There is a lot of fire in the Bible: Moses and the burning bush; Elijah and the Prophets of Baal; Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego; and my all-time favorite – Jesus cooking a shore breakfast for His disciples over a fire in John 21.

When I’m camping or backpacking, I very much enjoy a campfire. I like the warmth and the light that it gives off and the way it keeps bugs and critters away. A fire is also important for cooking, purifying water and drying wet clothes. When you’re in the woods, life is much, much better with a fire. One of my favorite movie scenes is Tom Hanks in Castaway when he is finally able to light a fire. Fire changes everything – and that’s why I always have two lighters and several homemade fire starters with me when I go backpacking.

We’ve been heating our house with wood for 26 years. My wife and I have cut, split and stacked every piece of wood we’ve burned — enough to fill over 300 pick-up trucks. I’ve learned a lot about fire over the years.

What do you need to have a fire and keep it burning?

1. A source of ignition. You can prepare tinder and wood for a fire, but without a source of ignition, all you have is a pile of stuff.

2. Wood. Once a fire is started, it needs dry wood to keep it burning. Providing seasoned wood takes hard work, discipline and time. The hardest part about having a fire is stockpiling the fuel. Someone once joked that wood heats you twice – once when you cut it and again when you burn it.

3. Stoking. Fires need attention. If the wood and embers do not remain in close contact, the fire goes out. Stoking is the process of pulling the wood and embers into the center of the fire to keep it burning efficiently. Stoking needs to be done consistently. It is messy work that kicks up sparks and ashes, but it is necessary. A fire that has not been stoked may look beautiful as the embers glow in the darkness, but unless it is stoked it will soon go out. (Give that some thought. Many churches have died because they didn’t want the messiness that goes with stoking the fire.)

4. Intensifying. When a fire needs to be very hot for accomplishing a special purpose, like melting or softening metal, air (oxygen) can be forced into it to greatly intensify the heat.

So how does all of this relate to the fire in our hearts?

1. Source of ignition. God is the source of ignition for the fire in our hearts. God’s Spirit awakens us — and when His Spirit helps us to believe, ignition happens. In John chapter 3, Jesus called it being born again. The start of the fire in our hearts changes everything. If you’ve never watched Tom Hanks’ reaction to making fire in Castaway, you should watch it now. Just search Tom Hanks Castaway Fire. Watch the video that is two minutes and forty-three seconds long to get the whole scene. The fire in your heart really does change everything!

2. Wood. The wood for the fire in your heart is grace. God provides that grace as we:

• Read and meditate on His holy Word.
• Commune with Him in Prayer.
• Yield to the infilling presence of His Holy Spirit.
• Participate in the Body of Christ, the Church.
• Engage our gifts, abilities and resources in the Mission of God.

Grace is the fuel we must constantly feed into our hearts if the fire is going to keep burning. Accessing grace is hard work that requires discipline and time — but if we’re going to be disciples, then we must be disciplined! If you have a hard time keeping your spiritual focus, then I’m guessing that you also struggle with making time in your life for grace. Without wood, the fire in my stove goes out. Without grace, the fire in your heart goes out.

3. Stoking. The fire in your heart needs fellowship. God created us to be relational — and staying together (unity) is a vital aspect of keeping the fire in our hearts burning. Without unity in fellowship we grow cold and distant. Take a burning log off a fire and it will quickly grow cold. Put it back on the fire and it will start burning again. For a log to burn, it must remain in contact with the fire. The same is true for us — and this is why staying connected to fellowship is so important. Yes, fellowship can be messy. Sometimes sparks and ashes will fly, but it is necessary work if we are going to keep the fire burning in our hearts.

4. Intensifying. God has a special purpose for your life. The Holy Spirit, a rushing, mighty wind, takes your abilities and talents and intensifies them (gifts) to accomplish God’s holy purposes. This is why Paul ends his statement by saying, serve the Lord. The fire that God has placed in you is bigger than you. God needs your fire to burn hot for His Kingdom! So let His Spirit blow through you to intensify that fire! Seek His presence, filling and anointing.
Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive. Serve the Lord.

(This past weekend our church went on its annual campout. I interrupted my sermon series so that I could teach on our campout theme found in Romans 12:11, “Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive. Serve the Lord.” We’ll get back to the “Live By Faith” series next week.)