Guest Blogger: Pastor Bart Bouman

Ever been mowing your lawn (obviously not today!) and started to hear a sputter? After the sputter the engine gives its best effort to keep going only to be followed by an abrupt shut down. Out of gas! What is true of a mower is equally true of our souls. We need fuel to burn. Otherwise, we end up sputtering and shutting down. And what do our sputter/shut down cycles reveal? Often, a lack of fuel. The fuel we need is the knowledge of God through Christ. For when we see Him accurately as revealed in His Son we have the chance to “burn” that “fuel” in worship of the One True and Living God! Worship drives a life of following. A common error among the saints is to try to follow without first seeing the goodness and greatness of Christ. We are setting ourselves up to sputter and shut down. Why? Because our hearts naturally follow that which we treasure. So, in order to treasure God, we must put the “fuel in the tank” of the knowledge of God through Christ through regular intake of Scripture, sermons, group Bible studies and the like. Our faith affects our following and our faith is affected by the fuel we put in the tank. When we attend to the fuel, our hearts can burn in worship and the engine of our life can purr as it follows Christ. Take a peek at Matthew 8:18-27 to see how Jesus works to put fuel in our tank and to remove contaminants which impede a worship-filled life which results in following Him. Good news: He is the Author and Perfector of our Faith! See you Sunday, the Lord willing 😊