I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)
Lean and clean for the King.
That’s my personal motto.
What does it mean?
It means I want to cut the fat, the dirt, even the dust from my life so I can operate lean and clean for the King, by which I mean King Jesus, the King of Kings.
A serious athlete puts his body in peak condition. It means cutting some things from his life.
Serious actors go to great lengths to prepare for certain roles. It means cutting some things from their life.
And serious Christians will cut some things from their life to become all that God wants them to be.
I want to cut the fat from my body so it can be a fully functioning vessel.
I want to cut the fat from my schedule so that my time is used wisely.
I want to cut the fat from my thinking, taking every thought captive, and stopping my brain from running off in every direction.
“But Doug, that sounds like work. I thought we were saved by grace, not by works.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 literally says that. We are saved by grace…but then what?
But then keep reading. It says we are saved BY grace…FOR good works.
What are we supposed to be doing, now that we are saved by grace?
Good works!
And if we want to be great at doing good works, we have to cut the fat, get in shape, and get prepared to run the race.
“But Doug, what about my liberty in Jesus?”
Yes, thank God, we have liberty in Jesus!
Now look at Galatians 5:13, “…ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”
Yes, we have liberty, but we don’t sit back on our fat liberty and indulge the flesh. That’s stupid. It’s wasteful. It’s selfish.
We have been created for good works. We have been called to love and serve one another.
That is the race. It’s the high calling. It’s the most fulfilling. It’s what we were made to do from the foundation of the world.
And to do it, we need to get in shape for it. We need to cut the extraneous, the bloated, the unruly, the undisciplined parts of our life and bring it all under submission, in humility, through His grace, and for His glory.
And for me, I sum up the whole process in this one little phrase.
Lean and clean for the King.
May God bless you today.
I’m Doug Apple.
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