The Fire and the Attributes of God

This has been an amazing week. Who would have imagined last Sunday that in the coming week over half a million people would be evacuated from their homes as hundreds of thousands of acres burned and over a thousand homes were destroyed? Many from our church were evacuated. Almost all of us were ready to flee the fires with our cars packed full of photo albums and important papers. What would you take? As you are aware, our family was deeply touched by the events when two of our friends perished in the flames.

We are in the midst of a series on the attributes of God, so I have decided to merge our study with the events of this week as we consider how God's attributes are displayed in the firestorm of 2007. Some people get angry with God when disaster strikes. Instead, we should be put in our place as feeble, finite sinful creatures and should thank God for his kindness and patience with us and our community. Some deny that God has anything to do with the fires, instead attributing everything to ‘mother nature' or ‘chance.' Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases (Ps. 115:3). He was not caught by surprise when the fires struck. Actually He was working out His plan in our community and in the lives of many individuals and families. Finally, fire is a reminder and a warning of the coming judgment, while pointing us to Christ who withstood the fires of judgment for us!