Desiring God Answers In Genesis PyromaniacsHey, SATR folk! We need a volunteer to enter posts for our website. As you can see, we are feeding Facebook, so you would only need to post in one place. We’re looking for someone who can post an encouraging word once per week, and keep people informed about important things going on with SATR.
If you are interested, reply to this post and I’ll contact you. Thanks a million!
-Brian
Hey, everyone! We will have a very brief members’ meeting this Saturday night – right after church. We will give everyone an update on the state of things and the direction we are heading. Love you all, and C U there!
Since it’s been colder out, I’ve spent a lot of time in front of my fireplace. In fact, I’m sitting by the fire right now. Watching the flames consume the wood Brian and I cut ourselves, I’ve noticed some things. Although the fire itself never changes, there are different kinds of wood.
One kind of wood is thin and easy to carry. I like to use those pieces of wood to get the fire going. They catch pretty quickly, so I can use them to light the bigger logs stacked on top of them. But the thin logs also don’t last very long, and they don’t leave behind many coals, so they don’t create much heat. They just sort of flame up and die.
Then there are the humongous logs that I can barely pick up. They look nice in the fireplace, and they certainly have a lot of substance to them, but actually getting them to catch fire is a chore. You either have to put in more firestarters to get them going, or you have to put them on a bed of coals you’ve been working on all day. Even then, they’re going to smother your best coals before they’re done. If they ever blaze at all they’ll leave behind some good coals when they’re gone, but who has time to wait that long?
The best kind of logs for a fire that burns all day and creates a lot of heat are those middle sized ones. They are easily carried, and they usually have some good bark on them that catches relatively quickly. They are small enough that the fire can cut into them and create coals that make some serious heat, but they’re big enough that their flames don’t die out before the coals can be made. Sometimes I get a medium sized log that’s been soaked by the rain, and I know it’s gonna fill the house with smoke, but once it’s been on those coals for a while, I know it will blaze to life.
If we, as Christians, are going to spread the flame of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, or just to our neighbor’s house, we have a choice to make. We have to choose which kind of wood we’re gonna be.
Some of us are the thin logs. We’ve decided we want to miss Hell, and we may even burn with passion for a little while, but because we haven’t invested in personal study, desperate prayer, or intentional fellowship with other believers, we’ve stayed small. We may encourage others to passion in our heated moments, but we really aren’t going to last long. Soon enough, something will come along that will turn our heads (or our hearts), and all that will be left of us will be a warm memory.
Others of us have become the humongous logs. We’ve spent time in study. We’ve been in every church service and Bible study known to man. We’ve read every book written by Piper and Warren, and we can say the books of the Bible in order. We know the songs. We know the language. We know the dress code. But, frankly, we’re too big for our britches. We’re too proud to be broken and too respected to kneel. We’re too right to forgive and too righteous to empathize. Yeah, we look good, but mostly we’re just smothering the passion around us. Sure, if we ever really catch fire we’ll create some real heat, but who has time to wait for that?
What we really need to be, what will turn the church in Greenville into an infectious fire that will spread and endure, are those middle sized logs. We need to be beefy enough from our time in the study of the word and face time with God that we have substance. No more changing with the times. No more bailing when things get hard. No more bowing to the desires of our selfish hearts. We need to have an openness to God’s voice and those around us that opens our eyes and ears and feeds our passions — that layer of bark that surrounds us. But we also need to make sure we aren’t so big that the flames can’t cut into us. We have to be willing to let ourselves be cut to pieces so we can become the true power behind the blaze of passion — those white-hot coals that feed everything else. Yeah, sometimes life may dampen our spirits, but when the smoke clears, the flames won’t be far behind.
–amm
There has been much discussion and prayer about whether to move SATR to Sunday nights. We just wanted everyone to know that for now SATR will remain on Saturday nights at 6pm. Things have been better than ever since we moved to the youth area upstairs. Thanks, Justin, for graciously sharing the space! 
We hope everyone can worship with us this Saturday, December 18th! On December 25th, have a Merry Christmas with your families; we will not have a service that night.
Awesome conclusion to this four-part series on a very important topic – prayer. Click here to listen.
What about “unanswered prayer”? Here is Joshua’s third part of his four-part series. Click here to listen.
Joshua Shirey on prayer. If you haven’t heard this yet, you need to listen. God is doing a work in this young man. Click Here to listen.
Here is a great picture from Astronomy Picture Of the Day. You may or may not be a “sky enthusiast”, but I would suspect that this picture evokes something in everyone – maybe awe, maybe curiosity, but something. For some, images like this one will excite them momentarily but soon the lines and colors will turn gray and fade into the backdrop of dull routine, monotonous rhetoric, confusing overload, or painful life. Rinse and repeat. For others, images like this one may have a more lasting effect.
May I suggest that the spark, that initial burst of emotion or scientific interest, is from the same source and is intended to serve the same purpose? Here is what we find in the book of Romans 1:20: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” The source – God; the purpose – worship.
Which brings us to The Sign:
Have you ever seen a sign? For the purpose of this entry, a sign would be any apparent suspending of the natural order of the universe. I admit that for most of my life I have wanted to see a sign; however, I can now say with confidence that I do not. I actually believe I have seen a sign, but there’s the rub. Signs do not inherently accompany belief, they do not cause a person to act in any particular way, and they can usually be rationalized given enough distance from the event.
Check this guy Gideon out. He’s got some doubts about what God wants him to do, so God spontaneously combusted his grub.
Judges 6:13-22
13 “But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”
14 The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
15 “But Lord , [a] ” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
16 The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”
17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”
And the LORD said, “I will wait until you return.”19 Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah [b] of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. 21 With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!”
That does it, right? Gideon is good to go now because he saw a sign. He’s gonna do everything God wants him to do from now on. Nope. Just a few verses later, Gideon wants to see something else! And as if that were not enough, Gideon wants to see yet another sign!
Judges 6:36-40
36 Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised- 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.
Was Gideon an especially bad dude? No. He was just like you or me. Signs are great, but they do not carry with them a new heart for the observer. “Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” -John 20:29
The Point:
Neither signs nor wonders can produce in us the faith we need. Are you a believer seeking more faith? Then ask your heavenly Father for more faith.
“Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’” -Mark 9:24
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” -Matthew 7:11
Are you an unbeliever who seeks a sign? Do not seek a sign, but seek the One who can give you a new heart.
“He answered, ‘A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.’” -Matthew 12:39
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” -Ezekiel 36:26
… since we already feed the desiringGod blog down there on the left, but this is a great post and I wouldn’t want anyone to miss it.
The September 11th entry in Charles Spurgeon’s daily devotional, Faith’s Checkbook:
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. (Lamentations 3:27)
This is as good as a promise. It has been good, it is good, and it will be good for me to bear the yoke.
Early in life I had to feel the weight of conviction, and ever since it has proved a soul-enriching burden. Should I have loved the gospel so well had I not learned by deep experience the need of salvation by grace? Jabez was more honorable than his brethren because his mother bare him with sorrow, and those who suffer much in being born unto God make strong believers in sovereign grace.
The yoke of censure is an irksome one, but it prepares a man for future honor. He is not fit to be a leader who has not run the gauntlet of contempt. Praise intoxicates if it be not preceded by abuse. Men who rise to eminence without struggle usually fall into dishonor.
The yoke of affliction, disappointment, and excessive labor is by no means to be sought for; but when the Lord lays it on us in our youth, it frequently develops a character which glorifies God and blesses the church.
Come, my soul, bow thy neck; take up they cross. It was good for thee when young; it will not harm thee now. For Jesus’ sake, shoulder it carefully.
So… when Nick is out we’ll just turn up a video clip so loud that the snare drum rings. Click Here to listen.
