Today’s Fire is Not Found in Yesterday’s Ashes

Have you ever seen a great movie followed up by a sequel that was a bomb? Or listened to a CD that was amazing and turned out to be a Grammy winner only to be followed by a CD that no one wants to buy by the same artist?

I was recently involved with helping coordinating a men’s gathering. This was the second year I've been involved. It was unanimous that last year’s men’s event was over the top amazing. This year fell short. The event was good but not great. The planning seemed much more difficult and the attendance diminished from last year.

 The sequel was good but not as good as the original. I was puzzled. As good as it was, and yes God did show up, men accepted Jesus as their savior, I still felt disappointed. The speakers were better than last year; the worship in song was good
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After months of planning and putting things together, this week was a good time to get some time to get caught up on things around the house. Today (Saturday) I mowed the front and back lawns. Then it was time for some weeding. I sat alone in the quietness of my back yard pulling weeds enjoying the sunny afternoon. I love the quite, it allows me time to reflect and process things. Alone with my thoughts I began to speak to God from my heart.

I thought about the men’s advance last weekend and the unsettled feeling that remained in my heart. I thought about the time and effort that went into preparation. All the sudden my mind was filled with the thought “Today’s fire is not found in yesterday’s ashes.” What? No really what the heck does that mean? Then I thought about how the men’s event of 2010, it was so good and 2011 felt mediocre. Then the thought came again “Today’s fire is not found in yesterday’s ashes.” Exodus 16:4 says: “Then the Lord said to Moses, I will rain down bread from heaven for you." The people were to go out each day and gather enough for that day, on the sixth day they were to collect twice as much so they could have enough for the seventh day and not gather manna on the Sabbath.

One of the teachers at the retreat spoke about authority in Christ; he said authority doesn’t come through just knowing about the name of Jesus but through intimacy with him. That intimacy is a daily issue.Yesterday’s connection with the touch of the Spirit doesn’t fill the need for today. A lot of Christians try to be filled and live on Sunday’s sermon all week with no contact with Jesus at all during the week. No Bible study, no fellowship, and especially no intimate prayer time in his presence. The problem is we become famished and malnutrition sets in. We begin to live in what the teacher called soul famine. The funny thing about someone who is starving, almost anything begins to look good to eat, even things that will cause harm. A person adrift at sea dying of thirst will drink salt water, eventually it's the salt that dehydrates him and will kill him. When our souls are starving if we don’t take in what we know to be nourishing for a long enough period of time we will try to fill it with things unimaginable. Things that would normally be obvious to us as unhealthy to our spirit. Things that are not supported in God’s word. All because we are starving for the things of God but we don’t go to him to find what we need. If we try to just live our Christian life from Sunday to Sunday we will eventually see other things as better than the eternal promise offered to us. Our experience will become like the manna that was kept too long and would begin to smell foul and turn to worms.

We need a fresh daily portion of intimacy with Jesus to live in the power and demonstration of the Spirit who wants to live in and through our lives.

All we need is found in his presence.

Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all things will be added to you.

Today’s fire is not found in yesterday’s ashes.

Stay close to him, the entry point is found in a prayer closet.