I hate to say it, but this one spoke volumes to me.

Phil.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Reeva Parry" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 10:01 PM
Subject: How Your Fire Can Produce New Life


> How Your Fire Can Produce New Life
>
>
> We had a milestone wedding anniversary lately, and I got
> congratulations cards. My wife got sympathy cards. But we had a
> wonderful couple of days in a romantic location - even doing some
> romantic things. Like a horse-drawn carriage ride through some
> beautiful countryside. Along the way, our driver pointed out a forest
> of tamarack trees - which the Indians reportedly called
> "twice-burning wood." Our driver explained that tamarack trees need a
> fire in order to
> reproduce. Their bark is petroleum-based rather than glucose-based
> like most trees. It takes a fire to burn off the bark to expose the
> seeds that produce
> new life.
>
> Let's talk about "How Your Fire Can Produce New Life."
>
> Instinctively, we think of fire as being destructive, and it sure can
> be. But in God's hands, fire can also be productive - as in producing
> new life. And
> that fire you're going through or heading into can have the same
> effect for you. It's meant to be life-giving, not life-taking.
>
> In fact, in Malachi 3:2-3, our word for today from the Word of God,
> the Bible says the Lord is "like a refiner's fire ... He will sit as
> a refiner and purifier
> of silver; He will purify the Levites" - or, let's say "His servants"
> - He will purify His servants "and refine them like gold and silver.
> Then the Lord
> will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness." The God who
> loves us turns up the heat to refine us, to make us more pure, to
> make us more valuable,
> and to develop us into people that He can use mightily.
>
> Of course, that's not what it feels like the fire is doing. It's just
> hot. It just hurts. But God is, in essence, burning off some of our
> bark to expose
> the seeds of new life. God uses the fire to expose and eliminate sin
> that otherwise we wouldn't face. When it gets real hot, we finally
> ask the question
> we probably should have asked long ago, "What's wrong, Lord? Is there
> something You want me to do differently?" The answer is probably "Yes."
>
> It's usually been when God's turned up the heat on me that He's
> finally gotten my attention and forced me to face some things that I
> needed to change but
> I didn't want to deal with. When I did, it began new life--a new
> season of spiritual refreshing and seeing Him take my life to a new level.
>
> There's another way God uses your fire to bring new life. He uses it
> to qualify you to open other hearts to Jesus. People who haven't been
> willing to listen
> to you when your life was going well will listen now because of the
> pain you're going through. God may use the fire you're going through
> to save them from
> the fire of His judgment forever. Also, when God turns up the heat,
> He's often trying to get us to change our priorities. Everything in
> your life is on
> one of two lists--"The Things That Really Matter" and "The Things
> That Really Don't." We tend to get those confused until the fire
> comes and makes us
> focus again on what really matters.
>
> Most important, your fire can produce a new life by causing you to
> see your God as you've never seen Him before. That's what happened to
> Job through all
> of His suffering. After it all, he said, "My ears had heard of You,
> but now my eyes have seen You." (Job 42:5). You never really know the
> Lord until you
> really need the Lord. And you really need Him when the fire's all
> around you. And in your desperation and bankruptcy, you experience
> His love and His power
> as you never have before because you never needed Him this much before.
>
> In Zechariah 13:9, God says, "I will bring them into the fire; I will
> refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My
> name and I will
> answer them; I will say, 'They are My people,' and they will say,
> 'The Lord is our God.'" From the fire you're going through are coming
> the seeds of some wonderful new life.
>