Hearts on Fire

October 21

(Luke 24:32 NIV) ““They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?””

(Jeremiah 20:9 NIV) ““But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.””

(2 Corinthians 4:6 NIV) ““For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.””

When Cleopas and his friend recognized Jesus as Lord, they realized why their hearts had been burning within them. Jesus lights a fire in His people, and the wise disciple will tend it and feed it. You will be seen as strange if your heart burns for Jesus. You can be fired up about a political candidate or a sports team, but if your fire burns for the Lord, you will be seen as odd. So be it! What the church needs today are believers whose hearts burn within them. We need prophets whose hearts are on fire and who are weary of holding God’s word in, like a “fire shut up in their bones.” We need disciples who will allow the light of their fires to illumine the darkness of our world. We need Christians whose fire for Jesus cannot be extinguished by the wet blanket crowd of agnostics that surround them -- whose fire will burn down the gates of hell from the outside. Stoke the fire! -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day