Pure gold

There are times when the best things happen even when you're tired. That was the case this Sunday. I had returned to Paris exhausted after 10 days of mission, 24 hours of travel, and a lost suitcase; but during my stay in Brazil, God had put a message in my mind for the coming weeks, and I was eager to share it. I had missed church; and God willing, they would finally understand that they need me less than they thought and love me more than they imagined; and I was happy to come back with a message and not just a sermon.

The message was hot, literally. The word 'fervens' means boiling, the state of something being hot, very hot, incandescent; it speaks of passion, ardor, intense zeal; of commitment of heart. Romans 12:11 says this ' Be fervent in spirit', and that's what we're going to be focusing on in the coming weeks. It's going to be about spiritual fervor, what it is, how to get it, and how to maintain it. Because it's not just something that happens to us, God tells us to be it, so we have to be it. And we can, we can be incandescent, boiling, totally and completely passionate all our lives.

I love passion; I'm passionate about God, the kingdom, the church, the Word of God. Whenever God is in the equation, it's music to my ears. And death for me would be to become passive, indifferent, and jaded about God. I know what it's like: life, people, and you yourself can act in such a way as to kill your passion, mutilate your heart, and turn you into a spiritual zombie for whom everything is business as usual; and that's where many find themselves. So when God brought this passage to my attention and compelled me to read it, study it, meditate on it, pray on it, and preach on it, it was as if He had given me liquid gold.

So I preached with passion about passion, and as I finished, I realized that God wasn't finished and that He wanted to touch people in a personal way. So I called forward those whose hearts had been touched and who wanted a change. We were on holy ground. Usually my voice carries, but there were times when I was almost whispering as I prayed for people, so great was the awareness of God's presence. And God touched people deeply, He came with power, and brought liberation and freedom. God has such availability, it's almost hard to believe.

So here we are, embarking on a new journey in the Word, on another adventure in Christ, on a voyage of discovery and an undertaking of growth. We are aboard a ship named FERVOR and we will study, meditate, preach, pray, and I am convinced that when we arrive at port we will have been radically transformed. One thing is certain: we are already well on our way. And what a divine gift for a first Sunday back. Oh, the infinitely varied goodness of God.

Shalom!