How to Handle Opportunities

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

Religion Im On Doug Apple Christianity Podcasting Education

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محتوای ارائه شده توسط Doug Apple. تمام محتوای پادکست شامل قسمت‌ها، گرافیک‌ها و توضیحات پادکست مستقیماً توسط Doug Apple یا شریک پلتفرم پادکست آن‌ها آپلود و ارائه می‌شوند. اگر فکر می‌کنید شخصی بدون اجازه شما از اثر دارای حق نسخه‌برداری شما استفاده می‌کند، می‌توانید روندی که در اینجا شرح داده شده است را دنبال کنید.https://fa.player.fm/legal

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1
Encore: Will Poulter, Dave Beran, and The Bear 52:22

20 روز پیش52:22

پخش در آینده

لیست ها

پسندیدن

دوست داشته شد

52:22

Season 3 of the smash hit FX/Hulu show “The Bear” roared to life just days ago, but Will Poulter (the actor who plays fan-favorite Luca) and 2014 F&W Best New Chef Dave Beran had been prepping for weeks. Poulter — like his co-star Jeremy Allen White — staged with Beran at his Santa Monica restaurant Pasjoli to learn how to accurately portray a professional chef onscreen. The lessons went so well, Beran says he’d hire Poulter as a cook — even despite a messy mishap with a pastry bag. The two dished all about getting kitchen culture right on and offscreen, what it takes to be at the top of your craft, and the pure magic of a great restaurant service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

۴ سال پیش 4:26

MP3•خانه قسمت

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) It’s one of the most exciting times in life. It’s when opportunity presents itself. It’s exciting because you have to make a choice, and you know that your choice will affect your future, and maybe the future of many others. It’s exciting, and nerve wracking. In fact, some people are scared of opportunities precisely because of the possible huge ramifications. They think, “Well, if I don’t choose at all, at least I won’t make the wrong choice.” Tell that to the man in Jesus’ parable who hid his talent in the ground instead of using the opportunity wisely. Ah, now that’s the key: using opportunities wisely! So how do we do that? First of all, the Bible tells us not to “give opportunity” to the flesh, or to the devil. So when we are looking at an opportunity and deciding what to do about it, we clearly want to avoid things that are sinful. We don’t become unequally yoked. We don’t cheat people. We don’t take advantage of people. We don’t enter into win-lose situations where I win and you lose. That may be taking advantage of an opportunity, but it’s wrong and sinful. Galatians 6:10 says, “as we have opportunity, let us do good to all…” So how do we handle opportunities? One thing we are looking for is how we can use this opportunity to do good for all, not just me. We’re looking for opportunities to create win-win situations, where everyone’s situation is improved and no one comes up a big loser. One question to ask is, “How can I use this opportunity to solve problems, both my problems and other people’s problems?” Proverbs tells us that lazy people ignore opportunities, and ignorant people don’t even notice them. I think God often brings opportunities into our life. Back to the parable of the talents, in Matthew 25 Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” Like what? It’s like a rich man who gave opportunities to his servants, and he wanted to see how they would handle them. Maybe you never thought of it that way. I think God brings opportunities into our life, and then He watches, like a patient Father, to see what we will do with them. What He wants is for us to take advantage of the opportunity in order to do good. Next comes the question of which opportunities to work on, because in this day and age the world is crawling with opportunities and you can’t possibly take on all of them. Back to the book of Galatians. Galatians 5:16 tells us to “walk in the Spirit,” which means to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:18 tells us to be “led by the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25 tells us to “live in the Spirit.” As Christian believers, we have to learn to discern the leading and speaking of God’s Holy Spirit inside of us. And then when opportunity presents itself, we can watch for God’s Spirit in us to rise up and put a fire in us that says, “Yes, there it is. Go for it.” Yes, it can still be nerve wracking, because it’s important! But don’t be like the lazy and ignorant and even wicked person who lets opportunities pass by, ignoring them while supposedly “playing it safe.” It didn’t work for the man in the parable of the talents, and it won’t work for us! So when you see the opportunity arise, take a good look, pray for wisdom, listen to the Holy Spirit, and be ready to strike while the iron’s hot, going forward in faith and trust that God is with you, and He will help you turn it into a winner for everyone involved. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.

163 قسمت

#Religion #Im On #Doug Apple #Christianity #Podcasting Education

How to Handle Opportunities

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

published ۴ سال پیش

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MP3•خانه قسمت

163 قسمت

#Religion #Im On #Doug Apple #Christianity #Podcasting Education

Wszystkie odcinki

1
But You Don't Know My Parents 3:14

10 weeks پیش3:14

3:14

You can read the whole text here: https://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Honor your father and mother…but what if your parents aren’t worthy of honor? It’s pretty clear in the Bible that we are to honor our parents. It’s even in the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:12 says, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” But here is a question I have heard many times. “How can I honor my parents when they are such dishonorable people?” Here’s my answer. You don’t honor them because they are honorable. You honor them because YOU are honorable. We are called to be people of honor. I like First Thessalonians 4:4 which says possess your vessel in honor. Here’s a fun example, and this goes back to 1922, to a book by Emily Post about etiquette in society. She wrote, “If a lady drops her glove, a gentleman should pick it up... offer the glove to her and say: 'I think you dropped this!' The lady replies: 'Thank you.' The gentleman should then lift his hat and turn away." This is telling a man how to behave like a gentleman. One thing a gentleman doesn’t do is stop to figure out if the woman has a track record of being lady-like. Her lady-likeness has nothing to do with it. He behaves like a gentleman, not because she is a lady, but because he is a gentleman. We honor people, not because they are honorable, but because WE are honorable. We possess our vessel in honor. In other words, we get ourselves under control in order to live an honorable life, a life of honoring others because we are honorable. First Peter 2:17 says, “Honor all people.” How can we possibly do that when so many people are not worthy of honor? First of all, everyone is worthy of honor or the Bible wouldn’t say that. They are worthy of honor as people made in the image of God. They are worthy of honor because Jesus died for them. They are worthy of honor because God loves them. So the question isn’t “are they honorable?” The question is, are WE honorable? If we are, then honor flows through us to others. Back to the Ten Commandments. We are told to honor our father and mother. Sure, they were imperfect. Or you may say, “No Doug, my parents actually were perfect…a perfect mess.” The command remains the same, to honor them. And if you can’t motivate yourself to honor them, get this into your head. We don’t honor them because they are so honorable. We honor them because WE are honorable. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

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The Lord Is Nigh Unto All Them That Call Upon Him 3:46

10 weeks پیش3:46

3:46

You can read the whole text here: https://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Psalm 145:18 says, “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him…” Well…I’M calling upon Him! Are you? I am calling upon the Lord every day and this is great news! When I call upon Him, He is near to me. I want the Lord to ALWAYS be near to me because I need Him. I need His presence, His love, His light, His direction, His guidance. I want Him to lead me, to teach me, to mentor me. I want to hear Him say, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” I want Him near to me for more reasons than I can count, so with this in mind, I call upon Him, almost continuously. Looking back at Psalm 145:18, I didn’t give you the whole verse. Here is what the whole things says, “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.” So that’s an extra layer, “in truth.” What does it mean to call upon the Lord “in truth”? Well…just be honest. Come to Him as you are. Tell Him all the truth. Don’t try to hide anything, and certainly don’t try to control your image when talking to God. This is calling upon Him in truth. It also means having true ideas about God. Often, we want to fashion God in our image, but if we want to call upon Him in truth, we have to have true thoughts about Him. He is the King. He is the Creator. He is Father God. He is the Lord of all. He is just and holy and righteous. He is also merciful and loving and kind. So, to call upon the Lord in truth, we have to have clear, true ideas about who we are, and about who He is. And the good news is, in spite of the giant gulf between us and Him, He invites us to call upon Him, and He says that when we do, He will be near to us. James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” Hebrews 11:6 says that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Psalm 63:1 says, “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land…” Psalm 42 says as the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after Thee. That’s me. Yes, as one of God’s redeemed, His Holy Spirit lives inside of me. I don’t need to cry out to heaven to get Him to come down. He is already here. He is already as near as He can be. The problem is me. As the old song says, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.” So, when I call upon the Lord, I’m wanting to connect more closely with Him. I want to fully live out what He has already promised, which is Him abiding in me, and me abiding in Him. I do that by daily calling upon the Lord, and I’m so glad for this promise in Psalm 145:18, “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.” May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

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The Character of Caleb 5:32

15 weeks پیش5:32

5:32

You can read the whole text here: https://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) The Character of Caleb. It’s easy to study the life of Caleb because there’s not that much about him in the Bible, but what IS there is very inspiring. He shows up in Numbers chapter 13 when God tells Moses to send spies into the land of Canaan. Moses has to pick one man from each tribe, and that man must be a leader. Different Bible translations use different words, like “chief” and “ruler” and “prince.” Whichever word you choose, the evidence is clear: Caleb was a chief man of the tribe of Judah. So, the 12 spies went into the land of Canaan and brought back a report to Moses. They all agreed that it was a bountiful land, but 10 of the 12 spies said they should NOT go into the land because it was well-defended, even by giants. This negative report spread fear throughout the people of Israel. But not Caleb. Numbers 13:30 says that Caleb “quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.’” This is the first time we have Caleb speaking in the Bible, and it is a bold and wonderful speech. He is loaded with faith and courage, like David was with Goliath. I was inspired, but the people of Israel were not. Their fear and lack of faith made them cry out against Joshua and Caleb. Then Numbers 14 says that Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes in anguish and tried to speak to the people, saying things like, “the Lord is with us” and “if the Lord delights in us” and “do not rebel against the Lord.” But the Israelites were so afraid, they rebelled against God’s leadership, so God said this in Numbers 14, “because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.” This is the Lord God Himself, calling Caleb by name! God knows everything. He knows our heart and our thoughts, and He said that Caleb followed Him fully, wholeheartedly. “Lord, I want to follow You wholeheartedly, with faith and courage and boldness like Caleb.” Then we skip ahead 40 long years, to Numbers chapter 34, and God is talking about the leaders who will lead Israel into the Promised Land. And who is the leader of the tribe of Judah? The same man from 40 years ago: Caleb. He’s first on the list! Now let’s jump over to Joshua chapter 14. The Promised Land was going to be divided among the tribes of Israel “by lot.” Basically, God was going to distribute the land among the tribes by a type of drawing or lottery. Except one man was exempted from the lottery. Caleb. You see, something very interesting happened right after they spied out the land. Caleb had received a promise from Moses. Moses told Caleb, “Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord.” So, on the day of distribution, Caleb reminded Joshua of that promise, and Joshua blessed Caleb and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. In Joshua 14 we have more great words from the mouth of Caleb. He said, “The Lord has kept me alive these 45 years, and now here I am, 85 years old. I am as strong this day as I was on the day that Moses sent us out. Now therefore, give me this mountain.” Here is Caleb with that same strength and faith and courage at the age of 85 as when he was 40, still trusting in God and ready to go forward and take action. I am so inspired by the character of Caleb. He was a man of faith. He trusted God and His word. He had courage to obey God when it looked hard if not impossible. He followed God fully. He didn’t give up. He was a hard worker. He was still ready to work, even at 85. And God blessed him for his faith and courage and perseverance. “Lord, I want to follow You wholeheartedly, working hard with faith and courage and boldness like Caleb, even into my old age.” Amen. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

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That Thou Givest Them They Gather 3:02

16 weeks پیش3:02

3:02

You can read the whole text here: https://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) I heard an acrostic for the word “poor” and I can’t get it out of my mind. It said the letters P-O-O-R stand for Passing Over Opportunities Repeatedly. In other words, if you want to be poor, just keep passing up on the opportunities that come your way. Sometimes people are looking for provisions to be handed to them, but what is handed to them instead is an opportunity, and they miss it. I see people come to this fork in the road. A good opportunity comes their way, and they have a decision to make: take the opportunity or not? Many times, I see people pass over the opportunity, and then later they wonder why they are still stuck, or they are lacking what they need. Sometimes I see Christians crying out to God to provide for them, and then they wonder why He doesn’t…but what they didn’t see was that He gave them an opportunity. They were blind to the opportunity because they were only looking for provision to be handed to them. In Luke 12:24 Jesus says, “Consider the ravens.” He said God feeds the ravens, and we are more valuable to Him than ravens. But get this. He doesn’t drop the food in the raven’s mouth! The raven has to go out every day and GATHER his food. God gives him the opportunity to eat, but He doesn’t hand feed the birds. So if we are expecting God to hand feed us, we are missing the point. I like what Psalm 104 verse 28 says in the old King James, “That thou givest them they gather…” In other words, when God supplies it, they go and gather it up. Nehemiah knew this lesson when he was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. In Nehemiah 2:20 he said that God would grant them success, but guess what. They had to rise up and actually build the walls with their own hands. He was basically saying, “God will provide; therefore we will arise and build.” Yes, God says He will provide for us, but that usually means He is going to provide the opportunities for us rather than just handing it to us. So, if you don’t want to be poor, don’t Pass Over Opportunities Repeatedly. And remember our part in the equation found in Psalm 104 verse 28, “That thou givest them…THEY GATHER.” May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

1
A Servant, A Soldier, A Son 4:01

20 weeks پیش4:01

4:01

You can read the whole text here: https://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “For Thine is the kingdom.” That’s what it says near the end of The Lord’s Prayer. I pray through The Lord’s Prayer most days and when I come to this part I expound on it. “Lord, the kingdom is Yours. Everything belongs to You, and I belong to You in your kingdom.” A kingdom implies a king, and Revelation 19:16 says that Jesus is the King of Kings. Psalm 47 says God is the King of all the earth. He reigns over the nations and sits on His holy throne. Isaiah said, “My eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.” And what was Isaiah’s response when He saw the King? It was great humility and repentance. He said, “Woe is me, for I am undone!” Isaiah also responded with a great desire to serve the King. In Isaiah 6:8 he said, “Here am I! Send me.” This is a proper response to a king, an offer to serve. So that’s what I do when I come to “for Thine is the kingdom.” I say, “Lord, You are the king. I am your servant. I am here to serve as You wish. I’m at your beck and call. I want to do what is my duty to do.” So I am a servant of the King, but I am also a soldier of the King. Second Timothy 2:3-4 says, “endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with civilian affairs, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” I am a soldier of the King. When I roll out of bed each morning I take a knee, point to heaven and say, “Reporting for duty, Sir.” One of the things I like about being a soldier is that I don’t have to come up with my own commands. A soldier doesn’t wake up and say, “What should I do for the army today?” No. He is a soldier under command. He does what he is told. A soldier also doesn’t have to worry about his provisions, his gear, his lodging, his health care, his training. That’s all provided as long as he is a soldier under command. So when I pray, “for Thine is the kingdom,” I’m praying, “Lord, I am Your servant and I am Your soldier.” But there’s more. I’m not just a servant and I’m not just a soldier. As a Christian I am also a son! I am a CHILD of the King! Galatians 4 says that Jesus came to redeem us so that we can be adopted as sons. We become sons and daughters of the King! It says we become heirs of the King through Christ. First John 3:1 says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” God is the King, and as believers we are the King’s Kids! So when I pray, “for Thine is the kingdom” at the end of the Lord’s prayer, I’m saying, “Lord, You are the King. It’s Your kingdom, and I am Your servant. I want to do all that is my duty to do. And I am a soldier under command. And I am a son, so happy to be a child of the King, and that You love me and provide for me and lead me, not just as a servant and not just as a soldier, but also as a son. Thank You, Father.” For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

1
Making Crooked Places Straight and Rough Ways Smooth 3:44

21 weeks پیش3:44

3:44

You can read the whole text here: https://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) I finally fixed our shower doors. I don’t know why I waited so long. At first they just started closing a little roughly. It finally got to where one of the doors wouldn’t move at all without making the loudest screech and feeling like it was going to fall off and shatter. But hey, you really only need one of the doors to work, so I still didn’t do anything. Finally one morning I woke up and thought, “I really need to fix those shower doors.” I bought new wheels that the doors hang on for basically pennies and within just a few minutes both doors were working like they were brand new. It was so satisfying to feel how smooth they operated. Why had I waited so long? I don’t know the answer to that, but I do think this is our calling in the world, to make things run more smoothly. I love this imagery in the book of Luke, chapter 3 verse 5, “…the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth.” I think this is what God does through His Holy Spirit inside of us. He begins His good work in us, straightening the crooked things and smoothing the rough things. A big word for this is sanctification. I just finished memorizing the book of First Thessalonians, and sanctification shows up repeatedly. It says, “for this is the will of God, your sanctification.” It says, “…may…God…sanctify you completely,” and then it says, “He will surely do it.” God sanctifies His people from the inside out. He takes our crooked places and makes them straight, and our rough ways and makes them smooth. And then we, in turn, have a sanctifying effect on everything around us. We go out into the world and we take crooked places and make them straight and we make rough ways smooth. Have you ever heard someone say this, “He’s so heavenly minded he’s no earthly good”? I think that’s the opposite of the truth. The more heavenly minded someone is, the more earthly good they will be because of this sanctifying effect. A Christian who is truly connected to God is going to be improving the world all around him. Everyone should be happier when a godly person comes in and begins taking crooked places and making them straight and rough ways and making them smooth…because people like straight and smooth! My mom was a master seamstress. She could work wonders with needle and thread. Now we take it for granted today because of our store-bought, factory-made clothing, but have you ever tried to take two pieces of cloth and sew them together and make a nice, smooth seam? It’s much easier to make it bunchy than smooth and nice. And it’s easier in life to make things bunchy. We make our relationships bunchy. Our budget gets bunchy. Things get bunchy at work, at home, in the community, but there is good news. God wants to take bunchy things and make them straight! First, He does that inside of us as we submit to His leadership. And then, through us, He does this work in the world around us, using us to fulfill His plan to take crooked things and make them straight, and rough ways and make them smooth. And yes, I believe that includes fixing those shower doors. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

1
The Unlimited Supply 4:33

40 weeks پیش4:33

4:33

You can read the whole text here: https://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Are you keeping your eyes on aging family members and calculating what you will get when they die? Are you ready to fight with other people to get what you think should be yours? Why are you doing that? So many family divisions have happened over stuff. People value the money and the things more than they value the family relationships. It’s greed. It’s a lack of faith. It’s storing up treasures in the wrong place. It’s putting stuff before people, which is ultimately putting stuff before God. In Matthew 19 we read about the rich young ruler. Jesus said to him, “Follow Me,” but the rich young ruler chose not to follow Jesus. Why? Matthew 19:22 says it was because “he had great possessions.” It makes me wonder, “How great were they, really? Great enough to literally turn your back on Jesus so you could focus on your stuff?” You know, it wasn’t long until that man died and then what happened to all his stuff? Did his kids fight over it? Or maybe he didn’t have any kids because having kids would have taken away from his wealth. Now I’m thinking of Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. He had no children, and when he died, the servants came in laughing and grabbing the spoils, not even caring that he was dead. In Luke 12 we read about brothers who were in a big fight over their inheritance. It was so divisive that one of them came and presented his case to Jesus. I don’t know what he thought Jesus was going to say, but Jesus certainly didn’t give him the answer he wanted. In Luke 12:15 we read what Jesus said, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” Then he told the parable of the rich fool who horded up stuff for himself, only to die and someone else got it. God called the man a fool, and Jesus said that’s what everyone is who “lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” In the very next verse Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?” Jesus concluded by saying that our heavenly Father knows what we need, and that when we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things will be provided. God has an unlimited supply! Pastor Adrian Rogers said, “Which would you rather have, a storehouse full of bread, or a Father who is a really prolific baker?” Our Father is a prolific baker! He will provide for us daily as we seek Him first. And seeking Him first means loving people. That means putting people before stuff. It means putting our family relationships ahead of the family spoils. Let them have the stuff! What are you going to do without? God says that as we seek Him, we will NOT go without anything that we need. When we realize that God will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory, we can relax! We can let the other guy have some! We can let the rest of the family have the spoils without us blowing up the family just to get our share. God is our provider, and that sets us free to love others and let them have the stuff instead of fighting them for it. So if you have your eyes fixed on those aging family members and the potential riches you might grab onto, stop it. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Set your eyes on things above, not on things on the earth. We don’t have to scratch and claw and bite and fight with the family. We love them! And then we trust in God to supply what we need, and the great news is… He has an unlimited supply! May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

1
Disappointed With God 6:36

49 weeks پیش6:36

6:36

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “I’ve spent a good portion of my life disappointed with God.” That’s what he said, and it got me thinking. Am I disappointed with God? Have I been disappointed with God? Was I ever disappointed with God? I can’t think of a time when I was ever disappointed with God. Oh sure, there have been a thousand times when things didn’t go the way I wanted them to go, but that didn’t make me disappointed with God. Why not? I guess it is because I always just figured that if things didn’t go the way I expected, it’s because I didn’t really know how things are supposed to work. For example, there was the time as a baby Christian when I concluded that I didn’t have to lock up my bicycle anymore because God was going to protect me from theft. Then I came home one day and found that my bicycle was gone! Of course, I was disappointed, but I wasn’t disappointed with God. I was just disappointed with the situation. I thought things worked in a way that they actually don’t work. I just recalibrated my thinking and moved forward in my walk with God. A more serious example is when I was a Christian radio DJ, on the air daily, playing Christian music and ministry live on the radio, taking requests, talking to people, encouraging people in the faith, etc. I also had a wife at home, and an increasing number of mouths to feed. And being a little Christian radio DJ is not a great way to provide for a big family. There’s an old joke in the radio industry: what do a DJ and a large pizza have in common? They can aaaaaaalmost feed a family of four. I was praying things like, “God, I believe You have called me to this radio station, and yet I’m not making enough money. I thought You were going to provide for my needs as I do Your will.” Meanwhile, the owner of the station wanted me to get into advertising sales to help support both the station and myself. But I didn’t want to. I wanted to focus on the on-air ministry as a live DJ. Yes, that led to some frustrating days where I was expecting God to provide more money, meanwhile I was turning down my boss’s encouragement to get into sales. Then I finally realized, “Well, I guess this isn’t how this is going to work. God isn’t going to suddenly drop in money from heaven. But meanwhile, I do have this opportunity.” So in the summer of 1992, with our fourth child on the way, I went off the air as a live DJ and began working in sales. And that turned out to be a positive change in every way, for that whole ministry as well as for my family. Disappointment with God never took root in me. I just figured, hey, that’s not how this works. Let’s move on. And I would say, yes, God provided. I saw it over and over. But He provided through open doors and opportunities that came our way over and over and over again, thank You, God! Have you ever been learning something new, and it was frustrating, and at times you wanted to quit? I remember when I was first learning graphic design, using a computer program called CorelDraw. I didn’t go to school for this. I was already raising my own family, but the opportunity came. I suddenly found myself editing a small newspaper, and I didn’t know what I was doing! I was sitting at Kinko’s in Carbondale, Illinois late one night, because they had a computer with CorelDraw on it, and I had to get this newspaper edited before the deadline. There was a certain ad that I needed to change, but I couldn’t change it. Every time I clicked it, the whole thing highlighted and moved, but I couldn’t click just the text to change it. I was going out of my mind! It was late at night. There was no Google to ask. The Kinko’s worker didn’t know anything about it. Back then you couldn’t even right click for a context menu. Plus I was so tired by then. Finally. FINALLY I realized that the text inside the ad had been GROUPED TOGETHER. I had never heard of things being grouped together. I didn’t know you could group things together. Did I become disappointed with the CorelDraw corporation? No. I was just frustrated because I didn’t know how it was supposed to work. And I think that is how people end up feeling disappointed with God. It’s not that God is disappointing. It’s that we don’t know how it’s supposed to work, so we burden our relationship with God with all these expectations, and then when our expectations aren’t met, we feel disappointed with God. Some people walk away from God altogether for this. What if I would have walked away from graphic design just because I didn’t know about grouping? That would have been dumb, right? When things don’t work the way we expect, we don’t quit. We figure out how they are supposed to work! The same is true in our walk with God. Of course it’s hard to figure out. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Romans 11:33 says, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” In Job 11 it says, “Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven…their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.” Psalm 147 says God’s understanding is infinite! If we don’t even know how everything works in our favorite computer app, what makes us think we understand the workings of the infinite God? There’s no room for disappointment. We don’t get disappointed. We just realize, “Hey, I guess that’s not how this thing works. God, please teach me and show me and lead me. Your ways are higher than my ways, so I put my faith and hope and trust in You. Please help me to hear and to follow You every step of the way for the rest of my days…in Jesus’ name…” Amen. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

1
I Will Walk at Liberty for I Seek Thy Precepts 4:24

1 year پیش4:24

4:24

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) How can you have more freedom by living with more restrictions? It sounds counterintuitive. It sounds like nonsense. We want to be free to do whatever we want, whenever we want. The more limits, the less freedom, right? It’s a one-to-one ratio. Yet we find a different concept in the Bible. Psalm 119:45 says, “I will walk at liberty; for I seek Thy precepts.” The precepts are God’s commands, His laws, His principles, His boundaries, His guidelines. It’s God’s blueprint for how to live. It says we can have liberty and freedom as we seek to live within His boundaries. But there is something inside of us that doesn’t want boundaries. Tell a man not to cross a line and some part of him is itching to do it. And God lets us cross the line. We have the free will to crisscross His boundaries all day long. But there are consequences for crossing God’s boundaries, and one of the big ones is: less freedom. “No, Doug. That sounds like MORE freedom.” I know that’s what it looks like. I’m trying to live within God’s boundaries, and let’s say someone else isn’t. They can do things I won’t do. They can say things I won’t say. They can ingest things I won’t ingest, watch things I won’t watch, listen to things I won’t listen to, do things with their body I won’t do. They sound way more free than I do, right? And that’s what makes this Bible verse sound absurd, “I will walk at liberty for I seek Thy precepts.” Now let’s look at what Jesus said in John chapter eight. In verse 34 He said that whoever sins is a slave of sin. Sin is anything outside God’s boundaries. We are all free to exercise our freedom INSIDE God’s boundaries, but as soon as we step OUTSIDE of His boundaries we are now in a territory called sin. And Jesus said that whoever steps into that territory of sin becomes a slave of sin. And being a slave is the opposite of being free. That’s why Psalm 119:45 says, “I will walk at liberty for I seek Thy precepts.” When we seek His precepts, we are seeking to know God’s boundaries. Where are the lines? I want to know where the lines are so I can stay in freedom and out of sin so I don’t become a slave of sin. Now when we think of slavery, we think of being forced to do things we don’t want to do. Sin, on the other hand, is often what we DO want to do, so how is that slavery? It’s slavery because listen: sin always traps you in circumstances you don’t want to be in. I’ll say it again. Sin always traps you in circumstances you don’t want to be in. That’s the slavery. So yeah, you might think of a sin and how much you want to do it. That’s called temptation. It’s the treat inside the trap. It’s the bait hiding the hook. God said don’t do it, but you WANT to do it, and you want to be free to do it, and God seems like a killjoy when He says, “Don’t.” You can go ahead and do it, but if you sin, you’re going to find that there’s always WAY more to it than the thrill on the surface. Sin ALWAYS traps you in circumstances you don’t want to be in. That’s why God gives us boundaries. He wants us to be free, and His words help us to live free. Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Verse 44 says, “So shall I keep Thy law continually for ever and ever.” And verse 45 says, “And I will walk at liberty; for I seek Thy precepts.” May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

1
Be the Big Stroller Wheel 3:18

1 year پیش3:18

3:18

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Yay, it’s time to go to the festival! Thankfully you have an umbrella stroller for the baby. Just unfold it, strap him in, and off you go. Watch out for rocks, though. And uneven sidewalks. And sticks. In fact, just watch out for everything, because the wheels on an umbrella stroller are so janky that even a pebble can potentially block the wheel. On the other end of the stroller spectrum is the jogging stroller. You can actually run with a jogging stroller and its big wheels will easily roll over all the little obstacles, giving baby a smooth ride. This is a good illustration for life, because as you know, life is full of little obstacles that can stop you in your tracks. But listen: they don’t have to. You can approach life as a little janky hard plastic stroller wheel, or you can approach life as a big shock absorbing jogging stroller wheel. When little hard wheels hit an obstacle there is a noticeable lurch. It can even stop you in your tracks. And that’s how some people are with little offenses. They take the hit. It stops them in their tracks. It gets them off course. They get upset. They get angry. How dare you! But some people have learned how to be the big stroller wheel. When little offenses come their way, they roll right over them, hardly even noticing. There is no lurch. They aren’t stopped in their tracks. They don’t get knocked off course. They don’t get upset. They don’t angry. They don’t scream, “How dare you!” They just keep going because, like a big stroller wheel, they had the ability to glide right over all the little offenses. You can tell the little stroller wheels because they are prickly about everything. All the little offenses stop them. And they have to stop and talk about them, over and over. “I’ll never forget what so and so did to me.” It’s so much better to be the big stroller wheel and just roll past offenses. You have things to do, places to go, missions to accomplish. You can’t be stopped by every little offense, so like a big stroller wheel, just smoothly roll right over them. Proverbs 19:11 says a wise man is slow to anger and overlooks offenses. That’s the big stroller wheel! It just rolls over offenses and keeps going. If you want to make your life so much better, get rid of the umbrella stroller attitude. Stop getting hung up on every little offense. It’s not worth it, and babies get dumped in the process. Instead, be the big stroller wheel. Be the wise person from Proverbs 19:11 who knows when to overlook an offense and just keep rolling. You’ll get farther. You’ll go faster. And no babies will be harmed in the process. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

1
The Construction Principles of the Carpenter 4:24

1 year پیش4:24

4:24

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “The bathtub has arrived!” A huge man waddles in carrying a heavy bathtub. It’s a new house. The walls are up. The smell of sawdust is in the air. And it’s time to install the bathtub. The man sets it down in the only place it can go, touching the walls on three sides. Then he looks down the drain and says, “Uh oh.” Uh oh. That is something you never want to hear. You don’t want to hear it from your dentist. You don’t want to hear it from your potty-training toddler. And you sure don’t want to hear it from your plumber. What happened was, he set the bathtub down, looked down the drain hole, and what did he see? He should have seen nothing but a black hole, but instead he saw the floor. No hole. No drain. What he didn’t know was that a few weeks earlier, when his assistant was installing the tub drain pipe, he didn’t follow the blueprint. He installed the drain where he THOUGHT it should go. He followed his gut, not the blueprint. That’s a disaster, right? But we do that daily with the blueprint of life. What is the blueprint of life? Jesus talks about the blueprint of life at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven. He actually gives us a construction analogy. He said, “Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who builds his house…” There’s your construction analogy. He compares building our life to building a house. And he compares His teachings to the house’s blueprint. A blueprint tells you how to build a house, and God’s word tells you how to build your life. A blueprint is drawn up by an architect. The architect is the designer. In life we have an architect with a capital A. It’s the Lord God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. And we have a blueprint with a capital B. It’s the Word of God, the Scriptures, the Bible. But we often don’t treat the Bible like a blueprint. We treat it like an optional book of wisdom that we don’t really have to pay all that much attention to. And we pay a price for it. To the degree that we follow God’s blueprint is the degree to which we build our life well. And to the degree that we don’t follow God’s blueprint is the degree to which we build our life poorly. A good architect thinks of all the details ahead of time. He fits everything together perfectly, but the builder has to follow the blueprint or things WON’T fit together perfectly. In fact, if the builder messes up just a few things, that building project will become a royal disaster very quickly. The same is true for our life. If we follow God’s Word fairly well, but we decide that we know better in just a few things, it’s not going to work. Some people say, “Oh, I don’t want to be all LEGALISTIC.” But imagine this. You’re spending a half a million dollars to build your new dream home, and your architect has cooked up a beautiful blueprint. Do you want the builder to be legalistic about following your blueprint? Of course you do! This is your home and you want it done right. And when it comes to our life, don’t we want to build well? Don’t we want a good life that is solid and holds up under the pressure of the elements? Jesus told us how to do that. “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.” We can build our life well if we build according to the Blueprint with a capital B, drawn up by the Architect with a capital A. And this is what I call The Construction Principles of the Carpenter. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

1
Take Heed How You Hear 3:54

1 year پیش3:54

3:54

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Jesus said something that sounds almost cruel. He said, “Whoever has, to him more will be given, and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.” That sounds like the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. So let’s look at this verse more closely. It’s Luke 8:18 and it says, “Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.” This can be a hard verse to understand, but the key is in the beginning when Jesus said, “Take heed how you hear.” The words “take heed” are a warning. It’s saying watch out, be careful how you listen. Are you being careful how you listen? You can’t just open up your brain and dump everything in! You have to listen with an ear toward wisdom. Proverbs 2:2 says, “incline your ear to wisdom.” The NIV says: tune your ear to wisdom. On your radio you “tune in” to a radio station. When listening we need to tune in for wisdom and truth. Be careful how you listen. Take heed how you hear. So what did Jesus mean when He said, “For whoever has, to him more will be given, and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him”? It all starts with this tiny bit of wisdom to listen carefully. You have to be smart enough to know that not everything is true. Not everything is wise. Not everything is godly. Not everything is helpful. You have to be smart enough to know that some things you shouldn’t listen to at all. There is poison. There are lies. There is foolishness. There is evil. You have to be careful how you hear. If you start there, then when you listen you will be tuning in for wisdom and truth. And when you tune in to hear wisdom and truth specifically, you will hear it! This is what Jesus meant when He said, “To him who has, more will be given.” When you listen for wisdom and truth, you will hear it, and you will learn, and you will grow. More will be given to you. And the wiser you grow, the more wise you will be in discerning what you hear. It has an exponential effect. But what about the poor guy who apparently doesn’t have anything, and even what he seems to have is taken away from him? That’s the guy who DOESN’T take heed how he hears. He isn’t careful about what he listens to. He listens to any old thing and lets it take root in his brain. It can SEEM like he has wisdom and truth because he has a lot of DATA. But if he isn’t careful about it, he is letting in a host of foolishness and ignorance and even lies. Steve Taylor wrote a song that said, “He’s so open minded that his brains leaked out.” If he keeps letting all this in, eventually even what wisdom he SEEMED to have will be gone. Any wisdom he seemed to have will be washed away in a flood of information. Proverbs 1:5 says a wise man will hear and increase learning. The only way that happens is if you listen with a discerning ear. If you are careful about what you listen to. If you take heed how you hear. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

1
Food Glorious Food 3:48

1 year پیش3:48

3:48

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) I was talking to an evolutionist, the kind that believes that everything evolved from nothing after a big bang. I said, “Just look at food, for example. You think it just evolved on this big rock hurtling through space after a big bang?” “Well, it took billions of years,” he said. “Always with the billions of years,” I said. “Incredible complexity rising from simplicity after starting with nothing, just given enough zeros on the calendar.” I said, “Look at this banana.” “I’m looking,” he said. “Look at this astounding bright yellow color. It’s magnificent! It’s beautiful to the eyes! I’m so glad it evolved into something beautiful.” But wait. There’s more! When you pick up a banana, it’s smooth to the touch. When you peel a banana, it’s ready to eat! No special preparations needed. And when you eat a banana, it tastes good! You’re saying that by some miracle of evolution a banana evolved so that when we eat it, it tastes good? Okay, not everyone likes bananas, but get this. Bananas are the biggest selling item at Walmart. Let that sink in. So they taste good, but here’s where it really gets deep. Bananas are good for you! I’ve read that bananas have actually helped keep much of the world alive. To say something is “good for you” sounds trite, but look at what it takes for something to be good for you. It takes a miracle! You can eat this thing, your body receives it gladly, it goes into your stomach, your stomach perfectly knows how to handle it, and your body turns it into all the vital things that bananas provide for us. So you would have to say that the human body evolved perfectly to have eyes to see an attractive banana, have hands to get that banana, have taste buds to enjoy that banana, a stomach to digest that banana, and then at the micro level all the things the body does after that at an increasingly smaller level to keep us alive and well. And that’s just the banana. We could talk about apples and oranges (by the way, Americans eat more bananas than apples and oranges combined, just sayin’). We could talk about potatoes and peanuts and on and on and on. We live in a world exploding with food glorious food! If you don’t like this or that, there’s plenty more! All this bounty and no one to thank…except the processes of evolution times billions of years. I don’t think so. I want to give credit where credit is due. I thank our Creator God for His abundant creation, so astounding in every little detail: food that looks good and tastes good and is good for us. And our bodies that know what to do with it. So yes, I bow my head to pray before a meal. I do it at home, and I do it in public. I’m just so thankful, and so impressed and amazed at how it all works together, and God did it! Isn’t He wonderful? He gave us food glorious food! Thank You, Heavenly Father, for Your wonderful work in creating food for us to enjoy. Amen. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

۴ years پیش4:26

4:26

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Have Patience With Yourself 4:18

۴ years پیش4:18

4:18

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) I’ve shared this parable with a bunch of people lately. Jesus was often asked about the kingdom of heaven, and I can imagine Him looking up, hand on his bearded chin, pondering and saying, “What is the kingdom of heaven like, and to what shall I compare it? Hmmm…” “It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden, and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.” Question: how long does it take a tree to grow from a seed? A long time. How long does it take the kingdom of heaven to grow inside of us? A long time. So my message is: have patience with yourself. Mighty trees take a long time to grow. In Luke 17 the Pharisees were asking Jesus about the kingdom, and Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” How is the kingdom of God within you? Here is a quick breakdown. We’re all born in sin. We are all sinners. Jesus died for our sins. When we turn to God and receive His forgiveness for our sins, that takes care of the sin problem that separates us from God, and then a glorious thing happens. He puts His Holy Spirit inside of us. That is the kingdom of heaven “mustard seed” being planted in us. This is God beginning His good work in us, and Philippians 1:6 says that He who began His good work in us will be faithful to complete it. In other words, that kingdom of heaven “tree” is going to grow. The kingdom of heaven tree is going to bear fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 says that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. If you look at your life and say, “Wow, I am lacking in the fruit of the Spirit,” then I say, “Have patience with yourself.” It takes a long time for a tree to grow. Back in the day The Hemphills had a powerful little song called, “He’s Still Workin’ on Me.” It said: There really ought to be a sign upon my heart, “Don't judge me yet, there's an unfinished part,” But I'll be perfect just according to His plan, Fashioned by the Master's loving hands. He's still workin’ on me, To make me what I ought to be, It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars, The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars, How loving and patient He must be, He's still workin' on me. Yes, God is still workin’ on me. He’s growing that tree of the kingdom of heaven inside of me. It’s going to bear the good fruit of the Spirit, but trees take time. They have to grow roots. They have to grow limbs and leaves. They have to weather the seasons, but watch. In time they will bear the good fruit the Creator has designed for them. And so will you and I and all of God’s people, because His Spirit is inside of us, working on us, growing us, and raising us up to be full grown, fruit-bearing people. So if you find yourself falling short of where you want to be in your walk with God, just remember that mighty trees take a lot of time to grow, so… Have patience with yourself, because God’s still workin’ on you. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Lets Play Two 3:01

۴ years پیش3:01

3:01

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “Your boss is taking advantage of you.” “What? I’m just walking his dog.” “Yeah. That’s not part of your job. You’re a radio station manager, not a dog walker.” “Okay, well, call it my senior citizen ministry. I’m helping the old guy out.” “Call it what you want. You’re being taken advantage of.” “No. What I’m doing is loving my neighbor. If someone shows you how you can love them, and you can easily do it, just do it.” “But doing personal favors is not your business.” “Mankind is my business!” Okay, so now I’m quoting Marley talking to Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, but mankind is our business. Jesus said something oh so powerful in the Sermon on Mount. In Matthew 5:41 He said, “…whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.” This is where we get that phrase, “Go the extra mile.” How it worked back then was, a Roman soldier could legally tell you to carry his gear for a mile. So Jesus said, “If that soldier makes you carry his gear for one mile, go ahead and carry it for two miles.” Now that’s next level Christianity! Serving others should come as naturally to a Christian as playing ball does for a ballplayer. I’m thinking of Ernie Banks, the hall of fame baseball player for the Chicago Cubs. In fact his nickname was Mr. Cub. He also had another nickname, “Mr. Sunshine” because of his positive attitude. Ernie Banks had a popular catchphrase he was known for. He would say, “It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame…let’s play two!” Now I imagine a lot of ballplayers probably hate doubleheaders. It’s twice the work in the same day. But Ernie, with his go-the-extra-mile positive attitude was like, “Let’s play two!” Imagine Ernie back in Bible days. A Roman solder barks at him, “Carry my gear for a mile,” and Ernie cheerfully responds, “Let’s go two!” I know it seems to go against our rights, and a law like that wouldn’t fly for a hot minute in America today, but listen for a second. Sometimes clinging so tightly to our rights is actually a burden that keeps us from freely loving and serving others. So watch for it. Suddenly an opportunity to serve someone will appear. The door will open, and what will we do? We can ignore it. We can go ahead and serve them but with a bad attitude. Or we can cheerfully, with the joy of the Lord as our strength, choose to go the extra mile and say, “Why stop at one? Let’s go two!” May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Set the Bar High...for the Most High 2:41

۴ years پیش2:41

2:41

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand in the presence of kings! That’s what it says in Proverbs 22:29. Are you skilled in your work? Are you improving your skills? It’s a lifelong effort. We never stop improving. Jesus’ parable of the talents tells us the value of taking what we have and growing it. Matthew 25:23 says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” So the question is, are we being faithful with what we’ve been given? It’s a requirement. First Corinthians 4:2 says it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. Are we being faithful? Are we growing what we’ve been given? Are we improving our skills, taking them to the next level, moving towards mastery? Ecclesiastes 9:10 says whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Colossians 3:23 says whatever we do, we should do it with all of our heart, as if we are doing it for the Lord. Here are some Bible verses I often apply to my work, taken from Luke chapter 3, “the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth.” In your work, are there crooked places and rough ways? It’s time to make them straight for the Lord! Sometimes I say it this way, “Set the bar high…for the Most High!” Philippians 4:8 says, “…if anything is excellent or praiseworthy…” That should apply to our work! When people want to think about something excellent or praiseworthy, our work should come to mind. Show me a man who is skilled in his work and I will show you a man who will stand before kings! And the most important king is the King of Kings! So, are we skilled in our work? How can we become MORE skilled in our work? How can we meet the requirement of being a faithful steward of what God has given us? One way is by locking this mindset into our brains. Set the bar high…for the Most High! May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
If You Are the Son of God 4:01

۴ years پیش4:01

4:01

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “If You are the Son of God…” That’s what they shouted at Jesus while He was on the cross. They said, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” He could have. He could have avoided the cross altogether. When He was arrested, Peter pulled out a sword to fight, but Jesus told him to put it away. Then He said, “Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” He could have avoided the cross, but, He said to Peter, “How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?” God had a plan, but Peter didn’t see it. Even when God announces His plans, people often don’t see it. In John chapter 2, while Jesus was at the huge temple in Jerusalem, some leaders asked Him for a sign, so He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The leaders were like, “What? It took 46 years to build this temple, and you’re going to raise it up in three days?” But Jesus wasn’t talking about that building. He was talking about His own body being raised up in three days after the crucifixion. But they didn’t get it. Even when Jesus did announce the plan, they didn’t get it. But they did use His words against Him. When He was on trial, Matthew 26 says, “…two false witnesses came forward and said, ‘This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’” They used these same words against Him while He was on the cross, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” But you know what? I think we do the same thing today. We lack understanding. We don’t see God’s plan, so we say dumb things like, “If You are really God, You’ve got to do thus and so.” And it doesn’t seem all that unreasonable. To tell Jesus to come off the cross if He’s the Son of God is not all that unreasonable. But it is ignorant of God’s plans. Much of the time we are ignorant of God’s plans, and that’s where this word “trust” comes in. When Jesus told Peter to put his sword away, He was saying “trust Me.” When Jesus told Peter to go back in the water and let down the nets, even though Peter had fished all night and caught nothing, Jesus was saying “trust Me.” And Peter did trust Him. At one point, when a bunch of fair-weather followers left Jesus, He turned and said to His disciples, “Do you want to leave, too?” Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter didn’t know what all was going on, but he did trust Jesus. So what about us? We also don’t understand what all is going on, but will we trust Jesus? God has plans, and He’s never been in the habit of revealing them in detail. But there is something that God is very much in the habit of: asking us to trust Him. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding…” Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.” I don’t want to be one who says, “IF You are the Son of God, here’s what You have to do…” Instead, I want to be one who says, “You ARE the Son of God. And even though I don’t understand what all is going on, I put my full faith and trust in You.” Amen. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Take Every Thought Captive 4:01

۴ years پیش4:01

4:01

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) There are some things we shouldn’t think about. That almost sounds un-American, like, “What about my freedom, man?” But our thoughts, like most everything, if left to themselves, will just meander downward. I love the imagery of “take every thought captive.” It means you don’t let your thoughts go anywhere they please. Captives don’t get that luxury. The idea comes from Second Corinthians 10:5 where it talks about taking every thought captive and bringing it into the obedience of Christ. So how do we take every thought captive? The Bible has some guidelines. Let’s start with Philippians 4:8, “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.” That knocks out a bunch of the stuff we see online, and a bunch of stuff we hear in gossip. We shouldn’t think about them because they aren’t excellent or praiseworthy. It also knocks out a whole category of self-talk, because this also applies to our thoughts about ourselves. Some people are in a horrible rut of thinking awful things about themselves, yet Philippians 4:8 says to think on the good things, and Second Corinthians 10:5 wants us to bring all the negative self-talk into the obedience of Christ, who loves us and wants the best for us. So I recommend memorizing Philippians 4:8 and bringing all of our thoughts captive into that wonderful, biblical, positive corral. Here’s another biblical guideline for taking every thought captive: Philippians 3:13. It says to forget what is behind. We are to forget the past and press on toward the future that God has for us. That knocks out a whole category of thinking that some people never get beyond…those things in the past. Some people can’t get past that wrong that was done to them, and some people can’t get past that victory way back when, so they end up stuck in the past. But Philippians 3:13 says to forget what is in the past. We don’t think about the things in the past. Instead we press on toward what God is doing now and in the future. Along this same line is our next guideline found in First Corinthians 13:5. It says that love keeps no record of wrongs. That’s another whole category of thinking that we need to take captive for Christ: all the wrongs that were ever done to us. We need to stop thinking about them. And if they come to our mind, we don’t dwell on them. We take them captive and submit them to Christ who wants us to love our enemies, which is nearly impossible to do as long as we are thinking about how they did us wrong. Colossians 3:2 tells us to set our minds on things above, on heavenly things, Godly things, holy things. We take our thoughts captive and train them to think on eternal things, like loving God and loving people, things like God’s Word and God’s plans. I’ve been talking about my motto of living “Lean and Clean for the King,” and this is a subcategory of that: keeping our thoughts lean and clean by taking every thought captive for Christ and by not thinking about a bunch of things that don’t do any good anyway. So, if we’re ready to go to the next level, this is one thing we’re going to have to do: take every thought captive. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Lean & Clean for the King 3:03

۴ years پیش3:03

3:03

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Lean and clean for the King. That’s my personal motto. What does it mean? It means I want to cut the fat, the dirt, even the dust from my life so I can operate lean and clean for the King, by which I mean King Jesus, the King of Kings. A serious athlete puts his body in peak condition. It means cutting some things from his life. Serious actors go to great lengths to prepare for certain roles. It means cutting some things from their life. And serious Christians will cut some things from their life to become all that God wants them to be. I want to cut the fat from my body so it can be a fully functioning vessel. I want to cut the fat from my schedule so that my time is used wisely. I want to cut the fat from my thinking, taking every thought captive, and stopping my brain from running off in every direction. “But Doug, that sounds like work. I thought we were saved by grace, not by works.” Ephesians 2:8-9 literally says that. We are saved by grace…but then what? But then keep reading. It says we are saved BY grace…FOR good works. What are we supposed to be doing, now that we are saved by grace? Good works! And if we want to be great at doing good works, we have to cut the fat, get in shape, and get prepared to run the race. “But Doug, what about my liberty in Jesus?” Yes, thank God, we have liberty in Jesus! Now look at Galatians 5:13, “…ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Yes, we have liberty, but we don’t sit back on our fat liberty and indulge the flesh. That’s stupid. It’s wasteful. It’s selfish. We have been created for good works. We have been called to love and serve one another. That is the race. It’s the high calling. It’s the most fulfilling. It’s what we were made to do from the foundation of the world. And to do it, we need to get in shape for it. We need to cut the extraneous, the bloated, the unruly, the undisciplined parts of our life and bring it all under submission, in humility, through His grace, and for His glory. And for me, I sum up the whole process in this one little phrase. Lean and clean for the King. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Why Did Christians Threaten John Lennon? 3:31

۴ years پیش3:31

3:31

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Why did Christians threaten John Lennon? He was a 20-something year old pop star for the Beatles in the 1960’s when he made an offhanded comment about Jesus. It stirred up the ire of many Christians, even to the point of John Lennon getting threats, even death threats. Why would Christians threaten John Lennon? Maybe they were thinking, “Who does he think he is, making cracks about our Lord and Savior? We can’t let him get away with it.” Interestingly, we find a similar story in the Bible. In Luke chapter 9, Jesus and His disciples were on their way to Jerusalem, and they were going through various towns. Verse 52 says, “…and as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans...” So the disciples enter this Samaritan village and guess what happens. They reject Him. They don’t want Jesus coming to their town. I can see why the disciples would be angry. Jesus does nothing but good everywhere He goes, and you reject Him? How dare you! And that’s what some Christians were saying to John Lennon in the 60’s. How dare you! Back to Luke chapter 9, the disciples James and John are so angry that they go up to Jesus and say, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” Wow. That’s not just a little threat on a single perpetrator. That’s a threat to wipe out a whole town. And Jesus responds accordingly. He turns on them and rebukes them and says, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” That’s a lesson we all need to learn. What do we do when someone speaks badly about Jesus, or about the faith, or the Bible, or the church? We love them. We speak the truth in love to them. We treat them honorably as humans made in God’s image. We shine the light and hope and peace of Jesus. And one thing we don’t do is threaten them, because Jesus did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them. Did all the threats on John Lennon lead anywhere close to saving him? Do any threats we might make today lead anyone anywhere close to salvation? The goals of Jesus are redemption, salvation, freedom, hope, and a right relationship with God. And these do not come from threats. So how did the story in Luke chapter 9 end? Verse 56 simply says, “And they went to another village.” And that’s the lesson for us. If someone is speaking ill of Jesus, we don’t threaten them. We don’t get all worked up about it. Jesus didn’t. What He did get worked up about was His own followers making threats against those who reject Him. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is what should be shining through all of God’s people out to everyone, even to celebrities who make less than positive comments about Jesus. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
What Do You Do Best? 4:01

۴ years پیش4:01

4:01

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) What do you do best? Do it for God. Those things you are good at, even if they don’t seem to be “churchy,” offer them up to God as an offering. “Lord, I offer this up to You. I love You so much, and I’m so grateful for everything.” I’m not talking about anything sinful, of course, but I am talking about the host of things that people are good at besides preaching or teaching or singing or whatever else is on the short list of obvious Christian ministries. What if you are good at computer coding? What if you’re good at auto mechanics? What if you’re good at sewing? What are you good at? Do it for God. First Corinthians 10:31 says whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Colossians 3:17 says whatever you do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father. Colossians 3:23 says whatever we do, we should do it with all of our heart, and do it for the Lord. Romans 12:11 says never be lazy, never be lacking in zeal, work hard, keep your spiritual fervor, and serve the Lord enthusiastically. So what do you do best? Do it for God. Are you gifted in certain ways? You’re better at some things than others, right? Where did those aptitudes come from? James 1:17 says that every good and perfect gift comes from our Father in heaven. If you have a good gift, God gave it to you, and the best thing to do is to offer it back to Him as an offering, as a sacrifice of praise, using it for His glory, growing it for His glory, blessing other people with it, for His glory. That seems obvious with the more churchy gifts, but it’s less obvious with the rest. When my kids were in a Christian elementary school, the parents all pitched in, and one job I took was cleaning the bathrooms every Tuesday and Thursday night. I figured it was a disgusting job (it was) and that one gift God had given me was that I don’t mind doing disgusting jobs. So I did it, I did it well, and I offered it up to God as an offering. I prayed for the kids and the school while I cleaned. And I especially remember one night when God’s presence just overwhelmed me. I was cleaning a toilet, and tears of joy rolled down my face. I felt so full in my soul. God did it, and I think He did it because I was offering my best to Him, even in a humble, non-church situation. What do you do best? Do it for God. Offer it up to Him as a sacrifice of praise. Busy with small children, changing diapers, cleaning up messes, doing laundry? Do your best. Do it as unto the Lord. Do it for Him and watch Him fill your soul. If you don’t know what you do best, ask around. Ask your family, your friends, anyone who knows you, and soon enough you’ll get the picture. Then take that and grow it, work it, expand it, make it great, and all the while offer it up to Him, back to Him, with thanksgiving and praise. So I’ll leave you with this question to ponder, one more time. What do you do best? Then do it…for God. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Christians Should Stop Saying This 3:10

۴ years پیش3:10

3:10

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Cringey statements. We’ve all made them. We’ve all heard them. Cringey statements are those things we say that make other people cringe, and they often make US cringe when we think about them later. Here is a statement I hear Christians say sometimes. “I love them…but I don’t like them.” I get the point. You’re talking about a person who says or does things you don’t like, but as a Christian, we’re supposed to love them, so what do we say? “I love them, but I don’t like them.” But you know what? No one is feeling the love here. “You love me, but you don’t like me?” I’m not feeling it. “Well Doug, how can I like someone who is so unlikeable?” Look. As Christians we don’t divide the world into the likeable and the unlikeable. That would be terrible. God wants us to love people, all people, every single person. We can walk down the street and in our mind say, “I love that guy and that guy and that guy. I love her and her and her…all of them…likeable and unlikeable…agreeable and disagreeable…every single person.” That is God’s calling and His desire for us…to love one another, to love our neighbor, to even love our enemy. Love is the natural state for God’s people, but we pile on so much baggage that it almost becomes unrecognizable. Like when we talk about “liking” someone. This isn’t the first grade playground. “I don’t like Joey because he’s mean.” As grown up Christians, we’re supposed to love people, even mean people, and God has put inside of us all the love in the universe in the form of His Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is love. So do we just ignore all the mean things people do? No, but we need to separate their actions from their being. We can dislike, even hate their actions. And yes, there comes a time when we can’t be around someone, when they are so corrupt that they will suck us into their vortex if we get too close. So we abhor those actions, but the person is someone made in the image of God, whom God loves, whom Jesus died for, and the Holy Spirit inside of us wants to love them through us. So we stop making the cringey statement, “I love them, but I don’t like them.” No one’s feeling it. If there’s any love there at all, it is nearly unrecognizable. But here is something we can say instead, and it really is a powerful, biblical, positive and loving statement. Instead of saying, “I love you, but I don’t like you,” we can say this. “I love you, and I want God’s best for you.” May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
What Am I Denying Myself? 2:31

۴ years پیش2:31

2:31

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Do you want to be a follower of Jesus? If so, He gives a prerequisite. Jesus said if we want to follow Him, we must deny ourselves. So the question is, what am I denying myself? It’s almost un-American to deny ourselves anything. King Solomon denied himself nothing at all, and it wrecked his kingdom. I approach this in a childlike way. I just say, “God, I am denying myself this because I’m so hungry for You.” Deny myself what? It’s been many things over the years, and it’s always something. Yesterday a friend said, “Would you like a muffin? Or are you fasting muffins now? I can’t keep track of what you are fasting.” Well, right now I’m fasting candy and cookies and frozen dairy treats. I’ve actually been fasting candy and cookies for three years now. I pray, “Father, I’m denying myself these things that are pleasant in this world because I’m so hungry for the things of the Kingdom of God.” I’m currently fasting all beverages except what I call the front-line soldier beverages of water and black coffee. I pray, “Father, I’m fasting all drinks besides water and black coffee because I’m so thirsty for You. As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after Thee.” I don’t really know exactly what Jesus meant when He said, “Deny yourself,” but I’m pretty sure that if I’m denying myself nothing, I’m not meeting the standard. So like I said, I approach it like a child. I just pick some things and deny them to myself. I fast from them. I do it out of a heart and a passion to follow Jesus. He is the Good Shepherd. I want to be a sheep that follows closely. I’m desperately hungry for that, to follow as closely as I possibly can. And He said that if I want to follow Him, then I must deny myself, so that is what I’m doing, in my own humble, child-like, sheep-like way. And I hope you consider doing the same. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Honor All People 3:19

۴ years پیش3:19

3:19

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) So you want to have a radio program. We have a few rules, and here’s one of them: no bashing on other people. Yes, you can talk about what is true. You can talk about what is being done wrong. You can even talk about people who are doing wrong, but the rule stands: no bashing on other people. * “But Doug, what about their politics? What about their lifestyle? What about their bad doctrine? What about their evil ways, their deceptions, their cunning, conniving, crafty, criminal lives?” I don’t care what they’ve done. I don’t care what they’ve said or what they’re promoting. If they are out of bounds you can point that out, but you don’t trash them in the process. Why not? Where does that come from? Is it even possible? In First Peter chapter 2 verse 17 we encounter three of the most powerful words you will ever read in all of the Scriptures. It says, “Honor all people…” Honor all people. Now why would that be in the Bible when there are clearly people and actions and ideas that are dishonorable? It’s because God, as always, is setting for us the very highest standard. Do you want to live at the very highest standard? Are you ready to rise above the fray, to live at a new level in your walk with God? Then honor all people. And what about their dishonorable attributes? Do we ignore them? Skip over them? Make light of them? Of course not, but we approach every single person on the planet with honor. Why? Because they are people, creations of God, created in His image, and thus they are worthy of honor. Listen. Every single human being is an image bearer of God, and that alone makes them worthy of honor. And then to whatever degree each of us is living outside of God’s boundaries of what is truly honorable, then that is where God’s redemption must come in and do its work. And if we really want to open the door for the good news, the glad tidings of God’s redemption through Jesus Christ, we have to realize that it won’t happen by bashing on people. Romans 2:4 says that it’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. Is there anyone on the planet whom you disrespect, even despise, and you would rejoice at their downfall? Then stop it. There’s a better way. There’s a higher way. Are you ready to live at the very highest level of Christianity? Then here’s the thing to do, and it’s found in these three simple words in First Peter chapter 2 verse 17. Honor all people. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple. * We speak the truth in love. We let our speech always be with grace, that it may impart grace to the hearers. One side note: Peter wrote this at the time when Nero was living his abominable life as the emperor of Rome, and that included doing terrible things to Christians, and yet the last three words of that same verse say, “…honor the king.” Wow.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Seed-Bearing Fruit 4:00

۴ years پیش4:00

4:00

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Here is a Bible phrase that I am fascinated with: seed-bearing fruit. We take it for granted, but it is one of the most remarkable things in all of God’s creation: seed-bearing fruit. You bite into a delicious apple and what do you find? Apple seeds! So the apple tree not only produces fruit that tastes good and smells good and looks good and is good for us to eat. It produces seeds inside the fruit that will grow more apples. It is astounding! And God gets all the glory. Except from some people who give all the credit to…evolution. I was reading a website article designed for children and proclaiming their “academic rigor.” The author had the academic pedigree, and was answering a question from six-year-old Alice, “Where did the seed first come from?” The answer to Alice was, “Seeds came together bit-by-bit over a really long time, as plants evolved.” Now if you believe in evolution like this, then you already take this for granted without a second thought. Seeds just developed as plants worked out better ways to replicate themselves over millions of years. End of discussion. Oh, and not just one plant came up with the idea of a seed. This same “evolution” occurred in this plant and that plant and plant after plant…aaaalmost like there was a design to it. Well, that’s because there was a design to it, and a Designer. God did it, and I thank Him and glorify Him for His amazing creation! Genesis 1:11-12 says, “Then God said, ‘Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.’ And that is what happened. The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.” (NLT) My reaction to that is like what it says in Psalm 52:9, “I will praise Thee forever, because Thou hast done it…” So like I said, I love this phrase “seed-bearing fruit.” And that applies to our spiritual life. Jesus said in John 15:8, “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit…” Verse 16 says “…that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…” So my prayer is that my life will bear good eternal fruit, and then I add this to my prayer, “Lord, I want to bear good seed-bearing fruit.” See, it’s one thing to produce fruit, and it’s another thing to produce seed-bearing fruit. For example, seedless grapes. Sure, the grapes are delicious, but that’s the end of the line. But seed-bearing grapes, that’s another story. They can produce generations of good fruit. And that’s what I want for my life. I want to bear good fruit, and I want it to be seed-bearing fruit, the kind that doesn’t end with me, but will continue producing good fruit for generations to come. “Lord, please let me bear good, eternal, seed-bearing fruit, in Jesus’ name I pray.” Amen. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
The Same Spot Every Day for a Year 2:12

۴ years پیش2:12

2:12

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) As I write this, I am fresh off of watching the documentary called My Octopus Teacher. It’s about a man who came across a small octopus in the waters off of South Africa. The octopus caught his interest, and even seemed, for an octopus anyway, somewhat friendly. So he made a decision. What would happen if he came back to that same spot every day for a year? Could he win the trust of an octopus? What would he learn and discover in the process? So he did it, and filmed it, and now it’s a popular documentary. But it got me thinking about our relationship with God. God also is very mysterious and different, full of wonders. What would happen if we decided to go meet with God in the same spot every day for a year? I mean, a man did it for an octopus, one of God’s incredible creations, surely we could do it for the Creator Himself, right? Hebrews 11:6 says that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. James 4:8 says that when we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. Isaiah 55:6 tells us to seek the Lord while He may be found. And listen closely to Psalm 14:2. It says that the Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if anyone is seeking Him. Am I seeking Him? Are you? This man sought to form a relationship with an octopus by going to the same spot every day for a year and seeing what would happen. What if we sought to form a relationship with God by going to meet Him in the same spot every day for a year? One thing I know for sure. If we commit ourselves to draw near to God like that…He will draw near to us. And the results will be amazing. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Glad Tidings of the Kingdom 4:31

۴ years پیش4:31

4:31

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Here is one of my all-time favorite Bible verses, and it’s probably not one you would think of. Actually, it’s probably one you would skip over in a rush to get to something more “meaty.” If my wife and I watch a movie, I often tell her to enjoy the opening shots, even while the credits are rolling, because these are often some of the most beautiful camera shots in the whole world. A lot of times it’s panoramic, flying over mountains or over a city, or it’s fascinating views of nature or of people all over the world. And they are almost always happy! Even if the movie takes a darker turn, it usually starts out happy and joyful. And that brings us to the opening scene in Luke chapter 8. In verse one it says that Jesus went through “every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.” I can hear the children shouting for joy! I can see the crowds gathering with excitement. Someone begins making music. Someone is clapping. Someone has a tambourine. Some don’t even know what’s going on, but they get excited, too, because enthusiasm is contagious! And at the center of it all is Jesus. Jesus is coming! And He’s not alone. Luke 8 says the twelve are with Him, His disciples, and it’s not just the crusty fishermen, but women are with Him as well, and some prominent women at that. I mean, it’s basically a fun, happy, exciting road show out on tour, and they are coming to your town! For some reason I hear Jesus quieting the crowd at some point, calling to them, “Friends! Friends! I have some good news!” And the crowd settles in, and Luke 8:1 says that Jesus preaches and brings them the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. But then, there seems to be a gap. I mean, the Son of God, the Christ, the Anointed One is speaking and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God…what exactly did He say? Oh, I want to know what He said! What were these glad tidings of the kingdom? Fortunately we have many of the words of Jesus recorded in the Bible, and we can glean from them the glad tidings of the kingdom. Truly one of the most powerful glad tidings of the kingdom is that it is not based on money or class or lineage. The world has always had rich people and entitled people, but Jesus said, “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” What? That’s not how the world works. But guess what? That’s how the kingdom works! Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Those are glad tidings! No matter your class, your race, your income, your education, your gender, your age, or even your appearance…the kingdom of God is for you! Another glad tiding of the kingdom is that it is a kingdom of love. Jesus taught us that God loves us! And He taught us that we should love one another. In Luke 6:35 Jesus said, “…love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind...” Another glad tiding of the kingdom is forgiveness. God offers us forgiveness, and He calls us to forgive others. Forgiveness is a hallmark of the kingdom of God. In the Bible we read over and over again, Jesus saying these words, “Your sins are forgiven.” Now those are glad tidings! Another thing Jesus said was things like, “Go in peace,” and, “Peace be with you.” In John 16:33 Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace.” Luke 1:79 says, “…to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Living at peace with God and peace with each other, this is a cornerstone of the kingdom! Hope. Joy. Kindness. Gentleness. Patience. Faithfulness. I could go on and on, but I encourage you to open the Bible for yourself. Read those red words of Jesus, and read them for what they were: the glad tidings of the kingdom of God! May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
More Integrity Means More Value 4:14

۴ years پیش4:14

4:14

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) I have a favorite pair of boots. Unfortunately they now have a crack in the bottom. Fortunately I can still wear them, just not in the rain. They still look nice, but they won’t keep my feet dry. These boots have lost some integrity, and so they have lost some of their value to me. I have a favorite pair of tennis shoes, and I do mean tennis shoes. I wear them to play tennis. But now the sole is coming loose, which is not good for making sharp lateral moves on a tennis court. I still wear them…when washing the car. Those shoes have lost some of their integrity, and so they have lost some of their value. I have a favorite belt. It was my favorite dress belt, nice and black with a sharp silver buckle. I thought it was a high value, but then it started looking bad. Oh, it still holds pants up, but it’s supposed to be a dress belt. It has to look good, and it no longer does. It has lost some of its integrity, and so it has lost some of its value. I still wear it…when working in the yard. Integrity means something is sound. It is whole. It is complete. It is unimpaired. It is not corrupted. When you buy a house, you want a house with as much integrity as possible. And you want a realtor with as much integrity as possible. More integrity means more value. If I want to be a more valuable person, then I need to be a person of integrity, without corruption. Integrity in a person means being honest, with strong moral principles, with moral uprightness. They are morally consistent, without moral corruption. A man or woman of integrity has more value. They can do more. They can be trusted with more. Luke 16:10 says, “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.” Now listen to this little revelation. Who is the boss? Who controls the room? Who is the actual leader in any given situation? It’s going to be the person with the most moral authority, and moral authority is built on integrity. Jesus had the most moral authority of anyone who ever walked the earth. He was also of the highest value who did the most good. Do you want to raise your value…in the marketplace? In the community? In your family? Then raise your level of integrity, because more integrity means more value. Proverbs 10:9 says, “He who walks in integrity walks securely…” Proverbs 11:3 says, “The integrity of the upright will guide them, But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.” Proverbs 19:1 says it’s better to be poor and live with integrity than the alternative. Proverbs 20:7 says, “The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him.” Are you ready to take your life to the next level? Then you can no longer be the boot with the crack in it. You can no longer be the slip shod shoe. You can’t be the belt that lets its beauty slip away. It’s time to raise the bar of our integrity, to live at the highest moral level, and to set aside all the compromises that make us weaker. If we want to be more valuable, then we must have more integrity. And then we can walk in the full moral authority that Jesus wants us to. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
The Biggest Mistake in the Church Today 6:22

۴ years پیش6:22

6:22

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) The title of this is The Biggest Mistake in the Church Today. I know, it is impossible to know the exact biggest mistake in the church today, apart from divine revelation, and it probably changes minute by minute anyway. But it is such a huge mistake, I’m calling it the biggest mistake in the church today, and here it is. It’s when we try to make people be like us instead of unleashing them to become the people that God has designed them to be. Philippians 1:6 says that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it. The church’s mission is to help people discover what good work God is doing in them, and help them become all that God wants them to be. Every Christian believer is a part of the body of Christ. We are each a body part, a DIFFERENT body part. We have various giftings and callings, talents and personalities, and a huge range of life experiences. God is calling each and every one of us to fulfill our part in the body of Christ. That is the goal for each and every believer, and the goal of the church is to help each and every person come to God, walk with Him daily, and fulfill their part in the body. What sometimes happens, though, is that the church doesn’t identify each and every individual as a separate and special part of the body. Instead, we take the easy and common route of lumping everyone together and expecting everyone to become more like us. Let me say it another way. If I’m a “hand” in the body of Christ, then I look at you and expect you to be more like a hand. But what if you’re a foot? It’s a terrible mistake to try to make a foot operate like a hand. It’s going to be a terrible experience for everyone involved. Instead, I should try to help you discover God’s callings and giftings in your life, and help you grow into the full person and part in the body of Christ that God has designed you to be. I’m not talking about compromising doctrine or morality. I’m talking about expecting people to be more like me, instead of being more like God is calling them to be. For example, and I’ve seen this so many times in the church, extroverts want introverts to become extroverts. They sometimes almost demand a personality shift, as if you don’t even know God, you don’t even love God if you don’t spring forth and become a boisterous extrovert. “Oh, you don’t want to take the mic and publicly testify about the goodness of God? You must not even love God.” Do you feel the uncomfortable, unsubtle pressure? It is quite possible that the person in your church who loves God the most is the person who quietly adores the King in their heart. The prayer warriors think everyone should spend more and more time in prayer. The hand-lifting praisers think everyone should be a hand-lifting praiser, and once you get that down, you need to go do it at the altar, because hand-lifting praise back in the pew is for the lukewarm, you know. The Bible scholars think everyone must become a Bible scholar. The Bible memorizers are like, “What? You don’t memorize the Holy Scriptures? What are you even doing with your brain?” Then there are the holy huggers who can’t fathom why a person might not want to be hugged. The homeless outreach people and the prison ministers just know you are missing God if you are not one of them. Here's one I’ve seen many times: extroverts with a passion for evangelism heaping criticism on anyone who isn’t ready to run out into the streets and shout the gospel. They leave zero room for someone to have a different part in the body of Christ. “No, you must be like me if you really love Jesus, if you’re even saved at all.” And then, even worse, I’ve seen this. The extrovert with a passion for evangelism STOPS EVANGELIZING, because hey, “others aren’t rushing out with me, so why should I even bother?” Christian! Stop comparing. Stop looking at others and trying to make them be like you. Listen to this account from the Bible. It involves the apostle Peter, who was perfectly willing to speak his mind, so we can get some good insights from him and his experiences. In John 21, the risen Jesus is telling Peter how Peter is going to die, and yes, it was uncomfortable. Then instead of soaking in that information, quietly going away and pondering it, Peter suddenly points out his fellow apostle John, and says something like, “Oh, so that’s my bleak future? What about John?” Jesus answered with these patient but powerful words, “What is that to you? You follow Me.” If you ever looked around at other believers and wanted to compare their life or calling to your life or calling, I believe Jesus would say to you today, “What is that to you? You follow Me.” We each have our own part in the body of Christ. Yes, we are one body, operating in unity, with Christ as the head, but we each have a different part in the body, with different callings and giftings and personality types and backgrounds. The church’s job is to help each individual draw near to God and discover and walk in their unique callings and giftings and thus fulfill their part in the body of Christ. But the big mistake we often make is, instead of helping each individual fulfill their part in the body, we lump everyone together and want them to be like me, act like me, respond to God like I do, behave in a church service like I do…and it’s not going to happen. It’s only going to drive people away. And suddenly I’m going to look up one day and realize that the only people left in church are people just like me. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple. (For more information on the body, First Corinthians 12 is a great place to start, plus Ephesians 4:15-16.)…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
God Is a Rewarder 1:31

۴ years پیش1:31

1:31

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. That’s what it says in Hebrews 11:6. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Are we diligently seeking God? It’s not something we do once, or once a year, or once a week. Diligently is how Michael Jordan sought to win basketball games. Diligently is how Arnold Schwarzenegger sought to win Mr. Universe. Diligently is how hungry people seek food. Are we hungry for God? If we are, we will diligently seek Him, and the good news is that when we do, God will reward us. God is a rewarder. Jesus said that when we PRAY our Father will reward us. (Matt. 6) Jesus said that when we FAST our Father will reward us. (Matt. 6) Ephesians 6:8 says that God will reward us for “whatever good we do.” Our job is to diligently seek Him. Then watch for it. Suddenly, there it is. Over and over again, there it is. God’s rewards. And you know what? We don’t have to seek Him perfectly. We just have to seek Him diligently. Because God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. May God bless you today! I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
My 2021 Manifesto 3:01

۴ years پیش3:01

3:01

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “God, what do You want me to do this year? Do You want me to do something different? Something new? Is there a new focus or goal or plan?” That was my prayer coming into the new year, and nothing new really came to mind. Meanwhile, I’ve been praying through various books of the Bible. What does that look like? Here’s how I do it. I read until something pops, until something jumps off the page, until something makes me go, “Ooo, that’s good.” Then I underline it and turn it into a prayer. For example, the last thing I underlined at the end of last year was Second Corinthians 6:16 where it says, “Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them…” What jumped out to me in that verse is the phrase, “I will…walk in them.” I know about God living in us, but walking in us? I like it. It’s an action word. I want God to walk in me, to use me to make a difference. So I underline that verse and turn it into a prayer, “Lord, please walk in me.” Then came my first prayer time of the new year and I came across this verse in Second Corinthians 7:13. Paul is commending the Corinthians because they had greatly blessed his friend Titus. It says, “…his spirit was refreshed by you all.” Ooo, that’s good. Underline it. His spirit was refreshed by you all. Turn it into a prayer. “Lord, please use me to refresh the spirit of everyone I come in contact with.” The problem is, I can’t do that. I’m not good enough. I’m not smart enough. I’m not on the ball enough to even know how to refresh everyone’s spirit. “God, I need you to walk in me, to work through me so that I can actually do this, refresh everyone’s spirit I come in contact with.” And suddenly it hit me. That is my something new for the new year. That is my 2021 manifesto. “Lord, please walk in me, and use me to refresh the spirit of everyone I come in contact with.” And just like that, I have a new year’s resolution, and I think it came straight from God. I wrote it down. I shared it with others. I hung it up so I would see it every day. I even made little pieces of paper so I can pass it out to others. “Lord, please walk in me, and use me to refresh the spirit of everyone I come in contact with.” In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. May your spirit be refreshed today! I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Wicked and Lazy or Holy and Hard Working 2:59

۵ years پیش2:59

2:59

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Are you wicked and lazy, or holy and hard working? I’m getting this from Jesus’ parable of the talents. Two guys worked hard and increased what they had been given, but that one guy, he hid the master’s money in the back yard. He didn’t lose it. He just didn’t grow it. He didn’t increase what he had been given. Then the master returns and what’s he looking for? Increase! He wants to see improvement. He wants to see growth. And what does he say when he doesn’t find improvement and growth? He turns on that man and in very strong language he says, “You wicked and lazy servant.” Wow. He didn’t soft pedal it. He didn’t let him down gently. He tore him up. Why? Because time had been wasted. Opportunity…wasted. God is not into waste. He is into growth. He has given us gifts. We have time. We have talents. We have opportunities. And we have an assignment. We have a requirement. Our requirement is to grow what we have been given. I highly recommend that you take this to the Lord in prayer. “God, what have I been given? How should I grow it?” This is a sobering time. This needs to be taken seriously. In the parable of the talents, two men took it seriously, and things turned out well for them. One of them, and I’m not going to say he didn’t take it seriously. He wasn’t a total clown. The master didn’t call him a clown. He called him “wicked and lazy.” Why was he wicked and lazy? Because he was entrusted with something and he didn’t grow it. He didn’t improve it. That is the requirement. Are you wondering what you are supposed to be doing with your life? You are supposed to take what you have and grow it, improve it, make it better. It’s time to get to work. You sure don’t want to receive the wrath of the master. And you certainly don’t want to hear the words, “You wicked and lazy servant.” Instead of being wicked and lazy, I want to be holy and hard working. “Father God, please help each and every one of us become the holy and hard working people You want us to be, not wasting any of the time or talents or opportunities You’ve blessed us with, but investing, improving and growing, from this day forward, for the glory of God, for the blessing of Your people, and for the growth of Your kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray…” Amen. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple. (Matthew 25:14-30)…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
My Analysis of Baby Shark 5:26

۵ years پیش5:26

5:26

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) Do you know what is the all time most played video on YouTube? It’s been played over 7 billion times. It’s called Baby Shark Dance. That’s right. It’s a very simple and very catchy song for little kids, and it is now the most played video in YouTube history. I have a granddaughter who talks about it, but I had never seen it. I was curious, in this day and age, what kind of weirdness they might be pushing into the impressionable minds of the youth. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised, skipping over the fact that it’s about man-eating sharks. It starts out simple enough, singing “Baby Shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo.” I like that because kids and people in general have a soft spot in their heart for babies. People can become jaded over time, but this song has planted the seed seven billion times about the cuteness and happiness of babies. It’s new life! Then it says, “Mommy Shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo.” I like that because a child should be close to its mother, with all those loving bonds, and all the cuddly time and sweet words. Babies need to be with their mommy. Next it says, “Daddy Shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo.” I’m so glad that daddy made it into the most popular video of all time on YouTube. I’m glad daddy is in the picture. Daddy is with the family, with Mommy and with Baby, the way it’s supposed to be, the way God designed it to be. And Daddy has a big strong voice, a commanding presence. Daddy is here and it’s time to pay attention. Next it says...what do you think it says? It says, “Grandma Shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo.” I love that! I’m married to a grandma and we have 13 grandchildren. My wife is so in love with her grandchildren. She has such a mighty bond with them, and they love her completely. It is a wonder to behold. Grandmas are so important, and I was excited to see them make the list on the world’s most popular YouTube video. Next up is “Grandpa Shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo.” Man, that says so much. Grandma and Grandpa, still together, still involved in the family, still an important part of the close-knit family structure. It is the extended family providing a powerful foundation for the following generations to build on. It all sounds traditional, doesn’t it? In a world today that wants to throw out tradition like some old stale tuna, it’s refreshing to see something so popular that in the most simple way is promoting a solid family structure into the minds of the young. The world will be a vastly better place if they can just hold onto that ideal. Next the song takes a turn with the lyrics, “Let’s go hunt, doo doo doo doo doo doo.” Soooooooooo many videos for kids talk about play and fantasy and fun, and that’s fine, but I’m so glad this most popular song talks about work. There’s work to be done. It’s time to hunt. You want to eat? We’ve got to work. And we’ll all work together as a team to provide for and support one another as a family. It’s time to hunt. The song then takes another turn saying, “Run away, doo doo doo doo doo doo.” Why would I like that? Because you know what? There is a time to run away. There are things in life we should run away from. There are dangerous people, dangerous places, dangerous situations and even dangerous thoughts. A big part of life is knowing when to run away. And finally the song says, “Safe at last, doo doo doo doo doo doo.” What an adventure! Life is an adventure! And there is a safe place to run to. There’s Mommy and Daddy. There’s Grandma and Grandpa. There’s home and safety and security, inside the fold of the family. You may venture outside to go on the hunt, but you always end up back home, safe and sound, surrounded by your loved ones. Okay, yes, it’s a silly song for kids, and it has sharks, and I’m reading a lot into it, but like I said, in this day and age with so many strange notions being force fed into the minds of the young, I know the power of a seed, the power of a tiny thought repeated hundreds of times. And the seeds of this most popular video in YouTube history are solid: Baby, Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, Family, Work, Danger, Safety. If you get those things right, you’re gonna have a pretty good life. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Stay in Your Gap 3:26

۵ years پیش3:26

3:26

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) As I write this in October 2020, Florida State football fans are licking their wounds once again, this time after being thrashed by Louisville. Five times in the first half alone, Louisville busted open huge plays against Florida State’s defense. After the game senior linebacker Emmett Rice was talking about the Florida State defense. He said, “We just weren’t doing our jobs. Like eight of the eleven would do their jobs and the big play would happen. If all eleven did their jobs, those big plays would not happen.” He said, “You’ve got to do what the defense is assigned to do. If you’ve got to stay in your gap, stay in your gap. You can’t be out there freestyling.” That’s true for the FSU defense, and wow, it is so true for the body of Christ. I have said it a hundred times and I’ll keep saying it. Each of us must fulfill our part in the body of Christ. God has gifted us and called us, each one of us, to particular things. We need to diligently seek Him, spend time with Him and learn from Him so that we can each fulfill our Kingdom assignment. As Emmett Rice said, we can’t be out there freestyling. When we do, we leave gaps, and that’s a huge problem. If you make your life’s decisions based on worldly values rather than your Kingdom assignment, you are freestyling and you are leaving gaps. Think of God as the Coach. He sees the big picture. He is drawing up the perfect game plan, and He assigns each player their part. And then some players start freestyling, leaving their assignment to do something else, and leaving gaps where they were supposed to be. Have you ever looked at the church and felt like the game plan wasn’t working? Well, here is a huge reason: too many players not fulfilling their assignments. My friend Rodney has a great story. His church was going through some difficulties, and some people were leaving. He thought about leaving that church, too, and he prayed about it. And God laid it on him in very clear language, “Do not abandon your post.” Rodney’s response was the correct response. He simply said, “Yes, Sir.” So Rodney stayed at his post, filling the assigned gap instead of freestyling. I’m not saying everyone has to stay where they are forever. I’m saying we all need to take our assignments from the Coach, the real living God who is building His church. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, so what should we do? How can we discern our assignment? Seek Him. Diligently seek Him. Listen and He will let us know, with authority and peace and conviction, what we need to do to fulfill our part in the body of Christ. And once we have our assignment, we stay in that gap until the Coach gives us another assignment. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Wisdom Is Justified by All Her Children 3:20

۵ years پیش3:20

3:20

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) Jesus made many profound statements, and here’s one He just kind of tosses out there, like a free bonus. In Luke 7:35, Jesus said, “...wisdom is justified by all her children.” What does that mean? It means wisdom proves itself by the long term results. People can SAY anything, but how do we know if it’s wise? Jesus gives us the litmus test. Wisdom is justified by all her children. In other words, what are the long term results? If the long term results are good, it was wise. In the moment it sounds like fun when someone says, “Eat, drink and be merry!” Let’s do it all day. Every day! Why work? Why go to school? Why do anything hard at all? But wisdom is justified by all her children. Look at the long term results for people who never go to work, never go to school, never do anything hard. Years ago I met a young man who was gloriously saved by Jesus Christ. He was a new creation, full of joy. He really wanted to grow in his faith, and that’s what led him to me. Part of his plan for getting his life on track included going to college. There he ran into a professor who was a vocal opponent of Christianity. I know, it sounds like one of those Christian movies, but it was real. And it really attacked the faith of this young man. He thought a college professor must really know what he’s talking about. One day he came to me and shared how his faith was slipping because of what he was hearing from the professor. I said, “You know, by your own words, your life was not good before. Then you came to Jesus and suddenly you had hope and peace and joy. Your life was radically changed for the better. And now I’ve noticed lately that that seems to be slipping away. So let me ask you, the professor, what is his life like?” The young man said, “Not good. I think he’s an alcoholic and divorced.” I said, “Well, why do you want to take life advice from someone whose life isn’t going the way you want your life to go?” Wisdom is justified by all her children. So when people begin babbling on and on about all kinds of ideas, look at the actual long term results. If someone is telling you how to live, how is that working out for them over the long haul? If they are telling you how to parent, or handle marriage, or your money or your business or your career, how did that work out for others who did it? Did it bring joy or sorrow? Success or failure? Stability or instability? We don’t have to wonder. We have a litmus test for knowing if something is actually wise or not, and Jesus summed it up perfectly and deeply. Wisdom is justified by all her children. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Preemptive Forgiveness 4:52

۵ years پیش4:52

4:52

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) “...and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” “Lord, right now I forgive everyone for everything, past, present...and future. God, I forgive everyone in advance for anything they might do or say today, so that I am free to love them with the power of Your Holy Spirit flowing through me.” That’s how I do it. That is how I practice what I call “preemptive forgiveness.” Preemptive forgiveness means forgiving in advance. Look, you know something dumb is going to happen, right? You don’t know who. You don’t know when. You don’t know what. You don’t know why, but sure enough, there it is. Someone is going to say something, they’re going to do something, it might be on accident, it might be on purpose, it might even be with criminal intent, but I say we forgive them IN ADVANCE and get that part out of the way, so then we can be completely free to love them in the way that God wants us to love them. Jesus told us to love another. He told us to love our neighbor. He told us to love our enemies. But listen. You can’t love someone you hate. You can’t love someone properly while at the same time harboring unforgiveness. A house divided against itself cannot stand. In Mark 11:25, Jesus told us that if we have anything against anyone, we must forgive them. Let it go. And we do that with a very specific purpose in mind. We forgive them so that we can be completely free to love them just as God wants us to love them. The fruit of the Spirit is…love, among other things, but the first on the list is love. God wants us to love people, He empowers us to love people, and to properly do that, we must walk in forgiveness. And what I’m promoting is something a bit unusual. It is forgiving...in advance. It is preemptive forgiveness. In Luke 17:1, Jesus said, “It is impossible that no offenses should come…” Offenses are coming. Knowing that, what should we do? I say we forgive them in advance, preemptively. We bomb the enemy’s base before he even gets the offense rocket off the ground. That eliminates the offense altogether. I’m not offended because hey, I forgave that already. Now I’m free to love them in whatever way God wants me to love them, in whatever way they need to be loved, in whatever way is best for them, for their life and their future and their own walk with God, and their eternity. That doesn’t make us doormats. That doesn’t mean people can walk all over us. Listen. Love is the power position. Perfect love casts out fear. Love causes you to lay down your life for others, and a person who is so sold out that they are willing to lay down their life like that...like I said, love is the power position, the very opposite of a doormat. When you love someone, you want what is best for them. Sometimes accountability is exactly what they need. Sometimes being arrested is what they need. Yes, you can call the police on someone you dearly love, because sometimes that is exactly what they need. But you don’t do it because you are offended and hurt and bitter and harboring unforgiveness. Listen, you can forgive...and press charges. It can be done in love. The point is, remove offenses from the equation. I’m saying, never get offended again by practicing preemptive forgiveness, which sets us free from all offense, which sets us free to love people which is what we must do anyway. And the way I do that is very practical. Each morning I pray through the Lord’s prayer, and when I come to that part about trespasses I pray “Lord, right now I forgive everyone for everything, past, present...and future. God, I forgive everyone in advance for anything they might do or say, so that I am free to love them with the power of Your Holy Spirit flowing through me.” Amen. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Is That God Speaking to Me? 3:31

۵ years پیش3:31

3:31

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) In John chapter 10, Jesus said that He is the good shepherd, that He speaks to His sheep, and that His sheep hear His voice and follow Him, for they know His voice. So the question is, do I know the voice of the Good Shepherd? How do I know if God is speaking to me? First of all, in John 4:24, Jesus said, “God is Spirit.” In John 6:63, Jesus said that the words He speaks are “spirit.” So when we talk about hearing the voice of God, we’re usually not talking about hearing a physical voice. Romans 8:16 says that His Spirit bears witness with our spirit. That’s spirit to spirit communication. I know, it’s getting deep, but I would expect nothing less. So God is Spirit, His words are spirit, and His Spirit bears witness with our spirit. As born again, blood-bought believers, we each have God’s Holy Spirit inside of us, teaching us and guiding us. Now listen to this. I’m leading up to a key that will help us answer the question, “Is that God speaking to me?” In John 16:13, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit “will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak.” In the next verse Jesus said, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” So when the Holy Spirit speaks to us, He speaks the words of Jesus. It’s Jesus talking to us, through the Holy Spirit inside of us. Back to Romans 8:16, it is His Spirit communicating with our spirit. But the question is, when you hear that little voice, how do you know it is God speaking and not just some random thought, or worse, some random devil? Now here is the main key of this lesson. Luke chapter 4 verse 32 says that people were astonished at the teaching of Jesus. Why? Because His word was “with authority.” And that’s the key. That is one way we might discern the voice of God. We answer this question. Did it come with authority? Some translations say, “His word was with power.” So when we are seeking God, trying to hear from Him, and suddenly we hear a voice speaking inside of us, here’s a question to ask, “Did this message come with authority? Did it come with the power and authority of Jesus?” His sheep know His voice. How? Because our Shepherd speaks with authority. He speaks with power. His words come with conviction. Yes, there are other considerations. We should consult Scripture. We should consult the body, by which I mean our fellow believers. And another key is what Jesus said in John 16:14, that the Holy Spirit would glorify Jesus, so another question is, “Does this glorify Jesus?” But here’s the main point we’re focusing on today. When we are asking, “Is that God speaking?” we can remember the example of Luke 4:32. His word comes with authority. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Soul Issues and Goal Issues 3:31

۵ years پیش3:31

3:31

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) God can solve our soul issues and our goal issues. Think about it. Many of our problems are either soul issues, or goal issues. Our soul issues include our identity, “Who am I?” and our value, “Am I worth anything?” And our goal issues include our purpose, “What am I here for? What am I supposed to be doing with my life?” Fortunately, God can solve all of our soul issues and goal issues, and they are actually summed up very tidily in Ephesians chapter two. The foundation of all of our soul issues is that we start out dead in our sins. We are sons of disobedience. We conduct ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and are by nature children of wrath, separated from God. The good news is that there is actually a quick solution to our soul issues, and I’m still in Ephesians chapter two. It says that God, who is rich in mercy, loves us with His great love! He loves us so much that, through Jesus, even though we start out dead in our sins, He makes us alive through Christ! And it’s not because we start doing good, or because we finally get our act together. He does it by His grace and kindness toward us, not by our own good deeds. This solves our soul issues. Who am I? Through Christ, I am a very much loved, born again child of God! Am I worth anything? I’m worth so much that the creator of the world, God Himself, loved me and saved me and calls me His child! Now what about the goal issues, what am I here for? What am I supposed to be doing with my life? We are still in Ephesians chapter two. Verse ten says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” What am I here for? What am I supposed to be doing with my life? Good works! Just look around and say, “What good works can I be doing today?” Then do them! Ephesians 2:10 says we were “created in Christ Jesus for good works,” and it says that “God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” God CREATED us to do good works, and He PREPARED BEFOREHAND that we should live this way...doing good works. One more soul issue: the idea of loneliness. We find the solution again in Ephesians chapter two. We are not in this alone. Verse 19 says we are “...fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…” All the Christian believers all over the world? We are all in this together! And as God’s children, we have His Holy Spirit inside of us. Ephesians 2 concludes with verse 22 which says we are “being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” Yes, we are all born with many soul issues and goal issues, but the good news is that God can solve them all as we turn to Him! And we can find them all summed up rather tidily right here in Ephesians chapter two. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Skip Regret Go Directly to Repentance 3:01

۵ years پیش3:01

3:01

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) I don’t have regrets. I do have a lot of repentances. Regrets are like weights. They can drag you down, even long after the fact. You did something you regret. It was bad. It was wrong. It was dumb. It was embarrassing. You hurt someone. You committed a crime. You failed. You stumbled. You fell. Regrets can come in unlimited ways. Every story is different, but they end up in the same stinking valley called Regret. Fortunately God has given us a mechanism to deal with regret. It’s called repentance. Whatever you did. Whatever sin you committed. Whatever way you went off the rails and into the weeds, here is the solution. Repent. What does repent mean? It means you admit it, you confess it, you own up to it, you’re sorry for it, you don’t ever want to do it again, you give it up to God, and you receive His forgiveness for it. And then it is done. You have repented and it is done. And then that old snake Regret comes calling. Old memories come back. It’s vivid in your mind. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I did that, said that, went there, it’s so awful. But wait a minute. What are you supposed to do about it? You can’t go back in time and make it not happen. Sometimes the people involved aren’t even alive anymore. Now what? You can’t even tell them you’re sorry. It doesn’t matter. You can’t change the past and it doesn’t matter because God has given us the solution. Repentance. Don’t wallow in regret. It does no good. It helps no one. It changes nothing. It makes no difference. It only drags you down, wastes time, drains your energy, saps your emotions, and for no good reason. So when Regret comes knocking, don’t answer. Don’t listen. Don’t waste a minute thinking about it. Skip regret and go directly to repentance. That is God’s gift to us for handling all the stains. In Isaiah 1:18, God says, “...though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow...” Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west,” that’s how far God has removed our transgressions from us. Hallelujah. So how to handle regrets? Don’t handle them at all. Skip it. Skip regret, go directly to repentance, and be done with it once and for all. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
How to Overlook an Offense 3:01

۵ years پیش3:01

3:01

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) The Bible talks about overlooking offenses. Why would you ever overlook an offense? Because it is wise to overlook an offense. It is prudent. It is honorable. It is virtuous. It is to your glory. It is to your credit. The Message version of Proverbs 19:11 says it is to your grandeur. And when you refuse to overlook offenses you basically waste your life in drama, burning every bridge, cutting every tie and destroying every relationship. But God has a better plan! Proverbs 19:11 says, “...it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.” Proverbs 12:16 says, “Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult.” And I love the use of this word “overlook.” When you overlook something, you do it because it is small, because your eyes are trained on something bigger. You overlook an offense because your eyes are trained on something bigger. And what would that be? Loving people. We are called to love people. God told us to love our neighbor, and even our enemy. So we overlook the smaller thing of the offense because our eyes are on the bigger thing of loving this person. How can I love them? Lord, show me, how can I love this person with Your love flowing through me? First Corinthians 13:5, the love chapter, seems to say something crazy. It says that love keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not keep an account of all the offenses. Why not? Because love is overlooking them, looking to the bigger picture which is: what is best for this person? They were made in the image of God. They have been gifted by God and called by God. Jesus died for them. He died for these very offenses. And Jesus told us to love them. He wants what is best for them, and so should we. That is the big picture. What is best for them? How can we love them? How can we let God love them through us? Galatians 5:22 says that the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives is...love... God puts His Spirit inside of His people, and His Spirit is going to bear the good fruit of love through us as long as we don’t block Him up. And what is one key to not blocking up the Holy Spirit? It is this. Overlook the offense. We can overlook offenses because our eyes are fixed on the bigger picture of loving people. And that is how you overlook an offense. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Neither Boredom Nor Burnout 4:31

۵ years پیش4:31

4:31

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) I’m about to say something crazy, but it’s true. It’s not the usual way of thinking, but it’s God’s way, so listen up. If your church has a total of a hundred people including one pastor, then your pastor should be doing one percent of the work of that church. Pause. Think about it. Let me say it again. If your church has a total of a hundred people including one pastor, then your pastor should be doing one percent of the work of that church. Did you just spit up a little? I’m telling you, this is the way the body of Christ is designed to work. We each have a vital part in the body, and we each need to fulfill our part. Now you might be thinking, “That’s the pastor’s full time job. I have to go to work everyday. I can’t be doing the same amount of church work as the pastor. That’s ridiculous!” That’s true...IF you have pigeon-holed the work of the church into, like, 5 duties that a pastor does. Forget about that. The question is, are you fulfilling your part in the body of Christ? You have a unique part, with unique giftings and callings from God Himself. And your part in the body is your part in the body, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The pastor has HIS part in the body, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. EVERY BELIEVER has their part in the body, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Are you fulfilling your part in the body? If everyone in your local congregation of one hundred people is fulfilling their part in the body, then each person is doing one percent of the work of that local congregation. Don’t pigeon-hole God’s work into the, like, 10 jobs that you think of as “church work.” God’s work is the work of His entire body, which is explosively loaded with gifts and callings, the vast majority of which never see the light of day. “But Doug, I can’t be doing all that church work. I have to go to work, and look after my kids, and take a little time just to enjoy life, you know.” Yes, I know. And more importantly, God knows. He created you. He knows EXACTLY, PRECISELY WHAT YOU NEED. He put inside of every believer just what you need in the form of His Holy Spirit. He has gifted you and called you; and your most fulfilling, abundant life will come when you fulfill your part in the body of Christ. Now the title of this lesson is, “Neither Boredom Nor Burnout.” Many Christians go sailing off in one of those two directions. First, boredom. My daughter told me the other day, “I think so many Christians are drinking alcohol today because they are bored.” What? If you tap into the Holy Spirit and all that God has for you, boredom will go flying out the window. Fulfilling your part in the body of Christ will be the most exciting adventure you have ever been on, if you will just take the time to diligently seek God and let His Spirit lead you. Second, burnout. Many Christians will hear a message like this, get fired up, and dive head first into church work, doing everything that comes their way. Listen. I’m telling you to seek God and fulfill YOUR PART in the body of Christ – and that’s not anyone else’s part. You can’t do anyone else’s part. When you try to do your part and other people’s parts in the body, you will burn out. Then you can drop out altogether and say, “I got burned out in church.” Don’t fall for it. But when you truly follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in order to understand and follow and fulfill YOUR part in the body, then you will not burn out. Pastors who are overwhelmed? You are likely trying to fulfill several parts in the body that aren’t yours, which you cannot do. Deacons or elders or teachers or whatever who are getting burned out in church – you are probably doing more than you are called and gifted to do. You need to fulfill your part in the body, no more (that leads to burnout) and no less (that leads to boredom). So I close with the shocking line I opened with, and I’ll leave you to pray about it and seek God. If your church has a total of a hundred people including one pastor, then your pastor should be doing one percent of the work of that church. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Comparison Competition Provision Pleasure 3:06

۵ years پیش3:06

3:06

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) How are you doing in life? How do you know? Is it by comparing yourself to others? “I’m doing cruddy because I’m not on a plane to Hawaii like my friends on Facebook.” Comparing ourselves to others is a terrible trap and a waste of time. Either we feel bad because others are doing better, or we can feel proud because we are doing better. But how can you know how you are doing in life if you don’t compare yourself to others? “I guess I’m doing okay. At least I’m not as bad as those people, wow, look at them.” That’s comparison. And then there is comparison’s evil twin: competition. Competition is basically organized comparison. It’s adding standings and prizes and gold medals. “How am I doing in life? Why, I’m the XYZ trophy winner. I’m doing great!” But again, that’s just comparing ourselves to others. Is there a way to know how we are doing in life without comparison? Well, there is provision. How am I providing for myself? Leave out comparing yourself to others, because someone else will always be providing more. The question is, are you providing enough to meet your needs, and then the needs of your family? Provision is an important measurement for how you are doing in life, but it probably takes less than you think. Providing all the latest whizmos for your kids is not the measurement. “But then they won’t be happy!” And that brings us to our final measurement for how we are doing in life: our pleasure. Are we happy? We can measure that, minute by minute, but is pleasure a good measure for how we are doing in life? So much of life isn’t what you would call pleasure. Even the addict whose only goal is seeking pleasure doesn’t feel that much pleasure. If you lived on a yacht on a beautiful island full of beautiful people and music and non-stop good times, before long it would just be boring. So how are we doing in life? We often answer that question by comparison (I’m winning!), or provision (I’m rich!), or pleasure (I’m so happy!) But I want to suggest a different measurement for how we are doing in life. God created us. God put inside each of us fantastic raw materials. We have gifts. We have callings. We have a purpose. We have a part to play, assigned by God. So the question is, are we doing it? Are we doing what God has gifted us to do and called us to do? Are we running in the lane that God has assigned to us, and running for all we’re worth? That is a measurement worth measuring. That is a standard worth rising to. That will bring us the best answer to that pesky, age-old question, “How am I doing in life?” May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
A World Full of Raw Materials 3:44

۵ years پیش3:44

3:44

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) God hides things. Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing...” When God created the world He concealed literally tons of things. Picture Adam and Eve in the garden. And even if you don’t believe in the garden, we all agree that when you go back just a few thousand years the world was a pretty primitive place. It was beautiful but rough, and you certainly wouldn’t have looked around and even fathomed all the discoveries that were yet to come. At that time the world was packed full of raw materials, but they were hidden. We didn’t know about electricity, for example. We didn’t even know about metal. We didn’t know about seeds. I mean, if nobody told you, you’d probably eat an apple and think, “What are these stupid black things in the middle?” So you’d throw them out in the dirt, and one day you’d see a plant growing where you tossed the seeds, but you didn’t know, so you were like, “Pull that stupid weed. We don’t need weeds around here. We’re hungry.” We didn’t know it at first, but seeds are some of the mightiest raw materials in the world! But were they obvious? No. They were hidden. Now think of all the things under ground: silver, gold, coal, oil, but Adam and Eve didn’t see a single one of them. The world was full of raw materials, but they were hidden. God hides things. And the same is true when it comes to people. God has packed each one of us with raw materials, but they are hidden and need to be discovered! I was watching my twin grandchildren when they were quite young. They both had pulled the straw out of their little cups and I said, “Put it back in.” They were probably too little to do this, and my granddaughter did what was natural. She tried and tried but didn’t yet have the ability to do it. But my grandson surprised me when he put the straw straight into the hole. I thought, “Hmm, that was interesting.” And since then I’ve noticed that he has a great eye for mechanics and the size and shape of things and how they work. Meanwhile, his twin sister is already reading like a much older child and is very good with words and speaking. These are raw materials. We didn’t know they were there, but we are discovering them. Every one of us, every single human, including you, is full of raw materials. Your creator, God the Father, put them in you, and they just need to be discovered. And they are so different. Look at this planet and there are tons of raw materials and they are so wildly and wonderfully different. And the raw materials that God has put inside you are different. Maybe you want to be more like other people, but your skill set is different. Your giftings are different. And God’s calling on your life is different. First Corinthians 12:11 tells us that God distributes gifts to each person according to His will. God has plans for you! And He has given you the giftings that line up with His plans. Every person has gifts. Every person is packed with raw materials, and it is our job to discover them and maximize them. We are to discover our own, and we are to help other people discover theirs. THEN the body of Christ will be humming along on all cylinders. THEN the church will be living up to her potential...once we realize that every single person is packed with raw materials from God and it is our job to discover them and help them grow. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Is Your Ladder Leaning Against the Wrong Building? 3:24

۵ years پیش3:24

3:24

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) This is one of my all-time favorite illustrations. A man spends his life climbing the career ladder. He finally gets to the top, only to realize that it wasn’t what he really wanted after all. He made it to the top of the ladder, but the ladder was leaning against the wrong building. I heard that illustration as a young man and thought, “Wow, I don’t want that to be me. I don’t want to spend my life climbing the wrong ladder.” So how can you know? How can you make sure that the ladder you are climbing is going the right way? Well here’s one thing I’m smart enough to know. I don’t know! I don’t know the future. I don’t know where the world is headed. I don’t know how long I’ll be here. I don’t know what the coming generations look like, so how can I possibly know if I’m climbing the right ladder, if I’m spending my time on all the right things? Thankfully, I have found a simple formula. “Wow, Doug, so you’re actually saying that you found a simple formula for living a successful life?” Yes, and I’m about to share it with you, free of charge. Here it is, ten simple words. Get ready to memorize it and immediately put it into practice. Are you ready? Here it is. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. I’ll say it again, and this is your key to life, the key to living a successful life, to climbing the right ladder every time. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. That’s from Hebrews 11:6. One thing I love about this formula is that it is very measurable. Some things about the Kingdom of God are hard to measure, like how much do you love God? That’s hard to measure. How are you doing at loving your neighbor as yourself? It’s hard to know for sure. But are you diligently seeking God? That’s measurable. James 4:8 says that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us, so the question is, are we spending time drawing near to God? Jesus said, “Go into your room, shut your door, and pray to Your Father.” Are we doing that? How often are we doing it? How consistently are we doing it? That is how well we are diligently seeking God. How often are we entering into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise, like it says in Psalm 100? Are we spending “extravagant daily time with Jesus,” like they say in the book “Live Dead”? This is a winning formula. It will keep us from wasting our days, climbing the wrong ladder. This will keep our priorities straight, and give is the wisdom and knowledge we need to do it right, day after day...good for now and good for eternity. And it’s so measurable. We can easily know if we are doing it well or not, and if not, we can make the change immediately, starting right now, and here’s that formula one more time, from Hebrews 11:6. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
We Gave Away Our Dinner Table 2:48

۵ years پیش2:48

2:48

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32) We gave away our dinner table. My wife and I raised our four children around that table. We had thousands of meals and conversations at that table. I think our close family dynamic today has a foundation in all those family dinners. But it didn’t start that way. There was a time when we were not having family dinners. I was working each evening until 6, and when I came home, the kids had already eaten. The family was a bit more scattered and I don’t think we even thought about it. Then I went to a big Promise Keepers conference in Indianapolis. Yes, there were great speakers, but the most dynamic thing for me happened during the singing. There I was, singing along with thousands of men who filled the stadium, praising the Lord, and all of a sudden a phrase popped into my head, out of the blue. It just said, “Start having family dinners.” I actually kind of shook it off and kept singing, but then it came on stronger, so I stopped singing, sat down and wrote it down, “Start having family dinners.” One thing about this is that it would actually put a greater burden on my wife than me, so I brought it up to her with a little humility. “I think God wants us to start having family dinners.” “No problem,” she said. “I’ll just start giving the kids a snack after school, then we can all eat together when you get home from work.” And what a blessing it was! It became a great, daily gathering time, our family coming together to talk and share and interact, and to build and grow our relationships with one another, relationships that are still strong today. Relationships that were forged around the family dinner table. I believe that God leads us in three main ways. We have the Bible, of course, and I believe we should all be prolific hearers and doers of the Word. And we have the body of Christ, our fellow believers, our teachers and preachers and brothers and sisters, and God can speak to us through them. And we have the Spirit of God inside all believers, who gives us the more specific directions we need, sometimes very specific directions like, “Start having family dinners.” And now we’ve given away our family dinner table. We gave it to our daughter and her husband, and I just hope and pray that they and their four children will be as blessed as we were, as God binds their family together in love and joy and commitment to one another for decades to come. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Why Do Christians Lock Their Doors? 3:09

۵ years پیش3:09

3:09

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 dumped it in the weeds out back, and he fearfully went and retrieved it for me. Thank God I had my bike back, and I had learned a good lesson: lock my doors! God has given people free will, and some of them will take your things if they get a chance, and God will let them. Not always, I suppose, but often enough to know that we should be wise and take precautions. I put this in the category of testing God. For example, we don't sit here like baby birds with our mouth open for food, even though we trust God as our provider. No, we go and earn our food, just like the Bible tells us to do. "Those who don't work shouldn't eat." It would be testing the Lord to ask Him to provide while we do nothing. The same holds true when trusting Him for protection. In this pandemic, I'm praying and trusting God for protection (which frees me from worry and anxiety), while I also practice social distancing and hand washing. When you read the Bible you will see over and over again, God has His part, and we have our part. Even in the famous Psalm 91 about protection that so many people are quoting today, you can read God’s part and our part. I think it would be testing God to ignore what I know to be wise practices, like hand washing, like working hard, like locking my doors. In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus was tempted by the devil. The New Living Translation says, “Then the devil took Him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, 'If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, 'He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone.'" Then came Jesus' powerful reply in verse 7. The Scriptures say, “You must not test the Lord your God.” So that is why I lock my doors. I believe that to do otherwise is to test the Lord which we are told not to do (except in the case of tithing in Malachi 3:10). May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Go Fishing in the Word 3:09

۵ years پیش3:09

3:09

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 on! You can do the same in the Word. You get out your Bible and you start reading, and what you’re doing is fishing. As you read across the verses, it’s like slowly reeling in that fishing line. Maybe this verse doesn’t strike you, and that verse doesn’t strike you. That’s fine. Keep reading. Yes, every verse is important, but keep reading. What you’re feeling for is that nibble on the line, and by that, I mean the Holy Spirit of God inside of you grabbing your attention on some verse. See, the Holy Spirit of God lives inside every born again Christian. God puts His Spirit inside of us to teach us and to lead us. In this time of coronavirus, are you ready to be taught, and to be led? I am! How can we be taught directly by the Spirit of God? One way is to go fishing in the Word. Open up your Bible and start reading, and watch for it. All of a sudden one of those verses, one of those Bible passages is going to jump off the page. Something you read is going to make your heart burn within you. It’s going to make your spirit leap inside of you. When that happens, stop right there. Dig in and feast on what the Spirit of God might be trying to say to you through that portion of Scripture. Study it. Learn it. Memorize it. Ingest it and let it do what God means for it to do in your life today, right now. God’s ways are higher than our ways. His plans are not our plans, and our plans are rubbish anyway compared to His, so let’s get His plans and His thoughts. Let’s find out and do exactly what God wants us to do in these challenging days, and how can we do that? Go fishing in the Word. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple. *Isaiah 55:8-9 TLB…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
You Do Not Know What You Are Asking 3:07

۶ years پیش3:07

3:07

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.” Is that prayer a hit? No, that’s “amiss,” ha ha ha. So how can we pray and not ask amiss? How can we pray with knowledge and wisdom, and pray according to God’s will? One way is praying the Scriptures. For example, I often pray “Show my Thy ways, O Lord, teach me Thy paths,” which is Psalms 25:4. There are tons of Bible verses that can be converted straight into prayers. Another way we can pray and not ask amiss is by praying in humility and surrender. One example of this from my life is when I decided to get into Christian radio back in 1986. I sent a letter to all the Christian radio stations in the state and prayed, in fact I basically begged God, “Please, just open one door, the exact door You want me to step through; because if I have to choose, I won’t know which one to choose or how to choose it. Either I will base it on worldly standards and career opportunities, or I will do the opposite of that on purpose, and I don’t want to do either of those in my own wisdom. God, I want Your perfect will, and I don’t know what that is, so please, just open one door.” And, one door opened. The point of that story was praying a prayer of humility and submission. “Not my will, but Thy will be done. God, I don’t know what is best. I’m not that smart. And Your ways are 15.5 billion light years above my ways, so I trust You. I put my complete trust in You. I’m the sheep, and You are The Good Shepherd. I love You and want to follow You wherever You lead.” In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Is It a Young Man's Game? 3:16

۶ years پیش3:16

3:16

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 were or how well you understood the youth. I hope your ministry was ALWAYS based on spending time with God, rightly dividing the Word, and following the leading of His Holy Spirit every step of the way. That is the key to ministry no matter how old you are. Look. Burn all your “How to Grow Your Church” books if you have to. I’m all for knowledge and education and learning and training, but that can’t be the foundation of your ministry. You’re not smart enough. You’re not quick enough. You’re not young enough. You can’t keep up with it all. But you don’t have to. Listen. You don’t have to keep up with the trends. Forget the trends. Lock yourself in with God. Dive into that daily time of prayer and seeking Him and running to Him and listening to Him. He will empower you. He will strengthen you. He will open your eyes to exactly what you need to know and how you need to operate. THAT is how you run a ministry, and age has nothing to do with it, and it never did. Think of John the Baptist. No marketing studies. No trends. No memberships in the hip clubs. He wasn’t a chief priest. He wasn’t in the Sanhedrin. He didn’t poll the people to see what they wanted. He just heard from God and did it. He stood out in the wilderness preaching repentance, and lo and behold, the people came...and they kept coming, and repenting, and turning their lives over to God. So is it a young man’s game? No, it’s everyone’s game; everyone who will run to Jesus, be filled with His Spirit, and seek Him while He may be found. Throw yourself on His altar as a living sacrifice and become all that God has intended you to be from the foundation of the world. You are NOT too old to dive in and be that blazing fire that God wants you to be, right now, and right up until the day you step into heaven and see Jesus face to face. Hallelujah. Let’s do this. Come on. May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
We End Up With What We Stir Up 4:01

۶ years پیش4:01

4:01

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 than you? More handsome than you? Faster than you? Taller than you? Stronger than you? Don’t stir up those thoughts! Instead, enter into His gates with thanksgiving. Be thankful unto Him and give Him praise. Find out what God has given you and work it. Maximize it. Grow it. Look at what you DO have, and turn that raw material into something great! We end up with what we stir up, so be careful what you stir up. Let’s say you like to steal. You’re a kleptomaniac. You get a thrill out of shoplifting. How can you stop? Don’t stir it up. Those desires will die if you don’t give them oxygen. Let him who stole steal no longer. How? Don’t stir it up! What if you love food. You love to eat. You’re a problem eater. How can you stop? Proverbs 23:2 says put a knife to your throat. Not literally. It’s figurative. It means cut off those desires. It means “Don’t think about it.” Don’t allow yourself to stir up those thoughts about food all time. Thinking about it. Dwelling on it. Tossing it around in your mind. That is how you stir it up, and we end up with what we stir up. What about old offenses, what those people did to you? For goodness’ sake, don’t ever stir up that wicked mess. Let it go! Don’t think about it. If you’re going to stir up anything, stir up forgiveness! Our brains can get stuck in a loop, in a cycle, but we can break the cycle by not stirring up the wrong things, the wrong thoughts. Don’t stir up worry. That’s a dead end. Stir up faith instead, and hope and trust in God. Meditate on God’s word and just watch how that stirs up all the right things in your life. What about adultery, or lust? That is something that never gets anywhere unless you just keep stirring it up. It’s evil and has no life of its own unless you keep stirring it up and try to fake some life into it, and still it's going to drag you into the dead pool in the end. So please, don’t be the next idiot that destroys your family over a cheap momentary low grade B-movie thrill. We end up with what we stir up, so let’s stir up good things! Like Philippians 4:8, “...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy...” think on these things. The things we think on are the things we stir up, and the things we stir up shape our life. So beware what you stir up in your mind, knowing that we end up with what we stir up. May God bless you today! I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
This Calls for Wisdom 3:31

۶ years پیش3:31

3:31

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…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Start With the Box 3:30

۶ years پیش3:30

3:30

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 end up in a sloppy mess. In a way, God gave us a box to live in, and we are free to wildly express our creativity within the box. Our lives will thrive when they are lived within God’s boundaries, His rules, His statues and precepts, His righteousness. But something within us rejects the idea of living within a box, of living within boundaries. Something tells us that it’s awful, it is terrible, it is restricting. We can almost feel the noose. We want no boundaries! The problem is, if we don’t live within God’s boundaries, we end up with a sloppy mess. When we don’t limit our physical intimacy to the boundaries of God’s marriage covenant, we end up with a sloppy mess. When we don’t limit our speech to God’s boundaries of truth and love and grace, we end up with a sloppy mess. When we don’t limit what we put into our mouths, WE end up a sloppy mess! I remember playing a type of basketball game on the playground where there was no out-of-bounds. I don’t know what kid made that up, but with no out-of-bounds you could run behind the goal or out onto the grass or behind the whole school. It was dumb, and yet some kid thought it was a good idea. Our world is full of dumb things, and yet someone thinks they are a good idea. The problem is, if it is outside God’s boundaries, it will leave you in a sloppy mess. That’s how people end up on these reality TV shows, arguing and bickering and even fist fighting, right there on the set. It always comes down to someone who is trying to live outside of God’s boundaries and thinks it’s okay. It’s not okay. That’s how your life turns into a big dumpster fire. So whatever feeling it is that makes you think God’s boundaries are stifling, that feeling is a deception. Start with the box. Live within God’s box, His boundaries of good and righteous and holy, for it’s within that box where we are truly free to live our life to it’s very highest and most exciting potential. May God bless you today! I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Divine Ignition 2:00

۶ years پیش2:00

2:00

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 and listen to the message. Do it for the King? What do you know about that? Say you goin' harder? Mmm I doubt that. You say you’re doing work but you're asking where’s the couch at. How you doing work when you’re asking where’s the couch at? And then it says, “I don't understand that life...'cause I'm all in...’til the day I die.” Are you all in? Are you all in for Jesus? Just say, “God, I’m in. I’m all in! I want to do what You want me to do, say what You want me to say, go where You want me to go, be who You want me be.” And if He’s already told you and you haven’t done it yet, then pray for this. Pray for Divine Ignition. May God bless you...with His divine ignition today! I’m Doug Apple. * Ephesians 5:14 ** Jeremiah 20:9…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
A Time and a Place 3:00

۶ years پیش3:00

3:00

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 thanksgiving. Jesus said, “...when you pray, go into your room...” That’s a set place. You gotta have a place to pray. He said, “...go into your room, and when you have shut your door...” He’s telling us to get alone with God. That’s what Jesus Himself did, and He WAS GOD. But the Bible says He often withdrew to be alone with the Father. He went up on a mountain by Himself. Maybe He went into a garden. Maybe He went into the wilderness. The point is, be like Jesus. Get alone with the Father, and a great way to get your privacy is to go into a room, shut the door...and then what? Jesus said, “...go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place...” That is the time and place to go pour out your heart to Almighty God. Cast your cares upon Him. Intercede for your family and friends, your church and your country, for “Thy will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What are you going to do with your life? How are you going to fulfill your part in the body of Christ? How can you possibly be the best child, the best parent, the best sibling, the best aunt or uncle or niece or nephew, the best student, the best worker, the best church member that you can possibly be? You can’t! You can’t do alone. You can only do it in the power of God. We must have God’s Spirit fully alive within us. So how can we do that? We must draw near to God in prayer, and I firmly believe that the best way to do that is by having a set time and set place to pray. May God bless you today! I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
His Spirit Bears Witness With Our Spirit 4:00

۶ years پیش4:00

4:00

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 of exactly how that happened in the real world.” And they say things like, “I was reading the Bible, and suddenly a verse leaped off the page.” Or, “I was in worship, and suddenly a powerful phrase jumped into my mind, and I just knew it was God.” Or even, “I was walking down the street, minding my own business, and I heard a voice telling me what to do. I’m pretty sure it was God.” I realize that some people say they heard from God when they didn’t, but today let’s focus on how God speaks to us, and I think many of these things happened in this way: His Spirit bore witness with their spirit. The Holy Spirit passed a message along directly to that person’s spirit. It wasn’t verbal. It wasn’t mental. It was Spirit to spirit communication. I like how The Passion Translation words Romans 8:16, “...He whispers into our innermost being...” At our church we’re going through The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson and he refers to what he calls “Spirit-whispers.” I love that! I think that is when His Spirit bears witness with our spirit. The Holy Spirit communicates directly to our spirit, our inner man if you will, in Spirit-whispers. In John 14:26, Jesus said that the Father would send the Holy Spirit and He would be a teacher. In Luke 12:12 Jesus again refers to the Holy Spirit as a teacher. First Corinthians 2:10 talks about God revealing things to people through His Spirit. When God teaches and reveals things through His Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit of God, communicating the things of God to the people of God, and what is one way He does it? In Spirit-whispers. It is Spirit to spirit communication. It is His Spirit bearing witness with our spirit. Of course you should always make sure this balances with Scripture, and you should bounce it off other mature believers, but watch for it. Listen for it, not with your physical eyes and ears, but with your spirit. Jesus said, “He has ears to hear, let him hear.” That means spiritual hearing. It is our spirit tuning in and listening closely to the voice of the Holy Spirit as He teaches and convicts and reveals and inspires us to draw near to God and become the on-fire Kingdom people He is calling us to be, as we listen and are taught and mentored and led by the Holy Spirit of God. May God bless you today! I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
FOMO: The Fear of Missing Out 3:00

۶ years پیش3:00

3:00

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 this phrase found so often in the Bible: the fear of the Lord. One way I fear the Lord is that I fear missing out on what He has for me, His plans, His desires, His goals. I don’t want to miss out by not following His ways, His rules, His precepts and statutes, His laws and commandments. Yes, I’m saved by grace, and yes I live in His grace, but I also want to walk in His Spirit, not in the flesh. I want to build on rock and not on sand. I must not grieve or quench His Holy Spirit, or I risk missing out on what God has for me today and everyday. So when it comes to FOMO, the fear of missing out, that is what I fear missing out on. I fear missing God and His good, pleasing and perfect will. I fear missing His leading as my Good Shepherd. I fear missing His voice, His direction, His, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” I fear sinning and putting myself in a place apart from the dead center bullseye of His will. I fear that, because I know that His ways are good. His ways are awesome. His ways are the best, both for eternity and for now. So FOMO? Yes, it steers my life each and every day. I must live and walk by the Holy Spirit of God, because I truly have the fear of missing out: the fear of missing out on all that God has for me. May God bless you today! I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Are You Reading the Bible by Rote? 2:30

۶ years پیش2:30

2:30

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 happened to the men on the road to Emmaus. They were walking along, and suddenly a stranger joined them. The stranger began to open up the Scriptures to them with power and authority. Finally their eyes were opened to see that it was actually the newly resurrected Jesus...and then Jesus disappeared. And what was their exclamation? What excited them so? Here is what they said in Luke 24:32, “Did not our heart burn within us...while He opened the Scriptures to us?” And I think God does the same thing today. We read the Bible, and suddenly our heart burns within us, suddenly His Holy Spirit leaps within us as certain words jump out at us, or as the men on the road to Emmaus put it, He opens the Scriptures to us. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth, and Jesus said the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and guide us into all truth. How does He do that? One way is by opening the Scriptures to us by making certain verses at certain times spring to life! So watch for it. Try reading the Bible, not until you meet your quota, or not until you finish the chapter, but simply read until God opens the Scripture to you, making your heart burn within you. May God bless you...as you read His Word today! I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
The Super Six 3:30

۶ years پیش3:30

3:30

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 enjoyable. For example, if you don’t like going to the gym, but you love listening to music, then load up on your favorite music, get some enjoyable earphones and go work out. Just these two tips alone, eat right and exercise, could solve so much of the stress and anxiety and depression, and even much of the illness in the world...so do it! My next pair is: Read the Bible and Pray There’s never been a time in the history of the world when God’s Word was so easy to read, at least for us pampered Americans. We should be soaking up the Scriptures daily, so do it. Just read, and watch for the Holy Spirit to make God’s Word jump off the pages at you. And pray. We know we need to pray, and we probably do pray, in little spurts, in a hurry, here and there. My advice is to set aside a time and place where you can be alone and regularly and consistently spend time talking with God. Just two little disciplines, but they will radically change your life for the better, read your Bible and pray. And the final pair in the Super Six is: Love God and Love People. Yes, these are the two greatest commandments, so we should focus on them. As for loving God, here is one little tip for you. Just start telling Him that you love Him. Make a point to say it throughout the day. “I love You, Lord.” Incorporate it into your prayers. “Our Father, who art in heaven...I love You.” As you tell Him you love Him, just watch and see how it will turn your heart towards Him. And finally, love people, and here’s a simple tip for loving people. When someone shows you how to love them, and you can easily do it, just do it. If you pay attention, people will show you how to love them. Things will pop into your awareness and you will think, “Yeah, I could do that.” Well, instead of talking yourself out of it, just think, “This is someone I love (because we are supposed to love everyone)” and then do that thing you can easily do for someone you love. And there it is, The Super Six that will radically and wildly change your life for the better. Eat Right and Exercise Read the Bible and Pray Love God and Love People May God bless you today! I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
The Righteous Lord Loves Righteousness 4:00

۶ years پیش4:00

4:00

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! Of course the problem is that we have a sin nature and can’t live up to God’s high and holy standard of righteousness. Isaiah 64:6 says, “...all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags...” And Romans 1:18 says that the wrath of God comes against all the unrighteousness of humanity. The good news is...that’s where Jesus comes in. He took our unrighteousness upon Himself on the cross, shedding His blood and paying the price for us to be made righteous before God. Now, through faith in Jesus, we can receive the righteousness of God apart from keeping the law. In Romans 3 and 4 we see that God’s righteousness is imputed to us by our faith in Jesus. We receive the free gift of righteousness. But don’t stop there. God still wants us to LIVE righteously...not in order to be saved, but since we are saved! 1 Peter 2:24 says Jesus bore our sins in His own body...that we might live for righteousness! Romans 6:13 tells us to present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness. Romans 6:19 goes so far as to tell us to present ourselves to Him as “slaves of righteousness.” And what if we don’t? First John 3:10 says, “Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God...” So how do we do it? How can we live a righteous life? Romans 8:4 tells us to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. On our own we won’t live a righteous life, but as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will. The righteous Lord loves righteousness. He gave us the law, spoken out of His righteousness. We sinned, so He sent Jesus to pay the price for our righteousness. Then to all who receive Him, He gives the Holy Spirit to empower us to, once and for all, live the righteous life He intended for us from the beginning. Yes, we are saved by the grace of God...AND...Titus 2 says that the grace of God teaches us to live righteously. The gospel of grace and living a righteous life go hand in hand, one follows the other. We are saved by grace, and then we live a righteous life, empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Good Shepherd leads us in paths of righteousness. 5 Lord, I want to follow You in Your paths of righteousness. I hunger and thirst for Your righteousness. I seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness. I want to love righteousness! Because You are the righteous Lord, and You love righteousness. May God bless you today...as you seek to live a righteous life in the power of the Spirit. I’m Doug Apple. 1 Matthew 5:6 2 Matthew 6:33 3 Psalm 36:6 4 Psalm 111:3 5 Psalm 23 Other verses: Psalm 145:17, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways...” Zephaniah 2:3 says, “Seek righteousness...” Proverbs 2:20 says, “...keep to the paths of righteousness.” Proverbs 11:8 says, “...he who sows righteousness will have a sure reward.” Isaiah 32:17 says that righteousness brings peace and quietness and assurance. 1 Corinthians 15:34, “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” 1 Timothy 6:11, “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.” Ephesians 5:9, “...for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth...”…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
This Is the Way, Walk Ye in It 3:30

۶ years پیش3:30

3:30

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 gave him a sudden revelation. That is one example of what being led by God looks like in real life. In this case, he indicated that, as he prayed, God brought to his mind the image of Jesus on His knees, washing the feet of His disciples. And then he says that God delivered these words to him, “That’s the problem in your marriage. You don’t have that attitude towards your wife.” And it hit him like a ton of bricks. And that’s how God often does it. As we seek Him, even cry out to Him, at some point He gives the direction we need. And it can happen in a variety of ways. Of course not every whim that pops into our head is from God. It needs to be balanced with Scripture, and with the wisdom of other believers. But our goal is to seek God, and learn to hear Him when He leads, whatever form that takes. I’ve experienced it in different ways. I won’t say it’s 100% for sure from God, but I believe it is, and it balances with Scripture and other believers. Of course I guess thousands of times I’ve received God’s direction from Scripture, and from godly teachers and preachers and authors and friends. Other times it has come from what I call “guiding words,” where certain words just hit me, as Dr. Chapman said, like a ton of bricks as they popped into my head. Often that has happened during prayer, but often it has happened seemingly randomly. I’m doing something else, then bang...guiding words come powerfully into me. And other times I think God has led me simply by raising up a conviction inside me, “I must do this.” I love what it says in Isaiah 30:21, in the good old King James, “...thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it...” That is one of the great benefits of being a Christian, of being saved, of being in a right relationship with our Creator. We can seek Him. We can come boldly before His throne. We have His Holy Spirit inside of us, and He will lead us in the way we should go, a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It comes in different ways, but as believers we can bank on this fact. One way or another, God is going to lead us. He’s going to say, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” May God bless you today. I’m Doug Apple.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Dusty Layers of Disobedience 3:06

۶ years پیش3:06

3:06

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)…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Husband Love Your Wife 3:31

۶ years پیش3:31

3:31

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)…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Pray for Extra to Give Him Who Has Need 2:30

۶ years پیش2:30

2:30

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.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
Every Plant Which My Heavenly Father Has Not Planted Will Be Uprooted 3:15

۶ years پیش3:15

3:15

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.…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
How I Pray the Lord's Prayer 4:00

۶ years پیش4:00

4:00

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)…

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

1
He Satisfies the Longing Soul 2:39

۶ years پیش2:39

2:39

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.…

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How to Handle Opportunities

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My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you! « »
How to Handle Opportunities