Tag: Revival

Not About Me

On By BrianIn Biography/History, PASSION Quotes

George Whitefield was a great preacher and revivalist who God used along with others to bring about the First Great Awakening.  Crowds of thousands flocked to hear him.  Yet he knew it wasn’t about him, but about Christ.  Consider these Whitefield quotes I found in Dallimore’s Whitefield biography:

“Let the name of Whitefield perish, but Christ be glorified.”

“Let my name die everywhere, let even my friends forget me, if by that means the cause of the blessed Jesus may be promoted.”

“But what is Calvin, or what is Luther?  Let us look above names and parties; let Jesus be our all in all – So that he is preached….I care not who is uppermost.  I know my place…even to be the servant of all.”

It’s not about me.  It’s not about you.  It’s only about Jesus.  Lord, help us share Whitefield’s attitude, and let your glory be over all the earth!

Hallowed Be Your Name

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer, Heart, Revival1 Comment

The first request in the Lord’s Prayer is “Hallowed Be Your Name.”  What does that mean?  It means that we want God’s name treated as holy or set apart.  We want his name to be honored, respected, glorified.  The question is: do we really want this?

Do we wake up in the morning desiring to live for God’s glory?  Is this what makes our hearts beat?  Is this our passion, our delight?  Do we want God to be glorified in our day, our activities, our home, our jobs or school, our church, our neighborhood, our country, our world?  Does this desire translate into our lives?

In my last post I noted that our prayers flow out of our desires.  So if we are not praying for God to be honored, it means either we lack this desire or that this desire is buried under a bunch of competing desires.  So consider these questions:

Are our prayers filled with praise to God?  Are our prayers filled with requests that God glorify his name in our lives, our home, our churches?

As we examine ourselves, do we find that we really desire God to be glorified?  Or maybe we need to cry out – “Change our hearts, O God!”

The Overflow of our Hearts

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer, Heart, Revival1 Comment

What is prayer?  The Westminster Catechism says, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will….”  Note that prayer flows out of our desires, or put the other way: what we desire is what we pray for.  Prayer is the overflow of our hearts.

We look in a mirror to see what our hair looks like.  Prayer is a mirror that we look at to see what our heart looks like.  What do we see?

John Piper says in his book When I Don’t Desire God – “What a person prays for shows the spiritual condition of his heart.  If we do not pray for spiritual things…then probably it is because we do not desire these things.  Which is a devastating indictment of our hearts.”

Does our prayer life reveal a lack of desire for the things of God?

While I agree with Piper’s general assessment, it seems to me there is another possible reason we may not pray spiritual things.  It may not be that we don’t desire spiritual things at all, it may be that we simply don’t desire them enough.  The desire for spiritual things may be buried under a ton of competing desires.  That is, our heart may be distracted or divided or both.  This too would be a devastating indictment of our hearts.

Which brings us back to looking at our prayer life.  What does it reveal about our hearts?  No desire for spiritual things?  A low, distracted desire for spiritual things?  Other desires that are smothering our desire for the things of God?

Perhaps one desire we need to cultivate is the desire that God would change our hearts, and then take that desire to him in prayer.  Change our hearts, O God!

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.

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?

Revival Thoughts 2

On By BrianIn Revival

The conference is over and I’m still trying to process everything.  Last night Walter Kaiser shared 4 ways to renew the work of God from Haggai 1.

First: Refuse to offer excuses – especially time excuses (v1-4)

Second: Set priorities – God’s ways and work first (v5-6)

Third: Get involved in God’s work – obey God for his glory (v7-12)

Fourth: Receive God’s enablement – God is with you (v13-15)

How often do we make excuses and give God the leftovers of our time and talent?  Are we obeying God by doing his work or are we sinning?  (Those are our two options)  Are we seeking God’s enabling?

Revival Thoughts

On By BrianIn Revival6 Comments

If all goes well, I will be attending the RHMA Small-Town Pastors’ Conference Monday through Wednesday this week.  The conference focus is “Seeking Revival in Rural America.”  Assuming the hotel has a computer in the lobby to use, I will be writing thoughts about revival from the conference while I’m there.  Since I’ll be using a public computer, I will be adding comments to this post rather than adding new posts.  So watch for comments on this post during the week.  And if you have thoughts on revival, please add your own comments as well.  May the Lord revive his church!