Pulled from the Fire

By Jerry D. Ousley

            The flames licked ferociously all around the two-story house.  Higher and higher they climbed up the sides of the house like a lizard scaling a tree.  Even from across the street you could feel the intense heat that was generated from the beast.  Like a dragon hungry for more, you could see through the windows how that even the entrails of the house were slowly being consumed by the merciless monster.

            The rubber-suit clad fire fighters were doing all they could both from the ground and from elevated buckets.  Water was pouring by the gallons on the torturous flames from all possible directions but it seemed the ferociously roaring, wood-hungry serpent shed it like it was nothing.  One, then two ambulances arrived at the scene yet there were no victims appeared as of yet.  Several people were nervously pacing, talking and sometimes yelling at those in charge.  What was wrong?  Was there more to the situation that what met the eye?

            Suddenly, a figure emerged from the flames that licked tauntingly – daringly just inside the open door.  Then you could see her; a mother, tightly clenching a toddler clad in a thick blanket.  She held the child closely to her chest, protecting it from the danger of the horrible flames.  She was clad in what appeared to be at one time a white night gown.  It now smoldered and smoked and had been burned black in places.  Her hair was also smoldering and you could tell that her arms, hands and feet were covered in what was probably third-degree burns.  However, as soon as she knew that her child was safe, not burned and breathing just fine, it was as if her own wounds from tangling with the monstrous beast meant nothing.

            This story makes me thing of our own spiritual battle.  We too are fighting against a raging inferno when it comes to the salvation of those we love, our friends, and relatives; children, husbands, wives, parents and more.  When we come to Christ and realize what we have been saved from – the curse of eternal death and punishment in the ever-burning, never quenched, Lake of Fire as described in the Book of Revelation, then we desperately want those who touch our lives to also be freed from the curse.

            Without Jesus we are all doomed for that place.  Only through Christ, Who is the only Door from which to escaped the horror of hell (John 10:7-9).  Some try to go another way.  Some say that “all roads lead to Heaven” but they are grossly mistaken.  Those who encourage such teaching are in much danger themselves for allowing them to believe that lie.

            Jude wrote some verses that aptly describe, in my opinion, the battle we face in trying to win those we love.  He wrote, “And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” (Jude 22-23). 

            The picture is much like the story of the mother saving her child.  We must love those so much that we are willing to be burned in the flames ourselves in order to snatch them out.  We know the consequences of leaving them behind.  We know that if we don’t pull them from the flames that they will be forever lost.  We can’t bear to think of that.  We must do something.

            Unlike the mother and child in the story, we can’t always sweep them up in our arms and run them to safety.  We want to.  It would be much easier if we could do that.  But we have their own free wills to deal with as well.  As plainly as we can see the spiritual flames licking all around them, and we want to grab them and go, they are blinded to them.  For some reason they are oblivious to the danger, the smoke and the heat and the falling debris all around them.  They may get angry at us because we love them so much that we want to force them to escape.  But our arguments, our preaching, our continual nagging, does nothing be make them want to stay even more.

            How can we pull those we love from the fire of hell?  How can we rescue them from that awful fate of the Lake of Fire?  How can we bring them to Jesus and make them go through the door through which they too can find their salvation from such a terrible fate?

            In many cases, all we can do is pray.  While we silently live a life for God before them, and while we let them see us pray, worship God and let them see ultimate joy, peace and calm in us despite the raging inferno all around us, God will begin to nudge them.  Now bear in mind, He will not violate their free will – their free choice.  If they insist on being lost in the flame, He will allow them to do it.  But in honor of our prayers and our life, He will put them in situations that make them think, make them wonder, and secretly make them search.

            Again, we can’t make them.  But when they do make the choice to yield to God and accept Christ as their salvation from eternal torment, then just as Jude wrote, we have pulled them from the fire.  So, keep yanking in prayer.  Keep pulling with the life we live in front of them.  Keep on trying no matter how hopeless it may seem – No matter how futile the situation seems to become.  You may just pull them from the fire.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.