KINDLING WOOD

N.T.Meek

Nehemiah 13: 30,31; Acts 28: 1-6.; 2 Timothy 1: 3-6

Doubtless it is an exercise with every godly person that the testimony as we know it should continue. A good many persons have been lost, as we say, to the testimony, though we have to speak carefully because we must not think that the testimony is completely confined to us. In fact it is a sorrowful thing, hardly a right thing, to speak of 'us', because it immediately tends to bring in a sectarian thought. But I suppose we could rightly say that many in our own day have departed from the recovery which the Lord initiated early in the last century. We might well ask ourselves the question as to how the recovery is to continue. This is a very real question, a very pertinent one, and it could be, of course, that the Lord is going to come very soon and there will not be the need of another generation. Nevertheless, in the glad tidings God's hand is stretched out, and while it is stretched out the Lord will remain where He is. As we seek to preach we give thanks for the fact that God's hand is stretched out in mercy. Yet in another sense we know that, whilst that hand is being stretched out, the year of the Lord is running on. As we look round our localities, almost without exception, we cannot but ask the question as to how things will continue. As for the time of the Lord's coming it is in other hands, it is not for us to decide that, but it is for us to do what we can to ensure the continuance of the testimony as we know it and as we are privileged to have our part in it.

I have read about kindling wood, not structural wood, but wood that burns, wood that has to be replaced. We have often spoken about the wood-offering in Nehemiah, the only book in which it is found, I think. It is not in Moses' prescriptions but it comes into this recovery book. And we find that some committed themselves to bringing the wood-offering. There is the altar and the wood and the offering. The altar was essential and the offering was essential, but the wood also was essential, because if no wood had been brought the offering would have remained as it was. It may have been in order, it may have been an excellent bullock, it may have been there in all its parts, but if the wood had not been ignited and if there had not been wood there to ignite, then the offering would not have been consummated. When the wood was ignited, then the fragrance of the offering ascended. You see, beloved, what an important element it is. It is like our thanksgivings; we may have impressions, we may have something very rich, maybe something we have read, something we have pondered, it may be something that we have really made our own and therefore we are entitled to bring it, but we need also to bring the wood, otherwise the fragrance is missing. And we may ask ourselves, what is the wood? What is it that makes the offering so fragrant, makes it acceptable, causes it to rise to God's nostrils? What is the wood? It is wood that is expendable, it is not wood that abides, it is not the temple wood that is encased in gold, it is wood which has to be constantly renewed. I think it relates in some way to the feelings, the emotions, the fervency, the zeal, the reality of expression that must go with the presentation of Christ. How easy it is for us to sink back into a form of words. Persons in denominations, as we say, who pick up the hymn book we use, say they do not find a hymn book like it that contains such choice words, that has such rich expressions, especially in service Godward. We have become so used to it that we may, alas, tend to take it for granted. But these choice expressions do not really ascend very far unless there is fire with them - feeling. We have the privilege in our day to bring our own offering and dress it; but unless we also put the wood there, unless there is the emotion there, we fall back into the state of mere profession.

So it is to be continually brought, continually renewed, the fire was never to go out; that meant that the saints were to bring it, bring it and bring it, and constantly renew it. How is it maintained? Where do we find this wood? I ask myself, where do you find it? Sometimes you do feel on fire, I hope you do. Sometimes when you hear the gospel preached you really feel on fire, your love for Christ is burning. You sing Daniel Otsing's hymn (No 131) and you can hardly feel anything else but on fire; you would be a pretty hard, cold creature if you did not feel on fire when you sang that hymn. How is it maintained? We are not always singing hymns, not always hearing gospel preachings; it must be in the secret of our own links with Jesus in entering into His presence, developing those secret links and appreciation of Him, so that they are constantly being renewed. You come out with wood for kindling, come out with feeling, beloved. How much it is needed in all our gatherings! Not mere sentiment, not human sentiment; that is obnoxious to God, but real feeling. Think of what feelings were in the Lord's utterances when He was here. "I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened", Luke 12: 50. How feelingly He would say that! It was no mere academic matter to Him. "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer", Luke 22: 15. How did He say it? Let us think about these things. We should enter into the spirit of the Scriptures and the spirit of the Lord's words in ministry, as well as into what He actually said. The Lord would have spoken with feeling, the desire would have been evident; commensurately with His words the reality of emotion and feeling would be there. Let us not be afraid of it. In fact I would rather say, let us cultivate it, let us cultivate this idea of bringing what can catch fire, that is the wood, what can really move the saints, and move God too. That is the greater thing, to be able to minister to God. Unless the wood is aflame the offering remains there. Sometimes you get up and you feel you take part more or less because you have to, no one else is doing it. How cold we can get, beloved! Let us learn to get into the Lord's presence. If there is no one with you sing a hymn to yourself. It is going to warm you, it is going to affect your emotions. I suppose that is one feature that God has created in us, that hymns do affect our emotions. May it always be so, that we sing not only with understanding, but "I will sing with the spirit", as Paul says, 1 Cor 14: 15. I do not think that just means that he sang with the Holy Spirit's help, but he sang with feeling, with fire in his soul, in his bosom. How one likes to hear a good address that keeps smouldering in your heart! Or a good preaching, how you love it and keep going back to it and relighting the fire, as it were. Well, may God develop the ability to speak to one another in this way, to speak like Paul did, it says he "so spake that a great multitude... believed", Acts 14: 1.

I read about him in the Acts, and here the fire is not Godward, it is for man. They have all been shipwrecked. Paul was pretty much a worn out kind of man, I think. What I mean by that is, he was always an active man, from his conversion onwards you can see that, that Paul always went heart and soul into what he did, and he spent himself. I suppose when he lay down, unless he prayed, or thought about the brethren, that he went to sleep straightaway, because he spent himself. "The sleep of a labouring man is sweet", Eccles 5: 12 (A.V.). If you looked at Paul, probably his frame was quite emaciated, his energy spent. He was that kind of person, preaching, testifying, shepherding; always spending himself, burning away. Here they have been shipwrecked on the island, they have had a very unfortunate incident and have just about reached land and they are all cold and it is raining. Luke is very touching, is he not? You say it is not very spiritual to tell us it was raining on the day of the shipwreck. It is, there is something in it, you have to picture the thing. I tend to read the Scriptures much too academically. They did not have lifeboats or lifebelts in those days, but they made it; they came on bits of wood, spars, furniture, a bit of the forecastle perhaps. They made it and came to land all dripping wet. You can just imagine them coming out of the water and struggling up the rocks or beach and the rain making it worse. There are few things more miserable, to my mind, than being in pouring rain at the sea. The country looks far better in the rain than the sea does. Beloved, we should think about these things for they actually happened; we have not had it happen to us actually but we should enter into the spirit of it.

The barbarians have lit the fire. Perhaps we would hardly give them credit for it. It shows, I think, that we do not want to write off anybody. You say it was just natural kindness. Well, yes, but it is something that is of God, some element that has remained in mankind that is of God. But Paul, weak, his body characteristically spent, goes round and gathers sticks; he wants to keep the fire going, he wants the testimony to continue, he wants persons to get thoroughly dry and warm. I suppose they all got round this fire; it tells you how many they were, two hundred and seventy-six (see chap 27: 37). It comes down to the last figure, does it not? It shows that the Spirit counts every one. You do not want any one to be lost, you do not want it to be two hundred and seventy-five, you want it to be the two hundred and seventy-six. And you want to make and keep them warm. And Paul gathers sticks and puts them on the fire. By the viper's action you can see that the enemy is against this. Beloved, if there is one thing that has happened since Mr Taylor's time it is that the enemy has been seeking to weaken and to stop the recovery, and he is against this idea of keeping the brethren warm and the testimony continuing. If there is a fire maintained, even if every one is cold and wet, they will stay around. But someone has to keep the fire going, someone has to make the meetings worth while coming to so that when you go home you say, O, it was a good warm up tonight! Beloved, it is easy to get too routine. We have meetings regularly, and thank God for that, but let us remember that every one is supposed to be special and is supposed to leave us moved and warmed. It is not the south wind that is warming here, it is the fire, and someone is putting on the fire, really someone is spending himself; that is what is happening. That is how Paul lived, he spent himself, did he not? Are we not measured by it, beloved? We think we do a little bit, we think we keep things going in our way, but really we are a long way behind, a very long way behind. But the Lord would encourage us to bring this wood, bring it and put it on the fire, show that what you say you mean. It is that kind of thing, I think. May we always be preserved in keeping to the truth, but with it let us also make sure that we are not lacking in emotion that is appropriate to the truth.

Where I read in Timothy Paul counts the generations. He says, in grandmother's time it was all right, that generation was all right. And in mother's time things were held. Now, he says, Timothy it is your time. It seems to me we are now about six generations on from the beginning of the recovery. I do not know just how much you count for a generation; I suppose it could be about twenty five years. So you go back six twenty fives, a hundred and fifty years, around 1830. The recovery was then under way, burning, burning brightly, too, I would say. They brought the wood in those days, I have no doubt they did. One old brother, they tell me, walked from Banbury to Quemerford for the meetings, sixty something miles I made it on the map, and he walked it. That disclosed a yearning to be at the meetings, did it not? What do you think he added to the Quemerford meeting? Maybe he never took audible part, but his presence there would have added some fire to that meeting, maybe it would have set some other brethren alight who only lived up the road. These are simple things, dear brethren. It is now about six generations, I suppose. Will it continue? This is really the question that Paul is asking Timothy. He says, I am persuaded, Timothy, it dwelt in thee also, only it seems to be flickering a bit. How often we know this, beloved, in our own experience, there is no blaze, it is dying. Would that we could touch each other in such a way as to revive it. He says "I put thee in mind to rekindle the gift of God which is in thee". You have some gift, I judge from one point of view that every one has a gift. I know there are distinct gifts but I think every one has a gift, you have something. After all, if you get close to somebody you may warm them.

I think we have known that. I can remember brothers who visited me when I have been a bit low. You never forget these things. Most of the addresses we hear we forget, most of the preachings we forget, most of the detail of the morning meetings we forget. Thank God, they mean something at the time, but what you never forget is when someone drew near to you, when they did not have to come, when they called on you with the object of cheering you up. That is in principle like someone bringing the wood, not exactly for an offering to God but bringing this kindling wood.

Well, beloved, let us carry on this kind of service so that the recovery does not die out, because it is the only way, it seems to me, by which things can continue, otherwise we fall into Laodicea, into lukewarmness and a form of words. Mr Bellett said something about Laodicea which I do not know that I have digested; he said that the lukewarmness of Laodicea was almost worse than the mixture in Sardis - a very striking thing that! In Sardis there were a few names which had not defiled their garments. That means that most of them had. We have to watch mixture in our meetings, mixture with the world. Sardis is Protestantism, gone into the world, just a few names kept clear but most of them gone. How the Lord feels that! But Mr Bellett said He feels indifference even more. Laodicea is the lack of heart for Christ, lack of warmth, lack of heat. So Paul says to Timothy here, Rekindle it. "I put thee in mind to rekindle". You do it Timothy, and when you get this letter go up to your room and ask the Lord to give you something to do; start catching on fire again and catching on fire those who are going to follow you, those who are going to hear you. As I said, beloved, most addresses are forgotten, some of them get into books but most of them are forgotten, but the spirit of a meeting is not forgotten and that is the kind of thing that is involved in this kindling wood.

Well, may the Lord strengthen us. Sometimes we feel a bit cold ourselves and we do not feel that things are going too well, we feel that we are just getting into a routine; let us get into the Lord's presence, contemplate perhaps His sufferings. If there is anything in us of God at all it will begin to burn. When the Lord went with those two to Emmaus He began to get the kindling wood alight, it began to burn. May the Lord help us in it; may we be exercised ourselves to do it too, not only in relation to God's holy service that the offering might go up in all its fragrance, no part of it being missed, but also by warming the brethren, seeking to bring in warmth especially where things are chilly, where there has been a disaster, or a near disaster, or where persons may be feeling the rigours and the sorrows of things. May we bring it in beloved, may it not be missing. And in ourselves, in our own soul's exercises, may we know what it is. We sometimes sing that hymn - we will sing it again - about those 'Who tasted Thy love, and whose hearts were on fire-' (No.194). May we know it for His Name's sake.

SUNBURY

22 October 1983