Tag Archives: Burning Heart

Rekindled

Posted on by 
Journal entry: 11/19/2018
As I write this, a small flame from a little clay oil lamp on my
desk undulates in rhythm with the slight currents of air. If I
squint, it throws a golden beam at my heart.
Every morning when I rise, I light it and watch its flame dance
and sit with God. A while back, the flame grew smaller and smaller
then silently extinguished leaving a thin wisp of smoke that
quickly dissipated. I hadn’t been paying attention to the level
of oil and had neglected its filling.
I am the clay container filled with the sacred oil of the presence
of Jehovah. There is a small flame in my heart that is a piece of
His holy fire. It dances in rhythm with the breath of His Spirit.
My soul needs continual filling and refilling every day to keep
the flame burning and radiating its light and warmth. My neglect
will quench and extinguish the flame of His Spirit.


The fire of God’s presence is always in me and with me, but I’m not always present with Him. Sometimes I slip into relying less on Him and more on me to deal with life’s difficulties and demands. I can go a day then another and another neglecting a fresh filling of His Spirit. In time, my flame grows smaller and smaller then silently extinguishes leaving a thin trail of smoke. My insides grow cold and dark, and I grope for a way out of the emptiness.
Over the past 15+ years, I have had numerous conversations with women at various retreats and events who were overwhelmed by life, losing their grip on hope and simply going through the motions. Woven into their stories was a thread of longing for rekindling.  We were made to experience the reality of the living Christ in our sorrows, struggles, dryness, and exhaustion. And so we long for it. But life tramples hope, shreds our hearts, drains our joy and leaves us spent, frayed and empty clinging to the broken pieces. I have lived seasons in all of these places.
We are containers by divine design, made to be filled with God Himself. We were meant to be aflame with all the fullness of His life, and receive grace upon grace in every situation and every struggle. Sometimes I let circumstances distract and drain me, but as soon as I look to Him in humble submission and faith, the flow of His life and power is unleashed again and He astounds me with grace upon grace upon more grace and still more grace.
Lord, I am humbled by your unrelenting grace even when, and especially when, I get lost in the struggle and neglect You. My heart burns to know You more and to be inflamed by Your presence. I am Yours, Lord. I need You in every moment of every day. Throw a golden beam of Your fire into my heart, and fill me with all of Your fullness.
 

Society of the Burning Heart

Posted on by

…His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. Jeremiah 20:9
God has been stirring up a fire in my soul to know Him more deeply. I want more than an ordinary experience, I yearn for rare intimacy with Him. I want to be filled to the measure with all of His fullness, walk in the power of His Spirit and have the image of Christ more fully formed in me. However, it requires death to self, and that’s not an easy path.
There has been a growing sentiment in Christianity that God exists for us and for our comfort. Some are cramming Him into a magic lamp to be roused by our wishes. There has been a gradual shift away from God-centered Truth to self-centered truth. We’re losing our moorings to the solid Rock and are drifting into individualized reality. It’s a much easier path, but not the one I will take.
I don’t need a therapy God who only empathizes with me and affirms me and makes me feel good about myself. I don’t need a Concierge who will pander me, prosper me and grant my every wish. I don’t need a God invented and reinvented in the fickle winds of culture.
I need the real God in my real world. One who calls me to a higher path, to be more than I am and all He has designed me to be. I need a God bigger than I am and bigger than my world.
I need the only One who can free me from myself and my bondage to sin. I need a God who calls me to repentance and obedience, then gives me the will and strength to obey and who will do in me the very thing He asks of me.
I don’t need a God who will keep me from the storm or from suffering but a God who controls it and walks with me through it to deeper places of His heart. I need a God who will purge and refine me until He is the very center and pulse of my soul.
I want to be undone and my heart set ablaze by the consuming fire of His fierce love and holiness. I need the one True God, the immutable Eternal God, who reigns in Sovereign power and is clothed with splendor and majesty.
So it is with those in the Society of the Burning Heart.
 
 

Secret Prayer

Posted on by

The alarm goes off and I finally rise after a couple snooze cycles. Tea in hand, I shuffle to my chair and sit in the presence of God. It takes a few moments to corral wandering thoughts and turn toward Him. He watches me settle and waits. Sometimes I become acutely aware of His Presence and my humanness falls silent. Sometimes I just stare into my tea.
I don’t know how I should pray, but the Spirit begins to pray His heart and will for me in the unutterable language of Deity. In the quiet of the morning, a deep upwelling stirs my soul and the unutterable becomes my prayer.

All that I am waits quietly before you, O God,

for my hope is in You.

I am Yours – all I am and all I have.

Work into my heart a deeper and more absolute surrender.

Wash away all my sin.

Cleanse me from all that dishonors You and rises above You.

Empty me of myself and fill me with all of Your fullness.

Permeate every cell.

Remove the scales from my eyes and give me greater faith to see You.

Overwhelm me with Your presence and take my breath away.

I want to know Your great heart, O God.

I yearn for rare intimacy with You.

 
 

Whales and Cormorants

Posted on by

Weekend before last I sat in a condo overlooking the Pacific Ocean and stared out at its waves. My view of the ocean was framed by the window molding. My simple mind might think the ocean exists only within the boxed area of my perspective. Yet standing in the surf, I’m dizzied by the rush of it around my legs and overwhelmed by its expanse and motion.
It’s too easy to define God from my boxed view and think He exists only within the parameters of my understanding. I attempt to make Him fit the predictable and comfortable. It’s hard to wrap my mind around something bigger than I can perceive and deeper than my surface perspective. It’s much safer to look at Him from a dry condo rather than stand in the dizzying rush of His power, off balance and overwhelmed by His endless expanse.
As I sat gazing out the window, I watched black cormorants bobbing on the surface of the sea, rising and falling with the waves and occasionally diving to catch a fish. One flew along the foamed-laced translucent surface of a cresting wave. It struck me that there are those who live out their lives flying through the spray of a cresting wave. They bob on the surface occasionally diving when need drives them deep. But they don’t live in the deep.
As I pondered the cormorants, my mind went to the whales who live and move and have their being in the sea. They move in its currents, are enveloped by its power, and sustained by its bounty. Their other-world songs echo in the depths. Humanity has been captured by their haunting melodies and study its complex compositions and evolving patterns. We wonder at their song.
Perhaps they sing for the joy of the song. Perhaps they’re humming to themselves, and perhaps they’re praising their Creator. Is that so outlandish? In Revelation 5:13, John wrote, “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever!”
O God, stretch the boundaries of my limited perspective. I don’t want to live out my life on the surface only occasionally going deeper. I want to be deeper, live deeper, and stay deeper. I want to feel the surge and rush of Your unrestrained power in my life, carried by Your currents of love, and fed from the bounty of Your depths. I want to live and move and have my being in You. I want Your Presence around me carrying me, lifting me, challenging me, and sustaining me.
As I prayed and pondered this, a distant spout of spray and a dark glistening back broke the grey-green surface of the sea. Then a great tail lifted and disappeared again into the deep.
whales 2_edited-1…in Him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28