Leflore Baptist Association

 LeFlore Baptist Association Office in Poteau, Oklahoma 

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Revive Me Again

I remember growing up watching evangelist cry and sweat and scream about the urgency of accepting Jesus as savior.  They fervently preached at revival meetings about the perils of hell and the judgment of God.  And then something changed.

Now it seems that the basis of revival has made a dramatic shift from winning souls for Christ to berating sweet old church ladies for letting their spiritual fires fizzle.  We no longer concentrate on lost souls; instead we concentrate on lighting a fire under apathetic Christians. 

I hear evangelists brag less about winning souls and more about seeing decisions made.  Frankly I don’t understand what decision has to be made.  Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)  That pretty well sums up the situation.  If you say you love God then obey Him.  If you don't obey Him then chances are you don't truly believe in Him.   

There is a book written about this subject.  The title of the book is "The Christian Atheist".  The subtitle is "Saying You Believe in Jesus, but Living Your Life Like He Doesn't Exist."  Sometimes I wonder where our sense of entitlement comes from.  It's as if we believe we are entitled to God's love simply because we know who He is, when the reality is, we all have need of facing the fact that God's mercy is why we have salvation.  He owes us nothing yet He gives us everything.

I think this quote says a lot about the problems we face in our churches. “The basis of revival is men and women shattered by their failures—aware that all is not well, but helpless to do anything about it.  American evangelicals do a lot of hand wringing, but I don’t think they consider themselves helpless.  Instead of putting their hope in the next best strategy, they would do well to pray—and for revival, of all things.”  Ugandan Bishop Festo Kivengere.

Revival, in fact, looks a lot like the church’s normal activities as explained in Scripture. The revived church worships, prays, preaches, and evangelizes. Only they do so with a heightened sense of God and greater capacity to embody and proclaim the good news of Jesus.