.jpeg)
Life Around "The Fire"
Life Around "The Fire"
Come On Up So My Glory Can Come Down
What do hot dog eating contests have to do with your spiritual life? More than you might think. When contestants gorge themselves on nutritionally deficient food, they mirror how many of us settle for spiritual fast food when God has prepared a heavenly feast.
Many of us live with "hot dog spirituality" – focusing our attention on immediate concerns, earthly problems, and temporary distractions. We've become so accustomed to this way of thinking that we don't realize there's something infinitely better available. The good news? God is actively working across nations to capture our attention and shift our focus from the temporal to the eternal.
For believers, we aren't just going to be seated with Christ in heavenly places someday – we are currently seated there (Ephesians 2:6). This isn't theological abstraction but an invitation to experiential reality. Our speech reveals where our true focus lies, as what we contemplate most flows from our mouths. Through the Holy Spirit's power, we can change direction, shifting from earthly preoccupations to heavenly perspectives.
Sometimes the most challenging transition isn't from bad to good, but from good to better. We're being invited to function as conduits of God's word, vessels through which heaven touches earth. Jesus didn't establish another religion; He came to transform us into His likeness and incorporate us into His body.
Ready to drop the spiritual hot dog and feast at God's banqueting table? Connect with us at lifearoundthefire@gmail.com and join the journey upward into the fullness God has prepared for those who love Him.
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
One of the things that I really enjoy about podcasting, and especially this particular podcast, is that each episode doesn't have to be exactly like the previous episode. There's not necessarily a format that we follow for each episode Nothing wrong with that but we've discovered that for us anyway. There are times where we like to mix things up a little bit, and what I mean by that is we'll periodically have a guest speaker come in, or we will have a particular series of topics and we'll follow those and stick with a particular format. Stick with a particular format. However, there are other times where the information that we have received and we've studied myself and those that are around me who make up this particular podcast team, the information that I receive from them, that we share with each other sometimes we just like to open up and express what has taken place as a result of that material actually working its way into our lives, not just theoretically and not necessarily in a polished way, but in that real-life way where I mean that's where we live. We live daily, and I don't have everything in my day scripted out. I have a general idea and sometimes a very specific idea concerning what I want to accomplish, but then there is room. I leave room within it to be able to be flexible. Same thing goes with podcasting. There's some flexibility. And so I say that because we have been focusing our attention in on, specifically on the cross, and we've been using some scriptures as our baseline and have been giving you verse, chapter, and the basic fundamentals of where we're getting this do in this episode is we're going to set that aside and you're going to hear words that will ring true with you phrases, certain words, and you can look them up in your concordance, in your various study tools, and you'll find the reference points that I'm sharing. I'm just not going to take time to share the reference points because this is a little more conversational and not just didactic.
Speaker 1:And so there's this there's this event that takes place in America, and it might take place in different parts of the world, but in America there are these sausages called hot dogs and there's a company by the name of Nathan's. In America there are these sausages called hot dogs and there's a company by the name of Nathan's that puts together annually hot dog eating contests, a hot dog eating kind of championship. They have different locations leading up to the championship in which there are contestants that qualify. But the point of the whole, the advantage, is how many hot dogs can a person eat in a short period of time, for example, three minutes. How many hot dogs can a person eat with buns in that given point in time? That given amount of time? That given point in time, that given amount of time? And it's, on one hand, it's a real disgusting contest because you see people gorging, but on the other hand, it's hard not to watch at least once, because it's amazing how many hot dogs a person can put into their body.
Speaker 1:A hot dog, which is not really necessarily the best staple food of all times. A frankfurter, a hot dog. Frankfurt, a hot dog. However, when a person's involved in a hot dog eating contest, man, the only thing that's on their mind is a hot dog. And so how in the world does that have anything to do with the cross or anything to do with spiritual life or anything at all? Well, it has this to do with it.
Speaker 1:Sometimes in our life, the things that we settle for are the equivalent of settling for a hot dog versus having a nice full meal. We are involved in a hot dog eating contest type. Society Eating hot dogs, society eating hot dogs. Now, if that's all we know, well, that's all we're going to think about, and I'm here to tell you that there's more to life than just eating hot dogs. There's more to life than just thinking the old way that you are accustomed to thinking, that being equivalent to a hot dog, and a new way of seeing things equivalent to a very good meal. Sometimes we just need to be able to get our eyes off the hot dog and see that wonderful meal that's in front of us, so that we can drop the hot dog and get an appetite for something that's better for us, so we can think on things that are higher than what we've been accustomed to thinking on or thinking about.
Speaker 1:Because many of us are in a rut of thinking, we put our head down and we just think about what's been either told to us, or we think about what is our occupation, or we think about a problem, or we think about a problem, or we think about ourselves, whatever it might be. We are thinking about things that are, in many respects, at best, secondary, and Jesus said for us to seek, literally to put our attention, to fix our attention upon, first, the kingdom of God and how it functions, the right way of living. It's or his, his, god's, righteousness. Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and everything else will come into play.
Speaker 1:Now there's an interesting, interesting, interesting thing that's going on across the nations, and that is this God is working very hard, or I should say, god is working in a way that is designed to really capture our attention and get our eyes off of the hot dog way of life that we've been living and have our focus shift onto things that are higher, things that are above, seated with Christ in heavenly places. With Christ in heavenly places, those of us who are born again, those of us who have the Spirit of God dwelling within us, those of us who place our faith in Jesus, have received his life, have given him our life and are in covenant relationship with him. We are not just going to be, but we are currently seated with Christ in heavenly places, because that's where he is right now and he has said to us follow me. This is the beautiful, this is the part right here. This is the part right here that I have to tell you that I have not achieved some high and lofty place as of yet, and when I mean high and lofty place. I mean to really be able to clearly see and function within what's going on around the throne of God, to participate in that activity, to be captivated with that as my foremost attention. I'm getting there, but I'm not there yet.
Speaker 1:But there was a point in my life where I wasn't even as close as I am right now, because I'm learning that things happen in stages. As close as I am right now because I'm learning that things happen in stages when we live in this realm of time and space, each of our stages and each of our experiences are different, so we can't necessarily just go by. The experience that I had is going to be the experience that you have, in exactly the same time and same way, and so on and so forth. But there are similarities, there's some commonality, there's some koinonia that goes on, some connection, and that we are being called to not have our focus on just the things that we can see with our natural physical eyes or to be concerned with the things that are in our natural physical world, where that is the preoccupation of our thinking. That would be the equivalent of eating hot dogs.
Speaker 1:Now the analogy breaks down because obviously we have to focus in on certain things that we do naturally Because we live on Earth right. So we have things that we need to function according to our physical world. However, we can do more than one thing at a time and we can go about functioning here, taking care of our earthly responsibilities with having a preoccupation with divine living where Christ is, and that's the encouragement that we're expressing right now in these podcasts, providing some sense of direction, using the cross, using the work that Jesus accomplished in his life, in his crucifixion, in his death, in his resurrection and his ascension and in his soon coming. All aspects of Jesus, all things central to Jesus, it's our heart and to function together with him and to have us living in the highest level possible, this side of the resurrection, this side of the new heavens and the new earth, to live according to his ways, so much so that that's where we spend the majority of our time.
Speaker 1:And I tell you what I have fought in my life. More than anything, I have fought distractions, not necessarily even those nefarious evil things. Yes, I've fought those. I've had to wrestle down some real issues. There's one point in my life where the only thing that I could really gain victory over was I could say, and was saying out loud I'm no longer addicted to drugs, I'm a free man. I would make that declaration. Well, guess what? I am walking that out right now.
Speaker 1:What comes out of our mouth is a very important and powerful thing. What comes out of your mouth is a very important and powerful thing. What comes out of your mouth is a very important and powerful thing. We need to be mindful of the things that come out of our mouths, the things that we speak, because they create the world. They form and shape the world that we live in. Just stop and listen to yourself.
Speaker 1:Sometime you'll find that to be true. When you stop and listen to yourself, do you find that you're complaining a lot? That's where your focus is or do you find yourself making declarations about things that are higher? Making declarations about things that are higher, making declarations of shalom in your community, the very peace of God being manifest in your community? Making declarations over your community as a result of being seated with Christ in heavenly places? The things that come out of our mouths, where we invest our focus the most of our focused time, will determine what comes out of our mouth. It just does what you spend the majority of your time focusing on or who you spend the majority of your time focusing on, or who you spend the majority of your time focusing on will be what comes out of your mouth or who you sound like. It's true, it's absolutely true.
Speaker 1:Just take a moment, listen to yourself. Just listen to yourself, and if you find yourself really saying a bunch of negative things, well, now is not the time to start beating yourself up. Now is the time to start making a change, literally repent, to turn from that. Turn from that. You can. You can actually literally make up your mind. With the power of God's Spirit that lives in you, you have the ability to change. You have the ability to change course. You might not have been able to before, but with God's power in you, his life in you, you can. Now it starts there. If you don't have that going on in your life, your prayer is asking the Holy Spirit to make that real to you and for him to walk that through with you so that you can know Jesus and experience relationship with God in a very real, powerful, meaningful way and become a citizen of his kingdom, born again into it.
Speaker 1:But once you are, you have the ability to change. You have the ability to repent. You have the ability to change your mind and change your direction, and some of us need that. In fact, all of us need that At different points in our life. We need it, not just a one and done thing, but we need it periodically to repent, to change. Sometimes we've got to change from something that's good to something that's better. That can be a real challenge.
Speaker 1:Say man, my life is going along really good, man, but there's this undercurrent that's causing you to lift your attention upward, because forward is upward. In the kingdom of God it's not just linear in front of you. Forward is upward, higher things. That's where the power is really functioning from it's from God, through his vessels, it originates from God. Through his vessels, we become conduits of his word. We become conduits of his word. We become conduits of his kingdom. We become conduits of his life In the earth as it is in heaven. We become that link. Our body, our physical bodies are the legal deed. Our body, our physical bodies are the legal deed for us to be engaged in this type of activity and for us to be a living spirit inside of a living body with a functioning mind, of a living body with a functioning mind, being literally moved along by the power of the Holy Spirit. Woo man, getting a group of people together like that, thinking together, where we make declarations together, make declarations together, the word of the Lord that comes to a group of people together, oh man, who love each other, who literally love each other, who know how to tend to the needs of one another. Focus Our eyes.
Speaker 1:Getting off the hot dog, no longer having a hot dog way of life it might have been that way of life that you can get by. You can get by, you can actually get entertained by eating hot dogs. I mean, you get by, but that's really a malnourished existence. It's not the way to live. It is by eating hot dogs. But how do you get someone to drop a hot dog? Most often you do it by showing them a steak. Right, you can't have both. Well, you drop the hot dog.
Speaker 1:For some of us, it's time to drop the hot dog way of thinking, the way of speaking, the things that come out of our mouth, because we're being called into not just perceiving these heavenly things, but to actually be able to see them manifest, for us to be able to encounter and experience Not just a notion of it, but an experiential reality of dwelling there. It's true, talk about dropping a hot dog to get a full meal the heavenly courts being the full meal, but you got to drop the hot dog to get there. You have to drop that old way of thinking, that old way of doing. You have to an old preoccupation, because you have to preoccupy yourself with one thing, because that's how it happens, that's how it works by your faith, your trust, your preoccupation, your confidence, the confidence that you have. You're so confident that there are given to you the abilities to behold, by your spirit, the things that are of a divine nature and to participate in them. Yeah, this is the Christian religion. Whatever that thing is is dead. Christian religion, christianity.
Speaker 1:Jesus didn't come to establish Christianity. He came for us to be Christ-like, to be one body, not to start a new religion, another religion. We've got plenty of religions. We've got plenty of ways of doing things that claim to be the way to do things in order to have a relationship with God. Well, that's just not how it works. It's by being born into a relationship with God that comes, as a result of Him creating that divine exchange. It's God From the beginning and all the way to now and to the end. It's God and his faithfulness, but he's transforming us, he's transforming you.
Speaker 1:That's why there's a hunger, that's why you're even kind of following this episode right now, because inside you know that there is some truth to what's being said and that you're being called into participating in a lifestyle like this. Hallelujah, you and a lot of other people around the nations are being called into a lifestyle like this. To come on up, to come on up so that my glory can come on down, says the Lord. Come on up, come on up. I'm calling you to come on up, then my glory will come on down. He wants to teach us to function with him from above, before we die, before we die, before the resurrection, before the new heavens and new earth. He wants us to function like that now, in part, again, in part, in part. But even the in part has so much more to it than what has been experienced by the majority of us that if we were to just see the in part, if we were just to see the in part portion fulfilled, it would go beyond our expectations. That's how big this thing is. That's how massive God is.
Speaker 1:The notion might seem to be like a mustard seed to begin with, but God is not limited to that defined expression, who he is. He exceeds that, however, because he wants us to know him. He has given to us a demonstration of himself in his son, jesus, to completely identify with who we are. First born from among the dead, many more to follow, not to us, but in the following he has already ascended and he is there right now interceding and making declarations as a result of what he receives from the heart of the Father, and he wants us to participate in that with him as his betrothed, soon to be bride, but now. Soon to be bride but now betrothed, beloved. We're called to a high, high, high and wonderful, powerful, holy calling.
Speaker 1:Eating hot dogs isn't our destiny. Doing the same old thing, different day job grind thing is not your ultimate call. It might be a portion of what you have to go through in a few things, but once that's accomplished, move on, move on. We are all called, not just some. We are all called to participate in his divine nature for as many as believed he gave them, he gave us the right, the power to become sons of God who think like him, who think his thoughts, who think his thoughts and speak his words.
Speaker 1:Just like he knows our words as they're being formed, we begin to know his words as they're coming out of his mouth, from his heart. We know his glance, we know his ways, we know his kingdom's power, we know his kingdom's glory, we know how he does things because we are his, and he's calling us to come on up and he's calling us to step away from that particular way of thinking and way of speaking, way of doing that is inferior, and learn how to feast with him at his banqueting table. And learn how to feast with him At his banqueting table. And his banner over us is love, hallelujah. Let's pray. Hallelujah, really, father. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, really, father. Hallelujah.
Speaker 1:Glory to God In the highest and peace To his people on earth. Heaven and earth are filled With your glory, lord. We declare to be so. We ascribe to you all honor, all praise, all worship. Holy Spirit, help us to function with you like Jesus did, and reveal him to us and through us as we go about our daily lives, and we pray these things in his precious, powerful name Yeshua HaMashiach, jesus the Messiah. Amen, amen, amen, amen. All right, folks, I love you. If you have any thoughts, questions concerns. Please feel free to drop us a line at lifearoundthefire at gmailcom, or type in lifearoundthefire and look us up on the web. We would love to hear from you in the meantime. God bless you, adios amigos.