Are we burning with the right fire?

In light of last week's sermon on Numbers 9 and 10 "Guidance in the Wilderness," a few thoughts of application:

1) God's presence in the cloud and fire that the wandering Israelites followed in the wilderness wasn't enough to keep them from sin (grumbling, idolatry, usurping leadership, sexual immorality, faithless fear), but
AS BELIEVERS, WE have the fire of God's own Spirit burning in our hearts. Not hovering above us, levitating in front of us, but God personally dwelling IN us, the Holy One inhabiting us with power and patience, illuminating light and transforming heat.

I read in the Tribune last night that Steve Wu, planting pastor of Willow Creek's City of Chicago congregation (1,200 people, started in 2005) just resigned after admitting sexual impurity. A missionary friend emailed this morning asking for prayer and comraderie to fight strong waves of temptation that mounted up against him this morning to seek out sexual pleasures for his eyes.

There are beautiful sirens calling us, mirages of glimmering images that promise to slake our thirsty desires, but let the truth be told: sailors who are serenaded by such deliciously sexually enticing songs return home by the tide washing their mangled bodies ashore, not by sea-worthy vessels in a happy homecoming. Sojourners who dig for themselves cisterns in the desert of illicit pleasures are soon crawling in the blistering sand, disoriented, and tasting only mouthfuls of grit. The only monument to their folly is a carcass in the wilderness.

2) Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, BELOVED, we feel sure of BETTER things--things that belong to salvation...And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises...But we are not those who shrink back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and preserve their souls. (Hebrews 6:9-12; 10:39)

We have the fire of God within us. We have a cloud of witnesses (Heb 12) surrounding us, saints past and present, to teach us, warn us, encourage us, smack us around in love, pick us up when we've fallen, and speak some sense and truth into our delusions. Like Moses called on Hobab his brother in Law (Num 10), we should call on one another to run the race well, to trudge through the wilderness with soberness.

We have the trumpet call of God (Numbers 10), sounding the clarion call for us to keep first things first.
Why do we "fall" into temptation and "find" ourselves "led astray" (such passive phrases might need to be balanced with language of personal responsibility like "jump" or "plunge" into temptation and "seek out" sin as our eyes lead our hearts, our desires drag us away from our duty and true delight in God).
But why do we give in to sin? One reason is that we are not diligently pursuing primary things, things that have been sounded like a long blast on a long silver trumpet. The call to worship. The call to war.
Are we excusing ourselves from worship? Even if we show up, are we showing up prepared, rested, "prayed-up" and ready to be filled up? Are we excusing ourselves from the regular rhythm of weekly worship, yes, weekly, not "most of the time."
Are we excusing ourselves from the war-time call to go and be witnesses, to raise our voices like a trumpet on behalf of the poor and forsaken? Are we speaking and living lives that sound the Jubilee trumpet, that set captives free with the word of life and deeds of justice?

We often sin, because we are playing the Christian game instead of fighting the fight of faith. We are not doing due diligence in worshiping God and witnessing in this world with word and deeds. How hard it should be for us to even FIND THE TIME to sin, even to make room in our thoughts for how we could manage to fit it into our schedules, because we're busy with things that REALLY MATTER, not things that tickle our fancy.

When I'm busy, I often hear sin's call, "Come, rest in my bosom! Enjoy yourself and reward yourself for all your hard work."
But when I'm busy with worship and witness and the good work with which God has entrusted me, I still see sin's mirage, and I hear the sirens calls, but brighter and clearer and louder is the cloud and fire and trumpet that His Word and Son and Spirit are for me.

And though Moses had the very and visible presence of God to tell Israel where to camp and when to break camp, like Moses needed Hobab, we need each other as eyes in the wilderness, to tell us where danger is and where the oases are.
Let me know if you need prayer, and pray for me as well.