Heat Wave

Dear Worshipers,

Pastor Drew made me laugh as we returned from staff lunch today at the close of something we were commiserating over together when he chided, “ At least it’s not hot.” To which I added, “Or muggy.” What a joke. We are experiencing the dog days of summer when it really seems as though the sun has gotten hotter. But I wonder about the condition of your soul?

Are you white-hot for God and His glory? Are you ablaze for God, consumed by a passion to know Him and make Him known? When others look at you, is it primarily Jesus they see shining through you, or have you marred his image through your living? What better day than today to ask God to forgive you, and restore the flame of your first love in Him?

I was reading in Hosea earlier today and was reminded how the Jews had grown cold in their love relationship with God. These people who regularly heard and recited Deuteronomy 6:5 [“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength”] had failed to practice it. Instead they had begun to practice the detestable worship of the people around them. It is hard for me to understand how they could have drifted so far, until I look at my own heart.

Hosea slams the people and calls them to repentance. When I read his words, “Come and let us return to the Lord” I ask the Spirit to show me where I have gone astray, where I have replaced Him as my object of singular affection with something else. Ask yourself the same questions. Let us return to the Lord, that we may burn with a zeal for Him and His glory.

It is hot out there, but let us burn ever hotter for the glory of the King whose very presence burns infinitely hotter than the inferno of the sun.

In Christ,

Pastor Scott