“Do not be slothful in zeal; be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”
Romans 12:11
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
Matthew 22:37
“But what do I love when I love my God? . . . Not the sweet melody of harmony and song; not the fragrance of flowers, perfumes, and spices; not manna or honey; not limbs such as the body delights to embrace. It is not these that I love when I love my God. And yet, when I love him, it is true that I love a light of a certain kind, a voice, a perfume, a food, an embrace; but they are of the kind that I love in my inner self, when my soul is bathed in light that is not bound by space; when it listens to sound that never dies away; when it breathes fragrance that is not borne away on the wind; when it tastes food that is never consumed by the eating; when it clings to an embrace from which it is not severed by fulfillment of desire. This is what I love when I love my God.”
Augustine
“I have one passion, it is He!”
Count Von Zinzendorf
Nobody wants heartburn. Drug companies make millions on heartburn prevention medications. You have got Alka-Seltzer, Bromo-Seltzer, Tums, Maalox, Mylanta, Tagament, Pepto Bismal, Pepcid AC, Prilosec and probably a dozen more I am not familiar with. They all claim to help with heartburn because nobody wants it. But as you read this book I am praying that every one of you would desire to get heartburn! No, not the kind that nobody wants, but the kind of heartburn that could be described as “burning hearts”.
I long for each one of you to have the “hearts burning within us” experience of Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-32. These two were dejectedly trudging toward Emmaus talking with each other about all the things that had happened to Jesus. The risen Jesus joins them, but they do not recognize him. He opens the scriptures to them and explains how it was necessary that the Messiah should suffer and then enter into his glory. They invite him in for supper and when he blesses and breaks the bread their eyes were opened and they recognized him. He vanished from their sight and they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” I don’t want your hearts to be lukewarm in your relationship with God. I want your hearts to burn with passion for the Lord. I hate heartburn, but I long for a burning heart.
Romans 12:11
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
Matthew 22:37
“But what do I love when I love my God? . . . Not the sweet melody of harmony and song; not the fragrance of flowers, perfumes, and spices; not manna or honey; not limbs such as the body delights to embrace. It is not these that I love when I love my God. And yet, when I love him, it is true that I love a light of a certain kind, a voice, a perfume, a food, an embrace; but they are of the kind that I love in my inner self, when my soul is bathed in light that is not bound by space; when it listens to sound that never dies away; when it breathes fragrance that is not borne away on the wind; when it tastes food that is never consumed by the eating; when it clings to an embrace from which it is not severed by fulfillment of desire. This is what I love when I love my God.”
Augustine
“I have one passion, it is He!”
Count Von Zinzendorf
Nobody wants heartburn. Drug companies make millions on heartburn prevention medications. You have got Alka-Seltzer, Bromo-Seltzer, Tums, Maalox, Mylanta, Tagament, Pepto Bismal, Pepcid AC, Prilosec and probably a dozen more I am not familiar with. They all claim to help with heartburn because nobody wants it. But as you read this book I am praying that every one of you would desire to get heartburn! No, not the kind that nobody wants, but the kind of heartburn that could be described as “burning hearts”.
I long for each one of you to have the “hearts burning within us” experience of Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-32. These two were dejectedly trudging toward Emmaus talking with each other about all the things that had happened to Jesus. The risen Jesus joins them, but they do not recognize him. He opens the scriptures to them and explains how it was necessary that the Messiah should suffer and then enter into his glory. They invite him in for supper and when he blesses and breaks the bread their eyes were opened and they recognized him. He vanished from their sight and they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” I don’t want your hearts to be lukewarm in your relationship with God. I want your hearts to burn with passion for the Lord. I hate heartburn, but I long for a burning heart.
Passion is another word for “burning hearts”. A passion is a strong feeling, an emotion that is packed with intensity. At times it carries a sense of urgency that something great is at stake. Passion is the driving force within us that motivates us to action and focuses our life's attentions in such a way that we have an impact on those around us.
I love reading the journals of David Brainerd who was an obscure missionary to the Indians in New England. He lived a short life: twenty-nine years, five months and nineteen days. Only eight of those years as a believer, and only four of those as a missionary. He was not well known. He was extremely vulnerable to depression and was perpetually ill. But his life has inspired the modern missionary movement perhaps more than any other life since the apostles. Why? One reason that stands out is that he was utterly aflame for God. He wrote,
“Oh, that I might be a flaming fire in the service of the Lord. Here I am I Lord, send me; send me to the ends of the earth ... send me from all that is called earthly comfort; send me even to death itself if it be but in Your service and to promote Your Kingdom…When I really enjoy God, I feel my desires of him the more insatiable, and my thirsting after holiness the more unquenchable; ... Oh, for holiness! Oh, for more of God in my soul! Oh, this pleasing pain! It makes my soul press after God ... Oh, that I might not loiter on my heavenly journey”.
David Brainerd's life is a vivid, powerful testimony to the truth that God can and does use weak, sick, discouraged, beat-down, lonely, struggling saints, who cry to him day and night, to accomplish amazing things for his glory. It is amazing what God can do though a life; albeit short, ablaze for His glory. The key to making a difference for God is a flaming zeal, a burning heart for God.
The apostle Paul was burnt-up with the passion of God. He burned up the pages of the Bible with his burning heart for Christ. He said in Acts 20:24: "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Or in Philippians 3:7-8: "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ." His zeal and sense of purpose eminent qualified him to write these three commands in Roman 12:11, “Do not be slothful in zeal; be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”
So we see that God commands us to have a passion for Him, to be on fire for Him. Another word for passion would be love. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
In my own experience, I have found it impossible to obey this commandment for many reasons. perhaps you can resonate with me in your own experience.
David Brainerd's life is a vivid, powerful testimony to the truth that God can and does use weak, sick, discouraged, beat-down, lonely, struggling saints, who cry to him day and night, to accomplish amazing things for his glory. It is amazing what God can do though a life; albeit short, ablaze for His glory. The key to making a difference for God is a flaming zeal, a burning heart for God.
The apostle Paul was burnt-up with the passion of God. He burned up the pages of the Bible with his burning heart for Christ. He said in Acts 20:24: "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Or in Philippians 3:7-8: "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ." His zeal and sense of purpose eminent qualified him to write these three commands in Roman 12:11, “Do not be slothful in zeal; be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”
So we see that God commands us to have a passion for Him, to be on fire for Him. Another word for passion would be love. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
In my own experience, I have found it impossible to obey this commandment for many reasons. perhaps you can resonate with me in your own experience.
1. Because of the smallness of my own affections for someone of such worth and glory as Jesus. I live with an almost constant awareness of the breach between the low intensity of my own passion an d the staggering realities of the universe around me.
2, Because I have been unable to maintain any consistent intensity in my affections towards Him.
3.Because of the inconsistency and weakness of my own affections being directed towards other things instead of Him.
4.Because of my hypocritical love for His gifts rather than towards Him.
5. Because I get caught up in acts of love rather than my heart feeling love towards Him.
6. Because I believe that human love is inadequate in loving a divine being because Jesus commands us to love God with divine love. How can I love God with divine love when I am human, fleshly, and sinful? In short, my best efforts to obey the great commandment fail!
So what does it mean to have a wholehearted love and passion for God? I have discovered in the scriptures and in my own life and experience that if it is going to happen, God Himself must take the steps to kindle afresh in our hearts the flame of fascination and love for Him. Only God can awaken in our souls the marvel and wonder that He is worthy. God must restore the mystery, the wonder, the excitement of all that He is for us in Jesus. Only God can bridge the gap between the prosaic deadness of the human heart and the inexpressible reality of Him, the living God. This is the awakening of the heart into the fullness of what God has created us and redeemed us to experience. It’s an awakening to a passion for God and unashamed, extravagant affection for Jesus. It is a move of God to empower you, motivate you, and enable you to love God with all of your heart soul, mind, and strength!
Dear reader, God created you, chose you, and redeemed you to be a lover of God. What does that mean? I think it means to enjoy Him, to delight in Him, to be astounded and absorbed with Him, to be astonished, amazed, and awed by Him, to be smitten and stunned by Him, to be obsessed and preoccupied with Him, to be fascinated, captivated, intoxicated, and exhilarated with Him, to be enthused and entranced with Him, to be excited and exhilarated with the revelation of Himself in Jesus.
I envision what our lives would be like if this were an accurate description of our relationship with God. I suspect it would be more difficult to sin, easier to love, forgive, and accept people, that reading the Bible would never be remotely boring, fellowship with other Christians would be a delight, that I would display uncommon boldness and courage in sharing Christ with the unsaved, that I would be less attached to money and things and would instead find generosity far more easily, that my worship would be filled with passion and extravagance, that my serving the Lord would be a great joy.
What are the odds of a typical unbeliever using the above list of words to describe Christians? Something has to change! And if you and I are going to change, God Himself must take the steps to kindle afresh in our hearts the flames of passionate love for Him. God created you for the first and greatest commandment, to be a lover of God. And that is what He is up to in your life! With a resolute determination that cannot be thwarted He is arousing and stirring and wooing and beckoning the hearts of this church into a passionate and intimate love affair with His Son, Jesus Christ. Let me show you in my next blog how God is doing this.
So what does it mean to have a wholehearted love and passion for God? I have discovered in the scriptures and in my own life and experience that if it is going to happen, God Himself must take the steps to kindle afresh in our hearts the flame of fascination and love for Him. Only God can awaken in our souls the marvel and wonder that He is worthy. God must restore the mystery, the wonder, the excitement of all that He is for us in Jesus. Only God can bridge the gap between the prosaic deadness of the human heart and the inexpressible reality of Him, the living God. This is the awakening of the heart into the fullness of what God has created us and redeemed us to experience. It’s an awakening to a passion for God and unashamed, extravagant affection for Jesus. It is a move of God to empower you, motivate you, and enable you to love God with all of your heart soul, mind, and strength!
Dear reader, God created you, chose you, and redeemed you to be a lover of God. What does that mean? I think it means to enjoy Him, to delight in Him, to be astounded and absorbed with Him, to be astonished, amazed, and awed by Him, to be smitten and stunned by Him, to be obsessed and preoccupied with Him, to be fascinated, captivated, intoxicated, and exhilarated with Him, to be enthused and entranced with Him, to be excited and exhilarated with the revelation of Himself in Jesus.
I envision what our lives would be like if this were an accurate description of our relationship with God. I suspect it would be more difficult to sin, easier to love, forgive, and accept people, that reading the Bible would never be remotely boring, fellowship with other Christians would be a delight, that I would display uncommon boldness and courage in sharing Christ with the unsaved, that I would be less attached to money and things and would instead find generosity far more easily, that my worship would be filled with passion and extravagance, that my serving the Lord would be a great joy.
What are the odds of a typical unbeliever using the above list of words to describe Christians? Something has to change! And if you and I are going to change, God Himself must take the steps to kindle afresh in our hearts the flames of passionate love for Him. God created you for the first and greatest commandment, to be a lover of God. And that is what He is up to in your life! With a resolute determination that cannot be thwarted He is arousing and stirring and wooing and beckoning the hearts of this church into a passionate and intimate love affair with His Son, Jesus Christ. Let me show you in my next blog how God is doing this.
Passionate for passion,
Pastor Bill
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