Sing!

REVIVAL

We have all seen the signs. We have probably all been to a 'revival'. Since our church just went through this exercise, I really felt the need to talk about it. When I see these signs or hear about these events, I almost automatically think: southern gospel, crazy evangelist, a lot of people sitting in their pews and feeling good for a few days then going back to exactly the way things were before the event. Probably wrong of me, but that's the only type of 'revival' I've witnessed.

Calling a series of meetings a 'revival' has always driven me to the point of legal insainity - and I don't need any help! How can we call something a revival if no one has yet to be revived. Shouldn't we wait until someone or something is revived to call it revival?

Here is the definition of revival according to dictionary.com:

re·viv·al  /rɪˈvaɪvəl/ [ri-vahy-vuhl]

  –noun

1.restoration to life, consciousness, vigor, strength, etc.
2.restoration to use, acceptance, or currency: the revival of old customs.
3.a new production of an old play.
4.a showing of an old motion picture.
5.an awakening, in a church or community, of interest in and care for matters relating to personal religion.
6.an evangelistic service or a series of services for the purpose of effecting a religious awakening: to hold a revival.
7.the act of reviving.
8.the state of being revived.
9.Law. the reestablishment of legal force and effect.

Here's what I know:
-Revival typically involves LOTS of people coming to know Christ, as well as others coming to find a deeper relationship with Him
- There have been several actual revivals in the history of the world. The first that I really ever learned of was Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening (Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God - ya, hell, fire and brimstone won those people to Christ!). Or, we could talk about John and Charles Wesley, Charles Finney, Dwight L. Moody and the movements they were associated with. The early 1900's saw the Azusa Street revival in LA and in the 1990's the Brownsville revival occured in FL.

There have been many more, less-prominant instances of God showing up and turning a place inside out, but I have never personally experienced what I KNOW my God can do! I think alot of people get warm, fuzzy feelings during these series of meetings (it may resemble gas!), but regardless of what I have seen God do, I think that most of us have YET to experience what He really WANTS to do!

Revival doesn't begin because you host a series of meetings. Revival begins because someone is hungry for God and wants more...their desire becomes contagious and it spreads, like fire!

Oh God, give us true revival! Bring Your people to a point of realizing how much we really need You and how little we really are depending on You. God, help us to rely on You and You alone. Show us the fullness of Your Holy Spirit. Grant us the power and boldness that comes through Your Holy Spirit! Give us eyes to see and ears to hear the things of You, God. Give us hearts that love unconditionally. Stir our hearts so that we can never be satisfied...we always want more of You! God, help us to forget about the things of this world. Let our lives be lived out with such truth and transparency that there is no room for pretending to be something we are not. Revive us, dear God. Revive us!