about a burning fire

right now i'm listening to Blindside's "About a Burning Fire" and it is a moving song. at times the vocalist is screaming and at other times singing melodiously. you really hear the yearning for God's love and his fire as well.

i truly want to write a poem about how the Christian experiences God's love somewhat dispassionately due to the tribulations and tials experienced in a groaning, fallen world. i want to address the uses of fire in Scripture such as God revealed in the burning bush, the firey furnace of the Hebrew slaves, the flaming tounges on the Apostles, the fire from heaven for Elijah's saturated altar, the fire in Jeremiah's bones, the Exodus fire by day the the cloud by night, the Transfiguration, etc...even to depicting the fire of Ridley and Lattimer, the picture of Christ feeding the maligned flame in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the subtle fire of the modern Sons of Thunder, and my own disquiet flame--subdued yet at times ambivalent, and yearning for greater intimacy.

nevertheless, i appreciate the image of fire in Scripture and in the history of the Church through the ages. i seek to properly administer a cohesive, yet seemingly assiduous representation of the work of fire. this is a quote by Elizabeth Barret Browning which is an excerpt from Your God is Too Safe by Mark Buchanan. just for the record when an author quotes E.B. Browning, they score major brownie points with me. (photo by: annonymous).

Earth is crammed with heaven
and every common bush afire with God;
but only he who sees takes off his shoes.
The rest sit around and
pluck blackberries.