Category: Revival

What’s your exception?

On By BrianIn Revival

“And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.  Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.” – II Kings 15:3-4

Such is the summary of King Azariah’s reign.  It is similar to the verdict on many of Judah’s kings.  In general, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  But there was one exception – he did not remove the high places.  This was not a one time sin, but a continuous sin that marked his reign. It had been going on for so long, maybe Azariah hadn’t even thought of it.

When I see Christ, I long to hear, “Well done good and faithful servant.  You did what was right in my sight.”  But I wonder if he will continue, “Nevertheless, you….”  Is there a habitual sin that I commit?  Maybe that I have never even thought of?  Will there be an exception to his general verdict?  What is my exception?  How do I need to change?

Search me, O God, and see if there is any wicked way in me!  Let me see it, that I might repent, and find mercy.  Give me your grace to change!

And what about you – what is your exception?

Still Needy

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer, Revival

We are a needy people.  Do we see our own neediness?  Do we see the neediness of those around us?  And will we take that neediness to the Lord to find mercy and grace?

I recently read two posts that wonderfully flesh this out.  For a good illustration of our failure to see the neediness of those around us, visit hungerandthirst.wordpress.com.  And for a powerful reminder of our need to bring our neediness to the Lord, visit heismydelight.wordpress.com.

Convicting Truths About God

On By BrianIn God & His Glory, Revival

Psalm 139 gives us three convicting truths about God.

Verses 1-6 remind us that God knows us completely.  He knows our thoughts, our words, and our actions.  He knows what we will do tomorrow, next week, next month.  Which means he knows about all of our sins.  He knows every sinful thought, every sinful word, every sinful action.  We can’t hide our sin.  God knows!

Verse 7-12 remind us that God is with us everywhere we go.  We simply cannot escape his presence.  Which mean he is always there witnessing our sins.  The kitchen may look empty, but God sees you reach into the cookie jar.  You might not to that sin in front of your mom or your spouse or your kids.  But every sin you commit you do before God.  He is always there.

Verses 13-16 remind us that God made us.  As his creatures, we belong to him (see Psalm 24:1-2), and so should live according his commands for his glory.  But of course we fail to live for our Creator way too often.

No wonder after reflecting on these three convicting truths about God, the Psalmist cries out for God to search his heart.  He wants God to examine his life.  The goal?  I think it is that God would reveal his sins (Job 13:23, Hebrews 4:12) that he might forsake them and follow God’s way – that God would lead him in the way everlasting.

We need to ponder these three convicting truths about God as they relate to our lives, asking God to show us where we have failed, that we might seek his mercy for our failures, and seek his grace to overcome those sins and follow him.

Needy 5

On By BrianIn Revival1 Comment

Just found this quote by Eugene Peterson in the new Christianity Today magazine that ties nicely with this idea that we are needy people:

“Evil that masquerades as an angel of light is commonplace.  We need help.  And we need help even when we don’t know we need help.  Especially when we don’t know we need help.”

Needy 4

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer, Revival

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:16

We are a needy people.  Jesus meets our need.  So what should we do?  We need to pray!  Come confidently to the throne of grace.  Cry out to God for mercy for all the times we fail him, for our backsliding, for our lukewarm distracted divided hearts.  Cry out for grace to overcome sin, grow in the Lord, revive our hearts with a passion for God and his kingdom.

Today is the National Day of Prayer.  What a great day to cry out to God for mercy and grace.  And then let’s continue to pray tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day – that God would pour out his mercy and grace upon us for his glory!

Needy 3

On By BrianIn Revival

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:14-16

We are a needy people.  Jesus meets our need:

He is our high priest (v14) who offered up a sacrifice (himself!) to pay for our sins so we could draw near to God.

He sympathizes with us (v15).  He knows what it is like to be tempted.  He struggled with temptation.  He knows human fraility.

He is perfect (v15).  Only someone who overcame sin himself can help us overcome sin.

He provides mercy (v16).  Through his death and resurrection, we can receive God’s mercy, forgiveness, cleansing.

He provides grace (v16).  By his grace, he can empower us through his Spirit to overcome sin in our lives.  By his grace and through his Spirit, he can change us to exhibit the Fruit of the Spirit.  By his grace and through his Spirit he can make us more like him, revive our hearts, and transform our lives.

We are a needy people.  Jesus meets our need.  Praise the Lord!

Needy 1

On By BrianIn Revival

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Hebrews 4:16

Why do we approach the throne of grace?  Because we are needy people.  We need God’s mercy for all the times we sin.  We need his grace to help us overcome our sin.

We need to recognize that we are needy people – all of the time. It is not that I am fine today, but may need God’s mercy and grace tomorrow.  No, I always need God’s mercy to forgive my sins and I always need God’s grace to overcome the temptations around me.  I am always a needy person.

Consider the following passages, and think about how much you need his mercy for all the times you haven’t lived up to God’s expectations, and how much you need his grace to help you live up to these standards:

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” – II Timothy 3:1-5

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22-23

500 Years Later

On By BrianIn Revival

At the RHMA conference on revival, John Hannah gave us some history of revivals.  But before doing that he noted where we are today, and its similarities to 500 years ago before the Reformation.  He noted three similarities:

  1. Lack of confidence in the Word of God
  2. Sin’s seriousness not understood
  3. Minimized glory and efficacy of Christ’s cross

Certainly this is true of our country.  As he walked us through these three points, it struck me that this was a pretty good description of the emergent church too.  But what concerns me is that I think it is true of much of the evangelical church too.

  1. Do we really believe the Bible is sufficient, and then live that way?  Do we really seek to live according to God’s Word?  Are we regularly studying God’s Word?
  2. Do we really take sin seriously?  Are we striving to overcome sin?  Are we weeping over our sins?
  3. Do we glory in the cross?  Are we awestruck at the implications of the cross for our lives?

Revival Thoughts 3

On By BrianIn Revival1 Comment

Here is another nugget from the conference – this time from Jeff VanGoethem:

He started his first session with us by pointing us to Isaiah 8:17 which reads: “I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.”  The context of this verse is Israel’s sin; that is, God had turned his face from them because of their sin.  So Jeff’s question to us was:  Have we turned God’s face from us?  And if so, how?

(My thoughts for a minute: Don’t apply this to America – that is too easy and would miss the point.  Each of us needs to personally ask the question, and then we need to ask it as local churches.  Have we turned God’s face from us?  And if so, how?)

What should we do?  Jeff’s answer was to point again to the verse.  Wait for the Lord – not just wait around, but wait for the Lord; that is, turn or re-turn our focus to him.  And our wait focused on God should be a hope-filled one, filled with expectation that God will act as we return to him.

Are we waiting on the Lord with expectation?