I recently heard a preacher say that scientists have been studying chaos. Yes, it is actually a science. The study is called Chaology!

I don't know who funds such a study, or how it is done... (in a petri dish? I have NO idea!) ...but the results were quite interesting.
They discovered that what LOOKS like chaos on the surface, is really particles moving toward their intended end! WOW! Doesn't your mind just run with that?

Regardless of what your life has been, it doesn't matter how you started out (in chaos?), it is how you finish that matters... (arriving at your intended end)! If you think about it, we all have periods of chaos in life, even Bible heroes. But God makes ORDER out of chaos. Nothing happens to us without God's ultimate plan in effect.

The Bible says, "I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction (Isaiah 48:10)." God doesn't PUSH us into the fire, we have to CHOOSE to go into that furnace, because that is where we are chosen FROM! It is not from the jumping, shouting, praising times, when life is good.

God purifies us to the final level. He's looking for a people who walk out of the fire! We are not being punished, we are being purified! He is perfecting what is already inside us... he is refining us as pure gold. It is in the fire that the gold separates from the dross (impurities). It is then skimmed off and all that is left is the purified gold.

We may be tried through lies, gossip, sickness and want... through loneliness and rejection or financial setbacks. It may be a loss of a loved one, or even divorce. But God is looking for those who will walk through and out of these furnaces of affliction. We can get an idea of how this is accomplished when we read the account of the three Hebrews who were thrown into a literal fiery furnace, for their belief in God (Daniel chapter 3).

These men were in REAL chaos! The foreign king had ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual. The Hebrews had refused to bow down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. This "crime" was worthy of death by fire. (He had meant the fiery furnace of affliction to be a punishment unto death). Even the soldiers who bound and threw them into the furnace, were killed by the flames, the heat was so intense.

After a while the King stood up and said, "Didn't we throw three bound men into the fire? Lo, I see FOUR men loose, unhurt and walking around in the midst of the fire, and the fourth man looks like the Son of God!" The king then drew near to the door of the furnace and said "...you servants of the most high God, come forth and come here." When they came out, the Bible says that their clothes weren't burned, nor was their hair singed, nor was even the smell of smoke upon them!

They had been WILLING to go into that furnace, and because of it, they had no after effects of their fiery trial. Jesus had walked through it WITH them!

When we go through these chaotic times in life, we must claim, "I shall not die but LIVE to declare the glory of God!" If we endure with faith, patience, God's imparted peace and joy, and not try to run from it, nor fight the flames... but FINISH the furnace experience, we will come forth as pure gold! We must not even indulge in the residue of COMPLAINING about what we have suffered!

So many people are in chaos... we are a nation in chaos, feeling so much fear and doubt about the future. Yet, the FOURTH man is walking in the midst of His people. We must keep our gaze upon HIM and not on the flames of our circumstances. We must persevere, endure, and keep the faith. The Bible tells us that "no weapon formed against us shall prosper" (Isaiah 54:17).

Jesus is coming VERY soon, now, friends, and it says in the Revelation 19:7, the Lamb's wife has made herself ready. Ephesians 5:27 tells us that Christ is presenting to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. HE is doing it... cleansing us with the washing of the Word, (and taking us through the fire).

He is moving His people through all this chaos, to bring us to our intended end!
Hallelujah!!

Rev. C. L. Moser -- 12/15/02