Three Brothers, One Stroke, and a Song That Healed

What happens when a pandemic and personal tragedy force musicians to question everything about their calling? For the Ward brothers of Consumed by Fire, these challenges led to a profound spiritual awakening captured in their song "First Things First."
The song draws inspiration from Revelation 2:4-5, which speaks of returning to our first love and doing the works we did at first. As the brothers discovered, this isn't about religious rules but about relationship—specifically, prioritizing our connection with God above everything else competing for our attention. The lyrics powerfully remind us: "Your kingdom's all I want to seek. I don't want to love what the world loves... First things first."
Both ancient and modern voices converge on a single question worth considering: Are we keeping first things first? And if not, what might we be missing? Take five minutes to realign your priorities and start your day right with this musical reflection on what matters most.

Here is the Youtube link to First Things First.             
https://youtu.be/bpTOcZN9JB4     

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with
Danny Mac.
I'm going to be here everyMonday to Friday to help you get
a great five-minute start toyour day.
So grab your cup of coffee, sitback, relax and let me help you
start your day right.
Good morning, everyone.
Welcome to another week.

(00:28):
Here we are on Music Monday, andtoday's song for you is coming
from a group that I hadn't heardfrom before.
They're called Consumed by Fireand the song is First Things
First.
The group is made up of threebrothers from Wagoner, oklahoma,
caleb Jordan and Joshua Ward,who began their music careers
singing in the church wheretheir parents were pastors.
Just over three years ago,their father had a stroke and

(00:50):
then, almost immediatelyfollowing their father's stroke,
the pandemic broke out.
This caused the brothers andtheir ministry to begin doing
some re-evaluation of what theywere doing and what they were
singing.
They had already recorded acouple of albums, but those
songs really hadn't gone veryfar and they had not really done
a whole lot with them.
The brothers began to questionwhether they should even go on

(01:11):
with this music thing that theywere doing For the next couple
of years.
The brothers spent time in thisre-evaluation process, but they
also began writing some songs,and today's song, first Things
First, was a song thatparticularly impacted them as
they were writing it.
In an interview they said thissong really is all about
returning to their first loveand for the very first time they

(01:33):
realized how a song can impactand heal, which is what it did
for them.
They said the song itself isnot about do's and don'ts, but
about returning to andministering their first love.
And the first love they'retalking about is found in
Revelation 2, verses 4 and 5.
It says I have this complaintagainst you you don't love me or
each other as you did at first.

(01:54):
Look how far you have fallen.
Turn back to me and do theworks you did at first.
After much time, before Godwriting the song and considering
what God had for them, theywrapped everything up in this
one question that they had Isanything in life really worth it
if you lose that first love?
And that's really what the songreminds us of.

(02:16):
We live in a very busy world, ina world where people and family
and so many other things arepulling at us, demanding of our
time, demanding our energies,demanding our focus, and
sometimes it's very difficult tomaintain our first priority in
the midst of it all, the firstpriority being that relationship
with God and people, and that'sthe part that really is

(02:37):
important.
The key is the relationshipwith God, your first love, the
life commitment, thecommunication, the speaking to
God, the listening to what Godhas to say to us.
To build that ongoingrelationship with Him.
It takes energy, it takes timeand it's part of that first love
that we need to maintain thewords.
Speak it this way yourkingdom's all I want to seek.

(02:59):
I don't want to love what theworld loves.
I don't want to chase what theworld does.
I only want you.
First things first.
I seek your will and not my own.
Do we keep our first thingsfirst?
That's a real challenge for allof us, isn't it?
Even King David realized theimportance of this when he wrote
the 101st Psalm.
I'm going to summarize thisPsalm just a little bit, but

(03:22):
here's what David had to sayabout making sure he kept the
first things first.
I will praise you with songs.
I will be careful to live ablameless life.
I will lead a life of integrityin my own home.
I will refuse to look atanything vile and vulgar.
I will have nothing to do withpeople who deal crookedly.

(03:42):
I will reject perverse ideasand stay away from evil.
I will not tolerate people whoslander their neighbors and I
will not endure conceit andpride.
I will search out faithfulpeople to be my friends.
David made the choice to putfirst things first.
He was making the choices tokeep the things that were

(04:03):
important for him to be able tolive as God wanted him to, and
those are the kind of choicesthat, quite frankly, we need to
think about, we need to be awareof, we need to evaluate
ourselves and ask the questiondo I have the first things first
and how much time do we give toGod each day to teach us, to
guide us, to encourage us?

(04:24):
How much do we talk to him eachday to teach us, to guide us,
to encourage us?
How much do we talk to Him andlet Him speak to us?
My encouragement to you todayis keep the first things first,
and that way, you will always beable to experience the very
best that God has for you.
I'm going to leave you with aclip of First Things First by
Consumed by Fire, and in yourshow notes today there will be
the YouTube link that you canclick on and go and watch the

(04:46):
entire video there.
I hope you have a great day, myfriends.
Here's Consumed by Fire singing.
First Things First.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Keep the first thing first.
To live your truth, walk yourways.
Set my eyes, lord, I'll fix myface on you.
All my desires reversed.

(05:19):
To keep the first thing first.