The eye of the church has grown diseased. It is no longer healthy at all. The worst part of it though is that the vast majority of the church that sits in darkness has convinced themselves it is light. As Jesus says here, how deep is that darkness! How deep is your darkness when you think you can discard the Word of God every Sunday and then get together once a year to pray for this nation. Let us reason and deal with the realities.
America is not going to undergo revival. The inherent flaw in this line of thinking is that it can "return" to a position with God it never actually held. This was never a righteous nation nor a Christian nation. Yes it behaved more righteously in the past and yes we had more Christians amongst us in the past but that does not change the overall truth. God does not save "nations." He saves people. The more people that are truly saved - not merely churched - the more the nation will take on a real Christian image. We need to stop reacting to a fallen world behaving like a fallen world. We need to stop thinking that people will get saved if we had the right politicians or the right laws passed. God was not kicked out of the schools! He is God! God was not removed from the courthouses! He is God! When we band together to speak Christian outrage to worldly behavior do we really think anyone is going to listen? They are walking in darkness and the things we speak of are utter foolishness to them! Then when you add in the overall hypocrisy of the church exactly who do we think is going to come to Christ? The first lesson I was taught when I entered human services decades ago was - you can't save everyone. The same applies for us as believers. We present the Gospel with our mouths, with our lives and with our churches. Then it is up to the world to decide if they want to mock God or tap into what they see we have. That is how it is supposed to work. That is the only real American revival we can expect - one soul at a time. Drop the silly political talking points. Drop the hatred of people you do not even know. Drop the picket signs and protest petitions. Pick up the Gospel. Preach the Gospel. Repeat. I can guarantee you this beloved. One day we will all stand before Christ and our lives will be laid bare before Him. He will not want to know who you boycotted in His name. He is not going to want to know who you voted for in His name. Choosing to not bake a cake or sell flowers to sinners will not earn you any reward. He is not going to want to know how many hate filled Facebook posts you had per day. He is not going to want to know how you railed against homosexuality or abortion. He is going to want to know what you did with the Gospel He gave you. Did you speak it and live it or did you bury it?
By the way - did you speak and live it correctly; will be the issue. Going to church does not make you obedient. Being churched does not make you saved. The greasy grace preachers would have you believe that once you place your faith in Jesus it's all kitten and rainbows but the Bible I read says to pick up your cross daily and to truly follow Him we must give up our lives! The church is enamored with the word revival but they have lost what it truly means. First of all, it means that you have somehow fallen yourself. One does not need to be revived unless they are unconscious or dead. That is where the church is today. So the first step in true revival is understanding your true condition. Secondly however, true revival must deal with one thing only and that is a return to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ because nothing else has the power unto the salvation of men. It means a personal return to righteousness. A personal return to wanting to live like a shining city on a hill so that the world can see Christ in me and some might be saved. To recognize the darkness living in me and say no more!
Revival starts inside of us and spreads out from there to our families and then our churches. From there the world may finally look upon the church as the difference maker Jesus intended it to be. Not a business with a CEO but rather the light of the world run by a shepherd. When they see that we are different from the death they are surrounded by they will want what we have. Not all of them. Heck, probably not even the majority of them. The road is narrow remember and few find it. But all of heaven will rejoice when only one repents. That should be all the revival we ever need.
Reverend Anthony Wade - March 14, 2015
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