It is early Saturday morning. It will be some time before the sun comes up. The last thing I said to Brenda last night before going to bed was, "I'm sleeping in tomorrow." I am wide awake. I could not stay away from the office and continuing the glorious pursuit of desiring more of God. I had to get up though the rest of the family slumbers on. I had to get dressed and get to this secret place to soak up more of God in my soul.
While others get up early for ball games or fishing trips I get up early to meet with God. In fact, I would say He gets me up. I have not slept with an alarm clock in decades. He gets me up when He wants me to. My body is tired. We had another busy week. This next week is shaping up to be even busier. My flesh is tired but my spirit is alert and ready to meet with God. He gets me up early to continue this pursuit.
There is a burning in my soul I cannot explain. One thing is for sure, I did not manufacture that burning. This is supernatural. This burning is goes beyond some emotional high like many students experience at youth camp. Eventually the high wears off because the experience of camp does not last forever. Back in the real world there are temptations, distractions and times of worship are replaced with endless hours in front of the television or computer.
What God is doing in my soul is fresh. One of the reasons it is not wearing off is because more fuel is added to the flame every time I linger in His presence. Every encounter with God intensifies the burning heart and creates and insatiable hunger for more. I assure you this goes far beyond religious duty. I am not against duty and I will be among the first to say that duty has its place. There is nothing wrong with duty when accompanied by delight.
This is what I see missing in the lives of so many people at church. They come out of duty. Mechanically they go through the elements of worship of service but there is no fire. In fact, some are downright cold and others are lukewarm. The fellowship of the burning hearts is rare indeed. Because so many around us are lukewarm we think that is normal. There seems to be little delight. Delight goes beyond duty. Delight involves pleasures and enjoyment. Delight speaks to joy. Where is the enjoyment of God and endless pleasure experienced from meeting with God privately and corporately in many lives today? Private enjoyment of God serves to enhance public enjoyment of God in worship services.
Read what Jesus said about this. "I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth." [Rev 3:15-16] Lukewarm is acceptable to many of us but offensive to Jesus. Read what He said. He spits lukewarm out of his mouth. He would rather us to be cold than lukewarm. Lukewarm is unacceptable to Jesus. He will not tolerate lukewarm devotions, singing, serving, and living.
The pews are filled with lukewarm. Bible study classrooms are filled with lukewarm. Many lukewarm teachers teach. Many lukewarm pastors preach. Where are the burning hearts. Many lukewarm prayers are offered. Jesus is sick of all of it. Where are the souls set ablaze with the fresh experiences of walking with God. Where are the people who deeply yearn for more than attending dull and lifeless worship services. Where are the people who crave fresh encounters with God not only on Sunday but every other day during the week as well.
I have known lukewarmness in my life. I have gone through the dutiful motions of devotions without the delight of God burning at the forefront of my mind and heart. I have read the scriptures without letting the scriptures read me. I have not only attended church but preached and not always had the scriptures burning in my soul. I have lived without passion for God and the things most dear to His heart.
It seems to me this is one of the fundamental things wrong in church today. If people truly walked with God and spent sustained times with Him our hearts would burn hotter. We would desire the things of God more. Our appetite for worship and the word of God would increase. If churches were filled with white hot blazing hearts eager to worship and just as eager to serve revival would come.
Sunday after Sunday pastors and worship pastors try desperately to fan the embers of cold and lukewarm hearts. They preach, they pray, they sing while stone hearts and dry eyes sit numbly spectating and wishing for it all to end so they get on about the business of what they really want to do.
Jesus had something else to say to say to the Laodicean church. He called that church to repent. Lukewarmness is a sin. We do not see it that way. We want to justify such living but Jesus says such living makes Him want to vomit and is sinful behavior that should be repented. Repent means to change the mind and turn around in our thinking and behavior.
I am amazed that as I continue this glorious pursuit just how far off track I had been living for quite some time. I loved God. I sought Him in prayer and scripture reading regularly. I served Him through my ministries as a pastor and author. I just did not always burn for Him. Often my devotions were hurried. At times they were given lackluster effort. None of these things produced a fiery hot heart for the Lord.
I am convinced the majority of people who make up the church do not walk with God daily. How tragic. We want the benefits of being a Christian and companionship of other Christians but what we are missing out on the most is that Christ is the prize. He is the ultimate blessing. He is what we need and yet we give Him little time or attention. Do this same thing in a marriage and you are headed for trouble. Treat a child this way and they will wander off into dangerous territory. We crave relationship.
God craves relationship. We crave it for what we get out of it. Love, companionship, fellowship, security, comfort, strength, wisdom and so forth. God needs none of this. He is sufficient in Himself. He does not need our love, devotion, or worship. He craves relationship with us because He knows we need Him and He is the source of our ultimate longings. He is the best thing for us and God craves relationship for what He can give to us not what we can give Him.
Still we race right through our lives refusing to linger with Him or enjoying the journey. We are like a family on vacation racing off to their destination at breakneck speed missing all the scenery along the way determined to get to their destination. God has much to show us about Himself and life if we would just tarry with Him. On and on we go not adding fuel to the flickering flame in our souls until one day our hearts become hard and our souls grow cold. We can recall better days in the past and try to live off those memories but it is no longer real in our current experience.
Church of the living God. I exhort you with all my might to burn for Him. Whatever it takes to rekindle the flame do it. However long it takes to begin to burn in your heart once again pursue that. Don't stop there. With all your fervor seek to live so contagiously that other hearts are ignited when they talk to you. Let others burn when they watch you live and worship. May others have their souls rekindled when they see your love for God overflowing in your heart. That is what all the churches need.
On this journey with the Lord I have experienced some very special times with Him. I remember a quiet time with Him at a picnic table on the shore of Lake Palestine. I recall multiple encounters with Him at the prayer cabin. I have met with Him in my recliner back at the rent house and other places we have lived in the past. I recall special visitations from the Lord back at my old prayer room converted into an office back at my home church of Denman Avenue. I recall meeting with God in the mountains and on the gulf shore at Panama City, FL. The encounters I have had with the Lord in the short time I have had this new office at Faith Community have been nothing short of glorious. God meets with me here. He causes my heart to burn for Him here.
Maybe all of this is the ramblings of an unstable man who has become a little too zealous for the masses. Like an eagle I am content to sit and soar alone. God is my companion. He is taking me places I have never been and on this quest He is breathing fire into my soul. It reminds me of a song we have been singing at church recently. "God's not dead - He's living on the inside roaring like a lion." He is alive in me and the roar of His presence in my life is changing everything.
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