Home	Our Hope
Bible Study		July 19, 2015
Strange Fire

Introduction

I read a comment by a non-Christian recently which said something like "If God didn't punish America for what America did to the native Americans then God won't punish America for approving homosexuality". She may not realize it but she is saying that God thinks just like her - that her standards of right and wrong are the same as God's. Really what she is doing is creating a god in her own image. She has in fact made herself god.

I also read an article by a gay Christian. She insisted that God loves her and that she worshiped him the same as every other Christian. She has done the same thing as the woman above - substituted her sense of right and wrong for that of God's and deceived herself. There can no more be a gay Christian than there can be an adulterous Christian.

God's people sometimes do this as well. It happens when we decide to define what is right and wrong, what God will accept and will not accept. The general name for this is worshiping with strange fire - worshiping God our way instead of his. Defining right and wrong isn't something new of course. The Bible has many examples of people doing this.

In this lesson we will look at examples in the Bible where this has happened.

Lesson

We'll begin with the incident in the Bible that gives us the name "strange fire".

The next example comes from King Saul

The next example comes from King David

What worship is acceptable? God wants worship that comes from a clean heart, worship that treats him as holy