Keep The Fire Burning

A fire does not die in one dramatic moment. It fades when nobody adds wood, when the flames shrink a little at a time, and when the glowing embers finally cool. That is the picture we sit with today as Sister Deb Osborne challenges us to look honestly at spiritual drift and the quiet habits that can pull a believer away from a close walk with God. 

We build the message around Leviticus 6:13, “The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out,” and a key truth from the tabernacle: God ignites the original fire, but the priest is responsible to maintain it. We cannot create Holy Spirit fire on our own, but we can choose to feed what God started through daily devotion. We name the “spiritual wood” that keeps faith alive: prayer, reading God’s Word, worship with your whole heart, obedience, and repentance when you fall. 

We also confront the trap of “Sunday fire,” when church energy is real but short-lived, and Monday arrives with cold embers. Deb shares how neglect often starts small: prayer slows down, the Bible stays closed, worship becomes routine, sin becomes easier to excuse, and conviction grows quieter. Then we get practical about clearing out “ashes” like pride, bitterness, and unforgiveness so the flame can breathe again, and we end with hope: if there are still embers, God can fan them back into a bright fire. 

If you want Christian encouragement, practical spiritual growth steps, and a renewed hunger for God, press play, then share this with someone who needs their fire rekindled. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what “wood” helps you stay consistent day to day?

Transcript

Show Welcome And Ways To Connect

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And I woke up the morning with mama. I woke up the morning with mama. I woke up morning with mama.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

You're listening to Bible Talk with Sister Deb Oswald. I'd like to give a thanks and a shout out to all the supporters and listeners of the show. Hey, go visit our website at H O R 421 Show. Buzzsprout.com. Always keep us in your prayers as we spread the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And if you'd like to contact Sister Deb, you can email her at osburn never K at gmail.com. That's O-S-B-O-R-N-E, D-E-B-R-A-K at gmail.com. And if you'd like to support the show, you can support it through PayPal slash H O R 421 or you go through our website at H O R 421 Show.bussprout.com. Now I give you your host Bible talk Sister Deb Osborne.

A Message About A Fire

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hello, everybody. Well, I feel like I've been feel like it's been so long since I've been here. Awesome, awesome to be back in the studio today to spread the word of God. I have got some sinus issues going on, so if I sneeze, I'm sorry. Uh please just bless me and go on. I'm sorry. But anyway, um I want to talk to you today about a fire. So so think about this. Have you ever sit and watched a campfire after everybody's after you stop putting wood on it? Okay? You ever just sit and watch it? The it doesn't go out all at once. It just slowly dies. At first the flames get a little bit smaller, and then the light grows a little dimmer. And while you're just sitting here watching it, next thing you know, the only thing is you have the glowing embers. Which I love the glowing embers. I think they're really cute. They're really pretty at night sitting by a fire. But the thing about it is, when those embers start glowing, next thing you know, next thing you know, the fire dies. And so I I wanted to talk about that today because spiritually, that's exactly how a lot of people, many Christian people, drift away from God. They don't just we, they, whoever, don't just wake up one morning and decide they're going to quit serving God. No, they don't, it don't work like that. That's not how it goes. Uh it they just it don't feed their fire anymore is one of the problems of Christians today. They do not feed their fire. So it uh Leviticus 6 and 13 says, and the Bible says, The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar, and it shall never go out. So

How Faith Fades Like A Campfire

SPEAKER_01 3:40

the Lord uh the Lord set this fire. This is the altar that they built, you know, back in in those times in Leviticus. Um the the the Lord built this fire, and he he was telling the priest and the Israel Israelites, this fire has to stay you, it's never to go out. You know. Now, God didn't tell the priest in Leviticus to light a new fire every day. He told them to keep the fire that he already gave them burning. All right? And then the priest didn't set the fire. The original fire was set by God. If you read in Leviticus 9, I didn't go all the way over there and read all of that, but Leviticus seems like a really cool book to read. I didn't haven't read all the way through it. But God in Leviticus 9, I think, started this fire. It was the priest's responsibility for maintaining it. And to me, friends, listen to me. That's exactly how it still is today. That's true today. We can't create the whole the fire of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We can't create it ourselves. When we get down to that altar and we pray and we give our lives to the Lord, we really and truly, really and truly dedicate our life to the Lord and ask the Lord to come into our heart and be our Savior and He knows our heart and he knows we're we're getting ready to be on fire for him. When we do this, he lights that fire in us. He gives us that fire, he gives us that Holy Spirit fire. But it's up to us. It is our responsibility from that point on to keep our hearts surrendered to God and to keep our fire burning. Amen. And the thing about it is the priest in that time, he had to continually place wood on the altar. Right? And it was just wasn't, you know, wasn't anything exciting about this wood. It was just wood. But without that wood, the fire would die. And that's exactly how it is spiritually today. If we do not have, I'm gonna say spiritual wood, if we don't keep spiritual wood on our fire, our fire will die out. And friends, you know what? Today we're gonna say spiritual wood, it's our prayer. Spiritual wood is reading God's word. Spiritual wood is worshiping the Lord with all of our might. Spiritual wood is obedience and listening to his voice and doing the things that he tells us to do. Spiritual wood is repentance when we do something wrong. That is our spiritual wood. And if we don't keep our fire, if we don't keep that spiritual wood on our fire, that that's what keeps our fire burning, people. That right there. Now, the thing about it is you don't nobody has

Leviticus And The Fire That Stays

SPEAKER_01 6:45

to let just if you're sitting in a campfire, I'm sure you know, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, whoever out there, uh nature lovers know. You don't have to walk over and actually put a fire out. A fire will go out by itself. Amen. A fire has to have fuel. It you don't have to go over and put it out. It'll die by itself. Amen. And that's how we are today. That's the same, it's the same as true spiritually. Nobody just, okay, so so think of it like this. Nobody just accidentally grows closer to God. When you give your life to the Lord, you don't accidentally just start being close to the Lord right then there. You have to work at it. It takes attention, it takes discipline, it takes daily surrender for us to draw close to our Lord. We have to do these things. When we start drawing close and we start doing these things, and we die daily and we give ourselves daily to the Lord and we give our hearts to him daily and we repent for our sins and we do these things. That's what gets us close to the Lord, right? Amen. But again, we have, once we start feeling that closeness and we get that Holy Ghost and fire, we get that spirit, that spirit fire down in us, we have to maintain that fire daily. See, listen to me, friends. Yesterday's fire won't keep us warm today. Amen. And the thing about it is, is not only do we have to try to keep our fire going, we have an enemy out there that's that's looking on every corner, just waiting on us to slack. Amen. And he's waiting right there to watch, and he watches. And he doesn't fear a church with the beautiful buildings, he fears believers who are on fire for God. On fire for God. And when we let our fire get cold, that's what he wants. He wants us to have a cold worship. He wants us to have cold churches. Amen. Imagine yourself walking into the tabernacle one morning and the altar is cold. There's no smoke, there's no flame, there's no sacrifice. When you walk into the tabernacle and you saw that, you felt the coldness, what would be the first thing that you would think of? You would think, wow, the fire was neglected last night. Somebody didn't keep wood on the fire last night. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar. It shall never go out. The Lord told the Israelites that then, and he's telling us that today in his word. We should never let the fire go out. Now imagine yourself walking into the tabernacle before sunrise. Let's just say the Israelites were sleeping, the camp's quiet, but inside the courtyard of this tabernacle, there's one man awake as the priest. Right? And he doesn't begin his day with conversation. He begins his day at the altar. His responsibility is not to light a new fire, it's to make sure yesterday's fire is still burning. We have to make sure that yesterday's fire is still burning today. We don't have to start a new fire. The Lord doesn't start a new fire every morning we get up. He gave us that fire. We have that fire with us constantly, 24-7. People, it's up to us to keep that fire stoked. Amen. Amen. It's up to us. Now this priest, he what he does is he removes the ashes and he adds fresh wood. He prepares the sacrifice and he tends the flame. And he does this every day, every single day, not just Sunday, not just Wednesday, every single day. Because God didn't tell him to keep the altar beautiful. God didn't say him, didn't tell him to keep the altar decorated. God told him, keep the fire burning. Amen. And not just once a week, you know, and not just only during feast. You know what I'm saying? Every day. Every single day. Why? Because my friends, God wanted Israel and us today to understand something. He wanted us to understand that his presence wasn't just going to be treated like a special occasion. He wanted us to understand that we don't just keep the fire burning on Sundays. We don't just keep the fire burning on Wednesday. We don't just keep it burning on special occasions

The Daily Fuel That Keeps You Hot

SPEAKER_01 12:10

on the day of the feast or the day of Passover or whatever days that they, you know, have all this. That's not what he said. He it was to be the center of our lives and their lives every single day daily. Keep the fire burning. You see, we have some Christians out here that have a Sunday fire. Oh yeah, they'll they'll come into church on Sunday mornings and uh dressed fit to nuns and and and uh worshiping passionately for an hour. But when Monday morning rolls around, the embers are cooling down. The flames are cooling down. Friends, listen to me. God never intended for us to live from one spiritual experience to the other. He never intended to be the fire that we light up on Sunday morning is supposed to do us till Wednesday. We weren't supposed to live from Sunday to Wednesday on that spiritual fire. We're supposed to have it twenty-four seven, seven days a week. Monday through Sunday. Seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, every minute of every day, we are supposed to keep the fire burning. He never intended for us to live from one spiritual experience to the next. He desires a steady daily walk with him. That's what he desires. So, you know, friends, we don't no one just walks past a roaring fire and five minutes later, nothing but cold ashes. No, it don't just do that. You know, flames shrink. A fire just dies gradually. Okay. If it if your fire is not fed, it dies gradually. I think I've already said this once. The flames shrink, the heat fades, leaving only glowing embers. And finally there's nothing left. Nothing whatsoever left. People, the same thing happens to us spiritually every day. People, we rarely just wake up one day and decide that we're not going to serve the Lord, that we're going to abandon God. It don't do that. It it starts small. Prayer slows down. We stop praying for ourselves. We start praying, we stop praying for people. Our worship becomes routine. Our Bible stays closed and up on the shelf. Remember that word, dust on the Bible, dust on the holy word. That's a song. And that's what goes on today spiritually. And the next thing you know, next thing you know, our sin becomes easier to excuse, and then conviction becomes quieter. And little by little the fire grows cold. Friends, that's why this verse is so important. That's why this verse is so important that we hear it and that we let it sink in. People of God's saying to us today, don't wait until the fire's gone before you pay attention to it. Tend it every single day of the week. Tend

Why Sunday Fire Is Not Enough

SPEAKER_01 15:40

it every day. We have to remove the ashes. Everybody that's probably took care of a fire in a cold stove, or we have to remove ashes. You see. And that's the thing about ashes is ashes tell us a story. Ashes tell us that there once was a fire there. We have ashes in our lives. We need to get rid of the ashes. Because we can't make another fire from yesterday's ashes. We cannot. We have to stop dwelling on yesterday's victories. We can't hold on to yesterday's victories because we're going to start neglecting today's relationship with God if we do this. We have to get rid of yesterday's ashes. See, yesterday's ashes is yesterday's testimony, uh, yesterday's revival. Uh we need to clear all the ashes out. The ashes of pride, ashes of bitterness, ashes of unforgiveness. All of that has to be cleared out. All of them ashes have to go before we can the fire will burn freely again. We can't start a new fire on old ashes. We can't do it. Amen. When was the last time you added fresh wood to your fire? My friends, fish fresh wood today looks like timing God's word. Opening up the word of God, searching, seeking. Prayer. Praying diligently, fervently. I don't know if I even said that word right. Praying for your friends and your neighbors and your moms and your dads and your brothers and your sisters, the sinners in your family, the sinners around you. Worship when it hurts. When life hurts, worship. Repeating, repenting rather, when we fall.

Remove The Ashes Blocking The Flame

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Those things are fresh wood that we need to add to their fire daily. Amen. You know, friends, I want you to think back for a second. Think back to when you very first walked with God. Your fire, when you got down to that altar and you meant it in your heart and you gave your life to the Lord, he hit you right then and there with that spirit of fire. Your fire shined brightly, warm and full of life, then you slow down. We slow down, all of us, me included. We don't we don't keep fuel on our fire. We grow complacent, we grow satisfied, we uh we're okay with the way things are going. We before long, those those hot flames begin to shrink. The glow begins to faint, and eventually all of those all that's gonna be left are dying embers. And our fire dies because we didn't tend it. Like we should. You see, a lot of Christians, most Christians don't lose their fire because they just quit loving God. You know, they lose it because, well, you know, life happens. Life becomes busy, you know, prayer becomes occasional, Bible reading becomes a chore, worship becomes routine, and so little by little that flame begins to fade. And you know, I believe God understood that his people would face these dangers because that's when he said That's why he told Israel the fire shall ever be burning upon the altar it shall never go out. And see, when God was teaching Israel, he was teaching them something much more deeper than maintaining a physical fire. He was teaching every generation, them and us today, that a relation relationship with Him must be cared for every day. Every day. When we slack off, our fire starts going down. You see, the thing about it is fire, God sent the tabernacle. God, when the tabernacle was dedicated, God sent the fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice, and from that day forward, He it became the responsibility of them to keep it, the heavenly fire burning. And people, that's how it is for us today in our lives. We didn't save ourselves, we don't awaken our own heart. The Holy Spirit ignites that fire within you. And you don't have to start a new fire. I think I've said it already. You don't have to start a new fire, you just keep feeding the fire that God has already started in you, and we keep feeding it daily. Amen. Daily. You don't have to start a new fire. The fire he gave you first was uh uh sufficient enough. You just have to keep it burning. Amen. See, yesterday's wood won't burn forever. And the Christian life is kind of works like that. Yesterday's prayer won't get you through today's battle. You can't fight your battle today and say, Well, you know, I prayed about this yesterday. Or I prayed about this day before, or I prayed for this yesterday. We can't do that, my friends. Just like last Sunday's worship, we were all out in in in in in the church and up front worshiping. That it's awesome. It's awesome to be in the house of the Lord worshiping, but that worship is not gonna hold us over all week. Have to keep it up and keep it up and keep it up. You know what I'm saying? It won't sustain us. And you know, we just got out of our church, just got out of an awesome fire field revival. And it was awesome. I believe we saw people give their lives to God. I believe we saw people rededicate their lives to God. I believe we saw people healed. I believe we saw people lifted up. But we could we can't, now that the revival's over, we can't just stop praying for people. We can't just stop worshiping uh like we've never worshiped before. We can't, especially this day and time, we have to keep feeding our fire that God gave us. We have to keep feeding our fire that He gave us because our fire requires fresh fuel every day. Fresh fuel, fresh prayer, fresh worship, fresh obedience, fresh surrender. People, we got to get rid of the ashes because they represent something that's already consumed. Ashes represent something that's already been burnt here. Our job is to sustain that fire. And I know I may be saying it over and over and over, but that's okay. I want you to hear me. I want you to understand where I'm going with this. I think you, people, I want you to open up your heart and listen to me what I'm

Let The Fire Shine In Your Community

SPEAKER_01 23:30

saying about the fire that God's ignited in you. We we have to let people see the light of our fire within us. You see, when when God's fire that He gave us, when it works in us, people see it. When it burns in us, people see it. Our next door neighbors, our friends, they see it, you know? And it's not because we we're perfect, it's because God's presence shines through us and we have to let that fire shine. People, our families need that fire. Our churches need that fire. Our communities around us, the sinners in our families. People today, Harlan County needs our fire to be burning brightly. They need it. There's people around us every day dying and going to hell. There's people around us every day trying drugs. There's young people around us every day trying drinking and drugs and smoking. And we need to get our fire for the sake of other people around us, not just our sake. For the people watching us, we need to light to refuel our fire. Amen. Amen. Listen to me, brothers and sisters, today. Listen

Jesus Never Lets The Fire Go Out

SPEAKER_01 24:55

to me. Jesus never lost his passion for the Father. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, even when he was carrying his cross, even hanging between heaven and hell, he never grew cold. His obedience, his love never stopped. His obedience never failed. Friends, his fire never went out to his dying breath. He had fire in his heart, in his body, and it is just showing being up on that cross. I mean, giving awarding the guy beside of him eternal life. If anybody, anyone ever kept the fire burning to the very end, it was Jesus Christ. And that's what he wants us to do. Keep our fire burning to the very end. Listen to me, I'm gonna close with this.

How God Fans Dying Embers

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Maybe today some of you guys are hearing this message, and maybe you feel like your fire isn't what it once was. You know, you know for a fact that there was a time when you couldn't wait to pray. You couldn't wait to worship. You worship moved your heart, you couldn't wait to get to the house of the Lord and worship the God. Worship God, you're sharing your faith with people that come natural. But maybe that fire seems to be getting smaller. My friends, I want to tell you today. As long as there is glowing embers, if you just got a little glow of an ember, trust me, God can send the wind of his spirit to fan those embers. I know you know what I'm talking about. You know, when you're over a campfire, it looks like it's going down, and you get down and you blow on those embers, it poops back up. God can do that. If you still have a willing heart, God can make that fire burn brightly again. And my advice to you is to go somewhere and sit down somewhere, or get to an altar somewhere and remove, for God's sakes, remove whatever ash that has accumulated between you and God. Get it out of your way, get it out of the way between you and the Lord, whatever ash it is, because like I said, ash represents something that's been consumed already. You want to start the flame. Lay fresh wood to your fire. Give yourself to God wholeheartedly, keep praying, keep worshiping, keep serving, keep loving, keep believing. And whatever you do, I beg of you. Please, please keep your fire burning. I hope this has blessed you as much as it's blessed me to bring it to you. Uh, I'm going to close with a prayer.

Closing Prayer For Renewed Fire

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Our Father God in heaven, I hope and pray that somebody today has heard the words of this message. I hope and pray that somewhere it goes to somebody's heart and somebody's ears, and maybe the doubt and the small feelings that they're having in themselves right now, maybe the ash that's accumulated between you and them, they will put it aside. Woo, praise the Lord, they'll put it aside. And they'll let you blow on them embers. They'll give you another chance, another opportunity to open up their hearts and blow on them embers, and they can get that fire started just like you told them to do. Lord, just let this message, this words, let these words go, Lord, to the hearts that need to hear it. To the people somewhere that may be doubting themselves and maybe have doubt or are just feeling maybe their flames aren't like they should be. Lord, you put it in their hearts to just talk to you. To give you a chance to just blow them embers. That you can just spiritually blow on them embers. We pray for each and everybody listening to this, that's hearing this. I ask you to hold them up and lead them and guide them in the direction and the decisions that you want them to make. We worship you. We thank you, Lord, for that fire, for that Holy Ghost, that fire, that spirit that you gave us that burns within us. We thank you for this. Today and every day. In Jesus' holy name we pray. Amen and amen. God bless everybody.

unknown 29:59

Hallelujah.

Final Blessing And Website Info

SPEAKER_02 30:08

If you've been listening to Bible Talk with Sister Deb Osmond, hey, go visit our website at HOR421 Show.com for all more content and information. Recorded at 421 Studio. For contact information, you can email at HOR421 Ministries at gmail.com. Phone number is 239-84915.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Stay on Jesus. So I woke up this morning with my mind. Stay on.