Now Let Me Show You a Better Way

(click to listen)

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

“The other driver got aggressive, so I got aggressive, too.”

That’s what my friend said. 

He continued, “But I don’t do that anymore.  The Bible says, ‘Don’t return evil for evil,” so when another driver gets aggressive, I just let him go his merry way…even if I feel like speeding up and tracking him down!”

Have you ever been there?  You felt like letting someone have it, but because you know God doesn’t really want you to go around letting people have it, you back off and let it slide.

That’s a great first step!  But now let me show you a better way.

The better way is love.

In Matthew 5 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, love your enemies…”

The better way is love.

That aggressive driver?  Yes, it is better to let him go and not follow your impulse to get aggressive back.  But the better way is to love him!  It is better to love all of your fellow drivers on the road today.  

First Corinthians 12:31 literally says now let me show you a better way, a more excellent way.  One translation says, “Now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.”

And what, pray tell, is best of all?  First Corinthians 12:31 leads right into First Corinthians 13 which is also known as the love chapter.  That is the best way of all, the way of love.

We should be able to look at every person around us and say, “I love this one and this one and that one and him and her and all of them.”  That is the better way.

We really can’t do that on our own, but this is where the fruit of the Spirit of love comes in.  As born again believers with God’s Holy Spirit inside of us, HE will bear the fruit of love in our life.  And He will do that to the degree that we let Him.  Our part is to humbly submit to Him, as sheep to a shepherd, and follow as He leads.

And this is where He is leading.  He is leading us to a better way of living.  It’s the way of life that is best of all.  The NIV says it is “the most excellent way”!  

It’s the way of First Corinthians 13.

It’s the way of Jesus.

It’s the way of love.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

God Please Just Do What You Do

(click to listen)

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

The laundry basket crashed at my feet.

I looked up the stairs and saw my mother-in-law at the top.

She had literally thrown her laundry basket down the steps because it was too hard for her to carry it down.

That was a clue that it was time for us to move to a house without stairs.

But as you know if you’ve done it, finding a new place to live is a huge and important decision.

I wanted to come up with a prayer my wife and I could agree on.  I had recently memorized Matthew 18:19 where Jesus said, “If two of you agree on earth concerning anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”

What’s the weak link in that prayer formula?  It’s getting two people on earth to actually agree on something!

So I wanted to come up with a precise prayer for our housing that my wife and I could agree on, but what would it be?

I was thinking of all the things we could ask for in a new house, but I was also thinking, “What do I know?”  I don’t know the future or what we will need and how life will play out.  But God does.  Matthew 6:8 says that God knows our needs before we even ask!

Then I got to thinking about a basketball game.  What if I was the coach, and time was running out, and the game was on the line.  And oh yeah, Michael Jordan is on the team!  Would I try to draw up some elaborate play out of my own thinking and tell them what to do?  Or would I simply hand the ball to Michael Jordan and say, “Here you go.  Just do what you do.”

God is far more capable than Michael Jordan, so why would I come up with an elaborate prayer to tell God what to do?  

So this became our prayer for a new house, “God, please, just do what You do regarding our housing.”

No, we didn’t sit back and do nothing.  My wife was on the hunt, diligently looking at what was on the market.  And I think she just liked looking at all the houses, which is something I don’t really care about.

Then one day she took me to see a house, and when I saw it from a distance, something “pinged” inside of me and I thought, “This is good.  This could be the place!”

And it was!  It turned out to be the perfect place for us and our needs and even what was coming in the future that we had no idea about.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says:  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.

Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord…”

Yes, many times I pray very specific prayers, “letting my requests be made known unto God.”  But other times, like in this housing situation, I just trust the Lord, put the ball completely in His hands and say, “Here you go.  Here’s the ball, Lord.  Please, just do what You do, and I know it’s going to be wonderful.  It’s going to be the best it can be!”

So if you need a short prayer of faith today, and one we can easily agree on, here you go.  Just pray this prayer with me.

“God, please, just do what You do.”

Amen.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

 

Every Time She Doubted

(click to listen)

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

What do you do when you doubt?

Did God ever do anything for you?

Did He save you?  Did He spare you from the net of the fowler?

Did He forgive you and shine His grace upon you?

Did He give you wisdom when you lacked it?

Did He ever bring conviction on you that led to repentance?

Did you ever read the Bible and feel like God was speaking directly to you?

Did one of God’s people ever minister to you at just the right time, like they were on a mission from God Himself?

This is what you do when you doubt.  You go back and remember what God did in the past.

Maybe you aren’t feeling His presence right now.  Maybe He seems far away.  Maybe He let you down.  He didn’t do what you thought He should.  Maybe you are starting to believe those who say there is no God at all.  What should you do?

Go back and remember what God did in the past.  Or as one old Gospel song says, go back to the old landmarks.

There’s another old Gospel song called Jesus Gave Me Water.

The chorus says, “Jesus gave me water and it was not from the well.”

It’s based on the story from John chapter four about the woman at the well.

Jesus and His disciples went to a city of Samaria called Sychar.  Outside the city was Jacob’s well.  Jesus sat by the well while His disciples went into Sychar to buy food.

Then a woman came out to draw water from the well.  Jesus asked her for a drink, and ended up talking to her about “living water.”  

Jesus told her that whoever drinks the water from the well will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks God’s living water will never thirst because it will “become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

That goes along with what Jesus said in John chapter seven.  “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”  Then verse 39 explains that when Jesus said living water He was talking about the Holy Spirit, “whom those believing in Him would receive.”

The woman at the well believed in Him.  And she brought a bunch of people from Sychar and they believed in Him as well.

And those who believe in Him would receive the Holy Spirit, which is the living water.

Did you ever have the living water of the Holy Spirit flowing like a spring of water within you?  Maybe it is hard to remember, so go back to the old landmarks.  Think back to what God has done for you in the past.

What do you do when you doubt?

Think back!

Back to the song Jesus Gave Me Water.  Later in the song there is a line about doubt.  It says, “every time she doubted.”

Now you’d think the woman at the well would never doubt, right?  I mean, she talked in person to Jesus and He read her mail.  He prophesied to her.  What’s to doubt?

Or maybe she never did doubt.  It’s just a song, right?  But doubt has a way of creeping into everyone’s life at one time or another.  Even John the Baptist in prison sent a message to Jesus saying, “Are you the Coming One or do we look for another?”  And that’s the same John the Baptist who announced, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

So back to the song.  What did she do every time she doubted?  It says…

“Every time she doubted, she’d start to think about Him,

The Man that gave her water, and it was not from the well.”

When you begin to doubt, go back to the old landmarks.  Think about what God has done for you.

For the woman at the well, at least according to the song, she would remember when the Lord had her shoutin’ and there was no room for doubtin’, that Jesus gave her water and it was not from the well!

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

 

What Does Ananias Have to Do With It?

(click to listen)

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

Why doesn’t God just do everything?

Why does He leave anything up to human beings?

I don’t know, but He does, and one great example of that is the story of Paul and Ananias.

We can read the story of Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9, chapter 22 and again in chapter 26.

He was called Saul at the time, and he was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians.  

Suddenly Jesus Himself spoke to him from heaven!

I know that is strange by itself, but something even stranger happened.  

Jesus Himself spoke to Saul, but He didn’t give him the whole message.

God didn’t just do everything.  He got other people involved, including a Christian named Ananias.

In Acts 9 verse 6 Jesus said to Saul, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Jesus could have just handled everything Himself, right there on the spot, but no.  He sent Saul into Damascus with only a vague notion of what was going to happen next.

Meanwhile, in Acts 9 verse 11 the Lord appeared to Ananias in a vision, called him by name, and told him to go see Saul.

And oh yeah, God gave Saul a vision of someone named Ananias coming to minister to him!

God could have just taken care of everything Himself, right?  But He didn’t.  He got Ananias involved in His work.  

What does that have to do with you and me?  All Christian believers are members of the Body of Christ, and when God wants to do a work on earth, He uses the Body of Christ, His people, to carry out His plans!

You’ve heard the old saying, “We are His hands and His feet.”  That’s what this is, the Christians, the Body of Christ, His church, doing His work as He leads us.

And listen – each believer has an EQUALLY VITAL PART in the Body of Christ.  Sure, we have different gifts and callings, different backgrounds and different experiences.  But each one of us is important to God’s work.

There’s Saul, who would become Paul, and reach the Gentile world for Jesus and write a good portion of the Bible, and yet God chose to include little old Ananias in His grand master plan.  

I have no idea why God uses people because we are generally an unreliable lot.  Nevertheless, here we are, God’s people, His vessels…and His vassals!  He has work He wants done in the earth, and He’s not going to do it all by Himself.  He’s going to use people, and you and I are one of them.

And listen:  it’s about to get exciting!

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

 

To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice

(Click to listen)

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

To obey is better than sacrifice.  What on earth does that mean?

We find this phrase in First Samuel 15:22.  It’s the prophet Samuel talking to King Saul, the first king of Israel.  Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice…”

Saul insisted that he HAD obeyed, he just hadn’t TOTALLY obeyed.  What was the big deal?

Apparently it was a HUGE deal.  The very next verse, First Samuel 15:23 has some of the most sobering words in the whole Bible.  Samuel said to King Saul, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.  Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”

So back to this phrase “to obey is better than sacrifice.”  There is something inside of us that glorifies sacrifice.  We give up something.  We lay down something.  We sacrifice something, and it’s a noble thing to do.

We often think of our veterans and how they sacrificed their lives, many of them to the point of death…a noble sacrifice for the rest of us in the country.

Now think of this in military terms.  Which is better:  sacrifice or obedience?

What do we want our soldiers to do:  to wake up each morning and decide what they are going to sacrifice for their country, or to wake up each morning and do what they are told?

Do we want a national defense plan where everyone does what they think is best, or where there is a unified plan with commands from the top that the soldiers carry out?

Imagine a soldier is told to stand guard and watch the horizon for planes coming from the west.  But instead of just standing there, watching the sky, he decides to really sacrifice himself and go clean the latrine, a disgusting job that no one wants to do.  What a noble sacrifice, right?

But wait.  What if it’s December 7th, 1941, and no one is watching for planes and we end up with the disaster of Pearl Harbor?  Sure, it was a sacrifice to clean the bathrooms, but it would have been far better for him to obey his commands and stand watch.

This is why it is better to obey than to sacrifice.  We’re not saying sacrifice is bad.  In fact, you have to sacrifice in order to obey.  The key here is that obedience is BETTER than sacrifice.  We don’t just make up what we want to sacrifice and then tell God, “Oh, I’m sacrificing for you.”  That’s what King Saul did.  He was preparing a wonderful sacrifice for God, but he did not OBEY God.

So yes, as Christians we need to be prepared to lay down our lives as a living sacrifice, as it says in Romans 12:1.  But we do that, not by coming up with something to sacrifice, but by obeying God.

Even Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice, didn’t just decide one day to do something sacrificial and give up His life for the sins of the world.  Philippians 2:8 says that Jesus became “obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”  Romans 5:19 says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

Yes, Jesus was sacrificial, but more importantly, Jesus was obedient…obedient to the Father’s will.  “Not my will, but THY will be done,” Jesus said.

So as we go about our day, we don’t say, “Gee, I’m going to do something great for God.  I’m going to sacrifice and give up something just for Him.”

Instead we say, “God, what do You want me to do?  I want to obey You.  I want to follow You.  Not my will but Your will be done.  Lord, help me not do MY thing, but help me be obedient.  I want to fulfill my part in the body of Christ and carry out Your perfect plans.  Not my plans, but Your plans.”

It’s not about sacrificing something for God.  It’s about obeying Him…because to obey is better than sacrifice.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

I Was a Hyper-Competitive Child

(click to listen)

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

I was sitting in the garage, crying my eyes out.

I wasn’t crying because I was sad.  I was crying because I wanted to kill someone, but since that was not an option, all that was left was crying.

I was playing an older boy in basketball, and he beat me mercilessly, and it was so frustrating.  I grew angrier and angrier, and if there is such a thing as murdering someone in your heart, I did it repeatedly that day.

My mom finally came out to help me settle down, but that day was the apex of my hyper-competitive childhood.  I wanted to win, to always win, and I hated losing.

One time I was wrestling a friend, which was fine, it was competitive, but then his brother jumped in and the two of them pinned me to the ground.  I was spitting mad…and this was my best friend!  

Why was I hyper-competitive?  I have no idea.  I guess I could say I was born that way.

After that tearful, angry basketball game I started to get better control of my competitive nature.  I realized it’s just a fact of life, you can’t win every time.  But it was definitely still there, under the surface, a beast waiting to rise up.

It really wasn’t until God came in and began changing me that I was able to shift away from wanting to win at everything, all the time, and be able to just enjoy a game and enjoy the friendship and camaraderie of spending time with others.

For example, if you and I went and played a game of tennis today, and you played great and beat me every time, I could still enjoy the game, and even be excited for you and your skill and the great shots you made.  But there was a time when I would have been tempted to smash my racket to smithereens…though rackets cost money and I’m very frugal, so I would never actually do that.

I bring this up to say that, just because we might say we are born a certain way, with certain desires, doesn’t mean that is actually who we are.  Those feelings are not our identity.

There is a movement in our culture today that says if you have certain feelings, then that is who you are, period.  If you don’t roll with those feelings, then you are not being your authentic self, and you are even going to end up a psychological mess, if not downright suicidal.

Have you ever gotten lost?  Have you ever felt like you were going north but you were actually going south?  Have you ever felt like eating a cookie was exactly what your body needed?  Have you ever felt like life would hardly be worth living if you couldn’t live it with that one certain person?

Have you ever felt like, “If I don’t win this game, someone is going to have to die”?

Feelings are great, but they’re a terrible compass.  They can just as easily lead you in the wrong direction as they can lead you in the right direction.

What we need is an actual compass.  When it comes to life, I have found an effective compass in God’s Word in the Bible, and in listening to the still, small voice of His Holy Spirit.

Being hyper-competitive, even though it was a dominant feeling, and even though, as far as I can tell, I was born that way, according to the Bible it wasn’t leading me in the right direction.

Galatians 5:22-23 talks about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  When I was being hyper-competitive, I had none of those.  So which was right, the feelings I was born with, or the Bible?  Which was better?  

I can tell you that being hyper-competitive was vastly worse than having those qualities that God brought into my life, as I listened and received from Him.

Thank God I didn’t believe the lie that my feelings, even if I had felt them from as far back as I can remember, were my identity.  God had far better plans.  

In Isaiah 55:8-9, God says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

God knows best!  He made us, and He knows what’s best for us.  

So listen.  You are not your feelings, even if you’ve had those feelings for a long time.  If your feelings don’t line up with God’s Word, then it’s time to go to God and ask Him to help you go from living by your feelings to living by His eternal truth and according to His plans, which are much better.

Sure, you don’t have to take my word for it.  All I can say is that I was born a certain way, with certain feelings and certain desires that didn’t line up with God’s Word, and when I decided to come to God, surrender my feelings to Him and do things His way…THAT’S when it finally started getting good, and I started seeing God’s great benefits in my life, including a boat load of:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Fasting All Beverages Except Water

(click to listen)

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

“As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after Thee.”

That is my daily prayer, based on Psalm 42:1.

I just want more of God and His wisdom and goodness and guidance in my life, don’t you?

But how to get it?  How to get “me” out of the way to create more room for Him?

Jesus gave us some powerful insight when He said in Luke 9:23 that if we want to follow Him, we must first deny ourselves.

So, what are we denying ourselves?  It almost seems un-American to deny ourselves anything, and yet there it is in black and white, or in this case, there it is in the red letters, “Deny yourself.”

One way people denied themselves throughout the Bible and throughout history is by fasting.  It has been a simple formula throughout the ages.  You want to get closer to God?  You fast.

Fast what?  That’s a little open ended.  Yes, you can fast all food, but only for so long.  What I like to do is choose things I can fast - and keep on fasting - perpetually.  Right now I’m fasting 16 things, and number one on my list is this.

I’m fasting all beverages except water.

I started that in December, 2022 when I woke up in the middle of the night and felt like God was downloading a new plan for me, and that new plan included fasting all beverages except water…which I started doing immediately.

And what a blessing it has been!

How so?  Well first of all, it felt like a gift from God, and it felt like freedom!  Yes, there was the usual withdrawal from caffeine for a couple days, and the much longer withdrawal that comes when changing daily habits, but once I started to break free from those, it has been nothing but good.

Yes, it means denying myself all the other beverages, but once you break free and get used to drinking only water, it’s no big deal, and your body loves it!  Your body loves working with water and not having to filter through all the garbage we typically drink.  It also means you aren’t drinking any calories, which is great for losing weight.

Drinking only water will also save you lots of money.  No more expensive drinks in restaurants.  No more high dollar coffees.  No more stocking up on drinks at home.  You just made your shopping trips easier and less painful because hey, you’re only drinking water!

Does anything you’re drinking have a hold on you?  Are your beverages the boss of you more than you are the boss of the beverages?

First Corinthians 6:12 says, “I will not be mastered by anything.”  Are your beverages mastering you, in any way?  If so, consider fasting all beverages except water.

Your beverages might be mastering you if…

--if you drive way out of your way for a certain beverage,

--if you are spending more money than you wish you were spending on beverages,

--if you have shirts or hats or other products to connect your identity with that beverage,

--if you are waiting in the drive through right now just to buy that special beverage,

--and here’s a huge one, listen…if your body goes into withdrawal without that beverage, then your beverage is mastering you, and you are not mastering it.

First Corinthians 13:11 says, “When I became a man, I put away childish things.”  Are you making your beverage decisions with childish reasoning?  “Hey, it’s what I feel like drinking.”  If you’re ready to take it up a notch, consider fasting all beverages except water.

God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, and fasting is one way we diligently seek Him.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter six that when we fast our Father will reward us.

What are you fasting?  If you’re looking for something to fast, something you can keep on fasting perpetually, something that is helpful and beneficial in every way, physically, financially, spiritually, mentally…then prayerfully consider this.

Consider fasting all beverages except water.

I’ve been doing it for quite a while now, and I highly recommend it.  It has changed my life for the better in many ways, and I think it will do the same for you.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

 

Yes James 1:5, but in the Meantime Proverbs 4:5

(click to listen)

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

You can’t just sit on your rear end and do nothing.

“But Doug, James 1:5 says, ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.’”

Yes it does.  I’m a huge fan of James 1:5, and I’m asking God for wisdom daily.  

But I’m also a big fan of Proverbs 4:5.  Do you know what that one says?

It says, “Get wisdom!”  In some translations that comes with an exclamation point.  Get it!

So yes, James 1:5, but in the meantime Proverbs 4:5.  In other words, yes, ASK for wisdom.  Then don’t just sit there.  Rise up and go get wisdom!

Proverbs 4:7 says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom.”

One way to get wisdom is to find someone who already has some and ask them to share it with you.

Of course, reading the Bible is going to give you a lifetime of wisdom.  Psalm 19:7 tells us that the Word of God can make even foolish people wise.

Daily I’m asking God for wisdom in every area of life, but then I don’t just sit back and wait for wisdom to come slap me upside the face.  I take Proverbs 4:5 seriously when it says to “get wisdom.”

So yes, James 1:5.  James 1:5 all day long!  But in the meantime, Proverbs 4:5…rise up, take the initiative, and go get it!

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

A Tale of Two Broken Windows

(click to listen)

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

It was like a shotgun of glass in my eyes.  Would it ruin my vision?

It all started on a typical Wednesday when I packed our baby in the car seat and went to pick up a little old lady for church.  It was a winter evening in Illinois and already dark.

As I was driving down the highway, suddenly there was a blast of glass as my driver’s side window exploded.  I don’t recall much about what happened after that.

It turned out that a deer had been streaking across the highway and slammed his head right into my window.  It was like a shotgun of glass to my face and eyes, and the baby was covered in glass but uninjured, thank God.

Someone rushed me to the hospital, and they spent a good amount of time getting the glass out of my eyes.  Just blinking felt like my eyes were full of gravel.

Finally, they sent me home with an appointment to come back in the morning.  My wife was driving me home, and I just sat there in the passenger seat with my head leaning on the window, drained.

And God met me there.

I just felt His grace and presence so sweetly.  I was thinking, “God, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it doesn’t matter.  Even if I go blind, I’m going to follow You and do whatever You want me to do.”

God’s grace and peace and presence were so powerful in that moment, it was truly like the Bible says in Philippians 4:6, a peace that passes understanding.

Thankfully my eyes healed, and everything turned out fine, but at the moment BEFORE I knew how it would turn out…God met me there, and it was beautiful.

I’m calling this message A Tale of Two Broken Windows, so what’s the other one?

It’s the story of a much cooler car than my little Toyota Tercel.  It’s about a 1966 Chevy Chevelle which my friend Rodney Rowland completely restored.

I mean, that car is a thing of beauty!  He fixed it ALL up.  It was perfect.  And he was taking it to the 2023 Barrett-Jackson auction in Palm Beach, Florida, which if you know anything about car auctions, the vehicles at this event are incredible, I mean millions of dollars of amazing vehicles, all in perfect condition…and very shiny.

They don’t get that way by accident of course.  Rodney had spent countless hours bringing that car from basically a crusty shell to perfection.

April 2023 rolled around and he loaded it up on his trailer and hit the road for Palm Beach.  He submitted this super cool Chevelle to the auction inspectors, and uh-oh.  What did they just say?  The windshield…is broken?  What???

It was perfect when it left Tallahassee, but now it was cracked at exactly the worst moment, right before going on the auction block at this huge, worldwide sale.

Does that mean all that time, all that investment was going down the drain?  Did it mean pulling out of the auction altogether?  What should he do?

This is where the grace of God settled on Rodney in a powerful way.  He felt the peace to just go ahead and put it into the auction, even with the cracked windshield.  He said, “God, I’m going to praise You no matter what happens.  If it sells for a lower dollar amount than I need, so be it.  God, You are my provider and I will praise You either way.”

No, it’s not natural to say such things.  It’s not natural to face maybe losing your vision and saying, “God, it doesn’t matter, I’m following You.”  It’s not natural to face potential financial disappointment and say, “God, it doesn’t matter, I’m praising You.”

It’s not natural.  It is supernatural!  It’s what happens when the Spirit of God gives you His grace and peace and presence.  All the usual values and concerns fade in the presence of God!

I was raised in the Lutheran church, and at the end of every service the pastor would quote the benediction in Numbers 6:24-26, “The Lord bless you and keep you.  The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you.  The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you His peace.”

That is exactly what happened in this Tale of Two Broken Windows, for both Rodney and me.  We lived it.  We experienced it.  In a time of stress and potential loss, we felt the Lord’s presence, His grace, and His peace.

And God can do this for you, whatever you are facing today.  How?

I like what it says in Isaiah 26:3, and I like the majesty of the old King James, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.”

As we keep our heart and mind turned towards God and His Word, trusting in Him, then He blesses us with His peace and grace and presence, even in the middle of our trials.

ESPECIALLY in the middle of our trials.

And that is how we can have peace, even when the glass is breaking, and say, “God, I’m going to follow You and praise You, no matter what.”

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Give the Gap

(click to listen)

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

“I will NOT be taken advantage of.”

That’s what we say.

“I will not be made to look like a fool.  If someone’s going to get the short end of the stick, it’s not going to be me.”

No one wants to get the short end of the stick, but in almost every human interaction you could easily say, “Wait a second.  I’m giving more than they are, and I’m getting less.”

The short end of the stick.

It’s hard to imagine Jesus complaining about getting the short end of the stick, which He certainly did when He died for me.  So the example of our Lord is to give, to go the extra mile, and to even find joy in it. 

But how can we do that?  No one wants to feel ripped off or taken advantage of.  It’s demeaning, even humiliating if you think about it too much.

Well I have a plan, a new way to look at it that really flips it on its head.  I call it Give the Gap.  What does that mean?

I’m holding my hand up here in front of my chin.  This is how much I think I am getting.  Now I’m holding my other hand up to my forehead.  This is how much I’m giving, so as you can see, there is a gap between how much I’m giving and how much I’m getting.  

The gap is the problem.  Marriages have been ruined over the gap.  Families have been wrecked; whole wars have been started over that gap.

So what can we do when there’s a gap between how much we are giving versus how much we are getting?

Give the gap.  And here’s an example.

A friend of mine wanted to sell his truck.  A friend of his wanted to buy it.  He told his friend the price, and his friend tried to bargain him down.  That made the first man angry because he told his friend the price and his friend didn’t take his price seriously but wanted a lower price.  There was a gap between their prices.  

I watched as their relationship became seriously damaged over that gap, but it could have been solved if either one of them would have been willing to give the gap.

Both of those men were good Christian men and members of the same church.  They both gave a lot of money to their church and other good causes.  They were givers!  But for whatever reason they didn’t extend their giving ways to this truck deal.  Neither one of them wanted to be taken advantage of, and it damaged their friendship.

It could have been avoided if one of them would have been willing to give the gap, and here’s how it works.

You say you want $5,000 for that old truck, and I only think it is worth $4,000.  Instead of wrecking the friendship, I can go ahead and pay your full price, and that one-thousand-dollar difference?  Instead of feeling cheated, I’m going to GIVE it to you!  I’m going to Give the Gap.

Let’s say you are at work and the boss asks you to do something and you don’t think it is your job.  Yes, you could start a big brouhaha, or instead you could give the gap…the gap between what you think you should give and what they think you should give.  Now instead of it being part of your job, you are giving it as a gift!

The Bible has much to say about giving, like it is better to give than to receive, and “give and it will be given unto you,” God loves a cheerful giver, and even, “go the extra mile.”

Hebrews 13:16 says to do good and share, “for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

Philippians 2 says we are to have the same attitude of Jesus who, though He was God, humbled Himself to becoming a human, a servant, even dying as a criminal on a cross.  

So when we see a gap between what we are giving and what we are getting, we can simply convert that gap into a gift!  Our attitude switches from, “I’m getting cheated,” to, “I freely give this as a gift, knowing that God wants me to give, and that when I do give, I will receive back and even more, as Jesus said in Luke 6:38, “pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”

No one wants to be taken advantage of, but everyone is called to give, so when you start to see a gap between what you are getting and what you are giving, instead of getting mad…Give the Gap.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

The Bathtub Drain

(click to listen)

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

Have you looked down your bathtub drain lately?

It’s probably just a black hole, and as long as the water drains you don’t even think about it.

But you know what?  A lot of things had to be done just right for that drain to work.

Think of a typical ranch house here in Florida built on a concrete slab.  An architect designs the house and creates a blueprint.  Then every person that works on the house works off the blueprint.

One thing on the blueprint is the plumbing.  Before they pour the concrete slab, a plumber has to install all the pipes in the exact right places, including that bathtub drain.

That drain has to be in the perfect spot.  He can’t just eyeball it.  He can’t just say, “This feels right.”  He has to put the drainpipe EXACTLY where the blueprint says to put it.

Why?  Because they are going to pour concrete around it.  It will literally be set in stone.  Yes, it can be moved.  I was part of a drain moving operation at a church one time, and it involved jackhammers and sweat and grumbling.  No one in their right mind would choose to put the drain in the wrong place so that they could move it later.  It would be what we call in the south “ig-nernt.”

That bathtub drainpipe has to be in the exact right spot because one day a guy is going to walk in carrying a bathtub.  He’s going to set it down, look down that drain hole, and he’d better see nothing but a black hole, perfectly lined up.  

Can you imagine how well the plumber has to do his job for the bathtub drain to be perfectly lined up?  It’s a marvel!  But that’s what the blueprint is for.

The plumber doesn’t go in and try to figure it out on his own.  He doesn’t ask his buddy, “Hey, does this look good?”  He has to follow the blueprint. 

And now listen.  We have a blueprint for life.  Life on this planet was created by the Architect, with a capital A, and He has a blueprint for how everything goes together.  If we follow the blueprint, our life works properly, and if we ignore the blueprint, it doesn’t work right.

Jesus used a construction analogy at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven.  He basically said that if we follow His blueprint, His teachings, then we are like a wise man who builds his house well.  But if we don’t follow God’s blueprint, we are like a man who builds his house foolishly.

For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to forgive.  Our blueprint for life is to “forgive men their trespasses.”  Forgiveness works!  It’s in the blueprint!  But what if we don’t feel like forgiving?  What if we have a hundred reasons to not forgive?

The plumber might have a hundred reasons to put the bathtub drainpipe somewhere else, but he MUST put it where the blueprint says to put it or it won’t work.  He will have missed the mark.

What is another word for “missing the mark?”  Sin.  

In the original language, the word sin comes from the Greek and Hebrew words which mean “to miss the mark.”  To sin is literally to miss the mark.  It’s putting the pipe anywhere but where the blueprint says to put it.

If we don’t forgive, we are missing the mark, ignoring the blueprint, and building our life poorly.  This applies to everything God told us to do.  His words are the blueprint.

What if you don’t like words like sin and obedience.  Well, think of it in terms of Jesus’s construction analogy.  Sin is missing the mark, which is not following the blueprint, which is putting the pipes wherever you feel like. 

Obedience is hitting the mark, following the blueprint, putting the pipes right where the blueprint says to put them.

For some reason we think of obedience to God as optional, but we sure don’t want the plumber thinking of the blueprint as optional when he’s building our house.

Why not?  Because we want it built well, not poorly.

And the same is true for our life.  We want it built well not poorly, and for that, we have to follow the blueprint of the architect, with a capital A.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

By the Power Vested in Me

(click to listen)

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

“And God I forgive everyone for everything, past…present…and future…”

That’s my daily prayer.  I pray through the Lord’s Prayer and when I come to the part about “…as we forgive those…” I stop and say, “God, right now, I forgive everyone for everything, past, present, and future.  I preemptively forgive everyone for everything they might do or say, so that I’m free to love them like You want me to love them, with the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through me.”

Yes, we know we are supposed to forgive people, but it doesn’t end there.  The big goal is to love people.  Forgiveness gets all the offenses out of the equation which sets us free to love people.

I often say this.  I forgive people so that I’m free to love people the way God wants me to love them, to want God’s best for them, and to even rejoice over them!

My friend said, “Well, I’m not going to rejoice over the man that just murdered my daughter.”  No, his daughter wasn’t murdered.  He was just making a point.  And I get the point.  But nonetheless, Jesus told us to love our neighbor, and our enemy.

I’m not sure you can properly love someone you haven’t forgiven.  And what’s this idea of rejoicing over them?  

The Bible talks about God rejoicing over His people.  Zephaniah 3:17 says, “He will rejoice over you with gladness…He will rejoice over you with singing.”

That was a prophetic word for the future, because at the moment God’s people were rebellious and disobedient.  God was certainly not rejoicing over their sin, and we don’t rejoice over other people’s sin.  So what are we rejoicing over?

We rejoice over the potential in people!  God really does have beautiful plans and possibilities for people who will turn their lives over to Him, and for that, we rejoice over them!  And we love them toward their destiny in God.

And yet it is so hard to love people, right?  For the most part it seems impossible to love everyone.  So how can we do it?

“By the power vested in me…”

I love that little phrase.  You often hear it at weddings.  “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife.”

Well we, as Christian believers, have the Holy Spirit inside of us, and listen to what Second Timothy 1:7 says about that Spirit.  It says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

By the power vested in me, the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of power and love and a sound mind, I can love everyone God brings into my path.  

Galatians 5:22 says “…the fruit of the Spirit is love…”

God has given us a spirit of love!  And of power.  He’s given us the power to love!

And to clear room for that power to work, we have to get all offenses off the table and out of the equation by forgiving everyone for everything…past…present…and future.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Taste and See That the Lord Is Good

(click to listen)

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

“You must have a lot of faith to believe in God like you do.”  

Actually, I don’t think I have all that much faith.  Think of it like this.

Last night I was working in the yard, pulling weeds and picking up sticks.  Suddenly it dawned on me that I was really thirsty.  Thankfully I had prepared a nice cup of ice water before I went out to work.  So I went and took a big drink and it was so refreshing!

How much faith did it take to drink that water?  Not much because I have had many great experiences of drinking cool, refreshing water when I was thirsty!

That pretty much describes my faith in God.  In the early days I would read something in the Bible or hear something from another Christian and I would try to put it into practice.  I would also hear things from the Holy Spirit, and I would put those things into practice.

It didn’t even take all that much faith in those early days because I would hear something and try it.  

For example, I read in the Bible that we are to forgive people, so I started forgiving people.  It didn’t take a New York minute to realize, “Hey, this is refreshing!”

So how much faith did it take the next time I needed to forgive?  Hardly any!  I had already tasted and seen that forgiveness is a great way to live.

The other day we had a bunch of grandchildren at the house.  They were running around and playing, and then my wife pulled out a beautiful, fresh watermelon.  The kids stopped in their tracks and flocked to the watermelon.  Why?  Because they had already tasted and seen that cool watermelon on a hot Florida day is wonderful!

See, it doesn’t take all that much faith to trust an experience you’ve already had a good experience with.  And that describes my walk with God. 

Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good…”

I HAVE tasted, and I HAVE seen that the Lord is good, over and over!

So while it may look on the outside like, “Gee, that Doug Apple has a lot of faith,” I would say no, not really.  I have just tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and after that it doesn’t take much faith to keep walking with Him, knowing that even more good things are on the way!

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

One Tip for Teachers

(click to listen)

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

“I’ll walk you to your car.  I need to ask you something.”

That’s what the man said as he caught me leaving the church one day.

He said, “They’ve asked me to teach a class in a few weeks, and I was wanting to get your advice.”

I’ve been teaching adult Sunday school classes and Bible studies for over 30 years, so I should know a thing or two, right?

He said, “What is one piece of advice you would give me as I prepare for this class?”

Well, how would YOU answer that?

There are many good answers, of course, but here’s what I said.

Like the Old Testament prophets, stand in the presence of God, then deliver His message to the people.

Instead of thinking of creative ways to teach a Bible lesson, get alone with God, sanctify yourself to Him, set yourself apart for Him.

This means get alone with God.  Have regular quiet time with just you and God and the Bible.  Ask Him to lead you and show you things while you read the Scriptures.

And part of sanctifying yourself to God is setting aside some things of this world.

“What things?  You mean, like, sin?”

Of course, sin.  You should repent of all sin and come clean with God whether you’re a Bible teacher or not.  That’s a given.

To really press in and seek God and sanctify yourself to Him, it means denying yourself some things.  It means setting them aside to clear out time and space in your life for more of God.

Jesus said that if we want to follow Him, we must first deny ourselves.  

You can deny yourself watching TV.  You can deny yourself social media.  Deny yourself secular music or books or whatever.  And you can pray and ask God, “Lord, how can I sanctify myself for You?”

The point is to pull ourselves a little more away from our “usual” in order to seek God more diligently, knowing that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, as it says in Hebrews 11:6.

Jesus said go into your room, shut your door, pray to your Father.  In other words, get alone, shut out distractions, talk to God.

If you want to be a better Bible teacher or preacher, that is one tip.  Instead of trying to be more creative or witty or modern, my one tip for you would be to get alone with God and His Word, diligently seek Him, sanctify yourself to Him and see where He will lead.  

Then you will be able to come out of your time with Him with a calling, with an anointing, and what the old timers called an “unction” to speak God’s words to God’s people in the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through you.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

 

Read as Though You Believe

(Click to listen)

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

“She put the Bible there on my nightstand…right next to my ashtray.”

Bibles and ashtrays.  I knew this story was going to be good!

I was talking with Mike Sharman and I asked him the simple question, “How did you come to faith in Christ?”

It didn’t come until he was deep into life, married, making money and advancing professionally.

His wife had become a Christian, and he had attended a Bible study with her, but spent most of the time finding things to argue about, so he quit going.

But his wife had taken that one simple step, putting a Bible on his nightstand, and there it sat, like an ancient treasure chest just waiting to be opened.

Then came the night he was lying in bed, his wife fast asleep, and he heard a voice, a resonating voice.  It simply said, “I exist.”  He wasn’t sure what he’d heard, or even if he was dreaming, but he heard it a second time, then a third time, and he quickly came to the decision that it was God.

Well.  Now what?  Mike was open at this point, and ready for what might come next.

What came next was the voice saying, “Pick up that book,” and he knew what “book” was being referred to:  the Bible on his nightstand.

The voice said, “Pick up that book.  Begin at page one.  Read as though you believe.”

Well Mike had picked up “that book” before, but here was the key, the instruction to “read as though you believe.”

In other words, God was saying, “Set aside your bias.  Put away any anti-Bible or anti-Christian bigotry you may have and simply read the Bible ‘as though you believe,’ and see what happens.”

And he did.

And the rest is history.

And Mike Sharman has been following Jesus and making a difference in the world and in the Kingdom of God for many years now.

So what about you?  Perhaps this is God’s word to you today.

Pick up that book.  Begin at page one.  Read as though you believe.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Each Man's Life Touches So Many Others

(click to listen)

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

“I don’t think God cares if I go or not.”

That’s what one woman told me.  She was trying to decide whether she should make a certain trip or not.  I said, “Well…pray about it.”

She said, “I don’t think God cares if I go or not.”

I said, “It’s not that He’s going to zap you for making the wrong decision.  I just mean that He might give you some wisdom about the decision.”

I realize not everyone thinks like that.  I just really want God’s wisdom in everything.

Someone told me, “You’re the kind of guy who probably stands in front of his closet and says, ‘God, what should I wear today?’”  I said, “No…but some people SHOULD do that.”

I got to thinking, “Why DO I think this way?  Why do I want God’s wisdom so much?

First let me say that I don’t just sit around and do nothing until I get hit by lightning from heaven.

But my thinking is rooted in Romans 12:2 where it talks about discerning God’s will…His good and acceptable, pleasing, and perfect will.  I want that.  I want to live within God’s will, His parameters, His guidelines.  I want to build my life on a solid foundation, with good life-construction principles.

How to do that?  That same verse, Romans 12:2, talks about being transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Let me just share with you all of Romans 12 verses 1 and 2, in the NIV since that’s where I first memorized it:  “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

I want God’s will for my life, my family, my work, everything.  How can I get it?  According to Romans 12:1 and 2, I offer my body as a living sacrifice to God.

Here’s something I do each morning when I roll out of bed.  I take a knee, point a finger toward heaven and say, “Reporting for duty, Sir.”  That is me offering up my body once again as a living sacrifice. “Lord, I’m all Yours.  I’m all in.”

Then I seek to follow Him, and not the ways of the world, and in the process He is renewing my mind.  And through all of this, it says, I will be able to test and approve what God’s will is.

Then I got to thinking, “Why is Romans 12: 1 and 2 so foundational in my life.”

And I got to thinking about the Christian Campus House at Eastern Illinois University.  When my wife and I were dating we decided to go there and take their discipleship class.  The head of that ministry was Roger Songer and he had us memorize Romans 12:1-2 among others.

Out of all the Bible, why do I operate out of Romans 12:1-2 so often?  It’s because Roger Songer emphasized it in his discipleship class.

So here I am, decades later, taking a knee each morning, offering up my body as a living sacrifice to God.  My heart is more passionate for God’s will than ever before, and I hope I’m having a positive, Godly, spirit-refreshing influence on everyone I come in contact with.  And some of the credit for any good I’ve done has to go back to Roger Songer and his influence in those influential days.

It reminds me of the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  George Bailey wished he had never been born and his wish was granted.  Clarence the angel then showed George what the world would look like if he had never been born, and it was quite a bit worse.

Finally, Clarence said to George, “Strange, isn’t it?  Each man’s life touches so many other lives.  When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”

Yes, each of our lives touches so many others, and that’s why our decisions are so important.  We don’t know how the future will be changed by our decisions.

This is why I want God’s will so much.  I don’t know the future, and I don’t know the best thing to do.  But God does, and that’s why I daily offer myself up to Him as a living sacrifice and seek His wisdom.

Maybe you don’t think God cares whether you go on that trip or not, but I still say, “Pray about it,” because your decisions are making a difference in every life you come in contact with.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

Lord, I Believe, Help My Unbelief

(click to listen)

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

Your faith is not in your faith.  Your faith is in God.

Your faith is not in your prayers.

Your faith is not in your purity.

Your faith is not in your pastor.

Your faith is in God, and He is trustworthy.

Your beliefs and knowledge about God are probably not 100% trustworthy, but God is trustworthy.

We just don’t know enough, believe enough, obey enough, and follow closely enough to put our faith in any of that.  What that leaves is putting our faith in God.

I say this because many times we put a thermometer into our faith and see if it measures up.  And especially other people will put THEIR thermometer into your faith, and wow, you REALLY don’t measure up.  And that hurts.  And it’s frustrating.  

And God isn’t doing what you thought He would do, and why?  It must be because of your lack of faith, some people will say.  But then you don’t know how to build up your faith, and it is hard to build up your faith when it’s weak.  Now you don’t even have enough faith to build up your faith.

There was a man like this in the Bible.  He carried a great burden.  He stepped out in faith.  God didn’t come through like the man thought He would, and it all became so overwhelming it left him in tears, crying out to God.

We find the story in Mark chapter nine.  This man had a son, and the son did the craziest things, even from a young age.  He would throw himself into a fire, or into water.  He would fall on the ground and foam at the mouth, basically seizures.  It was horrifying for the father to watch.

Then the father heard about this “Jesus movement” and decided to see what Jesus could do for his son.  He took him to find Jesus, and he found Jesus’s disciples, but not Jesus.

But the disciples were good enough, right?  In Mark six Jesus gave them supernatural power and they went out and healed people and cast out unclean spirits.

So, the man brought his son to the disciples, and guess what.  They couldn’t heal the boy.  I imagine they tried, used different approaches, but nothing worked.

Then the scribes got involved and the arguing began and the crowd swelled around them and it was a whole “thing.”  And the father was there with his son, and all he really wanted was for his son to be healed, but all he got was disappointment.  He must have been thinking, “Why did I even bother?  This is worse, not better, and now my son is a spectacle.”

Then Jesus showed up, with Peter, James, and John, and started to get to the bottom of things.  He finally said, “Bring the boy to me.”

But when the boy was approaching Jesus, the Bible says that “immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.”

Any parent whose child has had seizures is feeling this father’s pain right now.  And worse, it was happening in front of a big crowd, and in front of Jesus and His disciples, the very people he thought would help his child and didn’t.

Do you think this man’s faith level is very high right now?  Maybe it was when he first decided to come to Jesus, but at this point everything seems worse, not better.

Finally, the father said to Jesus, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

Now I know some people who would say, “Uh oh, that man said the I-word.  He said IF.  God doesn’t have to do anything for you when you dare to say the word if.  How much lower can your faith go than when you say to the Lord of the universe IF?”

Jesus’s simple response was, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

Many people find this verse encouraging, and many find it discouraging.  And some people use it as a weapon to club other peoples’ faith.  “See? IF you believed, your child would be healed.  Your prodigal would be saved.  Your marriage would be restored.  So apparently you don’t believe because good things aren’t happening for you.”

Well guess what.  The father himself heard Jesus’s words, and he hit rock bottom.  He knew he had nowhere else to go but to Jesus, but when he brought his son to Jesus, he wasn’t healed anyway.  His faith was not rewarded.  It was actually brought to a new low.

Mark 9:24 says, “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’”

I’ve heard some people say that his prayer was wrong.  That you should never show any signs of unbelief in your prayers, or you should not expect anything from God.

But remember, your faith is not in your faith.  Your faith is not in yourself at all.  Your faith is in God, so if you say, “Lord, help my unbelief,” that is actually a prayer of faith!

Because people who don’t have faith, you know what they pray?  They don’t.

So, if you are praying to God, you do have faith!  And if you are asking God to help you in your areas of unbelief…that is a prayer of faith!  You are putting your trust in God that He will help you in those areas, that He will help your unbelief.

In the end Jesus did heal the child, and I don’t know what happened to that family after that, but this father’s words echo down through the centuries, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

He was at the end of his rope.  He had stepped out on faith and even that didn’t work.  He took his child to the men of God, and they couldn’t help.  

It seemed to come down to this:  did the father believe?  Or did he believe enough?

And when he realized that his son’s lack of healing might be due to his lack of belief, it almost drove him mad.  It drove him to tears.  He lost his composure and just cried out to Jesus, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

And that is a prayer that you and I can legitimately pray today.  Of course, your faith isn’t perfect.  Of course, it’s not 100%, but that doesn’t matter.  

God is what matters, and we are free to cry out in whatever faith we have, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

 

Archippus Take Heed

(click to listen)

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

And say to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”

That’s an encouragement…and a warning.

It was for Archippus in the Bible, in Colossians 4:17, but it’s for us, too.

Take heed to the ministry with you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.

Are you fulfilling the ministry you have received in the Lord?  Are your answering the call, doing what God wants you to do, what He has gifted you to do, and told you to do?

“Take heed,” was the message to Archippus.  That means “give this serious attention.”  It means, “make sure it’s done to avoid bad results.”

I don’t want bad results, so I’m determined to “take heed” and seek to do what God wants me to do.  

Philippians 3:12 says, “…I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

If you are a Christian, then at some point Jesus “took hold” of you, and you have a ministry to fulfill, a vital role in the Body of Christ.  Whatever it is, do like Philippians 3:12 says.  Press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of you.

Do like Colossians 4:17 says, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”

What happens, though, is that we can lose our focus.  There are so many distractions, so many bells and whistles, so many trinkets and sparkly things.  We are easily drawn away from God’s calling toward something else, like Demas.

Demas was on mission with Paul, but something drew him away.  In Second Timothy 4:10 Paul wrote, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.”

I want to cry out, “Demas!  What was it?  What was so shiny and attractive?  What drew you off course?  You were dead in like five minutes and standing before your Maker.  Was it worth it, forsaking your mission for a minute’s worth of worldly pleasure?”

Jesus called His various disciples with these words, “Follow Me.”  And they followed Him.

Well there was one man to whom Jesus said, “Follow Me,” and He didn’t.  We call him the rich, young ruler, but his name isn’t recorded.  Whatever fame he had at the time is long gone.

Mark 10:21 says that Jesus “loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.'”

But he couldn’t do it.  Verse 22 says he was sad, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

I want to cry out, “Dude.  Rich, young whatever.  What was so great about your stuff?  Was it really that great?  You passed on the chance to follow Jesus and for what?  Some stuff?  Really?

And yet we all get hit with similar temptations, and it’s all garbage.  Better to have the attitude of Paul in Philippians 3:8 where he counts the trinkets of this world as garbage.  He counted everything else as loss compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus.

So what to do?  Don’t be led astray by the sparkly trinkets of this world.

Instead, press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of you.

And like Paul said to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

 

If You Don't Like the Word Obedience

(click to listen)

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

The word “obedience” sounds harsh to some people.

They think of abusive parents, or schoolteachers with paddles, or military drill instructors.

We can be leery of obeying anyone because we are free Americans and we bow the knee to no one.  Plus, if we put ourselves under anyone’s authority, they might take advantage of us.

There is truth to all of that, but what about when it comes to obeying God?

Well…some people put obeying God into the same category.  They don’t like the word obedience, period, even when talking about God.

So today I want to put obedience into a different light.  Actually, I’m not doing it.  Jesus did it, in the Sermon on the Mount.

At the end of that famous sermon, He talked about obedience in a completely different way, by putting it into construction terms.

Now think about construction.  When you are building a building, there are certain principles you have to follow, or your building will be garbage.

The very first principle you have to keep in mind is gravity.  All construction principles revolve around gravity.  If you don’t build it right, gravity will pull it down.

The second principle is the elements, including rain and wind.  If you don’t build right, rain and wind will destroy it.  And with rain comes erosion.

The third element is going to be critters.  Whether it's termites and wood bees, rats and snakes, raccoons and bears, if you don’t build it right, other creatures are for sure going to move in and destroy it.

Now back to obedience.  When you pay a builder to build a building for you, do you want him to be strictly obedient to good construction principles? 

Of course you do.  You don’t pay your hard-earned money for someone to build poorly.  You want it right.  You want it well built.

Now back to Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.  At the end He said, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them (that’s obedience, by the way), I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock (in other words, using solid construction principles).

Then in Matthew 7:26 He said, “But everyone who hears these sayings of mine, and does not do them (that’s disobedience), will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand (in other words, using bad construction principles).

If the word obedience gives you the willies, then think of it in terms of construction.  How do you want to build your life?  Do you want to build it well, with the best life-building principles?  Then build your life using God’s construction principles in the Bible.

I have found that it works.  To the degree that I do what Jesus said, I see my life being built well.  And to the degree that I see people NOT doing what Jesus said, I see their lives being built poorly, often with one dramatic calamity after another…so much drama.

So if you don’t like the word obedience, even when it comes to obeying God, try casting it in a different light.  The results will be the same, and the illustration comes from Jesus Himself.

Do what God says and your life will be built well and strong and stable and enduring.

Don’t do what God says and your life will be built using sloppy construction principles which leads to wreckage and drama and calamity and failure every time.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

 

Christians in Cars

(Click to listen)

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

Jesus said, “Love your neighbor.”

But what if your neighbor is driving his car too close behind your car, like he would push you off the road if he could.  Do you love him now?

Jesus said, “Love your enemy.”

What if your enemy isn’t someone trying to kill you.  They’re just trying to pass you on the highway.  What do you do when someone who has been tailgating you now tries to pass you?

No, you don’t speed up!  You’re a Christian, and a Christian is supposed to love people.  So when they try to pass you, you love them and want them to pass you quickly and safely, so you certainly shouldn’t speed up.  More likely you should slow down a little so they can pass you safely.

We’re talking about Christians in Cars today.

Jesus said, “Love one another.”

But if your “one another” just dinged your car in the church parking lot…your new car!...do you love them now?

Romans 12:10 says, “Honor one another above yourselves.”

So you’re in the grocery store parking lot, and look, there’s a great parking spot!  And there’s a person behind you also looking for a good spot.  Would you ever, on your best day, honor that person above yourself and actually let them have the good parking spot and take the worse spot for yourself?

We’re talking about Christians in Cars, and Christians in Cars should behave differently.  Lovingly.  Kindly.  Graciously.  Humbly.

Second Corinthians 13:11 says, “…encourage one another…”

When someone else’s driving isn’t up to your standards, will they feel encouraged by you?  Or will they feel embarrassed, or called out, or honked at?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever honked at someone simply because their driving was annoying you.

Galatians 5:13 says, “…serve one another humbly in love.”

When you hit someone else’s car in a parking lot, what do you do?  Leave as fast as you can and hope no one saw you?  Or do you serve them humbly, in love, leaving them a nice, humble note with your phone number?

Ephesians 4:31 says, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you…”

How do you feel about that person who doesn’t know how to drive in a roundabout?

What about that person who just refuses to turn right on red?

Then there’s the person in the left turn lane who won’t pull out into the intersection so they can make it through.

Now there’s the person honking at you, because they think YOUR driving is bad!  Are you still putting away all wrath and anger and evil speaking?  Or does it come leaking out of you while you’re being honked at?

Ephesians 4:32 says, “…be kind to one another, tenderhearted…”

How do you feel towards the police officers?  How about the officer who just pulled you over?  Are you feeling kind and tenderhearted?

If we really love people, including police officers, how should we conduct ourselves on the highways?

“But Doug, that officer pulled me over and he was wrong.  I didn’t break any laws.”

When someone wrongs us, as Christians, what are we supposed to do?

Ephesians 4:32 goes on to say, “…forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

Yes, the world is full of bad drivers, distracted drivers, even foolish drivers.  Like the comedian Tim Hawkins said, “That girl almost hit me.  She was so distracted, fiddling with her phone…I about spilled my cereal.”

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” and, “by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.”

That’s not just true for Christians in church.  It’s also true, especially true, for Christians in Cars.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.