Proverbs 6:27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
Mount Ibu, a volcano on Halmahera island in Indonesia’s North Maluku province, erupted on Saturday, spewing hot lava and sending a column of smoke and ash soaring over three miles into the sky. It’s a reminder of how volatile Indonesia can be as it has nearly 130 active volcanoes. All of this volcanic activity reminded me of another explosion that took place in 1991.
Mount Pinatubo, dormant for over 500 years, began to erupt on June 12, 1991, and three days later exploded with twice the power of the 1980 Mount St. Helen’s eruption. The release of power blasted a cubic mile off the mountaintop and the earth shook for eight hours. The eruption produced an ash cloud that rose over 50,000 feet into the atmosphere. If that wasn’t enough, Typhoon Yunga then struck the island nation with fierce winds and torrential rains which mixed with the ash creating what the locals called “Black Saturday!”
The United States was forced to abandon and eventually close Clark Air Force base, located just a few miles from Mount Pinatubo, due to the devastating blanket of fallen ash. When a volcanologist was asked to account for the widespread damage which sent thousands of American soldiers and Filipinos fleeing, he replied, “When a volcano is silent for many years, people forget it’s a volcano and begin to treat it like a mountain.”
Now here’s a lesson from nature. We should always be aware of how our sinful nature has the potential to erupt. It would be a big mistake to ignore this possibility simply because it has lain dormant for a season…even a seemingly long one.
Solomon writes a profound statement in his book of Proverbs, which, when paraphrased goes something like this; “Can someone play with fire in his lap without incinerating his clothes?”
The enemy of our souls would love for us to believe that we can somehow play with sin, without it negatively affecting our spirit and our walk with the Lord — oh how deceptive Satan can be!
D.L. Moody was a fairly simple man and I love the way he dealt with sin. He said, “When you’re thinking sin, think scripture!”
Let’s be on guard! Sin is a dormant volcano which can erupt at ANY moment and set our house on fire. How do we prepare? First, by being aware of the possibility…then…; “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee”. [Psalm 119:11] Let’s meditate upon His Word, allowing it to sink deep into our minds and our hearts so that the only fire which burns there…is the fire of God’s Holy Spirit. Amen.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Throughout the Bible, the faith of the saints was never something passive — but rather a faith of action.
Much of the world is dealing with the greatest disruption of their lives… probably in their lifetimes, particularly in the West, and what is known as the “First World”. Here’s a helpful perspective toward understanding what is taking place.
Continuing our exciting account of the Moravian Revival, I have to highlight the minuscule quantity of saints involved. This was, in proportion to its astounding effect, a very small group, a little church. Yet the amazing demonstration of God’s principle of power through unity re-echoes the events at Pentecost when 120 believers also were in profound unity waiting on the Lord. It wasn’t the numbers but the removal of contention and division that paved the way for a 100-year revival.
The Moravian revival, our current subject, began in the little community of Herrnhut on August 13, 1727, with a tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit likened to that of Acts 2. It was a work of God that would transform this group of splintered Christian settlers into a unified missionary endeavor committed to reaching the unsaved around the world.
As we discussed last week, the word for “sign” in ancient Hebrew is “oht”. It was used in Genesis to designate God’s covenant sign with Noah, (the rainbow). And we see now the same word again, in Exodus, identified with the deliverance of the Jewish people from the tenth plague, when the angel of death passed through all Egypt to strike the firstborn. Anyone under the “sign” of the blood was spared.
This is one of my favorite promises in the Bible — that God turns mourning into dancing! He takes away the anguish of being clothed in sadness and replaces it with gladness. However, notice what God doesn’t do — simply stop your mourning and make it disappear. No, He transforms it…into joy!
With war drums beating even more intensely in Iran and Syria, we’ve received numerous phone calls and emails expressing their concerns — and understandably so! Nevertheless, even in this climate of anxiety, we are preparing to enter into Shabbat (the Hebrew word for Sabbath) this afternoon. And as we do, we are remembering again, the deep lesson of God’s entering into His rest following the six creation days.