Not Shying Away from the 'Blaze

Anyone affiliated with the LCMS has heard of the "Ablaze movement." Simply put, it's a "bait and switch" Church Growth operation. This means they provide some things that satisfy the flesh (songs, creature comforts, etc) and hope somewhere along the way you pick up some of the Word of God. One of the many problems with this approach is to satisfy the flesh, you have to remove the Offense of the Cross- i.e. all of the stuff that makes us Christians! Some people don't see a problem with this. DON'T LISTEN TO THEM! They are snakes in the grass, wolves in sheep's clothing. They want you to do like the Church in Ephesus that lost it's true love in Revelation (Chapter 2:1-7), be like the "undead" ("I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.") in Sardis (Rev. 3:1-6), and lukewarm to God like Laodicea (Rev 3:14-22). Beware this trend- it will lead people astray, passing "marshmallows" as the "ultimate food" for Christians. It is nothing but air and sugar- pleasing but worthless.

It's also interesting to note that almost every time the word "ablaze" is used in the Bible (NIV translation), it is in the role of judgment. I post the following verses for you to consider:

" 30 The LORD will cause men to hear his majestic voice
and will make them see his arm coming down
with raging anger and consuming fire,
with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.

31 The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria;
with his scepter he will strike them down.

32 Every stroke the LORD lays on them
with his punishing rod
will be to the music of tambourines and harps,
as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.

33 Topheth has long been prepared;
it has been made ready for the king.
Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,
with an abundance of fire and wood;
the breath of the LORD,
like a stream of burning sulfur,
sets it ablaze."
Isaiah 30:30-33

" 1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!

2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze
and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
and cause the nations to quake before you!

3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
you came down, and the mountains trembled before you."

Isaiah 64:1-3

8 "While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.

9 "As I looked,
"thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;
the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.

10 A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated,
and the books were opened."

Daniel 7:8-10

"7The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

8The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed."

Rev. 8:7-9

At the least you would think the "Ablaze" people would have checked this out. But apparently such things were not checked- how much of their theology is from their minds and not the mouth of God?

As I close, I leave you with one more aside. If you search for "Ablaze" on Google, you will get a ton of answers. The first one is the LCMS "movement." The fourth is a book called "Ablaze!: The Mysterious Fires of Spontaneous Human Combustion." I think this says it all.

Don't worry- I will have more on the Ablaze group as I find time to research it. The main thrust here is anything that attempts to supplant the Word and usurp the worship service as things we do for God (instead of what God does for us) is a lie and a blasphemy!