Be Zealous! And Other Admonitions

I just read Eaten Me Up by Jacob Mammen, and I was so glad to see one of my friends being zealous that I just had to write about it! If you look at my record as a blogger in terms of the number of articles I've written over time, you can very clearly trace my own spiritual rises and falls. At times I was focusing my efforts on other outlets, but that record more or less tells the story - to my shame in some instances and to my credit at other times.

Revelation 2:4-5
Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works.

Many will recognize this as being part of Christ's message to one of the 7 churches - Ephesus in particular. This is actually a topic that I've been studying very heavily recently, and I find it to be no coincidence that I've seen several others writing about this very same subject in the last couple of weeks - Jacob even quotes part of one of those messages in his post about zeal!
It's no secret to anyone that I've talked to in the last month that I'm in the middle of a spiritual high. I've been more zealous in the last month than I've ever been, and the only reason that I haven't written more than I already have, to be completely honest, is because I was having so many ideas so quickly that I haven't had time to write it all up nicely. I've been taking copious notes as I go, and I want more than anything to share every bit of it! That's why I'm taking the time to share Jacob's article on zeal right now: because, as inspired as I have been recently, I was even more encouraged and stirred up by it! If I can manage to stay this way, I know that I'll continue writing until I get it all out. If not, you'll see another gap in my writing record until the next time I get really passionate about God's way.

I was going to send Jacob a private "thank you" message, but I thought it would be instructive and helpful to share that thank-you for everyone to see, because this is exactly what I've been advocating in my last few articles. Firstly, I've already admitted in this article that I've gone through some prolonged low-points where I wasn't doing much study on my own, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, because what I've found is that whenever I do put in the time to study God's word, He shows me things worth sharing and gives me inspiration and desire to share them. On top of that, I found that his article really had an uplifting effect on me tonight, and I hope that through expressing this publicly that the two of us, and you also, can be encouraged by our mutual faith. The truth is that I was hoping to get another article finished tonight, and I was feeling a little down about not wrapping it up today - his article was just was I needed. Finally, and no one has probably noticed this, but I have kept my blog extremely self-contained. I can only think of one article in all this time in which I've ever referenced someone else's work outside of my own. There were even times when I wanted to do exactly what I'm doing right now for Jacob's article, but it just felt too awkward for me. It felt like a burden, but hopefully you will see how I've learned that the opposite is in fact true.

To finish up, I'd like to just bring out a couple of quotes from his article that really spoke to me - may his words encourage and stir you up also!

When was the last time you were truly passionate about God? Can you remember how and what that felt like?

Has zeal and passion for God’s house eaten us up? I’m talking about the house, the temple inside each of us where God and Christ lives. Are we zealous about driving the sins that have ensnared us out of our lives? Are we passionate about overturning bad habits and addictions and replacing them with new, holy, and acceptable ones? Are we—the proclaimed followers of Christ—so eaten up and consumed with the Spirit of God that we purge out of us all evil thoughts and selfish ambitions, replacing them with the thoughts and desires of our God!?