Pascal's Fire

                     A little food for weekend thought--

          From A.W. Tozer:
     "Blaise Pascal, the famed 17th century French scientist and philosopher, experienced in  his lifetime a personal, overwhelming encounter with God that changed his life.  Those who attended him at his death found a worn, creased paper in his clothing, close to his heart--apparently a reminder of what he had felt and sensed in God's very presence.  In Pascal's own hand it read:
          'From about half past ten at night, to about half after midnight--fire!  O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob--not the God of philosophers or the wise.  The God of Jesus Christ who can be known only in the ways of the Gospel.  Security. Feeling.  Peace.  Joy.  Tears of joy--Amen!'
     Were these the expressions of a fanatic, an extremist?  No; it was the ecstatic utterance of a yielded man during two awesome hours in the presence of God.  The astonished Pascal could only describe the visitation in one word--'Fire!'"

     When my daddy was in the navy on the destroyer, Preston (and then on the Summers) for four years during World War II, he apparently read most or all of the words of the brilliant Pascal.  In one of Daddy's letters to his parents, he talked about how much Pascal's writings had meant to him.  I try to imagine what that must have been like...fighting horrific battles at places like Iwo Jima or Okinawa and then reading such deep treasures from the pen of Pascal...and then right back to the life and death struggles they faced every day, every hour.  Wow.  That's real world, isn't it?  I wish I could ask Daddy what he especially liked about Pascal.  Or maybe he just explain him to me!  Oh well, we have all of eternity to talk about it...and maybe then, I'll understand Pascal myself!
     But I loved these thoughts from Tozer about  Pascal.  We think of Pascal as such a brilliant thinker--a scientist, mathematician, inventor, philosopher.  But this powerful and emotional moment between Pascal and His Lord, well, it profoundly changed and affected him for the rest of his life.
     An encounter with our Lord leaves us never, ever the same.  Whether He meets us in the ICU by the bedside of a loved one or in the quietness of our home with a Bible on our laps or in the joy of savoring a glorious piece of music or even on a destroyer in enemy-infested waters far, far from home...our Savior's powerful presence is truly "security, feeling, peace, joy...[and] fire!"            Once we meet Him, we are never the same...we are never alone...and we are never without hope.  For He is Fire!  The fire that burns away the dross of our sin and selfishness.  The fire that warms our hearts with His presence.  The fire that provides His Light in our darkness.  The fire that empowers us to live for Him in a hard world.
     Oh might His fire burn brightly in our hearts and in our lives this day and everyday...because we know Him and love Him.  Come, Lord Jesus, come.
     To God be the glory.