My Heart Is On Fire By Doug Apple - A Short Christian Devotional To Open The Scriptures And Make Your Heart Burn Within You!

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ 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 be

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ 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

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ 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 b

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ 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

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ 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 in

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ 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, ang

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ 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 fo

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ 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 yo

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

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

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 mo

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&

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

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

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 q

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 lig

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

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

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

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?