"I came to cast fire on the earth[.]"

Luke 12:49

"I came to cast fire on the earth[.]" Luke 12:49

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 18: The Enthusiasm of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• "In the speech of to-day, enthusiasm is a noble word. It is fervor of mind, ardency of spirit, exaltation of soul. It is passion, heat, fire. Though the word is absent, the thing itself is present. Jesus bums with fervent heat. His very words are sparks which kindle conflagrations."
• "When a boy he visited Jerusalem with his parents, and slipping one day into the Temple to hear the 229 scholars discussing the great problems of religion, he lost himself. He forgot what day of the week it was, and what hour of the day it was. His father and mother and brothers and sisters and friends all passed completely from his mind. He plunged headlong into the discussion of the doctors, gave himself up completely to the subject of the hour, allowed himself to be swept along on the tide of thought and discussion, until all at once his mother's face appeared at the door and he was reminded of the place he had left vacant in the caravan which had started toward Galilee. In this temple experience we see a nature sensitive and impressionable, capable of being heated to high temperatures."
• "Jesus is so full of feeling after the experience which came to him in his baptism that he cannot linger near the homes of men, but must at once rush away into infrequent and dessert places where he can meditate upon the strange thing that has happened to him, and ponder the steps which he must next take. From this time on we have a man before us who is being driven. Even when a boy he used a word which expressed the intensity of his feeling, " Do you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" He never ceased to use that word 'must.'"
• "He felt that his life would be short and so he kept saying, "I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work." How intense his life was we can see in what is told us of his habit of praying. He was always praying. He arose early in the morning in order to find more time to pray, he stayed up late at night in order to increase the hours in which he might speak to God."
• "Men were astounded by the magnitude of his labors. Sometimes he did not take time to eat. Even when he went away for a season of relaxation he gave himself up to the crowds which pursued him. His words have in them an energy which burns. Again and again we catch expressions in which we can feel his great heart beating:"I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel," "O woman, great is thy faith!" "I thank thee, O Father!" "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often!" All these are out of the throat of an enthusiast, a man surcharged with feeling. At the distance of nineteen hundred years from the day on which they were spoken our heart leaps when we listen to them. The rains of the centuries have not put out their fire."
• "He stirred men up wherever he went. They crowded him off the land upon the water. They pushed him off the plain up the hillside. They crowded the houses in which he tarried, they pressed round him as he walked through the streets. Again and again the excitement rose to fever heat, and Jesus slipped away and hid himself. Near the close of his career the crowds went wild in their tumultuous joy, shouting, singing, casting their clothing in the dust that the animal which Jesus rode might have a carpet for its hoofs like unto that furnished for triumphal processions of kings. No man can set a crowd blazing unless his own soul is ablaze."
• "A still finer evidence of this is found in the character of the men whom Jesus attracted to him as his intimate friends. The apostles were all men of fire. Do not believe the pictures when they paint the twelve as limp and pallid men. They were full-blooded, virile, mighty men, full of fire and passion, drawn to Jesus because in him they saw a man who satisfied them.  Peter had a seething soul, his words roll out of him like molten lava. John and James were called Sons of Thunder. The disciple whom Jesus loved was so passionate that he wanted to burn up a whole town which had insulted his Master....They loved Jesus with such an intensity of devotion, such a passionate self-abandon, that they were ready at any moment to lay down their lives for him. No man can win and hold the ardent devotion of strong men unless he has a soul which is hot. Jesus from first to last was surrounded by enthusiasts because he himself was enthusiastic."
•  "If you ask for the cause of this enthusiasm, you will find that it has three roots.  Put these three things together — a sensitive and inflammable nature, a clear and glorious vision, and a fiery and indomitable purpose —and you have the ingredients which go to produce the divine flame which is known as enthusiasm."
• "Higher than all enthusiasms is the fire that burns in souls in love with God. To know Him, to serve Him, to glorify Him, this is the highest ambition of which the soul is capable, and the soul when possessed with this ambition burns with a fire that cannot be quenched. This was the enthusiasm of Jesus." 

Believers of course are called to share in and demonstrate this enthusiasm.  In response to those seeking to trap Him with the question what is the most important commandment (see Matthew 22:34-40), Jesus answers: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment."  For believers who have earnestly taken the time to get to know God, this is the natural response to who Jesus is and what He has done for us.  Peter's response on his arrest after Pentecost (Acts 4:20) demonstrates such enthusiasm when in his defense he states: "we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard."  It is this enthusiasm that should motivate us to do what He seeks for us to do - with one example being the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20). 

Comment and discuss this post.

My Prayer: Father God, You are an awesome God who loves me and whose enthusiasm I now have inside inside of me via the Holy Spirit.  Thank You God for giving me an intense desire to love, please and find joy and satisfaction in You above all else.  I am not deserving of how You do this.  My desire for You is sometimes weak and this of course breaks the most important commandment.  So I know there is more work for You to do in me and through me.  Please forgive me for my sin and help me overcome and turn from such sin and turn towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength. Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others. Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.