Keep the Fire Blazing

A good bonfire is meant to be seen from space. A fire that you can barely see is hardly worth having. The same is true for our spiritual lives. Paul wrote to Timothy and told him to “fan into flame” the gift that he had been given by God (2 Tim. 1:6). Some think this gift may have been Timothy’s ministry itself, a spiritual gifting, or simply the work of the Spirit in Timothy’s life helping him to serve God with a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.

The phrase “fan into flame” can be translated as “keep constantly blazing” (Wuest). It does not necessarily mean that the fire had gone out or died down, but it points to the fact that Timothy had to work to keep the fire going all of the time. It is an ongoing task. Fires burn out and die unless there are maintained. 

This applies to our spiritual lives as well. What will happen to our flame if we do not attend to the fire? For a regenerated believer, God will never let the fire go out completely—but it may smolder.

Do you ever feel that your spiritual life is smoldering? Sometimes it doesn’t seem to be giving off any heat. Instead of being visible from space, there is hardly a trace of smoke. What do you do?

How does a person attend to a literal fire? 

There is more than one way that a fire can go out. A fire needs fuel. A fire needs oxygen. A fire needs heat. Take away any of those and the fire goes out. The same is true for our spiritual fire.

We need to keep fueling our faith with the Word of God. Our faith needs to feed off the fuel of God’s promises in Scripture. That is why Paul could have hope as he awaited execution in a Roman prison—because his faith was fueled by the “promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:1).  Keep fueling your faith with knowledge of God’s promises and character.  

We need dependence on the Holy Spirit as oxygen. Fuel needs oxygen to ignite. In the same way, the Holy Spirit causes His Words of Scripture to ignite in our hearts. Just as a fire needs both fuel and oxygen, the words of Scripture and the work of the Spirit always go together. Fires burn hot when they get the wind they need. If your spiritual life is smoldering, pray for God’s Spirit to blow on your embers.

We need to keep the fire stirred by Christian work, ministry and service. Maybe your spiritual life is cold because the embers need to be stirred up. Maybe you are dormant because of a lack of activity. Get involved with something. Volunteer. Serve. Speak. Do something and see if it gets the flames going. 

And just as coals burn hotter when close together we need Christian fellowship to keep our fire hot. When coals are spread apart, they get cold. (Heb. 10:24-25)

Don’t douse your fire with buckets of sin. Wet wood doesn’t burn.

I don’t want to get allegorical, but these are some of the things that the Bible calls us to do regardless. The key point is that we need to attend to our spiritual lives constantly. When we don’t keep watch, or when we don’t put forth any effort, the fire will not blaze as it once did.

Asking Questions and Questioning

Amazon finally delivered my copy of Rob Bell's Love Wins.  I hate the thought that I spent money on this, but I know that I need to read it in order to better interact with people about it.  The first thing I noticed about the book is that it has a waterproof dust jacket.  That might be a good thing.

The first chapter is mostly questions.  Questions are great.  Questions are wonderful, especially when they are being asked in the sense of faith seeking understanding.  Unfortunately, questions can also be asked in another way.  Sometimes questions are nothing more than rhetorical devices being used to make a point, and that is what Bell is doing here. 

Some people ask questions in the sense of faith seeking understanding.  Other people ask questions in the sense of doubt seeking influence. 

There is a difference between asking questions and questioning.  More precisely, there is a difference between asking questions about what God as told us and questioning what God has told us.  What is annoying is the sly and ingenuous way that some people shift between these two meanings.  They want to retain the nobility of asking questions, but slip in the subversiveness of questioning that which they disagree.

For example, consider this statement from Methodist pastor Chad Holtz who was recently fired by his church after he voiced his support for Rob Bell's view on hell: 

"The people at my church are good, decent people," he told FoxNews.com. "They’re simply feeling a little threatened by a pastor who is asking questions that they don’t want to ask right now. I hope some seeds are planted and that God will bring some good about it."

This is sly and manipulative.  He wants people to receive the impression that he is innocently asking question--faith seeking understanding--when in fact he had already landed on his conclusions.  According to the article, he "lost the idea of hell" and now believes that "God has saved everyone."  This church did not dismiss this pastor because they felt threatened by honest questions.  They dismissed him because he was trying to persuade others to disbelieve what they saw taught in God's Word.  This is the same thing that Rob Bell is doing with his questions. 

Questions are great.  I love it when students ask hard questions.  Any theology or worldview that does not allow for honest hard questions is not worth believing.  Questions lead to answers.  Honest questions are great because they can lead us to honest answers.  The difference is that some questions are asked to generate answers; others are asked to generate doubt.

When the serpent asked, "Did God really say...?" he wasn't looking for an answer.