A Consuming Fire. Can That be Good?

Our Sun/Son

Hebrews 12:29 - For our God is a consuming fire.

Now there's a rather intimidating verse at first glance.  Not a picture of a warm & cozy hearth fire is evoked, generally speaking.  Let's use the 'law of first occurence' to dig and see if there is something tasty in this.

Dear Jesus - Please help us see the truth of this verse...

Deuteronomy 4:24 is the first occurrence of the phrase 'a consuming fire'.  Then Deuteronomy 9:3.  Interesting. The first occurrence is in the context of the commandment about having no other God's before Me.  Oh boy - this is firing me up.  Where is that commandment anyway?  Is it the first or the second commandment - sometimes I get confused...  Exodus 20 - and HEY it is the FIRST commandment!  Better yet - I just love the old king (KJV)...  Here it goes:

I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:  Ex. 20:2-4Gotta tell you:  in my head I hear it in big noble and rounded tones: I AM the Lord thy God.  The same I AM in the same rounded tones Jesus uttered in Mark 14:62 declaring Himself the Messiah.  Doesn't that give you the good shivers?  And the tense with the word 'have' alluding to the trinity of the Godhead.  sweet.  Oh man...  where was I?  Right.  Fire.

Anyway - the point God is making in Hebrews is essentially defined by the two verses in Deuteronomy.  And it is this: I rescued you from bondage - from slavery - from addiction - from illness - from a despotic ruler (we could just keep going here couldn't we?).  I love you so much that you need to understand how much I hate anything that even begins to come between us which will cause you harm.  Further - you need to understand a foundational truth:  sin cannot exist in my presence.  I am dressed in lightning in a robe of consuming light.  (Ps. 104:2)  My love is so powerful it is a consuming fire.  When you allow Me to be close to you - My Fire will protect you.  One of the ways it does that is by consuming all the sin that's in you.

And that is the point:  it is in our FAVOR that our God is a consuming fire!  All we have to do is to agree to be drawn closer to Him and as we do the sin in our lives burns away.  Sometimes that is painful - and in those moments it is completely acceptable to take the pain to Jesus.  To ask Him to relent until we are where He needs us to be for that cleansing action.

Thank You Jesus that You never give up on me!  Thank You that You do it all:  You draw me, You woo me, You cleanse me, You recreate me, You first love me so I can love You back.  You as a consuming fire?  That's GREAT news!