Between Two Fires
And when they had kindled a fire…Peter sat down among them.
Luke 22:55
As soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there.
John 21:9
Peter warmed himself at the enemy’s fire-and denied His Lord. The devil always has a convenient fire for saints who are about to slip. Taking it easy is often the prelude to backsliding. Comfort precedes collapse.
Days later, Peter warmed at another fire, the coals His Master had kindled on the beach. There he met the question, “Lovest thou me?” and received the commission, “Feed my sheep.”
Many Christians are living in an interim between Satan’s Fire and the Saviour’s Fire. If you have fallen because you warmed yourself when you should have warned yourself, the Lord seeks an interview. Peter, the backslider, was marked Special: “Go tell his disciples and Peter (Mk. 16:7). He does not want to fire you out but to fire you up!
If you have collapsed at Satan’s Fire, you may be converted at the Saviour’s Fire. Do not live “between fires.”