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November 9, 2026 |
| Too Close to the Flame | ||
Many people try to have as much of God in their lives as they can stand. They section off the parts of their lives that are for God and the parts that are theirs. But some people get too much God in their lives, and they run away like they were burned.
Many people in the church find a place for God in their lives. God gets part of their lives - maybe they go to church twice a year, or once a month, or even every week - but the rest of their lives is theirs to live how they want. Each person finds some distance from God that is comfortable to them. More or less, they keep that distance, though some move further away over time.
They consider themselves to be Christians, but God calls them lukewarm Christians, and says he "will vomit them out of [his] mouth. (Revelation 3:16)" Instead, God wants people "who hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matthew 5:6)," people who "sold everything [they] had and bought it. (Matthew 13:46)"
People like this go into the flame because they want to be more like God and eventually perfect.
People who are at a comfortable distance from God cause trouble in the church. They set the wrong example of what a Christian should be, and interfere with the work of the church by adding chaos.
There is another kind of "Christian," one that is very rare. I've only seen 3 of this kind in the 18 years I've served our Lord.
The most recent one was a close friend for many years. For a long time I had been answering his off-and-on questions about God and Christianity. We communicated by texting. He was driving the conversation by asking the questions. The tone was always amicable.
During that time, he had moved from saying there is no god to admitting there is a personal god, though he still wanted to define this god.
Long breaks in that conversation were normal, but after one of those breaks he responded to a political post I had made. He was shrieking about what a terrible thing I had said, and how he wanted no part of a god like that, and that we were no longer friends. It was a lightning strike out of the blue.
I never responded partly because it was such a departure from our relationship that I wondered if he had suffered some mental breach. Even if that was not the case, there is no talking to a person when they are like that. Also, God had warned me that I would lose him, in a dream that I didn't understand until I got that message. So I left it alone.
Sometime later, I made another political post on Facebook, and got another shrieking message from him.
This is the pattern for this kind of person. They find someone who draws them closer to God, without fully understanding that they are moving closer. Suddenly they discover they are too close to the flame, much closer than they are comfortable with, and they fly away as quickly as they can while shouting awful things at the person(s) who brought them too close.
A young man had joined the church where I was teaching. He had only a little background in Christianity, but the people in this church were saying things in ways that made him curious. He became involved in the church, eventually becoming a deacon.
Then at a Bible study, he said he had a conversation with God while lying in his bed one night. That's an uncommon thing, but God has been known to do this, so we didn't think too much about it. A few weeks later at Bible study, he said that Satan had spoken to him one night. This concerned us.
Shortly after that, he sent a message to the pastor saying how terrible he was and how the other people were. He ran away to his mother, leaving his wife behind. In Facebook posts that he made later, he seemed like he was a different person than the one we had known. He switched to being very liberal and anti-God.
In the same church as the case above, an older man joined us. He had come from a background of Voodoo and a mix of other religions. He was also very interested in what the church was teaching. He started to attend regularly.
Then one day he was bitten by a snake. The venom from the snake did some damage to his foot, though he was OK. Shortly after that, he decided that the snakebite was a warning from God to stay away from us because we were teaching lies. We never saw him again.
The people who are at a comfortable distance from God are not really different from the ones who got too close to the flame and fled. They are afraid of the flame, and they do not want it, yet the flame calls to them. Otherwise, they would be nowhere near it.
I heard a story about a woman who normally kept a comfortable distance. Once in a while, though, she would feel the call and start moving toward the flame, but very quickly she would start to feel uncomfortable and retreat back to her safe place.
The Bible doesn't mention people like this. In the parable of the sower, Jesus talked about the seed falling on different soils. None of those soils threw the seed back out and cursed it, but he did talk about a case that fits.
That which was sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deception of wealth choke the word, and that one is fruitless. (Matthew 13:20-21)
The people we've discussed have other concerns. They want to live a balanced life that mixes God in with the other things they love. For some of them, that means hovering at a safe distance from God. For others, it means getting too close, and then running away with their hair on fire after they realize the flame will change them in ways they don't want.
Jesus is speaking metaphorically and spiritually of course, where the "seed" lands on the hearts of people. So when he says the "seed" (the word) is choked, he means that it is held in a choke hold and can do nothing. Despite this, these people continue in the church (physical).
Can we handle people like this better? Perhaps move them forward more slowly? From my experience, we can't recognize that they are that kind of person until it is too late. They head in with enthusiasm at first. Who can stop them or even tell them to slow down?
I think the problem will still exist, even if they moved more slowly. Perhaps they would get closer to the flame than they would have if moving at full speed, but they will still be unable to give up the other concerns they have, and they will run away or move back to a safe distance.
Are the burned ones hopeless? I don't think so. They still have what they received, and it may be possible for them, at a future point in their lives, to give up their worldly cares.
For those who hover at a safe distance, if they can stay that way, they are unreachable. They need God to spit them out, either by getting too close and running away, or just by drifting away. Then they will be cold, but we know they are attracted to the flame because they came toward it before.