WHAT KIND OF A FIREMAN ARE YOU?!

Driving home, late at night, you turn onto your street and see that your house is burning. Remembering that your children are alone, asleep in the basement, you frantically dial the fire department, on your cellular phone.

"Hello?" a voice yawns through the receiver.

"Come to 123 Me-Me-Me Street,” you scream. “It's an emergency!"

Silence.

"Hello? Hello? Are you still there?!"

You hear a long dog-like yawn:

"Yeah, I'm still here," the voice drawls. "What're you getting so excited about?"

You stare, open-mouthed, at the receiver:

"What am I getting so excited about?! My children are about to be burned alive!"

"Relax. They have plenty of time to wake up - a couple of them might even escape. You might as well rent a video while you wait. Or maybe call up a friend and have a cappuccino. Or maybe take a nap like I'm going to continue doing. Or..."

"What kind of a fireman are you?! Your job is to rescue people from fires, but you spend your time sleeping! Connect me to your supervisor!!"

"I am the supervisor. Besides, my job isn't to save people from fire, but to teach firemen to be the best firemen they can be, and to have fun while doing it. Saving people from fires is the job of "The-Rare-People-with-the-Rare-Gift-of-Rescuing-People-From-Fires-Who-Have-Made-Rescuing-People-From-Fires-Their-Vocation-in-Life" agency. Now, if you'll kindly excuse me, I must rest up for my upcoming lecture next month.”

As your phone drones dead, the roof of your house caves in, in an explosion of smoke and flame. Trembling, you call up all the other fire stations, police stations, paramedics, family, friends, co-workers, fellow students, neighbors, strangers, but get the same response. You call the number of "The-Rare-People-with-the-Rare-Gift-of-Rescuing-People-From-Fires-Who-Have-Made-Rescuing-People-From-Fires-Their-Vocation-in-Life" agency. A frantically recorded message tells you that all of the agency’s few laborers are currently fighting fires, non-stop, worldwide, and have been, without a break, for the past twenty-four years.

As you watch the rest of your home and your sleeping family disappear in the rising flame, your phone rings.

"Hello?" a sleepy voice says "I'm the firemen's supervisor that you talked to a little while ago. We're about to host our annual fire-fighters’ “Fun Feast Award Night, to celebrate our contribution to our community. We've voted ourselves to be the fastest growing, most innovative, most excellent, most enjoyable, most contemporary fire department, in the nation, with over 3,000 fire fighters attending! But we're in a bind. We need more money in order to properly serve beloved members of our community, such as yourself, with this vitally important event. Would you be so kind as to do your civic duty and donate $5000 to our worthy organization, or, would $10, 000 be better for you? We do offer an installment plan, if you would be more interested..."

Numbly, you feel the cell phone slip from your hand. You watch the last of your house burn. Then you hear crackling fire, and screams.

Imagine being in such an unbelievable situation. This is the situation that God, our Heavenly Father, finds Himself faced with every moment of every day.

The nearly seven billion inhabitants of earth, all which God desires to have as His children, are sleeping in sheets of sin, upon beds of fleshly lust, in the burning basement dungeon of satan’s kingdom. God is calling His spiritual firemen, Christians, to douse satan’s fires, with the water of God’s Word, shot through the hose of the Holy Ghost. But the firemen are drowsy, lulled into apathy by money, fleshly desires, self-centered goals, aspirations, and plans, worldly “church” functions which provide fun, fun, fun, instead of freedom from the fires of sin.

The few firefighters awakened attempt to extinguish the billons of blazes raging each night, yet, when they call for back-up, they are hailed as being faithful, yet extreme and perhaps too radical, members of "The-Rare-People-with-the-Rare-Gift-of-Rescuing-People-From-Fires-Who-Have-Made-Rescuing- People-From-Fires-Their-Vocation-in-Life" agency but given no help, asked to donate $15,000 to the Fun Feast Award Night, and left to fight the fires alone.

What kind of a fireman are you, self-professed “Christian”?

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Fire Marshall of the Universe, is sounding the alarm for all spiritual firemen to jump into their trucks of Love, speed down highways of Obedience, shoot through their Holy Ghost hoses the water of God’s Word, and quench the raging flames of Hell kindled upon the buildings of sinful lives.

Will you heed Christ’s call, leap from your bed of selfishness, cast off the sheets of fear, and preach God’s Word to the burning billions, or, will you roll over, burrow deeper beneath blankets of rebellion and burn with the world you refuse to warn?

What kind of fireman are you, professed Christian; what kind of fireman are you?

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