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Sit Close To The Fire

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”




When I was little, we had one stove in our house.  Not a furnace in the basement in some out of the way corner.  No, we had one stove in the middle of the  house that was supposed to heat the whole house.  The stove worked great from late spring  to late fall that means that from November to April the whole house was like a tundra except for one place.  If you guess that the warm spot was right on the stove, you are "spot on".  I remember many arguments with my siblings about who was going sit on near the stove.  We knew that if we got close enough to the stove, we would be warm.  Friends, in our spiritual life, the only way we can stay on fire spiritually is to stay near the fire. In the same way, that my only hope of staying warm when I was young was to hug the stove and soak up every bit of its warmth.  As a Christian, I often fail right here.  I forget that I need to spend time at the feet of Jesus If there is any hope of my staying more than lukewarm or even cold.  As we go through our day, let's intentionally carve out time for God.   Enough time during the day to totally soak up the heat from being with God.  The best thing is that there is room at Jesus's feet for all of us.  We don’t have to “jockey for position” and no one who wants to gather at his feet will be denied.  We never have to leave the presence of Jesus. The only one we’ll ever have to argue with about sitting close to the fire is the deceiver, Satan.  He will do everything to keep you from spending time with God.  Mary and Martha had Jesus at their house, yet only one of them was getting close enough to soak up the warmth of Jesus.  Satan had kept Martha from being close to the fire.  I know that in our crazy, hectic world it is hard, if not impossible, to find time for even one more thing.  For this reason, it is imperative that we hug the fire.  

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