The Spiritual ember to ignite life beyond yourself (2 Timothy 1.6-7)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, January 17 2009

Something that we take for granted is fire. All that is needed to start a fire is a quick stop at a convenient store to pick up a match or lighter. If all the modern conveniences are stripped away, then what do you do? Here is a picture a fire-kit made by Mark Whitcombe with stone tools (http://homepage.mac.com/laddie/fire_by_friction.html)

With all the handmade tools ready, Mark works with a stiff bow and a taught string and considerable down-pressure. He vigorously spins the spindle against the notch of the hearth (harth) board for 15 to 20 seconds to produce a suitable ember.

When thick smoke starts to pour out of the hole, black powder around the bottom of the spindle, and the notch is filled with it, now it is time to knock off the raw ember.

He would put the edge of the tinder under the hearth board and gently knock the raw ember out when it’s ready. And he would place the ember in the tinder. And, you see a curl of smoke from a dark-brown/black ember about the size of few peas as it rests on the Cedar bark tinder.

Getting that dark brown/black ember is only the beginning. The ember at this stage requires just the right kind of tinder like the inner bar of white cedar Mark used. And, fresh cedar bark wouldn’t do. It has to be the cedar bark exposed to the elements at least ten years.

With the black/brown ember wrapped in the tinder, he blows at it gently. And, as more spoke is produced, he blows harder. Soon, what you see is a glowing red ember. By then, Mark knows he got fire.

After wrapping the glowing red ember with the tinder of older cider bark and a few good puffs, then you got flames.

• The spiritual ember that ignites lifestyle living beyond oneself

Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:6, “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God…” I would call the gift of God given to Timothy as the spiritual ember that was ready to take Timothy to a completely different trajectory in life to live beyond himself for the greater cause. Since then, for the last two millenniums the gift of God, the spiritual ember, has been igniting people to burn brightly, not for themselves, but for the cause of Jesus Christ. Once the spiritual ember enters into your life and you experience the flame, you are no longer content to live life just for yourself. Another word, discontentment in life will persist unless we fan into flame the gift of God and live beyond ourselves for God and for others.

Jim Elliot understood this when he wrote in his journal in October 28, 1949, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” He was a man of sincere faith who was compelled to give his life for the cause of God’s Son Jesus Christ. Jim gave his life away in sharing his faith to the savages. But, he gained so much more. Jim gained true fellowship with Christ. He would ask, “Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’ Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame.”

God gave Timothy, the gift, the spiritual ember to live beyond himself, to share the life of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And, God has also given us the spiritual ember that is endowed with power, love and self-discipline to ignite us into the new movement of living beyond ourselves for the audience of one.

Think about it. It is Jesus who calls us to follow him. Didn’t he say, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-24) What else can you expect from yourself when you follow Jesus who lived beyond himself? Didn’t Jesus live beyond himself for his Father, to do his will? Didn’t Jesus live beyond himself for you and me? In sharing his life unto death, Jesus has ignited unstoppable chain reaction for the new kingdom lifestyle, living beyond oneself to the will of God and living beyond oneself for others.

You and I are called to embrace the new narrative of selfless people living out selflessly beyond themselves in God’s power, love and self-discipline. That is our legacy!

• How we snuff the spiritual ember…

When Paul reminded Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God, he did it because there was the risk of letting the spiritual ember snuffed. The dark brown/black ember had to be wrapped up in the tinder of white cider wood, it had to be infused with fresh air in order to glow red and ignite into flame. But, when you don’t fan into flame, the spiritual ember becomes dormant, inactive.

• Being ashamed of Jesus Christ snuffs the spiritual ember.

Do you remember what happened to Peter? He is the first one to get Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the promised Savior, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). He is the one who boldly proclaimed his loyalty to Jesus, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will” (Matthew 26:33). Yet, it was he who denied knowing Jesus when people recognized him as Jesus’ disciple, not just once, but three times.

Lyn and I’ve been teaching our children not to use God’s name in vain. Listen to what Mikayla did. When her classmate said, “Oh my God,” Mikayla to her, “Hey, don’t say that! That’s King’s name.” Isn’t that great? 6 year old defending the name of the King! If she chose not to say anything, it would be because she was ashamed to stand for God.

• Living under fear snuffs the spiritual ember

Often the cause of feeling shame on account of Jesus is fear. A spirit of timidity or cowardice evokes fear in what others might think of us if we defend our faith in Jesus Christ. Going back to Peter in his denial, it was this fear fueled by a spirit of timidity that paralyzed him.

• How do we fan into flame the spiritual ember?

So, how do we live so that we are not controlled by shame and fear and live like cowards? How do we fan into flame the gift of God so we live beyond ourselves in a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline as Jesus did?

1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” The way to fan into flame the gift of God is by renewing our relationship with Jesus Christ. When relationship with Christ grows fear and shame is dispelled and living beyond ourselves for God and for others becomes the way of life.

It is love that always controls you. If we deny knowing Jesus like Peter did, it is because we love our lives more than we love Jesus. If we lose our lives like Jim Elliot did in sharing his faith in Jesus with the savages, it is because we overcome the fear of being killed in our love for Christ.

Do you remember how Jesus fan into flame Peter’s spiritual ember that was covered with ashes of doubts and gross failure? Having denied Jesus three times, Peter went back to the old way of life, fishing to make ends meet with other disciples. It is at a shore while fishing he first met Jesus more than three years ago. And, now again it is at a shore Peter met the resurrected Jesus.

Do you remember what Jesus was doing at the shore while they were fishing? John 21:9 says, “When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.”

Do you remember what Jesus said to Peter after eating? Jesus asked Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” To this Peter answered, “Yes, Lord… you know that I love you.” Three times Jesus asked if Peter loved him. Three times Peter confessed his love for Jesus. And, each time Jesus followed with the call to live beyond himself, to do the will of God to feed his lambs, to take care of his sheep, to feed his sheep.

Do you see what Jesus was doing with Peter? He was fanning the flame by calling Peter to commit once again to relationship with him, to renew his love for him. Listen to how people of God yearn for rekindling of the spiritual ember?

Amy Carmichael “Give me the love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay, the hope no disappointments tire, the passion that will burn like fire. Let me not sink to be a clod; Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.”

Robert Murray M’Cheyne, “The oil of the lamp in the temple burnt away in giving light; so should we."

Richard Baxter, “What have we time and strength for, but to lay out both for God? What is a candle made for, but to burn?”

Samuel Chadwick, “Men ablaze are invincible. Hell trembles when men kindle.”

John Wesley… “Get on fire for God and men will come and see you burn.”

J. Oswald Sanders… “The wick exits only to be consumed. If it survives, it has failed of its purpose. There is no such thing as costless spiritual service. As we minister to others, virtue will go out of us. Ours is the privilege of offering ourselves as fuel for the flame of God.”

Do you want to be fuel for the flame of God? Do you want to be ignited? Do you want be invincible? Do you want to make the hell tremble because you are ablaze in flames?

Rekindling requires changes, rearranging, stirring the embers… what means of changes, rearrangement do you need to see your amber emitting hot burning flames? What do you need to do renew your love for Christ and live beyond yourself?

Find rest in God alone by preaching to your soul the truth about God and pouring your heart to God. (Psalm 62)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon August 10, 2008

This past week, I saw Wall-E with my girls. It carries a strong green message on taking care of earth. But, what really moved my heart was the way the characters were transformed by the new ‘directive’ to go back home to earth. This new directive shattered the life as people knew out in the space, not as the best life they could have but utterly substandard, nothing more than just a survival. 

Out in the space far from earth in time and space is the world of Axiom, a giant spaceship or more like a space station. In Axiom a super-intelligent automated luxurious cruise spaceship are people living with one directive, “Live to please yourself while having to work as little as possible.”  In the world of Axiom fully equipped with technological advancements, no one needs to walk or even lift an arm to do anything. Everything is done for you. All you have to do is sit on your automated floating recliner, open your eyes, stare at the virtual screen in front of your face and simply chat with others around you who are doing exactly the same thing. You don’t even have to turn your head or sit up to talk to a person next to you or in front of you. You don’t even need to chew food since it is provided in slush cups with straw. And, when you see an ad for a new clothing line, at a push of button, just like that your wardrobe instantaneously changes into the new line. Anything you want is instantly given to you. Axiom is a technological nirvana with nanosecond instant gratification with complete order and control. No need to sweat or feel any pain, no need to work at anything, or work out. Just chill out and enjoy; everything is done for you. In this fully automated world of instant gratification, after seven hundred years of leaving earth no one has any faintest idea what life on earth was like or even wants to go back to it. They all look like inflated balloon figures, blobs that can’t even walk now.

In the world of Axiom is the directive that promises, “You can have it all when you want it without having to work.” But, when Eva the probe brings a tiny shoot of green plant from earth back to Axiom things cannot be the same anymore. Now, the new directive is it is time to work; it is time to go back to earth and work hard to restore it.

In the movie there is a scene that involves the captain of Axiom and the chief-machine of the command center called Auto. The captain is convinced that people of Axiom must return to earth. But, Auto the artificial intelligent machine refuses to accept the new directive to go back to earth.  Auto fights to keep human in Axiom out in the space.

To this Auto, the captain passionately makes his case to return to earth, “Out there is our home, home Auto. And, it’s in trouble. I can’t just sit here and do nothing. That’s all I ever done. That’s what anyone in this blasted ship has ever done. Nothing!”

Auto replies, “In the Axiom, you will survive.”

The Captain, frustrated, screams, “I don’t want to survive. I want to live.”

At this point of the movie, I knew I was on to something good. “I don’t want to survive. I want to live.” The captain describes the life in Axiom, a fully automated robotic environment designed to grant instant gratification with minimal effort and work as merely surviving and doing nothing. The captain is convinced that forsaking this lifestyle is gain if it means going back home to earth to help it restored again. A drastic change to say the least, don’t you think? To label the life of ease once thought as that which couldn’t get any better as mere survival while going back home to the work of restoration as really living, you can say that the captain is converted.

The story of Wall-E illustrates how the gospel is the new spiritual directive from our Lord Jesus Christ that confronts the life as we know as mere survival, substandard reality. What we think of as rest is not truly rest. The new spiritual directive, the gospel points us to not just the surviving but true rest. So, we must ask. Can it be that life as we know is really just surviving, just making it through and that there is more to life than what we have now, the true rest? The new directive from Jesus Christ tells us, yes, there is more to life than what we have. True rest in God alone! This is what the gospel wants us to have.

In the Wall-E fashion, if someone were to ask, “What is your directive?” how would you answer? My prayer is that you would be convinced and griped by the new directive to make changes. “Find rest in God alone” is your new directive.

Find your rest in God alone by preaching to yourself the truth about God and by pouring your heart to him.  This is your new directive you must pay attention to.  

• Find rest in God alone

David begins his Psalm 62 with the statement that his soul finds rest in God alone. What does it mean to find rest in God alone? In Hebrew, it literally reads, “My soul waits in silence for God” (ESV).

Here is a picture of David tuning out the drowning noises of the world, silencing his restless mind, and waiting for God. This is a picture of David putting his confidence in God, a picture of David realizing truly God is his confidence, salvation, rock, fortress, confidence that will never be shaken. If someone were to ask David, “What is your directive?” in Wall-E fashion, this would be his reply, finding rest in God alone, finding confidence in God alone.

Can you and I make that statement? Can your directive be finding rest in God alone, being confident in God alone?

What gives you the sense of confidence in your life? Is it education, is it money in your name, or is it other people around you? What are the things that give you the sense of confidence in your life? And, whatever you think you could feel confident about, is it really enough to make you feel securely confident? Do you feel confident with what money, education, people relationships you have now? Or, do you think if you have little more of that you would feel more confident? When will money, education, people relationship or anything else make you feel confident enough in life? I have strong suspicion that none of these will ever make me feel completely confident, feel completely rested and secured. I have strong suspicion if we are really honest these may give us growing confidence, but never to the point of alleviating insecurity of our souls.

What God wants to do is to convince us that he truly alone can be our confidence without failing instead of what we can achieve or what we can have, things or people.

In Exodus 3:13-15 God revealed his name as “I AM WHO I AM.” This is the statement of confidence. The great I AM wanted to the Israelites to get this. So, you read in Exodus 6:6-8, “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.”

God works in our lives to convince us that he alone is our confidence in the insecure world of ourselves  and in the insecure world we live in.

For David, the sense of insecurity came from the people. If you are familiar with his story, you know that he was tested by the people who sought to kill him, especially by Saul. In vv. 3-4, David sees himself as leaning wall, tottering fence that is being assaulted by people around him to topple him by means of lies and hypocrisy of curse disguised in blessing. Talk about disappointment. If there was ever time when he felt he could place his confidence in people, if there was ever time when he could feel secured about himself by people around him, this was not one of them. God tested him by stripping off relationships with people as his confidence. God did this so he can pause and learn that truly God alone is his confidence, his security, his rest.

• Find rest in God alone by preaching to yourself the truth about God

So, in verse 5-6 you see him repeating what he already said in verse 1-2. But, the difference is in verse 5, he is preaching to himself. When noises are loud, when the feelings of insecurity drown you, it is not enough to know in the back of your mind that God is your confidence. You need to say it aloud, to preach it passionately, and to declare it at loud and clear to drown out the noises of your own insecurities.

Here are some truths about God that can preach to your restless insecure souls.

God is strong.

All the words that describe God as fortress, rock, salvation, refuge speak to unmovable powerful reality of who God is. God is strong. His strength, his resolve means he can be trusted in the world of disappointments.

God is loving

God seeking to be your confidence, your rest, and your strong center speaks to himself as God who is love. Only one who loves seeks the well being of others. God who seeks to bless you with his protection and his help is God who loves you very much. And, to preach to your soul God who loves you, there is nothing better than to preach the cross. Paul said in Galatians 6:14, “May I never boast expect in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Look at the fruit of Paul's life, many people heard the gospel for the first time through him, many churches were planted; God used him to speak the truth to us. He was fruitful because he knew was proud only in the cross. To boast in the cross is to declare that what really matters in life is remaining in God’s love expressed in sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

God is the great rewarder.

Psalm 62:12, “Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done.”

Galatians  6:8, “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

• Find rest in God alone by pouring your hearts to God

For David, finding rest in God alone was not a private matter. He wanted to his people to know God as their confidence. So, we see him calling people in verse 8 to “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” To pour your hearts to him is an expression for earnest prayers amid tears and discouragement.[1]

2 Timothy 4:7-8, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will reward to me on that day- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Here is a picture of Paul fighting the good fight, running the race to win, nurturing his faith, aiming for the prize, all because he has this intense yearning to see Christ face to face. This is really the picture of Christian life. We got to begin earnestly pray out of desperation and in tears, we got to cry out, “I don’t want to survive. I want to live.”

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[1] NIDOTTE, (H9161) Ëpv;

1 Samuel 8, Revive us!

When the Ark of the Lord finally returned back to Israel after over 7 months of captivity in the hands of Philistines, 1 Samuel 7:1 says that the ark of the LORD remained in Kiriath Jearim and verse 2 says that it remained there for twenty years. And, verse 2 says, “All the people of Israel mourned and sought after the LORD. What were they mourning about? They were mourning because the ark of the LORD, the symbol of God’s presence was no longer housed in the temple in Shiloh. But, this took place after some twenty years later. What happened? Let me tell you what happened here. The Israelites felt content as things were; they were content to see the ark of the LORD displaced from the temple of God. They were content for twenty years as things were.

1. Unholy contentment suffocates your spiritual life.

“THE COMPLACENCY of CHRISTIANS is the scandal of Christianity,” said A. W. Tozer in his book, Man, the Dwelling Place of God. We know in our head that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption and that he is the Resurrection and the Life for eternity to come.

Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:7-12, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of the Christ. What is more, I considered everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him… I want to Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering… Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

And, he said in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Follow my examples, as I follow the example of Christ.”

Our God is God who does extraordinary things. In twenty nine days, we are going to celebrate the greatest and mot extraordinary moment in the history when Jesus was raised from the dead. We serve God who is extraordinary who is after transforming our ordinary daily moments into the extraordinary moments set apart, holy given unto him. Yet, we insist on “the contentment with inadequate and imperfect progress in the life of holiness,” says Tozer. This he calls it again, “a scandal in the Church of the Firstborn.”

I am first to confess that I have bought into this scandal of abnormal, unholy contentment, complacency, as things are just plain ordinary or even worse substandard so called Christian life.

We recently did an evaluation on the life of our church. As I was going through the answers to these questions, I was stirred with this raw emotion inside of me. I set out five years ago to see a church that would rise up to love God and love people wholeheartedly. What the evaluation showed me was that we are a church that has the appearance of friendless, but live on the superficiality, superficiality with God and with each other. We come together Sundays after Sundays, but the sad thing is we are just content to leave things as they are just like the Israelites were content with the displaced ark of the LORD.

2. The holy discontentment breathes new life for you.

Things were mediocre, substandard for the Israelites for twenty years, but something was happening. They began to mourn and seeking after the LORD. In 1 Samuel 4, their response to the devastating loss against the Philistines was to manipulate God for their gain by taking the ark to the battleground as though it was their insurance for sure victory. We know what happened when they tried to manipulate God for their selfish gain; the glory of the Lord left them as symbolized by the capture of the ark.

But, here in chapter 1 Samuel 7:2, we see a different ting happening. They began to mourn and they began to go after the Lord.

How can you explain what happened here? How did they go from being content with mediocre and substandard life to bemoaning and seeking after the LORD?

Our text doesn’t say specifically what happened. Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 3:8, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” What we see in 1 Samuel 7:2 is the invisible and intangible work of the Holy Spirit. He was awakening people from the deadly trap of unholy contentment, lethal complacency, accepting the displaced ark of the LORD as a norm. The Spirit was moving them from unholy contentment to the holy discontentment.

To mourn is to lament. In Micah 2:4, the same verb is used to describe the Israelites’ lament over loosing the allotted land into the hands of the enemies. It is a raw emotion of deep grief, sorrow, regret for something with audible wailing; in 1 Samuel 7:2, is the lamenting over the displaced ark of the LORD, that is the displaced glory of God.

3. For the holy discontentment to be effective, you need change your direction.

Their lament in deep grief, sorrow, regret, their holy discontentment for the displaced glory of God was accompanied by the direction change.

In NIV, this is translated as “sought after the LORD.” In Hebrew, this is simply an adverb, “after.”

If their mourning simply ended with loud wailing, it would not have been a genuine result of the Holy Spirit touching them. Feeling sorry in itself is not enough to revive us. What we need is to “Strive to get beyond mere pensive longing” according to Tozer. What we need is the radical directional change.

“What are you after?” is the crucial question we need to ask. When you wake up early in the morning? What are you after? Are you in hurry to get ready to go to school or to work? Or, are you in hurry to go after God, to meet him, to hear him, to talk to him? When you get home from school or from work, are you after to fix up something to eat and sit in front of TV or computer to feed yourself with mindless moments of entertainment? Or, are you after something more substantial and meaningful and eternally significant like building relationship with God and with people?

Do you feel sorry that you seem to have only casual relationship in the church, at work, at school and at home? Or, do you go after to build meaningful friendship with people, something real, honest, heart-connecting kind of friendship?

4. The holy discontentment and longing isn’t enough, you must act.

When the people began to mourn and sought after the LORD, Samuel told them in verse 3, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the land of the Philistines.”

It is not enough to feel longing, sorrow and good intention to change the direction. Feeling strongly about something but doing nothing about will set you back; it will kill your spirituality. Apostle James spoke about this plain in James 1:22-25:

“Do no merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.”

Samuel said to return to the Lord with all one’s heart involves three actions: 1) ridding ourselves of sins, 2) committing ourselves to the Lord and, 3) serving him only. Then, the promise is the deliverance out of the hand of the enemies, the Philistines in the case of Israel.

When God’s people put the convictions into actions, verse 10 says then the LORD thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites.

When the Lord delivered them the victory against the Philistines, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far has the LORD helped us.” Ebenezer means “stone of help.” The stone of help, Ebenezer became the memorial for them to remind them what happened when God stirred them into the holy discontentment, direction change, and concrete actions.

Will we have our turn to build the memorial Ebenezer in our church? God wants us to build the Ebenezer for Cornerstone Mission Church, your church, for your life.

5. So, here are some actions plans

I mentioned earlier that we have 29 days to Easter. I want us to have some concrete action plans to put things into actions. I like how Becky Tirabassi put things in the Burning Heart Contract. [i]

There are three elements to this contract.

Ignite your passion

Purify your life

Fulfill your purpose

Prayer Commitment—30 Minutes a day in Prayer and Bible for 21 Days:

The best, most practical, fool-proof method that has worked for me for over two decades is to write (or journal) my PART (praise, admit, request, and thanks) in prayer every day. That means I don’t forget to (1) confess any sin or to (2) pray for others specifically. I encourage, if you’re not doing it already, to get a journal—label it 21 Days—and have a record of ALL that God does. I also Listen to God by reading a 365 Bible everyday. In other words, it is most often through my regular daily planned Bible reading that God speaks to me—and I know He’ll speak to you. If you don’t have a One Year or Change Your Life Daily Bible…this might be the time to get one!

Purity Commitment: Not to touch or look at another person’s private parts, except your spouse (and if you’re not married, that means…no one.)

This is a practical way to gain power in your spiritual life that comes as a result of purity and holiness. Ask god to purify your mind…to prepare you to be more sensitive to Him, and to spend your time more wisely. But especially if you struggle with sexual impurity in any way, I would encourage you to get an accountability partner and check in with them 2 or 3 times a day for the next 21 days. (That might sound like a lot, but if you want to “get rid” of something…you can’t hide it, you must expose it.)

For some of you, this area may be less tempting than others—just ask God to show you any area that He might want to purify you more (II Tim 2:21-22).

The purity-piece to our “personal revival” is a holiness commitment…and God J likes (actually asks) us to be holy like He is holy. Think ahead--something happens to us when we become more like Him…we become powerful preachers, evangelists and leaders. Why? We’ve got nothing to hide. And we’re not ashamed of poorly representing the Gospel. We’re transparent—not perfect—but we honor God’s name by our choices in public and private…and people see, know, and they are watching!

Purpose—to lead one person to Christ in the next 21 Days.

Let’s not panic or competeJ! In Finney’s Lectures on Revival, he wrote, “Four factors have a part in conversion—three active agents and one passive instrument. The agents are God, the truth-bringer (you and me), and the sinner. The instrument is truth. Under God’s influence the truth cuts its way like fire.”

In the feedback from many of you, this piece of the commitment has been the “deal-breaker!” This is the area in which many struggled to commit. So I want to encourage you—the more often you share your relationship with Christ on a daily basis, the more comfortable you’ll become and the greater chance someone is going to be in your path (whom God puts) to hear His story!!! That’s being His agent/ambassador! But the Holy Spirit has all kinds of things going on we don’t even know…so when you are prompted to share (whether it feels funny or awkward or repetitive or you have no good reason to think they’ll even respond), go for it anyway!

One of our “teammates” has written the name of 5 people whom He knows God has placed on his heart to share with over the next 21 Days. I’d encourage you to do the same! (FYI: In the coming days, I also will send some great material from Spurgeon’s Soul Winner!)

You are loved and I am honored to be your friend. Call or write if you need anything!

Be encouraged,

Becky Tirabassi

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[i] burning heart contract