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

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

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

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

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 w

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 tha

I'm generally a deep sleeper, but the other night I woke up in the middle of the night with some phrases just racing through my mind. It felt providential, so I opened my phone, typed them into a note, and promptly went back into a deep sleep. A while later I woke up again, with more phrases running through my head, so I opened my phone and added them to my note, and went right back to sleep. Then after a while, I was awaken a third time, with more phrases in my mind, which I wrote down. Also in my mind was just how I was to put it together in audio form. And again I went right back to sleep. When I woke up, it was all still fresh in my mind (instead of some silly thing in my sleep) so I decided to try to put it together, just as I heard it in my head that night. I finally finished it today, and that audio file is now this podcast. Enjoy! Doug

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 en

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 an

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 t

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 o

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 th

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 h

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 enjoyabl

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! O

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

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) Dusty layers of disobedience. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to hear the Lord these days. Maybe our ears are covered with dusty layers of disobedience. There are some things He’s told us to do, but we haven’t done them. Oh, maybe we intend to, someday, but like my wife tells the children, “Slow obedience is no obedience.” So when we know what God wants us to do, and we don’t do it, another dusty layer of disobedience covers our ears. We grieve and quench the Holy Spirit, and His voice becomes muffled. Have you ever heard voices through a wall, like in a hotel or a dorm? It’s so aggravating if you want to know what they’re saying but all you hear is wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah. They could be celebrating a birthday or plotting your murder, you just can’t tell. That’s how God’s voice can sound when our ears become covered with dusty layers of disobedience. Jesus is the light of the world. He said, “Whoever follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but h

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) Husband love your wife. That’s what it says in Ephesians 5:25. The husband is to love his wife. That’s been God’s plan from the very beginning. Adam was to love Eve. Abraham was to love Sarah, even when she was a hundred years old. All those husbands in their Old Testament robes, living the hard life – they were to love their wife. If she got a little older, a little sun worn, a little chunkier under that robe, he was to love her. Husband, love your wife. When she’s pregnant and big and maybe a little cranky. Love her. When her hair turns a little gray, it’s probably because of you anyway, so...love your wife. If, God forbid, she’s going through something and her hair falls out. Love your wife. Husbands were to love their wife in the dark ages, when some lived in castles but most lived in poverty. Either way, in the castle, or in the hut...the husband was to look at his wife and love her. You, newlywed husband, maybe it’s dawned on y

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) Give us this day our daily bread...and extra to give him who has need. That’s how I pray it, as I pray the Lord’s Prayer each day. Lord, give us this day our daily bread...and extra to give him who has need. I get that from Ephesians 4:28 which says, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” Now let’s break that verse down. I love the progression. “Let him who stole...” That means you’ve got a guy who is currently stealing. He is taking what rightfully belongs to someone else, and taking it for his own selfish desires. It’s all about you, man. It’s all about you. Now follow the progression. “Let him who stole steal no longer...” That’s obvious, right. Thou shalt not steal, so stop stealing. So you stop stealing, but now what? You suffer a loss because, wow, you were stealing, and now you’re not. How can you make up that loss?

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.” That’s what Jesus said in Matthew 15:13, and wow, those are sobering words. “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.” I really don’t like wasting time. And I REALLY don’t like wasting money. Waste of all kinds irks me, because it means loss. If you wasted time, you lost the time. If you wasted money, you lost the money. You lost the potential. You lost what COULD have been. Now imagine you take time to plant beautiful flowers all along the street in front of your house. You test the soil and treat it. You cultivate and plant. You water and weed, and as the months of effort go by, you finally see some beautiful flowers. Eureka! Uh oh. One day the city comes along, and guess what? Your beautiful flowers are actually on city property. They need to do some work, and they think nothing about completely uprooting all your flowers. Oh the

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) I pray the Lord’s Prayer nearly every day, and here’s how I pray it. Our Father, who art in heaven...in the secret place, (Matthew 6:6) Lord, I’m in my secret place of prayer right now, (Matthew 6:6) and I’m drawing near to You, and I know that You’re drawing near to me. (James 4:8) Hallowed be Thy name, Lord. Holy is Your name. Righteous is Your name. Thy kingdom come, Lord, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. In my life, Lord...as it is in heaven. In my mind...as it is in heaven. In my heart...as it is in heaven. In my family...as it is in heaven. In my work...as it is in heaven. In my church...as it is in heaven. In this city...as it is in heaven. In this country...as it is in heaven. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, give us this day our daily bread, please, and extra to give him who has need. (Ephesians 4:28) And forgive us our trespasses...Lord, I repent of everything right now, of every sin of omission and com