Consumer or Consumed?

In Leviticus 6:13, while giving instructions to the priests about worship, it says, The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.

Can you imagine how much work it was to keep a fire going 24/7/365? History records for us that the fire burned continuously for 860 years!  The fire went out when the people of God were carried off into captivity by the Babylonians. This happened because they were no longer captivated by the fact that they were the people of God. They turned away from God, chasing after the temporary rather than the treasure of knowing God!

It is not God’s responsibility to keep the fire burning in our hearts; it’s ours!
Are you a consumer of the things of God or are you consumed?  To consume means to “engage fully”. A consumer simply eats all he can get.

All of us grow attachments to incidental things—and fail to venture forth where God leads.  When we pray, do we pray like a consumer or like we are consumed?  Do we live in spiritual pretense or spiritually intense?

There are a good number of people who don’t mind being touched by the fire of God, as long as it’s containable, or better said, controllable! As long as they determine its heat and intensity, they don’t mind being near the fire!

God loves to see the hearts of His people glowing towards Himself. God will never be satisfied just to touch you, He wants to consume you, (body, mind, soul, and spirit)! He wants everything.

God not only want to light a fire in you for Him! He wants you to become consumed by that fire!

The early Christians did not need a shot in the arm every Sunday to keep them going. They knew Jesus and they upset the world, worried the devil, and gave wicked rulers insomnia.   They started something that jails couldn’t lock up, fire couldn’t burn, water couldn’t drown, and swords couldn’t kill. This world has never been moved by cold, calculating poeple, but by believers, with their hearts on fire.
We suffer today from a type of Christianity as dry as dust, as cold as ice, as pale as a corpse, and as dead as the Twins chances of going to the World Series.  We are suffering from a lack of consumed hearts.

Are you a consumer, content to demand this or that from God to quell your temporal spiritual appetite?  Or are you willing to become consumed, by the awesome power of God, the amazing beauty of Jesus and the empowering presence of His Spirit?  As always, the choice is yours.