GREENE STREET LETTERS: Fire Starter

Friday, April 14, 2017

Fire Starter

II Timothy 1:6-7
This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of FEAR and TIMIDITY, but of POWER, LOVE and SELF-DISCIPLINE.

One of the things I see happen to people who turn their will and life over to the care of God is after a while the newness of everything wears off. The zeal and passion is replaced by the boredom and routine of everyday life. Things happen....unexpected circumstances pop up that seem to take the wind out of their sails. Situations from their past blind side them causing them to lose momentum in this new life with Christ.

They lose focus and direction.
I guess a more simply explanation is that they take their eyes and faith off of Jesus, and revert to old ways of thinking and acting. Truth be known, such behavior is pretty common for everyone, whether they are in addiction or not. Maybe that's why we told in Revelation 2 to "Remember our first love"....Remember Jesus when we first came to Him. Now I know it's not all about feelings....as my wife has said on more than one occasion, "Feelings aren't right...and feeling aren't wrong..they just are." But how can you not want to carry around that spiritually clean feeling when you were first saved?

In the II Timothy passage Paul instructs Timothy to not let his spiritual gift go cold. I think maybe Timothy's gifting was to be a pastor/shepherd over the people that he was taking care of. Paul realized how the day to day activity and affairs had the power to drain any spiritual life out of a person. He knew that Timothy would need to be a good steward of the gift he'd been given.

So, if you're going to fan into flames a fire that seems to be dying, what do you do? It takes movement and wind. Of course the obvious would be to use something as a fan...moving it back and forth over the dying embers creating wind currents that would cause the embers to glow brighter. As you do this, you'd need to add fresh kindling so that the embers would have fuel to ignite. As the fire grew, you would feed it with larger pieces of wood so that eventually you'd have a roaring fire. If you wanted the fire to remain, you'd need to keep feeding it with fresh fuel.Now how would this play out in the spiritual?

There would need to be a refreshing of the Holy Spirit in us. We'd need to stop and begin to pray, asking for the Holy Spirit to stir us up inside....awaken the old memories of our first encounter with Christ. Help us to recognize any growth that may have happened to us and in us. Taking, if you will, a spiritual inventory...being grateful for each step that we've taken. As the fire begins to burn in us....we need fuel. That would be the WORD of God. We need to take it in....slowly and deliberately reading verse by verse...letting the words soak down inside our heart and mind. Do not be in a hurry.

You can't rekindle a fire and do multiple tasks at the same time. If the fire is important...you pour yourself into taking care of it. The fire becomes a source of light.....of heat.....giving the ability to prepare food....or make coffee. So the fire of God that is being rekindled in me is a source of light, giving me the ability to see spiritually all that is happening around me. My decisions are no longer based on what I think I should do but rather on what has God shown me. The fire of God becomes a source of heat, or comfort, when the winds and storms of the enemy blow hard against me.

The fire of God becomes the source that burns away my sin and wrong behavior when I come to Him in confession with a penitent heart. If I am saved, then my life is a "living sacrifice" as we are told in Romans 12:1. The Roman's passage tells us to "OFFER YOUR BODIES" a living sacrifice. Sacrifice requires fire...you would never place yourself on God's altar if the fire was going out. When God directs me to rekindle His fire in my heart, those same flames, once dying now burning bright, consume all the sin and nastiness as I confess and repent.

I'm not sure if I have made good sense today in the writing or not.
I guess for myself, the bottom line is that in order to rekindle the things God has given to me, it requires me setting aside time to spend with Him. Time to pray ( I mean really pray)...time to listen for God....Time to digest His Word....Time to just be with Him.

Today, being Good Friday, would be a good time to pull aside and focus on what Jesus' death on the cross really means.
God on you...
mbb

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Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Fire Starter

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THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD