Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: I would like to pray before we begin. Heavenly Father, thank you for the wonderful things that you do. There are many, many people who are down, Lord, down and out, literally, physically, materially. But sometimes worse than that, they are down spiritually.

Flushed in their face and maybe they have everything in the world. They have a roof over their heads, and they have a husband that loves them, and children that care for them. And yet they cannot make their heavy heart smile.

And Lord, as we come to think about this today, I pray that you will touch us and renew our hearts, renew our passion, the fire that so often burns so low, that we might warm by the very nature of who we are in Christ, those around who are cold for one way or another. Help us to lift people up when they're down, Lord. We can't do that unless we ourselves are up.

And so we pray that you would open our minds and our hearts today for Christ's sake. Amen. It's hard when you're being blitzed by difficult things that are happening in your life, to be up.

It's hard to bear private grief publicly. It's hard to go on going on when you are obsessed or possessed by a personal pain or problem in your life. Joshua knew all about that. Joshua's a man. He was a family man. He had children.

And he had to look after kids for 40 years in the desert with no certain place at the end of a trek through the sand dunes. Day after day after day. No certain food, no food stores to buy them food. He knew what it was to be homeless for 40 years, with nothing but the tent that they carried on their donkeys or their animals to the next place, transient place, before they took off again.

And there is no question in my mind that Joshua knew what it was to be down, but I also know that he knew what it was to be up when he was down. Because in his relationship to God lay the secret to that. I've had people asking me for the last few weeks, how are you? We ask that all the time. How are you?

And I have been saying, under the circumstances, I am not under the circumstances. And a lot of people live under the circumstances that they're under. They can't rise above them. And today we're going to address that problem because it's a question of keeping the home fires burning when everybody else around you is going cold on God.

Joshua, Caleb, Moses, Aaron, Miriam, Eleazar, some of the priests and their sons were in touch and in tune with God. On and off, some of them. But Caleb and Joshua specifically, the scriptures say, wholeheartedly followed the Lord. The fire never died out in their lives.

And I want to know how he did that. God taught Joshua how to stir the fire of faith in his heart and keep it burning. Now, there is one thing that is a problem here. When you are living among people who are going cold on God, or have gone cold on God, or have never been hot on God, then the temptation is to go cold yourself.

And incidentally, let's look at it the other way around. If you are a believer and you are going cold on your Christian faith, you run the risk of lowering the temperature of everybody else around you. We have a responsibility to keep the home fires burning brightly in our lives.

Now, the scriptures are full of many pictures. We talked about some pictures and parables, and the symbol of fire, for example. We'll look at that in a moment. But God uses many ways and means and pictures and parables and words and stories and commands to talk about this problem. For example, if you turn quickly to the book of Revelation, in fact, in chapter three, and also in chapter two.

Two of the letters to the churches, to the young churches, that Jesus Christ, the risen Christ, told John to write down, because he wanted to send a message to these bunches of people that have found Christ, these bodies of believer. Two of those bodies of believers that are written about in Revelation had lost their fire. That was the problem.

And in chapter three, we come across that famous verse, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in." Remember that? Revelation 3:20. The context of that is the church in Laodicea in verse 14. "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write, 'These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation.

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you're lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. You make me sick,'" says God. Now, I've been hearing from some people that they don't believe God would speak like that. Well, apparently he did.

He says some people make him sick. These are not people without Christ. These are people that know Christ, that are in the fellowship of believers. They turn his stomach. Why? Because they're neither cold nor hot. Not because they're committing adultery, not because they're committing murder, not because they're lying, stealing, cheating, thieving, because they've let the fire go down.

Now he says, "You say, 'I'm rich, I've acquired wealth and don't need a thing,' but you don't realize you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. And I counsel you to buy from me gold, refined in the fire so you can become rich, really rich. White clothes to wear so you can cover your shameful nakedness and salve to put on your eyes so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and chasten."

It's because God loves these people. He is absolutely torn to bits by the fact that they have gone cold on him. And back a page into Revelation chapter two to the angel of the church in Ephesus write. And you need to read the letter to the church at Ephesus to see what a wonderful bunch of people these were. And yet, there was a problem with them by the time John writes his letter in Revelation.

"These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand. I know your deeds, your hard work, your perseverance." A lot of things they were doing right. "I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men. You've tested those who claim to be apostles but aren't. You've found them false. You've persevered, you've endured hardships for my name and you haven't grown weary."

Now, this was a great bunch of Christians. All those things were right, but, "I hold this against you. You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you've fallen." God considers a fire for him, a passion for him, wholehearted commitment, dedication to him, love for God, terribly important.

He said, "If this is wrong, if something's gone wrong, if you're lukewarm, if you're losing your fire and your passion. If you've lost your first love," he changes the picture a bit to the words of lovers. "You used to love me like a lover," he says. "Couldn't wait to be with me. Couldn't wait to spend time with me. You lost your first love.

And now all you're doing is doing. God doesn't want to know what we're doing. He wants to know how we're doing. And the what we're doing will come out of the how we are doing. How are we doing in our relationship, our love relationship with God? Incidentally, in Revelation 3, where he's talking about gold refined in the fire and white clothes and salve and being lukewarm.

All of those pictures are pertinent to those people. I remember on one of our Holy Land trips, we visited the seven churches and we visited the sites of the seven churches. And we visited Laodicea. And the guide took us to a high point on the hill where there were hot springs coming out. And she said, "Look right down there.

They've got a long way to go, but by the time they trickle down, and the people living in John's time that he was writing to had figured out a very clever water system to capture the hot springs quite a way away, and to bring them to their town. But by the time they get there, they're lukewarm."

And so when they would read in this little church the letter from the risen Christ, "You are lukewarm," they would know exactly what was meant. They were neither hot because they didn't live in the heights. They had fallen from the heights. "Consider the heights from which you've fallen when you were hot." They would understand.

Gold, it was a place for precious metals. White raiment, it was a place where especially rich, wonderful cloth was made that was whiter than a fuller could make it. Eye salve. There was an eye hospital there. Went to the site where the eye hospital used to be and they've dug up some remains of that. Eye salve, so you can see.

Jesus is always relevant. He uses pictures, he uses parables so that people will understand. And so he says that being lukewarm, losing our fire, losing our first love is something to repent of, to be sorry about. When you say you're sorry to God, do you ever say you're sorry if indeed you have not kept the home fires burning and you've lost your passion for him?

We need to know it's something to repent about. Now, how do we keep the flame of God bright in our lives? Well, it is God's job to light the flame. It is ours to keep it burning. We cannot create a passion. The fire is God's. And let's come to the symbol of fire. It's a wonderful symbol in the scripture.

It's a fitting symbol for God. When you think about it, wind, cloud, fire. The three symbols that go through the book of Exodus with those children of Israel, with Joshua. The three symbols that he was most familiar with were the symbols of the cloud and the fire. The cloud and the fire. Because it was the cloud which was the aura that surrounded the visible, immediate presence of God with his people.

If you turn to Exodus with me. Exodus 13. Okay, verse 20. "After leaving Succoth," now they're wandering around in the desert at this point. "They camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. By the day, the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way. By night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.

Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people." Now, that's a very familiar story and symbol to us. You remember when they came out of Egypt and the hordes of Pharaoh were following them. They looked behind and they saw this incredible cloud that blocked out the enemy.

It must have been a cloud that had a light about it. It was the Shekinah glory. The glory that always accompanied the presence of God himself. The aura. And at night they would look behind and they would see a fire, a pillar, a fiery pillar. They couldn't see a cloud at night, but they could see that this cloud was surrounding the very presence of God.

He was at their rear guard. He said, "I will promise to be your rear guard. I will come behind you." He was between their enemies. And so the cloud and the pillar of fire were one and the same thing. When Moses went up the mountain to get the Ten Commandments, remember the mountain quaked and fire and lightning came around.

But it was more than fire and lightning, physical fire and lightning. It was the touch of God's feet on the mountain. Fire on the mountain. A different sort of fire, a supernatural fire. And so there is a supernatural symbol of fire connected with God. You remember when Moses in the desert was keeping that bunch of scraggly sheep?

He'd blown it. God had trained him and worked miracles in order that he should lead his people out of Egypt, and he'd gone out, lost his temper, and murdered a man. Had to run away into the desert. And when he ran away into the desert, one day, many, many years later, after 40 years, he saw this little burning bush.

And he turned aside to see why the flames were flaming but the bush was not consumed. And God spoke to him and said, "Take off your sandals. The place whereon you're standing is holy ground." When the holiness that accompanies the presence of God, for he is holy, is around in immediate presence, then you have the cloud, the Shekinah glory, then you have the fire.

The bush burned, but the bush was not consumed. We're talking about holy fire. Holy fire. The old saints used to talk about holy fire. There were hymns about holy fire. And I ask my own heart, is my heart a flame for God? Is the holy fire there? The fire that burns in the heart of the Christian who is in tune with God, full of the spirit of God, doing battle with the enemy is a fire that will burn but will not consume you.

You will burn on. You will not burn out. The bush burned, but the bush was not consumed. I remember Nazarene missionary Major Ian Thomas, he had a wonderful sermon on this. "Any old bush will do." "Any old bush will do." I remember it years later, remember him preaching it to hordes and hordes, hundreds of teenagers from around the world.

"Any old bush will do. Any old bush can burn, and it will not be consumed." And there will be an immediate sense of the presence of God in the life of a woman who allows God so close to her that she's in his presence. So, you remember the story of Exodus? You remember how God accompanied them?

And you can remember, of course, Pentecost, where something like flames of fire sat on everybody's head in the giving of the Holy Spirit. And they were ignited. They had been enlightened. Now they were lit. And you might be enlightened. You might have had your eyes open to see that Christ is God and you need him and he's your savior.

You might have been brought up in church. You might have been enlightened, but until you're ignited, until you're lit, until the Holy Spirit comes into your heart and life, then there will be no burning, no warmth for anyone else. No power in your life to be up when you're down. Some of the old hymns, as I mentioned before, have this thought in them.

I love a quiet hymn, actually. It's not a powerful, heavy hymn. "Spirit of God, descend upon my heart." I don't know if you know that hymn. "Spirit of God, descend upon my heart, wean it from earth, though all its pulses move. Stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art, and make me love thee, as I ought to love. Hast thou not bid us love thee, God and King?

All, all thine own, soul, heart and strength, and mind. I see thy cross. There teach my heart to sing. Oh, let me seek thee, and oh, let me find. Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh. Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear, to check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh. Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Teach me to love thee as thine angels love. One holy passion filling all my frame. The baptism of the heavens descended dove. My heart and altar, and thy love, the flame." What a wonderful, wonderful hymn. And I think of another one, a favorite of mine. "Oh for a passionate, passion for souls. Oh for a spirit that yearns.

Oh for a love that loves unto death. Oh for a fire that burns. Oh for a prayer power that prevails, that spills itself out for the lost. Oh for a heart like thine, dear Lord. Oh for a Pentecost." Have you got an "Oh" in you today? Or is your Christianity just, "Oh?" Or is there a deep, deep soul "Oh" for a Pentecost?

It is when the Holy Spirit ignites our hearts that we are more than enlightened to the truths of the Christian gospel. We are lit for him, and the fire begins to burn. His to light us, ours to keep the fire burning. Lighting the fire, secondly, losing the fire. Now, these children of Israel had lost the fire.

And you know, some of them didn't even know it. I think of Ezekiel preaching his gospel to the children of Israel. And he said, "You don't even know it, but the cloud's gone." And he'd had this wonderful vision. The door had opened into heaven, and Ezekiel had seen the temple, and he'd seen the priests doing their thing, and he'd seen the sacrifices being made, and he'd seen the people coming to worship, and he'd seen the robes, and he'd seen all of this.

He didn't see the cloud. And then he saw that the cloud had risen from the temple, and in that long vision, it's a long chapter, he sees the cloud depart so many meters away, and then so many meters away, and then so many meters away. And what's happening in the temple? Business as usual. Priests are doing their thing.

People are bringing the sacrifices, and they don't know the cloud's gone. They don't know the cloud's gone. They don't know the fire isn't there anymore. And there is nothing worse than religion like that. Just goes on doing its thing, the ritual without the reality. Somewhere along the line, the people had lost it.

Now, they'd had it. In Exodus chapter 19, verse 8. "Moses goes back, summons the elders of the people, sets before them all the words of the Lord that he's commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, 'We will do everything the Lord has said.' So Moses brought that answer back to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, 'I'm going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking and will put their trust in you.'"

God is vindicating Moses. "And the cloud," which was the aura of God's presence, the accompanying glory, was always around Moses. I mean, can you imagine a man that in touch with God? And people could see this. See this happening. But somewhere along the way, they had lost this obedience. They had lost the possibility of being around the cloud because Moses was among them, and the cloud was around him.

And they enjoyed some of that reflected glory. And of course, we know where they lost it, but they didn't know they'd lost it. For 40 years they wandered around saying, "What's the matter? Why aren't we in Canaan?" Well, they were being disobedient. They had not kept the words that Moses had brought to them from God.

And it is possible for all of us not to know the fire needs stirring. And just to go on because it's so easy to do the task. We've got to do it. We've got to teach the Bible study. We've got to sing in the choir. We've got to help the poor. And so we do, do, do, do, do. And we don't know the cloud is gone.

I remember a very favorite preacher of mine talking about this. He's a wonderful preacher. I've listened to him many times. "It's possible," he said, "It's very easy for us to be so concerned about homiletical ability and fluency, and theological profundity, and biblical accuracy, but for God to say, 'Preach on, great preacher, without me.'" Campbell Morgan.

"Preach on, great preacher, without me." It can happen to leaders, it can happen to preachers, it can happen to teachers, it can happen to choir members and to soloists, it can happen to people that are doing relief work, it can happen to the ordinary person in the pew who doesn't even know the cloud is gone. They had had it and they lost it.

Now, there are three main reasons as I studied the book of Exodus in a quick study a couple of weeks ago. Three main reasons, and I'm going to give you the context so you can write these down. Numbers 11, verse 1. "The people grumbled about their hardships." The people grumbled about their hardships, and they lost the fire.

Now, you're going to lose the fire if you grumble. Now, you know you're going to lose the fire if you do something overtly sinful. But the reason the children of Israel lost the fire was they grumbled. They complained. What did they complain about? Their hardships. Do you complain about your hardships? Or do you say, "This is the will of God for me?"

Do you have someone giving you a hard time in your life? Have you been able to look at that person and say, "This person who's giving me a hard time in my life is the will of God for me?" Or do you complain about it? Do you grumble about it? And it says in Numbers 11, verse 1, "They grumbled about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord." Listen, folks, it's always in the hearing of the Lord.

There isn't one grumble he doesn't hear. All through the Exodus, they're mumbling and grumbling as if they don't want God to hear. Mumble, mumble, mumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. Nothing very big. It's just grumbling, griping, complaining about their hardships. You might have lost the fire because you grumbled about your hardships.

Verse 4, "They were wailing." Well, they quit grumbling and they got a bit louder. And verse 10, "The Lord became exceedingly angry." Isn't this interesting what we're seeing of a side of the character of the righteousness of God today? In Revelation, "You make me sick." Here in Exodus, his people redeemed by his hand, that he was to give his son to die for.

He became exceedingly angry with them. Why? Because they grumbled and complained about their hardships in his hearing. Secondly, Numbers 12. They criticized leaders. You're going to lose the fire if you criticize your leaders. That'll dampen the embers. The story was that Moses took another wife, took a black woman, an Ethiopian.

And Aaron and Miriam didn't appreciate it. And they said to each other, in the hearing of the Lord, of course, probably they were absolutely by themselves, but they began to complain and grumble about Moses' behavior. They criticized their brother for marrying this lady. And God didn't appreciate it. And the anger of the Lord burned against them and he left them.

Now we're talking about Moses, Aaron, and Miriam in this relational problem, family problem that has come. And God says to them in Numbers, "How dare you do this? How dare you criticize this man? When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to visions, speak to him in dreams. This isn't true of my servant Moses.

He's faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly, and not in riddles. He sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" And the anger of the Lord burned against them and he left them. "And when the cloud lifted from above the tent," burst of Miriam, "leprous, like snow."

When we criticize our leaders, that's how God sees us, a leper. And if God dealt with us like he dealt with Miriam, we'd probably have a leper support group meeting. Or maybe it would be too big to be a support group. Do you criticize your leaders? Do you pray for your leaders? Isn't it interesting why he left them?

Why they lost the fire? Why the cloud departed? And thirdly, they refused to trust God. "How long," says God, "will the people treat me with contempt?" Isn't that interesting? Not to trust God to bring you through the wilderness, not to trust God to keep you up when you're down is contempt. And it makes him mad.

Makes him angry. Provokes him. And in the book of Hebrews, I want to explain why he's so angry. Why God is so mad with us when we don't keep the home fires burning. Hebrews chapter 3. Using this as a picture, verse 7. "The Holy Spirit says, 'Today if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion during the time of testing in the desert where your fathers tested and tried me for 40 years, saw what I did.

That is why I was angry with that generation. And I said their hearts are always going astray. They've not known my ways. So I declared an oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest.'" And they didn't. Not one of them save Caleb and Joshua, not even Moses entered the promised land. Not one person of that generation that came out of Egypt save Caleb and Joshua entered the promised land.

This warning against unbelief. And then he goes on in chapter 4, "Since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let's be careful that none of you should find to have fallen short of it." Etc. Why is God angry? Because of what we're doing to ourselves. We can't enter into rest. We can't know the power of God.

We can't know the victorious Christian life. We can't know the fire that burns and all the joy of that. Joy is the flame of the fire. We can't know it, and God loves us. So he's angry with us doing this to ourselves. They're not enjoying what I want them to do. They're not coming into Canaan. This picture of this promised, wonderful Christian life.

They're going to die in that desert. Without me. God is concerned when we lose the fire because it robs us of the rest of faith, the living in Canaan, the victorious Christian life. So, lighting the fire, losing the fire, stirring the fire. How did Joshua keep the home fires burning and how can I? Turn to Exodus chapter 33.

Verse 7. "Now, Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the Tent of Meeting. And anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses.

And whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide, Joshua, son of Nun, did not leave the tent." Some wonderful little insights into Joshua.

When he became Moses' aide, he was a young man. Probably in his teenage or early 20s. A young man. He didn't leave the tent. Joshua got to go in with Moses. Joshua was always with Moses. He was with him on the mountain when he received the Ten Commandments. He helped carry them down the mountain. And now, he goes into the tent.

Moses leaves. Joshua can't because God, the cloud, the presence, the fire, the passion, the warmth, he can't leave. How do you stir the fire? You pitch your tent outside the camp and you meet with God. You find a place to practice the presence of God, and you don't leave the tent. You don't leave the tent.

And you wait until the cloud comes. Wait on the Lord. We rush into the tent. We rush out back to camp. And the pillar of cloud is still about to descend on the tent and arrives after we've gone. Wait till the cloud comes. Wait till the Lord speaks. It's a habit I've made all my life. I get on my knees and I say, "I'm not getting up until I hear your voice, until the cloud comes, until I know you've spoken to me.

Don't leave the tent until he speaks to you face to face as a man speaks to his friend. He loves you. He wants to give you a word. And notice something here. It doesn't say Moses spoke with God face to face. Moses went in that tent and started saying, "Well, this is my problem. I've got a million people in the desert.

How am I going to feed them? How am I going to look after them?" I mean, you couldn't have not blamed Moses for asking all those questions. He didn't go in and start to gab. It says God spoke to Moses face to face. God said this to Moses. It's far more important God speaks to you than you speak to him. How's the balance of your prayer and Bible study?

Far more important that God speaks to you than you in prayer speak to him. Get it the right way up. I used to pray, pray, pray, pray. I love to pray. I used to pray a lot more than I do, hours wise, hours and hours. I couldn't leave the tent. And then I married Stuart. And he used to read, read, read, read, read, read.

Couldn't leave the book. And one day I said, "You should pray, pray, pray, pray, pray like me." And he said, "You should read, read, read, read, read like I do." And so we had a little argument about this. And in the end he won it, hands down. He said, "Which is most important, Jill? God speaks to you or you speak to him?"

Well, who can win that one? Obviously, it's more important that God speaks to me face to face as a man with his friend than I speak to him. Get it balanced. How are we going to stir the fire? Pitch your tent. Wait till the cloud comes. Speak to him face to face. God has a very friendly voice. You don't need to be afraid.

Oh, he might rebuke you. Oh, he might be mad with you. Oh, he might say, "You silly little lady, I want to give you all this stuff, and and you're being disobedient. You're doing this to yourself. Don't do it." Because he loves you so much. But wait till he speaks to you face to face. Joshua didn't leave the tent.

He practiced the presence of God. He couldn't drag himself away. And the New Testament tells us that our bodies are the tent of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are the tent, the Tabernacle, same word, as the Holy Spirit. And the Holy of Holies within us is our soul. And if we have received Christ as our savior, the Holy Spirit has come in and dwells within us.

So we carry our tent around with us. Oh, we might put it to bed. We might bathe it. Some of us are losing a few tent pegs. But this is our tent. And what we have to do is meet with him inside on a moment by moment basis. Keep it holy, keep it clean. Keep the fires burning. Meet with him. Be attuned to him.

Go to bed, put your head on a pillow of scripture. Wake up and say, "I want my waking thought. Speak to me as friend speaks to friend." How do you keep the home fires burning and not hearing anything new, folks? Not hearing anything new. Keep him inside. Remember that little verse, as I told you about, that the cloud took off.

I think of Joshua and I think of Caleb. Both young men, both the same age. Well, Joshua is a little older than Caleb, actually. Caleb was a very young man. These are, they were buddies, these two. Hearts burned together. Brothers in God. And here they were, they'd had all this adventure. They'd seen the Egyptians drowned in the sea.

They'd taken part in that incredible night when the whole nation left Egypt miraculously preserved. And they'd enjoyed lots and lots of things together. And they get into the desert and they start wandering around because they're not being obedient, they're not following God. And God says, "Now, whenever the cloud is over the tent of meeting," it was over the Tent of Meeting first and then it was over the Tabernacle, for the Tent of Meeting was simply made bigger.

And the Tabernacle was made according to the pattern God gave Moses on the mountain. "Whenever the cloud departed or lifted just above and set off into the desert," the Israelites were supposed to follow it. I have this picture in my mind of this cloud with little feet on or this pillar of fire if he happened to move by night. And I can imagine Caleb's family and Joshua's family just getting the kids down.

And Joshua going to the tent door and thinking, "Oh, we have been 20 miles in the sand." Have you ever walked in sand with everything, with the kids, carrying the kids, carrying your goods, carrying the tent, trying to drive the animals, and the wind, and no water? I mean, can you imagine? And they just get to a a little oasis or somewhere where they can stop, and they get unpacked, and mother says, "Well, let's get the tent up, and let's get the kids settled."

And they give them the little story. And Joshua goes to the tent door and says, "Oh no." "Oh no what?" says mother. "It's taken off." "Again?" Again. "Pack up. Get ready." This is what happened. You never knew when the cloud was going to move. Sometimes it was a week, it says. Sometimes it was a day. Sometimes it was half a day.

Sometimes it was at night. Sometimes it was in the morning. What was God teaching them? Obedience. Keep the cloud in sight for the blessing of the children lies in the obedience of the parents, folks. And what we have to do, we have to follow the cloud. We have to keep our family around the presence of God. We have to be obedient.

I remember this passage having a lot of blessing in my life. Years ago, my children were growing up. Judy was in high school. She went off for the summer, for a holiday with her friends. David was working for the summer. He was keeping our home fires burning, literally, at the house. And Stuart said, "Well, why don't you take Pete, go to England so your mom can see him?"

We didn't see very much of my mother once we emigrated here, and she could never come. She never did come to America. And so he said, "Why don't you take Pete, leave Pete with your mom, and then join me in South Africa for five weeks ministry?" And so Pete was all excited, very enthusiastic. "Oh, this would be wonderful to go home to England."

And so I had all the children arranged and everything else, and it was all set. And I get home and we have a wonderful reunion that first night. And Shirley's three boys, Mark, Mike, and Christopher were so glad to see their cousin. Hadn't seen him for a couple of years. They've grown up, they've changed. And during the evening hours, I watched Pete's face, and I began to see a change.

And I thought, "Oh no. He doesn't want to stay." And I began to see apprehension, and I began to see all these things. He was 13 years of age, this boy in a man's body, 6'6" by then. And I remember him coming into my bedroom that night and sitting on the bed and saying, "Mother, I don't want to stay." And my heart just sank.

I said, "Pete, you have to stay." "I want to come with you." "You can't come with you don't have a visa. You can't come with me." "Then I want you to stay." "I can't stay, Pete. I got to go." "Then I want to go home." "You can't go home, Pete. This is this is what we arranged. This is what you were so excited about."

And I had just been reading this passage of scripture. And I said, "As far as I know my heart, Peter, this is what our family said was God's will for this this summer. And we're all doing it, Judy and David and you and me. And we we've all followed what we felt was the right thing to do. Now, I have to follow the cloud.

I have to go and meet Dad and do these meetings that people have take me a year to prepare in South Africa." And he just cried. Now, you cannot imagine what that was like. And you cannot imagine what it took for me to leave him in tears the next day. And it took three weeks before I got a letter. And I had a miserable time.

And Pete at the age of 13 wrote me a letter, "I'm sorry, mom, about the way we said goodbye, but it turned out to the good. Nana saw that I was unhappy, and she asked Auntie Shirley if the boys could come with me to Canterbury." She knew that I would like to visit where I've been brought up. And we all went to Canterbury.

My sister has never heard me speak. She's heard Stuart speak, but at that point, I don't think she had. This is a very obvious problem that we have on that side of the family. And here was Pete, unhappy. My sister and my mom saw it. They said, "Why don't they all go to Canterbury Hall where Peter was brought up?" Three boys never been exposed to anything, church, evangelical things. They all went to Canterbury.

And there was no room, of course, it was full. But Major Thomas happened to be there. He's never there. Standing on the step as my sister drove up. I mean, he's away 10 months of the year, like Stuart used to be. "Oh, how wonderful! You're Jill's sister? Yes, and these three boys? No, we don't have any room, but they can come into our house.

They can come into our flat. They can sleep on the floor." He took them in. He led two of them to Christ. And Peter wrote to me, and he said, "So thanks to you, and you know who," and he had a little finger pointing up to God. "We're doing all right." And I wrote in my Bible that day, "The blessing of the children lies in the obedience of the parents, however hard it is.

We follow the cloud wherever it goes." And that's not always easy. And how do we stir the fire? We hang around God. We hang around Moses. You find a godly person and you hang around them. You become their aide. You say, "Can I help you?" He was aiding Moses. He wasn't just standing there watching this man of God.

He said, "I'll help you," and help he did. That's one thing we can do to keep the fires going. And you can find a friend like Caleb, who's got a heartbeat like yours. And you can hang around scripture. You can live it. You can learn it. You can love it. You can keep it in your heart. That in the end is what is going to keep the home fires burning.

And you can burn on. The end of Joshua's life, he's still burning on. "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Last chapter of Joshua. Last thing he says to the children of Israel. Still doing it. And he says to the children of Israel, "Be wholehearted. Be fiery. Be on fire for God. Love him." And he hasn't missed a beat.

He hasn't missed a beat. And when I think of passion, and I think of people, we don't know how long we've got, do we? I want to end strong, and I want to end wholehearted, and I want to end on fire, and I want to end with this little burning bush. "Any old bush will do, burning brightly for him." I cannot help thinking of the quote that Stuart read in church quite a while ago of the young pastor in Zimbabwe, Africa, following his martyrdom.

And I want to finish with that. Because this to me is one young man that didn't have as much time as you and I have had already, probably. And yet he finished fiery, on fire for God. "I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed." He'd just been martyred. This note was found on his desk. "I have the Holy Spirit power.

The die has been cast. I've stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of his. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense. My future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, worldly talking, cheap giving and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or popularity. I don't have right to be first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean in his presence, walk by patience. I'm uplifted by prayer, and I labor with power. My face is set. My gate is fast. My goal is heaven.

My road is narrow. My way is rough. My companions are few. My guide is reliable. My mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice. Hesitate in the presence of the enemy. Pander at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up until I've stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I'm a disciple of Jesus. I must go till he comes. Give till I drop. Preach till all know. And work till he stops me. And when he comes for his own, he will have no problem recognizing me.

My banner will be clear." That's passion. That's passion. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we think of Joshua. Everybody else going cold around him, and yet flaming faith for God. And we want it. We want it for ourselves. But not only do we want that for ourselves, we want it for our children. That the fire of our devotion will light their way.

And the footsteps that we leave will lead them to believe. And God, that means keeping the home fires burning. Stirring the fire. The fire is God's. Our responsibility is to stir it. To pitch the tent, to keep the cloud in sight, to wait on God, to listen to him, to be obedient above all else. And Lord, I pray for people here who have lost the fire.

Knowing what they need to do. Knowing things need to be put right. For our God is a consuming fire, and some things need to be consumed and dealt with. Put it away. And yet I pray that all sorts of little burning bushes will burn and burn and burn like this young pastor did in a far away country. In our day, in our generation, burning brightly for God.

We ask it, Lord, that you might be pleased with us. And we ask it for our own sakes and our children's sakes. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.