When we were in South America we had youth camps in the summer time and we happened to live on the property where we held our youth camps. I had many responsibilities during the camp season and usually one of them after the campfire service in the evening was to make sure all the campers got into their respective dormitories and were at least pretending to be asleep, and then when all was quiet I would go to the place where we held the campfire service and try to put out the fire. The glowing embers of the campfire would still be there and in Chile, in the summertime, we never had rain. We would get our last rain sometime in December. During January and February it never rained and since our camps were usually in February the grounds were very dry – tinder-box dry. It was very, very important that the campfire be totally extinguished.

The camp kitchen was not too far from the campfire so I found a big bucket, filled it with water and carried it over to the fire pit. I dumped the bucket of water on the burning coals and a huge cloud of steam rose up into the air, and I went to get another bucket of water. When I returned I saw that the coals were still burning brightly as if nothing had happened. A second and third bucket of water left the same result—brightly glowing coals. I was accomplishing nothing. I could not put that fire out by bringing buckets of water. I had to devise a new method. I took a stick and began to separate those glowing coals, moving them away from each other. I walked around that large camp fire moving coals away from the fire, and by the time I got to where I had started, those separated coals had already cooled down and were soon black.

I think the devil is aware of this same tactic in dealing with Christians. He doesn’t come with buckets of water to put out our fire for God. He just tries to separate us. He knows that if he can keep us apart long enough we will lose our fire for God. That is why we need each other. And the closer and tighter we stay together the brighter those embers remain. That is why God’s Word warns us in Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

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