That was very good.

Sandy
----- 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.
>