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Revival There is a time coming soon – an event if you will - that will bring God’s people to the point of power. It is to cause a transformation to the church that will make our current brand of Christianity look like a den of thieves compared to that holy temple of God we will see in our lives when it hits. Its coming is being hindered by one thing. His people are not calling for it. Our stubborn refusal to lay aside our self-centeredness and turn our lives over to the living God to live in the manner to which He has called His people hinders us. It is a refusal to lay aside the accoutrements of carnal living and enter into the power of holiness - the obedience of righteousness – the effectiveness of surrender. A refusal to give up our indulgences and embrace self denial. Until such a time as we tire of living as the world lives – living a Christian life without power – living in the shadow of the Gentiles and walking as the world walks, we will find ourselves on the impotent side of a Christian life. Christ has meant for His people to become effective. He means for us to bear much fruit and so bring glory to God. He means for us to call out for it. The world is unimpressed with our form of Christianity. Not because those in the world are so ungodly (and they are) or because there is no power to the gospel (for there is) but because those who are called by His name reflect little of what the kingdom is about. We wallow in our self indulgence and bicker about this and that, which seems of little use even to the heathen. “Where is God!” they cry while looking at the church. It’s an honest question and voiced by them because of our lifestyle, not because the truth of the gospel is in question. We have become the Church that more closely resembles the Laodicean church talked about in Revelation than the Church presented to us in Acts. We have become a Church which thinks itself so great and yet does little but shuffle the existing members from one body to the next. Real Christianity will come with real Christians. If there was truth and power and righteousness and holiness and reality to the brand of Christianity that we model, the doors of our churches wouldn’t be wide enough to hold the souls of those who fought their way there to become partakers of the life of which our Lord speaks. Are you bored with the Christianity that you see around you? I am. When I read Acts and see the commitment of those who called themselves Christians – see their commitment to Christ – their commitment to the Church and the spread of the kingdom – their commitment to one another, and then look at what there is left of that temple it moves me to tears. I hardly recognize the church that is shown in Acts and spoke about by our Lord when He said, “and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” “Where is the power?!”, my soul cries. “Where is the holiness – the righteousness – the love that was modeled by our Lord and those that followed Him?” Are you tired enough of this neutrality we walk in to cry out for something more? There is in my heart a rising indignation – a righteous wrath that demands that my life change. That my heart be softened and filled with the compassion of God for the lost. That cries, “Lord touch me that I might be made whole - bring me sight that I might see your glory. Touch my ears that I might better hear your voice. But Lord p-u-l-l-l-e-a-s-e do NOT leave me as I am! Where I have grown cold – light a fire! Where I have hardened my heart– soften me! Where I have become callused to sin – convict me! Let me weep and mourn that you might heal me!
Revive me, oh my Lord!
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