Does Your Gospel Set You Aflame?

Have you ever seen Bonanza, a classical American Western t.v. show that aired between 1959 and 1973? The show chronicles weekly adventures of a family defending their land and helping the community.

As a little child, I remember being at a relatives house and seeing the opening of this show, over and over again. (See it here) In the intro, a fire begins as a small little flame on the north side of this family’s Ponderosa/territory.

And then, it spreads and spreads, until the whole land is burned in flames.

Being extremely young, I wasn’t super interested in four men on horses, riding along the desert lands of Nevada. I didn’t care about the clear acting, or predictable story lines that lulled me fast to sleep.

What I was captivated by, was the flame. 

It was like as a child, I was mesmerized by it. I could watch the opening over and over again and never get tired of it.

A flame, starting small, starting at home…growing, and growing, until it consumed everything. 

I couldn’t get enough of it.

I open God’s Holy Word this morning, as the house lies quiet, before birds start singing, before the morning sun comes bending through the trees, and little feet start running down our stairs.

Acts, Chapter 13. The church in Antioch was worshipping and fasting (verse 2), and God separated Barnabas and Paul, calling them and sending them by the Holy Spirit. (verse 3 & 4).

And I wonder when in America, did we get this idea that the walk of Christianity was meant to be done alone? When did we begin to pride ourselves on lone soldiers, fighting for a faith that we alone must stand, without the community of other believers?

Paul and Barnabas were commissioned TOGETHER. Not one man or woman braving the world alone; but a partnership of two men filled with the Holy Spirit, preaching and healing in the name of Jesus. (verse 9)

And the message these two men of Holy Anointing brought to those around them? It was words AND power. It didn’t exonerate one, or exclude the other.

The gospel, in full, comes not just with dry bones of doctrine, leaving hearts cold and lifeless.

When we carry the call and anointing of God, we preach the gospel and it is His power, running through our veins, opening hearts, and leaving a seed in places we cannot reach, in our own strength.

It is like the flame in the opening t.v. show of Bonanza. A flame that starts small, but spreads by the grace and power of God, to not just our region, but all those around us, for His glory and the salvation of many.

Fire, stoked by the faith of people, spread by bold believers, ignites the hearts of strangers; changes the world as we know it.

Acts 13:46 says “Paul and Barnabas spoke out plainly and boldly, saying, it was necessary that God’s message [concerning salvation through Christ] should be spoken…”

Did you hear that? Not just LIVED, but SPOKEN.

Yet, in todays world, we….including myself…can become hyper focused on simply LIVING the gospel, without actually speaking it.

We have let those who have been offended silence us into a corner, because well, the truth is, too often, too many have spoke the gospel….Then, corrupting it with their own un-sanctified lives.

Still, Scripture tells us, we must have “fruit”, evidence in our walk, relationships and every day lives. And to judge those who truly follow in His footsteps, we can’t just HEAR, we must also SEE the visible difference of following Jesus through other people’s lives.

We must repent. Turn away from the lives we have lived, the sins we used to boast about, in our own corners of darkness. We must continually be willing to be sanctified, washed, and made new again and again and again.

Oh, that we might let that FIRE race through our own lives first. Convicting us, redeeming us, and changing us….So that we can be pure vessels who then share the gospel with others.

And yet, the gospel without persecution just isn’t Biblical.

In Acts, over and over again, onlookers would rally others against Paul and Barnabas. Chapter 14, verse 19, they even stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead.

And yet, we think and can be falsely taught, a walk of faith will come without trails? Without persecution? Without onlookers rallying against us over and over again?

When friends, the true Gospel is offensive, because it is by Grace we have been saved, not through the powers of any man.

And man will always resist when you speak against their flesh. When you tell them they are useless in earning, gaining, or attaining what only God himself can give.

Our flesh doesn’t like a Gospel of grace.

We want control, mathematical formulas, a systematic stepping stone, to where we can make our own way to divinity, without the hand of God reaching to us and calling us higher.

We love “magic” stones we can buy in stores, cards and folklores. Or a ten step plan on how we can go see this “guide”, burn this incense, or say those list of things that grant us even more access into the mystical….

When isn’t everything we seek simply made by God? Stones? Stories? The flesh of men masking as vain leaders? The spiritual world of the unseen, we try to grab onto for control….

When the truth is, God has simply asked us to surrender.

A Gospel of Grace.

That is what Paul and Barnabas preached. A gospel that asks us to lay down our attempts to climbing our way to God. A gospel that demands we lay down what we know….we lay down our lives….

And take up the cross of Christ who is higher than I.

Then, in Acts, 14:3, we see that fire burn across the page. Paul and Barnabas “spoke FREELY and FEARLESSLY and BOLDLY in the Lord.” They continued to bear testimony to the Word of His grace, and began performing signs and wonders by their hands.

Yes, we give up in this gospel of grace, but it is then His fire is free to live and move through us. 

Fire, like the opening of Bonanza, burning first through our hearts, then through our land, and finally to the regions all around us, near and far.

As a child, I loved seeing fire overtake the map of the Ponderosa. But more so, what if our lives were a flame? Burning because of grace, lit by worship and fasting, moving in the hearts of many…

How might our world change?

The One (Jesus) who bore the cross and died for our freedom. What if His Blood alone made a way? Shedding our sins. Captivating our lives. Pouring through Scripture, so that we could be alive….

Preaching and performing the gospel through our mouths AND our hands?

The days of preaching are not over. The time of miracles has not ended. He is still alive today. And He wants to use YOU.

Won’t you let Him start a fire in your heart, so you can burn with the love of Jesus…

Changing a dying world…

With a heart fully aflame.