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Life Around "The Fire"
Life Around "The Fire"
The Moment When God Shows Up in Your Basement
The moment you realize God's justice isn't slow—it's thorough. This profound spiritual journey explores the paradoxical power of Christ's crucifixion through personal testimony and theological reflection.
From Hitler to Saddam Hussein, history shows us that bringing high-ranking officials to justice requires meticulous process. Similarly, Satan—the highest-ranking criminal who attempted to usurp divine authority—is subject to God's thorough judgment. The wheels of divine justice may appear to turn slowly, but they "grind exceedingly fine," ensuring complete and perfect judgment.
The cross stands at the center of human history as the ultimate crossroads. Like Paul writing to the Corinthians, we must sometimes set aside our complexity and return to this fundamental truth: Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Through captivating personal testimony, we journey from a five-year-old child's first encounter with a crucifixion image to a transformative basement experience at thirteen, where Christ's presence became palpably real. This raw account reveals how spiritual understanding often begins with simple questions, lies dormant for years, then erupts in unexpected moments of divine encounter.
What makes Christ's sacrifice so transformative? He accomplishes what we cannot. He bridges gaps we don't even recognize exist. He changes our trajectory completely, instilling within believers a spiritual compass that continuously reorients us toward Him despite our struggles. Through the cross, Jesus takes our sin and gives us His divine life—a profound exchange that creates overcomers who can stand against the powers of darkness. Have you experienced this personal transformation? We'd love to hear your story at lifearoundthefire@gmail.com.
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearounsthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
It is no small thing to see a high-ranking official brought to justice, a crime of treason against a kingdom, against a nation, against a governing power, a high-ranking official who's found guilty. Even though they're found guilty, there's a process involving the execution of justice and ultimate judgment, and one might think, well, that's kind of cumbersome, isn't it? And at first glance it might appear so. But when a person steps back and looks at things, especially as it pertains to the eyes of God, which his thoughts and his ways are much, much higher than my ways and my thoughts, his perspective is far greater than mine. His perspective is perfect, his judgments are absolutely true and right, his justice is without flaw. There's no shadow of turning in God, there's no playing favoritism and in the end of all things, he will prove that things that he has decided are the correct things, necessary things. And so if on an earthly level, just on a human level, it's hard to bring a high-ranking official, it takes time Hard to bring them into a place of justice. Hitler, for example how long did it take Hitler to finally be cornered and really found out for who he was? And he didn't even go through the process of having his crimes defined for him in public. He shot himself or he killed himself. One way or the other he ended his life.
Speaker 1:Another one of the brutal individuals Saddam Hussein, unknown mass murderer. Chemical warfare a known mass murderer, chemical warfare. Still, it was a process to apprehend him and bring him to justice, sometimes because he hid. Other times it was the process itself. You couldn't just snap your fingers and have it done well and hid. Other times it was the process itself. You couldn't just snap your fingers and have it done Well.
Speaker 1:Satan, lucifer, the devil, has committed the crime of all crimes, and that is to exalt himself above God and, to this very moment, still thinks that his position is going to have, in the end, the throne of God and being worshipped as the Mosaic God. It's called megalomania. He's a maniac that's very, very, very out of control. Megalo, mega, megamaniac, megalomaniac. Caught in a delusion, but nonetheless, prior to his crime he was a high-ranking official in the courts of the Lord, and so to bring him and those who are aligned with him into a place of final judgment, it has taken some time because it's a very thorough process. It has taken some time because it's a very thorough process. It's been said that the wheels of God's justice might grind slow, but they grind exceedingly fine Meaning, even though it seems like it's taking time. It's taking time because he's thorough. God will not be accused of being partial or being wrong. People try, people still try, but people are people. Satan tries and Satan is Satan, or, as some call him, the Satan is that he's just that, and so God's not intimidated. And this is all leading up to where we are focusing our attention on right now in this particular podcast series concerning the kingdom of God, and we're parked on Jesus Christ. I mean, we're always parked on him, but we're parked on Jesus Christ and him crucified because it's central to everything concerning mankind. The cross is the crossroads of the ages and we are now in a place and in a time where it's important once again to appreciate what it was and what it is that Jesus provided and is providing as a result of his sacrificial death on the cross. And so we're looking at Jesus and his crucifixion, and I'm primarily taking this from the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, the entire chapter but the first several verses.
Speaker 1:The Apostle Paul is talking to the church in Corinth and saying that when I came, when he came to visit them, he didn't come with a lot of eloquence, even though Paul could have. He had the credentials to do that, to wow them with his knowledge. But he said I didn't, he goes. When I came, I came with one thing and that was this I only came to talk about Jesus and him crucified as Messiah, that's it. Do you know how much discipline it takes to do something like that, when you have a mind full of other things and he later goes on to say we could talk about the deeper things of God? He goes, the Holy Spirit gives us deep revelation. It's not as though we're void of that. But he said when I came to you, I couldn't do that because you were still like infants, you needed milk.
Speaker 1:And in this particular podcast series now this specific episode, I'm not so much referring to the fact that you might be young and you need milk. I'm saying that we all need to be reminded at times about the core of our faith, the basis for us having a covenant relationship with God, any relationship, but a covenant relationship, yeah, it's because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross and then afterward. But leading up to it and being on it, there would have been no afterward. He had to go to the cross. Now I'm going to be 66 in a couple of months, which is 36 years longer than I thought I would live when I was in my ripe age of 17, right At the ripe age of 17. I thought, ah, I'm going to be one of those the good die young, maybe when I hit 30, if I hit 30. Well, god had other plans and has other plans, and so I'll be 66 in May, and it's March of 2025 right now. I'm 25 right now.
Speaker 1:So when I was about five years old or should we say 61 years ago, six decades ago I distinctly remember sitting on the floor in my mom and dad's living room, our house, and I was looking at a calendar that we had, and it was a calendar that the Lutheran Church had provided and it had different pictures on the calendar concerning the months of the year, and there was one particular picture happened to be the month of March, I believe at the time where I looked at it and there was a picture of a painting, small painting of three men hanging on a cross, or each of them hanging on a cross, or each of them hanging on a cross, and I remember distinctly looking at that and I couldn't take my eyes off of what I saw. Couldn't take my eyes off of what I saw. It looked so, so strange. I couldn't understand what that was. I couldn't, I didn't understand what that was about.
Speaker 1:And I remember asking my mom. I said, mom, what is this, what's this picture about? She goes oh, that's a picture of Jesus and two other men who are hanging on a cross. I said why she was. Jesus was hanging on the cross to pay for the bad things that other people had done. And I didn't quite understand. So I said, mom, what she says? Jesus was an innocent man and instead of the other people experiencing pain, the penalty of what they had done, which would have been death, a death sentence, he took it for them and he hung on the cross instead of them hanging on the cross. And I said he hung on. Did he die on the cross? Yeah, he died on the cross. He shed all of his blood so that none of us that none of us, none of us who believe in him, who've done things wrong, will have to experience death like that. And I just remember thinking he did that and for me I didn't think of myself so much at the time I said wow, he did it for you mom. She said, yeah, he did that for me. I said have you done things that have been wrong? I said have you done things that have been wrong? She goes. Yes, I've done things that have been wrong. So he paid a price. He paid for you so you wouldn't have to have a bad experience in life. She goes, not so much in life, but once we die and we live again. And I opened up another oh can of worms. I said we die and we live again. What do you mean? She goes once you. I said am I going to die? She goes, yes, you're going to die eventually. I said well, I going to die? She goes. Yes, you're going to die eventually. I said, well, I want to die. She goes. I think we better wait a little while before we go any further with this.
Speaker 1:And my mind continued to go on for, I don't know, at least another couple days. I remember going back to that picture and looking at it and it kinda spooked me. I gotta admit it kinda spooked me, made my stomach turn a little bit, I felt so sorry for Jesus and I was five right. And then, as life goes on for all of us one day led into another and pretty soon I had other things going on and I didn't really think about the cross and Jesus. For another, I don't know. Eight years, about another eight years, until.
Speaker 1:Until about another eight years, until until one day a friend of mine came over. We were playing catch with a baseball and it kind of got hot outside, so he said he was over at my house. I said go on, let's go down to the basement in my house and cool off and live in Minnesota. So everyone had a basement in their home. So I went in my basement and sat down, had something to drink and he began telling me a story about his dad and what took place a few years earlier I didn't which I didn't know anything about, and he was just talking about his dad and how his dad got caught in this horrible fire that started in their home and he got burned terribly.
Speaker 1:And while my friend was telling me this story, I felt something happening in our basement, in the basement of my house. I felt like someone else was in the room other than just Ken, my friend's name, ken, and he had me. It felt like there was someone else in the room, someone big, and I remember trying to get up off of my chair and I couldn't move, and the presence of this other person continued to get stronger and stronger and stronger and it was as though there was like a almost like a shimmering type of a light that was coming in the room. And I remember uncontrollably having the urge inside of me to start crying and to cry. I was 13 at the time, my friend was 16, to cry in front of your friend at age you just don't really do that. Just don't do that, but you're a guy.
Speaker 1:But I was getting teared up and I wanted to tell him the things inside of my life that I didn't feel very good about. And the presence in the room continued to get stronger and it was pure love. But also it was pure love exposing anything that was dark, or the only way I could put it was evil inside of me, which I didn't consider to be evil At that moment I started feeling like it was evil and I wanted to get it out. And so, as my friend is talking, as Ken is talking, I finally couldn't take it anymore. I said, ken, I got to tell you I have been a liar in my life and I started just pouring out my heart to him and in the background I heard him saying things like this is what Jesus went to the cross for.
Speaker 1:Whoa, five-year-old experience whoa, five year old experience me being five years old came to my Jesus on the cross. I'm like what? This is what he died for. So he goes tell Jesus, you're sorry. I said Jesus, I am so sorry that this is what got you to the cross. I am so sorry he goes, tell Jesus your sins. Jesus, this is what there is to the cross. I am so sorry he goes tell Jesus your sins. Jesus, this is what there is. I kept saying these kept coming up. They kept coming up, coming up, coming up, coming up.
Speaker 1:Finally, I didn't have any more left my friend. In the background I could hear him say now, ask Jesus to come into your life. I said Jesus, come into my life. And funny thing happened I felt a presence filling me up from the inside, not on the outside, from the inside inside of me, filling me up, and it felt so fresh, so loving, and I felt so light, like I could float. I didn't my mind didn't have, I didn't realize how much those things had weighed, that I had talked to God about Lying, stealing, 13-year-old stuff, you know, but still it was real.
Speaker 1:I saw the outcome of what I was doing. I thought that was in me and that was pulling me in a whole different direction, a different way. It was pulling me in a different direction, me in a different direction, and I distinctly remember feeling at that point in time that I no longer wanted to live that way. I no longer wanted to live that way. I wanted to devote my life to God. I'm 13 years old. Devote your life to God. You'd think I would want to devote my life to hockey before right, baseball, so to get interested in girls, right, I devote my life to other stuff, but I want to devote my life to God.
Speaker 1:My heart was full of love and my friend looked at me from across the way. He was David, you've been born again, ha ha. I said, kenneth, I know exactly what you mean. I feel like this is the first day of my life Like I see things completely different, like I see things completely different. And we talked for another hour. He had to go. My mom and dad came home. They had gone somewhere and they came home and I told them exactly what happened. They didn't know what to say. My mom tried to be happy about it. She was more confused, and so my mom tried to be happy about it. She's more confused. And so I had an experience with the cross of Jesus Christ and him crucified, and I knew why he did it At the age of 13, I experienced the reality of what Jesus accomplished on that cross.
Speaker 1:What makes it so significant is the fact that a 13-year-old is not typically interested in that stuff by and large, unless, unless, unless it's God and my life became. I started moving in a different direction. I saw my life moving in a different direction. I still had rebellious tendencies within me that were, I said they had to be dealt with. But I continually came back to that place where I met Jesus and I understood the reality of what it was that he did when he was on the cross. He took away everything my sin and gave me his new life, his life, his resurrection life, his divine life. He gave me his life. I still had to contend with living here, still got pulled in different directions. But I had a compass, I had a gyroscope, I had a homing device inside of me, I had a tuning fork. I was born again in the spirit.
Speaker 1:A transaction took place, a covenant happened, and it happened because of the cross of Jesus Christ and him on it. It wasn't just anybody, it could have been just anybody. It had to be perfect, it had to be a sinless, sinless, sinless man. And he accomplished it. And he accomplished it. But not only did he accomplish that for me, he accomplished that for you, but the way it felt to me was even if it was just me, he would have done it. Even if it was just you, he would have done it. But he did it for us and he did it for mankind, for those of us who believe, who place our faith in the fact that Jesus did that on our behalf.
Speaker 1:He did what we couldn't do. He bridged the gap that we didn't even know we had because we were blind. He bridged the gap, the one that we were moving in the other direction, away from him. He took and changed the course. He gave me the gift of repentance. He gave me the ability to turn.
Speaker 1:I didn't have the ability to do anything. I didn't know what I was doing. I had no background to know what it was, what it was. I had no seminary education to tell me about the Roman's road to salvation. All I knew was I was being. I was encountering Jesus by his spirit, holy Spirit making Jesus real to me. He was drawing me to him. He had been drawing me to him. He'd been drawing me to him when I was five years old. He'd been drawing you to himself. For how long, for how long.
Speaker 1:And he draws us to the cross first. Well, he's taking us beyond the cross. He takes us to the resurrection. He takes us to the ascension, but the cross Takes us to the resurrection. It takes us to the ascension, but the cross, the death of Jesus on the cross, is central, and faith in what he did is central.
Speaker 1:The good news is that Jesus did this because we couldn't, we didn't have it in our mind to do it, but out of his great love and out of the fact that he is not quick to judgment and the fact that there is a high-ranking official that's in the process of being completely judged. The Satan, the fact that there's a high-ranking official that's in the process of being completely judged the Satan it being completely judged, and those who follow him will have no, absolutely nothing to say about how the judgment was executed, how justice came down. There'll be no question. God is that thorough and he makes a way. He makes a way. He will make a way where it doesn't seem like there is any way. He makes a way where there is no way. He makes a way. He's a way maker. He makes a way, he's a way maker.
Speaker 1:We're going to talk more about the whole aspect of the cross experience, but right now, let's just cap this off and pray.
Speaker 1:Father, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you that, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, we have been given the ability to be overcomers. You caught us to overcome the powers of darkness, to give us clarity as to what it is that you did and have been doing and will do. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, father, I love you, I trust you, I need you, we need you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, father, I love you, I trust you, I need you, we need you, we rely upon you. Holy Spirit, we look to you and ask you to empower us to be like Jesus, and we stand here in his name and we say amen, amen, amen, amen. All right, folks, I love you. If you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to drop us a line at lifearoundthefire, at gmailcom, or type in lifearoundthefire and look us up on the web. We would love to hear from you In the meantime. God bless you. Adios amigos.