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Garth Heckman

TM

an imprint of Standard Publishing www.rfgbooks.com

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© 2007 Garth Heckman Published by Standard Publishing Group LLC, Cincinnati, Ohio. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in reviews, without the written permission of the publisher. refuge™ is a trademark of Standard Publishing.

Printed in the United States of America.

Project editor: Robert Irvin Cover and interior design: Andrew Quach All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. COPYRIGHT© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked The Message are taken from The Message, by Eugene H. Peterson. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000 by NavPress Publishing Group.

Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Twinkies® is a registered trademark of Hostess. Hostess is owned by Interstate Bakeries Corporation, which is not affiliated with Standard Publishing.

Klondike Bar® is a registered trademark of Good Humor-Breyers, which is not affiliated with Standard Publishing.

The publisher does not necessarily endorse the entire teaching of all persons quoted in this book.

ISBN 0-7847-1946-2 Heckman, Garth.

Burn this book : ignite a new life with God / Garth Heckman. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-7847-1946-2 (perfect bound) 1. Christian youth--Prayer-books and devotions--English. I. Title.

BV4850.H39 2007 242’.63--dc22 2006011691 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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“ . . . and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.”

—Isaiah 61:3

My prayer for you is that your ashes will be turned into a life of beauty—and that life displaying the strength of an oak tree—through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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•

Contents •

The Book That Was Made to Be Burned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

In Lust with God?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Why?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 God’s Image—Part One. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 God’s Image—Part Two. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 What Matters Most?—Part One: Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 What Matters Most?—Part Two: Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Can You Hear Me Now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 I Yam What I Yam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Pickled, Pruned, or Planted—Part One. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Pickled, Pruned, or Planted—Part Two. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Who’s Your Doctor? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Do You Fold or Crumple? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Quit Biting Your Nails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 DYK?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Crash and Burn—for Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 If It Doesn’t Matter Who Wins or Loses, Why Do They Keep Score? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

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17. Hey, Meathead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 18. Influence-Vaccination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 19. Whiplash—Part One: Words of Death. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 20. Whiplash—Part Two: Words of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 21. Healthy Relationships: Don’t Shoot Yourself Down . . . . 111 22. Family Val-you’s! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 23. What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 24. What Is Discipleship?—Part One. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 25. What Is Discipleship?—Part Two. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 26. Do You See What I See? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 27. Climber or Camper?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 28. Change of Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 29. Others First—Signs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 30. What’s It Gonna Take? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Time to Burn! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Helpful Hints for Burning this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Surviving the Flames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tear-out page

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THE BOOK THAT WAS MADE TO BE BURNED

~~ •

My heart’s one desire is to be holy.

Set apart for You, Lord . . .

Cleanse me from within and make me holy.

—From “Refiner’s Fire,” by Brian Doerksen

~~ •

You will buy this book.

You will read it.

You will burn it.

My prayer is that you will be changed forever.

Burn This Book is based on a simple biblical principle—we must be refined!

• “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:24). •

God is a jealous God. He demands all of us. And he wants to burn the impurities from our lives! As Christians, we have two choices in life: to go the Easy Way or the Hard Way. The Hard Way is to live life selfishly, deceiving ourselves about where we are in our Christian walk, feeling empty and dissatisfied. Or we can choose the Easy Way: be refined, and find joy in purity through God. Notice the Apostle Paul’s words concerning our lives and the deception we can fall into: • “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself Burn This Book

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•9•

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more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Romans 12:1-3). •

I have read hundreds of comic books. To this day, I love movies that feature comic book heroes. As a kid I loved the superhero Flame. He was a human torch who could fly and never burn out.

And that’s a symbol of how it should be in our Christian walk: we must be willing and prepared to never burn out. Not just in our witness for Christ, but also in our willingness to have all that is sinful burned away from our lives. We must be willing to be a living burnt offering, a spiritual offering, as Paul tells us in Romans 12.

My father has been living for God almost his entire life, and I have the utmost respect for him. In a recent conversation in the car, we had a great father-and-son talk about our Christian walk. I half-expected him to share how, in his sixties, it had gotten easier to be a Christian, but he told me that just the opposite was true.

He said he felt like God was just as busy in his life now, dealing with issues, as he had been when my father was a boy.

This showed me two things: the maturity my father had in still being open to the refiner’s fire, and that a living sacrifice is just that—you’re constantly on fire while here on earth. Constantly having things burned from your life. If you’re alive as a Christian, you’re on fire. But let’s be real: if you’re not on fire, you could be headed to an eternal one!

Paul shares another interesting thing in this Scripture. After verse one, in which he talks about being a living sacrifice, he warns us not to think more of ourselves than we should. We need to examine ourselves soberly—realistically—according to the measure of faith God has given us.

I have lifted weights for years. The one thing I know for sure is that weightlifters tend to overestimate their lifts. If asked, “How much do you bench-press?” we do this little mental equation: • 10 •

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The Book That Was Made to Be Burned

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“If I think I bench two hundred, then I could probably do 210.

On a good day, probably 220.” So our answer is, “Around 230, 240.” It’s like some kind of new math. But the only way to really know—or as Paul says, to know soberly—is to put the weight on the bar and check it out. When it is just me and the weight I really know where I stand.

Think of this book as the bar, and each chapter as a weight on that bar. If you choose to measure yourself, it will tell you where you really stand. But the great thing about this book is that this knowledge does not have to sit on your conscience like an eternal weight. Instead, you’ll get to hand off this weight to God at the end. You’ll get to pray and ask God to continue to burn the things from your life that shouldn’t be there. And then, as a statement of faith, you’ll actually burn this book! (Instructions on how, and with whom you should do this, are in the last section.)

As you page through the book, you will notice different lessons. Some are short and fairly simple; they can be done in a few minutes. These are called the “stubble,” or straw, in our lives.

(A biblical explanation of this in a moment!) Other lessons are a little longer and may involve a little more from you; these are the “hay” in our lives. Others are still longer and will require even a little more; these are “wood.” Each of these materials, when exposed to a fire, has its own burning time, as Paul said: • “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds.

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). • Burn This Book

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• 11 •

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As followers of Christ we are building lives together with him.

But will they last? That is the question we all must face—and fear.

If we build our life out of gold, silver, and precious stones—things that cannot be destroyed, but are actually purified by fire—then we have no fear of God’s eternal judgment. However, if we build our lives from the things that can be destroyed, God may save us in the end, but as the Apostle Paul says, we will suffer great loss!

I know of a young man who had a rare opportunity to evaluate his life on the wood, hay, and stubble balance sheet. He had just graduated from high school and went with his father to a Christian camp. His father was the camp speaker, and many times the young man would travel with him to these camps.

This one, however, would be like no other.

On a hot afternoon, all the campers went out to the lake to go swimming. In an attempt to show off for some girls, the young man razzed his buddy into a contest to swim out to the floating pier. They both peeled off their shirts and shoes, stripping down to their swimsuits. In a flash, his friend ran down the dock to jump off the end and get a head start. So the young man took off down the beach, running as fast as he could. As the water started to splash up to his knees and slow him down, he lunged into the water, diving as far as he could in one leap.

What he didn’t realize at that instant was that a hidden sandbar reduced the water depth to only 8 inches.

The young man’s head lunged into the sandbar. His neck was broken in three places.

Later that day he awoke to find himself flat on his back, sandbags around his head and body to stabilize him. Worried medical staff buzzed in and out of the hospital room continually to check on his status.

That night, as he had difficulty sleeping, the young man began to realize just how much God had his hand on his life that day. He did not die, he was not paralyzed, and it truly was a miracle. As • 12 •

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The Book That Was Made to Be Burned

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he stared up at the ceiling tiles (because that was all he could look at), the young man took a simple test. He divided the tiles into two columns. One column, on the right, represented the things he did for God—just for God—with no impure motives. The other column, on the left, represented the things he did for himself.

Now, he hadn’t done any terrible things in his life. But what scared him was the fact that his right-hand column was completely empty. There was not one thing he had done solely for God. He was raised in a pastor’s home and was involved in church and youth ministry. He had gone on mission trips, was going off to a Bible college, and had always tried to live for God. But nothing in his life was done only for God. Everything had been done with mixed motives. He did things for his parents because they were expected of him—but he knew it would all burn because it was not for God. From that accident, there were countless things taken from his life . . . you might say burned away. These things seemed to leave a void at first. But in time he realized the accident was the best thing for him. It showed him what would burn and what would not. It became his breakthrough in life. He learned a very real lesson that day, one that has stuck with him since: having something burned from your life can become the best thing for you.

Today, as you start this book, you also can begin a journey as a spiritual pyromaniac. You too get to find the things in your life that could draw you away from God, pile them up, and burn them.

Enjoy the fire!

Garth Heckman P.S. That boy was me.

<•> Burn This Book

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• 13 •

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getting started Let the fire begin • “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness” (Malachi 3:3). •

This is no magic formula As you start this book, you must realize it is not a foolproof plan. Simply filling out a Bible study and then throwing it into a fire is no more going to help yourself than burning last week’s homework. The key is honesty between you, God, and these pages. But if you truly seek to hear God’s voice as you complete each study, you’ll be amazed at how much kindling you can find in your life.

Why burn this book?

Through the ages, bookburning has taken on a stigma with overtones of Nazi fascism, Russian communism, devil worship, or some kind of political, religious, or moral conviction.

Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 speaks of a society that made book-burning a common practice as a way to control people. People often find book-burning Burn This Book

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Fire Fact

What is fire made of? Fire is heat and light resulting from the rapid com bination of oxygen, or in some cases gaseou s chlorine, with other materials. The light is in the form of flame, which consists of volatile gases moving upward; the flame is the region in wh ich a combustion reaction occurs. The gases in the flame move upward because they are hotter—and therefore lighter—than the surroundi ng air.

The conditions necessary for the existence of fire are the presence of a com bustible substance, a temperature high enough to cause combustion, and the presence of enough oxygen or chlorine to enable rapid combustion to continue.

• 15 •

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extremely offensive, arguing that it violates the constitutional right of freedom of speech.

One thing we know for sure: no one ever wrote a book hoping it would be burned—until now!

Nothing would make me prouder than having you read and complete this book. Although it may reveal evil things in your life, it also will lead you to a new level of spiritual maturity.

Burning this book is a statement of faith: you believe that your honesty before God, and your renewed commitment to live purely, will bring you great freedom.

Throughout Scripture we see God instructing people to do things symbolizing what he had done, or would do, for them.

In obedience, they would set up stones, altars, change their names, even place manna (bread that God gave them from heaven) in jars. The elements used in the temple under the old covenant were usually symbolic. (For example, olive oil and milk were symbols of prosperity.) And there are numerous military symbols in the Bible.

Although symbols are not to be worshipped, they do serve as reminders of what God has done for us. In the same way, burning this book will merely be an outward sign of what God has done inwardly for you. Burning this book will be a visible statement that you have asked God to deal with certain sins in your life.

The best fires always have friends standing around them One of the most important elements of this book is that you read through it, if possible, with friends—whether that’s your youth pastor, Bible study group, parents, or youth group. There is a power that comes from uniting as one in your spiritual journey. These people are your spiritual family, and their support is essential. I believe that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who we read about in the book of Daniel, reveled in their friendship.

• 16 •

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Getting Started

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Their care for one another, along with their faith in God, helped them make it through their fire (Daniel 3).

• “Assemble the community—I’ll be present in spirit with you and our Master Jesus will be present in power” (1 Corinthians 5:4, The Message). •

Ashes to ashes As you work through this book, it’s also important to have a tangible reminder of what you’re experiencing. Pictures, videos, and written testimonies about what God is doing throughout this time are valuable tools.

And at the back of the book is a tear-out sheet, “Surviving the Flames,” which can serve as a contract between you and God. There you can write some final thoughts on what you’ve learned from this experience, sign it, have one or more witnesses sign it, and then tear it out before throwing this book on the fire. You can keep the tear-out—as a reminder of the book and how you’ve grown—at your desk, on a bookshelf, or hang it on your wall or in your locker.

Finally, after you burn this book, you may want to scoop a few ashes from the fire into a small bottle, label it “finished,” and place the bottle in your room as a continual reminder of what you’ve experienced.

Through God, your ashes will be turned into a crown of beauty instead!

<•>

Burn This Book

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• 17 •

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<1>

In Lust with God? Most of us would be outraged if we were told that we don’t truly love God, but only lust after him. But let’s look at the differences between love and lust: • Love gives and seeks nothing in return; • Lust takes and always wants more.

• Love is never satisfied in its giving; • Lust is never satisfied in its taking.

• Love is based on what is true, right, and holy; • Lust is based only on what feels good.

• Love is an action; • Lust is a reaction.

Which of these descriptions reflect your own personal times with God, motives, thoughts The temperature of a blu e flame can and feelings, and mindset reach 2,950° to 3,050°C. This can be when you pray? We hate to achieved when acetylene is ignited in admit it, but many times we pure oxygen. A blue flame is typically the come into the presence of God innermost par t of a flam e—even on an with a heart of lust rather than ordinary candle—and thu s the area with the highest temperature. a heart of love.

—The Physics Factbook, When we seek God, we’re Glenn Elert, editor, http://hypertextbook. not just seeking an expericom ence, an emotional high, or answered prayer lists. We are seeking a God who is worthy to be worshipped.

Fire Fact

Burn This Book

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• 19 •

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God comes into a relationship with us to transform our lives into a more reflective image of his holiness. He’s not a magician looking to entertain us with a bag of tricks. He’s not a sugar daddy trying to buy our affections with the promise of the good life.

He is our heavenly Father, whose heart beats to see us mature into healthy members of his family and active members of his kingdom.

The New Testament book of Acts describes several occasions when the supernatural work of God flowed through the church in miraculous signs and wonders. As great as these demonstrations of God’s power were, we too often lose sight of the real reason these miraculous events took place—to point people to God himself. It’s too easy to just look for the next cool thing God might do for us.

If so, we are missing the point.

The early church members pursued pure hearts and lives that were pleasing to God. Once we stop looking at God as Santa Claus bringing gifts and begin to seek his holiness to change our lives, then we can tap into the true experience of the early church. And then we will ultimately find the real power of God in a mutually loving relationship.

~~ ~~ •

Lust is wanting an abundance . . . of what we don’t really need.

—Jeff Dexter, youth pastor, Lakeville, Minn.

•

May we never be guilty of drumming up “experiences” with God to make ourselves feel good or righteous or merely to justify our walk. Let’s be determined to know God more and our own needs less. As we draw near to him, he will draw near to us.

<•> • 20 •

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In Lust with God?

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< Kindling Questions > 1. List four things you hope to get from God in the next thirty days.

2. List four things you plan to give to God in the next thirty days.

3. Which list do you think about more often?

Burn This Book

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â&#x20AC;˘ 21 â&#x20AC;˘

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< Fire Starter > Write a short paragraph of commitment to the Lord, pledging to give him the next thirty days to speak to your life. Describe how responding in obedience can change your life.

Then list the areas you want God to speak to, the areas you need to burn, by the end of this book.

â&#x20AC;˘ 22 â&#x20AC;˘

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In Lust with God?

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