One of my favorite stories from the 1700's is the explosive ministry of John Wesley.
People would travel from miles around to experience his passion and zeal.
Someone once asked Wesley why so many people came to hear him preach.
His answer was,
“I set myself on fire, and people come to see me burn.”
Passion and zeal are always marks of a movement of God.
Proverbs 29:18 is true: "Where there is no vision, people abandon ship."
But the inverse is also true - if you rally around a passionate vision, people flourish.
Starting something from nothing requires passion and zeal.
It's the fuel for forward movement. It's like gravity to the unbelieving soul.
This is the whole idea behind hosting our monthly worship services at The Dow Event Center.
Don't stick your toe into the water... Cannonball! That's zeal.
My aim as we continue moving forward toward monthly worship services this fall is to douse every action, every word with passion and zeal.
From our kids ministries to our worship band to our messages, I want our region to come see people who are fully alive and on fire for Christ.
C.H. Spurgeon once wrote:
If you desire to see souls converted; if you would place crowns upon the head of the Savior and lift His throne high, then be filled with zeal. For, under God, the way of the world's conversion must be by the zeal of the church...
Zeal is stimulated by the thought of the eternal future.
It looks with tearful eyes down to the flames of hell, and it cannot sleep.
It looks up with longing for the glories of heaven, and it cannot but rouse itself.
It feels that time is short compared with the work to be done;
therefore, it devotes all that it has to the cause of its Lord.
