Revival

“Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence” (Isaiah 64:1).

Too many people are tired and worn out. They are so tired, with all of the new gadgets and technology, one would think life would be easier, but the gadgets only add to our tiredness.

How did some of our great-grandparents do it? How did they do so much with so little and we do so little with so much? How did they bring up their children in the things of God and we just watch our children grow up?

Is it because we are trusting in our own lives rather than the One who gives it? I pray that all of us would examine our prayer lives. How are we doing? Are we truly praying? When you and I climb to the Summit it is costly business. The bitter cold, raging winds, rarified atmosphere, the blinding blizzards, engulfing avalanches of snow and rock will try to beat us down from the climb. But it is worth it!

God said that He would look down and come down if we invite Him. The things that wear us out are the things that are keeping us from Him and Him from us. Life on the highest plane is found as we pray, for it is the Upward Way as we press onward and upward. “Comfyness” is a sign of desertion from God.

Someone has said that “the kingdom of God will be brought in by Christians who, when last seen, were heading toward the summit.” How true! Yes, and how thrilling! Have we allowed “iniquities to separate between us and our God?” True obedience is staying in the upward direction in prayer. It is the sign of a soul that is climbing the Summit with God.

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  • No Bones About It

    “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones” (Ezekiel 37:1).

    Where are the young pastors and young people or old people who are captured and carried by God? Where are those in the church today who are set down right in the midst of dry bones? Where are the people of God that are not nodding in the pew but noticed by God and used by God?

    The blessing of dry bones has to begin with us being a blessing. We are to be captured by God, carried and set in the middle of the dry bones, and we are commanded to preach to the bones. Ezekiel was told to do the same. We are to “tell forth plainly.” Instead of being tossed on a dry dead bone heap, we are told to preach plainly to “them there bones.”

    When we listen and we tell plainly, then a miracle will happen. The dry bones began to find moisture, life, and begin to stand up. Instead of being famished, they become fat. They march around speaking of the resurrected Lord. Oh the sound of awakening will be heard in your village if you will listen and then tell. God specializes in graveyards. It is just a affirmation of allowing Him to capture us, then carry us, and command us to preach to the bones. Watch for the breath of God to blow!

     

     

     

     

  • Not I, But Christ

    “…for by works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16c).

    “…for in thy sight shall no man living be justified” (Psalm 143:2).

    Our Lord suffered in His death for our disobedience. In His life His obedience to the law was perfect. Since the Law was perfect (revealing the heart and mind of God), it says that any who break it is condemned to death. Jesus Christ is and was the only One who ever obeyed all points of the law perfectly and obediently. All that is required of us to be justified, therefore, is to acknowledge our sin and helplessness. We are to repent of our life of self-assertion and self-righteousness, and to put our whole trust and confidence in the finished work of Christ to save us.

    Faith in Jesus Christ is more than intellectual consent only, but personal commitment. We believe “into” Christ Jesus. It is through faith we are justified. The law kills but faith in Christ makes alive. “For it is through the law I die to the law, so that I might live to God” (Gal. 2:19). The law slays but Christ saves. So we have no good works we can do to earn justification. Because the works we do, under the law, only condemn us to death; while faith in Christ bypasses the law of condemnation for us but trusts in Christ who died according to the law for us, who did not bypass the law but died our death’s penalty.

    Salvation is an act of committal, not just assenting to the fact that Jesus Christ lived and died, but running to Him for refuge and calling unto Him for His mercy. Justification is not only a legal fact when we are saved in Christ, whereby we are declared righteous by a holy God; it is also a transforming experience through a living identification with Christ.  By union with Christ we are radically transformed; we can no longer go back to our old life, for in Christ we are “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). We are saved by the faith of Christ: past, present, and future.

  • A New Day

    “Therefore, I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me” (Micah 7:7).

     Three items of interest to a man or woman who is wanting to please the Lord: I will look, I will wait, and I will pray. Perception, patience, and prayer gives the soul rest for the new day.

     God has promised to come to the help of any who would call upon Him. The prophet intercedes on behalf of Israel, identifying himself with them. God saves from destruction and from deception and Micah knows it. When we pray for others something takes place like no other.

     Call upon the name of the Lord for others today. Micah’s name means, “Who is like the Lord?” We are no more like the Lord than when we pray for others. Try intercession and see if your life changes in that moment.

     

  • Scattered Word

    “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4).

    In earlier days the Bible was maligned by even the religious establishment.  The church itself was against the translation of the Bible into languages of the people.  There were some who wanted the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, for themselves, for their own personal reading.  This evoked bitter and awesome persecution.  This privilege was denied the people for hundreds of years.  Martin Luther was a grown man when he said, “I have never seen a Bible,” and he had been in church all the days of his life.

    John Wycliffe translated the Bible into the language of the people.  He wanted it to be possible for anyone who wanted to know the Word to have it.  He said, “I’m going to make it possible that a plowman will know more of the Word of God than the priest himself, than the king himself.”  John Wycliffe died before men could burn him and try him.  But even after his death they exhumed and publicly burned his body, then cast his body as ashes upon the River Swift.  If anyone was found with a Wycliffe Bible , the Bible was hung around his neck and he was publicly hanged and burned.

    What the English inquisitors did not realize was that when they burned the body of Wycliffe and scattered his ashes on the River Swift, that river flowed into the Avon, and Avon flowed into the sea, and the sea loved the shores of the continents of the world, including the new land of America.  Wherever the sea carried the ashes of John Wycliffe, there God scattered the truth of the Word of the Living Lord.  Isn’t that glorious?  Over the whole face of the earth the Word of God has traveled.  That’s God!

  • God on the Throne

    “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1).

    On January 2, 1953 Queen Elizabeth’s coronation took place at Westminster Abbey in London, England. The train of her robe flowed behind her with six maids holding the six yards of material that was exquisitely fabricated. You say, “Who does she think she is, the queen of England?” Ah, yes she does! That is why the designer went over the top to form and fashion her robe.

    Isaiah saw the King’s robe and it filled the temple, not just for six yards, but the whole temple of glory. Back and forth, back and forth, doubling and redoubling until the symbol of God’s holy splendor packed the house. “Who is like you, O Lord?”

    The answer to this question can not be completely answered by our finite minds. There is absolutely no one like God. No one. That’s because He is holy. He is separate. He is completely unlike us. God’s throne is high and lifted up. God is distinct and uncommon, separate, and holy. His throne is not on our level.

    Don’t bring Him down for He will not or can not lower Himself. Rise up and worship Him for He will effect you and me in tremendous ways. We honor the King when we see His train and react accordingly. May we get in our position so that God may reign upon us. When we do then the showers of blessings will fall.

    Father, thank you for Your Son and thank You for You. We recognize you as being above us, beyond us, highly exalted, over me, and totally separate from me. I am getting in a position for a downpour of your grace.

  • We’ve Got A Song: Is it worth listening?

    “How happy is the man who has put his trust in the Lord” (Psalm 40:4).

    If you have not met Satan face to face, it’s because you are running in the same direction. So many of us are asking for trouble, so why are we not happy when we get it? We are so smart about so many matters, we might have a smart head, but our brains run ahead of good sense.

    Tragically, there are literally millions of people who know the NAME of Jesus Christ, but who know nothing of the LOVE and SAVING GRACE of Christ as Lord and Savior. Many people think of Christ as the Savior who takes instead of the Lord who Gave His life to give us our lives.

    The Lord Jesus came to earth prepared to FORGIVE us for our sins and mistakes, asking only that we TRUST Him, BELIEVE into Him, and ASK for that forgiveness. Then He not only forgives, He FORGETS.

    That’s the Jesus we should love. Can’t you sing? Surely we got a song in the heart! That song is a gift from God. We don’t earn it for He gave it. We get to sing THAT song to a world that is living in minor key. Use that song or it will be gone. Lots of people out there who need to hear the SONG of God. Happiness in the Lord overflows when we place our trust in the Lord.