Much has been written over the centuries on revival. I have numerous books on revivals of the past and refer to them from time to time for encouragement....but not much has been written....as far as I can remember anyway....on the opposite of revival....for who wants to celebrate or even remember the times and the ages when deadness ruled over the church of the day?
The Old Testament prophets did write of those times....and even Peter and Paul seemed to know towards the end that evil was about to take a premature victory lap....and that appears to be where we are today....death valley in spiritual terms....but in the distance....the "Delectable Mountains"...."Immanuel's land"...."within sight of His city"....the Celsestial City!"
Oh.....revival is still talked about from time to time....I've even mused and posted on the possibilities of an awakening.....always tying it to our pulpits coming out of the doldrums....but revival requires mortification....and few preach that today....in a culture where there is not only a spiritual but an intellectual and an ethical deadness.
There is something much more than just ominous in the air on our nation's response to this virus. Mistakes were made at the beginning....and valuable time lost....because Trump was worried about the election. It then became full-steam-ahead towards developing a vaccine....but Trump had to change the agenda again after that election....as it wasn't that confidence in our electoral system had to be restored....but Trump himself had to be restored...and anyone or anything that did not fight for him....became an enemy. Masks became an enemy....and vaccinations became an enemy....common sense became an enemy!
A refiner's fire is being stoked right now....can you not feel the intense heat? Are you not vexed at....not only the abominations overtaking America....but the vigilantism and thuggery in our own ranks? Do you not at times look at politicians and conservatives and even evangelicals....as they throw the word 'God' around all the time....and wonder what Bible they read....if they even open one at all?
We had our revival in America....even an awakening of sorts....from its embers in the late 1950s....through the headiness of people being born again all over the place in the 1970s.....tripping over ourselves in the early 1980s....but slowly as I described it in the past....the Billy Graham evangelical became the Ralph Reed evangelical.....that became the Karl Rove evangelical.....and is now the Donald Trump evangelical....which has no gospel in it at all.
Tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day....may God bring mortification to the men in these pulpits of ours....and to us through a revived preaching of these men....a mortification at what we have become...and how we have changed....and who we have followed.. May we sink in the pews in dread of our predicament just as the hearers did when Jonathan Edwards preached his....Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God. Yes....may God bring many into His kingdom once again! May He work on dull inconsistent hearts like mine. Yes....may He bring revival....but not a false....photo op 'revival'....almost as if choreographed for political gain....but a self-effacing revival....where God alone is given glory.
Addendum: Folks….I can’t write any better than this post….so if it’s not enough that you feel you have to share with loved ones and friends…then it may never be….and you are spending time here that might be put to better use.
