The Book of Psalms is rich with imagery. It’s rich with imagery because it’s a book of songs and prayers written about and to the Creator of everything we see.

Psalm 104 is perhaps one of the psalms richest with creation imagery, helping us to bless the Lord for His greatness revealed in and through everything that He has made. Just read verses 1-4:

Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.
– 104:1-4

Our Water Team is now wrapping up their current trip to the Achi in Guatemala. As they complete their trip, this psalm reminds us of God’s goodness and power on display wherever we find water:

He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved. You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth. You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills; they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches. From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
– 104:5-13

Thankfully, water is more than a sign of God’s goodness and power in the provision of physical life. We can bless Him because it is also a sign of His saving power and goodness in His provision of spiritual life. In Isaiah 44:3, God makes a marvelous promise: “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground.” That dry ground is us. When Jesus came, he fulfilled this promise, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37).

We should pray for God to use our team among the Achi, so that they may have water for physical life. But we should pray all the more earnestly that they may come to Christ and drink the water Jesus came ultimately to provide – water unto eternal life.

Visit our Global Missions Core Initiatives page to learn more about DSC’s partnership with the Rabinal Achi. There you will find information about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how you can be involved.

To hear Psalm 104 set to music, download Fernando Ortega’s “Creation Song.”

If you are reading this blog at the DSC Website, you’ve probably noticed that it received a total makeover about a week ago. Much of the content is the same, but is presented and organized in a way that should be easier to find and easier to use. For example, a new secondary navigation menu at the top of the screen provides quick links to important but not central features of the site, such as the Give page or the Church Directory page. And now, in addition to a rotating banner, we have three fixed image links to the right of the banner. These will change as needed to shine a spotlight on important announcements.

Of course, a redesign like this is also a good opportunity to build in some new content. Here are a few new pages intended to make our site more useful to those who are just getting to know us:

• The Who Is Jesus? page answers the most important questions about Jesus Christ, which are also the most important questions about our church.
• The New to DSC page welcomes those who are new to DSC and briefly introduces them to our mission, our worship services, our leadership, and ministries.
• The new Connect, Grow, and Serve pages outline practical ways to get plugged in at DSC.

In addition, there are a number of smaller additions that should help us stay connected, including pages where you can Update Your Information or Subscribe to the DSC Blog, E-Newsletter or Prayer Force email. In addition, there are several quick links at the top right of the page for DSC’s Blog Feed, Podcast, Facebook Page, and Twitter Feed.

We hope this update helps our visitors get connected and our body stay connected to the glory of God.

Many thanks to Memo Ochoa for his great investment of time and heart in a site that is both beautiful and usable. Memo’s role around here is at the same time one of the least visible and most visible roles in our church. You won’t see him up front in a worship service, but he is the mind and creativity behind the graphics and communication pieces that decorate our church. Well done, Memo.

The month of October has two special things going on. First, we will be sharing in the Lord’s Supper on a Sunday morning, October 30. Second, on the Wednesday that would normally be our Lord’s Supper service, October 26, DSC’s elders will host a Q&A session.

Why are we switching things up this month for the Lord’s Supper?

No where in the New Testament do we receive specific instructions concerning when or how often we are to share together in the Lord’s Supper. That’s interesting. We’re told by Jesus, “Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me (1 Corinthians 11:25). And when the Apostle Paul had the chance to prescribe a pattern, he only said, “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 1:26).

But that’s okay. It’s enough for us to know the purpose of the Lord’s Supper: to remember Christ’s death and to proclaim Christ’s death until he returns. Our tradition of sharing the Lord’s Supper on the last Wednesday of each month is meant to help us do this with seriousness, clarity, and focus. It’s a great tradition and it honors Jesus’ command.

But for the same reasons, we’re going to change things up once a year and share the Lord’s Supper together on a Sunday morning. We hope to do this going forward once each year around this time of year.

How can I submit a question for the Elders’ Q&A?

First of all, just plan to submit at least one question. Any question. If you have any questions about our operations, ministries, vision, church planting, or anything else that you would like answered, submit them through the Communication Card on Sunday morning or by email to info@desertspringschurch.org.

If you don’t have any questions, stop for a minute and think up at least one question, then send it in. The elders collect questions in advanced to ensure coverage of the most prominent issues. However, if there are questions unaddressed at the Q&A they will be answered through the DSC Blog or email.

The Elders’ Q&A will take place at 6:30 PM, but you’ll want to come an hour early. It’s not a Lord’s Supper meeting, but we still need to eat and we still need to talk to each other. So, the youth are hosting their now customary pre-service church-wide meal at 5:30 PM. Plan to come, and plan to come early.

This Sunday, Ryan preached a sermon from Psalm 3, titled, “When Your Whole World is On The Brink.” Psalm 3 is one of many psalms that express lament for lamentable circumstances and, ultimately, hope in God’s saving power and goodness.

In his sermon, Ryan showed us how Psalm 3 gives us an example of how our own thoughts and prayers and feelings can progress: Lament (1-2), Remembrance (3-5), Resolve (6), Request (7-8). This psalm, along with others like it, provides a helpful prayer template for our own laments, sadnesses, discouragements, and depression.

Below are a number of helpful resources for thinking through and wrestling with depression:

• Saturday Seminar: Depression, DSC audio lectures by Ryan Kelly
• Depression, A Stubborn Darkness: Light for the Path, Book by Ed Welsch
• Depression: The Way Up When You are Down, Booklet by Ed Welsch
• “The Heart of Depression,” Article by Ed Welsch
• “The Dark Night of The Soul,” Article by R.C. Sproul
• Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, Book by Martyn Lloyd Jones
• When the Darkness Will Not Lift: Doing What We Can While We Wait for God – and Joy, Book by John Piper
• “Darkness of Depression,” Radio Interview with David Powlison
• “Is Depression Purely Biological?,” Video with David Powlison
• “Charles Spurgeon: Preaching Through Adversity,” Message/Biography by John Piper

Ed Welsch discussing depression:

[RSS and email readers, click here to view this video]

Unfortunately, due to audio equipment issues, the audio for Ryan’s sermon is not available.

When we hear the word, “reverberation,” we usually think of sound. But while a reverberation is a sound on its own, it is also the effect of a sound. It’s the presence of a sound once that sound is gone, but in the form of echos. There are more technical ways of putting it, I’m sure, but that’s the gist. The church, we could say, is a kind of architecture designed and build by the Word of God for the reverberation of God’s Word in the world. We are a reverberation of the very voice of God.

Earlier this year, Jonathan Leeman published a helpful book, titled, Reverberation: How God’s Word Brings Light, Freedom, and Action to His People. This book explores the nature and function of God’s Word in and through God’s people in every aspect of our life and mission together.

This past week, Fred Zaspel published a review of Leeman’s book. Here are a few paragraphs from his review to whet your appetite this helpful word about God’s Word:

Leeman, editorial director for 9Marks ministries, begins with a discussion of the power of God’s Word. This is nothing new, of course. But his presentation is unusually compelling. Indeed, one of the leading values of this book is that it not only informs the reader in regard to this so very important article of our faith; it also leaves the reader utterly persuaded of it and moved by it. Reading as he unpacks this wonderful theme of the transforming effectiveness of Scripture you sense your own perspective being sharpened, your appreciation of God’s Word deepened, and your eagerness to see it put to further use increased many times over. Certainly every believer has experienced the soul- and life-transforming power of God’s Word, and as Leeman articulates this theme for us we find him articulating our own experience with God—which is, of course, what makes this to us such a joyful theme.

Leeman wins his case in this first section so well that you will find yourself eager to see how this theme affects church and Christian worship, which is what the subject he takes up in the rest of the book. First, of course, is the matter of preaching. Here Leeman describes preaching in terms of the “exposing” of God’s written Word, apart from which preaching has no value whatever. Then he explains—again, so compellingly—how God’s Word then “reverberates” in our singing, praying, disciple-making, and evangelism.

What distinguishes Christianity, at bottom, is the message. We Christians have the audacity to claim that God has spoken, and that the message we proclaim is from him. We are a “people of the book,” and we believe with all our hearts that this message is the means through which God works mightily to claim and transform those who are his. What Leeman provides for us is both a very clear and persuasive exposition of this truth and a discerning application of it to church life. After reading this you will want more than ever to see your church become increasingly Word/gospel-centered—in its preaching, its singing, its praying, its ordinances, and in every other aspect of its life.

Reverberation is available at the Resource Center for a suggested donation of a measly $3.00. Get one to read, and several to give away.