Blind To The Raging Fires
The NY POST reports:
Diners at a French cafe could be seen casually enjoying a glass of wine next to a flaming pyre of garbage amid riots against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform.
The viral video, posted on TikTok, shows the outdoor seating area at the Place de la Victoire, in Bordeaux, where rioters set fire to the roads on Thursday, the most violent day of the protests. … Throughout the video, the fire could be seen flaring up at times and sending embers flying up high, but the diners remained unfazed.
What a picture of our world today. Our culture and society are burning down around us in every corner of the globe. Political unrest. Cultural unrest. Religious unrest. Economic unrest. You name it.
Click here to watch the video.
With so much chaos raging, we run the very real risk of becoming desensitized to it -- desensitized to the needs and the questions and the concerns of those caught up in the rage. We can become so desensitized to it that we hardly respond to it anymore.
As the church, and as individual members of it, let us guard our hearts and ask the Lord to open our eyes and remove our blinders to the chaos raging all around us — the needs and the emptiness and turmoil raging all around us.
Times of great chaos can be times of great revival.
We are called to “understand the present time” knowing this, “The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11, NIV).
Let’s not squander the richness of this moment.
Petrified Christians
For wood to become petrified it must first be buried by volcanic ash, mud flows, sediment from lakes or swamps, etc. that blanket it from all exposure to oxygen, thus preventing decay. Over time, any number of mineral substances can gradually replace the living matter. For example, solutions of silica, dissolved in ground water, infiltrate the buried wood. Through a complex chemical process the mineral is separated from the solution and deposited as a solid in the very cells of the wood. Nature adds the finishing touches with iron oxides staining the wood orange, rust, or yellow, and manganese oxides staining it blue, black or purple. The end result is a colorful tapestry of rock-like substance that looks just like the original wood, only even more beautiful!
We have seen the same process occur in the history of Christianity. Time and again the Spirit of God has moved, bringing forth a vibrant movement of faith. But then, as time passes and one generation is replaced by another, the silica begins to infiltrate and fill the very cells of what was once a living organism. When the process is complete, the humble beginnings of the living church are replaced by great cathedrals. But for all the display and pageantry, one thing is missing--life! The living faith of one generation becomes the beautiful but petrified faith of another. The living cells of the one have been replaced by dead minerals.
Dr. Mitchell Dillon, founder of Illustration Exchange
Billy Sunday's Request
A story is told that in preparation for a meeting in a large city, famed evangelist Billy Sunday wrote a letter to the mayor in which he asked for the name of individuals he knew who had a spiritual problem and needed help and prayer. How surprised the evangelist was when he received from the mayor a city directory.
We are all in need of revival!
"When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7).