Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Have you ever heard of mesothelioma? Most likely you’ve heard of it from the class action lawsuit ads on television. The ads are run by lawyers who want you to sign up for the class action lawsuit, IF you are one of the people negatively affected by the defendant. If you answer the ad, sign onto the lawsuit and join the “class,” then you are in line for any benefits that come from winning the lawsuit. But what happens if you don’t answer the ads? You don’t sign onto the lawsuit. You never join the class. No one even knows that you, too, were a victim of the defendant. What will you get if they win the lawsuit? Nothing. You didn’t join the class, so you don’t get the benefits of being in the class. Sometimes I think of salvation this way. It’

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) What is sin? The Greek word for sin in the Bible is ἁμαρτία which is pronounced ham-ar-TEE-ah. It’s literal meaning is “to miss the mark.” Sometimes we whitewash sin. We give it different names, like adultery becomes “having an affair.” We try to minimize the impact by acting like it’s not so bad, if it’s even bad at all. So let’s look at it from a different angle. Let’s look at it through Jesus’ construction analogy at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. 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…” That’s a construction

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “The other driver got aggressive, so I got aggressive, too.” That’s what my friend said. He continued, “But I don’t do that anymore. The Bible says, ‘Don’t return evil for evil,” so when another driver gets aggressive, I just let him go his merry way…even if I feel like speeding up and tracking him down!” Have you ever been there? You felt like letting someone have it, but because you know God doesn’t really want you to go around letting people have it, you back off and let it slide. That’s a great first step! But now let me show you a better way. The better way is love. In Matthew 5 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, lo

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) The laundry basket crashed at my feet. I looked up the stairs and saw my mother-in-law at the top. She had literally thrown her laundry basket down the steps because it was too hard for her to carry it down. That was a clue that it was time for us to move to a house without stairs. But as you know if you’ve done it, finding a new place to live is a huge and important decision. I wanted to come up with a prayer my wife and I could agree on. I had recently memorized Matthew 18:19 where Jesus said, “If two of you agree on earth concerning anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.” What’s the weak link in that prayer formula? It’s getting two people on earth to actually agree on something! So I wanted to come up with a precise pr

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) What do you do when you doubt? Did God ever do anything for you? Did He save you? Did He spare you from the net of the fowler? Did He forgive you and shine His grace upon you? Did He give you wisdom when you lacked it? Did He ever bring conviction on you that led to repentance? Did you ever read the Bible and feel like God was speaking directly to you? Did one of God’s people ever minister to you at just the right time, like they were on a mission from God Himself? This is what you do when you doubt. You go back and remember what God did in the past. Maybe you aren’t feeling His presence right now. Maybe He seems far away. Maybe He let you down. He didn’t do what you thought He should. Maybe you are starting to believe those who say there is no Go

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Why doesn’t God just do everything? Why does He leave anything up to human beings? I don’t know, but He does, and one great example of that is the story of Paul and Ananias. We can read the story of Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9, chapter 22 and again in chapter 26. He was called Saul at the time, and he was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians. Suddenly Jesus Himself spoke to him from heaven! I know that is strange by itself, but something even stranger happened. Jesus Himself spoke to Saul, but He didn’t give him the whole message. God didn’t just do everything. He got other people involved, including a Christian named Ananias. In Acts 9 verse 6 Jesus said to Saul, “Arise and go into the c

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) To obey is better than sacrifice. What on earth does that mean? We find this phrase in First Samuel 15:22. It’s the prophet Samuel talking to King Saul, the first king of Israel. Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice…” Saul insisted that he HAD obeyed, he just hadn’t TOTALLY obeyed. What was the big deal? Apparently it was a HUGE deal. The very next verse, First Samuel 15:23 has some of the most sobering words in the whole Bible. Samuel said to King Saul, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” So back to th

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) I was sitting in the garage, crying my eyes out. I wasn’t crying because I was sad. I was crying because I wanted to kill someone, but since that was not an option, all that was left was crying. I was playing an older boy in basketball, and he beat me mercilessly, and it was so frustrating. I grew angrier and angrier, and if there is such a thing as murdering someone in your heart, I did it repeatedly that day. My mom finally came out to help me settle down, but that day was the apex of my hyper-competitive childhood. I wanted to win, to always win, and I hated losing. One time I was wrestling a friend, which was fine, it was competitive, but then his brother jumped in and the two of them pinned me to the ground. I was spitting mad…and this was my best friend! Why was I hyper-competit

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after Thee.” That is my daily prayer, based on Psalm 42:1. I just want more of God and His wisdom and goodness and guidance in my life, don’t you? But how to get it? How to get “me” out of the way to create more room for Him? Jesus gave us some powerful insight when He said in Luke 9:23 that if we want to follow Him, we must first deny ourselves. So, what are we denying ourselves? It almost seems un-American to deny ourselves anything, and yet there it is in black and white, or in this case, there it is in the red letters, “Deny yourself.” One way people denied themselves throughout the Bible and throughout history is by fasting. It has been a simple formula throughout the ages. You want to get cl

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/ +++++++ I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) You can’t just sit on your rear end and do nothing. “But Doug, James 1:5 says, ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.’” Yes it does. I’m a huge fan of James 1:5, and I’m asking God for wisdom daily. But I’m also a big fan of Proverbs 4:5. Do you know what that one says? It says, “Get wisdom!” In some translations that comes with an exclamation point. Get it! So yes, James 1:5, but in the meantime Proverbs 4:5. In other words, yes, ASK for wisdom. Then don’t just sit there. Rise up and go get wisdom! Proverbs 4:7 says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom.” One way to get wisdom is to find someone who a

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) It was like a shotgun of glass in my eyes. Would it ruin my vision? It all started on a typical Wednesday when I packed our baby in the car seat and went to pick up a little old lady for church. It was a winter evening in Illinois and already dark. As I was driving down the highway, suddenly there was a blast of glass as my driver’s side window exploded. I don’t recall much about what happened after that. It turned out that a deer had been streaking across the highway and slammed his head right into my window. It was like a shotgun of glass to my face and eyes, and the baby was covered in glass but uninjured, thank God. Someone rushed me to the hospital, and they spent a good amount of time getting the glass out of my eyes. Just blinking felt like my eyes were full of gravel. Finally, they sent me home with an appointment to come back in the morning. My wife

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “I will NOT be taken advantage of.” That’s what we say. “I will not be made to look like a fool. If someone’s going to get the short end of the stick, it’s not going to be me.” No one wants to get the short end of the stick, but in almost every human interaction you could easily say, “Wait a second. I’m giving more than they are, and I’m getting less.” The short end of the stick. It’s hard to imagine Jesus complaining about getting the short end of the stick, which He certainly did when He died for me. So the example of our Lord is to give, to go the extra mile, and to even find joy in it. But how can we do that? No one wants to feel ripped off or taken advantage of. It’s demeaning, even humiliating if you think about it too much. Well I have a plan, a new way to look at it tha

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Have you looked down your bathtub drain lately? It’s probably just a black hole, and as long as the water drains you don’t even think about it. But you know what? A lot of things had to be done just right for that drain to work. Think of a typical ranch house here in Florida built on a concrete slab. An architect designs the house and creates a blueprint. Then every person that works on the house works off the blueprint. One thing on the blueprint is the plumbing. Before they pour the concrete slab, a plumber has to install all the pipes in the exact right places, including that bathtub drain. That drain has to be in the perfect spot. He can’t just eyeball it. He can’t just say, “This feels right.” He has to put the drainpipe EXACTLY where the blueprint says to put it. Why? Because they are going to pour concrete around it. It

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “You must have a lot of faith to believe in God like you do.” Actually, I don’t think I have all that much faith. Think of it like this. Last night I was working in the yard, pulling weeds and picking up sticks. Suddenly it dawned on me that I was really thirsty. Thankfully I had prepared a nice cup of ice water before I went out to work. So I went and took a big drink and it was so refreshing! How much faith did it take to drink that water? Not much because I have had many great experiences of drinking cool, refreshing water when I was thirsty! That pretty much describes my faith in God. In the early days I would read something in the Bible or hear something from another Christian and I would try to put it into practice. I would also hear things from the Holy Spirit, and I would put those things into practice. It didn’t even take all that much f

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) We know we are supposed to love people, but how? Love one another. Love your neighbor. Even love your enemy, but how? Do we just work harder at it? Do we need a new book, “Five Fantastic Strategies for Loving People More in Just Five Days!” I want to propose a new way, a better way, and it starts with this: I don’t know how to love people. Oh, I can think of ways to love people more, but is that really what they need? Are my ideas the best ideas? No. So the question remains. We are supposed to love people, but how? Galatians 5:22 says that the fruit of the Spirit is love. The Holy Spirit will quite naturally bear the fruit of love as we do what it says in verse 16, “walk in the Spirit.” And verse 18 talks about being “led by the Spirit.” So we will love people more when we are led by the Holy Spir

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “I’ll walk you to your car. I need to ask you something.” That’s what the man said as he caught me leaving the church one day. He said, “They’ve asked me to teach a class in a few weeks, and I was wanting to get your advice.” I’ve been teaching adult Sunday school classes and Bible studies for over 30 years, so I should know a thing or two, right? He said, “What is one piece of advice you would give me as I prepare for this class?” Well, how would YOU answer that? There are many good answers, of course, but here’s what I said. Like the Old Testament prophets, stand in the presence of God, then deliver His message to the people. Instead of thinking of creative ways to teach a Bible lesson, get alone with God, sanctify yourself to Him, set yourself apart for Him. This means g

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “She put the Bible there on my nightstand…right next to my ashtray.” Bibles and ashtrays. I knew this story was going to be good! I was talking with Mike Sharman and I asked him the simple question, “How did you come to faith in Christ?” It didn’t come until he was deep into life, married, making money and advancing professionally. His wife had become a Christian, and he had attended a Bible study with her, but spent most of the time finding things to argue about, so he quit going. But his wife had taken that one simple step, putting a Bible on his nightstand, and there it sat, like an ancient treasure chest just waiting to be opened. Then came the night he was lying in bed, his wife fast asleep, and he heard a voice, a resonating voice. It simply said, “I exist.” He wasn’t sure what he’d heard, or even

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) “I don’t think God cares if I go or not.” That’s what one woman told me. She was trying to decide whether she should make a certain trip or not. I said, “Well…pray about it.” She said, “I don’t think God cares if I go or not.” I said, “It’s not that He’s going to zap you for making the wrong decision. I just mean that He might give you some wisdom about the decision.” I realize not everyone thinks like that. I just really want God’s wisdom in everything. Someone told me, “You’re the kind of guy who probably stands in front of his closet and says, ‘God, what should I wear today?’” I said, “No…but some people SHOULD do that.” I got to thinking, “Why DO I think this way? Why do I want God’s wisdom so much? Fir

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) And say to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.” That’s an encouragement…and a warning. It was for Archippus in the Bible, in Colossians 4:17, but it’s for us, too. Take heed to the ministry with you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it. Are you fulfilling the ministry you have received in the Lord? Are your answering the call, doing what God wants you to do, what He has gifted you to do, and told you to do? “Take heed,” was the message to Archippus. That means “give this serious attention.” It means, “make sure it’s done to avoid bad results.” I don’t want bad results, so I’m determined to “take heed” and seek to do what God wants me to do. Philippians 3:12 says, “…I pres

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Cindy&rsquo;s fianc&eacute; died in a workplace accident. She was a dedicated Christian, but the loss was immense. Her family was worried about her and how she would cope. In her B.C. life, Before Christ, she relied on cocaine. Now that life was in the past. Or was it? One night the pain was so great, she picked up the phone and called her former drug dealer. He said, &ldquo;Wait a minute. I thought you were some kind of &lsquo;Jesus Girl&rsquo; now. I&rsquo;m not selling to you.&rdquo; She said, &ldquo;Look, I&rsquo;ve got cash. You&rsquo;ve got drugs. This is how it works.&rdquo; He said, &ldquo;Did you know that your dad threatened anyone who ever sold you drugs again?&rdquo; She did not know that. Then he said, &ldquo;Cindy, what you need to do right now is get down on your knees and ask God to help you.&rdquo; <p

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t say holy cow.&rdquo; &ldquo;No, not holy mackerel, either.&rdquo; &ldquo;And definitely not holy cra&#8230;.you know what.&rdquo; &ldquo;Look,&rdquo; I told my grandsons, &ldquo;Holy is a word. It has a meaning. A serious meaning. To say it any other way is to say it in vain, which means to water it down.&rdquo; &ldquo;What does it mean? Well, I think of holy as being separated, like separated from sin. God is separated from sin and He wants us to be separated from sin, to be holy, to be righteous, to not sin.&rdquo; &ldquo;Plus, when you say, &lsquo;holy&#8230;whatever,&rsquo; that&rsquo;s not what you really mean anyway. You mean something else, like, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m shocked,&rsquo; or &lsquo;That&rsquo;s amazing,&rsquo; or &lsquo;What a surprise.&rsquo; So why not just say what you mean instead of using the word holy in vain?&rdquo; One gr

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) I remember going out on Friday nights with high expectations. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be the best time ever!&rdquo; There were high expectations of fun, of making memories, laughter, good times, great music, and stories to tell. But at some point I started thinking thoughts like, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s never really all that.&rdquo; Even in the best-case scenario I began thinking thoughts like, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s got to be more.&rdquo; I didn&rsquo;t know it at the time, but those thoughts were laying the foundation inside me for something huge. What it did was finally put me in a place where I was willing to respond to God, willing to move in His direction and find out more. So do you find yourself thinking thoughts like, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s got to be more&rdquo;? If so, what&rsquo;s happening is that your heart and mind are getting ready for a change.

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Take an apple seed from the next apple you eat. Plant it in a little pot on your desk. How long until you are eating apples? Just guess. You don&rsquo;t have to be a botanist. A year? Five years? Ten years? Well here&rsquo;s your answer. Never. You will never be eating apples from the seed planted in the little pot on your desk. Why not? Because it doesn&rsquo;t matter how great the seed is. It doesn&rsquo;t matter if it gets the perfect amount of water and the perfect amount of sunlight and it&rsquo;s in the perfect soil. You will never be eating apples from it. Why not? Because the pot is too little. It can&rsquo;t grow a proper root base so the growth is stunted. And that&rsquo;s where your Christian walk might be right now. Stunted. Stuck in a tiny pot. Unable to bear much fruit. So what can you

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. &nbsp;(Luke 24:32) If you&rsquo;re being bombarded today, you need a bigger shield. If the flaming arrows are pounding your life, you need a bigger shield. If you are feeling vulnerable and weak, and you&rsquo;re running low on resistance, you need a bigger shield. What is this shield I&rsquo;m talking about? I&rsquo;m talking about the shield of faith. &nbsp; Ephesians 6:16 says the shield of faith will &ldquo;quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.&rdquo; Do you want to be more protected? &nbsp;Then use the shield of faith. Now we know how a physical shield works. &nbsp;If you&rsquo;re shooting actual arrows at me, I&rsquo;m completely defenseless just standing there. &nbsp;Pretty soon I&rsquo;m going to be riddled with arrows. &nbsp;But if I have a shield, I can protect myself. &nbsp;The shield comes between me and the arrows. And the bigger the shield, the m

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

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) &ldquo;And God I forgive everyone for everything, past&#8230;present&#8230;and future&#8230;&rdquo; That&rsquo;s my daily prayer. I pray through the Lord&rsquo;s Prayer and when I come to the part about &ldquo;&#8230;as we forgive those&#8230;&rdquo; I stop and say, &ldquo;God, right now, I forgive everyone for everything, past, present, and future. I preemptively forgive everyone for everything they might do or say, so that I&rsquo;m free to love them like You want me to love them, with the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through me.&rdquo; Yes, we know we are supposed to forgive people, but it doesn&rsquo;t end there. The big goal is to love people. Forgiveness gets all the offenses out of the equation which sets us free to love people. I often say this. I forgive people so that I&rsquo;m free to love people the way God wants me to love them, to want God&rsquo;s best for them, and t

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Your faith is not in your faith. Your faith is in God. Your faith is not in your prayers. Your faith is not in your purity. Your faith is not in your pastor. Your faith is in God, and He is trustworthy. Your beliefs and knowledge about God are probably not 100% trustworthy, but God is trustworthy. We just don&rsquo;t know enough, believe enough, obey enough, and follow closely enough to put our faith in any of that. What that leaves is putting our faith in God. I say this because many times we put a thermometer into our faith and see if it measures up. And especially other people will put THEIR thermometer into your faith, and wow, you REALLY don&rsquo;t measure up. And that hurts. And it&rsquo;s frustrating. And God isn&rsquo;t doing what you thought He would do, and why? It must be because of your lack of faith, some people will say. But then y

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) The word &ldquo;obedience&rdquo; sounds harsh to some people. They think of abusive parents, or schoolteachers with paddles, or military drill instructors. We can be leery of obeying anyone because we are free Americans and we bow the knee to no one. Plus, if we put ourselves under anyone&rsquo;s authority, they might take advantage of us. There is truth to all of that, but what about when it comes to obeying God? Well&#8230;some people put obeying God into the same category. They don&rsquo;t like the word obedience, period, even when talking about God. So today I want to put obedience into a different light. Actually, I&rsquo;m not doing it. Jesus did it, in the Sermon on the Mount. At the end of that famous sermon, He talked about obedience in a completely different way, by putting it into construction terms. Now think about construction. When you are

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Jesus said, &ldquo;Love your neighbor.&rdquo; But what if your neighbor is driving his car too close behind your car, like he would push you off the road if he could. Do you love him now? Jesus said, &ldquo;Love your enemy.&rdquo; What if your enemy isn&rsquo;t someone trying to kill you. They&rsquo;re just trying to pass you on the highway. What do you do when someone who has been tailgating you now tries to pass you? No, you don&rsquo;t speed up! You&rsquo;re a Christian, and a Christian is supposed to love people. So when they try to pass you, you love them and want them to pass you quickly and safely, so you certainly shouldn&rsquo;t speed up. More likely you should slow down a little so they can pass you safely. We&rsquo;re talking about Christians in Cars today. Jesus said, &ldquo;Love one another.&rdquo; But if your &ldquo;one another&rdquo; just

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) &ldquo;I&rsquo;m tempted to&#8230;&rdquo; Stop right there. If you are tempted to do something, stop. Temptation is bait on a hook. It&rsquo;s a lure seeking to get you off track for a short term benefit. It&rsquo;s ALWAYS a short term benefit that sacrifices long term good. The problem is&#8230;that short term benefit can seem SO GOOD. That&rsquo;s the temptation. The fish looks at the worm, and even though it looks strange, dangling in the water with a hook in it and a line reaching to the sky, still, it looks so yummy! Years ago there was a country song that said, &ldquo;How can it be wrong when it feels so right?&rdquo; That&rsquo;s the problem with temptation. Listen. Temptation ALWAYS includes a cloud of deception. If you let temptation linger, you enter the cloud of deception. You will only see the short term benefit and you will be blind

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t memorize!&rdquo; I hear that all the time, and I get it. Memorizing is work. But memorizing is like anything else. The more you do it, the better you get. And memorizing Scripture is different than memorizing some random school assignment you despised. Jesus said His Words are Spirit and Life. God&rsquo;s Word makes wise the simple. It&rsquo;s a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. It&rsquo;s food for your soul. As the comedian said about Pop Tarts, so I say about God&rsquo;s Word: how do I get that goodness in me? By memorizing. And if you say you can&rsquo;t memorize, remember that even tiny children with their teeny little brains can memorize. You can do it! As one old timer used to say, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t ask me if I CAN. Ask me if I WILL.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s not a question of if you can. It&rsquo;s a question of if you will

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) &ldquo;Doug, what&rsquo;s on your bucket list? What do you want to do before you kick the bucket? Before you die? Before your life is over, kaput, fini, muerto?&rdquo; All right, well, it&rsquo;s a short list. In fact, my bucket list can be summed up in one painting by Yongsung Kim, one of my favorites. It&rsquo;s a wintry scene in the country. It&rsquo;s a cold but sunny day and a man is out for a walk. In the painting he has stopped walking and is looking up to the sky, as if he&rsquo;s pondering the weather, or something greater. The man is painted to look like Jesus, in His robe and sandals, with a walking stick. And behind him is a sheep, one solitary sheep. They aren&rsquo;t moving. They are just standing there, Jesus looking up to the sky, and the sheep looking up to Jesus. The sheep isn&rsquo;t running off on his own. The sheep isn&rsquo;t pushin

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Three losers and one winner, and I want to be the winner! But how? In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus said four people heard the Word, but only one of them &ldquo;got it.&rdquo; I want to be one who gets it! He described the first three as being soil where the seed of the Word couldn&rsquo;t really take root. There were different excuses and reasons, but the end result was the same: no fruit. No growth. No blessing. Then in Mark 4:8 Jesus said, &ldquo;But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.&rdquo; Then He said, &ldquo;He who has ears to hear, let him hear!&rdquo; Man, I want to be one who hears, don&rsquo;t you? But how? I want to be that good soil, the best soil I can be, but how? So instead of wondering or thinking about it, I

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Can you name even one person who lives close enough to God to hear what He is saying? That&rsquo;s a provocative question, and it comes from Jeremiah 23:18 in The Living Bible. God was talking about the false prophets in Jerusalem, and He said, &ldquo;Can you name even one of these prophets who lives close enough to God to hear what He is saying? Has even one of them cared enough to listen?&rdquo; The answer was no, and the result was going to be judgment on Jerusalem. Now the question comes down to us today. Can you name even one person who lives close enough to God to hear what He is saying? That got me thinking about this. What does it even mean to &ldquo;live close to God&rdquo;? What would be the keys to living close to God? Here&rsquo;s what I came up with. Number one: repentance. God is holy and our sin keeps us away from Him, so we need t

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Do this one thing and your life will be radically changed. I call it The Matthew 6:6 Principle. In short it says, &ldquo;Go into your room. Shut your door. Pray to your Father.&rdquo; Or I word it this say, &ldquo;Get alone. Shut out the distractions. Talk to God.&rdquo; When we do that, Jesus said the Father will reward us. I want that, don&rsquo;t you? And the great thing is, it doesn&rsquo;t say we have to be great at it. It doesn&rsquo;t say we even have to be good or decent at it. It just says we have to do it. Get alone. Shut out the distractions. Talk to God. Matthew 6:6 says, &ldquo;But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.&rdquo; &ldquo;Okay, Doug, how does this reward thing work, because I

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) &ldquo;Someone passed me a joint at Lollapalooza.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s what the young man said. He had gone to the big festival in Chicago to check out the scene. &ldquo;Did you smoke it?&rdquo; &ldquo;No,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know whose mouth had been on that thing.&rdquo; Good point. But I was thinking about a bigger point. You don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s in it. A stranger hands you something to put in your body. What&rsquo;s a good reason not to? You don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s in it. And this is true for so many things in life. We make decisions based on assumptions and limited knowledge, but so much of the time, we don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s in it. Should I go to this school? Should I take this new job? Should I move to that other place? Should I date this other person? We can do

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) &ldquo;What do you think about those little Christian fishes people put on their cars?&rdquo; I like &lsquo;em. &ldquo;Why? Who cares?&rdquo; Well, here&rsquo;s why, and I can sum it all up in one word: acknowledge. Acknowledge basically means to accept something and to announce it. I can accept that my wife is a better ping pong player, but if I never announce it, then I&rsquo;ve never acknowledged it. So this is why I like Christian fishes, and Christian bumper stickers and Christian t-shirts and a host of other Christian things that some people mock and scorn and disdain. I like them because they are a simple way to acknowledge God. When a Christian athlete points upwards in a reverent &ldquo;thank You,&rdquo; he is acknowledging God. When a Christian press secretary stands on the podium very purposefully wearing a gold cross necklace,

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) &ldquo;Just give me one thing to do,&rdquo; she said. We were talking about Christianity and faith in God and salvation, you know, all the basics of the Gospel. She wasn&rsquo;t sure if she believed it, but she wanted to. I said, &ldquo;God created the universe, and He created people in His image.&rdquo; She said, &ldquo;Okay, I don&rsquo;t have any problems with that.&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;So He created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden and they had great freedom, but they had one rule, and they broke it.&rdquo; She was familiar with the story. I said, &ldquo;So sin came into the world, and it became a barrier between us and God, because God is holy. So Jesus came and shed His blood and died and rose again, paying the price for our sin, and now through Jesus we can remove the barrier of sin that separates us from God.&rdquo; We tal

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Fun was my gold standard growing up. Everything was measured by how fun it was. &ldquo;How was school today?&rdquo; &ldquo;Boring.&rdquo; &ldquo;How was the birthday party?&rdquo; &ldquo;Fun!&rdquo; &ldquo;Would you like to go visit Grandma?&rdquo; &ldquo;Does she have any new toys?&rdquo; Yes, it was the old days when we were kicked outside all summer, but I can tell you we weren&rsquo;t looking for work. We were looking for ways to have fun. That&rsquo;s not so bad when you&rsquo;re a kid, but when you hit the teenage years it starts to get a little thorny. I was not a great athlete, but I loved playing sports. PLAYING sports, not WORKING sports. &ldquo;Okay, you wanna play on the basketball team? Time to run around the gym 500 times.&rdquo; &ldquo;What??? Where&rsquo;s the fun in that?&rdquo; &ldquo;You

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) You are not your body. You have been given a body to steward. You are not your body. You have been placed by God into a body, and one day soon you will leave that body. You are not your body, and that means your worth, your value, your self-esteem, your identity are not wrapped up in your body. Your worth, your value, your identity all come from our Creator God, our Father in heaven, and He values you highly. Listen to this. America&rsquo;s founding fathers talked about our inalienable rights. Well, you have inalienable value. Your value is solid, unmovable, eternal as a creation of God, and it doesn&rsquo;t matter what has happened to your body. You are not your body. You have been given a body to steward. Maybe you don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s the best body. You should be taller, prettier, stronger, faster, better. Well, guess what. The

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) &ldquo;I want you to do a self-test over the next week.&rdquo; That was the assignment from our Sunday school teacher Rodney Rowland. &ldquo;I want you to observe your thoughts and see how much of the time you are spiritually-minded compared to how much of the time you are carnally-minded.&rdquo; So I did it, and the results surprised me. Here is what I discovered about myself, that many times my first thought on a matter was carnally-minded. In other words, it came from the sin nature, the selfish nature, the flesh, the old man. It was unredeemed thinking. But then the carnal mind was overcome by the spiritual mind. It was redeemed thinking. I would say it was the Holy Spirit rising up within me and giving me truth and light and understanding. That brings me to this Bible verse, Ephesians 4:22, which says, &ldquo;&#8230;put off&#8230;the old man&#8230;&rdquo;</

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) &ldquo;Should I take this sandwich home?&rdquo; That&rsquo;s what my co-worker asked when I walked in the kitchen and saw the ponderous look on his face. &ldquo;Should I take this sandwich home, or leave it here for tomorrow?&rdquo; Instead of answering outright, I gave him a priceless tool for decision-making. I said, &ldquo;What will you WISH you had done?&rdquo; He said, &ldquo;Well, if I get home and decide that I would like to eat the sandwich, I will WISH that I had brought it home.&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s your answer. And if you don&rsquo;t eat it tonight, you can always bring it back tomorrow.&rdquo; Last week a friend of mine in his mid-forties had quadruple bypass heart surgery. He was a smoker and if you asked him, &ldquo;What do you WISH you had done 20 years ago?&rdquo; the answer would be, &ldquo;Stop smoking, immediately.&rdquo

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) You&rsquo;ve heard of the Prayer of Jabez? Well, this is the prayer of George. George Bailey, that is, and I pray it all the time. George Bailey is the guy in the classic Christmas movie &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a Wonderful Life.&rdquo; His life was going down the drain, and he found himself in a bar one snowy night trying to drink the edge off. Everyone else was preparing for Christmas and enjoying some holiday cheer, but not George. He was on the verge of being arrested, even though it wasn&rsquo;t his fault, and the pressure was unbearable. So he sat at the bar, and under the weight of it all he finally asked God for help. Now if you&rsquo;ve seen the movie, you know that it actually starts in heaven, BEFORE George prays his prayer. The preparations in heaven are being made LEADING UP TO George&rsquo;s prayer. Other people are already

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) I was never good at fasting. I tried it off and on for years and never had what I thought were good results. I’d make the commitment, “I’m not eating anything from this time to this time. I’m really going to seek God and dedicate myself.” I gave it the old college try, and then would just feel cranky and hungry and scattered. My work suffered. Probably my family suffered, and for what? I saw other Christians fasting, seemingly successfully, but I felt no fire in it, no visitation, no moving of God. That’s not required of course, but to me, fasting felt like a wasteland, without value or fruit. Then we moved to Tallahassee at the end of 2005 and went to a church that declared a fast to start the year 2006 – but it was a different kind of fast, a “Daniel fast.” Surely I had heard of that before, but I don’t recall it. I thought there was just one way to fast, and that w

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Maybe don’t be in such a hurry to flee the church building after service. Maybe your interactions with people in the hallway are as important as the service itself. I call it Hallway Discipleship. You can also call it “loving people.” It’s interacting with people in the hallway, your brothers and sisters in Christ, your family members in the family of God. It’s informal. It’s casual. It’s not structured. But it’s just as valuable as formal discipleship. It’s Hallway Discipleship. It’s taking time to look people in the eye, say hello, ask how they’re doing, and being in no hurry. It’s listening to them, hearing about their day, their life, their family, their work. It’s not looking past them to rush off to the next thing. When we do this, when we actually listen and care, here’s what it does. It earns us the opportunity to plant a seed.

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. &nbsp;(Luke 24:32) What does it mean to worship in spirit and truth? Jesus said to worship in spirit and truth, but it&rsquo;s so mysterious. &nbsp;What did He mean? I don&rsquo;t have all the answers, but let&rsquo;s look at the context. In John chapter four Jesus was talking to the woman at the well. &nbsp;At one point she tried to pull a fast one and told Jesus, &ldquo;I have no husband.&rdquo; This is important. &nbsp;When we come to God, we must come to Him in truth. &nbsp;This woman did not. She was quibbling. &nbsp;She was being deceptive while not outright speaking lies. But Jesus called her out on it: &nbsp;&ldquo;You have well said, &lsquo;I have no husband,&rsquo; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.&rdquo; Boom. &nbsp;You don&rsquo;t come to Jesus quibbling, being evasive, being deceptive. <

I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. &nbsp;(Luke 24:32) You can&rsquo;t do everything. You aren&rsquo;t even supposed to. &nbsp;You weren&rsquo;t designed to. There&rsquo;s a whole body for that. I&rsquo;m talking about the church, which is the body of Christ. <p style='margin

+DESCRIPTION+ I&rsquo;m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. &nbsp;(Luke 24:32) &nbsp; Not keeping your word is like pouring gas on the grass. &nbsp; Have you ever accidentally spilled gas on your lawn? &nbsp; You&rsquo;ll know if you did because the grass will die a terrible death. <p

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) Sometimes God uses little scraps of words to speak mountains of truth. I think that’s what’s happening in the song “In Awe” by Hollyn. If my sources are correct, this song wasn’t written in the usual way. The singer Hollyn was literally put into a vocal booth in a sound studio and told to just sing. She said, “I didn’t have any words at first, so I took my time, closed my eyes, and for a solid hour thanked God for what He’d been doing in my life.” And out came the song “In Awe.” James 4:8 says that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. It sounds like that’s what Hollyn did in creating this song, and that is definitely what I feel whenever I hear it, like I’m drawing near to God and He is drawing near to me. And the lyrics say that. The song opens with these words: Can’t speak, So close I can feel You breathe, You’re so holy and worthy, You know where I’ve been. Can’t move, So close to You I’m see-through

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32) There’s Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree. How did he get there? He climbed, which must have been a funny sight. I have 13 grandkids. We see them in trees all the time, but we never see older people in trees. And we NEVER see older rich people in robes up in trees. But that was Zacchaeus, an older, rich, short man in robes, climbing up a sycamore tree just to get a glimpse of Jesus who was coming that way in what basically must have been like a parade. Why was Zacchaeus so interested in Jesus? Why is ANYONE so interested in Jesus? In fact, why on earth are millions of people on earth still to this day so interested in Jesus? It can’t be because he was a local phenomenon, flash in the pan, 15 minutes of fame guy. Nobody is that interested in someone like that. Rich guys in robes don’t climb trees for that. So why was Zacchaeus there? That’s one of the oddities in this story of Zacchaeus. Why was he there? Luke 19:

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 advan

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

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 tha

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 3:2

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 goi

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

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 literal

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

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,

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 fast

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