On Thursday, my husband called a
fireplace store about our wood stove thermometer. In October, we had
to get a new blower for the wood stove. The thermometer for the
blower had fallen off the back of the stove and we forgot to turn it
off before attempting to reattach it to the stove. What happens when
a live wire touches metal? Any motor attached to the wire no longer
works. Thus, we needed a new blower.
While at the store to purchase the
blower, my man was asking about thermometers for the stove. We
suspected the one at the farmhouse was not quite accurate and were
looking to get a new one. The man at the store said a flue
thermometer which has a probe that goes into the flue is the safest
and most accurate, so we purchased that too. Since that time we have
been using both the flue thermometer, placed in the flue, and the one
that attaches to the side of the stove.
The problem has been that the two
thermometers don't agree. The flue one is almost always in the
underfire range, while the one on the side of the stove is in the
optimum temperature range. My man kept trying to figure out ways for
them to come into agreement, but couldn't do it.
A few days before Christmas, he came to
the conclusion that the thermometer on the side of the stove was
wrong. So, he got the fire up into the orange range of the flue
thermometer - the optimal temperature range - and the stove
thermometer was at the very edge of the overfire range. We planned
to get a new stove thermometer, but had not gotten to a place that
sold them yet.
Now back to the phone call my man made
on Thursday. He talked with the woman at the store and explained
what had been going on. The thermometer on the side of the stove, he
said, would get up to 550 degrees and we still couldn't get water to
boil on top! She said that you would be able to feel it - and
wouldn't be able to stand close - if it was that hot! She confirmed
that the best - and safest - thermometer is the one that has a probe
going into the flue! I told my man what a praise that was that
evening during family worship.
You see, we've been using the wood
stove to heat our home, along with a few space heaters. Our furnace,
which was working in the spring when we moved in, did not work
when we turned it on again in the fall. [Aside: The person who came
to look at it said even if parts were available (it's a Montgomery
Ward furnace), he wouldn't want to fix it because it's rusty, which
could cause carbon monoxide.] So, we've been going it the old
fashion way - again! Kind of reminiscent of our summer without air
conditioning, except we do have a heat source!
Now that we weren't hindered by the
thermometer on the side of the stove, we would be able to have hotter
fires and thus a warmer house! Praise the Lord! It seems we weren't
nearly as close to putting our stove in the “overfire” range as
we had thought!
As I laid in bed that night, I was
thinking about those two thermometers, “There must be a lesson for
us in that.” I thought. John 10:10 came to mind.
“The thief comes only
to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full.”
John 10:10, NIV, 1984
“The thief comes only
in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have
and enjoy life, and have it
in abundance (to the full,
till it overflows).”
John 10:10, Amplified
That thermometer on the stove was like
the thief - it was stealing us of our stove's potential to heat our
home. The flue thermometer could be trusted, like Jesus, it allows
us to have a warmer home.
How often do we believe the lies of the
enemy and limit ourselves? The enemy wants to tell us we're in
“overfire,” even when we're not! He wants us to think we've done
enough or that we're at the limit - the edge so to speak of our
“fire” for the Lord. The enemy tells us not to load any more
wood in the fire and don't allow any more air in either - the fire is
hot enough!
But the truth is that the enemy, like
our thermometer on the side of the stove, is WRONG! In fact, he's
lying to us. We're no where near being too hot. That flue
thermometer tells us we can add more wood and allow more air into the
fire. Jesus says we can open our hearts - and lives - even more to
His Word and allow the Holy Spirit to work even more freely in and
through us. We're not in danger of getting too hot.
Because Jesus came that we may have
life. He came that we might enjoy life. He
came that we might have life abundantly. He
came that we might have a life that is so full,
it's overflowing. While it might not be good
for our wood stove to get into the “overfire” zone on our flue
thermometer, I think Jesus might say it's okay to get into the
“overfire” zone when it comes to living our life abiding in Him! Perhaps that happens when we lay down our lives and pick up our
crosses to follow Him - each day He gives us breath.
“I am the true vine,
and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not
bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He
prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of
the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in
you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in
Me.
I am the vine, you
are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much
fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not
abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they
gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If
you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you
desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is
glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."
John
15:1-8, NKJV
“[A]nd anyone who
does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever
finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake
will find it.”
Matthew 10: 38-39, NIV, 1984
Then he said to them
all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take
up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”
Luke 9:23-24, NIV, 1984
Thank You, Jesus for giving me a hunger
for You - please set me on fire for living an abundant life. May I
recognize and not believe the lies of the enemy, who only wants to
limit the fire of Your Holy Spirit. May I keep my eyes fixed on You
alone as I travel the path You have so graciously laid out for me.
Thank You for Your promise of a life filled with abundance because of
You. Amen.
“Therefore, since we
are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off
everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let
us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter
of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross,
scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of
God.”
Hebrews 12:1-2, NIV,
1984
We've
now removed the thermometer on the stove and are only using the flue
thermometer.
Jesus,
may we do the same in our spiritual lives. May we remove the lies of
the enemy. May we remove any other filter we have which is limiting
our ability to see Your Truth clearly. We want only to live by Your
Truth - by Your Word. Because our spiritual lives should be over
every other part of our lives. You should permeate our beings so
completely that You are a part of all our decisions - whether
physical, emotional, financial, business, personal, etc. May it be
so in our lives as we become more Christ like in our thoughts, words,
actions, choices and attitudes today and every day hereafter. Amen.
So be it.
Jesus declared,
“Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the
Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans
worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for
salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now
come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in
truth.”
John 4: 21-24, NIV, 1984
P.S. The Siesta Scripture Memory Team 2013 with Living Proof
Ministries starts on January 1, 2013. http://blog.lproof.org/2012/12/siesta-scripture-memory-team-2013-instructions.html As I wrote this down in my
journal I realized the Lord had pointed me to the first verse I would
memorize in 2013...“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I
came that they may have and enjoy
life, and have it in abundance (to the
full, till it overflows).” John 10:10, Amplified
P.P.S. As I read this post to my family this evening, my husband commented that I ought to have added this: "Now, if we could only get our chain saw working, my man could cut wood to go in the fire!"
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