Fan The Flame

 

The Holy Spirit is not a spark that is ignited on a Sunday morning and quickly dies out. 

The Holy Spirit must be a flame that burns deep within our souls always. For in this way our hearts are passionate, our minds are focused, and our spirit is alive. 

The Holy Spirit may be extinguished by the world that we live in, but only if we allow it. 

The Holy Spirit is a spark that is ignited at the moment that we come face to face with Jesus - when we align ourselves with His will for our lives - when we dedicate our ways to Him - when we commit our lives to Him. 

The Holy Spirit, then, must be fanned for His fire to stay alive and active within our soul. 

Yes, the Holy Spirit must be fanned on a Sunday morning through our worship of God and through the hearing of His Word. 

And, the Holy Spirit must be fanned through our daily acts of worship; prayer, Scripture reading, accountability, sharing with Christian friends. 

The Holy Spirit is not a spark that is ignited on a Sunday morning and quickly dies out. For He is larger than the local church. If it is the responsibility of the local church and its leaders to bring you the Holy Spirit each week your walk with Jesus will never progress. 

The Holy Spirit must be a flame that burns deep within our souls always. 

Fan the flame - today and always. 

Fan the flame - let the spark be ignited. 

Fan the flame - feed the fire and passion for God in your life. 

Fan the flame - don't allow the embers to cool. 

Fan the flame of the Holy Spirit. 

Pastoring as a Coach

I watched an IU basketball game tonight and the commentators began to talk about the passion of Coach Tom Crean stating how much of a difference it had made on the players.

They said that he set very high expectations for the players, that he held them accountable, and that they faced discipline if they did not meet, or exceed, these expectations. But, they said the thing that made Coach Crean successful was his approach and his understanding that these individuals he is coaching are young men that still have growing and maturing to do and that, in some ways, they are emotionally weak with a chance of caving if the pressure becomes too much.

As these commentators spoke of Coach Crean it occurred to me that this is the kind of Pastor that I want to be; passionate about the message of Christ, setting high expectations of those within our church family, and holding my brothers and sisters in Christ accountable to God's commands and calls. While, at the same time, approaching them with the understanding that they are still growing and maturing (we all are) and can, at times, be emotionally weak and may be on the brink of caving in to the pressures of this life.

Remembering and Rekindling the Relationship

For Valentine's Day my wife asked me not to buy her flowers. Due to the cost of cards these days we decided that we were not going to spend money on them when we can just as easily tell each other how we feel and the cards usually end up in the garbage within a couple of days. And due to our schedules and the inability to find a sitter for the kids (due a bit to laziness on my part) on Valentine's Day we were not able to enjoy a date or even dinner alone.

But, something needed to be done for my wife on Valentine's Day so I made some last minute preparations, put the kids to bed and presented my wife with a box of scrapbooks, pictures notes, letters, and cards from our dating years and early married life. Along with this box I gathered up some music from our past and we enjoyed sitting together and walking down memory lane and remembering our journey up to this point. It was quite nice and is something that we have not taken the time to do for some time.

As we looked through this box of memories and talked I came to several conclusions; (1) I love my wife, (2) I used to be much more romantic than I am today, (3) I used to take time to do the little and special things, and (4) I need to start honoring my wife the way I honored her while we were dating and during the "honey moon" stage.

These last few days this continues to run through my mind as I look to find ways to honor her more and show her just how much I do love her and I have found that it is a lot more difficult than it used to be and that I am out of practice in this area.

A gentleman came to me today and we got to talking about the way he used to feel when he came to Christ, the way he was "on fire" to learn about Christ, develop a relationship with Him, tell other people about Christ, and serve in the church. And he asked; "What happened?" He said that anymore he just doesn't have the drive to do any of these things and finds that it is difficult to even make it to church anymore. As we talked more I came to understand that; (1) this man still loves Christ, nothing has changed that, (2) he used to be more passionate and "on fire" in his relationship with Christ, (3) the time and energy he used to spend serving Christ was not thought of as a sacrifice, and (4) he desperately needs to get back to the habits that he used to have for loving Christ and serving Him.

 There is great danger when we neglect to be romantic and show the love for our spouses, the chemistry within a marriage decreases, our spouse begins to wonder if the love still exists, and soon we find that the marriage is hanging by a thin string. In the same way, when we neglect to love Christ and push through the wall that Satan and the world is constantly putting in front of us, we soon find that we that our relationship with Christ is hanging by a thin string.

If this is where you are I urge you to sit down with Christ, walk down memory lane, and remember your journey with Him up to this point. He will reveal memories to you and will rekindle the passion and the relationship that you have with Him.

A Game and Worship

Last week Kim and I thought it might be nice to take the kids to a basketball game at the local junior college. We looked at the schedule and determined that we would go to the women's basketball game and then possibly stay for the men's game depending on how the kids were.Our biggest fear was that if the kids acted up, we would have to leave.

Shortly after the game began we realized that it was going to be a long forty minutes. Not because of the way the kids were behaving but because of the way the team was playing. These girls seemed to either just be standing around as if their feet were stuck in concrete or they were running around wildly with no apparent play call or design. It was the worst game I have ever sat through and I have been to many sixth and seventh grade basketball games. The girls would stand on one side of the court, have the ball stolen from them run to the other end of the court and seem winded from the light jog, we watched as one girl bent down to tie her shoe in the middle of a play. It was comedic!

There had to be less than 50 fans that came out to watch this junior college match-up, many of whom were parents of the students and yet, for the longest time, there was no excitement or passion in the crowd, nothing really to cheer about. As we watched the coach of the team it was apparent why the girls were losing, and why this lack of passion existed. Not once did we see this coach get excited, not once did she call out a play, not once did she call a timeout to readjust or give rest to her players, not once did she offer any real coaching to the game. This lack of coaching, lack of passion and commitment on her part passed directly on to the girls that were playing the game, and this lack of passion on the court passed directly on to the crowd in the stands.

All this got me to thinking about worship in many churches today. The passion and commitment to worship is the most important thing. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING! We have a great reason to worship the Creator of the universe, we have the ability to worship, and yet what seems to be lacking in many churches this passion, a fire, an excitement in the area of worship. And it is important that this passion begin with our church leaders, that the visible leaders exude this excitement, or else the worship of the body may die off.

Near the end of the game, when they were down by 45 points, some of the parents had finally had enough and they started talking. One father stood on the opposite side of the court and began to call out plays and coach the girls. He turned at one point and said "someone has to".


This concept too applies to worship. If our leaders in the church do not embrace the opportunity to worship with a drive and a passion than "someone has to". Perhaps that someone needs to be you.

WORSHIP IS IMPORTANT! Never lose hold of this truth. Worship is important. Never lose the passion for it.