Proverb of the Day 5/26

Pr 26:20 - “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out:…”

A couple of years ago, a few of the guys from our youth group @ OBC went to “Take the Challenge.” Take the Challenge is a week of camp operated by Circle C Baptist Ranch in Buckeye, Kentucky, which is a ministry of Clays Mill Road Baptist Church, pastored by Dr. Jeff Fugate. This week of camp is devoted to training 7th – 12th grade boys how to become men.

The whole week can be suppressed into one phrase, “Running us ragged!” All of the instructors were former Army, so they knew just how much fun it would be to give us a “little, tiny” taste of what it is like in the military. We would march…and march…and march…and march…and then get yelled at for marching wrong…and then march…and march…ALL DAY LONG! AND…we slept OUTSIDE!!! You say, “Oh goodie, that sounds like fun!!!”…well you try it and see how much you like it! See how much you like going to sleep when its cold, and then waking up soaking wet from all the dew!!! It’s not fun! (Can you see that I’m still getting over it? lol)

Although I am not exaggerating about what we had to do, it was, on the other hand, a lot of fun, and a great experience. Another challenge we had to take was building our own fires and cooking our own food! This, after a few mess ups, became a lot of fun! We learned how to start a fire using only one match, and then we kept that fire going for hours and hours. At night, we would pile on enough would so it would smolder all night and still be good and hot in the morning.

Christian, your heart is like a fire-pit. It is a place where your spiritual warmth dwells. Each one of us has, or should have, a fire in our hearts for the Lord. How is your fire doing? What do I mean?

Every Christian should have a “burning” desire in his heart to serve God. That burning desire, or fire, is what motivates you to please God and do His will. We all want that fire to burn deep in our soul so that we wake up every morning excited about serving God! Many young preacher boys, such as myself, will say, “I just wanna be on FIRE for God!!!” Well, that’s great, but you can try to light a fire all day, but if you don’t have any wood (substance), you have nothing to burn!!!

Just like you must continually put on the wood to keep a fire going, you must continually put on the necessary spiritual things to keep your spiritual fire going! Many people have a mountain top experience spiritually and are on fire for a little while, and then after a week or so, they are asking, “Why don’t I feel it anymore?” I’ll tell you why, “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out:…” You say, “Zack, what are you trying to say?” I’m trying to say that if you won a couple souls last Thursday at Church-wide soul-winning, that lit a fire in your soul, right? Then, you were still pretty excited about it on Friday…but you didn’t read your Bible on Friday…and then on Saturday, the excitement was gone!!! Why? You stopped putting the wood on!

It is not enough to get a fire spiritually, but the challenge is to KEEP it burning!!! How do you keep it burning? By piling wood on top of it!!! Do you have a small fire kindled in your soul? PILE THE WORD OF GOD ON IT…pile SOUL-WINNING on it…pile PRAYER on it…pile SINGING AND SPIRITUAL SONGS on it…pile GOOD FELLOWSHIP on it…pile RED-HOT PREACHING on it…Why? Because we as Christians need to keep that fire burning high and hot!!!

Do you know why a lot of Christians are only on fire for a little while at a time? Why do they go up and down, up and down? Because they will get a little fire started in their heart, but don’t pile any spiritual wood on there, and the fire goes out! And they wonder why they are cold!!! They wonder why they don’t feel that warmth spiritually! Yes, you won a soul yesterday, but don’t be content with the match that was lit, PILE SOME WOOD ON IT!!! It’s time to beg God to start a fire in our hearts, and it’s our job to pile on the wood. And as a result, we will feel the warmth that God intends for every one of His children.