Living Waters Fellowship

“For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.  You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance”
- Psalm 66:10-12

These are some verses that I’ve been camping on for the last few days in my personal time with God that I would like to share with you.  As God often-times takes us through tests and trials, we wonder if there will ever be an end to our discouragement and depression.  These verses point to the fact that God often takes us through very difficult things to bring us to a place of abundance…the end for which God takes us through trials is always for the glory of Jesus and our joy.  Don’t miss that this week in your life!  God has joy and abundance at the end of your current trial.  He means to grow you through the dark times in order to bring you out on the other side rejoicing in Him!

And in fact, if we were to look at these verses through gospel glasses…we would also see that God brought us through many trials and hardships in order to bring us to faith in Jesus.  Often times, God will bring sinners to the lowest of lows, in order that they might be humble and trust in the saving work of Jesus on the cross for their sins.  I know that happened to me for sure, it was in the darkest days of my life that God rescued me and saved me from my sins.  What a joyful day!  What an abundance I found in trusting Christ as my Savior!  These verses also speak to the fact that the trials we now face as Christians are ultimately meant to lead us back to the Cross of Jesus where our focus belongs.  We often drift from Jesus and the Cross, but Living Waters, let us come back to the Cross this week!

- Pastor Josh

We had an great time at the Saylorville Baptist Church Men’s Retreat with people from Saylorville, Lakeside Fellowship, and Living Waters Fellowship. Randy Gaumer was there and his messages were excellent. They are now online. Click to listen:
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3

Here is a great article from Desiring God on leadership. In the article John Piper opens up the Biblical marks of a spiritual leader. Do these marks describe you?

-Pastor Josh

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MostPopular/1575_The_Marks_of_a_Spiritual_Leader/

This message really encouraged me this morning. It is one of the most unique I’ve ever heard because the whole message is a prayer. It is the concluding message in John Piper’s eight year series in Romans. Click the image to listen.

Here’s a great quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his book “Preaching and Preachers”.  This is why we preach the word at Living Waters:

“A young philosopher went one day to Epictetus to ask him for advice.  The reply Epictetus gave him is very good advice also for preachers.  He said, ‘The philosopher’s lecture room is a surgery.  When you go away you ought to have felt not pleasure but pain, for when you come in something is wrong with you.  One man has put his shoulder out, another has an abscess, another a headache.  Am I the surgeon then to sit down and give you a string of fine sentences that you may praise me and then go away - the man with the dislocated arm, the man with the abscess, the man with the headache- just as you came?  Is it for this that young men come away from home and leave their parents and their kinsmen and their property to say, ‘Bravo to you for your fine moral conclusions’?”

As Lloyd-Jones points out here; philosophical treatments and or discussions of God, the Bible, Jesus and other subjects leave the speakers and the listeners lost in the confusion of their minds and thoughts and ultimately, lead to mere speculation rather than action.  Consider Lloyd-Jones’ statement just two paragraphs later:

“…that is what preaching is meant to do.  It addresses us in a manner as to bring us under judgment; and it deals with us in such a way that we feel our whole life is involved, and we go out saying, ‘I can never go back and live just as I did before.  This has done something to me, it has made a difference to me.  I am a different person as a result of listening to this’.”

May the preaching of the Word continue to bless the people of Living Waters.  May we not be satisfied until we feel the presence of God through the Word, and leave different people as a result.