← The Wake-Up Call
The Wake-Up Call
Why Not Be Completely Changed into Fire?
00:21:29
Lent is the journey of transformation, of reversal even, in which we are turned from ashes into fire.
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Foreign. Nation. It is Wednesday, March 4th, in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm John David Walt, and this is your wake up call. I am excited to be here today. I'm 59. It's. It's the first day of the rest of my life, and yours too. And we're waking up together. Today we're going to meet with Jesus. He's been up. He's waiting for us. He's eager to get this day going. And so we begin with consecration unto the Lord. You ready? Deep breath. Jesus, hang on. Where? What am I thinking? Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right, good stuff. Today our title is entry or entries entitled Today why not be completely changed into fire? Remember, we're. We're revisiting Transfiguration Mountain. We're going all the way back to Exodus today. Chapter three, verse one. Here now, the word of the Lord. Now, Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father in law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God, the word of the Lord. Now consider this. Remember our watchword for the week, Metamorpho O. Say that with me. Metamorpho O. Sometimes it takes getting a little ways down the mountain to fully take in what we saw on the summit. I picture us still in a bit of stunned silence as we walk down the trail. We want to talk, but we don't quite know what to say. It's like we saw Jesus turn completely into fire. Here's the mystery. Though. He was on fire, but he was not burning up. And then we remember this. Now, Moses was tending the flock of his father in law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to the to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire. From one within a bush, Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. That's Exodus 3:1 and 2 when we recall those 10 words. The Bush was on fire, it did not burn up. We know that's exactly what we witnessed. And then I remember this story from the Desert Fathers. One day, Abbot Lot went to see his teacher, Abbot Joseph. And Abbot Lot said, Abbot Joseph, the best I am able, I keep my little fast, my little rule, my little devotions to the best that I am able. I keep my meditation and my prayer, and I try to cleanse my heart of earthly desires. But Abbot Joseph, it is not enough. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Now, Abbot Joseph listened closely to his student. And when Abbot Lot was done speaking, Abbot Joseph got up out of his chair. And he reached his arms and his hands up into the air until he stretched out each of his ten fingers, and out of the tips of each of his fingers shot pure flame, 10 burning candles, there in the middle of the desert. And Abbot Joseph said to Abbot Lot, why not be completely changed into fire? Now, as we descend the mountain, you ask, do you think Jesus wants to transform us into burning bushes? And I say, yes, I think Jesus wants to transform us into burning bushes on fire, but not burning up. Lent is that journey. Lent is the journey of transformation, of reversal, even in which we are turned from ashes into fire. And so you ask, how does Jesus do this? And I say, remember our watchword for the week, Metamorpho, O. Say it with me. Metamorpho. O. And we keep walking down the mountain. Let's pray. Our Father, how we thank you for your son, Jesus. Lord Jesus, you are fire. You are the fire. And if you are in us that makes us fire, would you lead us on this way of being completely changed into fire, being transformed into your image, your very likeness? It will be for your glory, for others gain, and for our good, praying in your name, Jesus. Amen. The journal prompts today. So the question to you is, why not be completely changed into fire? Would you want that? Something tells me you would. Something tells me you do. That's one of my favorite stories of all time. Abbott Joseph and Abbot Lot. It's the Desert Fathers. It's a ancient tradition. There's lots of stories from the Desert Fathers, and they're trying to lift our eyes to behold what eyes can't see the mystery of Jesus Christ coming into a human person. He's a human person. You see what we see in Jesus. And that's something I deeply believe. That as we see it in Jesus, as we can behold it, we can become it. If you can see it, you can be it. And so we're asking, lord, open my eyes that I may see. Open my ears that I may hear. Open my heart. Maybe we'll sing that one today, that old hymn. That's what we're going for. We're trying to wake up. Why not be completely changed into fire? You know, that's the amazing thing about that burning bush story. It says that Moses, once he saw it, he couldn't unsee it. He just probably kept like, hang on. It wasn't an anomaly for a bush to be on fire in the, you know, hot sun of the desert. Sometimes bushes would just combust into fire, they'd be so dry. The mystery was not that the bush was on fire. The mystery was that the bush was not burning up. Okay. That fire was of another order of magnitude. It was able to cause the burning without consuming the thing being burned. That's the presence of the Holy Spirit in a human being, forming the person of Jesus in us. We can't make that happen. No amount of matches, match sticks, lighter fluid, gasoline, none of that can make that happen. You can try to counterfeit it, and that's really what we do a lot. We try to counterfeit the work of the spirit, but you can't. This comes from God, and it comes to the ones who want it. So that's. That gets us the deeper question for the journal today. Do you want for your life to take on the brilliance of fire? The fire of heaven, the fire of God, the presence of Jesus, the illumination of the Holy Spirit? You know what Moses said when he saw that day? He. He saw that bush, says he noticed that the bush was on fire, but it was not burning up. And he said to himself, I must go see this strange sight. You see. You know it. When you see a burning bush out in the world, you're like, there's something going on in that person. There's something happening in that home, in that family. There's something happening. You get enough of those people together, you're like, there's something going on in that church. And I find it irresistible. I can't really. I can't unsee it. I can't unhear it. I can't take my eyes off it. I want to. I want to go see that. I want that. You see, that's the Spirit himself drawing us and drawing others to us. That's what awakening looks like. I always say the awakening is the journey of love from Jesus to a person, through a person, to a person, through a person, to a person, until it reaches me. And then it goes through me until it reaches you. Isn't that what we want to be a part of? That's what it. That's what Metamorpho O Looks like that's what we're going for. Let's just get focused and ask God to bring it to. To come on, to come and bring that in our life. All right, you ready to sing? Dad's going to help me sing today. Get ready. All right, everybody. You see we've got our favorite worship leader with us today, my dad, David Walt. And we're going to sing a classic hymn today. I alluded to it earlier. Tell them what we're singing, dad.
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Open my eyes that I may see.
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What's the number 311 in this book?
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311. Dad has the. Tell them what the name of the book is.
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Name of the book is Our Great Redeemer's Praise.
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And he has the large print edition which we have available. But we're going to sing this great hymn, Open My Eyes. Then it's Open My Ears, Then it's Open My Mouth. And I think that's a good order, isn't it? First off, let me see, let me hear. And then after all that, I'll go, yeah, I'll go. I'll respond. And that's, you know, that's. That's the real pattern that we're going after. It's. God reveals and we respond.
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Amen.
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We. He. He's got to go first. We don't start this thing. We respond to what God is doing. And that's why.
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But if we quit responding, he quits talking.
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That's good, dad. It's so like, if you ever wonder why you're not hearing from God, it might be time to just hit reset. That's right. And say, let's. Let's start again. I'm going to.
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It's. It's not a one way conversation.
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That's right. That's good. Okay, so dad, I'll try to pitch us here. We'll sing all three verses.
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Open my eyes that I may see Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me Place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp my. Set me free Silently now I wait for Thee Ready, my God? Thy will to see Open my eyes Illumine me, spirit divine Open my ears that I may hear Voices and flutes Thou hast is clear and while awaiting the ear Everything false will disappear Silently now I wait for Thee Ready, my God? Thy will to sing Open my ears Illumine me spirit divine Last verse Open my mouth and let it bear gladly
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the
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Open my heart and let me prepare Love with my children Task me there Silently now I Wait for thee Ready, my God Thy will to see Open my heart Illumine me spirit divine.
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Wasn't that interesting how the verse, the last verse starts with open my mouth, but at the end it says, open my heart. And that's the big idea. We open our eyes and we're even asking God to open our eyes, right? We're asking God. It's not as simple as, like, well, I want to open my eyes. I need your help. Open my ears, open my mouth, open my heart. It's simple. It's this acknowledgement that, you know, the world kind of believes. If it is to be, it is up to me.
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Amen.
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But the truth is, if it is to be, it's up to him, it's up to God. And that requires a kind of a humility to show up and to be quiet, you know, to. Every time. What does it say? Every verse says those silently. It says silently. Now it's like, be still, right? Pay attention, pay attention. It reminds me of that word from the psalmist. I think maybe it's 46, 10, where he says, be still and know that I am your God, that I am God. So our part isn't that hard. God has the greater part. We have a part to play, right? And, and that's, that's what we're, that's what we're going for here. So. Hey, thanks for joining us today on the wake up call. You can't see her, but we got a special guest today in our studio here in the seed house. It's Ms. Sandra Leake. Okay? Ms. Sandra lives in Gillette. She's from Dumas. She was my piano teacher as a kid. And of course, she's lifelong friends, their family, her and Mr. Skippy. You remember Skippy Lake, don't you?
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Oh, yeah, very well, very well.
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He'd always say, hey, sports fan. That was his slogan, that was his salutation. Well, Ms. Sandra, you know, she's on the wake up call every day and she said, I'd like to come down there and see, see, you know, y' all film it. So now today she knows how the donuts get made. And we're delighted to be bringing them to you. We're thankful that she's joined us today and I'm very thankful back in, in Arkansas after all these years. Ms. Sandra Leake, my piano teacher, third, fourth, fifth grade, is now my neighbor and she's in our church at Gillette Methodist, so.
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Amen.
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All right, well, it's time to hit the field, gang. Get your seeds. We got sowing to do today. We're going to come across a lot of people that we're going to be able to encourage and support and reach out to. And, you know, you're going to be that burning bush today, on fire, but not being consumed, because at the core of your being is the presence of Jesus Christ. So for The Awakening, I'm J.D. walt.
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And I'm David Walt.
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And we'll see you on the field.