Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. Arnold H. Glasow
Life would be grand wouldn’t it all our successes were a result of a spontaneous combustion. We could have it scheduled like you would an implosion but instead of bringing a building down it would be to build it up. That way it could happen all at once then we could go on with other things in life. “Hellooooooooo…..you need to wake up…..earth to Karen……earth to Karen!”
Honestly what I thought of when I first read this quote was not success but other things that require a little time and work on our part. Things like our relationship with God and others. Oh, to get married and as you stand at the altar and the preacher says, “I now pronounce you man and wife” the church rumbles, the spontaneous combustion happens and the couple lives happily ever after on fire for each other. Oh dear I think I went to sleep again, wake up Karen, wake UP!
The same thing with our relationship with God. As much as we would love to think it happens instantly it doesn’t work that way. We’re not lifted up out of the waters of baptism by a tidal wave followed by a tsunami and wham bang spontaneous combustion sets in and we rise the perfect Christian on fire for Jesus for life.
God when He created us left us in charge of our own fires. We are the ones that need to learn how to start them and keep them from going out. In other words we are to play the part of our own firebug. We can’t wait for fire season to come along and hope a fire starts. No, when it comes to being on fire for Jesus and those around us we need to light them ourselves.
My husband and I always thought it sounded funny when the news media would announce that this is the beginning or ending of fire season. They always make it sound like a start and stop time that the fires respect. Sorry, they must not watch the news. We must’n watch the news either as we don’t listen to others who tell us we could never be on fire for Jesus like someone else. Or our relationship with others doesn’t need a spark.
As my Tuesday Ladies Bible Study group discussed last week we determined that how close we get to God and others is strictly up to us. Its what we are willing to put into it. Drawing closer to Christ is a choice we make by our attitudes and actions. With our relationship with other people its 100 to 100 not 50 to 50. We give 100% and that is all we are resonsible for. What someone else does with their half of the relationsip we are not responsible for but we are responsible for what we do.We can’t be like those who allow the fire to go out out of laziness, selfish behavior, and giving in to Satan’s petty garbage he throws in the middle of our relationships to try and put the fire out.
Don’t wait for the spontaneous combustion to happen start your own. Our relationship with Christ if we stick with it long enough can be like those trick candles on a birthday cake that no matter how hard you blow on them you can’t get them to go out. Satan will try his best to prevent the fire from burning but we can keep it going.
The process takes time, it takes effort, and it takes the kind of commitment needed to ignore the lies of Satan. To get past his folly to reach out to what God has waiting for those willing to keep on trying. Praise the Lord. Be your own Firebug so those around you can see your glow for Jesus.
Life would be grand wouldn’t it all our successes were a result of a spontaneous combustion. We could have it scheduled like you would an implosion but instead of bringing a building down it would be to build it up. That way it could happen all at once then we could go on with other things in life. “Hellooooooooo…..you need to wake up…..earth to Karen……earth to Karen!”
Honestly what I thought of when I first read this quote was not success but other things that require a little time and work on our part. Things like our relationship with God and others. Oh, to get married and as you stand at the altar and the preacher says, “I now pronounce you man and wife” the church rumbles, the spontaneous combustion happens and the couple lives happily ever after on fire for each other. Oh dear I think I went to sleep again, wake up Karen, wake UP!
The same thing with our relationship with God. As much as we would love to think it happens instantly it doesn’t work that way. We’re not lifted up out of the waters of baptism by a tidal wave followed by a tsunami and wham bang spontaneous combustion sets in and we rise the perfect Christian on fire for Jesus for life.
God when He created us left us in charge of our own fires. We are the ones that need to learn how to start them and keep them from going out. In other words we are to play the part of our own firebug. We can’t wait for fire season to come along and hope a fire starts. No, when it comes to being on fire for Jesus and those around us we need to light them ourselves.
My husband and I always thought it sounded funny when the news media would announce that this is the beginning or ending of fire season. They always make it sound like a start and stop time that the fires respect. Sorry, they must not watch the news. We must’n watch the news either as we don’t listen to others who tell us we could never be on fire for Jesus like someone else. Or our relationship with others doesn’t need a spark.
As my Tuesday Ladies Bible Study group discussed last week we determined that how close we get to God and others is strictly up to us. Its what we are willing to put into it. Drawing closer to Christ is a choice we make by our attitudes and actions. With our relationship with other people its 100 to 100 not 50 to 50. We give 100% and that is all we are resonsible for. What someone else does with their half of the relationsip we are not responsible for but we are responsible for what we do.We can’t be like those who allow the fire to go out out of laziness, selfish behavior, and giving in to Satan’s petty garbage he throws in the middle of our relationships to try and put the fire out.
Don’t wait for the spontaneous combustion to happen start your own. Our relationship with Christ if we stick with it long enough can be like those trick candles on a birthday cake that no matter how hard you blow on them you can’t get them to go out. Satan will try his best to prevent the fire from burning but we can keep it going.
The process takes time, it takes effort, and it takes the kind of commitment needed to ignore the lies of Satan. To get past his folly to reach out to what God has waiting for those willing to keep on trying. Praise the Lord. Be your own Firebug so those around you can see your glow for Jesus.
© 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing
5 comments:
Thanks for hosting today Karen. Awesome post. Blessings!
Good morning Karen - thanks for being the hostess this week. This was such a great quote to inspire me to action. I'm usually a pretty high-energy person but struggling a bit lately with some health issues and loss of motivation. This was great! Thanks!
I like the image of the Firebug. :) Thanks for hosting...I needed to ponder these things today.
I took a different take on this quote. Honestly, I struggled with it quite a bit.
I do understand your charge to us to not sit back and expect God to do all the work. It is a relationship, a two-way street.
But I'm not sure I agree with you that God left us in charge of our own fires. Yes, we need to continually mind our "flames", making sure we approach God's throne, learn of Him, sit in His presence and obey Him. But I know who I am. Apart from Him, I can do nothing. The Holy Spirit is my motivation, not my own power. He lights my fire.
You can find my post at Lighting the Fire
Thanks for taxing my brain this week, Karen. I like to be stretched.
Karen, thank you for hosting this week. I like what you say here about the need to invest in the relationship for it to grow into what God intends it to be. I've found this quote challenging to think on.
I still hope to post a response this week--having some back issues and have not been able to sit at the computer long enough to put down words. But even if I don't get a post up, thank you for challenging me to think about the effort I need to make in relationships.
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