Reasons to Write & Flames that Refine

          Outside the front window of a familiar coffee shop, I see the ground on which I have trod for a time near three years now.  It is ground that holds much pain, and much joy - but most of all, abounding grace.  Thinking of the sky-bound hill tops and dark-infested pits I have been blessed and cursed to know in this place, I can only say that the blood and battle-marred field of my heart and soul is the most beautiful sight I have ever known.  It is not because I myself have fought tooth-and-nail to the result of a personal victory over darkness that binds our kind.  It is, however, because I know of the futility that any creature of exploitation faces when stepping onto that field.  There is One who became this exploitation, who became this darkness and weakness, so that I may know victory.  A blood and battle-marred field is beautiful when it is known that the battle has been won already.  No, the blood is not mine - or any friend's or relative's for that matter - but His.  From my soul's field it will never be washed away or trampled out - it is from the name, Jesus, that any reality of this beauty comes.

          It is from this reality that a creature of exploitation attempts to divert those who follow Jesus.  satan, abaddon, accuser, apollyon, or the dragon, he goes by many names.  By him we have been scouted in our weakness - a poisonous whisper slithers into the ear bearing distraction from "It Is Finished."  Around my field he set a blazing ring of fear, depression, and worry, and there it stayed in effectiveness.  I forgot all about the beautiful blood that covered the field in place of mine, and fixed my eyes on the "worthlessness," "inadequacy," and "hopelessness" of myself.  It was in this time that the flames blinded me from the gifts I was given, and in this blindness I was left immobilized and forgetful of peace or hope that cannot be understood.  All the while, the blazing ring hadn't spread an inch in advancement upon my soul's field, and the blood that covered it was as red and relevant as it always has been. 

          As I continue scanning the grounds outside the familiar coffee shop window, it is from this I offer reassurance.  The One who has claimed your soul's field will slay the dragon in perfect timing.  Until then, however, in life He can help you tame it.  Only through Jesus can flames the dragon sets refine us.  And they will, if we do not forget that the battle has been won already.  It is with this knowledge that we can better brave the flames, and it is with this braving that we can better tell those who have not found this hope.  For this reason I have started writing again, and it is for this I will not stop.

With Christ may we brave the fire and tame the dragon.

"These have come so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."         

- 1 Peter 1:7 (ESV)

"And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested.  They will call upon my name, and I will answer them.  I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The Lord is my God.'" 

- Zechariah 13:9 (ESV)

"Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction."

- Isaiah 48:10 (ESV)

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Grace & Peace,

    

J. S. Wade