“The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out”
About half way through my mission, I was the oldest missionary in our ASL program. In fact, if you were to add up the total time the other 4 elders had been in the field- I would still have held more time. In a span of 1 month we had received 4 new ASL Elders from the MTC. I was responsible for training all of them and introducing them to the In-Field-Missionary-Experience.
Lucky for me, we all got sick and tested positive for Covid-19.
That meant a 2-week quarantine. We played Risk, studied ASL, sent thousands of texts, deep cleaned the apartment (it still looked awful the next day as 5 young men were living in it.) I decided I was going to start studying the Old Testament. I’m sure my experience is not unique, but, growing up I was taught over and over again to read the Book of Mormon every day and to focus my studies on the Book of Mormon. I wholeheartedly believe the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel and is true, but, this ‘mega-focus’ on the Book of Mormon created a strong unfamiliarity with the Holy Bible. I knew all the basics- Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses……Daniel…and then Jesus… There was still a ton I didn’t even know that I didn’t know.
A few games of Risk later, the quarantine was over. I kept burning through the Old Testament, finding precious gems on every page and eagerly sharing them with these 4 young elders. I still remember the day I found MY verse. Training had been taxing. I felt mega inadequate- I wasn’t confident in my ASL, teaching, planning, or even obedience to mission rules. How was I supposed to lead these 4 new missionaries in doing God’s work? I kind of felt like I had already failed by not fully taking advantage of our 2 weeks stuck inside. I felt like my motivation was empty.
Then I was reading in Leviticus 6 (and as you can guess by the title, something really special happened on verse 13)
Verse 12 says: “And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings”
Followed by a clear and instructive commandment from God: “The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out”
I was not a priest learning how to perform sacrificial rituals in the Tabernacle, yet I had other fires that God was commanding me to always keep burning. I had my own wood that I was responsible for adding to my fire every day. In that moment I knew God was commanding me to keep the fire burning.
I must’ve read the verse 10 times, shocked at how a verse so ancient could be perfectly meant for me. I grabbed a stickey note and made this:
(Yes, I was also learning Hindi while I was assigned ASL. I’ll talk about that later)
I kept this sticky note or one like it with me for the rest of my mission. It was a constant reminder to keep my fire burning by adding wood every morning. so- What is the fire? What is the wood??
Throughout the scriptures fire represents a ton of things- Bible dictionary has a pretty sweet list:
However, The spirit first taught me the principle of “Keeping the Fire Burning” through the lens of ‘Motivation.’ Motivation does act very much like a fire- If you don’t feed motivation- it dies. I would even describe the feeling of pure motivation like a fire burning inside. Some of my ‘wood’ for the fire of motivation includes: working out, prayer, completing a goal, setting a goal, inspiring stories, envisioning success… and 60mg of caffeine
If you go back to Leviticus and really consider the fire in those verses, you’ll remember it is burning in a very specific altar- the Altar of Sacrifice (My Blog- I’ll Capitalize whatever words or phrases I want to.) The Israelites would offer burnt offerings of lambs, bulls, flour, turtle doves, and other things depending on what the sacrifice was meant to accomplish. Sometimes the whole animal, sometimes just fat or the liver. Sometimes the priest would wave the offering in the air. However, none of that really matters much.
The point of it all was to point us to Jesus Christ. Sacrifice was the means by which covenants were made. Sacrifice was how they were freed from their sins. Sacrifice represented Jesus Christ. The animals sacrificed remind us of Jesus…so do the Altar, Fire, and….. almost every other aspect of the tabernacle.
So how do I keep the fire of ‘Jesus Christ’ burning? I’m not sure I’m supposed to answer that one for you, you’ll have to learn what it means on your own. But here’s a cool story where God teaches more about the ‘Fire of Jesus Christ.’
1 Kings 18- Legends will know this story as the ‘God-off’ of Elijah and the priests of Baal. At this point there’s been a mega drought for 3 and a half years that Elijah actually started because of the people’s wickedness. Elijah gets a meeting set up with Ahab. Ahab is like ‘You’re the one making all this drought crap happen’
Elijah is like ‘It’s not me- its all yalls’ wickedness making the drought happen’ then he issues his challenge:
“Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal 450, and the prophets of the grove 400”
They meet up at Mount Carmel and…you know the story. Elijah proposes a contest to see whose God is real. Whoever can get their God to send fire down first wins. He taunts and teases them as they continue to try everything to get Baal to send down fire. Then it’s Elijah’s turn. He has a altar made of 12 stones then asks for 12 full barrels of water to be poured out on his altar and sacrifice. He offers a prayer, pleading for God to hear him and answer his prayer so that Israel may repent and turn to the real God. The prayer was answered:
“Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench”
The story continues, but the point I want to make is that no matter what ‘fire’ you’re focusing on right now- The fire of motivation, the fire of recovering from pornography, the fire of getting into shape like Ethan Bernard- if you choose to involve Jesus Christ- incredible things will happen. It doesn’t matter if your personal fire is barely burning, a single flame, or drowned in 12 barrels of water! God can make a puddle of water into a fire so bright, hot, and powerful it will lick up the dust and burn literal stones.
I’ve had times when my fire was a puddle. There were times I genuinely believed I would struggle with Porn till I died and go my whole life keeping it a secret- I’m so glad I didn’t. When I brought my weaknesses to Jesus Christ, He turned my sad fire pit into a reasonably sized campfire of Hope. Since then I have been adding wood to the fire every day.
Keep the Fire Burning.
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