Welcome to the official launch of the Burning Ones blog! We are excited to finally be able to share the beginning of this blog with you. We have carried it in our hearts for quite some time and feel as if now the Lord has given us a green light to begin this journey together. I say a journey because it will be exactly that. There is a destination that we have in sight and it is this—to love Jesus above all things and honor Him with all of our life. The destination could be better communicated as an unending process. Succeeding in this process looks like remaining in this process and allowing our hearts to continually be open to and yielded to the processing of the Lord that He has especially designed for each one of us. 

With that said, we are excited to begin our journey into loving Jesus and learning how to love Him well. He is worthy of being loved well. 

Part of learning to love Him well is developing an understanding of things in our life that are currently diverting our attention from Him. Lesser lovers, distractions and attractions are constantly warring against the passion of our hearts in an attempt to cause us to become satisfied with things that are not Him. When the eyes of our hearts are not wholly fastened upon Him our hearts easily begin to fashion idols. We were created to worship. We were created to express our devotion. Our worshipful devotion was always meant to be fully understood and demonstrated best when expressed to Jesus. 

All of life is about Him, for all things have come from Him and return back to Him (Rom 11:36). But when He is not our focus we quickly replace Him with things. At times the things can even be good things—jobs, career paths, dreams, gifting, ministry, etc. The point is not whether or not we view it as right or wrong. The point is that if He is no longer central and our supreme obsession, the other things will always be wrong, because the pursuit of them will have eclipsed the joy-filled restful contentment of, again, being wholly fixed upon and satisfied by Him.

He must be enough for us. This is where we start because this is everything. Know this though, it is not just a starting line; it is the starting line, the fuel throughout the whole process, and it is the final destination. Loving Jesus and learning to love Him well is a journey. And over time we want to be able to give more of our heart and life to Him. We want to have a greater yieldedness about us. It should be our desire to increase the capacity of our heart by allowing the Holy Spirit to give the proper eviction to things that have become distractions and attractions that are currently resisting me from being able to love Him the way that I know He desires from me. 

Again, our team’s purpose in initiating this blog will seek to purely serve the already stated purpose. We will write and post weekly in a way that we hope and pray will continue to be likened to a tank of gas being thrown on a heart that is already burning for Him. And, for those who may need it, to kickstart the fire on the inside that may have simmered down to burning embers. 

We love you guys and look forward to a fruitful journey together!

-Michael Dow

Founding Director, Burning Ones