Blog # 62 SHARING THE FIRE OF JESUS' love

Blog # 62 SHARING THE FIRE OF JESUS' LOVE "Whatever you do, whether in speech or in action, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus." (Col 3: 17). Yesterday morning when I was reflecting upon this particular verse of the Bible it occurred to me to imagine something of the meaning of what the author was saying to me by way of comparing his thought with the identity of fire. A characteristic of fire is that it is hot, and whatever touches fire shares the heat of the fire, becoming hot like the fire itself. Then whatever has been heated by the fire shares its heat in turn with whatever it will touch. When whatever has been warmed by the fire begins to cool it can be warmed again by contact with the fire. Isn't it something like this with regard to our identity as Christian believers and out contact with Jesus ? Jesus is the 'original' Christian as fire is the source of heat. Our identity as christian believers is that we have been touched through God's grace with the love of God in Jesus. In this experience we are not merely made to be like Jesus as a picture of fire might indeed resemble fire in its color and physical appearance. Rather we are like Jesus by way of actually sharing the mind, attitude, and Spirit of Jesus, as an object touching fire actually makes some of the heat of the fire its very own. And as an object warmed by fire is capable of warming other objects placed in contact with it, though in itself it is not fire, so we who have been 'born from above' (Jn 3: 3) and have become a 'new creation' in Christ (2 Cor 5: 17), are called and qualified through the love God shares with us to share God's love with those around us. And this is to be true in whatever we do, "in speech or in action" (Col 3: 17, above). I wonder how many people realize this truth in the sense of understanding it and then secondly realizing it in the sense of permitting it to have a practical effect in their lives , in what they say, and in what they do. God's love was lived out perfectly in Jesus. We who are His disciples have become a new creation, born from above, transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit as branches sharing the life of a living vine, the Church. United with Jesus thrugh faith and Baptism each one of us is called and empowered not merely to imitate the love of Jesus, but to share it as our own in Him. ( cf Jn 17: 20 - 23,24; Mt 10 : 40; Jn 15 : 1 - 5; Gal 2 : 20; Rom 6 : 4; 2 Cor 5 : 17). Our Father, Father of Jesus, and in Him my Father,...hallowed be Thy Name... Thy will be done...!