a period at the end of a sentence.  Death in the physical realm is as we say in Australia, a "full stop."  But did you notice in verse five the statement Christ quoted from the cross ended with a semicolon?  There was no full stop between committing His spirit to the Father and Christ's redemption.  The price for sin had been paid, for atonement had been made for all who repent and trust Him.  As a lamb without blemish, Jesus was an acceptable sacrifice for sin.  Jesus had been delivered from His body, and would rise again in a glorified body days later in everlasting, immortal glory.

For a Christian, death of the body is not a "full stop."  Our bodies will cease to function, but those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God will be raised up even as He was.  We will someday ascend to where He is, even at the right hand of the Father.  When Jesus fed the 5,000, He instructed His disciples to gather up all the fragments of bread and fish "that nothing be lost" (John 6:12).  Jesus cares for men more than bread, and implores we who are alive and remain to seek to gather those who are lost and perishing.  Bread has a limited shelf-life, and we only have a short while remaining on earth.  Let's follow the example of Jesus and keep our hand to the plow, for night is coming when none can work.