Fellowship of the Burning Heart

OK, so the name isn't very original. But originality is not my strong point. The name Fellowship of the Burning Heart is a phrase that has been used in a number of ways at various times. Sometimes it is a good thing, sometimes not. The name stems from Luke 24:13-35, where Jesus appears to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. After He reveals Himself, they ask each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road?"

Recently, I tried starting a blog of the same title as a book I've been working on for several years - "The Intentional Spiritual Life." After realizing that people did not have time to do a lot of reading online, I decided to put that blog on hold for now. However, the concept is still on my heart. In fact, more so recently than before. Yesterday was May 6th - my 22nd spiritual birthday. While I rejoice at how God has worked in my life over the past 22 years, I couldn't help but wonder how much more He could have done in and through me if I had been a better disciple along the way. In fact, ABIDE! Radio has this idea in mind, that we must abide in Him. Failure to do so means that we can do nothing.

What does all this mean? I'm getting there, albeit by means of the long way! Accountability is a wonderful tool. Steve Sanchez's "Everyday Club" has been a tremendous encouragement to me in evangelism. But my heart has been challenged with this thought: am I willing to be held accountable to be active in evangelism, but not have the same accountability to walk with Christ daily?

So, I invite you to join me in our own version of the Fellowship of the Burning Heart. This will be an accountability setting which will take a variety of forms to be hashed out over the next several weeks. But allow me to introduce phase one. The first part of the Fellowship of the Burning Heart is a simple form of weekly accountability.

Starting the week of May 17-23, I am inviting you to take the following challenge (it is a challenge, not a promise or a covenant):
-spend at least 1 hour a day with the Lord in prayer, worship and Bible study/reading.
-have an open heart to what God desires to say to you in those times - which means that 1 hour cannot be a half-hearted time
-be aware of the biggest obstacle to your spending that time with Him daily
-spend part of that time everyday allowing God to search your heart and reveal any sin that you need to confess and repent of

Every Sunday night (or Monday morning at the latest) I will create a new post here allowing you to "report in" on how your week went. The report will simply ask you to answer three questions:
1)Did you spend at least 1 hour with the Lord every day? The answer can simply be yes or no - maybe you missed one day, maybe you missed 7 days.
2)What did God teach you? If we spend an hour with Him every day in prayer, worship, and the Word (in addition to attending church) it is reasonable to think that He will want to teach you something. The question is whether your heart was open to hear Him.
3)What was the biggest obstacle to spending that time with the Lord? We are not looking for you to confess the worst sin you committed during the week. This is simply forcing us to be aware of the "little foxes" that come in to distract us - TV, housework, overtime at work, etc.

This is not intended to be a spiritual ego trip or a time to thump our chests with pride. I reserve the right to delete comments that begin to drift in that direction. This is simply for people serious about drawing closer to the Lord while offering accountability and prayer support.

To sign-up, please simply put your name as a comment to this post, or e-mail me at pray4rockyriver@yahoo.com. If I do not have your e-mail address, please be sure to send that to me via e-mail or pm me on Facebook. When the check-in post is ready every week, I will send you a reminder e-mail for you to report in for the week. Let's draw closer to Him together!!

P.S. - If you need a good Bible reading system, I would encourage the use of the Horner Bible Reading System. If you need information of that reading program, let me know and I will get the details to you.