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)

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 have the light of life.”

His light is shining! His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Do we see it?

If the light seems dim, maybe it’s dusty layers of disobedience covering our eyes.

Dust gathers little by little, layer by layer. You don’t even really notice until the bright and clear and brilliant becomes dull and gray and lifeless.

Is that your walk with God today?

First John 1:7 says, “...if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another...” Is your fellowship with other Christians strained right now?

Could it be the dusty layers of disobedience? We stray from the Lord, His light becomes clouded, and the less light we have, the more strained our relationships become.

The good news is that repentance is the great dust remover. “Lord, forgive us our trespasses. Lord, I repent of all disobedience. Lord, forgive me and clear away all the dust from my eyes and ears. I want to see You. I want to hear You. Lord, give me eyes to see and ears to hear, and a heart that is wide open to obey You every day, in every circumstance. Lord, I want nothing to come between You and me...not even the tiniest little layer of disobedience. Amen.”

May God bless you...as you seek to obey Him today.

I’m Doug Apple.

(Close with Trust and Obey by Chelsea Moon with The Franz Brothers)

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 you that marriage isn’t quite the playground you thought it was. Well, love your wife. I mean love her. Give it all you’ve got.

And when you’re 3 or 4 or 5 babies in, love her! Love her with the big God kind of love that He puts inside of you.

If you want to please God, if you want to be in His will, if you want His blessings to shower and shower and keep showering on you, here’s a key. Love your wife.

And as you get older, and you’re not what you once were, and she’s not what she once was, love her. Look at her and love her. And I promise you, God will be there, showering His love and grace and mercy and tenderness all through your life and relationships and family, because You have been obedient. Because you’ve trusted Him and believed and stepped out on faith in this one little but gigantic area.

You loved your wife.

May God bless you...as you love your wife today.

I’m Doug Apple.

(Close with I Will Be Here by Steven Curtis Chapman from his album All About Love)

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?

It says, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor...” Ah, there it is. Get a job, man. Get a job.

Then it says, “Working with his hands what is good...” I love that. There’s so much packed into it! I see a man getting a job, and then growing. He discovers his God-given giftings and callings, what he’s good at, what God blesses! It’s like the parable of the talents, he takes what he has been given and multiplies it. He is faithful, like Joseph, even when it’s hard. He grows and advances. He rises up due to his faithfulness, “working with his hands what is good.” Isn’t that great?

And then Ephesians 4:28 completes the progression. The guy goes from stealing from others to giving to others! Working with his hands what is good that he may have something to give him who has need.

I love it!

And that’s what I pray for nearly every day.

“Lord, give us this day our daily bread...and extra to give him who has need.”

May God bless you...with extra to give him who has need today.

I’m Doug Apple.

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 humanity. All the time and money and effort. All gone. All wasted. All because you made a slight miscalculation by planting on city property instead of your own, and you didn’t even know it.

My friend, that is what we are in danger of as we go about our lives.

“Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.”

If we go about making life’s decisions without consulting our Father in heaven, we are in danger of planting our own plants instead of His plants, and every plant which our heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.

Think of Jesus’ story about building on rock or building on sand. In Matthew 7 Jesus said, “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

If you build your life’s house on sand, it will fall. It will be uprooted.

I don’t want that.

I fear that.

You’ve heard of the man who spent his life climbing the corporate ladder, got to the top, and realized the ladder was leaning against the wrong building.

I fear wasting my life like that, climbing the wrong ladder, building on sand, planting the wrong plant.

So I run to the Lord. I walk with Him. I submit to Him. “Show me Thy ways, O Lord, teach me Thy paths. Not my will, but Thy will be done.”

Only then can I move forward in faith, working to plant all my plants according to my Father’s will, knowing that every plant which He has not planted will be uprooted.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

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 commission, Lord, of everything I’ve done or said or thought that was sinful...I repent of it. And the good I haven’t done, Lord, not loving, not obeying, not taking action when I should, Lord, I repent of it all, I lay it all at Your feet right now, and through the blood of Jesus I just receive Your grace and mercy and forgiveness, fresh and new, clean before You in every way.

As we forgive those who trespass against us. Lord, right now I forgive everyone for everything; any sin against me, any hurt, any offense, any crime...whether they did it on purpose or on accident or by neglect or just not caring...whatever anyone has done, Lord, I forgive it all, right now. Their debt is canceled in my mind. And Lord, whatever anyone WILL do to me, I forgive them now, in advance, PREEMPTIVELY. God, I forgive them now for whatever offense or crime or hurt or pain...all of it. I forgive them now so that I am set free to love them with all the power and the force of Your love, loving them through me, with no offense getting in the way because I have already forgiven them. (Luke 17:1)

And lead us not into temptation...Lord, no temptation. God, please keep all temptations away from me. Lord, I want to walk so much in the power of Your Spirit that any temptations will be worthless and powerless, just falling away to the wayside, not pulling my eyes away from You for one second.

But deliver us from evil...Lord, save us and spare us from all evil and harm and sickness and disease and crime and natural disaster and poverty, Lord, all the things that would hurt us and harm us and cause us pain and grief and despair. Lord, anything that turns our eyes away from You for even one second, God, please keep it far away from us.

For Thine is the kingdom...I love You, Lord.

And the power...I love You, Lord.

And the glory...I love You, Lord.

For ever and ever,

Amen.

May God bless you...as you pray the Lord’s prayer today.

I’m Doug Apple.

(close with the finale of The Lord's Prayer by The Collingsworth Family)

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

You gotta have the want to.

That’s the title of an old book on my shelf by Pastor Allan Oggs.

You gotta have the want to.

As we square up for a new year, 2019, do you have the want to?

Even if you feel battle weary, even if 2018 wore you out – maybe you don’t have the motivation, maybe you feel depleted, maybe 2018 drained you – but do you WANT to do better? Do you WANT to rise up and be all that God wants you to be in 2019?

WANTING it is the key.

Look at Matthew 5:6, where Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...” It doesn’t say, “Blessed are the righteous” though the righteous are surely blessed, but it says, “Blessed are those who HUNGER AND THIRST for righteousness.”

In other words, blessed are those who WANT it.

I’ve spent the year 2018 doing a deep dive into the Psalms, and my reading today stopped suddenly at the powerful Psalm 107 verse 9, “For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”

What is my part in that verse? My part is to have a longing and hungry soul.

I long for the Lord. I hunger for more of Him in 2019, more of His character in me, more of His will done in me and through me, more of “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” in ME 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. HIS will be done. I hunger and thirst and long for that.

And the good news is, He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness!

Do you feel it? Are you hungry for it?

Psalm 42:1 – as the deer pants for the water, Lord, my soul longs for You. I need You and want You and desire You. I want to walk in Your Spirit and live by Your Spirit and bear the eternal fruit of Your Spirit.

I want it, and long for it, and seek it, and pray for it.

And everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

And today I plant my flag of hope firmly in Psalm 107:9, for He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with good things.

May God bless you as you long for Him today.

I’m Doug Apple.

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

“They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.”

That’s what it says in Psalm 34:10.

Now I might need to explain the King James English. When it says, “shall not want any good thing,” it means you won’t be lacking any good thing. Of course you WANT good things. You desire good things, and here’s how you get them. You seek the Lord.

You seek the Lord by drawing near to Him. We enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. We come boldly before His throne of grace. We draw near to God in our personal prayer time, alone, seeking Him, seeking His truth and His light and His heart.

When we seek the Lord, then His will begins to unfold in our lives. We obey Him more; and when we walk in His ways, we become more pleasing and more attractive to other people.

When you are living a life that is pleasing to the Lord, it is a life full of love and joy and peace and patience, and people like that! People will be drawn to you. They will like you.

And they will be glad to help you get the good things you desire.

So that is one way that, when we seek the Lord, we shall not want for any good thing; because God makes us into a good person, and other people will be glad to bring their blessings into our life.

And when you are a good person, you will always be doing good for other people. That is a blessing in itself; and then the Bible also says, “give and it shall be given unto you.”

I like the quote from Zig Ziglar, “If you help enough other people get what they want, they will make sure that you get what you want.”

Another blessing from seeking God is that He lavishes His love on us. When we receive His love, especially during our personal times with Him, that gives us good mental health, and good spiritual health, and good emotional health. It gives us hope and a positive outlook on life.

When we seek God, then we stop grieving and quenching His Holy Spirit inside of us, which unleashes the power of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. And that really opens the flow of every good and perfect gift that comes down from the Father of lights!

So you want good things? You want a blessed life? You want God to flow through you and your family, then do this with all diligence: seek the Lord.

For they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.

May God bless you as you seek Him today.

I’m Doug Apple.

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

I love this little phrase, “by the power vested in me.”

Like they say at weddings. “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife.”

It means you didn’t have the power, then someone “vested” the power in you.

That’s the way it is in our Christian life. There are things God wants us to do, but we can’t do them faithfully in our own power. We need His power to work in us.

For example, it’s not easy to forgive people like God wants us to forgive, but we can do it…by His power vested in us.

It’s like we’re saying, “I can’t forgive you for that, at least not in my own power; but by the power vested in me...I forgive you.”

God’s power is vested in us through His Holy Spirit inside of us. God puts His Spirit inside every believer when they are born again, and He begins His good work in us, exercising His power to bring us to maturity.

So when Jesus says, “Love your enemies,” and you really do have an enemy? In the flesh, in your own carnal power, you just can’t do it. You can’t really love them like God wants you to love them, except by the power of the Holy Spirit vested in you.

How can you “count it all joy” when you go through trials? You can’t really do it...except by the power of God vested in you. But with that power, you can literally “rejoice in the Lord always.”

So you’re a believer, and you know the Holy Spirit is inside of you, but maybe you aren’t really enjoying the full fruit of the Spirit. You’re not really feeling His power vested in you. Now what?

Maybe you need to waste some time with God. That sounds strange, doesn’t it? But that’s what a Christian counselor told Pastor Paul Westbrook when he was going through some problems. He said, “Paul, do you ever waste time with God?”

As a pastor, of course he SPENT time with God, he studied and prayed and whatever; but WASTING time with God, that’s different. It means hanging out with God, and talking to God, and listening to God and generally just being in the presence of God, or as the counselor said, “Wasting time with God.”

Time with God helps you stop blocking and quenching and grieving the Holy Spirit. It helps you get tuned in to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.

And as we do that, we can feel the power surge, and God can enable to do all those things that He wants us to do...by His power vested in us.

May God bless you, today.

I’m Doug Apple.

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

It’s one of the most powerful illustrations in the Bible, if you just think about it.

If you lean on a broken reed, it will pierce your hand.

Ow! I don’t even like stubbing my toe or stepping on a Lego. I can’t imagine using a reed like a cane or a walking stick, leaning on it, and having it give way and pierce right through my hand.

But that’s what happens when we trust in things that aren’t of God.

You’ll find the illustration in 2 Kings and Isaiah and Ezekiel. It’s when the Israelites want to trust the Egyptians instead of trusting the Lord their God.

Just imagine leaning on a reed, and it breaks, and it pierces right through your hand.

That is when you put your trust in something other than God and His principles.

When you lean on lying, but God says be truthful.

When you lean on anger, but God says His joy is your strength.

When you lean on revenge, but God’s way is forgiveness.

When you lean on alcohol to help you make it through the day.

When you lean on a little pot to ease your mind.

When you lean on mother’s little helper, you’re leaning on a broken reed, and it will pierce your hand.

Karen Wheaton’s daughter has written a book called The Way Home, by Lindsey Wheaton Doss. For reasons described in the book, Lindsey began to lean on broken reeds. She leaned on the broken reed of the attentions of another man, not her husband. She ended up leaning on alcohol and parties and other men, and that reed broke and splintered into her hand and her mind and her soul and nearly destroyed her.

When we lean on anything but God and His ways, we are leaning on a broken reed, and it will pierce our hand.

So what are you leaning on today? What are you putting your trust in, for your hope, for your pleasure, for your satisfaction? For your provision? For your mental needs and spiritual needs? For the sanity of your soul?

Lean on Jesus! Lean on the Lord and His Word! Put your trust fully in Him! He is the rock we can trust in and lean on and build our lives on. It’s Him and only Him and all Him all the time.

But if we lean on the world’s very poor substitutes, they will all turn out to be a broken reed and pierce our hand.

May God bless you, today.

I’m Doug Apple.

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

First John 4:18 says that “perfect love casts out fear.”

Here are three ways that happens.

One is, when you really love someone, then it drives out your fear of them.

Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” The problem with enemies is that they stir up so much emotion, you can’t even think straight. And one thing they make you feel is fear. They are out to get you. That is a fearful thing.

But when we obey Jesus and love our enemies, which we can only do in the power of God’s Spirit inside of us, then that love drives out our fear of them.

It’s the same for people who give you anxiety or make you nervous. When you love them with God’s love inside of you, then all fear is driven out. You are free to truly love them as God wants you to!

Another way perfect love casts out fear is when other people fear you. Who knows why they fear you. Maybe you have power over them, or hold an important part of their life in your hands; but when they know that you love them with the love of God inside of you, then their fear of you is cast out!

“But maybe I want them to fear me,” you say. “I need to keep them in their place.”

Well that’s not God’s way. God’s way is that you amp yourself up full of His Holy Spirit, and then you love and you love and you love. That’s God’s way. Read all about it in First John chapter 4. That chapter is brimming with God’s love for us, and the love we are to have for one another. Check it out.

And another way perfect love casts out fear is when other people want you to fear them – like the old bumper sticker, “Fear this.” They want to hold power over you through fear, but if you love them with the love of God inside of you, then once again, perfect love casts out fear. It casts out fear in all equations!

It’s like a multiplication problem where perfect love is the number zero. You know, it doesn’t matter what numbers you are multiplying. Make it 10 times 10. Make it 10 times 100. Make it a thousand times a thousand! Those are all the fears, thousands of fears.

Then bring in the number zero. Make it a thousand times a thousand, times a thousand…..times zero. What’s the answer? How much of the fear is left? Zero.

Because perfect love casts out fear.

May God bless you, today.

I’m Doug Apple.