Keep Burning Part 3 by Rev. Christie Bature: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Fellowship in Suffering, Not Just in Blessing

We readily expect fellowship with God in joy, peace, and provision, but scripture specifically names "the fellowship of his sufferings." If we're honest, suffering is often the one place we've actually had real fellowship with God — because that's the place we finally stop performing and simply reach for Him. Genesis says we were made for communion with God — "let us make man in our image, that we may commune with him" — and it's frequently in the pressing, not the ease, that communion actually deepens.

Kulikuli: What Pressing Is Actually For

Kulikuli is a peanut cake made after the oil has already been pressed out of the peanut — and once that's happened, it no longer looks, feels, or behaves like a peanut in any way. When God presses the oil out of you, you will not look the same afterward — physically, emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually — and that's the point, not a malfunction. Peanut oil is beautiful and useful precisely because it's no longer a peanut. Most of the time, the oil being pressed out of you isn't primarily for you — it's for the people your life is meant to reach.

Jesus Washed the Feet of the One Who Would Betray Him

John 13 — Jesus already knew Judas would betray Him, and still knelt and washed his feet along with the others. He didn't exclude him from that act of grace, even knowing exactly what was coming. Ahead of the offense, Jesus extended grace. Many of us struggle to keep burning simply because unforgiveness sits quietly in our hearts — the thought that someone hurt us too badly or too deeply to ever release them.

Most People Who Wound You Aren't Trying To

Some people deliberately look for opportunities to wound — often because outrage and controversy generate the traffic that makes them money. But most people who step on your toes are simply being human, and being human means occasionally throwing "stray bullets" that were never actually aimed at you. Don't give anyone the power to live rent-free in your soul. Forgiveness is rarely a single event — it's usually a process, worked at deliberately over time, especially when the wound runs deep. But the alternative — carrying it indefinitely — guarantees your fire eventually goes out.