Neither Boredom Nor Burnout

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)

I’m about to say something crazy, but it’s true.

It’s not the usual way of thinking, but it’s God’s way, so listen up.

If your church has a total of a hundred people including one pastor, then your pastor should be doing one percent of the work of that church.

Pause.

Think about it.

Let me say it again. If your church has a total of a hundred people including one pastor, then your pastor should be doing one percent of the work of that church.

Did you just spit up a little?

I’m telling you, this is the way the body of Christ is designed to work. We each have a vital part in the body, and we each need to fulfill our part.

Now you might be thinking, “That’s the pastor’s full time job. I have to go to work everyday. I can’t be doing the same amount of church work as the pastor. That’s ridiculous!”

That’s true...IF you have pigeon-holed the work of the church into, like, 5 duties that a pastor does. Forget about that.

The question is, are you fulfilling your part in the body of Christ? You have a unique part, with unique giftings and callings from God Himself. And your part in the body is your part in the body, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The pastor has HIS part in the body, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. EVERY BELIEVER has their part in the body, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Are you fulfilling your part in the body? If everyone in your local congregation of one hundred people is fulfilling their part in the body, then each person is doing one percent of the work of that local congregation.

Don’t pigeon-hole God’s work into the, like, 10 jobs that you think of as “church work.” God’s work is the work of His entire body, which is explosively loaded with gifts and callings, the vast majority of which never see the light of day.

“But Doug, I can’t be doing all that church work. I have to go to work, and look after my kids, and take a little time just to enjoy life, you know.”

Yes, I know. And more importantly, God knows. He created you. He knows EXACTLY, PRECISELY WHAT YOU NEED. He put inside of every believer just what you need in the form of His Holy Spirit. He has gifted you and called you; and your most fulfilling, abundant life will come when you fulfill your part in the body of Christ.

Now the title of this lesson is, “Neither Boredom Nor Burnout.” Many Christians go sailing off in one of those two directions.

First, boredom. My daughter told me the other day, “I think so many Christians are drinking alcohol today because they are bored.” What? If you tap into the Holy Spirit and all that God has for you, boredom will go flying out the window. Fulfilling your part in the body of Christ will be the most exciting adventure you have ever been on, if you will just take the time to diligently seek God and let His Spirit lead you.

Second, burnout. Many Christians will hear a message like this, get fired up, and dive head first into church work, doing everything that comes their way.

Listen. I’m telling you to seek God and fulfill YOUR PART in the body of Christ – and that’s not anyone else’s part. You can’t do anyone else’s part. When you try to do your part and other people’s parts in the body, you will burn out. Then you can drop out altogether and say, “I got burned out in church.” Don’t fall for it.

But when you truly follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in order to understand and follow and fulfill YOUR part in the body, then you will not burn out.

Pastors who are overwhelmed? You are likely trying to fulfill several parts in the body that aren’t yours, which you cannot do.

Deacons or elders or teachers or whatever who are getting burned out in church – you are probably doing more than you are called and gifted to do. You need to fulfill your part in the body, no more (that leads to burnout) and no less (that leads to boredom).

So I close with the shocking line I opened with, and I’ll leave you to pray about it and seek God.

If your church has a total of a hundred people including one pastor, then your pastor should be doing one percent of the work of that church.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Comparison Competition Provision Pleasure

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

How are you doing in life?

How do you know?

Is it by comparing yourself to others?

“I’m doing cruddy because I’m not on a plane to Hawaii like my friends on Facebook.”

Comparing ourselves to others is a terrible trap and a waste of time.  Either we feel bad because others are doing better, or we can feel proud because we are doing better.

But how can you know how you are doing in life if you don’t compare yourself to others?

“I guess I’m doing okay.  At least I’m not as bad as those people, wow, look at them.”

That’s comparison.

And then there is comparison’s evil twin:  competition.

Competition is basically organized comparison.  It’s adding standings and prizes and gold medals.  

“How am I doing in life?  Why, I’m the XYZ trophy winner.  I’m doing great!”

But again, that’s just comparing ourselves to others.  Is there a way to know how we are doing in life without comparison?

Well, there is provision.  How am I providing for myself?  

Leave out comparing yourself to others, because someone else will always be providing more.  The question is, are you providing enough to meet your needs, and then the needs of your family? 

Provision is an important measurement for how you are doing in life, but it probably takes less than you think.  Providing all the latest whizmos for your kids is not the measurement.

“But then they won’t be happy!”

And that brings us to our final measurement for how we are doing in life:  our pleasure.  Are we happy?

We can measure that, minute by minute, but is pleasure a good measure for how we are doing in life?

So much of life isn’t what you would call pleasure.  Even the addict whose only goal is seeking pleasure doesn’t feel that much pleasure.

If you lived on a yacht on a beautiful island full of beautiful people and music and non-stop good times, before long it would just be boring.

So how are we doing in life?  We often answer that question by comparison (I’m winning!), or provision (I’m rich!), or pleasure (I’m so happy!)

But I want to suggest a different measurement for how we are doing in life.

God created us.  God put inside each of us fantastic raw materials.  We have gifts.  We have callings.  We have a purpose.  We have a part to play, assigned by God. 

So the question is, are we doing it?  Are we doing what God has gifted us to do and called us to do?  Are we running in the lane that God has assigned to us, and running for all we’re worth?

That is a measurement worth measuring.

That is a standard worth rising to.

That will bring us the best answer to that pesky, age-old question, “How am I doing in life?”

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

A World Full of Raw Materials

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

God hides things.

Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing...”

When God created the world He concealed literally tons of things.

Picture Adam and Eve in the garden.  And even if you don’t believe in the garden, we all agree that when you go back just a few thousand years the world was a pretty primitive place.  It was beautiful but rough, and you certainly wouldn’t have looked around and even fathomed all the discoveries that were yet to come.

At that time the world was packed full of raw materials, but they were hidden.  We didn’t know about electricity, for example.  We didn’t even know about metal.  We didn’t know about seeds.  I mean, if nobody told you, you’d probably eat an apple and think, “What are these stupid black things in the middle?”  So you’d throw them out in the dirt, and one day you’d see a plant growing where you tossed the seeds, but you didn’t know, so you were like, “Pull that stupid weed.  We don’t need weeds around here.  We’re hungry.”

We didn’t know it at first, but seeds are some of the mightiest raw materials in the world!  But were they obvious?  No.  They were hidden.

Now think of all the things under ground:  silver, gold, coal, oil, but Adam and Eve didn’t see a single one of them.  The world was full of raw materials, but they were hidden.

God hides things.

And the same is true when it comes to people.  God has packed each one of us with raw materials, but they are hidden and need to be discovered!

I was watching my twin grandchildren when they were quite young.  They both had pulled the straw out of their little cups and I said, “Put it back in.”  They were probably too little to do this, and my granddaughter did what was natural.  She tried and tried but didn’t yet have the ability to do it.  But my grandson surprised me when he put the straw straight into the hole.  I thought, “Hmm, that was interesting.”

And since then I’ve noticed that he has a great eye for mechanics and the size and shape of things and how they work.  Meanwhile, his twin sister is already reading like a much older child and is very good with words and speaking.

These are raw materials.  We didn’t know they were there, but we are discovering them.

Every one of us, every single human, including you, is full of raw materials.  Your creator, God the Father, put them in you, and they just need to be discovered.

And they are so different.  Look at this planet and there are tons of raw materials and they are so wildly and wonderfully different.  

And the raw materials that God has put inside you are different.  Maybe you want to be more like other people, but your skill set is different.  Your giftings are different.  And God’s calling on your life is different.  

First Corinthians 12:11 tells us that God distributes gifts to each person according to His will. 

God has plans for you!  And He has given you the giftings that line up with His plans.

Every person has gifts.  Every person is packed with raw materials, and it is our job to discover them and maximize them.  We are to discover our own, and we are to help other people discover theirs.

THEN the body of Christ will be humming along on all cylinders.  THEN the church will be living up to her potential...once we realize that every single person is packed with raw materials from God and it is our job to discover them and help them grow.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Is Your Ladder Leaning Against the Wrong Building?

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

This is one of my all-time favorite illustrations.

A man spends his life climbing the career ladder.  He finally gets to the top, only to realize that it wasn’t what he really wanted after all.  He made it to the top of the ladder, but the ladder was leaning against the wrong building.

I heard that illustration as a young man and thought, “Wow, I don’t want that to be me.  I don’t want to spend my life climbing the wrong ladder.”

So how can you know?  How can you make sure that the ladder you are climbing is going the right way?

Well here’s one thing I’m smart enough to know.  I don’t know!  

I don’t know the future.  I don’t know where the world is headed.  I don’t know how long I’ll be here.  I don’t know what the coming generations look like, so how can I possibly know if I’m climbing the right ladder, if I’m spending my time on all the right things?

Thankfully, I have found a simple formula.  

“Wow, Doug, so you’re actually saying that you found a simple formula for living a successful life?”

Yes, and I’m about to share it with you, free of charge.  Here it is, ten simple words.  Get ready to memorize it and immediately put it into practice.  Are you ready?  Here it is.

God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

I’ll say it again, and this is your key to life, the key to living a successful life, to climbing the right ladder every time.

God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

That’s from Hebrews 11:6.

One thing I love about this formula is that it is very measurable.

Some things about the Kingdom of God are hard to measure, like how much do you love God?  That’s hard to measure.  How are you doing at loving your neighbor as yourself?  It’s hard to know for sure.

But are you diligently seeking God?  That’s measurable.

James 4:8 says that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us, so the question is, are we spending time drawing near to God?

Jesus said, “Go into your room, shut your door, and pray to Your Father.”  Are we doing that?  How often are we doing it?  How consistently are we doing it?

That is how well we are diligently seeking God.

How often are we entering into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise, like it says in Psalm 100?

Are we spending “extravagant daily time with Jesus,” like they say in the book “Live Dead”?

This is a winning formula.  It will keep us from wasting our days, climbing the wrong ladder.  This will keep our priorities straight, and give is the wisdom and knowledge we need to do it right, day after day...good for now and good for eternity.

And it’s so measurable.  We can easily know if we are doing it well or not, and if not, we can make the change immediately, starting right now, and here’s that formula one more time, from Hebrews 11:6.

God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

We Gave Away Our Dinner Table

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

We gave away our dinner table.

My wife and I raised our four children around that table.  We had thousands of meals and conversations at that table.  I think our close family dynamic today has a foundation in all those family dinners.

But it didn’t start that way.  There was a time when we were not having family dinners.  I was working each evening until 6, and when I came home, the kids had already eaten.  The family was a bit more scattered and I don’t think we even thought about it.

Then I went to a big Promise Keepers conference in Indianapolis.  Yes, there were great speakers, but the most dynamic thing for me happened during the singing.  

There I was, singing along with thousands of men who filled the stadium, praising the Lord, and all of a sudden a phrase popped into my head, out of the blue.  It just said, “Start having family dinners.”

I actually kind of shook it off and kept singing, but then it came on stronger, so I stopped singing, sat down and wrote it down, “Start having family dinners.”

One thing about this is that it would actually put a greater burden on my wife than me, so I brought it up to her with a little humility.  “I think God wants us to start having family dinners.”

“No problem,” she said.  “I’ll just start giving the kids a snack after school, then we can all eat together when you get home from work.”

And what a blessing it was!  It became a great, daily gathering time, our family coming together to talk and share and interact, and to build and grow our relationships with one another, relationships that are still strong today.

Relationships that were forged around the family dinner table.

I believe that God leads us in three main ways.  We have the Bible, of course, and I believe we should all be prolific hearers and doers of the Word.

And we have the body of Christ, our fellow believers, our teachers and preachers and brothers and sisters, and God can speak to us through them.

And we have the Spirit of God inside all believers, who gives us the more specific directions we need, sometimes very specific directions like, “Start having family dinners.”

And now we’ve given away our family dinner table.  We gave it to our daughter and her husband, and I just hope and pray that they and their four children will be as blessed as we were, as God binds their family together in love and joy and commitment to one another for decades to come.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Why Do Christians Lock Their Doors?

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

Why do Christians lock their doors?

That’s what someone emailed me, and it’s a great question.

Why do Christians lock their doors?  If you say you trust God, and you believe He will protect you and keep you safe, and His angels are watching over you, you surely don’t need to lock your doors, right?

Well, that’s the exact attitude I had as a young believer many years ago.  I was like, “Wow, God’s got me!  I don’t need to lock my apartment or my car.  I don’t even need to lock up this bicycle...which I just leave out here in the open, under the apartment stairs.”

I didn’t have a care in the world, trusting fully that God would take care of those things for me.

Then one day I came home and noticed that my bike was gone.  Now fortunately I had spent some time playing football with the boys in the apartment complex so I just went out and started asking around, “Have you seen my bike?”  Sure enough, they had.  One of them had taken it for a joy ride and dumped it in the weeds out back, and he fearfully went and retrieved it for me.

Thank God I had my bike back, and I had learned a good lesson:  lock my doors!

God has given people free will, and some of them will take your things if they get a chance, and God will let them.  Not always, I suppose, but often enough to know that we should be wise and take precautions.

I put this in the category of testing God.  For example, we don't sit here like baby birds with our mouth open for food, even though we trust God as our provider.  No, we go and earn our food, just like the Bible tells us to do.  "Those who don't work shouldn't eat."  It would be testing the Lord to ask Him to provide while we do nothing.

The same holds true when trusting Him for protection.  In this pandemic, I'm praying and trusting God for protection (which frees me from worry and anxiety), while I also practice social distancing and hand washing.  

When you read the Bible you will see over and over again, God has His part, and we have our part.  Even in the famous Psalm 91 about protection that so many people are quoting today, you can read God’s part and our part.

I think it would be testing God to ignore what I know to be wise practices, like hand washing, like working hard, like locking my doors.

In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus was tempted by the devil.  The New Living Translation says, “Then the devil took Him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, 'If you are the Son of God, jump off!  For the Scriptures say, 'He will order his angels to protect you.  And they will hold you up with their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone.'"

Then came Jesus' powerful reply in verse 7.  The Scriptures say, “You must not test the Lord your God.”

So that is why I lock my doors.  I believe that to do otherwise is to test the Lord which we are told not to do (except in the case of tithing in Malachi 3:10).

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Go Fishing in the Word

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

Go fishing in the Word.

What can we do in these days of social distancing and flattening the curve?

Go fishing in the Word.

Are you feeling anxious and concerned about what this coronavirus is doing to the world?

Go fishing in the Word.

Are you asking, “What can I do?  What should I do?”

Go fishing in the Word.

God told the prophet Isaiah, “This plan of Mine is not what you would work out, neither are My thoughts the same as yours!  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than yours, and My thoughts than yours.”*

I’m in.  I’m all in!  I mean, I totally believe and accept that God’s ways are higher than my ways, and that His thoughts are higher than my thoughts.  But how can I know His ways and His thoughts?

Go fishing in the Word.

What do I mean, “go fishing in the Word”?

When you go fishing, actual fishing, for fish, you cast out a line and slowly reel it in, feeling for nibbles until eventually, oh wow, fish on!

You can do the same in the Word.  You get out your Bible and you start reading, and what you’re doing is fishing.  As you read across the verses, it’s like slowly reeling in that fishing line.

Maybe this verse doesn’t strike you, and that verse doesn’t strike you.  That’s fine.  Keep reading.  Yes, every verse is important, but keep reading.  What you’re feeling for is that nibble on the line, and by that, I mean the Holy Spirit of God inside of you grabbing your attention on some verse.

See, the Holy Spirit of God lives inside every born again Christian.  God puts His Spirit inside of us to teach us and to lead us.

In this time of coronavirus, are you ready to be taught, and to be led?  I am!

How can we be taught directly by the Spirit of God?

One way is to go fishing in the Word.

Open up your Bible and start reading, and watch for it.  All of a sudden one of those verses, one of those Bible passages is going to jump off the page.  Something you read is going to make your heart burn within you.  It’s going to make your spirit leap inside of you.

When that happens, stop right there.  Dig in and feast on what the Spirit of God might be trying to say to you through that portion of Scripture.  Study it.  Learn it.  Memorize it.  Ingest it and let it do what God means for it to do in your life today, right now.

God’s ways are higher than our ways.  His plans are not our plans, and our plans are rubbish anyway compared to His, so let’s get His plans and His thoughts.  Let’s find out and do exactly what God wants us to do in these challenging days, and how can we do that?

Go fishing in the Word.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

*Isaiah 55:8-9 TLB

You Do Not Know What You Are Asking

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

You do not know what you are asking.

That’s what Jesus said.

He said, “You do not know what you are asking.”

He said it to the mother of His disciples James and John.

In Matthew 20, she comes up to Jesus with her sons, kneels down, and Jesus says, “What do you wish?”

What she wishes is that Jesus would make her sons his top officials when He becomes king.

But she clearly doesn’t understand the situation.  She doesn’t know what’s going on.

And I don’t, either.  Do you?

Do we really know what is going on?

I mean, do we know like God knows?  He REALLY knows what’s going on, and by comparison, what do we know?

We don’t.  His ways are far above our ways.  Like Mark Batterson said in his book, “The Circle Maker,” His ways are 15.5 billion light years above our ways.

So when we bring our feeble prayers to God, it is highly likely that we don’t know what we are asking.

I like what it says in James 4:3, we ask and do not receive because we “ask amiss.” 

Is that prayer a hit?  No, that’s “amiss,” ha ha ha.

So how can we pray and not ask amiss?  How can we pray with knowledge and wisdom, and pray according to God’s will?

One way is praying the Scriptures.  For example, I often pray “Show my Thy ways, O Lord, teach me Thy paths,” which is Psalms 25:4.

There are tons of Bible verses that can be converted straight into prayers.

Another way we can pray and not ask amiss is by praying in humility and surrender.

One example of this from my life is when I decided to get into Christian radio back in 1986.  I sent a letter to all the Christian radio stations in the state and prayed, in fact I basically begged God, “Please, just open one door, the exact door You want me to step through; because if I have to choose, I won’t know which one to choose or how to choose it.  Either I will base it on worldly standards and career opportunities, or I will do the opposite of that on purpose, and I don’t want to do either of those in my own wisdom.  God, I want Your perfect will, and I don’t know what that is, so please, just open one door.”  And, one door opened.

The point of that story was praying a prayer of humility and submission.  “Not my will, but Thy will be done.  God, I don’t know what is best.  I’m not that smart.  And Your ways are 15.5 billion light years above my ways, so I trust You.  I put my complete trust in You.  I’m the sheep, and You are The Good Shepherd.  I love You and want to follow You wherever You lead.”

In Jesus’ name I pray.

Amen.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Is It a Young Man's Game?

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32)

I was talking to an older ministry leader.

He was sharing some of his frustrations, like the challenges of working with young people, understanding the current culture, the seeming shift away from Godly morals, even the ever-changing digital world. How can an older ministry leader keep up?

I was just listening and soaking it in, and then he said, “Maybe it’s a young man’s game.”

A young man’s game?

It CAN’T be a young man’s game. Leading a ministry cannot be a young man’s game. It can’t be an old man’s game. It has to be a SPIRIT-LED game.

Of course it’s not a game. That’s a figure of speech.

The question is, do you get to the place where you are just too old to be truly effective in ministry? What if you can’t keep up with the trends? What about your digital marketing? Your social media? What about motivating a new generation you don’t even understand?

Listen. I hope your ministry never was about how hip you were or how current you were or how well you understood the youth. I hope your ministry was ALWAYS based on spending time with God, rightly dividing the Word, and following the leading of His Holy Spirit every step of the way.

That is the key to ministry no matter how old you are. Look. Burn all your “How to Grow Your Church” books if you have to. I’m all for knowledge and education and learning and training, but that can’t be the foundation of your ministry. You’re not smart enough. You’re not quick enough. You’re not young enough. You can’t keep up with it all.

But you don’t have to. Listen. You don’t have to keep up with the trends. Forget the trends.

Lock yourself in with God. Dive into that daily time of prayer and seeking Him and running to Him and listening to Him.

He will empower you. He will strengthen you. He will open your eyes to exactly what you need to know and how you need to operate.

THAT is how you run a ministry, and age has nothing to do with it, and it never did.

Think of John the Baptist. No marketing studies. No trends. No memberships in the hip clubs. He wasn’t a chief priest. He wasn’t in the Sanhedrin. He didn’t poll the people to see what they wanted.

He just heard from God and did it. He stood out in the wilderness preaching repentance, and lo and behold, the people came...and they kept coming, and repenting, and turning their lives over to God.

So is it a young man’s game? No, it’s everyone’s game; everyone who will run to Jesus, be filled with His Spirit, and seek Him while He may be found. Throw yourself on His altar as a living sacrifice and become all that God has intended you to be from the foundation of the world.

You are NOT too old to dive in and be that blazing fire that God wants you to be, right now, and right up until the day you step into heaven and see Jesus face to face.

Hallelujah. Let’s do this. Come on.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

We End Up With What We Stir Up

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

Don’t stir up trouble.

You’ve heard that before.  It usually comes right before you say something you shouldn’t, and your mom says, “Don’t stir up trouble.”

That applies to so many areas of life.  We end up with what we stir up.

Take fear, anxiety and stress.  You watch scary movies, crime programs, doom and gloom news, shows that are negative and divisive, and you wonder why you’re fearful, anxious and stressed?  That’s what you’re stirring up!  Turn it off.  And listen, don’t worry about missing the news.  The State Department is not on the verge of calling you to ask for your advice.

If you’ve watched so many zombie and vampire and alien shows that you’re thinking, “It could happen...”  It can’t happen!  You just keep stirring it up in your brain.

What about the unfairness of life?  Don’t ever stir up that line of thinking.  Don’t think about it for one second.  Are you pouting because you didn’t win the genetic lottery?  Someone is prettier than you?  More handsome than you?  Faster than you?  Taller than you?  Stronger than you?  Don’t stir up those thoughts!  Instead, enter into His gates with thanksgiving.  Be thankful unto Him and give Him praise.  Find out what God has given you and work it.  Maximize it.  Grow it.  Look at what you DO have, and turn that raw material into something great!

We end up with what we stir up, so be careful what you stir up.

Let’s say you like to steal.  You’re a kleptomaniac.  You get a thrill out of shoplifting.  How can you stop?  Don’t stir it up.  Those desires will die if you don’t give them oxygen.  Let him who stole steal no longer.  How?  Don’t stir it up!

What if you love food.  You love to eat.  You’re a problem eater.  How can you stop?  Proverbs 23:2 says put a knife to your throat.  Not literally.  It’s figurative.  It means cut off those desires.  It means “Don’t think about it.”  Don’t allow yourself to stir up those thoughts about food all time.

Thinking about it.  Dwelling on it.  Tossing it around in your mind.  That is how you stir it up, and we end up with what we stir up.

What about old offenses, what those people did to you?  For goodness’ sake, don’t ever stir up that wicked mess.  Let it go!  Don’t think about it.  If you’re going to stir up anything, stir up forgiveness! 

Our brains can get stuck in a loop, in a cycle, but we can break the cycle by not stirring up the wrong things, the wrong thoughts.

Don’t stir up worry.  That’s a dead end.  Stir up faith instead, and hope and trust in God.  Meditate on God’s word and just watch how that stirs up all the right things in your life.

What about adultery, or lust?  That is something that never gets anywhere unless you just keep stirring it up.  It’s evil and has no life of its own unless you keep stirring it up and try to fake some life into it, and still it's going to drag you into the dead pool in the end.  So please, don’t be the next idiot that destroys your family over a cheap momentary low grade B-movie thrill. 

We end up with what we stir up, so let’s stir up good things!  Like Philippians 4:8, “...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy...” think on these things.

The things we think on are the things we stir up, and the things we stir up shape our life.

So beware what you stir up in your mind, knowing that we end up with what we stir up.

May God bless you today!

I’m Doug Apple.

Start With the Box

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

Start with the box.

That’s what I heard a famous composer say.

He was writing music for a new movie, and he said you start with the box.

You have to set up a framework, the boundaries you are going to work within in the creative process.  Otherwise you get sloppy, there is no consistency, and you end up with a mess.

So start with the box, then unleash your creativity within the box.

Believe it or not, creativity actually thrives within the boundaries of a box.

Yes, some people say, “I want to be free!  I want to do whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want.  I want to be completely free to follow whatever whim hits me with no limits."

Yes, and that’s a good formula for ending up with a sloppy mess.

Studies show that kids thrive in a home with appropriate boundaries.  Children who are left to themselves, free to do whatever they please, end up in a sloppy mess.

Marriages with appropriate boundaries thrive.  Marriages without boundaries end up in a sloppy mess.

In a way, God gave us a box to live in, and we are free to wildly express our creativity within the box.  Our lives will thrive when they are lived within God’s boundaries, His rules, His statues and precepts, His righteousness. 

But something within us rejects the idea of living within a box, of living within boundaries.  Something tells us that it’s awful, it is terrible, it is restricting.  We can almost feel the noose.  We want no boundaries!

The problem is, if we don’t live within God’s boundaries, we end up with a sloppy mess.

When we don’t limit our physical intimacy to the boundaries of God’s marriage covenant, we end up with a sloppy mess.

When we don’t limit our speech to God’s boundaries of truth and love and grace, we end up with a sloppy mess.

When we don’t limit what we put into our mouths, WE end up a sloppy mess!

I remember playing a type of basketball game on the playground where there was no out-of-bounds.  I don’t know what kid made that up, but with no out-of-bounds you could run behind the goal or out onto the grass or behind the whole school.  It was dumb, and yet some kid thought it was a good idea.

Our world is full of dumb things, and yet someone thinks they are a good idea.  The problem is, if it is outside God’s boundaries, it will leave you in a sloppy mess.

That’s how people end up on these reality TV shows, arguing and bickering and even fist fighting, right there on the set.  It always comes down to someone who is trying to live outside of God’s boundaries and thinks it’s okay.

It’s not okay.  That’s how your life turns into a big dumpster fire.

So whatever feeling it is that makes you think God’s boundaries are stifling, that feeling is a deception.

Start with the box.  Live within God’s box, His boundaries of good and righteous and holy, for it’s within that box where we are truly free to live our life to it’s very highest and most exciting potential.

May God bless you today!

I’m Doug Apple.

Divine Ignition

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)
 
Here is something I pray for.

I pray for ignition.

I pray for God’s divine ignition.

Ignition is to ignite, to start the fire, to set the blaze.

We usually know what we OUGHT to do.  We know what we SHOULD do, so why don’t we do it?

We’re lacking ignition.

I want God to reach inside me and turn the key that fires the spark that sets the blaze.  I want to be on fire from the inside out, fully motivated, fully alive, fully woke.

Awake, o sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will give you light!*

I want my heart to burn within me like the men who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

I want to say like Jeremiah, “God, Your Word burns like a fire, like a fire in my bones, and I cannot keep silent.”

We pray for wisdom, and that’s great.  We need to pray for wisdom.

And then we get it.

And then what?

And then we’ve got to put it into practice, and that takes motivation.  It’s takes ignition.

Toby Mac has a song called ‘Til the Day I Die and listen to the message.

Do it for the King?  What do you know about that?
Say you goin' harder?  Mmm I doubt that.
You say you’re doing work but you're asking where’s the couch at.
How you doing work when you’re asking where’s the couch at?

And then it says, “I don't understand that life...'cause I'm all in...’til the day I die.”

Are you all in?  Are you all in for Jesus?

Just say, “God, I’m in.  I’m all in!  I want to do what You want me to do, say what You want me to say, go where You want me to go, be who You want me be.”

And if He’s already told you and you haven’t done it yet, then pray for this.

Pray for Divine Ignition.

May God bless you...with His divine ignition today!

I’m Doug Apple.

* Ephesians 5:14
** Jeremiah 20:9

A Time and a Place

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

I’m a firm believer that you should have a time and a place to pray.

A time...and a place.

Does God seem distant?  Does your relationship with Him seem shallow, or wispy, or vague?

Well let me ask you.  Do you have a set time and a set place to draw near to God in prayer?

James 4:8 says that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us.

If it doesn’t seem like God is drawing near, are you drawing near to Him, consistently, with a set time and a set place?

Let’s open up our Bibles to the famous Sermon on the Mount.  In Matthew 6:6, Jesus begins by saying, “when.”  WHEN you pray. 

So let me ask you.  When do you pray?  Do you have an appointed time to pray? 

Or listen, are you just tossing up “Jesus Take the Wheel” prayers, catch as catch can?

If you want to keep your relationship with God at lukewarm, that’ll do it.

But if you want to set it on fire, set yourself a time and a place to pray, to draw near to God in prayer, and worship, and thanksgiving.

Jesus said, “...when you pray, go into your room...”  That’s a set place.  You gotta have a place to pray. 

He said, “...go into your room, and when you have shut your door...”

He’s telling us to get alone with God.  That’s what Jesus Himself did, and He WAS GOD.  But the Bible says He often withdrew to be alone with the Father.  He went up on a mountain by Himself.  Maybe He went into a garden.  Maybe He went into the wilderness.

The point is, be like Jesus.  Get alone with the Father, and a great way to get your privacy is to go into a room, shut the door...and then what?

Jesus said, “...go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place...”

That is the time and place to go pour out your heart to Almighty God.  Cast your cares upon Him.  Intercede for your family and friends, your church and your country, for “Thy will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

What are you going to do with your life?  How are you going to fulfill your part in the body of Christ?  How can you possibly be the best child, the best parent, the best sibling, the best aunt or uncle or niece or nephew, the best student, the best worker, the best church member that you can possibly be?

You can’t!  You can’t do alone.  You can only do it in the power of God. 

We must have God’s Spirit fully alive within us.

So how can we do that? 

We must draw near to God in prayer, and I firmly believe that the best way to do that is by having a set time and set place to pray.

May God bless you today!

I’m Doug Apple.

His Spirit Bears Witness With Our Spirit

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

How does God speak to us?

Does God even speak to people these days, or was that just for people in the Bible?

Some debate that, but here is one verse that most people agree on:  Romans 8:16.

It says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

That’s one way that you can know that you are a saved, born again child of God.  He will let you know.  His Spirit will bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God.

That is one way that God speaks to people today, His Spirit bearing witness with our spirit. 

I like how it is Spirit to spirit communication, the Holy Spirit inside of the believer communicating to the spirit of the believer.  His Spirit bearing witness with our spirit.

I have heard from thousands of Christians and the testimonies are overwhelming.  So many of them talk about the ways that God has led them, or spoken to them, or communicated to them.  And I’ll say, “Give us the nuts and bolts of exactly how that happened in the real world.” 

And they say things like, “I was reading the Bible, and suddenly a verse leaped off the page.”  Or, “I was in worship, and suddenly a powerful phrase jumped into my mind, and I just knew it was God.”  Or even, “I was walking down the street, minding my own business, and I heard a voice telling me what to do.  I’m pretty sure it was God.”

I realize that some people say they heard from God when they didn’t, but today let’s focus on how God speaks to us, and I think many of these things happened in this way:  His Spirit bore witness with their spirit.  The Holy Spirit passed a message along directly to that person’s spirit.  It wasn’t verbal.  It wasn’t mental.  It was Spirit to spirit communication.

I like how The Passion Translation words Romans 8:16, “...He whispers into our innermost being...”

At our church we’re going through The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson and he refers to what he calls “Spirit-whispers.”  I love that!

I think that is when His Spirit bears witness with our spirit.  The Holy Spirit communicates directly to our spirit, our inner man if you will, in Spirit-whispers.

In John 14:26, Jesus said that the Father would send the Holy Spirit and He would be a teacher.

In Luke 12:12 Jesus again refers to the Holy Spirit as a teacher.

First Corinthians 2:10 talks about God revealing things to people through His Spirit.

When God teaches and reveals things through His Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit of God, communicating the things of God to the people of God, and what is one way He does it?

In Spirit-whispers.

It is Spirit to spirit communication.

It is His Spirit bearing witness with our spirit.

Of course you should always make sure this balances with Scripture, and you should bounce it off other mature believers, but watch for it.  Listen for it, not with your physical eyes and ears, but with your spirit.  Jesus said, “He has ears to hear, let him hear.”  That means spiritual hearing.

It is our spirit tuning in and listening closely to the voice of the Holy Spirit as He teaches and convicts and reveals and inspires us to draw near to God and become the on-fire Kingdom people He is calling us to be, as we listen and are taught and mentored and led by the Holy Spirit of God.

May God bless you today!

I’m Doug Apple.

FOMO: The Fear of Missing Out

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

I guess you’ve heard of FOMO:  the Fear Of Missing Out.

Sometimes it motivates teenagers to do stupid things.  And adults.

When you hear people spout this trendy phrase “no regrets,” it’s often coming from the same source.  They say things like, “My only regrets would be the things I didn’t do.”

See it?  It’s the fear of missing out.  And some people have the attitude, “I would rather sin and live with the consequences than risk missing out on something.”

Wow.  That’s almost crazy.  It’s probably a thought from the pits of hell, one of the wiles of the devil, a deception to blind the eyes and get people to do things that God says are wrong.

But look closely.  It plays right into a true human fear – the fear of missing out on something good, on something great, on the opportunity of a lifetime.  Truly, none of us wants to miss out on something so good.

So could there be a positive side to this fear of missing out?

I think so, and it’s rooted in this phrase found so often in the Bible:  the fear of the Lord.

One way I fear the Lord is that I fear missing out on what He has for me, His plans, His desires, His goals.  I don’t want to miss out by not following His ways, His rules, His precepts and statutes, His laws and commandments.

Yes, I’m saved by grace, and yes I live in His grace, but I also want to walk in His Spirit, not in the flesh.  I want to build on rock and not on sand.  I must not grieve or quench His Holy Spirit, or I risk missing out on what God has for me today and everyday.

So when it comes to FOMO, the fear of missing out, that is what I fear missing out on.  I fear missing God and His good, pleasing and perfect will.  I fear missing His leading as my Good Shepherd.  I fear missing His voice, His direction, His, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”  I fear sinning and putting myself in a place apart from the dead center bullseye of His will. 

I fear that, because I know that His ways are good.  His ways are awesome.  His ways are the best, both for eternity and for now.

So FOMO?  Yes, it steers my life each and every day.  I must live and walk by the Holy Spirit of God, because I truly have the fear of missing out:  the fear of missing out on all that God has for me.

May God bless you today!

I’m Doug Apple.

Are You Reading the Bible by Rote?

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)
 
Are you reading the Bible by rote?

I just heard someone say that, that they were just reading the Bible by rote.

In other words, they were just being mechanical, doing it because they knew they should, sticking to their schedule...through the Bible in a year, baby!

Of course scheduled Bible reading is a beautiful thing, unless you aren’t getting anything out of it.

Maybe you are reading the Bible because you know you should, but it’s rote, it’s mechanical, it’s lifeless.  The Spirit’s not in it, and by that I mean the Holy Spirit.

So what can you do?

Here is a sure fire Bible reading plan:  read until your heart burns within you. 

That’s what happens when God opens the Scriptures to you.  His Holy Spirit will suddenly leap inside you, basically saying, “There it is!  Look at that.  Focus on it.  Ponder it.  Meditate on it.  Learn it and let it sink into your heart.”

 It’s His Spirit testifying with your spirit about God’s truth.

That’s what happened to the men on the road to Emmaus.  They were walking along, and suddenly a stranger joined them.  The stranger began to open up the Scriptures to them with power and authority.  Finally their eyes were opened to see that it was actually the newly resurrected Jesus...and then Jesus disappeared.

And what was their exclamation?  What excited them so?  Here is what they said in Luke 24:32, “Did not our heart burn within us...while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

And I think God does the same thing today.  We read the Bible, and suddenly our heart burns within us, suddenly His Holy Spirit leaps within us as certain words jump out at us, or as the men on the road to Emmaus put it, He opens the Scriptures to us.

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth, and Jesus said the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and guide us into all truth.

How does He do that?  One way is by opening the Scriptures to us by making certain verses at certain times spring to life!

So watch for it.  Try reading the Bible, not until you meet your quota, or not until you finish the chapter, but simply read until God opens the Scripture to you, making your heart burn within you.

May God bless you...as you read His Word today!

I’m Doug Apple.

The Super Six

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

Okay, here’s my Super Six:  six simple things that will radically change your life, and they come in pairs.  Here’s the first pair.

Eat Right and Exercise

Why don’t we eat right?  Why do we shovel some of that junk into our mouth when we KNOW it’s not good for us?  And why do we turn up our nose at some of the delicious, natural food that God designed to perfectly operate our bodies?  It makes no sense.  So let’s come to our senses and start eating right, and it’s not that hard.  People whine about change, but change can be so simple.  Just change one little thing and you’re on your way.  For example, stop drinking soda pop.  Or stop eating candy.  Or French fries.  And start eating fresh fruit and vegetables.  Pick one thing and start eating more, and you’re on your way!

And then exercise.  We all know we should exercise, so just do it.  Move!  Get your heart rate up.  Do something you enjoy, or do something you don’t enjoy and make it more enjoyable.  For example, if you don’t like going to the gym, but you love listening to music, then load up on your favorite music, get some enjoyable earphones and go work out.

Just these two tips alone, eat right and exercise, could solve so much of the stress and anxiety and depression, and even much of the illness in the world...so do it!

My next pair is:

Read the Bible and Pray

There’s never been a time in the history of the world when God’s Word was so easy to read, at least for us pampered Americans.  We should be soaking up the Scriptures daily, so do it.  Just read, and watch for the Holy Spirit to make God’s Word jump off the pages at you. 

And pray.  We know we need to pray, and we probably do pray, in little spurts, in a hurry, here and there.  My advice is to set aside a time and place where you can be alone and regularly and consistently spend time talking with God.

Just two little disciplines, but they will radically change your life for the better, read your Bible and pray.

And the final pair in the Super Six is:

Love God and Love People.

Yes, these are the two greatest commandments, so we should focus on them.  As for loving God, here is one little tip for you.  Just start telling Him that you love Him.  Make a point to say it throughout the day.  “I love You, Lord.”  Incorporate it into your prayers.  “Our Father, who art in heaven...I love You.”  As you tell Him you love Him, just watch and see how it will turn your heart towards Him.

And finally, love people, and here’s a simple tip for loving people.  When someone shows you how to love them, and you can easily do it, just do it.  If you pay attention, people will show you how to love them.  Things will pop into your awareness and you will think, “Yeah, I could do that.”  Well, instead of talking yourself out of it, just think, “This is someone I love (because we are supposed to love everyone)” and then do that thing you can easily do for someone you love.

And there it is, The Super Six that will radically and wildly change your life for the better.

Eat Right and Exercise

Read the Bible and Pray

Love God and Love People

May God bless you today!

I’m Doug Apple.

The Righteous Lord Loves Righteousness

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32)

 
The righteous Lord loves righteousness.

That’s what it says in Psalm 11 verse 7.

God loves righteousness, so I want to love righteousness, and live a righteous life.

You know those laws in the Old Testament, like the ten commandments?  Those come from God’s righteousness.

If you want to write off the Old Testament, don’t forget 2 Timothy 3:16.  All Scripture is profitable for instruction in righteousness.

Psalm 119:172 says that all God’s commandments are righteousness.

So read your Bible, Old and New Testament, and learn about God’s righteousness.

We should hunger and thirst for righteousness. ¹

We should seek first the kingdom of God...and His righteousness. ²

His righteousness is like the great mountains! ³ It endures forever! ⁴

In Isaiah 45:19 the Lord said, “I, the Lord, speak righteousness.”

So we don’t toss out all those righteous laws in the Bible.  They come from the heart and mind of the righteous Lord who loves righteousness!

Of course the problem is that we have a sin nature and can’t live up to God’s high and holy standard of righteousness.  Isaiah 64:6 says, “...all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags...”  And Romans 1:18 says that the wrath of God comes against all the unrighteousness of humanity.

The good news is...that’s where Jesus comes in.  He took our unrighteousness upon Himself on the cross, shedding His blood and paying the price for us to be made righteous before God.

Now, through faith in Jesus, we can receive the righteousness of God apart from keeping the law.  In Romans 3 and 4 we see that God’s righteousness is imputed to us by our faith in Jesus.  We receive the free gift of righteousness.

But don’t stop there.  God still wants us to LIVE righteously...not in order to be saved, but since we are saved!

1 Peter 2:24 says Jesus bore our sins in His own body...that we might live for righteousness!

Romans 6:13 tells us to present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness.

Romans 6:19 goes so far as to tell us to present ourselves to Him as “slaves of righteousness.”

And what if we don’t?  First John 3:10 says, “Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God...”

So how do we do it?  How can we live a righteous life?

Romans 8:4 tells us to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.  On our own we won’t live a righteous life, but as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will.

The righteous Lord loves righteousness.  He gave us the law, spoken out of His righteousness.  We sinned, so He sent Jesus to pay the price for our righteousness.  Then to all who receive Him, He gives the Holy Spirit to empower us to, once and for all, live the righteous life He intended for us from the beginning.

Yes, we are saved by the grace of God...AND...Titus 2 says that the grace of God teaches us to live righteously.

The gospel of grace and living a righteous life go hand in hand, one follows the other.  We are saved by grace, and then we live a righteous life, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The Good Shepherd leads us in paths of righteousness. ⁵

Lord, I want to follow You in Your paths of righteousness.  I hunger and thirst for Your righteousness.  I seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness.  I want to love righteousness!

Because You are the righteous Lord, and You love righteousness.

May God bless you today...as you seek to live a righteous life in the power of the Spirit.

I’m Doug Apple.

¹ Matthew 5:6

² Matthew 6:33

³ Psalm 36:6

⁴ Psalm 111:3

⁵ Psalm 23

Other verses:

Psalm 145:17, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways...”

Zephaniah 2:3 says, “Seek righteousness...”

Proverbs 2:20 says, “...keep to the paths of righteousness.”

Proverbs 11:8 says, “...he who sows righteousness will have a sure reward.”

Isaiah 32:17 says that righteousness brings peace and quietness and assurance.

1 Corinthians 15:34, “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.”

1 Timothy 6:11, “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.”

Ephesians 5:9, “...for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth...”

This Is the Way, Walk Ye in It

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

We talk about being led by God, but what does that look like in real life?

Dr. Gary Chapman shared one powerful example from his own life this week on Focus on the Family.

Here it is, Gary Chapman talking to Focus on the Family host Jim Daly.

“You know, Jim, when my marriage turned around, it was when I finally said to God, ‘I don’t know what else to do. This is not getting any better, and I don’t know what to do.’  And as soon as I said that, there came to my mind that visual image of Jesus on His knees, washing the feet of His disciples.  And I heard God say to me, ‘That’s the problem in your marriage. You don’t have that attitude towards your wife.’ Hit me like a ton of bricks.”

So there’s the great Dr. Gary Chapman, best selling author of The Five Love Languages and renowned marriage expert, sharing the powerful moment that changed his own marriage.  And what was it?

It was a powerful experience with God as he cried out to Him for help, and God gave him a sudden revelation.

That is one example of what being led by God looks like in real life.  In this case, he indicated that, as he prayed, God brought to his mind the image of Jesus on His knees, washing the feet of His disciples.  And then he says that God delivered these words to him, “That’s the problem in your marriage.  You don’t have that attitude towards your wife.”

And it hit him like a ton of bricks.

And that’s how God often does it.  As we seek Him, even cry out to Him, at some point He gives the direction we need.  And it can happen in a variety of ways.

Of course not every whim that pops into our head is from God.  It needs to be balanced with Scripture, and with the wisdom of other believers.

But our goal is to seek God, and learn to hear Him when He leads, whatever form that takes.

I’ve experienced it in different ways.  I won’t say it’s 100% for sure from God, but I believe it is, and it balances with Scripture and other believers.

Of course I guess thousands of times I’ve received God’s direction from Scripture, and from godly teachers and preachers and authors and friends.

Other times it has come from what I call “guiding words,” where certain words just hit me, as Dr. Chapman said, like a ton of bricks as they popped into my head.  Often that has happened during prayer, but often it has happened seemingly randomly.  I’m doing something else, then bang...guiding words come powerfully into me.

And other times I think God has led me simply by raising up a conviction inside me, “I must do this.”

I love what it says in Isaiah 30:21, in the good old King James, “...thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it...”

That is one of the great benefits of being a Christian, of being saved, of being in a right relationship with our Creator.  We can seek Him.  We can come boldly before His throne.  We have His Holy Spirit inside of us, and He will lead us in the way we should go, a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

It comes in different ways, but as believers we can bank on this fact.  One way or another, God is going to lead us.  He’s going to say, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.