We are not given much to oil lamps. Maybe some who camp use oil for lamps, but the majority of us have long since given up lamps with oil for good ole' Ohio Edison. As long as they stay up and going, we are good and content with the light switch. But back in the day there was something critical about having oil in the lamp to keep it burning.

That old picture of oil for fuel for the burning lamp and the importance of its sustenance became a routine and staple metaphor for persevering in faithfulness to Christ. Somewhere at some time somebody wrote that old chorus, "Give me oil in my lamp keep me burning." Maybe the chorus was a footnote on Jesus' parable about being ready for his coming, Matthew 25 or a muse upon Matthew 5 and letting our lights shine. All of us need the sweet oil of God to keep us "burning"-to keep the lights on. Who of us does not experience a sense from time to time that the oil is running dry and the candlewick power on the lamp is going down?

In the summer of 1980 I was in Australia playing basketball and hooked up with a dear brother who visited a prison regularly with gospel ministry. I joined him for one visit to the prison. There was an Aboriginal brother there who was in charge of worship...that meant he brought his guitar. I remember the roof being raised in praise with "Give me oil in my lamp keep me burning". He introduced me to rhythmic patterns that I do not believe even Stevie Wonder or Johnny Legend have ever tried. He strummed and hit on the face plate of the guitar and went into orbit with a few rounds of "give me oil in my lamp". There he was rotting away in some cell in Australia, biding his time with praise to the God he loved and with cries that the God who forgave him would sustain his lamp with reservoirs of oil from heaven. Clearly, he yearned to keep burning. His yearning was contagious. Everyone in the room was moved to aspire for more oil. It still resonates with me when I remember his singing and playing (and those rhythmic patterns) twenty six years later.

Oil in my lamp. One of the chief reasons that I like the metaphor is that it concedes that we are not firing up the lamp with our own illumination. We need to take that fuel on board. It is oil provided to us by the living God. Often in scripture oil was emblematic of the Holy Spirit of God poured out. "Be filled with the Spirit of God." Spirit baptism comes with regeneration (Titus 3:5, Romans 8:9 and 1 Corinthians 12:13). But the filling of the Spirit is a repeated event. We are commanded to be filled (Ephesians 5:18).

Apart from Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5). Since that is true, we need His sanction and the sacred anointing that His spirit brings to our lives. Growing up in my country Pentecostal church there was a faithful couple who would come to our church for that periodic "revival". They were brother and sister Addis. Sister Addis would support her husband's work with her accordion and her voice, plying her gifts to the calling God had placed on her life. She used to sing a sweet old chorus entitled "Fresh Oil from the Throne". I think of it and sing it often in prayer. Clearly, we need the Lord's sanction over our efforts to make Christ known and lift up this One who loved us and gave Himself for us. We need that of which Phyllis sang just to be sustained with vivid life along this good way following Jesus.

We need sustenance outside of ourselves to keep going. The oil of God is available and He yearns to pour it out and fill us up. How is the meter reading where you are today? What is the gage saying about us? Quarter tank? Empty? Half full? Brim full and overflowing?

Perseverance and fuel for the journey are like manna. You cannot hoard up a big gob and prepare today for all that you will need in the future. It is a daily trip to the fuel center that we need. It is there at the throne of grace that we cry out for oil for the lamp. I have found that the tank will only take a day's worth and then I have to come back. God was a genius when he built the capacity for the tank. It requires daily maintenance. Oh, how we need that oil from the throne!

We are told that oil and the quest for that fossil fuel controls the whole world and moves it economically. That is fitting because all along followers of Jesus have known of our desperate need for oil to keep our lamp burning. In some Hanukah kind of way, it keeps us burning and going forward through God's miraculous grace.

"Pour it on Lord, give us oil in our lamps keep us burning! Keep us burning till the break of day...Sing, Hosanna, sing Hosanna, sing Hosanna to the King of Kings! Sing Hosanna to the King!"