Last Sunday’s Thought: are we willing to be on fire for Jesus?

John Wesley tell us in his journal that on 24 May 1738 he had a ‘burning experience’ that changed his life. ‘About a quarter before nine, while [the preacher] was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.’ Others, such as Blaise Pascal in the seventeenth century, have had a similar ‘burning experience’. After they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread at Emmaus, Cleopas and the other disciple said to each other, ‘Wasn’t it like a fire burning in us when he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?’ (Luke 23:32). God’s fire, we are told by the Prophet Malachi (Mal. 3:2, 3, 6), is like the refiner’s fire: it does not destroy us but purifies us, separating the good from the bad. As John the Baptist prophesied, Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matt. 3:11). Are we willing to be on fire for Jesus?