A Reflection On Revival

 

The Word:

“Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?” – Psalm 85:6 ESV

Reflection:

We live in a day similar to the time just before the first great awakening in America. In the 1700s the Church in New England was declining morally and spiritually. God used men like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, and John Wesley to help as instruments for revival. But, unlike present-day America, even during their spiritual decline, the colonies had a much stronger biblical foundation than we do today.

In recent decades the Church in America has been guilty of excessive materialism and prayerlessness. And we have become biblically illiterate and resistant to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Sadly, much of the western world is considered post-Christian. It seems (looking at it through natural eyes) irreversible. Europe has only its great cathedrals to point to their past Christian heritage. We in America can look back to the past when Christianity was acceptable in our society. Despite slavery and other obvious sins, the general population embraced a biblical worldview.

I believe the spiritual renewal of Churches in the west will precede revival. God is calling his people to repentance, to return to the faith of the early apostolic Church. This calling is to a radical commitment to Jesus Christ and the message of the gospel of the Kingdom. Jesus will have no rivals. This is a message to the Church.

It puzzles me that we expect non-believers to act like believers. Maybe it’s time we (the Church) start living the truth we proclaim. The world won’t agree with us, but at least they can’t accuse us of hypocrisy.

God still has a remnant in the western world who has not bowed their knees to cultural idols. We must resist cultural Christianity and return to the faith of the early disciples.

Pray for renewal in our churches so that we might see a spiritual revival in America and the rest of the western world. God uses ordinary people to pray and intercede on behalf of the Nations. It’s time to pray for the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit in world history.

Watch and Pray: 

Father, would you open our eyes to see what you are doing on the earth. Open the hearts of your people to embrace the gospel that the early disciples both lived and preached. We ask you for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Your Church. Revive us again so that the world will see the truth of the gospel in our lives. And they will be drawn to the same Jesus that the early Church proclaimed. In Jesus’ name.

The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ: Reflections and Prayers of The Church Fathers

 

“He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” – (Matthew 28:6 ESV)

“Jesus Christ who was of the race of David, who was the Son of Mary, who was truly born and ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died in the sight of those in heaven and on earth and those under the earth; who moreover was truly raised from the dead, His Father having raised Him, who in the like fashion will so raise us also who believe on Him.” – Ignatius, (written around AD 110-115.)

A  Prayer
O God, who by your only-begotten Son has overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life, grant us, we ask you, that we who celebrate the solemnities of our Lord’s resurrection may by the renewing of your Spirit arise from the death of the soul; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. [Amen.] –  The Gelasian Sacramentary 

Why The Stone Rolled Back?

An angel descended and rolled back the stone. He did not roll back the stone to provide a way of escape for the Lord but to show the world that the Lord had already risen. He rolled back the stone to help his fellow servants believe, not to help the Lord rise from the dead. He rolled back the stone for the sake of faith because it had been rolled over the tomb for the sake of unbelief. He rolled back the stone so that he who took death captive might hold the title of Life. Pray, brothers, that the angel would descend now and roll away all the hardness of our hearts and open up our closed senses and declare to our minds that Christ has risen, for just as the heart in which Christ lives and reigns in heaven, so also the heart in which Christ remains dead and buried is a grave. May it be believed that just as he died, so was he transformed. Christ the man suffered, died, and was buried; as God, he lives, reigns, is, and will be forever. – Peter Chrysologus, Sermons 75.

A Prayer
“O God, who for redemption have your only – begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection has delivered us from the power of the enemy, Grant us to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him, in the joy of the resurrection, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”  – Gregory the Great

“For indeed the Lord remained on the tree almost until evening, and they buried Him at eventide; then on the third day He rose again.” – Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, XCII, (AD 100 – 165.)

Enlarge Our Hearts

 

The Word:

I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame! I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart! (Psalm 119:31-32 ESV)

Reflection:

As finite human beings, we are limited creatures. It takes an infinite Holy God to enlarge our hearts. We can’t grasp God and all his fullness. We need God by his Spirit to open our hearts to reveal his thoughts and loving intentions he has for us – to us. This love surpasses human knowledge and understanding – it’s experiential.

When God enlarges our hearts, our response is spiritual hunger. This hunger can only be satisfied by God’s Word and his presence. To be a people of the Word and not a people of His Presence makes us merely spiritual consumers of knowledge – that doesn’t produce spiritual fruit in our lives.

American evangelicals have a right to hold conservative political views. For some, patriotism and politics have become the main focus – they hurt the cause of Christ. Progressive Christians seek to deconstruct the faith. Both sides use God to push their agendas. The lack of spiritual depth in American Christianity has become evident for the world to see.

America is morally bankrupt and divided to the point that reconciliation between the political right and left seems impossible. Just look at the anger and division on Facebook and Twitter.

Prayer and repentance is our only answer. Scripture teaches, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:7) Many of us (not all) have become spiritually anemic and lack internal spiritual transformation. Thankfully there are still Christians growing during these days and are bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God, but in most cases, we rarely hear their voices among all the political bickering.

Watch and Pray: Father, please enlarge our hearts so that we can have the capacity to love you and our neighbor as ourselves. Pour out your Spirit on your people so that we will run after your commandments with humble hearts and demonstrate the love of Jesus to a confused and conflicted culture. In Jesus’ name, amen.